Triiffic-Soul: Can I Be In Control?-Chapter 186 – Follow

Chapter 186 – Follow

It took a while for the trio to get up and move on with their day. They were ready to let Eva explore more, but she told them she was fine now. She had seen enough, and more staring wasn’t going to help her. She was happy to know her family was alive… even if she didn’t know what their current state was like and the new… situation.

She was oddly happy to find out they had another child. Though Eva was worried those feelings were coming from a negative place, of being happy they got a good replacement, she tried to tell herself she was simply happy because she had a little sibling. Either way, there were more thoughts she had to process, which was to say, Eva was a little tired of the amount she needed to think over already.

Eva laughed to herself at her own nature.

In the end, the other two were the ones moving, as Eva was still processing things, but both knew she still didn’t seem to be stuck in any overly negative place. Still, they had their eyes on her in case anything happened.

With no plans to continue down Eva’s memory lane for the day, the remaining duo’s goals for the day were mostly up in the air. Exploring the city more seemed like a good solution before the day was over, as there was plenty of time left and Syrus wanted to have this place mapped out in her head.

[...] Syrus thought about it for a moment and decided to walk towards the craft area of the city. While there was plenty of business all around the city, most work that required either a lot of material or constant burning happened on the south side of the city.

Luna agreed with the location, as there was a lot she wanted to learn about how the city produced its goods. There was only so much she had learned about reading the city, but being inside this place, she realised there was a lot of impressive technology just sitting around. All the newspapers were incredible; most settlements had one news board, and in places like villages, they would get nothing. Larger cities might have multiple and high-paid clients who could get directly sent a bundle of information, but here, there were stands where people could just buy paper bundles containing news and stories.

Luna was most impressed, and Syrus couldn’t care less.

[Here we are.] (Syrus)

The smoke coming from buildings was a perfect sign they were in the right place. From the smell, they judged that the smoke seemed to be mostly from forges.

[There is a lot of storage nearby, but it looks like the gaps roads between the various building materials; it looks like they built the city in such a way that if a fire erupts and spreads from one of the buildings, it would have some trouble spreading further.] Luna was curious as to whether it was built or if this segment of the city had undergone renovations at some point.

Eva wasn’t in much of a talking mood to answer the question, so Luna saved her questions about the city’s architecture for later.

During the walk through this segment of the city, the sights were a little more dirty than they were in other parts of town, but no one looked injured or unhealthy.

[Havier?] (Luna)

They noticed a recently familiar face strolling through this area of the city wearing different clothes more suited to deal with the dust in the air, and by his side was another person talking to him while reading a report.

[Oh, what is the old man doing?] Syrus was immediately curious. They weren’t in their normal form, so this was the perfect opportunity.

[...] Havier’s movements were the perfect thing to pique Eva’s curiosity. She had been interested in the man in question when they had first arrived; well, she was interested in pretty much everyone in the building. The rich people in the city weren’t exactly the type she interacted with. There were a few children in some classes that were certainly on the richer end, but the noble families were so few and were mostly known only through rumours. Though after the fact, she wondered if the reason their cultural relevance dropped was another method to suppress the catastrophe.

He turned the corner, and the trio decided to do some friendly spying. No one had any bad suspicions currently, but if they were able to learn anything useful, that would be nice.

They followed Havier around many corners until he finally entered a large building with security. Syrus examined the area, and it didn’t look possible to go through the front or side door. The front required passing an inspection check, while their side doors looked to be locked and required a key. Breaking or lock-picking the door was possible, but being caught inside the building could contain its own issues.

[Hmmm…] Syrus wondered for a moment. She didn’t want to ruin this perfect disguise, so she went around the building, focusing her hearing to track where Havier was moving based on his voice and footsteps. The other two trusted her… but… either way, they chose to let her continue her actions. Neither had a better idea for the moment.

After listening in for around thirty minutes, Syrus felt comfortable stepping away. Luna and Eva were still flabbergasted that Syrus could hear anything in that nonsense. Even with years of training, neither thought they could replicate Syrus’s skill, even if they could technically hear the same noise she was.

[So… what did you figure out?] (Luna)

[Well, I have learned why Havier seems kind of important, because he is, apparently he is in charge of one of the newspaper companies.] (Syrus)

[...and he is also the head butler for a noble?] (Luna)

[Technically not a noble in the traditional sense.] (Eva)

[Even with the differences in culture, Eletscoep nobles still deserve the title.] (Luna)

The noble families of Eletscoep acted very differently from what was considered normal for nobles in other countries. Like most nearby countries, the noble families descended from the original families that founded the country. However, the differences lie in the distribution of power. Many countries involved nobility and royalty still had power passed down through the generations, with laws in place benefiting their position. While in Eletscoep, there was no additional power granted to these families.

Of course, they usually held the advantage of having old money, being around so long and not dividing assets among many progeny allowed the few that remained to be quite wealthy individuals.

The parliament was what ran the country, and the same person from Eva’s time was still in charge. From what she remembered, he had been head of parliament for quite a number of years before as well.

Syrus didn’t care for any of the structural differences between any of these countries from this life and her past life. At the end of the day, someone was in charge and made laws that everyone had to follow.

[Did you find out anything else?] (Luna)

[There were some soft arguments about what should be in the paper, apparently, with younger generations requesting more stories about people from the past. Havier was pretty adamant about keeping the amount to one story per week. There were some other talks as well, paper shortages, waste issues, profits down, but the story topic was the loudness. Even then, it wasn’t a screaming match or anything, just two people with differing opinions.] (Syrus)

[Why… would such a person be the butler of someone else then?] (Eva)

[Not an answer I was able to figure out merely by listening.] (Syrus)

Stepping far away and that cookie of curiosity devoured, there wasn’t anything else they had planned to do today.

[What are we going to do now?] (Luna)

Within the next hour, Luna regretted her question.