Chapter 195 - The Descent Into His Wonderland

If words could not do justice to what she had been presented with, it meant that she was going to be in a lot of trouble in the coming days. But more importantly, it indicated a lack of Isca's skill as a writer, and that concerned her far more. 

But how I do even begin to describe this... this unbelievable location without making it sound like I'm writing a goddamned fantasy story?! 

I'm a professional historian, not a halfwit amateur novelist, for the love of...!

Odd was the day when fantasy triumphed over reality, but Isca was beginning to believe that it was a common occurrence in Reed Evergreen's daily life. That much was for certain.

After all... who in their right minds made themselves a home at the bottom of the ocean?

Nevertheless, that was where she had found herself — stuck in Centlani Deep, where an enormous structure had been built for the sake of atonement. Or so she had been told by its weary architect and only caretaker. 

"You built all of this?! How? Why? For what purpose would you want to be down here?" said Isca as she peered out into the inky blackness of the lifeless seabed. 

There was being gloomy and then there was making a home in the Centlani Deep. Isca wasn't one to judge others on their tastes, but this was definitely an exception to the rule. Even she had her limits when it came to being overdramatic...

"You don't like it?" said Reed, genuinely confused as to why she was being so abrasive at the moment. 

"Had you chosen a more dreary place for a home, we would have been in a godforsaken cemetery! Tell me, do you sleep in a coffin instead of a bed, too?" Isca shouted, throwing her old-fashioned paper notepad at Reed in a fit of violence. 

"That really hurts, Instant Coffee. I am wounded, both physically and emotionally. Also, could you not make me out as some macabre demon? I have feelings too, I'll have you know," said Reed as let out a prolonged yawn. 

A week-long span of cordial discussion had broken down whatever barriers had once been erected between the two of them, to the delight of one and the dismay of the other. 

He was nothing like she had imagined him to be.

Absolutely nothing matched the fantas— the noble expectations she once had of him.

Once upon a time, she had thought of him as a handsome dark sun, an enigmatic force of nature that had captivated the hearts of the continent with his unfaltering spirit and passion for justice, truth, and hope. 

She, like many millions, had thought of Reed as a radiant light to follow in these dark times, but...

There he was, Virtue's Son, picking his nose with a stupid expression on his face as he lay sprawled out on a large sofa. 

It genuinely hurt to look at him, for it made her contemplate that this was the person who had freed Mulia and even cast judgment on the gods. 

When Reed noticed her contemptuous gaze, he let out an annoyed sigh and said, "Am I not allowed to drop my guard in my own home? Or do you expect me to be your prince at all hours of the day? Do me a favor and don't get your p.a.n.t.i.e.s in a bunch, okay?" 

In fact, she'd scarcely seen a single organic thing go down his throat, which begged the question — what kind of terrifying diet was this person on? What sort of debauched lifestyle was this person living?

"Have you, by chance, ever heard of fruit, Reed? You know, the stuff that grows on trees? Might I suggest you consider putting down the chocolate for a day and eat an orange instead?" 

Reed did not take the suggestion kindly and coldly growled, "Did I hire a dietician or a historian? And for your information, I'll be just fine without your damn concern. I'm an immortal monstrosity if you haven't f.u.c.k.i.n.g noticed."

"No, well, I jus—"

"I could literally smoke a hundred cigarettes a day and never so much as develop a damn cough! It is impossible for me to get drunk! I can't get poisoned or drugged by anything! If I wanted to, I could eat a dozen cheeseburgers every day for a year and never gain a damn pound of fat! 

Shit, I don't even need to f.u.c.k.i.n.g sleep! My body is so damn perfect that it has even eliminated the need for me to rest, for f.u.c.k's sake!

I cannot even escape into my dreams anymore!!

I HAVE LITERALLY BEEN BARRED FROM INDULGING IN ALL VICES KNOWN TO MAN BY MY OWN DAMNED PHYSIOLOGY!!" 

By the time Reed realized that he had gone off the deep end, Isca had already backed herself away into a corner of the room, terrified out of her poor mind. To him, her horrified expression was one that made him feel like pond sc.u.m.

There was nothing worse than that in his mind — to be treated as an actual monster, like the Devil himself. It terrified him to no end; the thought that he might've actually become the very thing he had sworn to destroy.

To have followed in His footsteps, despite his laborious efforts...

Reed took a deep breath and then apologized in the lowest and calmest voice he could manage before he stood up and approached her cowering figure.

He offered Isca her notepad back to her and said, "Why don't I show you something interesting as an apology? I'm sure you'll enjoy it far more than lounging around here." 

It took a lot of coddling and apologizing, but eventually, Reed managed to defuse the situation. For all he was capable of, it continued to baffle him how difficult it was for to not be a monumental f.u.c.k-up around women.

All he had accomplished seemed so trivial compared to getting a single girl to stop crying... 

Some prince he was, Reed thought himself as he and Isca descended into the bowels of the undersea structure where his workplace was located. 

Strangely enough, the entire place was without any form of security, which warranted suspicion from Isca. Then again, Reed's home was miles below the sea in a place that few people would ever dare to visit, let alone even care about. 

A lonely, oppressive, deep pit of darkness in a dead part of the ocean — it suddenly made sense why Reed did not need any locks in his home. No one in the right mind would ever bother visiting...

"This is the bottommost layer of my home, the place where I come to work on my pet projects. I call it the Nursery for... obvious reasons as you'll soon find out," said Reed. 

Nursery? Him? That's not what I expected of him. He can barely take care of himself...

But today was full of surprises, as Isca would soon come to realize. Though she was initially skeptical, the Nursery had proven itself far beyond her imagination.

In fact, when she first passed through into the Nursery, she thought that she had been whisked away into another world. Despite her education, she found herself unable to describe it as anything other than a wonderland at the bottom of the sea. 

It was a private conservatory of impossible proportions, for the physical dimensions of the Nursery did not conform with reality. There was no denying it. 

To put it bluntly... it was an entirely different world. 

"Oh my Goddess...." said Isca as she dumbly stood in total shock. She couldn't even make out the edge of the horizon from where they stood, even though they were atop of what seemed to be a mountain. 

"This is the Nursery; one of my greatest achievements to date, if I may be so impertinent," said Reed. 

"A breakthrough I had with manipulating spacetime geometry and the information limits of Anima allowed me to create this sub-space pocket. It's roughly the size of the South for scale." 

Though his words were entering Isca's ears, they simply passed out the other end of her head.

How could a normal person even begin to feasibly process what she had just been told? Hell, not even the likes of Haydn, Velvund, or even Lu'um would've been able to handle it any better than her. There was a clear limit to the absurdity anyone reasonable person could tolerate and Reed had gone a thousand miles past that. 

One did not just create a world, no matter how big or small, and simply call it a "pet project".

Absolutely not. 

Mortals create homes for their families; kings create kingdoms for the citizens, and...

Gods create worlds for their creations. 

A vast swath of an untamed rainforest teemed the sound of life below the reinforced glass balcony underneath their feet. The sight of exotic, never-before-seen creatures roaming the canopy above the tree line was a marvel that defied imagination. 

There bird-like creatures of an alien world not known to her, from a star system in a remote galaxy a thousand light-years away from Mu, idling about as they searched for prey. These fellows had whip-like strands on their wings that shone with Anima and crackled like lightning whenever they swooped into each other. 

"Those are razor-light ravens," said Reed as he pointed at them. "Fiesty bunch, the whole lot of them. They'll fight over mates, food, hunting grounds, even shiny rocks! The wh.i.p.s on the ends of their feathers pack quite the jolt, more than enough to paralyze their prey and anyone foolish enough to piss them off. Sharp claws too, sharp enough to tear through ordinary steel like butter." 

And they were just one species in the grand wilderness of the Nursery.

Truth be told, Reed himself had already started having difficulties remembering every species present in his care. It had already become a job too large for him to handle alone, which is why he had enlisted the assistance of automated drones to do the grunt work — recording and indexing into a massive compendium. 

"As you can see, it's quite the show but I digress. The Nursery is but a small conservatory for all the many species that once existed across the cosmos on a thousand worlds. And once I have finished assembling a compendium of all the species here, I plan to open this place to the public." 

"You... what?" blurted Isca in confusion. "This is all for the public? For what purpose?" 

Reed simply replied, "To educate, of course. I want them to see the wonders that once existed up in the night sky, on distant worlds. For them to appreciate the beauty of life and foster a sense of responsibility in them — to protect what little we have left... and to mourn what we have lost." 

It was then and there that Isca realized that she still knew next to nothing about the man called Reed Evergreen. 

At one moment, a terrifying madman with issues, and in the next moment, a noble spirit of all that was good and right in the world.

He really was an enigma to her. Isca doubted whether anyone could truly understand another person's heart, even more so for someone like Reed. And deep in her heart, she realized that this would be the work of her life.

That is would be the job that would put her in the history books, for better or worse. 

There was so much to reflect on, note down, and write about. Even now, a profound urge to return to her home and begin writing a rough draft had begun to grow inside her mind. She wanted to put it all down into text before the spark in her mind vanished into the dark. 

But above all else, she had found herself irrevocably drawn to him like a moth to a flame. He was the Sun and she was foolish his Icarus, drawn to the magnetic pull of his unique existence.

And that scared her, but she could stop herself. She was already in too deep to escape...