CH 9: Fear

After Noah's awkward question, and Morgiana's subsequent bewilderment-filled silence that stretched out for a long time, the two of them decided to just change topics. Morgiana proceeded to give him a warning just in case Noah went on to blabber his mouth to people he shouldn't.

"I don't know how and where you heard about us granting wishes, or whatever it is you have heard, but you should be careful when you ask such questions to others based on stereotypes. It can be quite insulting to the individual and may lead to ugly and unnecessary situations that you don't want to get yourself tangled into.."

She did not seem angry with the haphazard question that Noah threw her way. This was not the first time she received such a question. As for the answer to his previous question—

"The Blue Flames might be able to accomplish what you are wondering about. They are in charge of the Mystic aspects of our species and are basically the shamans among the Djinns, so to speak."

'Blue flames, huh.'

Noah remembered that when he saw her, she had red markings on her body. Did this mean that she belonged to the Red Flames faction, or whatever she said just now, or anything of the like?

This time, Noah was smart enough to not ask that question to her as she had already pointed out that it would be rude. He also had the distinct impression that doing so would be crossing a line that would plummet their relationship to rock bottom.

If the history of Earth had taught him anything, it was that clear distinctions between individuals of the same races based on flimsy concepts never ended well for anyone.

.

.

.

While the two were walking with each other about the characteristics of a Djinn, Morgiana was observing the results she was receiving from the scanner that she had released into the atmosphere for geographical mapping. The question Noah asked was already behind her. This was nothing to be angry about truly.

However, she was happy that he didn't push further and asked about her Flames. The color of her flames had been a sour topic for her and she didn't plan to speak about her issues with a stranger, even though said stranger had saved her life and was a benefactor that she owed.

Now I need to focus. Give me the stats for my body's current condition.

[Basic Healing: Completed Successfully.]

[Current Condition: Stable]

[Currently Accessible Physical Ability: 70%]

[Damaged Circuit: 40%]

Morgiana almost winced visibly when she saw the last part of the report from the AI. She had overloaded her internal circuits when she was pumping herself with Dark Matter like there was no tomorrow while trying to land her ship. But she didn't think that even after healing this far, she would still have so much damage left to recover. It was honestly pretty concerning but she chose to get over it for now…

'Better than nothing I guess and now I can do some things that I couldn't while I was injured.'

Now that she was slightly more healed, she could dedicate more resources to the analysis of the geography of the planet.

'Analyse the constitution of the ground and send me any important information that you encounter.'

[Thresold of importance?]

'Medium at the minimum.'

Morgiana delivered a swift series of instructions before focusing on the report once more and the fascinating thing she had discovered.

This planet was… Well, in one word, it was odd.

Morgiana had seen many planets in her life. Some were entirely submerged in seas, some simply being nothing more than an endless stretch of sand and dunes. Even more exotic artificial planets like her birth stars.

As such, out of all those planets, a tidally locked planet was nothing rare and in fact, was quite common when you considered the matter on the scales of the entire galaxy.

But even so…

'An abyssal beast… On this tidally locked planet… Something's weird…'

This was something that was anything but common and pretty concerning. Creatures that came from the beyond. Monsters could end entire civilizations if just a significant number of them somehow passed through the breach and invaded our dimension.

The way Noah faced that monster made it clear that this was not the first time he had killed one of those beasts and in fact, they seemed quite common in this place from what she gathered from his reaction.

There was also the existence of the giant beasts' snake and otherwise that Noah killed.

While a tidally locked planet could be easily terraformed, the planet itself had nearly no chance of giving birth to intelligent life.

This could only mean one of two things.

Either this planet had once been terraformed before, most likely by humans from Sol–III, the planet that Noah's ancestors probably belonged to, or—

"Say… Do you know anything about those beasts?"

"Hum… Which one are you talking about? Either way, I don't know about any of them, to be honest. They have always been here as far as I can recall."

'Does it mean his tribe had been fighting them for generations already?'

She was still under the impression that Noah was part of a bigger tribe that inhabited this planet. It wasn't like beings born from chaos didn't exist but such beings were equal to high-civilization planets simply by their mere existence alone. They were forces of nature able to explore the universe as they wanted and erase planets as they wished.

She was starting to trace a chain of events in her mind. Inhabitants from Sol-III decided to terraform this planet, but something went wrong and a part of the group was stranded on the planet and had to grow by themselves into this independent tribe that Noah belonged to.

There was some blank space about the way they might have adapted to the cold but everything was possible in this world. Creatures who possessed Dark Matter were rarely bound to normal limitations after all.

Noah didn't know what kind of idea was cooking inside Morgiana's head but for now, he was simply navigating in the cold while using the position of the stars to direct himself toward his destination as precisely as he was able to.

The night stars might be different from those on Earth, but the way to use them would never change. It didn't take long to finally find what they were searching for.

"Where are we?"

Noah grinned as he opened his arms wide and declared in a proud tone, "Welcome to my home!"

With unrestrained pride, he showed the relatively large igloo that was his home, causing Morgiana to look on with bewilderment plastered on her caramel-colored face.

She had two questions in her mind right now.

…One—

"Weren't we supposed to reach the part facing the sun?"

…and finally, two—

"You are living alone?"

"I live alone."

She did not ask more questions. Perhaps Noah was rejected from his tribe. This wasn't something uncommon.

The igloo had a standard dome shape and seemed large enough for a small group of 6 or 8 to enter together and live inside.

But no matter how she looked, there was no one in sight as far as her eyes could perceive.

Anyone hidden or in the surroundings?

[Searching:….]

[Result: Negative. No sign of life in a radius of 5 kilometers;]

"So. Why are we here?"

"Isn't it obvious? I need to eat to replenish my energy. Can't go on a journey without that."

Noah left her and entered his igloo all by himself, leaving her alone on the outside of his home. She was able to deduce that he might have saved up some food in his base and was ready to feast on it by himself.

Her plan to weaken him in order to keep a certain balance between the two of them seemed to have crumbled in front of her eyes but she was not too disappointed by that reality.

She had already done what she could and she didn't want to make the situation worse by interfering more on the matter and thus destroy the semblance of connection that she had forged with Noah.

[Notice: Rare substance found.]

'Huh?'

She looked at the point in her vision that was marked by her system and rushed toward it at breakneck speeds. Even under the dim light of the side that was facing the darkness of vast space, it was shining quietly with a distinct golden hue. But she could never mistake it for anything else. There was no chance of doing so.

Instantly, her breathing became heavier like never before. She looked at the material in her hand but she felt like she was about to burst with utter joy and glee at what she had discovered.

"This thing is—"

[Yes, it is Gold]

She fought the urge to scream and gripped the yellowish-golden stone in her hand with surging emotions throughout her entire being.

This was gold.

Pure Gold.

One of the rarest but also deemed as the most important material in this entire goddamn galaxy. The premiere material necessary to build the core of any high-end Mecha and spaceship in general.

For this alone, wars were fought and planets were destroyed to extract all the gold that was incorporated into the planet and its core.

Morgiana remembered saying that they had found the jackpot when she saw this planet from outer space.

She would have never imagined that this would truly end up being true.

But at the same time, this reaffirmed her thoughts about the secrets of this planet. Her face paled and her eyes started to flicker as her brain spun at 120% speed.

If she was right— then this planet was undoubtedly very dangerous. A level of danger that was far higher than what the Forty Thieves could ever hope to possess.

All she could do now was hope.

Hope that those idiots did not end up waking it up while trying to attack and capture her.

Morgiana was a courageous woman.

She did not feel afraid even as she was being chased to the ends of the universe for all of her life.

She did not feel afraid even as she was crashing down to certain death.

She was used to danger already. It was something that would always follow her job description.

But this— this was an entirely different matter altogether.

For the first time ever since she landed on this planet— Morgiana truly felt a horrible sense of paralyzing fear.

———