Fragments of a Broken World: The Lost City [Complete]

Episode 25 - Blueprints

The room I had entered was filled with all kinds of plans - house architecture, copies of instructions for the purification machine, recipes for meals from various cultures - and finally, what caught my attention: Weapons and armor. Many of them required machinery manufacturing, so I finally found something simpler that could be replicated by hand.

A simple gun from the eighteenth century, the dragon blunderbuss - easy to carry, simple to use, and with enough power to knock a person down at point-blank range. They couldn't be made in ten seconds, but with help... it would suffice. With so many blueprints here, I didn't think anyone would notice.

I folded it four times and stuffed it into the pockets of my overcoat as best I could. I don't know what made me think going to the third floor was a good idea, but I wanted a better look at that tower.

There were two types of stairs - one that was manually operated and another that was spiral. I slowly climbed up, and when I reached the outside, I saw it. I didn't dare go too high because the tower was extensive, but from where I had climbed, I had a view of the entire city.

Seriously, one thing is to see it from the outskirts, but from the lower floors of the Merciful Palace tower, I had a view of the central plaza and the various streets and neighborhoods with different purposes and architecture applied to them. A whole potential wasted by a king who was more drunk than merciful.

But to not waste any more time, I looked for a way out in the courtyards of this place. There were gates that had fallen, so I could leave from several places.

I started to go down the stairs, but I noticed that there was now a line of guards retreating. The second floor was now crowded with people. It seemed to be the king's meeting with his guards that I had mentioned before.

I was waiting for them to leave one by one so I could continue down this hallway that led to the stairs to the first floor, but on the side of the room where I entered, I had less distance to cover.

This was the last guard who was to speak with the king, as you can imagine, the purples were the first and the blues were the last to have the opportunity to be heard.

"I can assure you that Nassoumi is an accomplice, my lord."

"And I have already told you that I can't do anything about it."

"If we don't do something, we will lose control."

"If we do something, we will lose control." He raises both hands to emphasize his point as if he had an invisible box. "And credibility."

"So what do we do? Do we wait?"

"Broken Forever is just a mysterious figure. When people get to know him better, they won't have their own ideas projected onto him."

"I don't want to question you, but I'm sure there are people who have denied talking to him, but I'm sure they did, which means they're defending him."

"That means they think alike, nothing more."

"Let's give him a lesson, let's lock him up."

"When I started my reign, I did that and believe me, it's been questioned to this day. I can't go around disappearing people without making noise, which is why I've been doing it this way until now. People don't say 'They must have done something' anymore, but rather 'Could I be next?'"

"That's not the message or image I want to convey, and even if I did, it would go wrong. I know you feel invincible in your armor, but we're outnumbered and there are people who, no matter how prepared they are, won't be able to control the masses.