Atlantis. A place believed to be more of a myth than history by most people in her past life. The legends of the City of Atlantis, a symbol of a possible past prosperous advanced civilization led people to search for its traces to no avail. But this didn't discourage curious minds to search for the Lost City of Atlantis.
In the past months she spent here since she left the hospital, most of the time she spent she was busy devouring books from the library from topics like the Annukazian War History to Cookbooks. Yes, she's that bored.
So now that she's strolling around the magnificent city for the first time, although she haven't been outside much or explored the city for herself these past few months, she wasn't as shocked by the sights. Though it was still impressive seeing it with her own eyes. Sol was a soldier in her childhood and a researcher for a good 3 years so she didn't really have the chance to roam around to take in the beautiful sights of the city.
The city of Atlantis is just as beautiful as it was told in the legends of her past life (even if it's just the same name and she's in another world). Waterways cutting through the entire city serving both as a way to transport water supply through the city and for transportation. This reminded her of Italy.
Most of the buildings were made of what seemed to be sandstones with the exception of the castle. The castle of the rulers of Atlantis called the "Heart of the Ocean" was made by the hands of humans to serve as the abode of the Annukazian royalty. But ever since the city was liberated from them 291 years ago, it served as the home of the Atlantean Royalty, leaders of humanity.
The city of Atlantis were bustling with activity as Sol strolled through the crowd to make her way to the market at the west side of the middle ring of the city.
Atlantis is divided into four rings and there are 3-4 district in each rings. The so called middle ring of the city is the second-most inland ring of Atlantis, next to the innermost ring where the castle and other important establishments are.
The Middle Ring or the 2nd Ring is where most commoners with substantial wealth reside. It is also where most of the bustling places in Atlantis. Everywhere you look in the second ring, there would be stalls and items sold by either foreigners who've come to trade or made by the local Atlanteans.
The place where she's going is the west side of the 2nd Ring, also called the Trade Center of Atlantis where foreigners from other continents and locals alike gather the most to trade and sell their wares.
Sol is planning to look there to see if there's something that can help her research in any way. Although she's been allowed to live in the 1st Ring and also allowed to enter the Royal Library as she pleases, her status as a researcher has been revoked. This made it so that she can't access top secret technologies that they seized from the Annukazians anymore.
But despite this, her soul as a researcher was still lit. There are many things that this place lacks. This place is indeed advanced in terms of weaponry and architectural designs among other things, but it lacks one thing she really wants in her life. ENTERTAINMENT!
Now you may say it is illogical for her to want entertainment when the war isn't even over yet. There is only one reason why— she's bored as hell! Sol spent 7 years in war with the Annukazians until she retired 3 years ago and became a researcher. She spent more than half of her life contributing for their survival, the least she could do for herself now is give her life some color or else she's gonna blow (not literally).
This is the reason why she wants to go to the Trade Center. First is because she needs to buy materials for her research and also to seek inspiration for her endeavor.
As a person who has tasted the pleasures of the 21st Century she cannot, may not, and will not accept the absence of entertainment. Indeed there are entertainment that exists here in the form of games of children and something that resembles chess, but games of the 21st century are unparalleled!
That's just games and there are many more ways of entertainment back in her past life. Such as sports, movies, television dramas, music— AHHHHH! I just remembered that I won't hear any of Beethoven's Sonata No.24, R. Schumann's Symphonic Etudes or Rachmaninoff's Sonata No.1 anymore!
As she remembered the loss of not being able to hear those classical pieces anymore, Sol continued on her way to the Trade Center with a gloom radiating off of her making others instinctively avoid her.
Without Sol realizing it, she walked and finally arrived at the Trade Center in a daze still immersed in her gloomy thoughts.
"I have decided! I will try to recreate them here! There's no piano? I'll make one! I will show them the greatness of those people I admire!"
Sol's sudden outburst of determination attracted the attention of people around her making them look at her oddly. The stares that everyone was giving her made her embarrassed causing her to pull down her hood and ran into the bustling market. She needs to get away from that place lest she further embarrass herself.
"Lireja Fruits from the land beyond the Leo Stargate! Freshly picked from the H'rella Family's territory."
"Candied Acias! Only for 10 Coppers!"
"Recently caught large snappers! Perfect for dinner with the family!"
Once she was inside the bustling trade center she navigated through the crowded place full of people hawking for their wares and others browsing for the things they need. She saw many things such as pottery, clothes and hand sewn wares, fruits and vegetables among many other things.
But these things didn't catch her eye. This was the outer part of the Trade Center with only locals from the third and fourth ring or foreigners selling their wares. What she wants is at the inner part. More specifically at the Royal Atlantean Auction House.
Aside from reading books at the Royal Library about this world's current level of knowledge (which shocked her by how skewed it was), she was trying to replicate one of the most important things in her eyes— a phone! Of course she's not talking about the nigh indestructible Nokia phone, no, she's talking about smartphones.
Oh how she missed the convenience of a phone. Due to the highly militaristic view of Atlanteans brought by their long years of war, convenience was at the bottom of their bucket list and cold practicality first. They can't afford convenience right now as the war isn't over yet. Although the Annukaz were driven out of the planet, they were still harassing the planet by sending scouts and fighting skirmishes just a few miles above the exosphere of Terra.
So even though their race was now allowed to take a break after (super) bloody wars, the Atlanteans still prioritizes practicality over comfort. But! Does she need to listen to such bullshit? She can understand why there's no games but why weren't there any form of convenient communication. Sol can understand that this may be because of how they fought the Annukaz using as little of their technology to prevent being wiped out, but why can't those researchers do something useful!
Just as Sol was fuming at the slow researchers (her former colleagues) are, she suddenly felt an itch and sneezed.
"Someone thinking about me? I hope it's not Khan."
Her priority for coming here was to look for components that will help her build a smartphone. A smartphone can provide her with both the convenient communication tool and entertainment. Looking for inspirations for her next projects is second on her list. She needs to finish this project at least in a year or two so that she can prove that even if she lost her left hand, she can still prove useful for the Research Institute.
Speaking of her left hand, not feeling anything there is quite odd for her. Sometimes she thought about the possibility of making a replacement hand but current technologies are too crude. I'm so jealous of those Annukazian's who can heal even after a limb of theirs were cut off. It's a miracle that we drove those monstrous tyrants out of the planet.
Sol shook her head and put the thoughts about restoring her left hand to the back of her mind. When she gets back to being a researcher in service of the military, she will have plenty of time to search for a way to do it. Now she just needs to worry about the auction and whether they have what she needs or not.
Sol went and entered a restaurant to eat out. The sun is almost coming down and she needs to eat her dinner first. Although she learned that the Auction House seemed to offer food for guests, surely their food can't be better than an appetizer from a renowned restaurant.
The place she went and dined in was called "Pearl". It was a simple name. The restaurant has an open space rooftop garden where guests can eat and also private rooms underground where they can eat while watching the fishes in the sea.
Right, Sol failed to mention that the whole city of Atlantis is a man-made island. The whole city itself powered by four nuclear fusion powerplants located at the castle. She always wondered how they made those powerplants so small since she remembered her memories but she just chalked it all up to it being alien tech. It seemed like those Annukazian's were at Level 2 of the Kardashev Scale at least.
Sol entered the restaurant and asked for a private room underground after ordering her dinner. She never experienced eating underwater in both her current and past life (mostly because she's poor in her past life and she's busy fighting aliens at space in this life) so this is very novel to her.
The room itself was lit by dim neon blue lights. Seeing the depths of the ocean and countless fishes swimming by through the see through glass walls of the private room she reserved made her smile faintly. Sol contemplated that it was indeed a good decision to eat first before the auction.
As she sat at her seat taking in the novel view, a person soon entered the room and brought in the food she ordered. What she ordered was a medium-rare Vril (basically beef) steak and Barbequed Hobei (Pig) Trotters with bread on the side. Her appetizer was surprisingly just some sort of salad made up of greens she can't recognize. There's also an Acia (apple) pie as desert.
After the person left, Sol lowered her hood to make it easier to eat. She then started eating by cutting a piece of steak first and savoring it. After taking a bite she admits that this restaurant deserves its name and reputation.
Sol enjoyed her dinner tonight. It will be one of her most memorable memories within this city of Atlantis aside from those beautiful books at the library. Those books will never leave her mind as the Royal Library is her sanctuary. Though it could've been better with rice and also a hand. It was hard eating with only one hand.
After she finished dining, she let out a satisfied burp before reaching out to the bell left by the person who served her the dishes. She rang the bell and the person entered the room. But just as she greeted her... she suddenly stood frozen in place making her frown in confusion. Perhaps this made her wake up from her stupor as she immediately regained her composure and continued to bring the dishes to her cart and place a bottle of wine and a glass on her table. This made Sol confused.
"Wine?"
"Yes, miss. Do you have a specific preference?"
"I didn't order for wine..."
"Oh, miss. Didn't you ring that bell?"
It was then that Sol realized that she misunderstood. She have read too much novels that her knowledge about specific stuff are quite skewed. Being a poor person in her past life and a busy military Major she can only blame herself for her lack of knowledge. It seems like she needs to read more books about noble etiquette and mannerisms starting now.
"Ah. I didn't order for 'that' wine, I wanted something stronger tonight."
"I see, miss. I'll bring you one of our finest."
For now, it seems like she bluffed her way through it. Sol is not really a person who likes alcoholic beverages. Even if it's normal for underage people in this world to drink after 10 years old, she never drank. As for her past life... well she was 18 then and never really bothered with drinking aside from a few occasions.
"I am indeed curious about its taste though. I also wanna act cool and swirl a glass of wine like a badass villainess while monologuing."
Ah. It's a shame that there's no camera here. It is a big wonder though that they have holographic rooms here. Just another case of having a skewed technology tree due to the influence of alien technology. I really do need to go make a smartphone quickly.
The doors of the private room soon opened and the sight of a young lady bringing in an exquisitely decorated bottle of wine was a sight for her eyes.
"This here is one of our finest, "Deep Sea Embers" brewed by the 6th Master of Aquarius. Over 103 years."