Chapter 79: Illusions (1/2)
”This is the inner academy?” Barley after making a few steps inside, Layn suddenly stopped in his tracks, unable to accept the reality that was sprawling before his eyes.
”Well, it's not famous for the sights but for the opportunities, it gives to those talented enough to enter it.” Irea attempted to placate Layn's mood, only making the situation even worse.
”But this? You people really have no sense of beauty at all…” Shaking his head, Layn sighed before picking up his pace. With the girl trodding right beside him, Layn originally intended to just scan the entire area with his eyes before directing his steps towards the fake sanctuary of patience that he expected those who snatched it to a position somewhere visible…
Sadly, the high-rise buildings reaching tens if not hundreds of floors turned his view to be quite obstructed. At first, Layn was stunned by the sheer scale of the buildings, something that he didn't expect to see for the rest of the time he would spend in this timeline. But after just a moment of thought, Layn had no other choice but to acknowledge one simple thing.
Even in the modern times, he came from, creating such insanely huge structures like the one that filled the entirety of the inner academy would be a challenging task.
'Just like that saying went, huh?' With unlimited resources, unlimited time, and manpower, as long as one wouldn't be shackled by human and civil rights, no feat that remained from the ancient civilizations would be impossible to be finished by modern means. Yet, contrary to what this saying presented at first, only those with at least minimal brains could see the sad truth hidden underneath the direct message of this saying.
Even after wrapping his head over this topic for a long while, Layn simply couldn't come up with any way or procedure that the modern humans could build such things as the buildings he was staring at just now.
”What now?” Irea could follow Layn's steps only for a short moment. Not because something was stopping her from doing so, but because the archmage himself had no other choice but to stop and stand down when the open area by the gate gave way to the dense grid of the inner academy.
”Well, I intended to look for that shrine so that we can report the fraud to the prince… But I don't think there is any point in looking for it in a place like this.” Spreading his arms to the side, Layn smiled before pulling on the girl's hand. Suddenly shaken out of her stable position, Irea wavered, unable to resist when Layn pulled her closer into his embrace.
”The alleys are tight. Stay close.” Letting go of Irea's hand, Layn covered her shoulder with his arm as they set on and moved forward.
As soon as the two entered the urbanized area, the feeling that this place gave changed a lot. Rather than the eerie peacefulness that was ever present in the outer academy, in here, it appeared as if everyone was rushing towards their tasks, unable or at least unwilling to pay the two of them any mind.
”Wait, something is wrong…” As they continued moving forward, Layn suddenly stopped in his tracks. Standing still, he threw one more look at his surroundings only for his face to suddenly pale.
”This is actually great…” Letting go of Irea's hand, Layn allowed for his killing intent to start seeping through his usually perfect guard. ”Irea, don't you find anything strange about this place?”
Initially impressed by the insane architectonical capabilities of the ancients, Layn no longer held them in any special regard. After this one, a small observation he made, his respect turned towards those who were responsible for this entire, fake world.
”Well, I never saw buildings like this in my entire life. But seeing how you were just surprised but not shocked, I assumed that it's something common in the place you came from.” Shaking her shoulders, Irea didn't seem to be as perturbed or excited as the archmage was right now.
”I see…” Turning his face back towards the huge buildings that filled the entire area around, Layn reached towards the bag he recently added to his belt. ”Well, I won't keep you in the dark. Right now, we are in the middle of an illusion. A test of sorts, I presume.”
With one look, one would be unable to notice it. Only when Layn actually started to tune in to the details of what he was looking at did the reality dawned upon him.
'If this place is so hard to reach for your average person, how come there is such a crowd here?' This single question that appeared in Layn's mind was the first reason for the doubt to appear in his brain. And once it settled, more and more unreasonable things started becoming obvious to him.
In the end, the world was simply inconsistent. With such a crowd of people in such a hurry to go somewhere, there was bound to be some kind of mass transportation. Be it a magic broom, flying vehicle, or even a magic coach, there was absolutely no way someone wouldn't use this opportunity to profit himself. And this was just a single of the things that ultimately proved how fake this world in Layn's judgment.