Chapter 972 Visiting Queen Tori
There aren't that many dangers in the Frozen Region when arriving at the border aside from the cold weather. You don't even need to worry about giant monsters stomping you unless you really get close to where they are walking. The sand has been replaced by the white snow that is the product of the falling snow that keeps on pouring all year round with only occasional sunny days that only last for an hour or two.
During our visit, it seems a blizzard is currently underway. Although the mansion is fine, the yard is slowly accumulating snow already, and the wind is a bit stronger. It's manageable but it is not the ideal weather here.
"Is it always like this in here? This is quite a big contrast from the desert we just passed by," Avos wondered as he observed the blizzard outside the window.
"Yeah, this is always like this. Although many would say that Sandurk Continent is not a pure desert continent due to the snowy biome here in the Frozen Region, it is not true as this place is still considered a desert due to how water is a big scarcity here even with all the snow present. Without intense heat magic to rely on, the water here will freeze immediately, and just like the hot desert, both sides are lacking water that can be accessed immediately. Sure you can get them if you are resourceful but unlike normal areas where rain is abundant, rain doesn't fall in both regions. It's just that this region and the hot region are polar opposites," Queen Tanya explained.
"But is it true that people live here? This place looks too unhospitable coupled with multiple monsters in the vicinity, safety seems to be a totally lacking thing here. Even myself who mastered the arts and magic of using ice doesn't like to live here for the long term," Izmir voiced her thoughts about the place.
"Yes. Look outside. You can see that even in this harsh and unhospitable weather, humans still thrive and survive out here."
Everyone looked outside and in the distance was the kingdom of the Frozen Region that is being ruled by Queen Tori. Compared to the last time we visited here, this place has been very developed now and the walls and machinery in the area for defense have increased. In fact, it seems they even increased their borders. I don't know if it was just my imagination or not but I am sure that the kingdom has increased in size.
Despite the harsh blizzard, the place still looks like they are not sleeping. I can hear the steam engines blaring in the distance and the chugging of different machinery that generates heat and makes the place lively. They are looking more and more like a steampunk kingdom the more you look closely.
As our mansion approached, multiple soldiers appeared on the towers and aimed at our mansion while a few of them were even stationed below and were ready to attack us anytime. Our mansion stopped and one of the guards used a spell that enhanced his voice to increase his volume as he spoke, similar to a megaphone.
"State your business visitors. We will not comply kindly to any violent attempts to breach the gates, tell us why you all are here."
Queen Tanya stood up and grinned. "This is my cue to talk to them."
She went outside and seemed to use the same skill the man who shouted used.
"Lower down your weapons, soldiers. I am with them so don't worry about it. I needed to visit my sister."
As soon as the guards saw Queen Tanya, they were shocked and immediately brought down their weapons and made a salute.
"We are sorry for the transgression, Your Majesty Queen Tanya! We didn't know it was you there!"
"It is fine and I am glad you guys are still taking your job seriously. Please open the gates and can you all please escort us to a warm area where we can put this mansion of ours safely?"
"Sure, we will just give a heads up to the control to open up a path. Our soldiers will escort you in. Please wait for a while."
One thing I noticed in the kingdom upon closer look is that there are now big "tank" looking vehicles nearby. I am not sure if they are even a tank in the first place but I am quite sure that those things are big and seemingly looking like a vehicle used to engage wars.
It didn't take long for the gates to open and to my surprise, the buildings suddenly moved out of their way and gave us a bigger passage to walk into without trying to slowly move in an attempt to not step into the buildings.
One soldier is holding a placard with a "THIS WAY" to escort the mansion. The mansion is now following the soldier and soon we arrive at what we can consider as a parking lot. It has a very big space to the point that I consider it to be much bigger than an airport. Now I understand why they got a bigger place, it is to place this parking lot and occupy it.
As for what was being parked there, the "tanks" that I saw before are parked here and now we can take a closer look as well.
We descended the mansion and we got a close look at the big tankers before us.
"Holy sh*t... are those tanks?" Akira was not expecting to see one.
"Although they looked like tanks, they also looked like a giant humvee with a big cannon mounted above it," my father who likes to play games related to wars and stuff before is looking at it in the nitty gritty. Though what Father said is true. This looks like a giant Humvee with a big cannon mounted on it. It might look like a tank at first look but it isn't really a tank.
"How are the production of the vehicles?" Queen Tanya asked.
"It's going as planned. Although we had some setbacks here and there, we still managed to pull through. It is thanks to you and Her Majesty Queen Tori's work that we are able to make these kinds of advances."
"Eh? Queen Tori and you are part of creating these big tank vehicles?" I frowned.
"Yes. Over the last years that we didn't see each other, we made drastic progress in exploring the Frozen Region's inhospitable areas and we discovered a few mines that we managed to use which resulted in us creating stuff that was something we wouldn't expect to make. And some of those ideas are based on what you talk to me about whenever we have casual talks and stuff. Although I am not sure if we got the design just right, it proved to be quite a bit of a big thing for our exploration progress."
I then remembered that I indeed talked to her about those things before but because they were casual talks and I never thought too much about that, I babbled about it on Queen Tanya. Never thought that the siblings would soon incorporate those little talks we have over a glass of wine or a mug of beer into something like this.
"Is my sister here?" Queen Tanya asked.
"Yes. She just returned so you can directly go to the castle and meet her. However, we needed someone to stay behind this walking mansion of yours, Queen Tanya. There are chances that some of the vehicles will need to move from time to time so we would like you all to at least have someone who can remain there to manage it."
Then, the voice of Almira can be heard on the speaker that she installed outside.
"Don't worry about it. I am not going anywhere so if you ever wanted to make this mansion move, just give me a holler."
Queen Tanya nodded and grinned. "What she said."
The guard chuckled before composing himself and saluting. "It's good that you are back Queen Tanya. Please enjoy your visit with Queen Tori. She is a bit depressed right now so it is best to talk to her about it."
After that, the soldier went off and did something else.
"She is depressed? What happened?" Riko asked.
"I don't know. But I am going to talk to her to learn about it."
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As usual, we didn't go in a big group. Father and Mother didn't come with us as Mother wanted to focus back in the mansion on cooking some of the concoctions she was studying while Father wanted to stay to look at the tanks. He asked permission from the guards and they were happy for him to discuss or take a look around it after showing interest and knowledge regarding the tanks. Avos stayed behind as well as he is also fascinated by the tanks.
The elves' siblings wanted to stay behind. As much as they have grown more, they aren't that happy to walk into an unfamiliar land so they want to stay behind. Sora and Akira are staying as well, but based on my assumption, Akira wanted to stay and listen to the discussion as well, as for Sora, perhaps she wanted to rest or maybe just accompany her brother.
This time around though, most of the girls are ready to accompany me and Queen Tanya this time around so as to not be totally out of place, I also asked Atlas to join in as my buddy. Never would we thought that this series of events that are about to happen would eventually be linked to our main task of finding the Tree of Life a lot sooner than we thought.
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