Men Who Go Down the Annals of History Are Like That
Men Who Go Down the Annals of History Are Like That
Hao Ren froze for a moment before he realized that the title "Lord" was referring to him—considering the area of land he had rented out to the elves, "Lord" was regarded as an upgraded version of "landlord".
Hao Ren replied and allowed the operator to inform Hilda and Vimm about his arrival. Before long, he saw a few white dots appearing in space; they were space vessels that the Aerymian elves sent out to meet him. Most of the space vessels were from the old Aerymian Island Chain—they were almost antique. It did not seem like the elves had completely restarted their basic industries, at least they had not been able to produce new spacecrafts. However, among the antique spacecrafts were two new spacecrafts of different styles. They were probably part of the support resources the 883 fleet left behind in accordance with the agreement they had with the Aerymian elves. Judging from the models, these were the low-tech ships limited in the stellar system.
A triangle-shaped Aerymian spacecraft flew near to the Petrachelys and an image of Vimm was displayed on the communitor in front of Hao Ren. The young elven prince was so handsome that it was almost like a photoshopped figure; his face was radiant with a bright smile. "What brings you here, Landlord?"
"Lead the way. We'll discuss it when I see your mother." Hao Ren nodded. "There's something important that needs your assistance this time."
Vimm instantly felt a sense of urgency after seeing Hao Ren's serious face. He quickly turned his ship around and led the way. The Petrachelys followed the cruise ships of Aerym, flying down towards the only continent on the planet.
After penetrating through the atmosphere, Hao Ren switched on the external camera and he was pleased to see that the once primitive barren continent had begun to see development. A simple-styled city lined the coast, white towers rose in the forest, and many peculiar installations presumably radio or power towers were being constructed on the once barren, rocky mountain. He raised the sensitivity of the external camera and found that more residences and infrastructure were under construction although they were still very basic. All of this was enough to indicate that the Aerymian elves had adapted to the planet and survived well.
In the ocean far from the mainland, the "colonial eco-sphere" formed by the floating islands had apparent changes: they did noy have to stay back in space and they had been turned into stationary maritime cities. The shield of the eco-sphere was modified with many entrances and there was man-made land extending beyond the entrance, long runways, as well as ports. Aircrafts and newly-built cargo ships were traversing the air and sea between the mainland as well as the maritime cities.They were all transporting a huge number of personnel and supplies.
New residents were exploring the still unfamiliar continent while materials from the continent were brought into the eco-sphere to repair and renovate the ancient sanctuaries. The people of Aerym had taken root in their new homeland and began to seek a peaceful co-existence with this planet in their own way.
"Development is going pretty fast," Hao Ren suddenly said over the radio. "I thought you would have to take a few years before relocating en masse to the mainland. Now, it seems the empty islands have already begun to relocate."
"The new environment is better than we thought," Vimm's voice was heard over the radio. "And, the ancient secrets of nature have enabled our people to adapt more quickly to the environment outside the dome. Now, hundreds of thousands of elves plant their roots in this new world every day. But the dome cities won't be abandoned as mother has decided to renovate the facilities on the islands with resources from the mainland. At the end of the day, each dome city will accommodate one third of its original residents, which is the most ideal population. The cities are no longer in a dilapidated state, supplies aren't restricted, and water as well as food are available in abundance. There is no better time than this."
The spacecraft gradually descended as the gleaming coastlinea appeared on the screen. The coastline looked rather familiar, but was also quite different: rows of tidy buildings lined the coastline and inland. The land in the city was reinforced and laid neatly with man-made materials; towering white walls surrounded the city in the shape of a crescent, shielding the city from the strong, humid wind, which from the ocean. In parts of the city that stretched deeper into the continent, the elves did not destroy the natural forest vegetation, instead they did some proper transplanting and pruning as they built the city directly into the forest. Under the ingenious design of its architects, half of the city blended seamlessly with the forest.
Minas Elenion, the new capital of Aerym, where the first immigrants landed, and the place Hilda once said she was going to develop was now appeared to take shape. The pace of its construction had exceeded Hao Ren's imagination. He did not expect the city to grow so large in just a few months.
Then again, the pace of development was not too difficult to understand: after all, the Aerymian elves came from an interstellar era. Even if their scientific and technological know-how were not on par with those monsters who traversed the stars, they were more powerful than humans. Not to mention, they once lived in a space, which was on the verge of going kaput at any time. Their fast-building technology like the "three-minute fast repair", "ten-minute wall-building" and other similar stuff were not to be underestimated.
Construction in the new city was in full swing, and a large area of yet to be used open space could be seen in the city. The spacecrafts made a circle above the city before they slowly landed near the newly built Royal District. Hao Ren and Vimm each disembarked from their spacecrafts with their men. Vimm immediately came up to Hao Ren and gave him a big hug. It made Hao Ren feel quite embarrassed though.
He was not really fond of hugging a man, who was four times more handsome than himself—speaking of a big ego...
But when he looked back at Ysre, the elven aide behind him, he began to feel better: as good-looking as Vimm was, he was ostensibly a male through-and-through; but the appearance of the elven aide behind him was so ambiguous that he could be mistaken as someone else's mistress.
As they touched down, the two elves were stunned beyond words by what they saw. They never thought that there would be so many elves in the other world. Although the elves in this foreign world looked similiar to them, a look at the buildings and tools in their surroundings would immediately tell you that these elves were entirely different in other ways. Ysre and Aylu almost forgot why they were there as they were rooted to the spot, looking around curiously. Eventually, Lily had to drag them along to keep up with the rest of the team.
Meanwhile, Lily felt pretty happy—usually, she was the one being dragged, but this time she was the one doing the dragging...
"Mother is having a meeting with the elders in the council hall, so she isn't able to come out to greet you. She asked me to apologize to you on her behalf." Vimm walked with Hao Ren and said, "Things are moving on track and there's no shortage of manpower too. But, since this is the first time we're living on land, there are a lot of things we need to adapt to. We also have to draft new laws on traffic, farming and building codes, so we've been busy for more than a month."
Hao Ren nodded, indicating that he understood. "I got it. It must be hell of a busy time for the management... Hey, by the way, I have something that needs your help, I think your mother is going to be busier than ever after this..."
Suddenly, Hao Ren froze in his tracks and stared at a huge group of portrait sculptures at the entrance of the square. He was flabbergasted.
The sculptures, which were cast in some kind of alloy were 10-m tall. The leading sculpture was in the image of a man wearing a uniform, which resembled that of a fleet commander. He had his head held high and one of his hands pointing in a forward direction. Behind it was a group of sculptures resembling the Aerymian elves, who appeared determined with their bodies leaning forward. The sculptures formed the picture of a pioneering team led by a forward-looking leader.
Beautiful, grand, solemn, yet very heavy.
Hao Ren was rooted to the spot for a long time before he finally figured it out. He looked at Vimm and asked, "Is that me?"
Vimm laughed as he pointed at the sculpture. "A spiritual symbol is important to the people's morale at this moment. Nothing is more inspiring than the one who has lead them here."
For a moment, Hao Ren did not know how to react. He looked down and saw a plate at the foot of the sculpture which read, "Dear Leader, Sun and Lord of the Aerymian Elves—Hao Ren".
"...WTF?"