The Automated King

Long Journey

Two hours before sundown, Reginald and Simon were arrived to the Gate of doom. The city, in adverse to the regular evening of the day, appeared serene and calm. There are no sunset mode of activities happening outside, hence brought the two of them as the only persons on the road.

“Today is the birth of our city, huh. I am really absent of this event.”

“Yeah, everybody is in their houses to commemorate the saga of the first settlers and the band of events from that age.”

“Huh? What do you mean, mate? What happened to, uhm, first settlers? I suppose this is just a simple way for us to settle with the date, so I don’t have ideas of any sort of backgrounds with it.”

“Haha, it’s a long story, and I can’t tell you of this one.”

“Hiding something to your partner is never a good thing to remember by, Mate.”

“I’m apologize, Simon, but you must obtain Ellen’s approval to listen.”

“Yeah, whatever. How could we passed through these gate, though?”

In front of the huge gate that they were intended to get across, laid a pair of security booth and its android guards. They were resided beside of the pair of stationary scanners, by which hanging side-by-side above the 4 meters wide metal squared frame that were meant to be the first place to enter. The main gate itself weren’t situated to be the sole place to get out, since the smaller door was accessible under the bottom left side of the gate to be the main course of travel for a small trip.

“As Merry have informed me way back, she tweaked our devices to be obscured for this specific occurrence. She had implanted some false objectives for us to have leeway across the security system.”

The  automatic protection mechanics, formed in a  spark of greenish mode of light, flashed immediately and scanning the two unidentified person in front of the gate in advance.

“Good evening, Mr. Reginald Lambardi and Simon Reiner. Please state your importance to venture out of the gate.”

“For Repugnare, Mr. LORD. We were assigned to infiltrate the Malia.”

“Scanning...... Mission 4502, is that correct?”

“You’re right, Mr. LORD.”

“The both of you may pass. Be safe, Mr. Reginald Lambardi and Simon Reiner.”

The small door on the left creaked open for Reginald and Simon to get out.

“Hmm, smell of a long adventure, huh?”

“Yeah, It’s 25 kilometers down the street. Two hours of small jog at the most.”

“Hmph, yet we were not permitted to deploy our oto-bike. This is a long run, Mate.”

“Huh, be a man and committed to your decision, Mr. Reiner. You are the one who proposed  to join me on this “adventure,” right? We are clearly fugitives to Mr. LORD by now, haha.”

“No, this is not illegal, Regi. We were appointed to the job by Ellen, and it is authorized.”

Reginald checked his bracelet to find the mission was registered on his list of active missions. A sum of remuneration were embedded to the bottom right of the mission description, given an official relation to Repugnare and its system of jobs.

“How so? Impossible. Ellen is playing around, is she?”

“I’m your mentor for this mission, mate, to count on your peril. Hahaha.”

Numerous kilometers of the block was passed by the time of moonlight shine. The mark of wide settlements could be seen by the north of the road, sparked some excitement to the two restless vagabond who were braced themselves to have its leisure time under the shade of a hut somewhere.

“The entrance!! Finally.... a nice bath and sleep, here I come.”

“You know the drill, right? What shall we do next, Simon?”

“Looking for the perfect hotel to spend the night?”

“We don’t have money, remember? We have to work to earn our joyful rest.”

“Humph, yeah, I guess you are correct. Where is the best spot for you?”

“I suppose we have to inspect the place with most crowds at first. But, since we haven’t get the ideas of which would be better, We need to roam the city a few rounds.”

By the time they got themselves to their destination, loads of non-human attendees teeming in the line of the main gate. Not all of them are Mammals, as there are Reptiles, Birds, and Fishmans filling up the queue. A few of humans could also be seen within the flow of registrations, alike  with the commoners nearby the entrance.

“Do we have to put our camo? Our identity could be discovered before we’re having a chance to enter.”

“Nah, you don’t have to. If we can see humans, It’s easier for us to blend and assimilate with the residents for the time being.”

Simon is examining Reginald’s figure side-to-side in a curious fashion, made him nervous of the close-call inspection.

“Hmmm. For a novice, you are intelligent and knowledgeable, Regi”

“Turn back at you, Mr. Veteran. For a professional fist-fighter, you are evidently a lot dumber than what it looks like.”

“Nice assessment, Regi. I am but a punch thrower and a cutthroat, Mate. I am not smart enough to plan something up.”

“Ellen must be laughing pretty hard by this combination. I have to pamper your action this day onward.”

“Lead the way, Mr. Know it all!! I am your humble knight, at full service of the King itself, awaited your orders to fulfill.”

After a long standby, Reginald and Simon have themselves checked by the borderline sentry. The one in the security lane is a grumpy white bear in uniform, glancing inward to their own self-confidence and personality.

“Good evening, gentleman. May I see your pass?”

“Hmm.... pass? Do we need one to enter?”

“Yes, my dear foreigner. No pass, no entry.”

“Do you have one, Regi? I got no explanation for this one by our boss.”

“NEXT!!”

“Sorry, Ma’am. Could we be spared? I have no knowledge of this town...”

“You have money, then? Our country is always opened up to a great coin-maker. Come on, spill it out.”

Reginald quickly pulling out his empty pocket without hesitation, carried a whole lot of embarrassment to them both.

“You are not a merchant, huh? Stay away from here then. Shoo!! Shoo!!”

 “How about a nice entertainment, young lady? Is it counted as an asset?”

The white bear reached its boiling point and yelled at them in advance. It is growling, roaring in a blaring tone in the wake of Simon’s failed attempt to woo.

“I AM A MAN!! HOW DARE YOU TWO IMPUDENT GARBAGE DEFINING MY GENDER SO EASY! GUARDS!”

The two poor, but aspiring entertainer got evicted by the humongous bear, ousted by force to the nearby water irrigation of the city.

“Damn, this is ridiculous!! Our boss is a true evil, just like you said!”

“She is clearly in full humor right now.”

“I wonder, though, Regi. How come they understood our language? They are so fluent in human’s tongue, to be honest.”

“They might be encountered so much foreigner from our settlements, or the mercenary is having a bond or some kind of agreement with the city.”

The journey of their first voyage to the new land has to be declined by a custom protection. They have to return in humiliation to learn the heritage and social culture of non-human kind, carried the woe back to their homeland.

---

“I know you must be choosing that one!! Ahem, I have to apologize, since I spilled my drink because of you two.... Anyway, you can always retry this mission anytime, since this is optional. I recommend to handle this by being a merchant.”

“Where is the commodities, Ellen? Does Mr. LORD refuted any efforts to sell something out from our border?”

“Well, there’s an exception for a special agency like us. Allow me to guide you guys to get the charge of the items.”

Ellen led the way of Reginald and Simon to the meeting room. On the spot,  Ellen is turning on the wide screen, then proceed to display a huge set of maps. She put the direction of Reginald and Simon’s attention by her laser pointer, rolling in circle towards a partial green spot on the bottom of the map.

“First of all, this is our city. The available commodities is teeming up by the south. In this region, Mr. LORD was allocated some of the vacant soil for agriculture.”

“Fine by me. The question is for us to retrieve it at some point.”

“Yup, this is restricted areas solely manufactured by the android employees to work and cultivate the fertile grounds. Here, instead of reaching them for approval, you could pay them with an ample AoK to collect the vegetables and fruits by yourself. Do not forget to show them your Repugnare ID for authorization.”

“So you can purchase the raw material with points? Haha, never know it would be that easy.”

She hovered her pointers to the different side of the map. It’s the one with peculiar symbol on the light black pattern close-by to the greenish area of it.

“This place is the private mine of our city. The main reason for it to be painted black was due to the lurking danger surrounding the place.”

“Could we sell those, Ellen? Sounds promising to me.”

“No, even with our special pass, Mr. LORD was never permitted any minerals to be driven out off the site. To know the main reason, you can always learn it to the database... Ah, It’s better to show it right away, I know you two wouldn’t learn anything from it.”

“I am learning some stuff out of it, Ma’am, you can’t put me into this man... Ow!!”

Simon struck Reginald’s leg by the hilt of his blade.

“Shush, Let Mr. LORD speak before you mocked me up.”

The wide screen turned black for a moment, then returning with a different theme of display. It’s a picture of Titania’s flag on the left, alongside a simple depiction of Mr. LORD’s avatar in a faceless figure with uniform and badges across his chest.

“Good evening, Mr. LORD.”

“Processing...... Good evening, Ellen Suria. Please Input your inquiries to the panel down below.”

“Panel? Which one, Ellen?”

Ellen stroked the virtual key that appeared on the table.

“M-I-N-E, enter.”

‘Gold mine of Titania, the abundance of wealth and raw commodities of the city. This is the complementary materials for Mr. LORD’s main hub system. Each of the minerals and ores were commendable methods to control the flow of money inside the city as Mr. LORD’s primary income and ways to diffuse the AoK for public utilization.

As these particular wellspring is an imminent proxy of war, any contingency plan to sell the minerals and ores to the non-human settlements would provoke insurgence and coercion to their society. Thus, an attempt to distribute these wealth would account to allegation of treachery and label of ‘war criminal’ to the offender.”

(Bzztt)

“There, understand, you two?”

“Emmm..... to be called as war criminal is staggering, but why? Any other issue?”

“Time for you to dig more, Regi. Down the labor by yourself, and you’ll gonna love the results.”