As everyone knows, what determines a village’s size and population is the carrying capacity of the surrounding land.
Although Aedes Elysiae wasn’t famous in the world of Amphoreus, within the nearby sea region, it was without question the most prominent large village.
Flat shores in front made it easy to build docks.
Continuous mountain ranges behind blocked monsters.
In the middle lay flat and fertile land.
Above was Oronyx’s veil, keeping conflict away.
Trade, safety, population, territory.
If the population were larger and the land area greater, Aedes Elysiae would even have the foundation to become a city.
Its excellent location perfectly matched the words of Amphoreus’s number one rich cat…
“Deserts always have water, and good soil always has gold.” Such favorable conditions gave Aedes Elysiae a much larger population than other villages.
A total of…
More than seven hundred people.
It couldn’t be helped.
No matter how good the environment was, people were needed to make use of it.
In a world where supernatural power formed the basis of society, without priests, high priests, Chrysos Heirs, and other ambitious people with extraordinary abilities to lead them, the power ordinary people could exert was almost negligible.
This wasn’t just a characteristic of Amphoreus.
It was a characteristic of the entire Honkai: Star Rail universe.
A Pathstrider could change the fate of a family.
An Emanator could push an entire civilization to the peak of the galaxy.
A draft casually discarded by a Genius could be exchanged for terrifying resources worth an entire star system, spent by tens of thousands of scholars.
Yet the thing that broke ordinary people the most was that even after obtaining the draft, they still couldn’t understand the knowledge within it.
In fact, only a handful could even read it.
And these ordinary people were already top talents hired at high prices by the IPC, individuals who might only appear once in a nation, a planet, a civilization, or even a star system.
The galaxy was the dream of most people, the stage of a few, and the chessboard of a very small number of individuals.
Such a world was absolutely unsuitable for transmigration.
Yet Amos had transmigrated.
And he had landed right on a Genius’s chessboard.
So the question was, how could an electrical signal constantly looping inside a sandbox system escape that fate, break through the sandbox, invade the real computer system, and finally defeat the “Creator” sitting in front of the computer?
Standing in front of his house and looking at the girl next door, who was making faces while opening the gate to her yard, Amos’s thoughts drifted.
A moment later, Amos shook his head and turned to look at his “home” in Aedes Elysiae.
It was a plain little courtyard with only two rooms, enclosed by a wooden fence.
Amos’s home wasn’t far from the Festival Courtyard.
Or rather, it belonged to the Festival Courtyard and was village property.
Aedes Elysiae had no public welfare system.
But it had something more precious than welfare.
Good relations between neighbors.
So long before the two children were capable of living independently, the village committee had voted to lend them two empty houses.
No usage period.
No rent.
Just open and obvious kindness.
Perhaps only a place like this, with this kind of atmosphere, could make Phainon still miss it deeply even after becoming the Flame-Chase Traveler.
There wasn’t much to say about the yard itself.
Country houses didn’t need frequent cleaning.
Nor was there much point in doing so.
Unless the ground was paved with blue bricks and watered every day, one gust of wind would leave a layer of dust over everything.
Compared to the flower-filled yard next door, Amos had developed less than one percent of his own.
But the inside was different.
Amos opened the door.
The first thing he saw was a mat for wiping dirt off shoes.
Then came the clean and tidy floor.
Tables and chairs were arranged neatly.
Whether used often or not, everything was covered by pink-blue tablecloths embroidered with patterns.
The cups and water bottles on top were polished enough to reflect light.
At the center stood a green plant that could survive with only water.
There were also several translucent glass bottles containing flower petals, dried fruit, and other ingredients for making drinks.
Not only that.
The paintings hanging on the walls.
The always-soft cushion on the reclining chair.
The storage shelf against the wall, organized with great care.
And most importantly…
The bed.
The bed that absolutely shouldn’t appear in the bedroom of a man living alone.
Neatly made, with the blanket folded into a long strip.
Everything showed that this room belonged to someone who loved the finer things in life, liked cleanliness, and didn’t mind the trouble of maintaining it.
Amos touched his face, which he had casually wiped with water in the morning.
‘Right…’ ‘Right?’ Clearly, this room was filled with traces left behind by a certain unnamed pink-haired girl.
Well, this made things easier.
He had one more reason to save the world.
After pouring himself a cup of water and tossing in a few flower petals, Amos took out the notebook Cyrene had given him.
Then, seeing the reclining chair beside the round table, he fell into thought again.
Sitting in proper chairs felt too serious.
So sofas, which were more comfortable and relaxing, naturally appeared and replaced chairs in traditional social settings.
Amphoreus had no sofas.
Instead, it had reclining chairs.
From an Earthling’s perspective, lying down while talking to people was very rude.
But Amphoreus was different.
As a civilization with a developed social culture, where people felt uncomfortable if they skipped a bath for a day, Inviting someone to bathe together and then discussing things while lying on reclining chairs afterward was as natural as inviting someone out for a meal on Earth and then going to karaoke afterward.
Still…
Even with his memories as a foundation, Amos thought using reclining chairs in daily life was a little strange.
And with only two rooms total, setting aside one room specifically as a bath…
Wasn’t that taking bathing a bit too seriously?
But then he remembered that Cyrene also used her own bath.
And after she washed herself until she smelled nice, the two of them would lie together on reclining chairs and chat.
Thinking of that, Amos accepted it.
Bathing was good.
He needed to learn it.
The beautiful girl slightly eased the heaviness brought by his worldview.
Amos took out various colors of ink, lay down on the reclining chair, and officially began writing the chapter that belonged to him.
Amos didn’t start writing right away.
Considering that Amphoreus was a Genius’s chessboard, and that Lygus existed with extremely high authority, he needed to find a special way to record his thoughts and plans.
He couldn’t use the square-shaped characters from his previous life.
Because no matter what language it was, with enough samples, it could eventually be forcefully deciphered.
And among the methods that could record information without being easily cracked, Amos only knew one.
After thinking for a moment, he moved the feather pen.
Different colors spread across the paper, eventually forming a simple painting.
In the painting, a pink-haired girl with a blurred face held up her hands.
A brilliant galaxy rested in her palms, shining brightly.
Anyone who saw the painting would only think it was a youthful “confession painting.” Only Amos, combining it with the “game story” in his memories, could understand its true meaning.
The girl had saved the galaxy.
That was why her face was blurred.
So if he wanted to save the girl, He first had to reach the galaxy.