The Curse of Being Disconnected from the Grid (3)
1546 Words
“Well, please tell me more about your girlfriend, Walter.”
“OK, then. She and I are basically childhood friends. Born and raised in the same town, went to the same school...”
“Yes, I know. There's only one school in the entire kingdom, and that is the Lebenswasserheim Royal Academy.”
Since many children enter and graduate from the Academy every year, the Academy also has its own sets of fully-furnished student apartments, available to students who come from far-flung places who cannot commute to and from school daily due to inconvenience. The apartment units are free, by the way.
I continue.
“Yeah. We also had the chance to play at each other's homes, and our parents gladly approve of our relationship. She and I are basically inseparable.”
“You must be lucky to have a girl like her.”
“Touche. I don't care if she's from a rich, well-to-do family, and my family has a middle-class background. His Highness has made it a point that there must be harmony between the classes of society, just as it has always been for hundreds of years.”
“And that is why I love being part of this kingdom. We get to do as we please, and we get to pursue our own dreams, as long as His Highness the King leads by example.”
I now have the chance to inquire about something in her past, since she has already asked me about that, too.
“That's nice to hear. So then, how did you become an adventurer? And what was your most memorable quest you've taken up?”
“Yeah... about becoming an adventurer, there are other people in this town who wish to apply their skills they have learned into an actual battlefield. I, of course, am one of them. And as for the most memorable quest... well... it'll take me a long time to narrate this. Is that OK with you, Walter?”
“I don't mind. It's a good way to pass the time, anyway.”
“Good. It all started nine months ago...
“I was hired by a scientist who was surveying the flora and fauna of a southern town. Specifically, Corona Alphecca in Willowcreen Prefecture. He said there were some monster attacks that occurred in the basements of the homes there, and those monsters were actually mutated via unethical means by a rogue scientist.
“After we neutralized the monsters in the basements, we then discovered the evidence that linked the monsters to the rogue scientist, whose name was Digga Nick Zerstorein. There were test tubes and incubation chambers that had his name plastered on them. It seemed he was proud of his work, and he wasn't ashamed of unleashing his weaponized crimes against nature on the entire kingdom.
“Based on my scientist companion's further findings, the rogue scientist fled west, which was practically outside the kingdom's borders and into uncharted lands. We both tracked him down using his advanced equipment, and finally came up to him in an unnamed savanna.
“Dr. Zerstorein stated that the kingdom wronged him by depriving him of his research funds, and the scientist countered that by saying that the rogue scientist was stripped of his funding because authorities linked him to a string of kidnappings where unfortunate victims were abducted and had their organs harvested and used for his secret organ transplants on his sick friends in dire need of replacement organs.
“In a fit of rage, Dr. Zerstorein killed my companion, and that made me cry. Soon enough, those tears of utter sadness turned into tears of unbridled anger, as I naturally had to avenge him. After all, he was my client... and he wanted to ensure that all experiments are moral and ethical according to the laws of the kingdom.
“I battled the rogue scientist, who unleashed his own motley crew of bio-monsters. And after a long and hard battle, I eliminated all of those monsters... and, in probably the only instance that I had taken a human life... I had no choice but to stab Dr. Zerstorein to put him out of his misery.”
“What were his final words, anyway?”
“He said... 'You never learn... soon... there will be a crisis... that will threaten your kingdom more than you can ever imagine!' He then breathed his last.
“Despite the death of my client, I've completed my quest, and I had requested the guild mistress to give him a proper and honorable burial, so that his legacy will never be forgotten.”
“May his soul rest in peace, in the arms of the Most High.”
“Glad you said it.”
So, from her experience, she had to take a life to save many others... a sacrifice that we adventurers have to contend with; since by default, we only take the lives of monsters whose one-track minds are composed of solely giving us a hard time.
I knew I had to do the same, though indirectly, when I joined the constabulary officers in hunting down the barrier criminal.
What's important is that we try our best to keep our sanity up.
“Well, Walter... we have discussed heavy topics so far, so... why don't we lighten up the mood and talk about light ones instead?”
“Sure, why not?”
“So now... You may never know when you're about to bump into something that's gut-busting funny. In fact, in one of my other adventures, I saw a sheep that ran so fast.”
“How fast?”
“Definitely as fast as a certain blue hedgehog, I reckon. That was after I have completed a quest that involved cleaning up trees and branches that were uprooted after a strong gust ravaged a town somewhere in the eastern part of the kingdom.”
“Did someone cast Heisbilis on that sheep?”
“I think... not. Maybe the sheep cast the spell on itself.”
Wait a minute. How can animals cast spells that were refined and standardized by humans long ago?
“And before you debunk that story as hogwash, Walter... a man accidentally dropped a Mitashin scroll on the sheep, which enchanted it, and the sheep then cast the spell on itself. You should know by now as a seasoned adventurer how random that scroll can be...”
“Yeah, I know. I'm sorry I didn't believe you seconds ago.”
“That's OK.”
“And did anyone else catch the sheep?”
“Yeah. Some men who literally had too much time on their hands tried to get their grubby hands on that speedy sheep... by casting Heisbilis on themselves, of course. And after a period of running, stumbling, and employing dirty tricks such as putting banana peels on the road to slow each other down... one lucky guy got the sheep and kept it for himself.”
“He didn't track down the owner?”
“Well, the owner later said, 'You can keep it; I don't care. I have too many sheep, anyway.'”
“Ha ha ha. That incident did give me a good chuckle.”
As we finish our talk and we run out of steak skewers to eat, her parents reappear.
From the looks on their faces, they will deliver both good news and bad news.
Her father opens thus.
“Well, our lovely only child and our distinguished visitor, I hope you both had a good time. In a wholesome way, I guess.”
Her mother follows up with the following.
“We just had a talk with the representative of the Royal Department of Energy, and he has recommended the replacement of the entire sparkgrid meter, alongside the installation of a brand-new solar sparkgrid power plant.”
Hmm... I think I saw one before.
The Royal Academy now utilizes a sun-powered sparkgrid plant in order to reduce its reliance on naturally-occurring magic as a power source.
The roofs of the Academy's many buildings are retrofitted with solar panels, which catch energy coming from the sun.
A solar sparkgrid power plant then does the job of converting solar energy into magical energy needed for the sparkgrid to function.
In times when the sun doesn't shine, the solar energy can be stored in a special energy container that can be drawn upon by the power plant to generate the magical energy.
In recent years, there have been experiments where select homes are retrofitted with solar sparkgrid systems, and the households that availed of them are extremely satisfied.
The father continues.
“The representative said that installing the solar plant, which includes solar panels, on the roof of our house on a purely turnkey basis using the EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) paradigm will yield us long-term benefits. For one, we can combine normal sparkgrid energy and solar-powered sparkgrid energy at the same time.”
And here comes the bad news, delivered to us by the mother.
“The bad thing is... the entire meter replacement and solar power plant installation process will take us one week... so... we all need to rough it until then.”
Aw, come on!
You've gotta be frickin' kidding me!
- Writer
