Bea feigned a cough.
“...Are you sure you want to go with that immediately?”
“That one is probably the most difficult one to comprehend.” She crossed her arms below her breasts.
Julius cupped a hand to his ear. “My dear Beatrice, I see you flapping your lips, but I can’t hear you from that far away.”
The maid narrowed her eyes and scrunched her nose, as though she was trying to condense her already small face into a single point.
The adorable sight only made him smile more, as he spread his arms wide.
As always, the pout only remained for a few more seconds before Bea appeared in front of him again.
Julius immediately took her in, enveloping her in his warmth, and she returned the gesture.
“Don’t think I’ve forgiven you.”
He stroked her hair. “Still mad?”
“...Maybe a little.”
Then, he kissed her forehead. “How about now?”
“...”
There wasn’t even a need for an answer as she practically purred into his chest.
With the needy maid appeased, he returned to the previous topic.
“Well? Can you explain it now?”
“...Okay.”
She reluctantly parted from him and approached the desk.
“For starters, what do you understand about the internet?”
Julius sat on the question before answering. “Is it like a library? Like the one in Alexandria but bigger?”
“Yes and no.”
She pressed a button on the black box, which responded with a quiet hum.
“It is a library, yes. But it’s also a marketplace, a theater, a senate, and, to an extent, a public execution square.”
Julius raised an eyebrow at her last point.
But he kept his silence since Bea continued her explanation.
“The internet is more akin to an extensive and far-reaching road that connects all cities and nations of the world…with just a click of a button.”
He silently processed her words when a brand name appeared on the dark mirror, or rather the monitor, which then lit up, revealing an image of an unfamiliar yet beautiful landscape.
Then, she pressed a button on one of the square stones of the…keyboard, and a familiar structure replaced the picture.
Julius raised an eyebrow. “Is that the Hanging Gardens?”
Calling it a mere building was an understatement. It was always more so a mountain. Stairs connected the terraces, each of them filled to the brim with luscious trees and exotic flowers that added more colors to the sight. Waterfalls froze in time in the image, yet one could almost hear them cascading from terrace to terrace.
However, Julius frowned.
“This is all wrong.”
He pointed to the monitor. “Where is that one fig tree that I always used for naps? Where’s that little pillar that was destroyed after your fight with Isolde? And where is the gazebo that Severa frequents to play with the kids from the city?”
Julius could keep going. The image was conceptually accurate, but it evoked none of the feelings that were associated with the place.
The maid quietly listened to his complaints as she restored the armrest of the chair with her shadows.
“That’s a given. This image is just what people imagined the garden looked like since there’s no proof it ever existed.”
“...What?”
The disbelief lasted for half a second before he burst into laughter.
“Haha! Poor Nebby, all that work only for his precious garden to be buried in history. I wonder how he will react if he ever knew about this.”
“He would probably cry but then renovate it to be more durable. And he would grumpily ask you to stop calling him Nebby.”
“Hm? So should I call him “Chad” instead? Isn’t that a common name and a compliment in this era?”
Bea softly giggled, not answering his question. She then rotated the chair around, facing him.
“Sit down, master. You’ll now experience the library part of the internet.”
“Oh? Don’t mind if I—”
“Don’t even think about it.”
Julius laughed, raising both hands in surrender. “I wasn’t going to do it, I swear!”
He sat down and turned the chair towards the monitor.
But then his eyes stared at Bea, patting his lap expectantly.
“Again, I have the knowledge. But I have no idea how to even begin.” Julius grinned.
That was true.
But he was never the kind of man to refuse an opportunity that fell on his lap, which in this case took on a very literal meaning.
Bea sighed, but the faint tug on the corners of her lips betrayed her feigned annoyance.
“We’ll get nowhere if you go too far, so don’t do anything below the belt.”
“So anything above that is acceptable?”
“...Take that as you will.”
Julius chuckled as the maid straightened her skirt and placed her full weight on his lap. He wrapped his arms around her firm, yet still soft stomach, pulling the maid close to his body.
Her plump behind was squished on his crotch, but he was anything but a liar, so he merely chose to enjoy the feeling but not act on it further.
Bea didn’t seem to mind any of his actions as she leaned forward to direct the…rat?
No, he shook his head. It was called a mouse.
The pointer on the screen glided across the image of the Hanging Gardens, stopping at a specific, small picture.
With a soft click, Bea opened the application.
Instantly, the Hanging Gardens disappeared, covered by a new screen that he vaguely recognized from her memories.
“So this is the fabled Google...” The word came out awkwardly.
“I can really search for any information?”
Bea nodded and rested her back on his chest, smiling faintly at his astonished face.
“Go on,” she guided his hands towards the keyboard. “Try it.”
Following her lead, she studied the keyboard. Some of the letters contained in each little box were familiar, but apparently there were a few more additions since he slept.
Thankfully, language was never a problem for him.
Julius lifted his index finger, pointed at a letter, and then pressed on it.
The letter “R” appeared on the screen.
He nodded smilingly, then squinted at the keyboard, trying to find the next letter.
It took him a few seconds to locate his desired letter, and a bit longer to find the next.
“I can think of a few memes for this situation.”
“...I don’t fully understand what you mean, but I feel insulted.”
A full minute had almost passed until finally, he finished his word.
Rome.
"People would call you old for taking so long to type a four-letter word."
“Hey! Even if that’s true, you don’t have to say it!”
He ground her hair with his chin as he searched for another button.
But Bea quickly pressed it instead. “Alright, let me get that for you. I don’t want to be here for another hour.”
“...I was just about to look in that direction,” he muttered under his breath.
In just a few seconds, the screen shifted again, displaying a wall of text and several images.
“Oh? These are all pretty accurate. The Kingdom, Republic, and then Empire, huh.”
Thankfully, the mousewheel was pretty intuitive, so he had no problem using it to examine more details.
A few images of marbled statues came into view.
“Octavius and Caesar are a given. Mark Antony…heh, so he’s still known for his parties.”
He recognized a few more names, and even those he had forgotten ever existed.
“The Public Baths are still remembered, huh. Though I don’t recognize any of these…”
Eventually, he arrived at the end of the Roman Empire.
“Invasions, economic crises, corruption, and more. Poor Octavius can’t catch a break.”
Suddenly, the woman in his arms spoke up.
“Master…” Bea looked up at him, cupping his cheek. But there was nothing gentle about her touch.
“Why are you looking up Rome when you said you wanted to find the others?”
“Ow, ow! I was just testing its capabilities first! I was about to search for them next!”
The maid released his poor, stretched cheeks, which he immediately rubbed.
“Again, maids are not supposed to harm their master, you know?”
“It’s fine if the master is misbehaving.”
Julius exhaled, not arguing further.
His hands then returned to her navel, rubbing them circularly, both to appease her and to soothe himself.
“But still…I wonder who should we search for first…”
The man’s gaze returned to the monitor, specifically the search bar.
“Althea is most likely the hardest to find with how much she loves travelling. Isolde is too unpredictable, so she’s more complicated as well. Severa will probably accompany Rin to prevent her from overworking herself, but Rin is too careful to leave any traces behind.”
“Which leaves…Fleur.”
He smiled as a particular woman entered his mind. “She probably won’t be able to resist performing on a stage somewhere, making her particularly easier to find.”
Naturally, there were still others he didn’t mention. But finding one usually meant finding more of them.
Bea giggled. “She never even tried to keep a low profile. In fact, she’s the only one I’ve been able to constantly track.”
Julius’ hand froze on her stomach. “Oh? Then what are we waiting for? Let’s type her name now!”
“No, master,” her smile suddenly shifted. “We won’t find her in the library of the internet.”
Bea looked up, a dangerous glint flashing in her eyes.
“To find her, we must go to the public execution square.”
“We must go to social media.”