Several months had passed since Fondval had been transported into Unlimited Blade Works.
Life in the village had eventually returned to normal. The inhabitants had stopped constantly staring at the strange sky surrounding them, the children had returned to their games, and the adults had begun working their land again. Even the strange environment in which they lived had become something they no longer paid much attention to.
Yet Emrys, for his part, could not allow himself to become accustomed to that tranquility.
He knew perfectly well that Fondval was only one case among many.
All over the world, people were still living in fear. Some villages were regularly attacked by demons, others were caught up in conflicts between different factions, and a few had simply been abandoned by those who should have protected them.
Emrys could not save everyone.
He was aware of that.
But that did not mean he had to sit idly by when there were people he could actually save.
That was how he began to travel.
He would leave alone, sometimes for several days, then return to Fondval before setting off in another direction. He wasn't particularly interested in large cities. They generally had enough means of defense to survive on their own.
What he was looking for were the small communities.
Those that didn't have enough soldiers to repel a real threat.
Those where the inhabitants knew that a single bad day could be enough to destroy everything they had built.
Whenever he found one, Emrys never barged into the middle of the population and immediately claimed that he could save them.
He observed first.
Thanks to his Observation Haki, he could assess the surroundings before even entering a village. He checked the area, evaluated potential dangers, and tried to understand the community's situation.
Only once he was certain that he wouldn't put more people in danger did he introduce himself.
His speech was always relatively simple.
He explained that he knew of a place where they could live without having to fear the threats of the outside world.
He promised that they could continue living together and that he wouldn't ask them to become his soldiers.
But he never showed them the place.
Not even an image.
Unlimited Blade Works had to remain secret, and above all, Emrys didn't want strangers to be able to enter his territory simply because they had seen what it contained.
Naturally, this created a problem.
Nobody would easily believe a masked boy claiming that he could make an entire village disappear and take it to a place inaccessible to the outside world.
That was precisely why Emrys had prepared something.
The Code of Hammurabi.
*
"My body is made of blades."
Reciting the exit password, Emrys disappeared from UBW in a burst of light. He then found himself at the exit point he had placed several months earlier, several kilometers from Fondval.
He resumed his journey.
The first village Emrys chose to save was a small community located several days' walk from Fondval.
When he entered the village, the inhabitants immediately became suspicious. The presence of an armed stranger was enough to attract attention, but his appearance did not resemble that of an ordinary traveler.
After a few minutes, an elderly man who seemed to hold some authority among the inhabitants approached him.
"What do you want?"
"I've come to offer you a way to leave this place."
The man frowned.
"Leave the village?"
"Yes. I can take you somewhere you can live in safety."
Several inhabitants had moved closer to listen to the conversation.
The man crossed his arms.
"And why should we follow you?"
"You shouldn't."
The answer surprised several people.
Emrys continued calmly.
"Not simply because I'm asking you to. I'll give you a reason to believe me."
He made the Code of Hammurabi appear.
The stele materialized in front of him, immediately attracting everyone's attention.
"What's that?"
"An object that allows inviolable oaths to be established."
The man looked at the stele suspiciously.
"And you expect us to believe that? Do you think we're idiots?"
"No."
Emrys placed a hand on the stone.
"I'll show you."
He then proposed that two volunteers make an oath in front of everyone.
The first person had to promise not to take a specific object until the following day. The second had to swear not to give it to him.
It was nothing dangerous, and neither participant risked anything.
Once the oaths had been established, Emrys simply asked them to try to break them.
The result was immediate.
The man who had sworn not to take the object reached out his hand before suddenly stopping.
He tried again.
The same thing happened.
His expression changed.
He had just realized that something was genuinely preventing him from breaking the oath he had made.
For nearly an hour, different oaths were established, and not a single one was broken.
The murmurs spread throughout the village.
This time, nobody seemed to be laughing.
Emrys removed his hand from the Code.
"Now you know that this object really works."
He paused briefly.
"So I'm going to do something more important."
He positioned himself directly in front of the stele.
"I'm going to make an oath."
Everyone's attention focused on him.
"I swear that my intentions are exactly as I have presented them to you. I'm not trying to kill you, enslave you, use you as soldiers, or strip you of your possessions."
The Code began to react.
A faint light spread across its surface.
"I'm simply offering to take you somewhere where you can live safely, away from the outside world."
The light grew stronger.
"And if I am lying to you about my intentions, then let this oath cause my death."
Silence fell over the village.
Emrys remained motionless.
He knew perfectly well what he had just done.
This was not a symbolic promise.
The Code of Hammurabi did not allow someone to play with words so easily. If he truly intended to deceive them, the oath would have consequences.
But he had no reason to lie to them.
His goal was exactly what he had just stated.
The inhabitants stared at him for a long moment.
The elderly man was the first to speak.
"You're willing to die if you're lying to us?"
"Yes."
"And you don't even ask us to believe you before doing that."
"I'd rather give you a reason to believe me."
The man remained silent.
This time, his expression had changed.
He didn't yet have complete trust in Emrys, but he no longer regarded him as a mere stranger telling an unbelievable story.
*
The discussions lasted several hours.
Emrys answered all of their questions.
What would happen to their homes?
They would come with them.
And their fields?
They would be transported as well.
Their animals?
They wouldn't be abandoned.
Could they remain together?
That was precisely what Emrys was offering them.
He wasn't asking them to abandon their existence and join his.
He simply wanted to allow them to continue living somewhere else.
When the inhabitants asked why he couldn't show them the place before they left, Emrys remained perfectly honest.
He couldn't reveal the existence of Unlimited Blade Works to just anyone.
That answer caused some additional hesitation, but the oath he had just made considerably changed the situation.
He had put his own life on the line.
Eventually, the inhabitants accepted.
Emrys then explained that they would have to follow certain rules once they settled into their new home.
No community could function if its inhabitants were free to harm the others.
Assaults, theft, and attempts to harm the other villages would therefore be forbidden. The most important rules would be protected by oaths made through the Code of Hammurabi.
Emrys didn't want to govern their lives.
He simply wanted to prevent his refuge from becoming a place where survivors would eventually turn against one another.
Once everything had been decided, he asked them to remain in the village.
He then projected several swords and began precisely marking the area that would be transported.
The inhabitants watched the process without understanding what he was actually preparing.
Emrys, meanwhile, carefully checked every distance with his Observation Haki.
He had to make sure that no house, field, or enclosure was left behind.
Once he was certain that everything was inside the perimeter, he returned to the inhabitants.
"Is everyone ready?"
Several people nodded.
Others held their children close.
Emrys took a deep breath.
Then he released his power.
The phenomenon was brief.
The world seemed to distort around them before everything disappeared.
There was neither explosion nor shock.
The entire village was simply torn away from its original location.
When they opened their eyes again, their houses were still there.
Their fields as well.
Their animals were still inside their enclosures.
But the outside world had disappeared.
In its place was the landscape of Unlimited Blade Works.
The dark, threatening sky stretched above them, while the familiar ground of the village abruptly ended before a vast expanse of red sand covered in countless swords.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
A woman slowly approached the edge of the village.
She looked behind her and saw that her house was still there, along with her field.
Then she looked toward the desert.
She finally understood that Emrys had truly kept his word.
He hadn't shown them anything before the transfer.
He hadn't needed to.
The proof was now right in front of them.
*
After that first village, Emrys continued.
The process remained practically identical.
He arrived, observed the situation, and then offered them his refuge.
The reactions were always different, but doubt was almost systematic.
So Emrys brought out the Code of Hammurabi.
He demonstrated how it worked.
Then he made the same oath in front of them.
Every time, he put his own life on the line to guarantee that he wasn't lying about his intentions.
It wasn't always enough.
Some refused.
Emrys never forced them.
He simply left.
For those who accepted, however, he did exactly what he had promised.
The entire village was transported.
Not just the inhabitants.
Their houses, lands, animals, and everything that made up their daily lives also joined Unlimited Blade Works.
Thus, the newcomers didn't lose the lives they had known.
They simply continued them in another world.
*
The months passed.
Unlimited Blade Works gradually changed.
Fondval was no longer alone.
The first village Emrys had saved had found its place at a reasonable distance from the original village. Other communities were subsequently settled as well, each retaining its own organization and lands.
The inhabitants naturally began communicating with one another.
At first, the exchanges were cautious.
Their customs were different, their habits weren't the same, and everyone was still struggling to consider this place a true home.
But time eventually did its work.
The farmers discovered that they could exchange their harvests. The craftsmen began working with their new neighbors. As for the children, they needed no adjustment period: they had simply discovered new friends to play with.
Emrys noticed these changes whenever he returned from his travels.
He almost never intervened.
He simply observed.
His initial goal had been to create a place where people could survive.
Yet something greater was taking shape.
Unlimited Blade Works was gradually becoming a territory where several communities could live together.
Emrys had never planned for this.
He simply wanted to save people.
But every time he transported a new village, the refuge grew.
And with it, so did the responsibilities.
He therefore began paying more attention to how the communities were arranged. He made sure they could communicate with one another, that resources were accessible, and that no village was completely isolated from the others.
He still had no intention of becoming their ruler.
For now, he simply wanted to make sure his refuge would never become a prison.
*
One day, after several weeks of traveling, Emrys was crossing a forest when he sensed something.
He stopped immediately.
Several presences were approaching.
There were about ten.
Then more.
They were moving quickly.
But that wasn't the strangest part.
Their emotions were dominated by fear.
Emrys slightly frowned.
He focused more deeply with his Haki.
Other presences were behind them.
They were being pursued.
Emrys moved silently between the trees until he could make out the figures.
Demons.
They were running.
One of them suddenly turned toward their pursuers.
"We didn't desert!"
His voice echoed through the forest.
"We simply refused to continue!"
Emrys stopped.
His gaze shifted from the fleeing group to the one pursuing them.
He had just encountered something he had never seen before.
Demons fleeing from other demons.
And apparently, they were being accused of desertion.
Emrys remained silent for several seconds.
Then he sighed.
I can already feel the trouble coming.