Chapter 856: Why now?

"This is a truly wonderful house, Eisen, are you sure that..." Khan started, looking at Eisen with an unsure expression. However, Eisen immediately nodded his head in response.

"Of course. I want you to be comfortable in this place. And until we manage to find a way to permanently rid you of the curse, that means to make you a home that can properly accomodate you."

Khan was taken aback for a moment, "What do you mean? You"re planning on gettind rid of the curse?"

Eisen sighed lightly, "I saw your expression when I introduced you to Silber. It"s clear that you"re not particularly happy with the situation you"re in. And frankly, with all the new information that we"ve gathered recently, it seems like we"ll be able to figure out a cure for the curse at some point. Or rather... it might already be hidden somewhere, but I can"t say for sure."

The elderly giant looked at the man in front of him, "If... if it was possible to rid the world of this curse, then why haven"t you done so already? Why didn"t you do it when you had the actual power to change the rules of the world?"

Eisen noticed Khan"s voice. He was growing upset, but Eisen absolutely couldn"t blame him. It was a horrible situation, and Eisen himself had wondered the same thing a few times. But of course, there was a simple conclusion he came to every single time, "Because I couldn"t."

"So then what changed now? Why can you do it now?!"

"Because Samuel can no longer control us now. I used to think that Samuel only controlled us with the promise of returning to Earth, but after how long I"ve lived here, I"m not sure that was enough. He probably did something that would restrict us more, though I have no idea what it is exactly," Eisen explained, "Clearly, it wasn"t something that let him command us fully.

Otherwise, there would have never been a reason to "punish" the giants after I disobeyed him. But it was enough to restrict us into following the goals he set out for us. And I believe that, at the same time, he also had some way to punish us that he doesn"t have anymore. When we reset out "experience" points, I believe whatever control he used to have over us was completely removed as well."

"...And so? That restriction being gone is why you believe you can undo the curse?"

"Something like that. It"s... all very complicated. I might be wrong about all of this, but fact is that before, Samuel was able to do things that he can"t do now. If he was able to place a curse on a whole race, then why can"t he do anything to stop us right now? I think it"s all linked somehow," Eisen explained, looking at the elderly man in front of him, "I promise that I"m working on it, okay?

You"ll be rid of this curse at some point."

Khan looked down at the ground, and without looking back at Eisen replied to him, "I see... I"m sorry, Eisen, could I maybe ask you to leave me be for the time being? Again, I thank you for this wonderful home."

Eisen nodded and placed the key to the house onto the table next to the armchair, "Use this to lock the door if you head out. And just let Serio know if there"s anything you need to know about how anything here works, alright?"

As the elderly giant replied with a silent nod, Eisen left the house, closing the door behind him. Though he should have expected it, he didn"t know that Khan was going to react so strongly to that information. Then again, Eisen maybe should have expected it. Despite being given a longer lifespan, Khan had spent basically all of that time he was gifted being afflicted by that curse.

Having his life slowly altered and worsened over the past ten thousand years, not just by age, but also by the effects of the curse himself. At his age now, he must have gotten used to living like this that the idea of living without the curse seemed impossible.

And now, being told that this wasn"t the case, and that there must have been a way for him to never have to suffer like he did in the first place, must be something quite hard to deal with.

The old man let his body be filled with his magic as he turned into his demonic form, his wings spreading out behind him. With a quick flap, he flew into the air, making himself shrink down as he approached Xenia"s magic tower. There was nothing he could do about Khan right now other than just let him deal with those emotions on his own.

He was old enough to know when to ask others for help, so Eisen was sure he was going to do just that if he needed it. So instead, he figured talking to Xenia about his new plans wasn"t the worst idea.

He landed in the tower"s window, stepping into dust-filled study, "Are you here, Xenia?"

"Hm?" from behind a desk, the high-elf"s voice sounded out. She was hidden by a stack of books and scrolls that were placed onto the desk itself as well as the ground surrounding it. Though, she didn"t seem particularly bothered by that; instead, she was happily sorting through them all, as she always did, "Oh, what brings you here? You don"t drop by here that often."

"I just wanted to run an idea by you," the old man started, and Xenia raised her brow curiously.

"I see? What kind of an idea? You know I"m already busy as is trying to decypher the rest of the meeting room and preparing for the inscriptions to be made in the new place, right?"

"Of course, but I figured you might be interested in this anyway. It feels like figuring out how to make it work through enchantments and magics would be right up your alley."

"...Okay, so what is it?" Xenia asked. Eisen could tell that she was incredibly curious. Her ears were twitching as they always did when she wanted to know something, even if her face was hiding it fairly well.

"A train. That"s what we"re going to be building."

"What do you mean? What would we..." the elf started a bit confused, before she really started to think about it. She quickly realized what it was that Eisen was talking about, and stood up from her seat excitedly, "A train spreading throughout the world? Seriously?"

Eisen grinned broadly, "Right, I figured you"d be interested. If we can figure out a proper railway system, then that"s going to solve a ton of issues at once, don"t you think?"

"Yes! Definitely! Though it would of course be extremely expensive and time-intensive to construct, not to mention the issue of actually getting permission to build it all, but..."

"That"s exactly what we"re here to figure out. I"ll suggest it to Komer as well, and I"ll have him help me figure out a way to explain it all to the emissaries that will be coming to deal with the peace treaty. And as for the construction, we"ll definitely be able to create some tools to make it all much, much easier," the old man explained, and Xenia thought for a moment.

"But wouldn"t it also be a great opportunity to give work to others? Especially with more and more artificials coming in, a lot of people in the central continent are apparently being pushed out of their work," she pointed out, and Eisen immediately nodded his head.

"Right, exactly. That"s why we"d just be doing the designing and building the prototypes. The rest of the construction would be done by other enchanters and metalworkers. Komer already started up a construction business recently, so he should be able to expand it specifically for the creation of railways as well.

And of course, he mentioned he wanted to get deeper involved in manufacturing processes as well, beyond just using the items I make for the shops."

Xenia laughed slightly, "That kid is really incredible, isn"t he? He"s working himself like a madman, but everytime I talk to him, he sounds more energetic than the last."

"Well? You"re in, right?" Eisen asked, though the answer was clear in the first place.

"Are you kidding? Of course I am!"