Chapter 14: Signs of Humans
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I could feel my mouth was gaping like an idiot, not believing that there were Humans in this place.

Impossible!! it isn’t possible for there to be any Humans here! Unless… there had been a group of explorers that once across the wormhole just like I did. There couldn’t be any more reason, are there?

“ATA, show me the signs that the drones had found!” Ordered me after somewhat managed to close my mouth.

[“Affirmative!”]

Just then, a hologram screen was displayed in front of me, recording the forest not far from here by the drones. I noticed that there were trails of footsteps on the ground. Bizarrely, it looked to be around 20-30 centimeters, just like a footstep of a Human. What piqued my interest was that there appeared to be one smaller footstep mixed in.

"Strange, the toe of the footstep was shaped like a pointed toe…" My hand stroked my chin as I couldn't relate any type of shoe that these people were wearing. After giving up, I ordered, “Follow the footsteps from above and try not to alert them!”

[“Yes!”]

As the drones flew higher into the sky, I could tell that the spaceship was around a kilometer or two in the northwest. The drones were flying on 100 mph, so it traversed the forest quite fast. A while later, one of the drones spotted a group of people wearing some kind of a medieval knight armor commonly seen in a movie.

“What the heck, are they in the middle of shooting a film?” Flabbergasted and lost for words, I scratched my head but then continued, “No… There wasn’t any kind of instrument seen around the place…. Furthermore, this was another Universe, anything is possible, right?”

Confusion pervaded my brain; my head and stomach started to ache as I was overthinking too much. Then, I controlled one of the drones to come closer to the group to prove that my eyes weren't fooling me. And the scene didn’t change no matter how much the distance of the drone to them.

Weird, why are they ransacking the place as if searching for something? Their movement is telling me so somehow.

“Hmm… are they looking for a child?” I remembered that there was one smaller footstep mixed in before.

Suddenly, a bigger full armored knight that seemed to be the leader said something to the other knight, “beb iai feb re zeq af re qezl?”

Huh? What kind of language are they speaking? Despite being an explorer, I’ve at least learn a few languages, but I never hear this kind of tongue with a funny tone.

Frown formed on my forehead as I could feel that there was a deeper mystery in this.

I know that there are hundreds of languages out there, there should be one same language or at least something similar on the database. ATA should know about this.

“ATA, could you scan the language and determine what language it is from the database?”

[“Yes, I’ll do that!”]

Not long after, ATA answered with her frosty voice, [“Data error… Nothing's found in the database, the dialect resembles the tongue of a Western people but also not, there seems to be slack and holding here and there making it resemble a tone language of an Eastern people.”]

“No wonder it sounds weird.” I sneered in amusement and continued, “If so, record their conversation and try to translate it!"

[“Understood!”]

But then something struck my mind. Wait, this is odd. How could their language wasn't included in any database?

I could only think of a few answers that may or may not be true. First, they’re a long-lost descendant of Human explorers that got trapped in this Universe.

If the time difference to my Universe was very big, it was possible for them to develop a new culture and a new language. But this couldn't explain why their technology is backward and the significant difference in language.

After all, even if millennia passed for an isolated group of Humans to be here. They won’t develop a significantly different language. There’s also the unknown knowledge of the wormhole.

The second answer is that they’re Earth’s lost civilization which got transported to this place. After all, there has always been a mystery on Earth that wasn’t fully solved even to this era, like the legend of the lost Atlantic civilization… No… that’s too absurd to be true.

My head shook as I denied this absurd thought. Just then, cold sweat began emerging on my back as the last possible answer crossed my mind. The sound of gulping continued to appear as I rubbed my forehead.

I couldn't believe this, but this was the most possible answer that I could imagine. They’re basically wasn't the same Human Race from Earth, signifying the first intelligent extraterrestrial lifeform that mankind ever found. Well, at least for me.

As I was mockingly thought to myself, the group of knights appeared to have finished their talk and was continuing to search around the vicinity. This made me curious for the child they seemed to seek out. All of a sudden, one of the knights punched a tree beside him in madness.

Geh… My heart was racing hard upon seeing the toppled up tree.

“Impossible… How could the tree collapse in a single punch? Only a few extremely gene-modified Humans are capable to do that.”

One thing for sure, they probably don’t have good intentions. This is quite troublesome…

As I rubbed my glabella in contemplation, the commander of their group moved his head to the drone’s direction. I could see a flash of red bloodlust coming out from the slit of his visor, staring at my direction full of murderous intent.

"Oh shoot! Did they notice the drone? No, that’s impossible since I had the drone on camouflage mode when approaching them." I tried to get the drone back away slowly without alerting them further.

Anyway, I need to find their objective first to ascertain my next move. This is a pain, but it needs to be done!

And just like that, the drones began surveying around the vicinity to find the child that seemed to be the group of knight’s objectives.

***

In the meantime, the group of knight’s perspectives.

Gulp…

The knights started gulping a mouthful of saliva as they looked at their commander. He was staring somewhere with a murderous aura, enough to suffocate a normal human. Fear couldn’t be hidden from each of the 20 knight's eyes. It was as if they were looking at the nightmarish demons that could kill them in a single flick of a finger.

One of the knights with a dirty mark on his right gauntlet gathered his courage and inquired, “Commander Johanson, did you locate any sign of the child?”

The commander of the knight called Johanson moved his head to him, his eyes were still full of bloodlust before he calmed himself down and opened his mouth,  “Hmm… It’s nothing, Knight Erick. Now, divide the group into four and start searching in all directions! I don't believe a 10 years old child like her could escape from our search.”

""Yes!"" All the knights replied in unison and then started to make four groups consisted of five.

“Oh… also be careful of her eye ability, she might be inexperienced, but she’s an anomaly after all.” Commander Johanson added after reminded of something.

“Commander, is it fine for me to do anything to her?” One of the helmetless knights with a spiky hair inquired with lusted eyes.

“Do as you fit, but don’t kill her. We were tasked to bring her in one piece and still breathing, though it didn’t matter what mental condition she was in.” The knight commander replied nonchalantly before going into a direction where he was looking at before.

“Yes-yes… of course.”

‘Heh… I hear that she was a peerless beauty, enough to cause a war between nations and that despite being a flower that hasn't bloomed yet. No, that just makes it better.' The spiky-haired knight smirked inside as he couldn't wait to ravage her.

***

As I tried to search the vicinity, ATA suddenly reported to me, [“Analyzing foreign language partially completed… Translating conversation moderately completed… Proceed with the display of the conversation?”]

“Show it to me then.” I nodded and started listening to the conversation of the group of knights.

The translation wasn't perfect yet; therefore, I couldn't help but scratched my cheek in pondering about what they were conversing about.

“Although it wasn’t clear, at least I know that their objective is indeed a child with the same footstep from before.”

As I was checking the drone for any signs, ATA suddenly added from the side, [“Foreign life signature had been detected approaching the ship… What action should we take?”]

“Yes?” frown emerged on my brown as I heard that.

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