Arc 2: Part 3

The next day.

.

"Hello!" Kyle opened the door to the Literary Club. A bright smile plastered on his face. Inside the club, there were three people.

"Welcome, Kyle!" Marrick acknowledged. He was doing his homework in the club right now.

"Hello!" Carla greeted him back. She was one of the new members alongside Kyle. Another person was supposed to be there, but he was absent. Carla was currently engrossed in reading something related to Suroff.

The last occupant of the room was in a deep sleep. Her name was Kayla Norton from the second year, and it was common knowledge that she was the daughter of Clay Norton, the homeroom teacher of Class Two. Kyle settled into a seat beside Calra, eyeing the book in front of her.

"Suroff City? What are you looking for?" he asked.

"Ah, we just have a study regarding Suroff," Carla replied with a nervous laugh. Kyle stared at her for a while before nodding.

{'Studying Suroff? That's odd,'} Kyle pondered. He knew Suroff had its own historical value, but it should have been covered in the elementary lesson. {'She seems nervous too.'}

Kyle took out a book from his bag and began to read it. However, he suddenly stopped and directed his question to Marrick.

"Senior, do we have a map of our continent?" Kyle asked.

"Map?" Marrick muttered. "I think we do .... Wait."

He rose from his chair and went to the bookshelf.

"This should be it," Marrick confirmed, returning with a rolled-up map. "It was made five years ago or so. Why do you need it?"

"I'm just curious," Kyle said as he unfurled the map. Although it was a rough representation with limited details, Kyle found what he was looking for—the borders.

All of the countries on the map were new and unfamiliar to him. But he was somewhat familiar with some of their names.

{'Ugh, with my reincarnation's erratic behavior and gaps in my memories, I can't be certain about all of them,'} Kyle thought. Living far too long would do that to memory. As he lived longer, there were many things and details he had forgotten or slipped from his memory.

{'Gollia is located on the west side of the Lavol Continent. While the Six Nations of the Six Stones are in the north. The east side is shrouded in mystery; there isn't much information about it. The Malga Kingdom, the epicenter of technology, lies in the south. Historically, technological advancements originated in the south, gradually spreading west and east before reaching the north. However, the north unexpectedly became the fastest region to develop the technology after the South.'} Kyle remembered what he had read through the history.

{'Especially the Six Nations. This made everyone wonder what the cause of such progress was. The answer was the Six Stones. The Six Nations used their stone to fuel their technological advancement.'}

A prime example was the Fima Kingdom, which utilized the Stone of Fire and used it as fuel for almost everything through steam power. Wirna harnessed the Stone of Wind to create a field of turbines, empowering their nation and providing a virtually limitless energy supply. With these stones, they had an abundance of energy at lower costs, eliminating energy-related issues. But of course, other factors also contributed to their rapid progress as well.

Then there was Gollia, gradually and slowly developing their own technology. While they made strides, compared to the northern and southern countries, Gollia's progress seemed relatively slower.

{'Hmm … technological disparities can lead to a conflict, right? But strangely enough, nothing catastrophic has happened so far. Perhaps, lurking In the shadows?'} Kyle was well aware of human traits like jealousy, envy, greed, and other factors that could potentially trigger wars. If not properly controlled, it would cause a disaster. The technology could amplify these negative behaviors, possibly leading to conflict and war.

"What's occupying your thoughts, Kyle?" Marrick asked, noting that Kyle's gaze never once left the map.

"Senior, do you have any updates on the northern and southern countries?" At the moment, information was still limited. Kyle had heard about the project that the southern and northern had done, which was a communication tool. It said the tool would allow people to communicate faster and in real-time. There was no need for letters anymore, rendering letters obsolete.

"Hm, I don't think so. But our club has newspapers from our country and its neighbors."

"That will do." He hoped the newspapers contained information regarding the communication tool project. Unfortunately, after looking through every newspaper, there was no mention of the project. With a heavy heart, Kyle went back to his initial goal of taking the map.

{'At the moment, Gollia is in a ceasefire with the Ballan Kingdom, but who knows when war will erupt again. To go to the northern area, the fastest way is to go through Ballan, but current conditions force people from Gollia to take a detour.'}

In the future, if the war between Gollia and Ballan persisted when he would visit the Six Nations, then he had to prepare for an alternative route. To the north, before reaching the northern area, there was another land he had to traverse, the Tree's Rivers. It was a land with a colossal dead tree and several rivers flowing toward it, a historical site representing one of humanity’s past failures if he remembered correctly.

{'It's nostalgic,'} Kyle smiled bitterly, reminiscing about the past events.

{'I have to visit the south and the east as well.'} He couldn't overlook the southern region, which was commonly known as the Motherland of Technology, and the eastern as the Mystery Land.

Southern was the birthplace of advanced technology. It had numerous scholars across various fields to improve technology, which was why it was called the Motherland of Technology. According to what he had read, someone lacking knowledge about technology would be shocked when they visited the southern area due to its myriad of unfamiliar innovations.

To reach the southern area, Kyle had to traverse a mountainous region with a tightly guarded tunnel. The mountains were also a reason why the southern area was hard to invade in the past. However, he had heard of flying ships that could navigate through them. Probably in the future, terrain obstacles wouldn't be a significant problem at all.

Then why was the eastern area called Mystery Land? Because ... according to the book he had read, the eastern area had isolated itself for an extended period before recently opening up upon learning about the advancement of technology.

However, Kyle knew one thing for sure. In the past, the east side of Lavol was famous as the Land of Ki. This was because many ki practitioners came from there. In the current era, he wasn't certain about the prevalence of ki practitioners in the eastern. Whether there were a lot of ki practitioners or not in there. However, since the book described Eastern people using unique magic, which possibly, in fact, was a "ki" that people mistook.

{'I don't know about the north or south, but the western area seems unfamiliar with ki,'} Kyle thought. In his childhood, he had inquired about ki from various people, including his father, but none of them were familiar with it or knew about it. Even his classmates were unaware of it, except Ninia. Of course, since she was a ki practitioner.

To visit the eastern area, he would need to pass through another neighboring country and then traverse the Free Plains, an unclaimed land referred to as Monster Land due to its abundant monster population. It would be dangerous to pass this land, but it was the quickest route to the east.

Then what about the western area? Other areas seemed to have their own unique places to visit. As for the western area, unfortunately, it didn't have such a thing. However, they did have better access to the islands to the west. He didn't know much about those islands in this era, but in the past, those islands served as the last standing place for humanity.

{'All right, north first, then east, and lastly south.'} Kyle was determined to explore the continent as long as he could after graduation, even though he knew he couldn't cover everything due to his obligations as a noble and the heir of his family.

Kyle rolled the map and put it back into the bookshelf. At the same time, the door swung open. He gave a glance and saw that the person who opened the door was Mina.

"Excuse me, Carla, come with me— huh? Kyle?" Mina eyed him in surprise.

"Mina, come to bring Carla home?" Kyle talked while giving Carla a teasing look. It made Carla flush.

"Huh? Yeah, but what are you doing here?" Mina's response was even better.

"I'm a Literary Club member," Kyle declared proudly, posing with his hand on his waist.

"That's ... unexpected. Anyway, Carla, let's go." Mina immediately lost interest in Kyle and urged Carla. Meanwhile, the other student of Class Seven closed her book and put it into her bag.

"Marrick, I'm borrowing the book," she said while walking toward Mina.

"It is fine. Be sure to take good care of it!" Marrick warned.

"Yes, see you later, and you too, Kyle," Carla bid her farewell and left with Mina.

"Who was that?" Marrick asked Kyle.

"That's Mina .... Wait, you don't know?" Kyle tilted his head, surprised that Marrick wasn't aware. Considering Mina's notable fight, most people should have known about Mina due to that event.

"I don't? Should I?" Marrick looked innocently puzzled, prompting Kyle to squint in confusion.

"Mina is Carla's friend. She is also the winner of the fight between Class Two versus Class Seven."

"Oh …. That fight. I didn't watch it since I had a stomachache that day," Marrick laughed heartily.

Kyle ignored him and contemplated what Mina and Carla might be up to. They appeared to be very busy.

{'Nah, not my problem.'}

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