Chapter 411: Why?

    Late Evening - Mid Winter : Eikasi?a | Eastern Bahamut

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    "So, from what Madam Monachiko?s said, you''re quite adept with Acardi technology." Using some wind magic to keep the maids and butlers running about the halls of the estate, Keras, the Elafos family patriarch, spoke with an oddly excited tone.

    "I am. Do you perhaps need my help trying to identify an artifact?"

    Quickly shaking his head, he motioned his wing to a few servants, sending them off before entering his office. *Woosh*

    Compared to the rest of the gold-laced estate, his office was quite a refreshing space. With mostly everything made of beautiful chocolate-colored wood, detailed with black cast iron, and supported by raw, thick tree trunks along the walls, it reminded me of some of the more nature-bound architecture I would traditionally find in Siratha.

    But while it was beautiful, after quickly walking over to one of the towering bookshelves and plucking a series of books off the shelves, the familiar hiss of hydraulics filled the air, and the entire wall sank in before being pulled to the side. -Hoh?-

    Curiously using my aura to check it out, I rather quickly found a series of hydraulics identical to what was in the old Acardi crawler I found, just sized up considerably, and powered by a series of old, clearly somewhat neglected electric motors.

    Or at least it''d look that way to an untrained eye. "Did you find the motors like that?" Noticing he didn''t quite know what I meant, I quickly elaborated. "The electric coil things that make the whole secret door system work."

    "Hoho~, is that what those are called? None of those worked when we found them, but after finding one that worked a little bit, we figured out how to repair the rest."

    "Hm." -I see that...- Looking at what was essentially a redneck repair of an advanced electric motor, I could only smile and nod. -But I have to give credit where it''s due...- "Just getting them working is quite an impressive feat, you should be proud."

    "Oh, we certainly are. The biggest issue is that the rules these devices follow aren''t the same rules of the world we know. I believe Madam Monachiko?s said you called it science?"

    I was quick to nod my snout as my gaze drifted around at the rows of sculptures, artwork, and artifacts lining the wall. "Science is the true foundation of the world, magic just expands on it."

    Looking back at me with a glow in his eyes, Keras''s posture straightened with interest. "Exactly! It''s been so difficult to try and study things that don''t rely on magic for that exact reason. We have to frame our minds around laws we don''t know, so even trying to explain simple things like why an object moves when touched becomes quite difficult."

    "Hahaha," A wave of nostalgia instantly blew over me as fuzzy old memories passed through my mind. "I know the struggle. Once you know more of the basics though, explaining more complex things gets easier." -At least to an extent...- Having theories of quantum mechanics come to mind, a part of me wanted to correct myself.

    But even if I did, someone learning the most basic of basics wouldn''t understand. "I see, I see! How fascinating..." Quickly falling into thought, we continued to lead me down the long, descending hallway, continuing idle conversation with a mix of questions about science, and inquiring about my own interests.

    From what I could see, while his family specialized in brewing liquor, creating drinks, and managing taverns, his personal interests were aimed more at the Acardi. After stumbling across an old crash site in the dunes of the Banvean, he became fascinated with the world of advanced technology, using his family''s endlessly expanding fortune to fund research into it. But there were constantly challenges with that, one being his wife, and the other being his family''s ''noble obligation''.

    After all, like nearly all nobility, they had a city to manage. Even if they didn''t plan on doing any expansion, just general upkeep and management was expensive.

    At least that was the case before Hera came along. "Ever since Madam Monachiko?s bought Eikasi?a from us, I''ve been able to funnel so much money unto the research that we have actually made some rather significant advancements. Hiding just how much money I''m spending on it from my wife has been a challenge, but it''ll all be worth it in the end."

    Finally coming up to a large, black-metal door, he held his claw up to his family insignia before injecting some mana into it, undoing the lock. *Cl-Click*

    *Woosh* Pushing open the door, the familiar, sterile white-light-lit environment I''d expect from an Acardi facility peeked through the door before it opened enough to reveal a room lined with white tiles, and filled with about a dozen dragons of all ages spread out at tables, tinkering with half-assembled pieces of Arcardi tech.

    -Hoho~,- It was a sight that instantly hooked me in. "Is this from a ship you salvaged?" Looking up in the ceiling and walls with my mana, I found the familiar support structure of an Acardi ship, just cut, sectioned off, and buried a few kilometers under a huge field.

    "That''s correct!"

    Hearing his voice boom, everyone in the room jolted and glanced back at us with a mix of curiosity and annoyance.

    -What the hell..?- Finally approaching the side of the rather tiny ''facility'' suspended by several complex metal cables, my mind twisted with confusion.

    With no external sensors to entrances, I tried to just force my mana into it, but normal mana couldn''t even get through the shell.

    And I only knew one thing that could cause that. -Space mana...-

    The facility itself was reinforced with space mana, something I only knew to come from two sources, me or a rune. -Did they.. figure out how to create space runes?-

    But that couldn''t have been right. Something like a three-dimensional rune wasn''t something any creature less than a god could decipher. -Three-dimensional mana mechanics just aren''t that simple...- But as I gathered the space mana in my aura and forced it into the facility, I had to once again be enlightened to the horror that was the computer.

    Inside the facility was a series of machines, mechanical arms, and electrical systems all meant to move around and reorient tens of billions of tiny cubes, each being a tiny section of an oversized three-dimensional rune like an unsolvable puzzle with countless unused pieces.

    However, regardless of that, at the center of the facility was a large collection of blocks, around twenty meters across, containing several billion individual puzzle pieces that, while extremely inefficient and unlike anything I had ever seen, appeared to be a functioning space rune. -That''s.. possible..?- It even used methods and shortcuts I didn''t think were possible.

    But my fascination never had the chance to show itself through the horror written across my face. -They actually.. solved it...- Quickly turning my attention to the cables holding it up, I forced my aura through the walls, looking to see where the cables led, only to find that they were connected to massive arrays of thousands of quantum tether communication modules almost identical to those I had found in the communications tower in the Death''s Gape.

    However, the facility wasn''t connected to all of the communication modules...

    Following a set of cables back up to the top of the room, I found sections of metal among the heat-absorbing tiles where cables likely suspended another facility at one point, and followed the other cables down through the walls until my aura could no longer follow it. -What the hell is this place...-

    With no way to the surface besides the path I assumed Keras had made, I did idly question how the whole place was built.

    It was in the middle of Bahamut after all, it wasn''t a place where the Acardi could do whatever they wanted. -There''s no way Hera or Bahamut wouldn''t have realized they were building this if they had come from the surface, so...- Looking down into the boiling magma, I pushed my aura as deep into it as I could...

    But while I found a huge opening not too far down, well below it, the same, rectangular cut walls trailed deeper and deeper. -Did the Acardi.. come up from the mantle?-

    But then that begged the question... -W..why.. here..?-

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