Ash quickly realised his mistake.
By giving the name of his real hometown, he exposed his fake identity.
Ash was about to speak up when Silvester replied.
"Really... Blackheart... I have never heard of it."
Hearing the words leave the man's mouth instant relief washed over Ash.
It seemed his identity wasn't exposed for now.
...
'To think he wouldn't know of a town so close to his own... huh.'
After this their meal continued without any problems, with Ash even receiving extra food and water to take with himself.
'I guess he was a nice person'
Ash remarked as he looked at the man's bussiness card.
Being once again on ground level Ash felt ready to continue his day, as there was still plenty of time before sundown, with it being just a bit after noon.
Walking around the city, while he now had food and water with him, he still had no money. As such the range of things he was able to do were limited.
The city had many things in it that he wasn't very familiar with. Trains that he had only seen in pictures, cars that were not of the military kind. All sorts of things that were simply never present in Blackheart.
In the end with nothing better to do he stopped before a building with the word "library" written on top of it.
'I guess I can just go to the library.'
Entering the library the instant silence hit him, quite the contrast from the busy sounds of the city outside.
Walking to one of the shelves he lookes through the books before his eyes landed on an Atlas.
'I should check it out, just so I know where I need to go to get to Primus.'
Taking the book off the shelf, Ash found himself a quiet corner and started looking through the book.
After just a few pages he was able to find a picture of the Mediterranean region.
Finding Primus wasn't difficult, with it being the biggest point of interest on the map.
Soon his fingers started moving downwards toward where he expected Fiamma to be.
After a bit of searching he was able to find it.
'So this is where I am.'
Finding Fiamma on the map he examined it closely, finding where it's gate was located, the he looked at Primus and did the same.
In the end he found the path between the two to be a simple straight line.
'How truly convenient.'
With his objective accomplished he was about to close the book when a thought came to him.
'Should I see where Blackheart is.'
He had looked at maps before this wasn't his first time, but it has been a while since then, and he also had a weird feeling about his prior encounter with Silvester.
Looking at the map once again, he started darting downwards from where Fiamma was.
While going down he wasn't able to find any town named Blackheart.
Confused he looked at the map once again and realised that there were seemingly no towns south of Fiamma for a good while.
Ash could feel his heart beating faster.
'This has to be some error.'
He picked up the book and walked towards the librarian.
The librarian was a small petite lady with glasses, she was just enjoying a book when Ash appeared with the Atlas in his hands.
"Is this map correct?"
Ash asked in a frantic, but still somewhat quiet voice.
The lady put down her book and looked at the map, and after some thinking spoke up.
"I see nothing wrong with it."
That was when Ash started pointing at the void like empty spot on the map.
"Why aren't there any towns here?"
She looked at where Ash was pointing and spoke up once again.
"A really good question, I guess people just never wanted to settle there."
Ash was now even more frantic than before.
"No, that's not it. There are supposed to be towns there... you know... like Blackheart."
The librarian looked at Ash with a confused expression.
"Umm what is Blackheart, is that a town?"
Ash couldn't hold it in anymore and was raised his voice.
"YES! Blackheart, it's a mining town... it got it's name from pirates... the SCC was there just recently... and ummm it's also... my hometown."
By the end of the sentence Ash was already already on the verge of breaking.
"I'm sorry, Sir. I've never heard of this town called Blackheart."
The woman was starting to clearly look uncomfortable, Ash realised this and tried calming down.
"I'm sorry, can you put this back to where I took it from? Thank you."
Putting the book down on the counter Ash was quick to leave.
Stepping outside the noise of the city once again entered his ears, slowly grounding him in reality.
'Floch... it has to be his doing.'
Ash was quick to connect it to Floch after all who else could have been the culprit.
'So no one else remembers Blackheart other than me...'
"Hahahaha"
Ash started maniacally laughing in the middle of the street with passerbys giving him weird looks.
'Just how many ways will you find to torment me Floch?'
Stopping his laughing Ash quickly got himself together.
'I guess it's time to leave, not much reason to stay.'
With his mood for sightseeing gone, he wanted to leave quickly, he wanted to get to the Academy as soon as possible.
'I have to meet Will, that is if he even remembers me.'
Somberly walking through town, Ash's thoughts switched from asking if this was real to how it was possible at all.
From his encounter with Floch Ash knew full well the power he had, but this was on another level.
The ability to collectively rewrite the memories and archives of the whole planet was something he didn't think prevously possible.
But in the end it seemed he had underestimated just how strong one person can be... just how strong Floch can be.
'Just who are you really Floch?'
...
Arriving before the gates Ash was looking for a way to ask to be let out.
That was when he spotted a face he recognized.
Ash walked towards the person, and while doing so it seemed the other party had also noticed him.
"Andrew... right?"
Ash asked with a somewhat unsure expression.
"It's Anders."
Ash didn't care much about the man's name and simply relayed his wishes.
"So Anders, can you let me out."
The man gave Ash a blank face before answering.
"I don't think I can. It's too close to sundown, with all the procedures it would take too long."
"Procedures?"
Ash asked, to which Anders nodded before replying.
"I have to ask permission from many of the higher ups, it can take hours before things get approved. Even during morning you were only able to get in so quickly because Mr. Fontana was close by and wanted to get you in."
Ash mostly understood things, but still didn't understand how such a thing could take so many hours. Afterall there was still about a good four to five hours till sundown would it really take that long.
Feeling like simply asking was pointless, Ash turned to a riskier strategy.
"I really need to get out of here before sundown though, and I say this for your sakes."
Anders was sceptical, but kept listening.
"If I'm unable to leave the town before sundown, my curse will leak out killing all people nearby. It would truly be a tragedy."
Anders's face was now more serious, but he still didn't fully believe Ash.
"Are you threatening me right now?"
Ash was quick to refute.
"Nooo, I'm simply telling you how things are it's not something I can control."
Anders looked at Ash once more before sighing.
"Okay, I'll see what I can do. I'll just report it to the higher ups as an emergency."
"That would be great. Thank you."
With this matter... probably... handled, Ash sat down at a nearby bench and waited for things to start moving.
It didn't take long before Anders came running back.
"They approved your leave, you will be leaving immediately."
"Good"
Ash got up, with his sword in hand, and with his new backpack of food and headed for the gate.
"Mr. Fontata won't be able to see you off."
"That's fine."
'I don't really care anyways.'
The giant gates once again opened up with both the inner and outer ones opening at the same time, giving Ash a straight view into the wasteland outside.
Ash didn't hesitate and walked out of the city he had briefly visited.
This stop served its purpose, he got food and he even got some new questions.
Though short this visit to the "city" of Fiamma would be something he wouldn't regret.
Stepping outside he was once again hit by the unfiltered heat of the wasteland.
A part of his already wanted to turn back, but he knew he couldn't, he also knew that he shouldn't.
'This Aura is really problematic, I'll have to figure something out before arriving in Primus.'