Desolate Silence

"Gassediaz, take good care of yourself while I'm gone."

"Quack!"

Besides the garden maze, Stella Garden also had an artificial lake and lawns. There were geese and ducks in the lake. Rorschach tied a small silk scarf around Gassediaz's neck and let it make do with the other ducks in the lake.

Hopefully ducks weren't as prone to regional discrimination as people were.

They were about to leave, and Rorschach had also sorted through his storage ring. Aside from the usual coins and books, he packed Oscillating Quartz Sand and sugar. White granulated sugar was extremely expensive nowadays. Only the Alchemy Department used small amounts of it in potion-making. What was easier to buy was yellow sugar sold in solid chunks.

Rorschach rode with Kano to the outskirts of the city. A huge tent had already been erected in an open area beside the farmland, making one suspect they had requisitioned it from a circus. Many carriages stood parked around the tent, while workers expanded the road nearby. The air carried the smell of cow and horse dung.

"The site is still a little disorganized. Let's head inside quickly." The enormous tent was much better. Aside from the many bundles of Supplies piled along its edges, the raised platform in the center occupied most of the space.

"How was it discovered in the first place?"

"You must be Mage Rorschach. Hello." A capable-looking Young Person approached. Rather than a loose Mage Robe, he wore hunting attire. "I am Francois, a second-level mage. As the son of the discoverer, I'll answer your questions."

He led Rorschach and Kano onto the raised platform. The inscribed magic array nearly filled its surface, and molten-gold-like liquid metal flowed through it. "Last winter, a farmer reported to his lord that his family well had suddenly dried up. He said the well had existed since his grandfather was a child and had never run dry.

"With the lord's introduction, the farmer found the Stonecutters Guild under the guild association, hoping to dig a new well. My father found the old well's drying up strange and went to investigate as well. He found a Magic Circuit at the bottom of the well."

Francois pointed to the magic array. "That's right, this very magic array. It drew groundwater and was activated somehow. After experiments by my father and the various masters, we constructed a larger magic array at the same location and successfully crossed into a new plane."

"Your father, Archmage Granor, is indeed a man of extraordinary courage," Kano took over. "Sub-planes are often unsuitable for human survival. Back then, after leaving the coordinates here, your father crossed over himself."

The Young Person in hunting attire smiled even more broadly. "Opportunities always belong to those who possess both strength and courage. The day before yesterday, His Majesty the King received my father and me. He highly praised us and encouraged us to continue exploring the plane."

Rorschach noticed that Kano's expression was somewhat unnatural even as he nodded. The three stood on the platform for only a short while before they were called down.

"We've got a new kid here, filling in for Master Kano." The leader, also dressed in hunting attire, had sturdy muscles, broad shoulders, and thick limbs. The man named Nemo had sharp eyes, constantly observing and imagining potential dangers.

He gathered all the apprentices and Mages who were about to enter the Sub-plane and instructed them on precautions.

"Everyone, if you don't have an identity tag, come get one! This is your life tag! Unless you want to get lost and starve or die of thirst in the desert because no one can find you."

Leader Nemo personally tied an identity tag onto Rorschach's left hand. The goatskin strap cinched tightly around his wrist, securing a brass disc like a watch face. It clearly contained magic that could track the wearer's location.

"Let's go."

Eight Archmages, including Kano, stood evenly around the circumference of the magic array and extended their right palms. Drums began to beat, horns sounded, and at the signal, all eight Mages poured mana into the magic array at once.

The liquid metal within the magic array began to boil. Rorschach clearly felt all the aether around him being mobilized by the Archmages, surging toward the magic array.

With these Archmages casting together, the mana fluctuations were even more intense than those in Antorila's square... Rorschach silently compared them in his heart.

"Step right on." The leader tightened the bundle on his back and took the initiative to leap into the magic array. Rorschach followed suit. It felt as though he had stepped onto something soft, his body lifted by condensed mana as red light burst across his vision.

Red.

After quite a while, this field of red began to divide:

Above was a constantly shifting sky, uneven pink churning chaotically. There were no celestial bodies, only an endless pale-red atmosphere.

Below, boundless land stretched on without end. Gullies lay exposed across the scarlet-orange wasteland, without the slightest trace of life.

Empty. Silent. If someone wished to paint this land, a single color would suffice. It was not difficult to imagine that, if left alone, one would be engulfed by the scarlet soil and utter isolation.

Rorschach and the other members of the advance team stood on a high point in the wasteland. Beneath their feet was a magic array even larger than the one they had come through, though it was merely inscribed upon the red earth, without any flowing liquid metal.

This space was dry and pleasantly warm, yet all the Mages present felt "scorched." It was not the heat of the air, but the dense, restless aether.

"The aether here is so abundant that the magic array can activate without consuming any conductive medium."

Magic arrays and scrolls in the Main Plane both required a medium capable of carrying aether to draw Magic Circuits, such as liquid metal or ink mixed with crystal powder and other special minerals.

But none was needed here. Rorschach tried using Mana Drive and could feel the aether he stirred was thick and viscous.

"Let's leave the magic array quickly. Another batch of personnel and Supplies will be teleported over."

The magic array lit up again. Workers and bundles of Supplies were teleported over. Everyone found the teleportation experience miraculous, and some people's first act was to check whether they still had all their arms and legs.

"Good! Everyone's accounted for. Once the roll call is complete, start setting up the camp!" Leader Nemo began organizing everyone.

One group of workers dug pits in a lower area, while another set up wool tents. The apprentices helped pitch the tents as well.

The Mages, meanwhile, had other important tasks.

"First, Mages, we need to erect the clock tower. It will serve as the marker for our camp and tell us the time. This plane has no celestial bodies and no distinction between day and night, so we can only rely on a mechanical clock to tell the time."

Because teleportation capacity was limited, they could not bring in large construction machinery in addition to Supplies. At times like this, they had to rely on the power of magic.

Rorschach used a Mage Hand like a Kirin Arm to raise the timber and insert it into the pit, while Francois used a particularly interesting spell: Animated Rope.

Under his control, the ropes began to move crookedly, tying themselves to the central timber and the wooden pegs driven into the ground at the four corners, becoming guy ropes that secured the central pillar.

The workers could not help watching the Mages cast their spells. Once the mechanical clock was hung from the pillar, they could not help but cheer.

The other group of Mages did not go so smoothly. Leader Nemo and the mid-level mage Ina were tasked with filling the reservoir using Water Creation. Of course, they were not the only two; apprentices who knew the spell assisted them as well. There was some drinking water among the Supplies, but not enough for dozens of people.

"It's useless." Ina tried casting the spell again. The delicate sensation of calling forth azure blue that she had felt in the past showed no sign of appearing in this plane. There was only eternally dry land, as though it rejected the existence of life.

Did they need to cut the expedition short and return to the Main Plane? Just as Nemo weighed the options, he heard Mage Rorschach's voice:

"Do you need to create water? Let me try."