When they returned to the large hall where the banquet was held, Nafız observed that the atmosphere was very quiet; only the sound of someone smacking their lips while eating echoed on the walls decorated with works of art.
"Are you walking in a swamp, man?"
Seeing the reason for the tense stillness, the female orc shouted at her friend, but the orc who had collapsed at the head of the table didn't seem to have any intention of answering her.
"Alyon, what are you doing?"
When Nafız came and tapped him lightly on the head, the grey-haired orc warrior would snap out of the hypnotic state he had entered.
"Oh, what beautiful dishes they made!"
Wiping his sauce-covered mouth with the sleeve of his leather armor, Alyon spoke quickly while keeping one eye on the dishes he hadn't eaten yet.
"Those white things you showed were too small; since we can eat unlimited amounts of everything, I thought why not make the whole table my plate!"
This was the brief summary of what happened; in an elite environment where pleasant melodies echoed, the high-pitched eating sounds of the barbarian orc warrior had ruined all the harmony.
"Half the table is gone; get up so the other people can come and take something too! By the way, where is our druid? I couldn't see him."
"Fine, fine, you didn't let a man eat with any pleasure!"
"That scrawny brat left with other druids who look like him!"
While getting up half-heartedly from the table he had been occupying for a long time, Alyon was still grumbling; although the grey-haired orc had eaten worlds, his eye was still on the food left behind.
"Master!"
Leonardo understood what the female orc actually meant from her intonation; gesturing to a statue with his hand, he would continue speaking.
"Before I came here, unfortunately, many druids were captured and used as experiments for scientific research. Currently, they are our guests, not our prisoners; this work you see is a statue made by the druids to commemorate their kinsmen who died!"
The messy-haired man was sincere in his words; the previous rulers of the region they occupied were people who turned a blind eye to everything in the name of scientific progress. According to these people, who applied whatever they learned in the schools of the Empire of Machines without judgment, what they did was not heartlessness but merely a price that had to be paid for progress.
"If that's the case, I would like to go and meet these druids; is it possible?"
Nafız had seen enough for this evening; sensing that the environment couldn't handle Alyon, she wanted to leave this place as soon as possible.
"Of course, the residence we arranged for you is already very close!"
Under Leonardo's leadership, the two orcs began to advance on another path in the opposite direction of the way they entered the residence. Although the path was narrow enough for only two people to walk, the tops of the pedestals erected on its sides were decorated with busts.
"Master, what do the upper echelons of the Empire of Machines think about your actions here?"
Everything was well and good, but it didn't seem logical for people with the mentality Leonardo described to allow such harmful weeds to grow in the lands they occupied.
"I was wondering when you would ask this!"
The face of the messy-haired man, whose general air was cheerful, would start looking at the ground in these minutes; the positivity he always carried on him had evaporated.
"Unfortunately, every beautiful thing has to have a price; I design new weapons for them to sell, and they allow me to live my dream!"
Just as the outside of Master Leonardo's city was bright, its inside was equally dark; he was paying a great price for a small paradise.
He had to compromise his own principles, but the sovereigns of the Empire of Machines were turning a blind eye a little and obtaining considerable profits. They had deceived the unique genius—whom they would have to destroy at the end of the road—with false freedom in a glass jar completely under their control.
"I understand; isn't this the main reason for us being here?"
Everything had become clear as of that moment for Nafız, who was very surprised when Bookworm presented her with the call for cooperation from this region; the Master, unable to escape his cage, was seeking help from the outside.
"I will be honest with you; when my secret student Abgesandte mentioned you, a thought slowly began to sprout inside me. Seeing it with my own eyes this evening, I understood even better that you are our only hope!"
The sovereigns of the Empire of Machines knew very well that he wouldn't stay idle when they exiled him to these desolate lands; they wanted him to act almost as a watchtower by taking control of the Karsak Trade City on the Orc Steppes.
In return, Leonardo hadn't stayed idle either; he had secretly inserted the small child he accepted as his student into the midst of his enemies as a spy.
Afterward, fate would begin to weave its webs rapidly; at the end of long and intricate paths, the interests of both sides matched, and they felt the need to meet at a point.
"We'll sit down and discuss the terms tomorrow, Master; I think what happened is enough for tonight!"
Reaching the utopian city was nothing for Nafız, but what she saw in Leonardo's secret room had hit her from a place she never expected again.
"As you wish, we are already at the place you wanted!"
When they reached the end of the path, the group arrived at a living area isolated from the city, surrounded by trees; although it was still night, the surroundings were illuminated with elegant street lamps.
The druids gathered in the open space in the middle of the houses arranged in a circle ran to them immediately upon seeing the newcomers to welcome them; judging by the respect shown, Master Leonardo was quite popular in this settlement.
"Listen to me, my kinsmen; here are the two orc warriors I told you about!"
Ainle was at the front of the group; seeing the two people he had been describing with admiration to the druids he chatted with for a while right in front of him, he succumbed to his excitement.
"Welcome, Master!"
"Uncle Leonardo, did you bring us toys!"
No matter how magnificent the young druid's stories were, they were just stories in the end; the people of the isolated village couldn't show more interest to anyone else while the man to whom they owed their lives stood there.
"Come here, you scrawny thing; show us where we will stay!"
The short, messy-haired man would be surrounded in an instant; although the Master wanted to introduce the guests who came with him, it was clear as day that this wasn't possible.
While Leonardo struggled, the trio had already reached their residence; when they closed the door and threw themselves to one side, the smile on Ainle's face—bright enough to be the symbol of satisfaction—illuminated the room.
"What's up? Why are you grinning like a baked sheep's head?"
The unhappiest person in the team consisting of two orcs and a druid was Alyon; because he was removed from the table before he was fully full, he was looking for a place to pick a fight.
"I am very happy; isn't it very beautiful to know the existence of druids and humans living intertwined without fights or noise?"
There was nothing to say to Ainle's joy; Nafız, aware of this, wouldn't spoil it, but it wasn't possible for her to block what passed through her mind either.
"Too good to be true!"
When the female orc, keeping this thought to herself, said she wanted to rest a bit before tomorrow's meetings, the others indicated they agreed; while the noise the druids made for the master reached their ears, they retreated to their beds to sleep.
The morning of the long and dark night was noisy, as if to spite the silent hours passed. The food smells accompanying the shouts floating in the air were like harbingers that breakfast time had arrived.
When Nafız woke up and threw herself outside, she saw the druids forming long lines at the head of a large table. This scene would remind her of the orc community they encountered on the way to Parthenia and their savior Asiyürek.