London Six Islands outskirts, Sword River City.
After Huai Shi had resolved the troublesome matters at the Continuance Institute—or rather, habitually tossed them to the back of his mind and pretended nothing had happened—he emerged from the institute's designated hospital refreshed, breathing in the crisp morning air and feeling thoroughly invigorated.
No matter how many times he experienced it, being discharged from the hospital really did feel refreshing.
Yet every time he felt that way, there was always a trace of sadness.
What normal person treated a hospital like a hotel when they had nothing better to do? Especially a Continuance Institute ward—its medical technology was so advanced that even dying was difficult, yet most people who went in found it hard to ever come out alive again...
Beyond the orderly streets packed with traffic lay a winding, rushing river: the city's most famous Sword River.
It was said that centuries ago, someone had wanted to establish a university here. But then the chaos in the Present Realm caused by the fall of the gods turned London's three islands into six, while vast uninhabited zones and disaster areas reduced everything to a mess. The university plan was abandoned.
Whenever people recalled it, they could not help but sigh in regret. It truly was a great loss to education and culture.
Now, centuries later, the Six Islands region remained sparsely populated. Aside from a handful of cities, human traces were rare.
Though there were no written regulations or official acknowledgments, ever since the Astronomical Society had turned the tide and rebuilt the Three Great Blockades, nearly the entire world had tacitly accepted that the six islands around London fell directly under the Astronomical Society's jurisdiction.
But the Astronomical Society was constrained by its own position and identity, and had no interest