Book 3 Extra 6: After-raid afterglow (1/2)
The culture and class structure of Timaeus made no sense whatsoever. Well, fine, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, and I admit there's still room for research into the topic, but I definitely wasn't wrong in that assessment.
”So, like, there was this abandoned office building…”
First off, the island's culture was at least possible to explain using our narrative theory. Since the Simulacrum (or at least this corner of it) was unapologetically running on Japanese tropes, from the school system to the seasonal festivals, a lot of weird cultural discrepancies could be chalked up to the aesthetics being strewn over a generally western European framework. It was a bit of a patch-job, and the ethnic diversity sometimes made the school hallways feel like the set of a nineties sitcom, but at the very least it was possible to see the building blocks and how they fit together.
On the other hand, the social strata of the island were much harder to nail down. For a start, Critias still didn't have any homeless. Nor were there any slums, or even any visibly poorer residential areas. On the other end of the spectrum, you had people like the Dracis family, who were a borderline cartoonish depiction of the upper class incarnate. However, if we took them out of the picture due to narrative fiat, there really weren't any other mansions or even high-class neighborhoods in the capital. Sure, there was the city center with its fancy restaurants and classy shops, but even then, you couldn't really spot any kind of class divide between the people walking the streets.
”… and then 'skreeeek', Ms. Rinne cut the door in half with her sword! It was like one of those laser blades from a sci-fi movie and it was sooo bad! Like, good bad, not bad bad! Almost wicked!”
Though again, maybe any efforts spent on spotting such differences were doomed to fail from the start, considering that ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the population consisted of placeholders. With their generic yet attractive features and non-distinct fashion sense, they all looked exactly the same whether they were dockworkers from the waterside district or a presumably wealthy guest in a high-end restaurant. In other words, as far as appearances were concerned, literally every single person on this island looked and acted like the most inoffensive example of the middle-class citizenry.
”… the table and pulled out a bow, but I used my spell constructs to grab one of the lesser knights and…”
Was the world set up like this on purpose, or was it just another side-effect of this society being composed of placeholders, without any thought put into them making sense outside of the context of serving as extras in the background? And if it was the latter, then could persistent research into the topic result in something like what happened with the tech-level of the world, with the setting adapting to our expectations? Would bankers, businessmen, blue-collar workers, and the homeless pop out of the woodwork to fill out the social ladder?
Anyhow, putting those observations together told us two things: the world was most likely constructed to be like this on purpose, squashing together various tropes into a vaguely Japanese-ish pulp, and that whoever did the mashing didn't really care about large-scale world-building and focused entirely on the school and the supernatural elements, leaving everything else blank. In short, it was a sloppy job. Or efficient, if you asked Judy, but that's beside the point.
”… there was a BLAM! And a KABOOM! And a CRACKADOOM!”
By the way, I'm not just rambling; there's a very good reason why I brought up the topic in the first place, and it was due to a certain living room and its owner exemplifying the above issue. By all intents and purposes, he was supposed to be one of the most influential people on the island, possibly the most important altogether. According to Ammy, he also literally owned Blue Cherry High, building and all, and he had at least one fancy sports car he could just lend out to others, so that firmly put him into the 'filthy rich' category... yet Lord Grandpa's home didn't really reflect that. Sure it was a big two-storey building with a spacious garden, but it didn't have all the other trappings of wealth, like servants, or cooks, or an abundance of hardwood and fancy ceiling panels.
Though again, maybe my sense of scale was warped by the Dracis mansion. Sure, his living room was practically Spartan compared to the Dracis parlor, but it was way fancier than my own. Or Josh's, for that matter. It still felt too middle class though, which was both baffling and a little disappointing.
”... so he made a barrier and held up the ceiling, like that Greek god? Ow, what was his naaaame? It's totally on the tip of my tongue!”
Speaking of which, said room was currently remarkably noisy thanks to an unusual, but by no means unexpected, guest. Sahi, wildly gesticulating, was sitting on a white, leather-bound sofa facing the rectangular coffee table in the middle. On the other side of it, Lord Grandpa was sitting on an identical couch, with one hand already holding his head in exasperation.
”Atlas! That's what he looked like! But, but, but then when it looked like everything was fine, there was this huuuge rumble, kind of like a 'RABARABARABA!', and then this really horny dude broke right through a wall! There were, like, bricks flying everywhere and stuff! Like in a movie!”
”There were no bricks involved. It was a drywall,” an especially deadpan Pascal noted on the side, but Sahi didn't pay him any heed.
”He had this totally cool battle-ax and everything, and when he noticed me, he started screaming in some foreign language! Oh, oh! Now that I think about it, maybe he was, like, a Viking Knight? I get it! He must've been using an ancient rune language!”
”I already told you, that was just his accent,” came the next futile attempt at injecting some common sense into the conversation by Armband Guy.
”That's, like, your opinion, Paz. Oh, but then, but then, I tried to bring out my spells, but I couldn't move! Like, not even a finger! That's when I realized what he was doing; I tell you, he totally cursed me! Runes are sooo bogus!”
”No, it wasn't...” Pascal tried to correct her, but in the end, he exhaled a resigned sigh and muttered, ”Never mind.”
”So, there I was, immobilized and unable to move, and this really, really horny guy totally came after me, but then... Guess what?” A long beat later the old man let out an exasperated groan and gestured for his rejuvenated colleague to get on with it. ”No, seriously! Guess!”
Lord Grandpa returned his hand to his temple and grumbled out an impatient, ”What?”
”Ninjas!” the overly excited girl exclaimed with her arms in the air. ”This one ninja, like, appeared out of thin air, and tackled the horny dude! And he was biiig! Like, bigger than the Viking Knight!” She paused and raised a finger to her lips. ”He also had a mask and a big headgear. It must've been ceremonial.”
Lord Grandpa sent a questioning glance at Armband Guy, and he stepped forth at once.
”Yes, there really were warrior who could be, colloquially, described as ninjas,” the younger man confirmed, causing the Arch-mage to rub his temple even harder.
”How many?”
”I counted ten, not including Miss Rinne. Six men. All of them had muscular statures and wore black clothes covering their bodies. They had stylized horned masks—”
”It's called a 'hannya mask',” the ex-Arch-mage pointed out, but he continued without acknowledging her addendum.
”—that covered their entire head. It was impossible to tell their identities, but their leader was favoring one leg. There were also four uniformly dressed women with face masks. They operated independently from the men, and took orders from Ms. Rinne. From this, I inferred that at least two factions were working together.”
”They were kuniochi! They even had kunais and stuff! They were totally grody!”
Lord Grandpa also completely ignored the hyper girl bouncing in her seat and focused his attention on his protégé.
”I appreciate your insight and observations, but before we discuss this 'incident' any further, would you kindly explain to me exactly how you got involved in it?”
”My Lord ordered me to keep an eye on Lord Saahira,” Armband Guy stated matter-of-factly, one hand pointing at the girl in question. ”Since she insisted on taking part in the raid, and I deemed that I had neither the authority nor the ability to restrain her, I concluded that the most optimal course of action was for me to accompany her as a bodyguard.”