Chapter 29: (an unknown era) 1,999,999 Years Before Zero :

The noisy whirring of a drone’s propellers echoed across the slightly cloudy sky, two million years before the birth of the first drone.

The slightly cold wind failed to shake the drone that hovered steadily. Instead, excitement erupted below as everyone kept staring at the drone until their necks became sore.

Dorn stroked his white beard, his wrinkled forehead furrowing.

"This is the first time I’ve seen a bird that sounds like that... and that bird is being controlled by something?" Dorn shifted his gaze toward an ice clone that was controlling the drone, its icy fingers touching the remote.

Meanwhile, Van’s noisy voice echoed. He waved his hands everywhere while shouting with a voice that sounded slightly hoarse.

He wore a white T-shirt covered by a blue shirt and white long pants covering the lower half of his body. He looked brighter than everyone else, who wore modern-era winter clothes to withstand the cold wind.

"Kids, come to the front!! We’ll take photos from a low angle first!!"

"Hey, get closer together!! You’ve lived together for a year already... don’t be awkward!!"

Sounds of sighs came from various figures except the humans.

Cheetah scratched his ear. His body shivered slightly even though he was already wearing thick clothes that made him look chubby. His neck was even buried beneath a wrapped scarf.

"So what exactly are we doing? Kalula, I can’t stand this cold anymore."

Kalula brushed her black hair that matched her all-black outfit.

"Be patient and just go along with it... he’s very noisy if you don’t indulge him... I mean, last night’s party already failed, so..." Kalula shrugged with a faint smile. "...what else can we do?"

Kalula’s shoulder was suddenly bumped when Elena, who stood beside her, accidentally nudged her while looking at herself in the small mirror inside a makeup compact.

Elena wore a pink jacket, a pink wool hat, white gloves, while her face looked as white as snow, something none of them had seen before.

"Move over a little... I can’t see my face clearly."

Veins bulged on Kalula’s forehead. She wanted to speak, but Ryu spoke to Elena first. He wore all-brown winter clothes matching his hair along with a brown hat.

"Princess... you need to stop looking in that mirror. You’re already addicted..."

Elena gritted her teeth. She and Ryu immediately got into a verbal argument that piled together with Van’s constant shouting.

The result was Kalula, who stood close to all the noise, letting out a sigh. Veins bulged on her forehead as she looked at Van before finally shouting, immediately silencing every voice from the thousands of people.

"Hey!! Hurry up!! I’ve been standing in the middle of all this for an hour!!"

Van raised his middle finger at Kalula.

"Be patient, damn it!! Everything’s finished already!! Besides, just think of this as a replacement for last night’s party!!"

Van shook his head and shifted his gaze.

Before him now stood an invisible grandstand. Every race was seated there, mixed together as one despite all their differences.

Van then looked at Kalula, Elena, Ryu, Cheetah, Dorn, the human children, Bartaz, Bong, and the Prince. They weren’t sitting on the invisible grandstand. Instead, they stood in front of it.

Van looked at Bong, who had the largest body.

"Hey, Bong! Sit here..." Van pointed behind the children who were already seated. He also sat beside Bong while everyone else split into two groups in front of the invisible grandstand filled with thousands of figures from various races.

They all looked toward dozens of ice clones holding different kinds of cameras.

Van shouted without turning around.

"Alright, just like practice!! Formal pose first!"

Everyone who heard him immediately sat quietly while those standing straightened their posture.

Not long afterward, the sounds of hundreds of camera shutters rang out together with repeated flashes of light. They all smiled faintly toward the cameras just as Van had taught them.

Hundreds of photographs were created in an instant. Some immediately became physical prints because they were taken with Polaroid cameras.

Meanwhile, in the sky, the drone flew without disturbance, recording every second they experienced with every movement, big or small.

After a while, the sounds of camera shutters finally died down, replaced by Van’s shouting.

"Alright, now the free poses I showed you before!!"

Slowly, thousands of figures began trying their own poses that Van had demonstrated. Some touched their dimples, some closed one eye, some pretended not to notice the camera, while Van gave two thumbs up, copied by Bong and the children.

The sounds of hundreds of camera shutters echoed for a while.

As the closing of their photo session, Van told them to look toward the drone in the sky and wave with smiles.

After some time passed, the crowd finally climbed down from the invisible grandstand. Humans and the other races began saying their farewells, and several cries could be heard.

The ice clones that had already printed the photos began handing them to everyone as keepsakes.

The children even cried, soaking Van’s shirt as they hugged him.

Everything was recorded by the drone, and several times Van’s ice clones took photographs of every farewell moment.

Van patted several children’s backs.

"Yeah, yeah... don’t cry, my cute little nieces and nephews..."

Not wanting to lose to the children, the Prince also hugged him tightly and became the one who soaked Van’s blue shirt with the most tears.

"Lord... can’t you just stay here? How can we live without you..."

Van tried to pull away from the Prince’s embrace, but it only tightened the more he struggled.

"Good grief... weren’t you all living before I came? I have something I want to do... let go, damn it."

The Prince continued crying without stopping.

"Then let us come with you!! We’ll spread the blessings of the god."

Van sighed. It took him longer to free himself from the Prince’s tearful embrace than from all the crying children.

All the tears falling to the ground were soon accompanied by the rumbling of thunder in the sky now covered by gray clouds, while the cold wind pushed those clouds onward.

Eventually, drizzles of rain naturally dispersed them. Thousands of humans mixed with thousands of other races now walked toward the open field inside the area enclosed by the circular wooden wall surrounding the settlement.

A wooden ship was parked there instead of floating upon the sea.

Van followed the other races aboard the wooden ship after the thousands of figures had already boarded to head toward the places where they were assigned.

The ship’s sails slowly fell into place. Van stood on the deck, looking down at the humans from a higher position.

He waved with a smile even as the drizzle began soaking them.

"I’m leaving now!! You all have to read every book I left behind!!"

Thousands of people waved back with various expressions painted across their faces. They all spoke at once, causing their voices to overlap.

Unable to hear everything clearly, Van could only nod while wiping away the tears that accidentally escaped from his gray eyes.

Meanwhile, a beautiful singing voice echoed beneath the gray sky that had begun to cry.

"O soul of the ship, awaken from your slumber..."

The beautiful singing came from Ryu, who now stood atop the ship’s highest mast. He stood upon a circular platform surrounded by a railing.

"Welcome the wind beneath the gray sky... ignite your soul, blow the mighty sails with the caress of your breath."

The wooden ship carrying Van slowly began to tremble. The creaking of wood echoed with every vibration. The great ship, which should have sailed across the sea, now sought to conquer the cloudy sky.

Standing at the edge of the deck, Van held onto the railing while continuing to wave, while Ryu kept singing.

"Together we fly, conquering the mighty sky..."

Van sighed after wiping his tears onto his already wet blue shirt. He shouted before the wooden ship flew even higher.

"HAVE A WONDERFUL NEW LIFE, EVERYONE!!"

The voices of thousands answered Van’s shout, but he drifted farther and farther away from their voices as the wooden ship merged into the gray clouds pouring rain.

Cold winds swept over them while their visibility grew thinner.

Van stood frozen, gazing at the endless sea of clouds they now sailed through.

Meanwhile, behind him, the sounds of various busy activities could be heard.

Kalula finally walked over to Van, standing beside him as he remained motionless.

Van turned toward Kalula with a blank expression.

"Hey... we won’t get seasick, right?"

Kalula returned Van’s gaze with one of disbelief before sighing.

"Are you crazy? We’re flying, not sailing across the sea."

Van shrugged while pointing toward the busy corners of the wooden ship.

"Of course I’m a little crazy... I mean, right now I’m on a sea ship sailing through clouds instead of the ocean."

Kalula smiled faintly as she gripped the ship’s railing separating her from the cold sea of clouds.

"Your emotions change pretty quickly, don’t they? You were crying just a moment ago..."

Van leaned against the railing, now watching the busy wooden ship that he couldn’t help with because he was afraid of causing trouble.

"Yeah, am I supposed to keep crying forever? I mean, I can’t see them anymore. Of course I’m sad... I’m really sad... I never expected to meet humans like them in this era... yeah, I don’t want to explain too much, but... that’s just how it is... I don’t know how to put it into words."

Kalula frowned. Her black hair flowed in the wind just like Van’s golden hair.

"Then... is it really alright to awaken their potential? They weren’t supposed to have that, were they?"

Van remained silent for a while before looking at Kalula beside him.

"I don’t know. What I do know is that the Ice Age is probably getting closer... whether it’s them, or their descendants, or descendants far down the line who will face it... the point is, they’ve already survived one disaster..."

Van scratched his forehead.

"...I mean the Artium that fell, so... yeah, I just gave them a little more preparation to survive without me."

Van rubbed his neck while Kalula nodded several times.

"Yeah, you know... maybe this is my fault too. They became too comfortable while I was around."

Kalula stroked her chin while looking out at the sea of clouds they sailed through.

"You mean they became too lazy?"

Van wrinkled his nose before finally nodding.

"That would be a little painful if they heard it, but it’s true." Van pointed behind him toward the sea of clouds with his thumb. "Take the Prince, for example... he used to love hunting, then look at him now. He’s become lazy..."

Kalula chuckled. The sound of the giant sails being blown by the wind became one of the background sounds of their conversation.

"I see... then, what about the next month? You’ll still be cooking, right?"

Van burst into laughter.

"Are you sure? I think if I keep cooking, none of you will really want to go back to Pangaea..."

"By the way... why is it taking so long to reach the nearest Artium? We should’ve arrived already!!"

"You’re so noisy, you chatterbox."