The city built around the mine was composed of wooden structures suspended by scaffolding.
The entire city practically floated in the void of space within the magical dome. Below, there was nothing but vacuum.
The houses were connected by bridges, which functioned as streets and sidewalks. People and carriages passed by every day.
Dragomir walked across one of these bridges.
They usually only had magical carriages, which had arcane mechanisms, allowing them to move even without a rider to pull them.
People in this place didn't stroll much in the streets. As already mentioned, there wasn't much entertainment or ways to distract themselves.
The young people in this community didn't have much to do outside of work, so they had to be creative to overcome boredom.
But they weren't always; most undoubtedly enjoyed the fights. Events that took place in some isolated locations on the asteroid.
They enjoyed watching as much as participating.
Fights were open to anyone who wanted to fight, and sometimes monsters were captured for entertainment.
Besides that, the only other source of amusement was when merchants arrived bringing anything that was even slightly new.
This helped the residents distract themselves for a while.
But these things always broke or lost their appeal after a few days. So the number one form of entertainment in this community was…
Let's just say it was increasing its population.
This place always had children, which meant the mines always had workers.
Their parents could be either an adult couple or two unemployed young people.
But Dragomir didn't do any of those things; if you asked him what he did in his free time, the answer was the same for everyone: it's a mystery!
Dragomir spent all his free time at home. He didn't go out, didn't talk, didn't have friends—and what was rarest in that place—he didn't have a single lover.
His neighbors reported that the lights in his house stayed on until late at night. And some said they heard him making a lot of noise, as if he were fighting someone, or as if there were other people present.
No one knows what he does when he's alone, and considering all the mystery surrounding his past and his identity, everyone is curious to know what he does.
And of course, there are thousands of theories about it.
Because of this discomfort, he moved to the most isolated place possible. It took almost an hour to walk to his current house. But the peace and privacy were invaluable.
The walk to his house was peaceful. The most Dragomir did was greet a few acquaintances and continue on his way, refusing any invitations he received.
But still…
This part of his day was more tiring than his work in the mines. Interacting with people consumes a lot of energy, much more than working.
But now he could finally rest in his private sanctuary. A small house, but still, this was his home.
Upon opening the door, it was possible to see practically all the rooms of the house, except for the bathroom. The whole house consisted of a bedroom with a bed on one side of the living room, and a table with many books on the other.
The bathroom had a magical chamber pot, much more hygienic than normal ones, and a magical medieval bathtub as well.
A simple house, acquired with much effort in his work as a miner. It wasn't big, but he didn't like big, noisy houses anyway.
His house was comfortable, and that was enough for this boy without connections.
Upon entering his dwelling, he closed the door behind him. He leaned his back against the closed entrance of his residence.
He breathed heavily, but with great relief.
"I really thought Mr. Werm would notice. I almost got caught!" He slides through the door and sits on the floor with his hands on his head. A reaction of relief and self-reproach.
He took a huge, unnecessary risk today. And thanks to the turtle attack, he almost let his biggest and most intimate secret be revealed.
Werm watched him more closely than usual, which didn't give him room to disguise the object he was carrying inside his clothes. An object that almost fell out of his overalls during the attack.
"If he had seen it, I would be dead. I'll never take it with me again!" He pulls out an old book, full of signs of wear.
Its cover was blue, with a drawing of a castle in the European style. The letters of the title were gold and peeling.
"I almost let them discover my biggest secret. I don't know if anyone would recognize this book, but I can't risk anyone becoming interested in it." He held the object against his chest while inhaling a slight post-panic breath.
"I thought I could read during my breaks, I knew it was risky, but I wanted to read so badly!" He stared at the book in his hands with great seriousness. "I ended up taking the risk just for something I could do at home, not during my work breaks."
The serious way Dragomir hid his books could make anyone believe that what he was hiding were cursed books with forbidden magic originating from the deepest darkness.
But the real content of these books was far more harmless than that. Practically infinitely more harmless than the way Dragomir treated them.
To satisfy your small and forgettable doubt, the title of this particular book (Nights in the Blue Castle) didn't make the theme of his collection clear. But the same cannot be said of the rest of the book.
The synopsis of this literary work was: Amandaline was a young woman who had just been sold to a royal clan on Mars to do housework. But instead of being taken to the family's main house, she was sent to a secluded and hidden castle, where the youngest son of the clan's main family lived. A young man who, long ago, was separated from the rest of his family and now lives in solitude. Amandaline's job is to do all the housework in the castle, but she is only allowed to work and leave her room at night. From then on, she spends her days working in the castle and growing closer to the mysterious young man who now lives there. And little by little, she will discover what caused him to be separated from his family, and why he seems like a different person during the day.
A normal synopsis, nothing wrong at first glance. But if you think about it a little, you'll realize that this seems to be a romance novel for teenage girls. And this book literally is that.
"No one can know I read this kind of thing, or…"
In his mind, memories begin to surface, one of his mother from a long time ago.
She had found Dragomir still awake late at night, reading books of this kind. He still remembers the disapproving expression on his mother's face.
The young man still remembered his mother's words that day. "Why, instead of reading this scandalous girl stuff, don't you go and train and stop being a disgrace to my name and the family's?"
He also remembered when he showed it to his childhood crush. "This isn't a girl's book? You're not going to start wearing dresses, are you?"
Therefore, letting anyone know about this hobby was out of the question.
But now that he had put his book away, it was time for something really serious.
Another reason he wanted to live isolated from others was for this. The slightest distraction could make him lose all his progress.