Book 5 Chapter 14.4 - Plan
"Actually, returning isn't a bad choice either." Madeline supported her chin with her hands, and then said seriously, "If we return, we need to face Bevulas, but on this side, we have to be on guard against the apostle. For us, there isn't much difference between the two. At the very least, we are more familiar with Bevulas, the formidable fellas under him I more or less know about too, a few I even personally taught a lesson to. My power has pretty much recovered enough already, and with the two of us together, there already aren't that many people we need to fear. The ones we can't deal with on Bevulas' side I reckon would just be a few old fellas, but we don't have to handle them either, as the Empress will take care of that."
After giving Su another look, the young lady said rather nonchalantly, "Let alone with our current situation, in a few more years, those old fellas might not necessarily even be our opponents. Also, if you want to understand your past, returning is also the best way. The region the Blood Parliament controls is the core area of the olden era's federation, including at least three of the olden era federation's highest level research institutes, one of which was under Dr. Rochester's own management. Also, the Blood Parliament managed to preserve large amounts of olden era information. After the parliament was established, the history inside the area of control was thoroughly recorded as well.
"Parliament?" Su frowned, pointing out the core of the problem.
Madeline nodded and said, "Correct, of the three research centers, only one of them is under the Empress' control, the other two controlled under the Parliament, including Dr. Rochester's laboratory. The parliament's database administration authority also belongs to the chairman. After all, in the past decade or so, the empress didn't manage any of the parliament's concrete affairs."
Su said with a smile, "Bevulas wouldn't let us into these places, right? After all, his son was killed by us."
"Of course not, but we can search the empress' database first. If there's no clues, then we can try to look through Black Dragonriders general headquarters' database. If that's not enough, then we can just pay Bevulas' territory a visit."
Madeline's words played down the severity of the situation, but everyone knew that entering Bevulas' territory wasn't as easy as she made it sound, especially when the areas they wanted to enter were the areas under the tightest protection, which signified dangerous and difficult battles. However, what Madeline said still made sense. If they wanted to advance a step further, returning to the Blood Parliament's range of power was a bit better. After all, after making a trip through the east and west coastal areas, only then did Su learn that only the Blood Parliament's area of control was developed closest to the olden era's standard, to the extent where there were many areas that even surpassed the past. Bevulas had the empress to keep him in check, so even though he killed the chairman's son, there wasn't completely no wiggle room, of course, the main reason for this being due to strength. If they encountered Claudia again, Su had confidence that she wouldn't even be able to run. Inside the Black Dragonriders, Su's power definitely reached that of the general level.
However, was there really a need to return? Su always felt like there was something else behind Madeline's suggestion. She was extremely curious towards his origin, to the extent where it was even a bit greater than himself. Su also urgently wished to understand his own past. From his body composition to genetic infrastructure, he was far from that of a pure human, only maintaining the appearance of a human, oh, as well as a heart that could be considered human.
The risk of this plan went without saying. The power Bevulas amassed was numerous and great, and no one knew for certain what the chairman would do if he truly returned to the Black Dragonriders. Su didn't want to take risks, only wishing to make it stably through these two years, at least until Madeline could grow up. Once the young lady recovered all of her abilities to around eight levels, only then would Su feel like she had enough power to protect herself.
"Returning to the dragonriders is too risky. Heading towards the Holy Crusaders might not be the best idea either." Su rejected Madeline's suggestion.
"I'll listen to you." Madeline's head drooped slightly.
The young man not too far out had just conquered the pain and bad state brought by the increase of abilities, slowly sitting up. He just happened to see, and hear everything Madeline said, in that instant almost feeling as if he was hallucinating. However, his intelligent self immediately understood these truly were only illusions, all of Madeline's gentleness and respectfulness nothing more than a performance. He immediately lowered his head, pretending to not have seen anything. Madeline's tricks in torment were something the young man definitely didn't wish to have a taste of a second time.
After ascertaining their forward plan of action, things became much easier. Based on the map he remembered, Su chose a path that headed southeast. This road passed through four olden era small towns, the final destination a small town by the coast. This place, even in the olden era, was a vast but sparsely populated one with forests and mountains everywhere, oftentimes having less than a population of ten thousand within regions of several tens of thousands of square kilometers. However, it was often the easiest to find human inhabited areas around city ruins.
Three people headed southeast, gradually leaving Pridekla's country, heading towards their predetermined destination. The cold weather, complex terrain, and having to carry a large amount of food with them made it so that their speed wasn't that fast.
The new era's weather was even colder, winters so long it made one despair. Heavy snow covered the great earth. Aside from extremely few creatures, there was almost no vitality. As far as the eye could see stretched undulating mountains. From time to time, they would encounter large areas of deathly still forest. The trees in these forests would be killed by the sudden change in weather and strong radiation, but the low temperature and insects that were similarly killed by radiation allowed their bodies to remain. After several decades of wind and frost, the tree branches gradually became as hard as steel, pointing at the sky like iron needles. As the winds roared about, moving through the forests, it sounded as if the devils of the underworld were demanding souls.
Two weeks later, Su finally walked out from the cold and deathly still mountain region. He found three out of the four small towns, but there were no signs of human activity. It seemed like a cold, desolate place without any resources like this wouldn't have any inhabited areas unless there was a large scale organization that expanded and settled here.
However, what was somewhat unexpected was that not long after leaving the mountain region, there was an inhabited area that wasn't that small several dozen kilometers from the last small town.
Strictly speaking, this already couldn't be considered merely an inhabited area. It was surrounded by four meter tall concrete walls, the blue sparks that were occasionally released displaying that this was definitely not just for decoration. Six strictly defended sentry towers were distributed on the walls, most of them equipped with heavy machine guns, the sentry tower closest to the road actually having a small caliber cannon! However, this tightly defended, military base like inhabited area wasn't tightly shut, the entrances facing various directions all opened, allowing for people to come and go. The sentinels placed in the sentry towers didn't seem to have any intention of inspecting those who entered or exited.
Su covered his face with cloth strips, and then had Madeline lower the brim of her hat. Meanwhile, Cirvanas' entire body was wrapped within a black missionary type gown. The three of them then slowly walked inside the inhabited area.