38 Friend Or Foe? (3)

Morning.

Laid out in bed, Aria's neck had sunk down the cushions, and her body was snuggled comfortably by the blanket wrap that Yvette had placed for her. The lingering scent of incense continued to soothe the Archmagus' tired body, and her pure white skin had turned red plump. She was amid a long slumber, a full ten hours. More than double the amount of sleep Aria had been getting over the past few days.

Beetbeet~ Beetbeet~ Beetbeet~

A disturbing sound echoed out, disturbing the sanctity of the room. The alarm read eight exactly, and the noise that came from its inner mechanisms was as loud as a dog's bark. Aria's ears flinched the moment that annoyance came into her, forcing the peaceful body to start waking up. Blood flowed towards Aria's cheeks as she swooned around on the pillow. Her mouth moved, and from there, it wasn't long until the young maiden's eyes followed suit.

"Urghhh, what time is it?" Aria groaned as she reached out towards the alarm, desperately trying to silence it. "Eight… Yvette, your alarm really works wonders."

Aria twisted around in the bed for a few more minutes, stretching and yawning to get rid of the morning blues. Her hair was in a mess, and her face was as tired as can be. She had just taken one of the longest snoozes of her life, it was natural to feel a little lethargic. However, at that moment, something clicked in her mind. With a jolt, Aria sprung out of bed and reached into her nightstand drawer, pulling out a pen and notebook that she had left on standby.

"Shit! I have to record everything that happened!"

Like most patients undergoing dream therapy, Aria always kept a pen and paper near her bed just in case the dreams of the ancient man were to flash in her mind. Thus far, she had only dreamt of the ancient man's memories once, and it seemed to spring up randomly. So for the second dream… Aria was more than prepared.

She went through the star maps, the environment, the scents… Everything that Aria could observe and describe, she recorded. However, when Aria went into the details of the ancient man's interactions with the Lady of the Lake…

"They… didn't talk much."

Aria thought back at the two ancient people. Although they were talking in a tongue that Aria could now understand, she was unable to get much information out from their short interactions. After the Lady of the Lake visited the ancient man, all they did was cuddle and stare at the night sky with little to no words shared between them. Also, it didn't help that Aria's experience of that memory only lasted for less than an hour, and was blurred by her subconscious state.

"Next time… Should I ask Yvette to put me in a week-long sleep?" Aria pondered that ludicrous idea to herself. "Nah, that's just stupid."

Aria scribbled down everything that she could remember, and after a good fifteen minutes, she finally threw her pen down. Throwing the notebook on her bed, Aria let herself stretch out and get some of that blood to pump through her fatigued body. In the end, she reached out to her favourite remote and tapped twice.

"I'm going to need a hot bath after this..."

❖❖❖

Yudonia's woes as the ultimate culprit behind the World's Regression into the Magic Age wasn't done just yet. The World Congress had already sanctioned the poor country and confiscated most of the loot from the S-Class Dungeon. Dragon corpses were redistributed among the top countries leading the World Congress.

Namely, the six greatest nations that represented each one of the major races from the Greater Humanoid Species. The United Houses of Egan, the most dominant human country, took the lion's share in exchange for backing Yudonia. Although they were both human nations, Yudonia and Egan were less alike than one would imagine. Being a retainer state of Elfheim, Yudonia had a closer relationship to the elves rather than the other human countries scattered throughout the planet.

Speaking of which, Elfheim naturally took a significant piece of the pie. In fact, the High Elves of Elfheim occupied Mount Eiger, the location where the S-Class Dungeon was at. It was hard for Yudonia to keep the existence of the ancient man under wraps and some speculated that the High Elves already knew about Aurum and Yudonia's questioning. However, since they didn't want to dirty their hands right now, they'd left the ancient man's investigation to the already struggling Yudonia.

Naturally, this was all theory, but it was hard to believe that Elfheim would stand by the sidelines and allow Yudonia to do as they pleased, especially since they were the ones that messed up the planet.

With Elfheim and the United Houses of Egan supporting Yudonia, the other four great nations were unable to raise their voices in the World Congress anymore. Gondor, the United Dwarven States, were happy that raw materials from the S-Class Dungeon were being shared. They were particularly interested in the mechanisms that enabled the Stone Guardians to display such tremendous might.

Bestia and Vishaal were the two most disgruntled of the bunch. As possible descendants of Dragons, both the Beastmen and Giants wanted more corpses out of the available pot. They hoped to see Yudonia punished for recklessly conquering the S-Class Dungeon without outside help. Vishaal took it one step further and wanted to see Yudonia occupied, and their union dismantled, which essentially means wiping a country off the face of the world. Unfortunately for them, their voices were drained out by the supportive ones in the World Congress. And with Raklius staying quiet, the two could only swallow the bitter pill and allow Yudonia to exist as an independent state.

Speaking of Raklius, there was a reason behind their silence. They may have been a neutral country for the longest time, but they weren't the types to just sit on their bums and allow the state of world politics to slip out of their grasp.

Sabrina walked confidently through the many checkpoints leading into Yudonia's most secure lab. Coming back from a long rest, the brown-haired researcher was as refreshed as can be, a far cry change as compared to her overworked self just a few days ago. Security guards that could easily be mistaken as B or A-Rankers conducted their routine checks, and Sabrina quickly passed all of them. Some male guards were even ogling at her and who could blame them?

Stuck with guarding the top-secret lab, many of them hadn't seen the faces of another for days. They weren't even allowed to release their own biological tensions while on duty. In a sense, a little lecherous look or two wouldn't hurt Sabrina. Especially since she was donning on the best make-up and perfume that she had.

"What's gotten into you? Why are you so dolled up?" One of Sabrina's colleagues asked in earnest. "Trying to impress Charles?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Sabrina brushed her hair and smiled. "I'm going to be stuck here for the next few days, I want to look my best now so that when I leave, I won't be too terrible for the eyes. Did you see how I looked the last time I left? I looked like a total crack whore."

"Preach," the other woman agreed. "Still, is that a new perfume? I'd never smelt that before."

"... your nose is sharp."

"Hehe, sometimes I wonder if I'm part beastmen. I'd never gotten a genetic test before, maybe I should?"

"Don't, it'll just be a waste of money." Sabrina scoffed and headed to the final barricade. It was the most guarded of the bunch, with each individual required to pass through the entrance by their own. They needed to show their identification card, a biometric signal and finally, key in a password that was unique to them. With the triple authentication in place, it was near-impossible for someone to impersonate a validated researcher.

"Identity confirmed. Welcome back, Miss Sabrina." The guard held the door open, giving the brown-haired woman the final thumbs-up to enter. Sabrina smiled and slowly walked into the room.

Sabrina had entered this facility many times before, more than one could count with her own two hands. However, at this very moment, time seemed to have stopped for the young woman. She stood still, observing all of the hustle and bustle in the lab. The white-robed scientists that had spent their overtime hours combing through the data. The S-Rankers that stood side-by-side with the Association President, providing valuable information while speaking directly to the man in charge. The state-of-the-art computers and devices that held innumerable amounts of data.

And finally…

The one-way mirror that showed a vast empty cell with nothing but white cushions padding the walls. Well, it wasn't all that empty. A brown-skinned man sat at the far ends of the cell, bored and unresponsive. He didn't bother with the people that laid by his side, asking him questions or testing his pulse. The man was more like a doll than a human and Sabrina had never seen anything like that before.

"What's the matter? Why are you standing here?" The woman who talked to Sabrina earlier on at the final checkpoint slapped her on the back, waking Sabrina up from her stupor.

"Waiting for you to clear, of course!"

"Haha, that's so unlike you! Thanks anyway! Let me walk you to your station!"

"That would be… helpful."

The woman didn't see Sabrina's face as she meekly replied. She couldn't have. Sabrina had her head down, and her hair was obscuring her face. So… there was no way for the woman to hear Sabrina's next ominous words.

"Bingo..."