Ch.361The Road to Karkata Continent (2)

The next morning. Victor’s eyes were dark as he woke up in an ambiguous state—neither refreshed nor groggy—and forced himself to swallow his breakfast.

If even gods couldn’t avoid hangovers, how on earth was one supposed to cure them?

Finally managing to settle his stomach after downing a cup of honey water brought by a soldier, Victor made his way to the library to meet Simon, his belly full of honey and water.

“Simon?”

“My lord. The Sage has stepped out momentarily.”

Unfortunately, Simon wasn’t in the library.

Instead, Victor heard the voices of assistant librarians cleaning and organizing the library.

“Simon’s gone? That’s unusual. Where did he go?”

“The dwarves called for him. Probably something related to machinery. I don’t know the details.”

“He went to see the brothers… Well, fine. I’ll wait. You all continue with your work.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Though he hadn’t expected to be waiting, it was actually for the best.

Having gone to bed late after drunkenly hurling harsh words at the Moon the night before, Victor needed time to settle his stomach. He sat down and began reading a book he’d picked up.

Coincidentally, the book he chose was a fairy tale—one about family love, no less.

“Hmm…”

As vivid memories of the previous night came flooding back, Victor considered putting the book away, but ultimately continued reading.

Come to think of it, he couldn’t remember reading many fairy tales as a child. Life had been too harsh, and he’d been too busy cramming in knowledge necessary for survival to pay attention to stories saying “let’s not fight and get along happily together.”

Of course, now that he was older, he could understand why children needed such content, but as last night’s lament showed, understanding something and accepting it were entirely different matters.

A man might understand a woman, but he could never experience her menstrual cramps. The analogy seemed somewhat off, but let’s overlook it since Victor never received a formal education.

“Already finished.”

The fairy tale’s content was extremely typical. A good family appears, then a villain, a problem arises, they fight, and eventually they reconcile hastily and end with everyone smiling and eating dinner together at home.

Looking at the illustrations colored in that pastel tone unique to children’s books made him feel like his intelligence was dropping. For Victor, a cold city man who had completely carved out all childlike innocence, the content was quite uncomfortable, but being a fairy tale, he somehow managed to read it to the end.

As he closed the book and returned it to its original place, the door opened and Simon entered the library.

“What were you doing with the dwarves?”

When Victor asked, Simon straightened his back and answered.

“I was helping them develop a new weapon. They were attempting to combine a mortar and a grenade launcher—quite innovative.”

“Really? If they complete it, I’d like to see it.”

“You’ll probably see it soon. They’ve already overcome the difficult parts… Anyway, were you looking for me?”

“Yes. I wanted to hear about the famous sites.”

“Ah.”

Simon nodded, moistened his throat, then searched through some documents before beginning to explain to Victor about Karkata’s four famous sites.

*

“First, for historical significance, there’s the Talia Gorge.”

“What happened there?”

“Hmm. It’s where Nariakira Ichika, the founding emperor of the Empire, was born.”

“Oh ho.”

That would certainly make it a historical place.

As the birthplace of the Empire’s founder, there would be strong nostalgia for the Nariakiran Empire, and naturally, high favorability toward Victor, the Sun God.

If they simply appeared before these people, winning their hearts wouldn’t be difficult.

If there were imperial relics, gifting them could greatly win public support.

“What’s next?”

“Hmm… The place where a great achievement was born is… the Precursor Hospital. It’s where they first successfully revived a brain-dead person.”

“Interesting.”

Even Victor, who knew nothing about medicine except potions, understood that reviving someone who was brain-dead was no simple feat.

Since consciousness and the soul originate in the brain, brain death meant both the soul and consciousness were completely dead.

Therefore, reviving someone who was not just biologically dead but mentally and spiritually dead as well seemed impossible. It would be like creating a different person with the same body, but the premise that someone once dead had been brought back to life was undeniably true.

If memories had been backed up beforehand, the soul could be restored to some extent, so it wasn’t like creating a complete stranger from zero. Victor wasn’t an expert, so he didn’t know the details, but reviving a brain-dead person through extremely complex and difficult processes was akin to resurrecting the dead.

It was possible, but barely so. At the point of brain death, the person was already dead, and even if memories were reinjected, it was similar to gathering fragments of broken pottery, grinding them back into powder, mixing it with new clay, and firing it into pottery again.

A living human made from the materials of the dead, one might say. Just as the new pottery couldn’t be called a perfect replica of the broken one, the same principle applied here.

Nevertheless, the fact that resurrection of the dead—impossible even with divine power—was achievable was such a tremendous achievement that no one opposed the Precursor Hospital being designated as a famous site.

Even during the imperial era, there were records of some imperial family members officially inviting Precursor medical staff to revive the dead. It was literally divine endorsement.

“What’s next?”

“For religious significance, there’s the Ainses Plain. There’s a relic where humans supposedly built the first altar. Evidence of the first worship of transcendent beings and attempts to find solace through them… that’s preserved there. And whether it worked or not, during the Dark Age, a blessing supposedly descended upon the human forces fighting their last stand there.”

“A blessing?”

“Things like magazines never emptying no matter how much they fired, gun barrels never overheating. Suddenly being filled with strength, wounds bubbling and healing. This can only be explained as a miracle.”

“Hmm…”

During the Dark Age, when not even starlight was visible, let alone sunlight. If such supernatural power appeared in that era, it was likely a primitive blessing that had descended.

It happened so long ago, and due to its miraculous nature, it couldn’t be reproduced, but what occurred there had been passed down through oral tradition and records, so there was no issue with it being designated as a famous site.

“But this could have been classified as a historical site too.”

“The Karkatans knew that, and there was quite a debate. But what could they do? The 52 Wonders of the World were designated during the imperial era. The pressure from the imperial family was too intense to classify the spirits of ancient times as mere history.”

“I see.”

Then there was nothing to be done. The Empire in its heyday held tremendous authority and strongly pushed the notion that only Nariakira Saburo and Maria Taylor possessed divine nature. If someone had suggested recognizing the Ainses Plain as “history,” black-clad individuals would have appeared through portals to capture that person and make them eat sushi through their nose.

For 350,000 years, the Sun and Moon reigned as the only divine beings—entities beyond standard classification that ordinary subjects couldn’t presume to judge.

“Let’s move on from this. Finally, what’s the most beautiful place?”

“Let’s see… Oh, this is interesting. The Blue Hole.”

“Blue Hole?”

“Yes. It’s a massive hole in the sea, over 160km deep. About 30km wide. It’s home to various fish species, so the catch is quite high.”

“At that size, it wouldn’t be surprising if something lived down there, right? At 160km, sunlight wouldn’t even reach it.”

“That’s why the ancient Empire installed machines to illuminate it. It says there were abyssal gods there, but they were killed by dropping antimatter bombs.”

“Oh.”

Victor gave a brief response to this one-dimensional thinking: if there’s no light, create light; if there’s danger, eliminate it.

A perfect example of “do it because you can.” A true demonstration of imperial power. While incomprehensible by modern standards, this was probably common sense during the imperial era.

“I’m really looking forward to it. I don’t think I’ve ever looked into the sea before.”

“Not in my memory either. A sparkling, illuminated deep sea… I can understand why it was designated as a famous site.”

Victor and Simon spoke thus, imagining the scenery of the Blue Hole.

And meanwhile, the Sky Warden was slowly approaching Karkata.