novelraw Chapter 475: Utopia of Ants
Chapter 475: Utopia of Ants
Fisher and Helaire hadn't come out of the room yet, but Asuka Karasawa had already been waiting outside for a long time. Unlike the other people in the team, she seemed to have a very good impression of this place. Perhaps it was because Margaret was a Transferred Person like her, so she felt love me love my dog and paid a little more attention to her situation and the country she created; or perhaps it was because of Margaret herself, her gentleness made Asuka Karasawa feel exceptionally cordial.
She looked at the country outside, which was enclosed like a classical Western city-state, and carefully observed everything inside.
Asuka Karasawa keenly discovered that all the materials here were provided and distributed by Tsubaki. Because food couldn't be planted here, the residents living here didn't need to produce or plant; because Tsubaki could quickly build buildings, the Demi-human Races who came here didn't need to build; because there were threats from the Elves of the Tree Continent outside, the residents here were not allowed to go out.
But the weak creatures living here naturally wouldn't mind. Compared with the days of bloody storms and precarious existence outside, the days here could naturally be regarded as Heaven.
Just the accommodation of a Mythical Species to those below could create such a beautiful scene. Then if all Mythical Species could be as friendly as Tsubaki, this world would probably be much, much better than the world she lived in, right?
Watching the Demi-human Races and humans below resting on their allocated land and relaxing while chatting with each other, Asuka Karasawa opened her mouth. Just then, footsteps came from behind. She hastily turned her head to look, but saw Mikhail carrying a bunch of distributed utensils.
His eye inlaid with the computer prosthetic eye gave off a faint light, not knowing the specific reason. When he saw Asuka Karasawa, he lifted the food in his hand and asked,
"Want to eat?"
"Ah, thank you Mr. Mikhail, I'm not very hungry."
Mikhail nodded and stuffed a fruit into his mouth. Then he had no intention of returning to his room, but instead put the food in the living room and came to the side of the windowsill, looking outside just like Asuka Karasawa.Mikhail didn't have much expression, but Asuka Karasawa glanced at him, and then opened her mouth to smile and say,
"Mr. Mikhail, it seems very quiet here. Compared with the Tree Continent, the environment here is really much better."
"...It's alright, the power of a Mythical Species used here can create many miracles."
Asuka Karasawa paused for a moment, feeling the breeze outside, and suddenly said with some worry,
"Mr. Mikhail, after we accomplish the mission we can return to our world, but what about Madam Margaret? Is she not leaving?"
"...I don't know. Honestly I don't know if I should go back either. Although this place is very bad, the world I originally lived in would only be worse. My wife and partners were all executed by the company. Apart from hatred, I can bring back nothing."
"Eh?"
Asuka Karasawa opened her mouth slightly and looked at Mikhail, who was eating fruit with an expressionless face beside her, seeming somewhat astonished. Speaking of which, it had always been the companions beside her tracing her past and the world she originally lived in, but she rarely cared about the past and origins of other companions.
Young people are always taken care of by older people, and Asuka Karasawa has always played such a role.
"Speaking of which, how did Mr. Mikhail cross over?"
"...Ever since my wife was executed, I've wanted to avenge her like mad. Later, I stole the company's missile, and then the missile and I smashed into the company's headquarters together. But regrettably, there was a repulsive shield formed by new technology outside. The missile and I both exploded a few hundred meters away from the headquarters, and when I woke up I was already in the Sanctuary."
"Ah, this is too amazing... I... I just took a nap after class in the afternoon, and then I crossed over..."
Asuka Karasawa was somewhat embarrassed. It seemed that by comparison, her crossing was so plain and unadorned.
"What about Fisher? Have you asked him where he comes from?"
"Eh, no... But, Teacher Fisher doesn't seem to be from our world. He is not very familiar with our world, and seems to come from another world."
"Are there other worlds? Could it be like here, all full of Demi-human Races?"
Asuka Karasawa covered her mouth and began to laugh, and then the two Transferred Persons stopped conversing. Only at the end did she open her mouth to confirm with some regret,
"So, Mr. Mikhail, you don't plan to go back?"
"...I don't know either, we'll see when the time comes. Then again, it's good to be young, always having a warm heart to care about the situation of others. Rather than worrying about what will happen to others later, it's better to confirm your own situation. You still have attachments and family in your original world, right? Since you must go back, it's best to prepare for it. Even if I don't go back I can still stay in the Sanctuary, Margaret... well, her I don't know."
"Don't know?"
Asuka Karasawa didn't quite understand Mikhail's meaning. She turned her head to look at him in confusion, only to see him looking expressionlessly at the country before him and asking her in doubt,
"Karasawa, what kind of place do you think this is like?"
"What place?"
"Have you heard of Utopia?"
"...No."
"..."
Mikhail speechlessly turned his head to look at the confused idiot JK beside him, and waited for quite a while before continuing,
"Actually, calling it a Utopia is imprecise; the name here, Ideal State, is a more precise description. If we use an analogy for the relationship here, it's more like a group of very powerful and absolutely friendly aliens suddenly arriving in the era you lived in. They brought technology and systems beyond your imagination, hoping to solve the perplexing problems of earthlings. They made everyone not need to work, can instantly satisfy all desires people imagined. All utensils, food, entertainment products and even partners can be ideally distributed. Does it sound very wonderful?
"There are only two crucial premises here. The first is, this group of aliens are absolutely friendly to human beings and will not demand anything for their contributions. The only possible demand is their interest; Secondly, factors like the aliens' technology, power, whatever you name it, are far above the level of human beings. The second point is not only the foundation for this scenario to be established, but also the guarantee for the first premise. Then if you were a human in this scenario, what would you think?"
Asuka Karasawa pouted and started to talk,
"Mm, this seems... not bad?"
Mikhail laughed and said to her,
"It's more than not bad, it's perfect. If there really were such kind, god-like aliens, then all problems would be solved. There's a crucial implicit premise in this scenario, which is that the overall aliens not only care about human beings, but are also absolutely friendly to human beings. But what if we change to a similar scenario?
"You are a young and kind child. Because of your instinctive love and respect for life, you made a small ant nest with nutrients synthesized from mashed potatoes, and invited ants from a certain place into your ant nest. You are too kind and eager, providing them with all the environment they need to survive, always suitable temperature, countless food, absolutely safe living place..."
"Isn't that ant nest a Utopia to the ants?"
"You, this child, possess absolute powerful force to the ants, and assuming based on kindness, you have almost absolute friendliness and patience towards the ants, and will never abandon them. But, until one day, the family members of this child find out that their child quietly transformed the wardrobe at the head of his bed into an ant nest covered with all kinds of ants and slept with them. He also stole his living expenses this month from home to buy mashed potatoes and thermostats for the ants... What do you think the parents of this child will do?"
Asuka Karasawa froze slightly, looking at the country before her and was momentarily speechless. She grabbed the edge of the house's railing and asked Mikhail,
"...So, Earl Tsubaki is actually that child, and his Elf race compatriots and the World Tree are his parents?"
"Is this important?"
Mikhail finished eating the fruit. He then spitted out the core, letting the fruit fall outside, then he patted his hands and left here, leaving Asuka Karasawa standing where she was,
"What's important is, are we ants after all?"
Asuka Karasawa suddenly somewhat understood Mikhail's meaning and his current entanglement, so implicitly she also became a bit melancholy.
The hypothesis Mikhail mentioned was not only talking about this Ideal State at this moment and place, but also expressing his view on the relationship between Mythical Species and other creatures in this world, as well as the reason why he was entangled about whether to return to his original world.
Mythical Species and other creatures are simply two species. Although the problems pondered by other species similar to ants seem easy to solve in the eyes of Mythical Species, Mythical Species, just like humans higher than ants, also have their own difficult problems to solve. They can't possibly hold extremely selfless thoughts towards ants.
And the reason why Mikhail was entangled about whether to return to his own world was naturally the same. Archangel Michael seemed to appreciate him, but Mikhail was not certain if this was appreciation for him or for ants. Perhaps just like that child, could his feelings for ants be fake? But when the situation changed, the ants would eventually be swept out of the house by his enraged parents.
But Teacher Fisher seemed completely unworried about this point. His relationship with Angel Helaire seemed very close, Asuka Karasawa felt this was related to Fisher's life level.
The closer his Rank was to Mythical Species, the smaller the gap between this kind of ant and human would become.
But having experienced this terrifyingly disparate power, Asuka Karasawa didn't know what method could accomplish Rank leapfrogging like Teacher Fisher, let alone the vast majority of humans.
Well then, if there were a power that could help humans and other creatures cross this difficult problem, that would be good...
Asuka Karasawa leaned against the edge of the windowsill, suddenly thinking this way.
And very quickly she was slightly taken aback, as if thinking of something, and slowly looked to Fisher's room behind her.
"Teacher Fisher! Teacher Fisher..."
Asuka Karasawa somewhat excitedly pushed open Fisher's room door, seeming to want to say something, but just as she opened the door, she instantly froze in place as if struck by lightning.
She only saw that inside the room, Fisher, whose upper body was naked, was holding the Fluid Sword and constantly cutting at the connection between his and Helaire's rooms, as if to completely open up the two rooms. And Helaire was floating behind him, leaning on him as if sitting on air, and similarly turned her head to look at her.
"...What's wrong?"
Fisher was slightly taken aback, but suddenly felt Helaire behind him grab his neck with both hands. Before he could react, Helaire had already started shouting "struck with panic",
"Little Karasawa! Little Karasawa, quickly wuwu, come save me quickly. Teacher Fisher... he insistes on chiseling open my room, wuwu, I can't even stop him..."
Fisher's face turned dark, almost failing to hold back and giving Helaire behind him an iron fist.
Just now, this fellow shouted the fiercest when making him open up the rooms. Now she's starting to pretend to be pure and innocent again?
But Asuka Karasawa was not a fool. She first looked at Fisher's naked upper body, then swallowed a mouthful of saliva, quickly looking away, and muttered while looking at Helaire,
"But aren't you Mythical... cough cough, anyway, if you wanted to refuse it would be very simple, right? Obviously you were the one who made Teacher Fisher open up the rooms right?"
Being exposed, Helaire was not angry at all. Instead, she looked at Asuka Karasawa somewhat novelly, smilingly stroking her chin and said,
"Oh, how come Little Karasawa suddenly became smart, could it be that her brains have been opened up? Very strange, very strange..."
"I'm not an idiot!"
Before Asuka Karasawa began to drone on in anger, Fisher preemptively interrupted the two of them and opened his mouth to ask,
"What's wrong, Karasawa?"
Asuka Karasawa wanted to open her mouth and say something, but she paused for a moment, pointed outside, and said,
"Tsubaki brought us food, after I eat I'm getting ready to go to Madam Margaret's... But could Teacher Fisher accompany me, if I go alone..."
Fisher thought for a bit and nodded, then stopped what he was doing and said,
"Okay, the others will just stay here. Helaire, I leave this place to you."
"Take care."
Helaire smilingly nodded and said so. Taking advantage of the time Fisher and Asuka Karasawa went out, she leaned against the side of the windowsill and looked at the bustling activities outside.
Watching them take some food below and then setting off with Asuka Karasawa until their backs completely disappeared in the end, her gaze slowly withdrew and moved upwards, as if looking upwards.
At the instant her gaze moved upwards, high in the sky at this moment, Eimhart, who was secretly hiding between clouds observing the situation below, was suddenly startled and shuddered. Although the other party might have just cast a casual glance, but as if the fear engraved in Eimhart's heart made his body involuntarily produce a reaction a step ahead, making him hurriedly shrink back into Gabriel's bosom behind him.
But very quickly he discovered that Helaire leaning against the edge of the windowsill below just raised her head and yawned, and didn't look at him.
"Nob?"
Gabriel behind him tilted her head and opened her mouth to ask.
"No no, letting that guy stay beside Fisher is absolutely not okay. Mom, let me go down, I'm going to Fisher's side to tell him about this, otherwise right now he's definitely thinking with his lower body and enjoying himself... no no, I know him, once his reproduction desire takes over he is prone to making mistakes, let alone that's Baimon..."
"Nob, absolutely cannot leave Mommy's side."
Although Gabriel's expression was still sluggish, her voice appeared resolute and decisive. Even the posture of holding him and the crystal in her bosom remained motionless.
"...I, once I finish talking I will come back. Mom mom, I beg you, you're the best."
Eimhart decided to use the skill "act spoiled". He had already honed this move to perfection, revealing hardly a flaw, and making him seem particularly sincere.
But Gabriel still refused. She stated another reason,
"Below, very dangerous."
"Ah ah ah, I know it's very dangerous too, that Baimon is absolutely absolutely absolutely very dangerous. To this era the restrictions she placed on me still haven't been lifted, I can't say anything, but at least telling that guy it's Baimon can still be done, I..."
Eimhart struggled urgently in Gabriel's bosom, but she seemed to have disconnected the link, refusing to let him leave no matter what.
He had no choice but to continue being a bystander here, watching helplessly as Fisher stayed beside that guy, in a state of extreme misery and being unbearably painful.
"Teacher Fisher, h..."
Walking on the road to the central stone tower, Asuka Karasawa following behind Fisher pouted and suddenly repeated a sentence he had heard before but didn't understand.
"So, what does this actually mean?"
"Teacher Fisher is so lecherous, even the rooms have to be opened up. Are you going to do something bad at night?"
Fisher paused at these words and turned his head to look at Asuka Karasawa, but unexpectedly, the moment he turned around, she suddenly covered her head and retreated several steps, looking at Fisher with extreme caution, as if afraid he would knock on her head again.
"What are you doing?"
"A-anyway Teacher Fisher is definitely going to knock on my head again, right?"
"Why would I knock you? I just wanted to ask you how your learning of the Middle Ring magic I taught you earlier is going."
"Eh, Teacher Fisher changed the subject, you still haven't said what bad things you're going to do at night..."
This idiot High School Girl was exceptionally brave today for some unknown reason. Earlier she would hide after saying a word or two, could it be because her mood was pretty good?
Hearing this, Fisher looked at her eyes seriously and slowly opened his mouth to ask,
"Do you really want to know?"
Asuka Karasawa's face instantly became a lot rosier, as if the other party's gaze had temperature, scalding her sight so that it dodged away,
"I-I don't want to know!"
"Then that settles it, so what about the magic?"
"The magic I... I already learned it, but only those one or two Circle Head and fixed Main Ring ones, I haven't tried the others..."
"It's just a pity there's no magic book here, otherwise I could save a lot of effort, and you could learn more magic."
Just like an excellent teacher without textbooks, Fisher relied entirely on oral instruction for his skills on a daily basis. Such methods were popular in medieval times when magic teaching was primarily based on a traditional master-apprentice binding system. Many Magicians relied on one or two "bottom-of-the-box unique skills" to take on a few magic apprentices and keep them close, passing on knowledge through oral instruction plus practice. Sometimes when a line of Magicians died out, that particular magic was lost.
It was not until modern times that this method was improved. The establishment of the Magic Association and Magic Academies pushed magic towards flourishment, making teaching much simpler.
It was also thanks to Asuka Karasawa's astonishing talent. Through such intermittent teaching methods the progress was not slow at all; she was even able to draw inferences from one instance.
"Here... Speaking of which, Teacher Fisher, I still don't know where you're from. You're a Transferred Person too, right? Only it seems you're not from Mr. Mikhail and my world?"
"Mm, I come from a place very similar to here."
"I see. So Teacher Fisher will also leave here later?"
"What, already getting tired of the teacher's teaching?"
"Not at all, I'm just a little curious what the world Teacher Fisher comes from is like. After all, Teacher Fisher has another student, doesn't he?"
"Mm, she's very similar to you, but is a Whale-kin like Gou Wen."
"She?"
Asuka Karasawa pouted again, sighed and said,
"Sure enough, Teacher Fisher is really popular with women."
"Average."
"Whale-kin huh, I'm quite curious what it would feel like to grow a whale tail and ears and such on the body, she must live very deep in the sea. In my next life maybe I'd want to be a fish too, swimming carefree and without worries."
Fisher reached out and gave her a knock on the head, making her cover her head and retreat a few steps again, shouting pitifully at Fisher,
"Teacher Fisher!"
"Always thinking about the next life instead of this life makes you very prone to stumbling, for example, getting knocked on the head by me."
They quickly arrived in that towering tower, climbed up again along the previous path, and quickly came to the place where they enjoyed the tea break earlier.
It was just that at this moment and place, there were not only Margaret and Tsubaki, but also several Demi-human Races in rags, who were saying something to Tsubaki,
"...Exactly, but I don't know who they are. The night was too dark at the time, they were probably four... or five, I didn't see clearly, but absolutely not the same Demi-human Race, but several different kinds. And I could understand when they spoke, there was absolutely a Brain Demon Race among them."
"Madam Margaret, we're here... Eh, did something happen here?"
"Ah, you're here. Please sit down first, wait for us for a tiny bit..."
While Margaret was listening, she looked toward the direction of Asuka Karasawa, smiled and waved at her, cordially inviting her to come over and sit.
When Fisher and Asuka Karasawa stepped closer, she then explained to them with some helplessness,
"You should know that currently many items in the Ideal State are provided by Tsubaki's power, but many things cannot be produced relying on Tsubaki's power. Therefore, over the past half year we have had transactions with other settlements near and far, we can say the relationships are pretty good... But recently there's been a little problem with this trade, a gang of appearing and disappearing mysteriously bandits have recently come to the wilderness."
"Bandits?"
"Ah, exactly..."
Speaking of this, Margaret didn't know whether to laugh or cry,
"The supplies that gang of bandits robbed weren't considered much, but their style is a bit scary, making nearby settlements a bit uneasy..."
"They like to attack demi-human women."
Upon hearing this, Fisher, who had been single-mindedly scrutinizing the nearby pool water, for some reason suddenly turned his head and looked at Margaret.