Chapter 349: You Jump, I Jump (With You)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Mars, in its entirety, was pretty similar to isythre sociopolitically, such that the two realms could actually learn from one another. However, Mars was better at nature conservation than Isythre was, which showed how much the realm’s inhabitants valued nature.
Mars had a political system similar to Isythre’s, but on more Mars, there were more shake-ups in the government than there was in Isythre; this is a stark contrast to the perpetually unchanged Fairy Kingdom and Dwarf Kingdom. Mar’s current government administration had only been in power for 30 years, which could be considered its infancy, but it was supported by the faires.
Although Baiyi did not know the name of this administration, he was not bothered, for his true destination was Marle.
Hence, as soon as the posse stepped out from Mars’ Sorcerers’ a.s.sociation’s tower, they moved straight to the realm’s customs office, skipping tours altogether. Before they got to the customs office, however, Baiyi made sure to instruct his overly-attractive students. “Cover your face with a hoodie. The people here aren’t straight-laced.”
The students did not need any more convincing. In a realm where many species lived together, and many organizations cooperated with one another, it was only natural that outlaws would find it the perfect place to hide in; hence, the group would do well to be on their guards till they crossed the border into the fairy kingdom.
The fairies in this realm were similar to the cla.s.sical depiction of fairies in books 1 . They were remarkably beautiful; they lived for a really long time; they had a pa.s.sion for music and dancing, and they had a natural affinity with nature. Their population was not spa.r.s.e, neither were they forced to live in a remote, secluded area. The fairies lived in of the densest forests in Marle, which had grown in the realm’s most fertile area. In that forest, the fairies had built a strong, st.u.r.dy empire and a bustling civilization.
The fairies interacted with humans frequently and opened their borders to human travelers, allowing them to migrate without much hustle. Furthermore, they mediated in human political fueds and partic.i.p.ated in wars fought in Isythre; all these showed how far the influence of the fairies had extended.
Therefore, there was no need for one to treat these fairies with the fear-filled reverence given to rare and hidden spirits; they were actually a mighty force on par with humans.
Due to the fairies’ open-border policy, a lot of people flooded the custom’s office each day to acquire their migration doc.u.ments. Only very dangerous looking individuals were not allowed to cross the borders. Merchants and explorers, however, were not held up in the slightest.
When Baiyi’s posse arrived at the customs office, they began to attract some stares. This was not because of the beauties amongst Baiyi’s students, who all had their faces hidden by hoodies, but because of Baiyi himself. The presence of a soul armature whose head resembled a pumpkin, and whose veil made him look like a bandit, was bound to draw attention. Several guards watched him with caution, scared that he may suddenly go crazy and hurt someone. Some people in the crowd even had their hands at the hilts of their weapons while watching Baiyi cautiously.
‘I’m not wearing a black full-body robe and a burqa, neither do I identify with any relegion, so why are you all looking at me this way?’ Baiyi grumbled in his mind.
Soon, it was Baiyi’s turn to approach the counter. He stepped forward and gave the lady at the counter his name, the number of people in his posse, the purpose of their visit, and the duration of their visit.
In order to avoid any more unnecessary attention to his group, Baiyi had used a fake name: “Peho”.
The counter lady was a beautiful, little fairy. As Baiyi spoke, the little fairy, who was watching him carefully, furrowed her brows and said, “Please remove your veil. I will need to confirm your ident.i.ty.”
A deadpan expression appeared on Baiyi’s face, but he still complied.
When the veil was gone, the fairy official burst into laughter.
“Oh! apologies, Sir. Your mask is too… unconventional.” The little fairy used a bit of effort to stifle her chuckles before she continued, saying, “So… you said you are a soul armature? Where is your pract.i.tioner?”
Baiyi nodded and raised Mia up for the fairy to see. As the counter was too tall for Mia, she could not see above it, even if she stood on her toes.
“Oh, what a pretty young lady!” The fairy muttered. After seeing Mia, the fairy did not waste any more of Baiyi’s time and gave him some pa.s.ses with their names printed on it; this speedy delivery was probably out of some sort of kins.h.i.+p between beauties. 2
“Please take care of your identification pa.s.ses while in our kingdom. Losing it will be very troublesome to take care of!” She said, with a smile. “Oh, and by the way… we’re facing some problems with those savage and uncultured dwarves lately, so please skip the tourist destinations that lie close to the border!”
“That being said, have a happy trip, Mr. Peho.”
The fairy official seemed to consider welcoming beautiful ladies to their kingdom a thing of pride because her reception became warm after seeing little Mia, and she even gave Baiyi a piece of advice; thus, she had proven herself to be a person who judged books by their covers.
Baiyi had yet to move when a loud voice that sounded like thunder boomed from the counter opposite theirs. “You annoying biyatches! b.l.o.o.d.y idiots with stretched-out ears!”
Baiyi turned to look and spotted a burly set of arms waving angrily. He looked at the sign hanging over the counter and realized that the counter was specifically for dwarves.
“See that? Uncultured and unrefined.” The fairy shrugged before letting them pa.s.s.
After pa.s.sing through a few military checkpoints filled with fairy soldiers donning heavy pair, who Baiyi’s group had to flash their pa.s.ses at before being let through, they finally reached the outskirts of the fairy kingdom, arriving at an area before a large canyon, which had a towering, wide bridge across with it.
The canyon was wide and long — about two hundred twenty yards apart from one end to the other — and one could not see the bottom of it. It was akin to a deep cut on the face of the earth. This ma.s.sive bridge resembled those back on earth, and it was wide enough to accomodate four h.o.r.ese carriages at the same time. This bridge was a grand one.
“This canyon, here, is pretty strange. Come and take a look,” Baiyi said, leading his student to the large bridge. When they got on the bridge, they all walked over to its side and stared at the chasm below, seeing nothing but pitch-darkness.
“This is creepy…” Little Mia muttered quietly and inched closer to Baiyi.
“If we accidentally fall, we won’t be able to come back up, even with a levitation spell, right?” Tisdale said with a grave expression as she also inched closer to Baiyi.
“Why isn’t there a safety fence on this bridge? What if someone falls off it by accident?” Laeticia asked with worry as she looked around the bridge.
“Well…” Baiyi murmurred as he looked around them.
Suddenly, the group spotted a man and a woman walking over to the bridge excitedly, after having pa.s.sed their border check. When they reached the bridge, however, they did not go on it; instead, they sauntered to the edge of the canyon, laughing with each other.
When they finally reached the edge, they hugged each other, implying that they were a couple, and began to profess their love to eachother. “Let me go first.””No, let me go first.” Suddenly, they both jumped off the edge together!
The lady’s ear-piercing shriek cut through the air from the below, fading as seconds went by.
“Aaagghhh!” Mia screamed, shocked from the apparent suicide she had just witnessed. “Mr. Hope, do something!!!”
‘Why the f*ck would I save two h.o.r.n.y teens?’ Baiyi snickered on the inside, but on the outside, he gently placed his arm on Mia’s shoulder, signaling her to be calm and keep watching.
In a few moments, however, both idiots suddenly flew up and fell back down on the spot they had jumped from, as though they had been tossed back up by something unseen. After having cheated death, the faces of the couple lit up, and they began to kiss pa.s.sionately as though they were newly-weds.
“B*tch please,” said some of the students muttered in their minds, but they all turned to Baiyi for an explanation.
“This chasm is actually the gap between the two realms, you see? Below this edge lies the barrier that separates the two realms. Without employing special spells like transporter spells, anything that gets close to the barrier below would be instantly repelled back upwards by it. Over time, many explorers have come to realize this.”
“On paper, Marle and Mars are two separate realms, but under the craftsmans.h.i.+p of nature, these two realms were never completely separated; in fact, a large part of them are conjoined. Some theorize that these two realms originally made up one large realm together; the reason why they got separated is unknown.”
“Nevertheless, the separation birthed a marvel of nature. You may think this canyon is bottomless, but it is actually only ten yards deep; once one reaches this distance, the repelling force kicks in, hurling them back up.
“So, if you jump down from this cliff, nothing will happen to you; you’ll just get sent back here, as though you were jumping onto a trampoline at the bottom. This was exactly what those two horndogs were playing at,” Baiyi explained before pointing at somewhere in the distance. “Check that out.”
It looked like an aisle for cargo transportations. A few workers were transporting cargo. The workers appeared to be pus.h.i.+ng at the cargo with all their might, towards the cliff.
With one mighty combined kick, the workers were able to send all the cargo over the cliff and into the abyss. In just a few moments, however, the fallen cargo all bounced back up to the opposite side of the canyon, and some other workers who had been waiting there for a while began to load the cargo into carriages.
They were taking advantage of nature to do their work!
“How’s that? Fun, right? Wanna give it a try?” Baiyi asked.
The students quickly shook their heads sideways. No amount of explanation could override the deep-seated fear they had of falling into that chasm.
“Oh come on; why so afraid? I mean, you guys just got here! Aren’t you supposed to try something like this to commemorate your trip to Marle?” Baiyi asked. “How about this: whoever’s too scared to jump could jump together with me.”
The students still shook their heads sideways. After that, the girls lowered their heads to hide their flushed faces.
‘Why did they suddenly turn red?’ Baiyi thought as he watched them curiously.