Scowling inside, Ellie forced a chuckle with an excuse coming straight afterward. “Expensive? Of course not. I've got it through my father. He works in the military, so I have some connections. It is free—isn't it nice?”

  “Must be good to have parents.” William frowned, got up from the sofa, and unlike his words, his face was smiling with expectations.

  He took the bait! Ellie was ecstatic and almost cheered out loud. Out of the picture, Celeste and Hound cheered for real, one with a clear desire and one because it had no other choice.

  “Assembly Island? Of course, I am interested,” William said in his final answer, and Ellie swore this was the greatest idea she ever had. A good bait worked, especially when William liked to give little meaning to everything, and Assembly Island was perfect for the little peek.

  Out in a boat, things might get lonely and good. It was a flawless choice and a plan.

  Her smile was genuine, unlike the one that took advantage of others. With the history and interest surrounding it, discussing the Assembly sparked William's curiosity. He heard about it and saw the pictures, but his real eyes were finer with a real, boundless idea.

  That's the place where Mi-Yung worked! His interest in the firmest structure of the Federation was not frail.

  In hindsight, it wasn't a palace or a castle but a prominent government area for the peak of this society. A place where the most powerful Walkers resided! A small island of a few square miles, with enormous structures built on top of huge cliffs and with no bloody access.

  William forgot about most worries at the moment. Access by boat wasn't feasible, and no person could get there that way, but watching? Sightseeing?

  The seas weren't as calm around those sharp cliffs, or so he heard. The Assembly should control those seas so that no accidents or incidents of bad behavior would occur. After all, wasn't it off-limits?

  From time to time, the currents were calmer, the waves were smaller, and a couple of businesses had the privilege of getting closer and inspecting it.

  “I knew you would be interested. The thing is... it is today, so how about I show you a place you have only read about? Right now!” Ellie smiled, held her tickets close, and whispered. “Alone. Without Mi-Yung. It is still her workplace, you know.”

  “Today?!” William was shocked and wondered if he had heard it right.

  “Wouldn't it... meant, I mean...”

  “Nope. The timing is perfect, so why not go? It isn't that late. Starry night is precious, and Assembly is also menacing at night, or so I've heard. Due to my time and library, I never took a glance at that place like this, either. Such a chance doesn't come twice!” Ellie cleverly dodged numerous points and went straight to her goal.

  “You showed and talked about that island a lot all those weeks ago.”William reckoned, judging her with a pleasant smile.

  “And you wonder about that. It's obvious why, and now, you know what I mean. The boat will be a few hundred feet away from that place so that you will see plenty of its features.”

  “I am not arguing about that. I will go. Of course, I will go.” William decided and arranged his hat.

  There was no need for further proof. Ellie's guess about this simpleton went right in her alley. She never felt bored around him, and she wanted to try her best tonight and finally realize everything. It was all for her.

  All plans were in order. No Mi-Yung. No Kafuman... Hopefully? Heidi was still a minor possibility, but Ellie felt right about her chances because nothing indicated otherwise.

  “Let's go then.” She slapped William on his shoulder and turned, letting her dress waver in the motion like her hair.

  Ellie hesitated over William's prompt reply to leave and wondered if Celeste was close or if she really listened to her. Sometimes, that was hard; she wasn't as obvious in her ways anymore, after all.

  Ellie tried to push Celeste out a bit so that she would deal with William alone. It was a little bit petty, considering she helped her a lot, but Ellie had no regrets about it.

  Unfortunately for her, Celeste was still close and hiding as best as she could, even when the pair decided to leave those nice beds. Ellie couldn't notice her in the slightest.

  Above, near the supporting pillars, decorative reinforcement, and large shelves, Celeste was like a spy monkey, more than a dozen feet above the ground and observing.

  No one had seen her climbing and stealthily spying on people, and even Hound hung onto her hand, wishing he had remained somewhere else. He whimpered, looking at the books below in contempt. Oh, how much he wished to tear and read them to shreds.

  Celeste saw Ellie leave this section with William and smiled. "She smells so much better right now. Is that happiness?" Celeste asked, petting Hound as she used her legs for stability alone. There were no mountains here, though some buildings did look like that, and even more felt climbable on the surface.

  Here, around these large, flat caves? She was fine being here rather than out; there were even excellent books and pictures! Those were wonderful but not as wonderful as people and faces.

  They were far from her home, and these rooms weren't like her little cave. Still, she took Dreadus's words for granted and believed living words weren't so bad, nor were those promises or speaking. Words had weight, after all, and she knew them.

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  Thanks to Ellie, her mind changed, and many things followed. Hound didn't change it. He didn't dare, even if he softly barked and let her know something.

  "Go or not?" Celeste voiced an interesting proposal. Wouldn't Dreadus get worried if she went out without him this darn soon? It wasn't as if she was worried about kidnappers; she believed none were daring to do that crap around here, and monsters did lurk in those shiny windows instead, so that was nice.

  Thinking about that for a second, there was no way Dreadus would get worried because time was still in her favor. He was an excellent and still learning guardian, and... well, father was an exaggerated word that Celeste never took seriously. For her, people were people, and anything with a face was a surprising deal of voice.

  Squinting at her targets, she put her act into motion. There was no way that pair would leave her sight tonight.

  ***

  It was yet to be night in the open city square, yet it was getting darker for sure. The calm breeze of a passing day rushed the streets, the sun was crawling close to the horizon, and a pair of late teens walked away from the library.

  By Ellie's charge, of course. She knew the way towards the fjord of her choice, and her success thrilled her. William wore a casual set of clothes and held onto his notebook and a bamboo bottle, wondering what kind of boat he was about to ride. It had been a while since the last time.

  Fjords were all over the outskirts of the Federation, and every District had them. The military was all over the place, but it was the closest to the starting layers of defenses, where the public didn't interfere. There were military harbors and essential ports for businesses that had extensive connections via man-made canals.

  Others were a little different, as the Assembly Island believed that people should conduct their business with freedom. It wasn't relative or subjective.

  Credits moved along with this idea, and due to the military efforts and constant flux of people, most harbors were industrial and quite large. The sea was their calling, with anything inland being residential or home to various types of businesses.

  There were many shops and a conglomeration of companies. Fishing was a thriving activity, and great deals came out of it, with canals and rivers built to connect the edges to most Districts. It was also where large-scale operations happened.

  For example, the Federation's scaling project always touched on the edges for one particular reason. Walkers. This land wouldn't grow by itself, wouldn't it?

  In the east, commonly known as an Industrial District by every citizen, large-scale docks and industries revolved around private companies, and there were fewer shops. They did a lot of things there. Almost all the Federation's public technological resources were in this region.

  It made sense because industrial development ensured that people would thrive and advance, and jobs would move along with it. The other district's edges were a mix between this and smaller shops, factories, and fishing businesses.

  William learned a lot about how such things mattered even Outside, and this place was no different. Most floors of the library gave him even more ideas about it, yet here, it gave the Federation a completely different level of development. There were countless links to notice, and everything had a purpose, be it history, lands, technology, or Walkers.

  For another example, food was seen as a critical resource. Camps were a massive part of it, and he understood that more than most people. But in the Federation, there were no such things as vast, broad farms. Instead, many hidden processing factories were located here, with most not operating elsewhere due to energy constraints or management.

  Many critical businesses were hiding below the surface, and William couldn't see them, nor understand their scale or operations. Ellie quickly described it to him as an incredibly efficient machination of resources and time.

  Food included meat farms, freezers where they stored them, and large-scale farming methods not seen Outside were also there. Known as elevation farms, William doubted how they worked. It was a relatively simple method: high-efficiency, involving light, water, and less soil than one would ever expect.

  As for the companies and industries involved in the edges, Ellie didn't insist on teaching him about it. At best, she promoted it by describing the Federation as one of the more advanced places in this world.

  It wasn't difficult to believe it. He agreed that development came with people, followed by a lot of safety and resources, and not knowing about it wouldn't hurt him. Outside was unable to progress in the same category. Struggle and hope for the best, that's what he knew.

  More than half of the industries lived and worked because of war and power. There were numerous factories producing weapons, firearms, protective items, machines, ammunition, and other related products.

  He even learned a few things about Enginist and Machinists or how they could be seen as progressively impressive professions akin to Walker's ranks.

  Enginists were seen as beginners, capable of repairing and maintaining machines. Machinists elevated them by knowledge and vast practicality. Then, there were Engineers who were at the tip of the iceberg, either running multiple places, controlling all aspects of many projects, and developing this land in a way Walkers couldn't.

  That meant with a clever mindset, a ton of work, and planning rather than decisive actions.

  Without electricity, this wouldn't work all that well. There was also a need to house and feed a million people. It was wonderful that such a large-scale place emerged from a tiny land formerly known as Bermuda.

  It was a genius-level work of Walkers, or maybe the old world's ideas helped it as well, if not better. William learned it had been on the drawing board for many long decades, and making a fortress away from North and South America was a neat yet extremely ambitious objective. Hawaii was also sounding good, but he learned it had broken long before the plans came to fruition.

  Occupations such as Machinist and Enginist were much more popular in the Federation than Outside. They had resources and more options, and William understood this reason.

  Engineers were often the seniors of their professions, so they were like elders, essential architects, and rulers of science and machinery. They were among the most prominent individuals holding jobs in the market, which few could ever attain.

  Every Engineer was worth a Rank 4 Walker position, if not much more, and their choices and work were either private, regulated by the Assembly, which often had to adopt rules about those industries, or the Council of Common People would decide the rest.

  There should be a point in running this place, and major decisions or jobs must go through some level of regulation. People also had a choice and a voice in this matter.

  A private business could work with anything as long as no one found it unbearable, unnecessary, or wrong. The bigger this gets, the more attention from the committee or the Assembly happened.

  Funds moved those ideas, jobs made them possible, and Walkers would never stop the advancement as long as the science people said so.

  Thus, the Committee of the CCP, composed of ordinary people, was seen as a second decision-maker, comprising important, older, or clever individuals. They were still under the Assembly, which had to mind their final words if things were satisfactory for these people, for they were no kings. That was something Old Dream had to acknowledge, even if not every Pillar was okay with it.

  William kind of understood why and how it worked. Walkers were at the overall peak of the hierarchy, but what would they do without people? Every regular person had a voice. Hence, industries and the CCP had their purpose and opportunities to touch and influence this land.