“The reason I met the Saint was…”
Slowly, Ardein recounted the events that had happened after she left home. The Emperor quietly listened to her story. The story of going to Larpentia. The story of being pelted with stones by the locals. And the story of receiving kindness from the people at the Alms House.
As he listened, the Emperor pondered various things in his heart.
‘I should tell the Minister of Finance to deliver funds to those two, Ralph and Clark. Giving them official positions wouldn’t be a suitable reward for such people.’
Still, there were many good people left in the Empire. After all, in any era, where there are evil people, there are also warm-hearted ones. That warmth had saved his daughter today, but how many more had their hands saved?
Such people would refuse any reward, so instead of a formal reward, he planned to anonymously donate a large sum to them.
Taking out a pen, he wrote down the names Ralph and Clark, and continued to listen to the story. It was quite a mysterious tale. The Emperor inwardly marveled several times as he listened.
“Truly, it was an incredible power. That Phylogenetic Seedling…”
Watching the Princess talk about the priest named Kyle, and listening to her story, the Emperor fell deep into thought. A miracle powerful enough to instantly elevate an expert to the level of a Master. He immediately understood why the child was so excited.
Truly precious things cannot be bought with money. A realm of power cannot be achieved by simply throwing money at it.
If one could bring such a thing, there would be no shortage of people willing to do anything. If one could elevate their realm, it wouldn’t be hard to find people who would swear loyalty to the Emperor without a second thought.
‘But that’s not it.’
The desire that possibility brought was enough to consume a person, but the old man, with not many days left, did not let himself be buried in desire and instead looked straight at what was hidden within.
Thinking about it, his life had always been a battle against desire. Under the name of the Empire, the Emperor had completely abandoned personal pleasures.
He had even saved money by eating plain porridge to prepare military funds for Ardein. It wasn’t that the Empire lacked money. It was just that there were too many places where money was needed.
State affairs are a money-devouring ghost. No matter how much tax revenue there is, when money is demanded from all sides, it’s hard to keep up. To spend money on military funds, it was inevitable to pull finances from somewhere else, and that would cause deficits elsewhere. To solve this, tax revenue had to be increased.
So, he freed the imperial slaves to make them free citizens, reformed the land to turn serfs into independent farmers, and developed mines to extract gold and silver. Only by doing so could the Empire’s ability to generate wealth be restored.
There were some successes, but dissatisfaction had built up in various places.
Even before he ascended the throne, the Empire had begun to develop holes everywhere, and cooperation with the powerful was not a choice but a necessity. Reform was not even attempted, and only improvements were made.
But even that was something. Throughout history, those who already have something do not easily give it up unless institutional pressure is applied. Just by managing them to prevent the worst situation, he had done enough during his reign.
At any rate, while he was alive and awake, the Empire, though precarious, did not collapse. Whether it would after his death was another matter.
‘She said she would go to the Arctic to find the meaning of the cycle. The Arctic… I see.’
That’s why, objectively, he could look at ‘Kyle’ without the interference of desire.
And also at the unknown something that lay beyond.
‘If the god gave such a revelation to the Saint, there must be a reason for it.’
Listening to the story, that unknown god could not be called a personal god or an ancient god, and it was hard to define what it was.
Judging by the fact that it dealt with angels, it seemed like a personal god, but it was said that the angel took the form of a giant embracing the night sky and came to them.
‘The reason is unknown, but I can guess a little of its intention. Ardein. Why didn’t you realize this and let it slip?’
And that god lifted the ancient god’s curse on the vampire. It resolved the punishment of the sun that had been placed on them. It was said that the being’s status might have surpassed that of the ancient god, but the Emperor didn’t find it that strange. He didn’t consider the ancient god to be a god.
“This fruit is what allowed them to walk under the sun. The Saint called it the Firefly Meringue. Swallowing this fruit reconstructs the body, removing all the bad parts and leaving only the good parts in a new body. I brought one for you, Father.”
Watching the Princess take out the Firefly Meringue and offer it to him, the Emperor noticed her flushed cheeks. Every time she brought up Kyle’s story, the Princess seemed unable to hide her excitement. He was quite curious about how his daughter felt about him.
Was he an object of affection? An object of worship? Or just an object of use?
Perhaps it was a mix of all three, tangled together. Her flushed cheeks made her seem like someone in love, but whether it was love or a desire for a superhuman army was hard even for the Emperor to discern.
“If we use this fruit well, we could create a superhuman army loyal only to the imperial family…”
The Princess passionately spoke about the superhuman army, the Divine Power that could regenerate limbs, and the clay-baking oven that could feed an army. She was truly a born soldier and general.
She thought of everything in military terms. If they could recruit that priest, he would be a great asset to the imperial family, especially in military matters.
Watching his daughter passionately argue that they must somehow make him a part of the imperial power, the Emperor opened his mouth and cut her off. Her thinking wasn’t wrong, but it was clear she wasn’t seeing the bigger picture.
“My child.”
Indeed, Ardein was more suited to be a general than an Emperor.
Thinking about it, it was such a simple matter, so why hadn’t she seen it?
“According to you, the god that priest serves is hard to define as either a personal god or an ancient god, so it must be a true god. Right?”
“Yes. But why does that matter…”
Her expression showed confusion. Aren’t all gods gods? What’s the difference between a true god and a false god? The Emperor quietly opened his mouth as he looked at her.
“Ardein. Do you think the ancient gods are gods?”
“Of course. They are the laws of the universe, beings far above humans.”
“No. They are not gods. We just call them gods, but their essence is the laws of the universe. If beings far more advanced than us were to fully grasp and understand the laws of the universe, would the ancient gods still be gods to them? No. They would just be laws that could be used at any time.”
Seeing the Princess not grasping his point, the Emperor slowly stood up and clasped his hands behind his back.
“It’s just that our level is low and lacking, so we can’t even grasp a part of the laws, making them seem like great gods to us. So to us, they are real gods. But we can’t assume that’s the case for everyone.”
Why does lightning strike? What powers the sun to shine so brightly? To some, these are mysterious and sacred events, but to others, they are just things that can be explained by theory.
By bringing the mysteries around us into the realm of understanding, we might one day even understand the beings called ancient gods. We might fully grasp the laws of the universe, understanding them in detail.
It’s unlikely such a day will come even by the time the Empire ends, let alone during the Emperor’s era. But thought experiments are possible. If there truly are beings who fully understand the laws of the universe, to them, the ancient gods would just be tools to be used at any time.
Because our understanding of the universe is almost nonexistent, the current continent reveres them as gods. Even the ancient gods are like this.
As for personal gods, the continent actually knows a bit more.
“They are not personal gods. We already know examples of humans deifying things. We know that the source of their power comes from belief and faith, and we have already grasped much of it. Beings we can understand cannot be called gods. That’s what I think.”
The Emperor knows that the Three Divine Gods and the Evil God Oberta were once human. What’s so special about beings deified by humans?
The Heavenly God Aldehir is slightly different, not born of humans, but still a being born from human desires. Where there are people, there are gods. The five great deities worshipped by the continent are such beings.
“Even the Three Divine Gods, after all, are just called gods because they’ve accumulated faith over a long time. They are strong because they’ve gathered faith for so long. The Demon King of the Arctic would be harder to understand than them. Don’t you think?”
Even the main gods, humans can understand the source of their power. How can they be gods?
Even the Emperor couldn’t speak so freely outside, but since they were alone, he could say it. If Archbishop Armata heard, he would foam at the mouth and curse the Emperor. It was that extreme a statement.
“But that priest Kyle serves, there’s nothing from one to ten that we can understand. Do you know why that god calls itself the God of Hope?”
“…I don’t know.”
Ardein, who had never thought about such things, answered while sweating.
“We heard that the god we can’t understand gave its Saint something called the Phylogenetic Seedling. The effect of that seedling is to bring future power to the past. It transcends time.”
“Yes.”
“And that god gave a revelation, directing the Saint to go to the Arctic. Probably the one who best understands the god’s will concluded to go to the Arctic, so it’s no different from receiving an oracle. Do you understand up to here?”
“Yes.”
“Then you should also understand why that Phylogenetic Seedling was given.”
Uh… I don’t know?
Ardein couldn’t bring herself to say it and remained silent.
“What awaits in the Arctic? Grimudo.”
The Emperor pointed out the key point and explained step by step.
“That Phylogenetic Seedling was probably a miracle given with Grimudo in mind. Not to train the superhuman army you speak of.”
