Chapter 262: The Queen’s Proclamation
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The elves of Aerym had not seen such a strange announcement for a long time. They were familiar with the emergency calls for various disasters however, they had not received word of good news behind the order of emergency mobilisation for thousands of years. The sudden, strange news confused the one billion elves. Some of the more sensitive ones could vaguely guess that something was happening. An unknown anxiety and excitement pervaded the society of Aerym and spread to each elf. The more attentive citizens also noticed another thing: the royal area had been cordoned off and during the last few hours, the material dispatch as well as management personnel of the floating isles had been summoned to Dawnbreak Island. This had not occurred since the previous disaster mobilisation.
There was no doubt that an earth-shattering event was about to happen.
Excluding the elves in key positions, who had to work overtime, more and more elves went back home to count their personal belongings as per the bulletin's instruction. They made contact with their friends as well as relatives and waited for further news in front of the many media terminals that could receive the royal broadcast. All the media terminals, including the screens along the city street, were rarely activated and only lit up to release important information. They were now all broadcasting the same waiting screen. The display on the screen was simple, there was only a clock, counting down time: The concept of "time" was something very vital to the society of Aerym. Any meeting had a fixed time limit. All participants, including members of the Royal Family had to make a decision within the time limit. At the end of the countdown, whether the outcome of the conference had been met or not, the results had to be publicized at the last minute of the conference. It was their unique way of doing things. The clock was timing the meeting that was being held by the Assembly of Elders. At the end of the countdown, Hilda would announce the results in person.
Finally, the countdown came to an end. A ripple flashed across the bulletin board and Hilda's figure appeared before all the elves of Aerym.
"My people, I am your queen. I am sure that you have received an advanced notice hours ago and communicated the message to everyone in accordance with the announcement. I hope that now, every elf in Aerym is waiting in front of the information screen as required because I will now publish an extremely important message that involves each and every one of us," said Hilda with a solemn expression. "We are going to a new home, a new world of rich resources."
Hilda paused for a while, as if she sensed the strong anxiety and shock from every city on the floating isles; a total of one billion elves. She gave her people time to react and p repare for the next bit of information. Then, she went on, "The space-time accelerator experiment was not a complete failure. It succeeded in sending at least one person to the distant new world and that person was me. Everyone probably knows about the explosion, which happened a month ago and that I have been missing for a while. Now, I will tell you..."
Hilda's calm and dignified voice resonated throughout the whole island chain of Aerym. All kinds of noises under each dome were hushed at this moment. Levitating cars stopped at the top of the nearest tower, and engineering machines, which were running everywhere slowly shut down. Some of the elves came out of their homes, looking puzzled and shocked. They all listened to the queen's voice, which echoed through the dome. They looked around with a confused expression and saw that their neighbors had a similar look on their faces. The elves could not believe that the news they witnessed on their information screens at home was true so, they went outside to verify. They saw the same image on every giant display screen along the streets, with the same audio everywhere.
This was an overwhelming fact.
There was nothing superior in the "Queen's Proclamation" or any complicated, official rhetoric. She was the ruler of her people. As such, she was now telling them about what she had experienced during her time in another world. Her delivery was calm as if she was telling a story:
"...I was sent to a new world with rich resources, and I have also met some creatures with noble souls as well as strong powers. I have been rescued by some of their members and I came back here with the help of their advanced technology to bring you this exciting news..."
More and more elves came out of their homes to listen to this incredible story on the streets. It seemed like that was the only way they could confirm with each other that what they were hearing was real. The same occurred on Dawnbreak Island, but more elves chose to gather in the open space outside the Royal Zone: the city had yet to recover from the previous disaster, and things were only beginning to return to normal. The area outside the Royal Zone was just an empty space. Some of the collapsed buildings had been cleared. At that point, these empty spaces were crowded with elves. The crowd gathered in a strange silence and whispered to each other about what was going on.
"...We have been allowed to start a new life in a new, resource-rich planet. The master of the planet has generously lent us the whole planet until we can find other new homes with our own technology. The Assembly of Elders and the representative of the Royal Political Council have just reached a consensus that the great migration of Aerym will commence in three days. The transportation fleet from higher civilisation will come to us. My dear people, you can rest assured of this great migration. It is absolutely safe and reliable. It is also the last chance for our entire race. The next step will be for each dome city to declare their independent materials and publicise a personnel registration program. The entire migration process will be carried out in batches and continue until the last elf arrives safely in our new home."
After the announcement, Hilda handed the rest over to her son and the venerable elves from the Assembly of Elders. This highly efficient society was beginning to operate at full capacity to prepare for the upcoming great migration.
There was still much to be done. The first announcement was just a small mobilisation for the residents. The next stage was the work on the government-level: to build an inventory and integrate the resources of the whole of Aerym, then choose and classify various materials for situations they may face after the great migration. A series of temporary working groups would be formed to deal with problems faced during the great migration. There were, of course, temporary situations that needed to be addressed such as allowing the elves, who were overwhelmed by the breaking news to calm down, letting everyone believe that everything was real, and letting the confused departments heads, who were not much stronger than ordinary elves to start working as soon as possible. These were the most important things at the moment.
The Kingdom of Aerym also planned to build a team that specialized in negotiating with alien civilisations. Those long-distance drivers would be the first ever in history to have official contact with the elves of Aerym. The elves attached great importance to this matter.
Despite that, Hao Ren still felt they were just a bunch of common drivers...
After returning to the Royal Tower, Hilda soon appeared before Hao Ren. He was feeling quite awkward. "I heard your speech—that made me feel kinda awkward, what do you mean noble soul?"
Vivian was behind Hao Ren, poking his waist and saying, "Stop pretending. Just now, you were laughing like a husky."
"There is nothing to be awkward about," said Hilda with a smile. "I know I was exaggerating but, it will enhance the people's confidence in this matter. You must not take it seriously."
Hao Ren's smiling face immediately turned into a poker face. He felt that one needed to have a strong psychological endurance when communicating with the queen. She was too frank and open.
"After this, we just have to wait for the great migration, which will happen in three days," Hao Ren said as he rubbed his face. "Have you sent the migration documents that I gave you to the Assembly of Elders and Royal Political Council? The documents were prepared by the goddess herself. They contain all the previous accounts of the ancient species."
"Of course. We could see the value of those documents at first glance," said Hilda as she smiled and nodded. "Vimm almost takes it as a divine revelation. Umm, well, that is actually a divine revelation. In short, we are now organizing the material inventory committee and the medical preparation group. We are also ensuring that each group of elves will have enough health care personnel and material dispatchers during the migration, and we will get the survival system ready."
"Well, yes, the last one is very important. Although the environment in Peatopia is very good, your people may still be unable to adapt to it, especially when it comes to diseases. This problem has taught a lot of careless races a lesson."
"Have faith that the elves of Aerym possess miraculous medical skills, and we have very powerful life magic even without our equipment," Hilda said and smiled proudly. "We have exceptional confidence in it."
"Don't be so confident," the MDT whispered. "There were lots of races, more advanced than you, who used to explore foreign planets, and they were very well-prepared as well. They had hundreds of inspection and quarantine procedures, but in the end, they could not cope with the alien flu virus and they learned the hard way."
"You can rest assured that I will take this matter seriously," said Hilda solemnly.
Hao Ren nodded, but as he was about to say something, he was interrupted by a man who rushed in: It was Vimm.
"Mother," said the young prince regent hastily, "the Lotto Group and part of the dissident groups are taking action!"