Chapter Sixty-Nine

Therefore, when Ark and Lady were about to leave, only Denos and Ghost Duke remained at the door.

Both men seemed quite interested in the new carriage, and Ark couldn't help but take a few more glances. After all, he had never seen such a carriage before; it was indeed a rare and precious item.

However, because I had other business to attend to, I didn't stay long.

“I’m not sure what else I have at home,” Lady said softly as she walked down the street. “I’m afraid I’ll be all alone here.”

She was about to follow the abandoned child's directions to the vicinity of her home when she hesitated. After all, she had no familiarity with this place. She wasn't even sure if she had a home here.

"If you don't feel as comfortable here as you are in the carriage, you can join us anytime before we leave. No one will refuse a beautiful girl like you joining us. If I refuse, I might get stabbed in the back by Denos." Ark joked with a serious face, as if this was not a joke, but that the guy really was a traitor who would betray his country for a pretty face.

Of course it's fake. If Denos really preferred girls, he wouldn't be single at nearly thirty. His original words were that his father was almost forty when he married and had him, so he wasn't in a hurry and would let nature take its course.

He was a very skilled sorcerer; in any city, there was no way he could be alone if he wanted to.

Lady forced a smile. A joke must end with a smile, otherwise the person making the joke would seem like a failure.

The two of them had already had a conversation during dinner about why Yak wanted to help him.

"Would you find a reason to save a sparrow?" This was Yak's reply: "Since when do we need a reason to save people and help others? Of course, if I had to, I would say I would. I want to make myself feel happy. Being able to help you makes me feel warm, and that makes me very happy."

Although his expression remained unchanged as he said this, not only his facial expression but also his true feelings were the same. It was neither something to be happy about nor something to be sad about; rather, it was as if Reddy had asked a strange question rather than him having done something strange.

Lady looked at the person walking in front of her, hesitated for a moment, and then took Ark's hand.

It's so warm. In this cold place, this guy's hand is a size bigger than mine. It feels so warm to have it held.

"Let me confirm, do you know what holding hands means for men and women?" Ark asked, naturally taking Lady's hand in his own. There was no other meaning, nothing more, just like two children holding hands as they walked down the street.

"I don't know." Lady shook her head blankly. Her knowledge of relationships came from books, and obviously, that book didn't cover such a thing.

“Really? That’s wonderful,” Ark said softly. “It’s so similar.”

"What?"

“I used to know someone who didn’t know the answer to this question either. It was a very cold place, and she grabbed my hand because her hands were cold. I asked her the same question, and she gave the same answer.” Yak turned his head and explained, “But it’s just the answers; otherwise, you guys are quite different. It’s just that hearing a familiar conversation makes this old man a little nostalgic.”

"Is she dead?"

“It’s just that it’s hard to see each other now, probably thirty or forty years.” Yak said casually, “But I suggest you don’t grab people’s hands like that in the future, or they will misunderstand.”

"Oh," Lady replied softly, but still didn't pull her hand away. It was very cold there, and she didn't understand what Ark meant.

She looked up at the city.

It must be said that this is a very good city, especially after seeing the place that had been reduced to ruins by the fighting. A peaceful city like this seems so serene. Even though food is still scarce, and people are starving and freezing to death every day, the cold air carries a faint smell of rotting corpses. But settling down here is still better than living on a wagon that will eventually perish.

But this place is far better than other places. If she settled here, her knowledge of machinery would at least allow her to become a mechanic and earn a living. This wouldn't be difficult for her.

But what are the people living here like? Lady doesn't know; in fact, she hasn't interacted with any normal people yet.

This led her to develop a personality that could accommodate almost anyone; Lady disliked no one, nor did she like anyone. Because she had never met normal people, and her values ​​were still forming, encountering such a situation was extremely unfortunate. To the point that she felt somewhat apprehensive here, because she suddenly realized how similar everyone around her was—was she going to become one of them?

“Don’t be upset about this, it’s a good thing, a very good thing.” Acton paused and said, “As a monster, if you can be treated equally by humans, then it’s worth it even if you are rejected by your own kind.”

"Really?" Lady's voice was very low. "Have you ever been rejected by your own kind?"

“I only have people like me in a broad sense. Maybe it’s because I have a wide circle of friends that no one really dislikes me? At least I haven’t met anyone who does.” Yak hesitated for a moment and said, “At least, at least I’m not disliked by anyone.”

He said this in a slightly defiant tone, and Lady suddenly realized that his voice had changed; it sounded like the emotion of a slightly defiant child.

"By the way, you do have expressions, right? I've seen you smile."

“Yes, but it’s been so long that I don’t know what could possibly make me emotionally move my facial muscles.” Acton paused and said, “I’ve found a substitute, and that’s this gem. It can sense my emotional changes, even the slightest ones. That way, at least I’m not completely expressionless.”

As he said this, his expression suddenly fell: "Someone once said that I have no expression on my face, which is infuriating and makes people want to beat me up."

"Are they the same people who gave the same answer as me before?"

“No, the other one. You’d better not expect to see that guy again. I don’t want to see him again right now.” Ark suddenly laughed, not a small, expressionless laugh, but a laugh that came from all the muscles in his face: “He’s a very eccentric guy, and I don’t get along with him.”

Even though she said that, Lady had a feeling that this guy and the guy he was talking about were very close. After all, just talking about him could make this expressionless guy smile naturally, and Lady was really curious about who that guy was.

Just as she was wondering, Ark suddenly stopped, and she quickly discovered the reason. They had arrived at the part of the city that was enclosed by city walls.

The research and development area, second only to the safe zone in importance, was blocked at the entrance by soldiers in strange armor wielding shotguns.

"Sorry, unauthorized personnel are not allowed to visit this area." The soldier's voice sounded severely distorted: "Please find another place."

"Is this thing powered by steam?" Ark didn't care what was behind them; all he cared about was the armor worn by the two healthy individuals.

Although the size of the humans inside is unknown, the two of them are already two and a half meters tall. Ark's head is only at their shoulders.

Although you are quite surprising, he was still able to tell that the two guys' height was entirely supported by their armor.

This armor probably weighs over a ton. What kind of person could wear such armor and move around in it? And it doesn't seem to make movement difficult.

This was beyond Ark's comprehension; wearing armor weighing over a ton and moving around freely, and the defensive capabilities of armor several tens of centimeters thick were already at an extremely exaggerated level.

The gun, along with the rest of the equipment, was just too heavy.

It's astonishing that it's not powered by steam. If these guys had such abilities while wearing these things, they could achieve even greater combat power without armor.

"Hmm." The guard stared blankly as some unknown person tapped on his armor.

It takes real courage for a normal person not to keep their distance from this thing, let alone to be curiously tapping on it now.

“There should be a steam-generating device in the backpack on his back,” Lady said, tugging at Rayak’s sleeve. “On the contrary, this thing isn’t very well made. To enable mass production, they used thicker pipes. But the heat wastage is 35 percent, which is an amazing utilization rate.”

"However, this armor has a major drawback: if movement exceeds thirty seconds, it will release exhaust gas that is not hot enough. At that time, its body performance will drop by at least 70%, and it can only move around. The exhaust time is about three seconds. In actual combat, it is necessary to form a team of two or more people to avoid the inertia caused by the armor's breathing."

The air suddenly became quiet, and it has remained quiet ever since.

Because everyone was stunned.

Do you have the blueprints for this armor?

"No, this is the new version. I only have the old design drawings. But I can only roughly tell the difference." Lady answered Ark's question casually, as if it was something that didn't need to be cared about at all.

"reason."

"sound."

"Really? She's a perceptive girl."

The conversation between Ark and Lady sounded like a divine dialogue to the two of them, and Ark didn't seem surprised by Lady's superpowers.

Although it was the first time Ark had seen this guy use such an application, he had seen too many people with special talents, and suddenly felt that it would be surprising if there were normal people in his team.

But the other two didn't feel the same way, because to them, Lady was like a once-in-a-millennium genius.

So one of them told them to wait at the door, while the other ushered the two into the room next door.

Lady was completely baffled by this, while Ark was quite used to it.

"Are you interested in working in the research area?" Ake suddenly asked Lady.

Lady paused for a moment: "I think I'm only capable of being a mechanic."

“If someone like you can only be a mechanic here, I’ll pay you double the salary and make me two suits of armor like that.” Acton paused and said, “That shouldn’t be difficult, right?”

“It’s very difficult, extremely difficult,” Lady replied truthfully. “I don’t know where to get so much good metal.”

Yak paused, then pinched his chin, thinking.

Most of the houses outside were made of metal, the armor was made of metal, and the weapons were made of metal. There were very few things made of wood.

This is not normal, absolutely not normal. There is nothing scarcer than good metal; in this world, the value of good metal is immeasurable, even beyond the measure of gold coins.

But almost everything here is armor, and it's all made of very high-quality metal.

This is so abnormal. Ark looked at Lady sitting opposite him. Lady was resting her head on her hand, looking at him as if she was thinking about something.

There's no need to think further, because the answer is already there.

He looked out the window at the castle. As a royal palace, the materials used were irrelevant, since they were all metal. But the construction method was something Ark had never considered before—completely natural, as if it had always been there.

He absolutely refused to believe it was formed naturally. "Where there's something truly sinister, there must be a demon here, a demon that has already grown up."

The church will surely discover this, but at present, Ark has not heard of any plans by the church to do anything about this place.

It's probably because that demon consciously hid in the shadows and didn't show itself. The church also knew that forcibly suppressing a grown demon would result in great losses, so they chose to leave it alone.

Yak pressed down on the metal with his hand. What should have been an extremely sturdy object began to deform under this simple finger pressure.

It was also harder than normal metal. Yake pulled his finger out of the metal and looked at the mark he had made with one finger.

However, it was also due to my own negligence; I needed to use force to break metal with just one finger.

If someone were to analyze the composition of this metal, they would find that it has been completely destroyed. In terms of its internal composition, the metal has been completely separated, and it can no longer be called a metal.

To be honest, the church has been quite patient with him. Ark smiled helplessly, but his actions would only cause trouble for those friends who were helping to clean up the mess.

The door was pushed open at that moment, and a middle-aged man walked into the room.

Lady suddenly felt a strange sensation. She slowly raised her head and looked at the middle-aged man standing not far away.

When that guy came in, he just stared at Lady, and Lady just stared back at him. Ark was caught in the middle, feeling like he was in the wrong place.