Granted the right to question the high-value prisoner, Kieran steps forward.
"Gladly, Vice-Leader," Kieran replies, his expression extremely serious and focused.
Kieran asks one question after another, all based on the dangers on the island.
The captured Gatekeeper explains about the wolves, round beasts, and even Hellbell, explaining their dangers, roles, and behavior. For the entire time, he speaks in a monotonous, somewhat robotic voice, but still maintains parts of his former personality.
When Kieran asks for more details about the Hellbell, the loss of his two soldiers visible in his eyes, the Gatekeeper surprises the group with more information.
"The devolved Hellbell keeps the wolves on edge, always on the verge of losing their lives. To evolve, they can't simply feast on fleshballs without any danger. They require motivation, stress, a drive, and a reason to become stronger. These devolved snakes are just powerful enough to be a threat to a lowly species such as these wolves. On the other hand, the wolves usually end up killing each other, and the ones affected will be spared by the Hellbells, after all, their bodies are large enough to sustain a snake for months. This has the added benefit that the homicidal rage they cause is somewhat maintained and might even affect their evolution positively, as it contains a lingering amount of Nen. I judged this to be the most efficient trigger for further evolution."
"How are they devolved... what is the difference compared to the real Hellbell?" Auren interrupts, his interest more than apparent.
"With my third eye, I am not even affected by these worthless snakes. Even I would be in trouble after the gaze of the real Hellbell, which can drive almost anyone mad with rage. They've been crossbred with some of your human native snakes, and while they carry Hellbell blood in them, they're practically their own species now. Inferior in every regard. Exactly what this... place... you humans would call it a laboratory, needs."
"Why were you exiled?" Auren continues.
"Killed my rival out of revenge... while I would have been justified in doing so, I went against our rules by assassinating him through dishonorable means.... My honor... my... position... lost. Disgraced."
"Tell me more about you, the Gatekeepers, and everything about the Dark Continent!" Auren says, his eyes growing wide.
Finally...
"I... I..." the Gatekeeper spills blood, his body spasming.
"Vice-Leader! I'm losing control, there's something wrong!" the man in front of the computer yells.
"Stop, don't think about my last question," Auren yells at the Gatekeeper.
Immediately, the Gatekeeper stabilizes, still looking incredibly weak.
"I can't ask him about the Dark Continent? But he was fine talking about Hellbell and his personal motives..." Auren mumbles, not understanding.
"If you exile someone, you'd have to fear him leaking vital information," Kieran reasons. "It's not too surprising that he can't leak important information. Many exiled people would do so out of pure malice, just to hurt their people out of revenge. Perhaps... he's been the subject of a Nen Oath or something similar. We need to find out the limitations... while keeping him alive."
"Makes sense... I guess. Let's focus on the easy, yet important questions."
"How old are you?" Auren asks.
"4.344 Prakta."
"How old in... human years?" Auren clarifies, not understanding.
"2172 years."
"He's damn ancient!" Konrad notes, his eyes growing wide. "I can't believe it...."
"How long have you been... exiled here?" Auren continues.
"1561 years."
Shocked, Auren asks the next obvious question. "Does your species live that long? How long is your lifespan?"
Instead of answering, the Gatekeeper's body shakes again.
"Stop, do not answer!" Auren yells, using Azure Restoration to heal the Gatekeeper a little.
The next moment, Leira enters the room and immediately cuts in. "I want to participate!" she demands forcefully.
"Well... it's not going too well," Auren explains, briefly going over the questions, while he continues his healing on the Gatekeeper.
"May I ask some questions? Please." she pleads, staring at Auren.
"Go ahead," Auren says, shrugging.
"How did you sustain yourself here?" Leira asks. "With those fruits?"
"No. The fruits of the Revals Tree contain a conditional Nen curse. In exchange for power, the subject will work its entire life, craving more and more fruit, living solely to please the tree. Even their body will morph and twist in a way that benefits the tree. Eating such a fruit would be most unwise, even for me."
"I survive solely on the inferior seeds I found near the swamps. Perhaps an oversight by my kinsmen... this island, while not part of our... home... it is closer to it than you humans might think. While it was purged by us Gatekeepers even before I was born... a certain weed has endured. Something seemingly worthless, something they didn't bother paying attention to. They are a disgusting, worthless, and clearly inferior weed to my species. However... here they were my only salvation. I cultivated my own variety, beginning immediately after my arrival here. It has sustained me, allowed me to survive... though my lifespan is almost at its end with such a fifth-rate sustenance. It can only do so much, even if I cultivated it to its limit."
"Inferior seeds?" Auren wonders. "Explain. Is this Nitro Rice?"
Immediately, the Gatekeeper's body spasms again. "Stop!" Auren yells. "Just explain about the... inferior seeds."
"I've built a farm. I've grown enough for me to eat as much as I can. The weed grows on this island without pause. You humans would call it a... grain."
Auren's eyes light up; he immediately asks the next question. "Where is your farm and your home? Are there any traps?" Auren wonders, taking out a rough draft of the map, one of the assistants created from flights on the airship.
The Gatekeeper points his cut-off arm toward a point and uses a tiny bit of Aura to indicate a location near the southeast of the island.
"No traps. On top... of... hidden elevated area... no beasts... safe area."
"I can't keep going much longer," the man at the computer says, his face full of sweat. "He'll die if we continue."
"Fine, let him rest," Auren says, using Azure Restoration once more, careful not to overdo it. "We'll repeat this when you can go again. You did a good job."
"Yes... Vice-Leader..." the man says, huffing and puffing.
"Commander, please take care of him... personally. Keeping him alive is our top priority. He can't escape or try to kill himself."
"Understood," Kieran replies confidently. "You can trust me."
Good....
"Let's use my airship; it's smaller. We'll visit that home and farm of his..." Auren suggests to Konrad and Leira. "This might be the only worthwhile thing on this island."
Inferior seeds... cultivated for over 1500 years... connected to his survival... I can't help but get my hopes up. With his arrogance and entitlement, even something he views as fifth-rate could end up becoming a treasure.
Auren's small group immediately flies towards the location the Gatekeeper indicated.
Jolt skillfully maneuvers Auren's airship over the jungle until they're at the exact location the Gatekeeper indicated.
"Get as low as you can," Auren tells Jolt, who does as told.
En!
Auren quickly surveys the surface and indeed, at the edge of his En radius, sees a small cliff, partly hidden under a massive tree. The cliff separates an elevated area from the main part of the island, just like the Gatekeeper said.
"I don't think we'll be able to land," Auren notes. "I'll glide down. Neffi, you can come along... Leira, I'll carry you."
"Neffi..." Vanessa says, grabbing onto Neffi's clothes and looking her in the eyes, while Neffi smirks.
"Beg for it," Neffi says, her face clearly amused.
"Please," Vanessa replies, unexpectedly serious.
"Okay, okay," Neffi replies, shocked by her answer. "What's wrong with you... so serious lately. I was joking."
"No need to discuss it," Jolt yells confidently, steering the airship even lower, even pushing away a few leaves.
"From here, you can roll out the ladder," he continues, keeping the airship surprisingly steady, as if he landed on top of the leaves.
"Don't crash the airship out of some ego..." Auren mutters before yelling back, "Keep it stable until we're down, and then gain some more height. Also... good job. Thank you."
Thanks to Jolt's risky maneuver, everyone manages to climb under the treetop and land on top of the clearing, seeing the cliff and the forest beneath it.
"Neither the wolves, the round beasts, nor the devolved Hellbell's could climb up here. This is convenient," Auren reasons. "This place may have its use... if we were to permanently settle here, this would be a perfectly safe area. However, it's not too big, maybe only taking up one or two percent of the total landmass... big enough to found a village though. Let's look around!"
To the group's surprise, they quickly see a large temple-like structure made out of massive stone slabs and wood.
"He built that alone?" Auren wonders. "It's large enough that ten... no, twenty people could live there."
"He had a lot of time, after all," Konrad replies. "Over 1500 years...."
"If I had that much time, I'd just try out different things for fun," Vanessa says, before arguing, "It's worth building yourself a proper home if you're planning to stay on this island for that long."
True
"I wonder how he managed to catch that moth... maybe he even bred them," Eren suggests, pointing to a wooden shed in the distance.
"I'm more interested in the farm..." Auren interjects, pointing towards a lightly flooded area, clearly artificially created out of a swamp, the ground a few meters lower than the surrounding ground, barely visible from a distance.
The group enters and investigates the temple-like building, but apart from rudimentarily crafted tools, furniture, sculptures, and other objects, they don't find anything particularly impressive.
"He was exiled here... with nothing aside from his body," Konrad reasons. "That's harsh...."
Investigating further, nobody finds anything of note. Only Leira picks up what looks like a book, carved into thin layers of wood, filled with a language they can't decipher.
"He may be able to teach us the language... if we can decipher some sort of journal, we may be able to work around the Nen Oath placed on him," Leira analyzes.
"You are smart," Goreinu says, clapping his hands. "Not bad."
Aside from the primitive book, they finally find the kitchen, with a fireplace and a large clay pot. Next to it, they see a large jar, presumably crafted by the Gatekeeper himself. Removing the wooden lid, they see that it's filled with thick brown kernels, each easily as large as a fingernail.
Immediately, a pleasant aroma fills the room, and someone's stomach begins to growl.
"Stop it, Konrad," Vanessa complains, nudging her brother.
Neffi shakes her head, looking at Goreinu with an accusatory look.
It was actually Leira... too busy studying her ass off. She probably forgot to eat, like always.
"Analyze it," Auren says, grabbing a few kernels and handing them to Leira, Oculus already sitting on her shoulder.
"This... it's similar to rice..." Leira immediately concludes. "Auren... this is... I feel an immense amount of nutrients inside; the density is out of this world. Half of it resembles rice... the other half is completely unknown!"
She suddenly grabs a kernel and puts it into her mouth.
"Is that safe?!" Goreinu immediately asks, while Eren also looks worried.
"He has a point... Leira, let's test it first, spit it out," Auren orders.
Leira actually does as she's told and grabs it with her hand. "It's hard as a rock... I don't want to swallow it without tasting it first."
"..."
"..."
Outside, they enter the shed and, despite their hopes, find no more giant moths inside.
However, the floor is full of a certain dust, which Auren immediately recognizes.
"The moth's shed indeed," Auren states. "You win a point, Eren."
Eren smiles softly. "Heh, thanks, and it seems I'm not the only one who's winning. You might want to look in the corner, Leira."
In the corner, exactly 7 eggs, each as large as a human head, are placed on the ground.
"Moth eggs," Leira says, her eyes full of glee.
"We'll take them with us," Auren decides. "I expect you to be careful, Leira, no accidents."
"Of course," she replies nonchalantly.
One day her pets will break out and cause a scene out of a horror movie... I can see it right before my eyes.
Finally, with nothing more to inspect, the group walks towards the modified swamp, Auren noticed.
In it are huge rice paddies, around three times as tall as Auren, carrying the large kernels they found inside, only still covered by an additional thin, light-brown outer layer.
"I'd say..." Auren says... his eyes, completely open. "We hit the jackpot."
"Don't celebrate too early. These might just be slightly healthier rice kernels... his race was bound to have an increased life span... maybe they are merely nutritional," Leira says, though her face is flushed with excitement.
"Or..." Auren continues, smiling, his eyes full of greed. "Ladies and gentlemen... we'll be living a long and healthy life."
-----------------------------------------
A/N: Always thankful for Power Stones, Comments, and Reviews. Thank you for reading!
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