All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 306: The Beach Episode

Bee walked into the city ahead of a small contingent of her people. To her surprise, the city guards were already hard at work, clearing a path through the busy streets toward the governor's mansion.

Arthur, having left his second in charge of setting up camp outside the city walls, brought a squad of bodyguards along, but they were almost entirely unneeded. The only time one of them had to act was to help move a cart out of the way. The guards were very proficient at clearing the path, and soon, they were in a meeting room with the governor.

Aunt Beatrix and Arthur wasted no time diving into matters of trade, vassalage, and other political imports. Bee was more than happy leaving that to her treasurer. Honestly, she might be able to do a half-decent job at negotiating this stuff herself, but her aunt would do far better. Besides, at Bee's level of power, it was better to sometimes sit in the back and be intimidating rather than actually do any of the detailed work.

The idea the city had so easily surrendered to her and acknowledged her as ruler was still a bit concerning to Bee. On one hand, it was good that there wasn't going to be any conflict, but on the other, it further solidified her own personal status as ruler.

It should have been Void, or at least the church as a whole, but no. It was her personal authority being recognized. Maybe she was just worrying about details, but it made her a little uncomfortable.

When she was younger, she thought she knew everything. But now that she had turned 14 and had a little bit more experience, she realized there was still so much she needed to learn. Despite all the books she'd read and things she'd gone through, all it had done was show her how little she really knew. She was feeling a little bit overwhelmed.

But as much as it felt like she was still fumbling blindly, she knew things would work out. By the grace of Void, if nothing else. Besides, that's why she had so many advisors. To help support her in areas where she needed it.

As the conversation continued, Bee realized that she hadn't seen her master in a while. She looked around and even checked under the desk, much to the governor's confusion, but couldn't find Void anywhere. Confused, she focused on her connection with her master and found that Void was still nearby, at least. But that gave her little to no clue what her god was up to.

---

I snuck away as the group headed towards the city hall. I needed to find out more about this governor, man. I didn't trust him, and any intention he had towards Beatrice seemed weird.

While the others talked, I hid myself in the mansion, sneaking about to investigate this matter. There, I found a middle-aged woman and several young children being cared for by a nanny and a few servants as she ran the house.

I thoroughly investigated the house and found a painting with the same woman standing next to the governor, children gathered around their knees. That made no sense. Did he have a wife and kids already? If that was the case, I had to be misunderstanding something.

Based on what I knew, a kiss usually meant something very intimate among humans. I had assumed that a kiss on the back of the hand was no different. But maybe it was? I had never seen anyone do that before. So, it's very possible that I was massively misunderstanding.

Then again, I was pretty good at understanding humans by this point. Surely I couldn't make that big of a false assumption?

I left the governor's house undisturbed and instead scanned the city for books. Whatever books I could find. I found a public library, snuck in through an open window, and began roaming between the stacks. I scanned the shelves for any books on human etiquette, but it was too broad of a search. Dating advice for young people, however, gave a few more matches. Scanning through them, none of them mentioned anything about kissing the back of the hand.

I was relieved but not entirely satisfied. It seemed that I had, in fact, made a misunderstanding, but that didn't mean I understood what had happened at all. And I really wanted to get to the bottom of it.

The third sort of term I searched for was noble etiquette. I eventually found a book that explained noble etiquette to young scions of noble houses. I read through it quickly and realized that I had, in fact, found what I was looking for. It appeared that a kneel and kiss to the back of the hand usually signified a greeting from a lesser noble to a higher female noble, sometimes a male noble, depending on the circumstance.

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Finally, I was able to relax. I had an answer. I quickly took in the rest of the book just in case it helped me avoid further misunderstandings. The contents baffled me. These customs were quite complicated. Why did humans make everything unnecessarily complex? Not to mention inefficient. With their processing power and memory, I wasn't sure how anyone was meant to keep this all in their head.

Well, at least that was done. My mind at ease, I left to go explore the city.

***

Beatrice's meeting with the governor only took a few hours. It was a rather fruitful one, judging by how pleased the group was. But after they were done, she told me that she needed to go do something that she had been dreading for a very long time. It was time for her to talk to her father.

Now, I wasn't really sure why that was such an intimidating thing, but I was coming along for moral support. She seemed to appreciate it, at least.

We made our way to the edge of the city, near the water. It was past the port district, which I had already spent a decent amount of my spare time cleaning up. The place had been simply unacceptable with its salt residue and barnacle-encrusted surfaces.

No, we headed towards a wealthier area that had homes looming over the few feet of rocky coastline. One home stood out among the crowd, however. And as luck would have it, that was the home we were heading for.

I looked at it aghast. The ocean itself was a problem that I had compartmentalized, shoving to the back of my mind for the sheer immensity of it. It was something I'd have to come back to.

The rocky coastline was only barely acceptable, given that it was smooth stone. The algae and residue on it wouldn't be too hard to clean off. But between sections of rocks, right below the house in question, a single stretch of coastline had been completely smoothed over and filled with sand. Sand.

It was a complete desecration. Sure, sand and dirt and everything were naturally occurring, and to some extent, I had to accept that. But this was clearly an intentional move. To take sand and move it to someplace that didn't have it in the first place? Why? Clearly, this sand in the water wasn't natural. And even worse, it was being replaced. In order for it to still be here, despite the water washing it away, it had to be replaced constantly.

Someone had been intentionally making a mess of the coastline, and this would have to be fixed.

My focus zeroed in on the crisis in front of me. Beatrice went up to the house, presumably to talk to the owner about what a horrible thing they'd done. I was sure we would get around to talking to her father later, but first, I went to fix this monstrosity.

At first, I considered just hoovering the whole mess up and moving it back to a place that was more acceptable. But that wasn't going to be enough. This was too deliberate. Too blatant. I had to ensure that no one could do this again. No one would simply replace the sand once again.

And so, seeing no other solution, I began to let loose with my laser. My full-powered sanitation lamp heated up the particles of sand until they were thousands of degrees, turning them into liquid. The molten material flowed together as I moved along, my pace ensuring that it cooled off almost instantly while maintaining the same shape. As I worked, I flattened the surface, leaving attractive whorls and ripples in its surface to show just how much better a floor was than something like loose sand.

It took me almost half an hour, but using my laser at the highest power, I was able to melt the beach into a perfectly preserved monument for the folly of man. Through the crystal-clear glass, you could see where the natural rocks beneath the layer of sand had been shifted so that it was more of a flat surface rather than craggy. But despite having been shifted, their rugged beauty still shone through. The dark black shimmered underneath a freshly made six-to-twelve inches of solid glass.

There were no sharp points; everything was well-rounded, so people could walk on it without hurting themselves. While it normally would have been quite smooth and unsteady to walk on, I had managed to texture it subtly enough to alleviate that issue.

I did make some other very minor changes to the topology of the now entirely glass beach. Obviously, I designed channels to ensure that any water from the ocean would drain away completely and avoid pooling in my project. It'd be best if it was regularly cleaned regardless to rinse the salt off, and this would make that easier.

I let out a long beep of relief. Finally, that catastrophe was taken care of. Now I needed to go find Beatrice. Hopefully, she was done giving the owner of this place a stern talking to, and we could go find her father.

I zipped up and over and through an open window of the house to find Beatrice sitting down across a large oval table. Across from her lounge was a stocky man with a well-trimmed gray beard and eyes the same color as Beatrice's. They sat as far as possible from each other across the table, a teapot sitting between them and two cups that seemed untouched. Occasionally, one would speak, but the situation generally looked quite odd.

When I came in and waved to the two of them, Beatrice brightened. "Ah! Master, this is my father. Father, this is Lord Void."

I stopped and stared.

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