Secret: The years I served as a foreign aid for the Aurora Club

Chapter 589 Utopia Travels

890
It was snowing heavily in the city. A young man with black hair was sitting in a street cafe. He looked like a northerner, with soft features and a bit of shyness. He blew air on his hands while writing in his notebook:
"December 1350, 12. This is the third day since I came to Utopia."

"Dear mother, I write this by the heater in the cafe. Please tell dad that my journey is going well so far."

(A brief greeting and scene description)
"...This city is no different from the places I've been to before, but, based on my observations, this is definitely not a village on the Loen border. Judging from the latitude and climate, this should be within the Feysac Empire. The direction of the mountains is also inconsistent with Minerminsk. This city called Utopia should be located in the heart of Feysac, at the foot of the Antal Mountains..."

"The residents here mostly speak a mixture of Feysac, Loen, and the common language of the Northern Continent. I asked the waiter at the local cafe, and the answer I got was: 'Utopia is a new tourist city, and because of its special geographical location, it will receive guests from different countries.'"

The black-haired young man rolled his eyes, picked up the coffee in his hand, took a sip, and sighed with satisfaction.

He flipped through the travel notes he had just written a few days ago. As he turned the pages, a name accidentally flashed across the title page:
Everett Abraham.

He took another sip of coffee before putting it down, ordered a piece of cake from the waiter, and continued writing in the beautiful Intis font in the soft brown leather notebook in his hand.

"However, please do not worry about me. I am not curious about the geographical location of this city or the reason for concealing the true situation. There are definitely more secrets hidden here, and I have just become a Sequence 9. If I investigate in depth, it will definitely bring me danger. I don't mind being an adventurer occasionally, but that is not my job. I just want to complete my travels and travel notes safely and return home as soon as possible."

"Well, let's get back to the situation and climate of Utopia."

"The most notable thing about the climate here is that it's cold. Very cold. The highest temperature every day hovers around zero degrees, and at night it can even drop to around minus ten degrees. You will definitely freeze to death if you fall asleep outside. This is why I am sure that Utopia is definitely not in Loen. For this reason, Utopia's heating system is very advanced. They use heating and floor heating that I have never seen before. It uses the principle of heating water to generate heat. I didn't ask for details."

"Every hotel and every residential building has installed heating. The hotel where my teacher and I live is called 'Iris', which is quite good. In short, with the help of heating, our daily life is worry-free, but we always have to wrap ourselves up like a ball when we go out."

"By the way, this city is neither big nor small. My teacher told me that the city's permanent population should be around 20,000. Together with the people who come here for vacation in the winter - to be honest, I don't know why so many tourists choose to come to such a cold city for vacation in the winter - the population should be more than 20,000. The city facilities here are very good. There is no dock, but there is a city library, a train station, a freight center and a department store, a school, and a river running through the city. I heard that the river water will not melt until April every year."

Everett glanced out the window. He changed the angle several times and could vaguely see the arch bridge through the heavy snow.

“On a clear day, the river can be quite lively.”

"There are many children skating on the river, and there are people who dig holes in the ice and sit next to the ice holes to fish. They still live a lively life in the cold climate, which is one of the reasons why I like this place."

Not too early or too late, the waiter arrived with the chestnut cream ice cream that Everett had just ordered.

While saying thank you, he glanced at the menu and was a little tempted by the recommended drink on the menu, "Utopia Specialty Sparkling Iced Tea".

He had seen other guests drinking this bubble tea. Ice cubes floated on the surface of the translucent dark brown liquid, and bubbles rose from the bottom one after another, making every guest who tried it for the first time exclaim in pleasure.

It looks delicious at first glance.

Everett was tempted for a moment, but he temporarily suppressed the idea. He wanted to taste the sparkling iced tea during dinner after getting the teacher's consent.

The roasted chestnuts were chopped and stirred into the cream. Everett carefully cut off a corner with a fork and put it into his mouth. In the warm room, he felt the cold cream and the mellow and sweet chestnut pieces blend together and slowly melt in his mouth:

“Besides that, I think the most interesting things here are the mechanical objects and the delicious food culture.”

"Whether it's the most basic fried steak, fried pork chop, charcoal grilled meat, or the more complex or difficult pea stewed lamb, cream soup, butter mashed potatoes, baked potato skins, they are definitely at the level of urban chefs. In addition, the chefs here are also very good at creating peculiar dishes and food, such as sour and sweet meat cubes and grilled fish repeatedly coated with various seasonings..."

"...Mom, even though I know this city has many extraordinary places, I still like it here. Even the teacher praises the food here. I really hope to bring some back for you and Dad to try, such as the specialties here, the Utopia-style bacon sandwich... In addition, I have eaten all kinds of toast in this city: mashed taro, mashed potatoes, butter, light cream, fruit cubes... As long as I want, I will not eat the same variety twice in a week."

"Among all the delicacies here, the most admirable are their desserts... cream pudding, fruit pudding, Black Forest cake, carrot cake, milk cake, muffins, egg tarts... The teacher said I can't eat anymore. Young people like me who are still growing up can't indulge in sweets. But I saw the teacher ask the hotel waiter to order a cake for a midnight snack last night."

“The food in Utopia is quite fresh, which should be due to their railway transportation system.”

"However, in winter, fresh fish is hard to come by. On my first day in Utopia, I saw a gentleman catch a big fish from the John River and sell it to a restaurant for 1 pounds on the spot. Unfortunately, my teacher and I were busy looking for accommodation at the time and did not go to taste it."

The delicious dessert brought a good mood, and Everett wrote a lot of content in one breath. For a young man of only fourteen years old, this was more than a week of writing training in grammar school.

However, he did not have to go to the grammar school of the Mystery Church, nor did he have to go through the mysterious grammar revision, famous sentence filling-in-the-blank, reading comprehension, and writing of no less than 800 words from the Western Continent. He was still receiving family education. Those who received family education, turned 16, and passed the advanced examination of the Mystery Church could also receive an admission letter from the National Church University, which was the threshold for becoming a Beyonder.

Of course, families that have inherited extraordinary powers and potion formulas do not have to obtain potions in this way, but they still have to register their identities and sequences, and promise to the holy objects not to do anything that harms society and innocent people.

At the same time, as an Abraham, who became an extraordinary person after the full moon whispering ended and a new generation of the Abraham family with high hopes, these contents are far from enough as the future "Everett's Travel Notes".

Everett continued writing, and then, through the glass window of the cafe, he saw a figure wandering on the street.

The other person seemed to be a young man who looked about the same age as himself.

In the heavy snow, Everett could not see the other person's clothes and hair color clearly. Later, he realized that the boy was walking on the street in very thin clothes, and his clothes and hair color were both light colors that were almost invisible in the snow.

Everett stood up. He subconsciously wanted to ask the boy to come to the cafe to rest for a while, because it was really freezing in the snow. But he held back as soon as he stood up, because he suddenly remembered his teacher's warning - if you see abnormal behavior or people doing weird things in this city, don't take the initiative to approach and meddle in their affairs.

Everett hesitated for a moment, and during that time, the figure of the young man walking on the street disappeared in the snow.

"Wearing such thin clothes and walking in sub-zero temperatures, he didn't show any signs of coldness at all..."

The young apprentice felt a little scared. He suddenly couldn't imagine what would happen if he really ran to the door of the cafe to greet people.

After much thought, Everett decided not to write about this incident in his travel notes. Ancient extraordinary families like Abraham had a more complete education in mysticism. Although he had just become an extraordinary person, he already knew that not everything could be recorded.

This world is very dangerous. If you are not careful, you will establish connections with unknown beings, just like the ancestors contacting them with voices.

He ate the remaining half of the chestnut ice cream in a panic, barely calming his anxiety. After repeatedly reminding himself to be careful in his words and actions in Utopia, Everett considered his words, picked up his previous thoughts, and continued to write:
"I am somewhat concerned that there is only one church in Utopia."

"This is a large city with a population of about 20,000. Although it is located in the heart of the Feysac Empire, it is, after all, a small city that claims to be on the border of Loen. This church does not have the black, white, and blue color scheme of the Thunder Church, nor is there a Thunder Church emblem painted on it. There is no emblem of any god in this cathedral. I don't understand if this means 'anyone of faith can enter'."

"I saw the priests in the church from a distance. There were ten priests in this church. They wore dark clothes without any church patterns and the edges were simple. I didn't dare to ask them which church they belonged to."

"I asked the name of the church, and the waiter at the hotel and the waiter at the restaurant told me:"

"This church is called the Cathedral of St. Merlin Hermes." "The name Hermes sounds very ancient and mysterious, and it sounds like a variant pronunciation of 'Hermes' in other languages. This is the first time I have heard of this saint's name, and I don't know which church he belongs to."

Everett had only been here for three days and had not seen the cathedral being used for any sacramental activities or worship, so he suspected that the church actually believed in the god of war, or perhaps some unidentified and inconvenient secret existence.

The teacher also told him not to go near the cathedral unless necessary to prevent any unexpected incidents.

Everett thought about it. He didn't understand why the teacher didn't take him away immediately if the city was so dangerous, but insisted on staying here for a while. The young apprentice racked his brains to think about what interesting things had happened in the past three days. After thinking for a while, his eyes lit up, and he turned a page in his already full notebook and continued writing:

"There was a gentleman in the Iris Hotel where we stayed. He always looked sleepy. Every day he was either sleeping or walking with his eyes half open. But I seldom saw him. He basically rested in his room and rarely came out even for meals."

After writing this paragraph, Everett heard the door of the cafe being pushed open and the metal wind chimes tinkled, making an ethereal sound.

Everett looked up and saw an old lady in her fifties, dressed exquisitely and very elegant, pushing the door open and appearing at the entrance of the cafe. She was wearing an old-fashioned black velvet hat, and her temples were covered with white hair.

There are not many people in the cafe. It is most comfortable to sleep and rest at home in this weather.

As soon as the old woman entered the room, her blue eyes were fixed directly on Everett, who was drinking hot coffee and writing travel notes by the bed.

Seeing the old woman's stern eyes sweeping over him, the apprentice quickly stood up and called out softly, "Teacher!"

"You're drinking coffee again." The old lady had the temperament of a dean, and she naturally suppressed the teenager who was just old enough to go to school. "You are very young, and you don't need this kind of drink to refresh yourself. Go and rest if you feel sleepy. I didn't assign you too much homework."

"...Teacher, the coffee here is sweet." Everett quietly defended himself. Then, he quickly handed over a notebook with three pages of writing in it and said, "I have carefully summarized my recent experiences and written a lot of content!"

The old woman wasn't angry about the student drinking coffee secretly. She glanced at the immature but neat handwriting on the notebook, and her tone softened naturally: "Well done, today's class time is up, let's go back to the hotel and continue studying."

Everett suddenly became happy: "Okay."

The old woman helped him pay the bill, and he put on a windproof hat, wrapped a scarf tightly around himself, and then mustered up the courage to push open the door of the cafe. In an instant, the cold wind blew in his face and made him shiver all over. Snow particles hit his face and eyes, and the cold penetrated his body through every gap in his clothes. But the old woman supported his back unmoved, and took him to walk slowly on the road that was already covered with a layer of snow, and returned to the nearby "Iris" Hotel.

Enter the hotel and keep the cold wind out.

Everett quickly entered their suite, took off his coat and cold-weather gear, and shivered by the radiator for a long time before he recovered. The old woman was already at the desk, laying out the occult materials for today's teaching, waiting for him to come over.

Just as he was about to walk over, he suddenly felt that the surrounding environment had become a little colder.

Everett quickly turned on his spiritual vision and found that a spiritual creature with a round body appeared beside the old woman, handed her a letter, and then disappeared from his sight.

"That one just now was..."

"I'm communicating with Dorian." The old woman said lightly, opening the envelope. "Huh, if I tell him directly that I brought you to a strange city, he will definitely start with 'Dear Vipelia, I approve of your teaching method, but..." and talk to me for a long time." As she spoke, she unfolded the letter. Everett took a sneak peek and found that it was indeed the beginning.

The lady named Vipelia Abraham glanced at her students:

“…It is indeed dangerous to come here, but my divination results tell me that there is actually a very big opportunity hidden here. I also asked my ancestor, and He told me that it is possible to go here. There may be some dangers, but it is within my ability.”

"But even so, Dorian was still worried, so I chose to communicate with him after I arrived at the place, telling him what I saw and heard here, and by the way, to see what he thought."

There are too many abnormal places in this city, delicious food, electrical appliances and mechanical items that have never been seen before. A child may only be excited by these strange things, but as one of the leaders of the Abraham family who has seen many extraordinary powers, Vipelia immediately discovered a terrifying thing as soon as she arrived here:

There is not a single extraordinary person in this city!

Even the priests in the church did not have a spiritual aura. Vipelia searched the city for a long time, using divination to look for signs of extraordinary power, but found nothing.

She wasn’t going to tell the students this: “Pick up the materials and let’s start the class.”

Everett sat down: "Okay."

After two hours of study, the daily knowledge of mysticism ended, and they went to the restaurant to enjoy a delicious meal that Everett raved about, and the apprentice finally drank the sparkling iced tea he had been longing for.

After returning home, the two members of Abraham's family took a simple hot bath and read for a while before going to bed.

Late at night, Vipelia had a dream. She dreamed that she came to a small path. In the middle of the path lay a small silver snake. The little snake sometimes looked to the left and sometimes to the right, as if trying to figure out which way to go on the road ahead.

Vipelia looked at the little snake, then looked at the road ahead. There was a fork in the road, one that she couldn't see clearly, and the other that she could see. She took the initiative to walk around the little snake and walked forward, taking the vaguely visible road.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that the little silver snake had followed her and entered the road together.

The dream ended and Vipelia suddenly woke up.

Before she had time to analyze the situation in the dream, she suddenly found that there was an extra figure in the room. Her student was not sleeping in the small room in the suite, but was standing quietly in the middle of the bedroom!

"...What are you doing?" Vipelia was ready to use the "slide technique".

Everett turned around, pointed to the door of the room, and said to the teacher in a nervous voice:

"snake."

"I wanted to go to the bathroom, but I heard a noise in the corridor... like a giant snake moving..."

Vipelia was startled, and she also heard the abnormal noise outside. But the sound seemed to be leaving the hotel, going farther and farther in the corridor, and soon disappeared from their hearing.

TBC
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...Quack! What's the point of everyone having such a good imagination?

(End of this chapter)