195 Chapter 192 A Seed Of Doubt Remains (1/2)

Stella watched Joseph bent over the tiny table, pouring through schematics with the old gnome. She didn't have a clue what they were talking about, but he seemed to have calmed down from the drama of his parents, so she was just letting him goof off. If he was still there in an hour, she decided she would remind them that they had important business to finish.

”No, I can't do that. See, when I did this? That happened!” explained the gnome, pointing at something.

”Have you tried routing it this way?” asked Joseph, pointing at something on the table.

”That might work, but only if I did this.”

”No, because that would cause this to fail. You need to do this.”

”That won't work because of this.”

”It looks like it needs to be bigger, to handle this.”

”But that would mean the supports would have to be bigger, and that would stress this.”

”Try using this material for that, and this for that. That should handle the extra stress.”

”That might work! If that does that, and this does this, then I should finally be able to dig through the rock around the city and free us from being underground!”

”Wait,” said Joseph raising his head.

Stella saw the process of him reentering the current world again, and smiled to herself.

”What do you mean, free you?”

”We've been trapped down here for generations. The only person who was ever able to reach the surface, came back and told us that it wasn't time for us to return to the surface, and parked his mech in his workshop, where it collects dust because no one knows how to turn the blasted thing on.”

Stella straightened up, sensing that Joseph was getting ready to leave this building.

”I would love to see it, but I really need to get to the library.”

”Well, they're next door to each other, but only the royal family can access them, and they all died out years ago.”

”What do you mean?” asked Stella.

”The same barrier that protects the city, is also around the royal grounds, as a type of secondary protection if the original barrier gave way, to protect the royal family. None of us lesser beings can get through it. The workshop with the mech and the library were claimed by the royal family, and the barrier encompa.s.ses them too,” explained the gnome twitching his mustache as he looked at her.

Stella wanted to cut his throat for giving her that look, but she chose to ignore the urge. Joseph had enjoyed talking with him, and he was being useful.