Ch.311Ascension Altar. Gaylord City (2)

“Wasn’t it 200,000 tons?”

“Well… we just received the report that it underwent expansion work at Karluk.”

“I see… Then there’s nothing we can do.”

The mayor of Gaylord, Alexander Yeltsin, sighed as he gazed at the million-ton airship dominating his city’s skyline.

So this is truly a god who has surpassed apostlehood. The flagship he arrived on was on an entirely different scale.

The mayor didn’t blame his intelligence officers for failing to obtain this information beforehand.

Even he could understand why they missed it.

The citizens of Karluk, saved by their god, wouldn’t carelessly divulge information about their deity. Moreover, if news of such a massive warship’s construction had leaked, attempts to destroy or seize it would have been inevitable regardless of who owned it, so the thorough concealment of information made perfect sense.

Setting aside the matter of the vessel, it was time to prepare to welcome the god.

“Is the welcoming party ready?”

“Yes, sir. Just to be safe, we’ve gathered every drop of apple brandy from the surrounding area.”

“Good. We must not repeat Karluk’s mistake. Understood?”

“Of course, Your Excellency.”

News of what happened in Karluk spread rapidly throughout the 13 Continents. When it became known that a nation that offended the god’s sensibilities could have its army openly decimated before undergoing “normalization,” those in power quickly began modifying their welfare policies and implementing supplementary measures.

The sight of nobles scrambling to work for fear of having their heads harvested like strawberries was laughable even to commoners. Still, it was a hundred times better than doing nothing at all, and a thousand times better than having their bellies sliced open. Most people were satisfied with the newly proclaimed welfare policies.

Though perhaps inefficient, these policies were ten thousand times better than grinding people down without any welfare until the poor whispered revolutionary thoughts while clinging to the god’s trouser legs, leading to regime change.

And the mayor of Gaylord, Alexander Yeltsin, was no fool.

Upon hearing news of Karluk’s “normalization,” unlike some others, he quickly opened the state coffers to support low-income citizens and the poor, while appeasing the upper and middle classes to successfully overhaul the city’s policies and systems.

He also subtly leveraged compromising information he had stored about other nations to secure large-scale loans, using them to persuade major corporations like Turianic Industries to build factories in the city and create jobs. Over the past few months, Gaylord’s employment rate had reached an all-time high.

He could confidently say he had done his best as a national leader.

Though it felt childish—like a fifty-year-old expecting praise from a teacher for completing homework well—when the student is human and the teacher divine, anyone would have to nod in agreement.

Ring-ring!

Then the phone rang.

When the mayor answered, the message was both crystal clear and chilling:

“The Sun has descended.”

Gulp.

Had there ever been a day when the word “sun” felt so terrifying? The mayor shook his head.

“Hoo….”

He had done his best, and now it was time to be evaluated.

*

“Hmm. I can see they’ve made an effort.”

Victor, now in the role of a teacher checking national homework, smiled with satisfaction as he observed the neatly organized streets.

People’s faces seemed to be blooming, and the plumpness in children’s cheeks proved that whoever was responsible for this city, they were quite capable.

Even in a single household, the incompetence of the head of family could place the fate of about ten people at the crossroads between ruin and happiness. Shouldn’t a national leader governing an entire city possess abilities that distinguish them from ordinary mortals?

“O Sun, this is the very place where the First Ascendant soared into the heavens.”

“Ah… this is it?”

Following his guide, they eventually reached the end of the main boulevard where there stood an elaborate altar with a monument commemorating the First Ascendant.

As Victor gazed at it quietly, he could indeed sense a very faint divinity.

A feeble yet never-diminishing otherworldly power… The name of this legend who began as a human and ended his journey by becoming a god had been forgotten, but his title remained.

The First Ascendant. The Morning Star of Gaylord.

Victor carefully caressed the monument.

Despite being on a hillside, the altar was immaculately maintained, indicating that the citizens of Gaylord revered it deeply.

Swoosh…

As he stroked the monument, a faint energy flowed from his hand, and fragments of memories from the one who had ascended from beneath this stone entered his mind.

The most important details, like his name, didn’t come through, but fragments of why he embarked on his adventure and the numerous hardships he faced throughout his life accumulated in Victor’s mind without exception.

“…I see. You were like me.”

Surprisingly, the First Ascendant’s reason for becoming an adventurer was the same as Victor’s.

To leave behind a small village and city, to step boldly into a vast world that couldn’t be fully explored even if one wandered until death—pure adventurous spirit.

Victor smiled and clenched his hand upon learning that in the immeasurably distant past, even during the Age of Eclipse when all humanity was caught in fierce wars and perishing, there existed a hero who ventured forth into the world driven by pure curiosity alone.

“In the name of the Sun, I command: Be eternal, his monument! No storm shall ever wear you down!”

As he spoke, the granite monument was enveloped in a brilliant white light and transformed into orichalcum.

The inscriptions carved into the metal, now imbued with the power of the Sun, remained intact, and Victor descended from the altar with a slight smile.

The confirmation that even in ancient times there were those who embarked on adventures purely out of longing for the world satisfied him, and he had no further lingering attachment to this place.

*

“Are you the mayor of this city?”

And quite naturally, the Sun met the mayor who governed the human city.

Alexander prostrated himself in deep reverence to welcome the Sun, who approached him like dawn chasing away the darkness.

“Yes, Luminator. Incarnation of the Sun.”

“This city overflows with vitality. I’ve read the thoughts of its people. You reformed your nation out of fear of receiving the punishment I delivered in Karluk.”

“Y-yes, Sun.”

The mayor looked up at him with an expression like that of a student caught showing a copied diary to a teacher.

Suddenly, an immense radiance enveloped his eyes, and he closed them again in agony.

Of course, he hadn’t actually been hit by a flash of light.

It was merely a byproduct of his brain, panicked by the presence of a divine being, desperately trying to maintain his sense of self by attempting to block physical proximity to the deity.

“Well done.”

“…Pardon?”

“I said, well done. If I disliked reforms born of fear and revolutions born of anger, the continent would be far more peaceful now. But that is not the case. Fear of death gave birth to medicine, and anger toward evil inspired impulses toward good, ultimately making the world a better place.”

Anger toward evil promulgates laws of justice, and fear of the future gives birth to new concepts and technologies that usher in new eras.

In extreme situations that drive people toward death, human potential and possibility possess the limitless power to make the impossible possible.

Just as he had become a god after surviving while thousands died in Parsifal.

“Your dedication has pleased me. Speak, ruler of this land. What is your name?”

“M-m-my name is Alexander Yeltsin.”

“You have fulfilled your duty admirably. You did not simply take from those who have to give to those who have not, but increased jobs so that the have-nots could rightfully possess their own, improved and reformed policies and systems, and sought the advancement of the nation. This is an achievement possible only for one who rules with benevolence and virtue, earning the love of citizens.”

Victor spoke thus as he dropped various mechanical devices from orbit onto the outskirts of the city.

These were production facilities of ancient relics, preserving the technological prowess of the ancient empire.

“I bestow these upon you because I believe you will use them for this city, and indeed for the entire region. Do not betray my trust.”

“Y-your grace is immeasurable, Your Majesty!”

“Continue to strive forward, my subject. Not much time remains until the Empire of Humanity is established.”

With those words, Victor returned to the Sky Warden.

It had been just four hours since his arrival in the city.

Throughout the streets of Gaylord, the affirmation that the city would raise an army for the Emperor of the 13 Continents echoed.