Chapter 327: The Land Where the Golden Lord Roams
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 327: The Land Where the Golden Lord Roams
Surprisingly, nothing happened during the night. The Dholes only entertained the thought of raiding or stealing from our Cataphract; they never acted on it. Lucky for them. For a bloodthirsty member of the Six Generals was keeping a sharp watch.
Hilde complained in disappointment.
“What a shame. If they'd tried to steal something during the night, I could have killed them in self-defense~.”
“What are you talking about? We're here to negotiate a truce. Don't do anything that could give them an excuse.”
The Regressor dismissed it as a bad joke, but I read her true intentions and shuddered. That woman is a little strange, too.
We decided to set out before Hilde could act on her murderous intent. After getting ready, we climbed into the Cataphract and called the driver.
“D.G. Are you awake?”
The golem took a long moment to respond.
[…State Commun… ptain…. Limit… Reached….]
The crackling voice echoed weakly. The golem tried to grab the steering wheel with a creaking arm, but its head slumped forward as if drained of power.
Hilde tapped the golem and muttered.
“Tsk. Looks like we've reached the communication limit~. Too bad.”
“It's a miracle it reached this far, considering we've left the Military State's territory. D.G., your mission is complete. You no longer need to transport this vehicle. If you understand, shut down.”
A faint response came from the golem, and then, having lost all its mana, it shut down completely.
The signaller's support ended here. From now on, we had to find our own way. Hilde casually folded up the golem, tossed it into the back seat, and sat in the driver's seat.
“Haaah. I guess it can't be helped. I'll drive from here. It would be a disaster if I got bored, so Father, you sit next to me and feed me snacks!”
“What snacks? All our supplies are canned goods.”
“Tch! Damn this country!”
With a click of Hilde’s tongue, the Cataphract set off into the distant wasteland.
Just before sunrise, as the dawn sky began to pale, the Cataphract rumbled forward across the wasteland. Since we'd blown off the roof to reduce weight, the Cataphract, despite its outstanding performance, looked little different from a cargo cart.
Wind, light, and dust struck me unfiltered through the open top. The wide wheels acted as the earth's music box, conveying its song directly to us. Both the sky and the earth were masters at making human lives miserable.
But perhaps such minor discomforts are the true proof of life. It is because we are alive, because we strive to live, that we feel discomfort. We pressed on, the cool wind rushing past us….
However, one half-dead member of our party expressed great dissatisfaction with the sunlight. As the sun revealed itself over the horizon, Tyr groaned in displeasure and tilted her parasol.
“I have never in my life traveled on such a bright road. Not a single patch of shade to be seen.”
“Just a moment. I'll put up a tent.”
“There is no need. A flimsy piece of cloth is worse than nothing.”
“I'm not exactly putting it up for you, you know? I need to set it up in case it rains anyway.”
This was me, making a show of helping. Knowing it wouldn't be much use, I still erected the tent to create a temporary patch of shade and soothe the disgruntled Tyr.
‘Hmph. You are sincere, so I shall accept your goodwill.’
For someone who had just said it was unnecessary, Tyr sat down under the tent quite readily. Though she still kept her parasol resting on her shoulder, she grumbled with a much softer expression than before.
“Did you not say this was a long and urgent journey? Then why do you not travel by night? Wasting nearly half the day… you do not seem like people pressed for time at all.”
“Why are you in such a hurry? You can't even tell the difference between a day and a month when you're in your coffin. And now you're making a fuss over a single night.”
“That is only when I remain in darkness. When the sun shows its brazen face, I know a day has passed whether I wish to or not.”
“I have days when I don't want to get up and wish the sun wouldn't rise, but we have no choice here. We have to see what's ahead of us.”
Tyr scoffed in response.
“Whatever appears, it will be nothing more than rocks or fences, will it not? I need only see them to smash or avoid them.”
It was strange how ‘smash’ came before ‘avoid’. But some obstacles can't be overcome with strength alone.
“I don't think that'll work.”
Slightly offended, Tyr replied with a feigned look of anger.
“You underestimate me. The night is my time, and the darkness illuminates me. I can handle myself perfectly well, even without a single speck of light.”
“I'm not saying you lack the power, Tyr, it's just that….”
Just then, Hilde spotted something and shouted as she wrenched the wheel.
“Watch out!”
CRASH. The Cataphract shook violently. It seemed the front wheel had struck something hard. Our cargo was thrown into the air for a moment, and Azzy yelped in surprise.
Fortunately, the Cataphract is a masterpiece of the Military State, designed to break through any terrain. A little bump like that wouldn't damage it. I was the one who took the damage.
Hilde spun the wheel to avoid the sudden obstacle. I had to grab the railing to keep from being thrown about as my body was tossed from side to side.
Amidst the chaos, Tyr asked.
“…Were we not just driving across a wasteland a moment ago?”
“We were.”
“But now… it is as if….”
Tyr slowly looked around.
A low hill where trees grew sparsely. Small house foundations were scattered across it like pebbles. Only traces remained, suggesting they had vanished long ago, like a ruin from a fallen civilization.
Tyr asked.
“…It looks like a ruin. What village is this?”
Uh, that's the most meaningless question you can ask in the Fallen Dominion. While I was wondering how to explain, the Regressor answered.
“I don't know. No one knows if this was a village from the old Golden Empire, or one the Fallen Dominion built and then destroyed. Or if it just appeared like this yesterday. Because this is the Fallen Dominion.”
“You do not know?”
“It's not just this. Sometimes a sandy beach will suddenly give way to a pile of rocks. Or a cliff will appear in the middle of a town. Nothing is surprising here. Because there's no reason for any of it to be created.”
The Regressor trailed off, her gaze fixed ahead.
The Cataphract, having finally navigated through the house foundations to the top of the hill, began to race down the other side. Thanks to that, the view that had been hidden by the hill was revealed.
The Regressor gazed at the massive structure built at the bottom of the slope and muttered.
“…I suppose that's the same.”
It was a Great Wall, made all the more majestic by the distance. As if decorating the horizon, a massive wall blocked our view. It was so high we couldn't see what was behind the slope, and so long that one end stretched beyond our sight.
However, the other end did not continue. It wasn't broken or collapsed; it simply ended, as if construction had been halted right there. Thanks to that, it seemed the Great Wall couldn't fulfill its role of separating one land from another.
Which was fortunate for us. Hilde steered the Cataphract toward the side where the wall ended.
As we got closer, the wall's grandeur grew. The rampart, rising vertically from the well-packed earth, showed no signs of age.
Had there been no battles, or was the wall so sturdy that battles couldn't damage it? Tyr expressed constant admiration for the wall, whose uselessness or supreme competence was impossible to determine.
“What a magnificent scale. I have never seen such a large and majestic castle. The height is dizzying, but the endlessly stretching wall is truly breathtaking. Had it not been broken in the middle, it would have been a Great Wall remembered throughout history. How much time must it have taken to build a castle of such scale….”
The Regressor answered Tyr’s monologue.
“Probably a day.”
“Hm? Shei, did you say a day?”
“Yeah. The person who built that castle was just one man. The time it took was one day. I don't know about anything else, but I'm sure of that.”
The Regressor's words were the undeniable truth. I haven't met the Golden Lord myself, so I don't know the whole story, but that much is the publicly known truth.
However….
“Shei-ssi. Stop scratching the surface and give us a proper explanation, will you? Who made that, and what does he do?”
It's hard to explain in words, I know. But it's about time you told us. How long are you going to keep being so indirect?
The Regressor hesitated, drawing out her words.
“Uh….”
‘I'm not confident I can explain it. The Golden Lord's power is too alien… To be honest, I don't really understand the principle behind it either.’
Wow, what an incredible person. I can understand not being able to explain it. The Golden Lord's power is just that bizarre.
But you were confident until now? You've barely explained anything properly.
“A-Ahem. Why don't you do it? You seem to know a lot.”
“It's been a while since my last lecture. Trainee Shei, I hope you learn well.”
“I-I know it too! I just want you to do the explaining!”
“There's a saying that if you can't explain it in your own words, you don't really know it. Ah, Shei-ssi.”
“Hey, you!”
“Shei. How much longer must I wait?”
“…Ugh, fine.”
I'd normally need a chalkboard and a pointer, but that's not really an option up here. A shame, but I'll have to make do with words. I began my explanation while sitting with my back against the seat.
“I'll make it simple. The Golden Lord's power is alchemy. The most powerful and wide-ranging alchemy in the world, like creation itself.”
“You mean that power you people use to play with scraps of iron?”
“Our alchemy is child's play compared to the Golden Lord's. See that castle, how it's broken off in the middle? At a glance, it looks like there was a huge castle, and something with destructive power smashed through it… but the truth is the exact opposite.”
The reason people of the Fallen Dominion travel on their own mounts. The most fundamental reason why this is a nation of alchemy, yet everyone lives a nomadic life.
“The Golden Lord passed through this once-empty wasteland and 'alchemized' the castle into existence.”
It is because of the Golden Lord's power, which creates the territory of a nation.
The Golden Lord turns the world upside down. No, he goes beyond that and creates something new. Creation is the destruction of the existing order. Therefore, to escape this march of destruction, the people of the Fallen Dominion became wanderers.
I swallowed and continued my explanation.
“When you think about it again, it's strange, isn't it? Why is a Great Wall built at the bottom of a hill? For a castle of this scale, why does it end so abruptly without any context? Alchemy explains these questions. It was built at the bottom of the hill because it used the earth and rocks here as materials. The castle ends in the middle without a trace… not because something destroyed it, but simply because that's as far as he built it.”
That's why in the Fallen Dominion, it's not strange no matter what terrain or structure appears. The reason is clear.
It exists because the Golden Lord made it. No further explanation is necessary.
However, Tyr, whose knowledge was frozen 300 years in the past, voiced a question.
“Why did this person called the Golden Lord stop building the castle?”
“No one knows except the Golden Lord himself. It's been ages since the theory of wall-uselessness emerged, yet he's still building things like Great Walls. Why the Golden Lord wanders the Fallen Dominion, filling empty lands with something… there's only rampant speculation.”
“A strange being indeed.”
“Well, before I met you, you were just a vampire who slept a suspicious amount, Tyr. You can't know the Golden Lord without meeting him either. I'm just telling you what I've heard.”
Anyone who has studied properly can answer this much. You know the basics of your neighboring countries' history, right? Especially if it's a potential enemy.
‘For something he's just 'heard,' his understanding is quite deep… Didn't this guy say he was a citizen of the Military State? He talks as if he's lived in the Fallen Dominion.’
It's called indirect experience. While the Regressor grumbled internally, Tyr, having remembered something, curled her hand into a fist and tapped it.
“Ah, I remember now. Hu, you said in the Abyss. That a nation fell because someone created an immense amount of gold with alchemy. Was that the Golden Lord?”
“Oh, you remembered that. My lessons weren't in vain.”
“Huhu. Is that not basic? I have taken all your words to heart.”
“That's right. The one who threw the Golden Empire, which had enjoyed all manner of wealth and glory, into chaos and brought it to ruin is none other than the Golden Lord, Democrias. His mere existence rendered all the gold and weapons of the Golden Empire worthless. In a world flooded with fakes more brilliant than the real thing, the people of the Golden Empire could no longer believe in anything.
Trust collapsed, and the economy was destroyed. The wealthy fell to ruin, and the poor were cast down even further. Amidst the endless cycle of chaos, all resentment was directed at the Golden Lord and the alchemists who followed his teachings. The King of the Golden Empire tried to execute all alchemists, but….”
What's the point of saying more? The result is laid out right before our eyes. I shrugged and continued.
“Seeing as the Golden Empire fell and the Fallen Dominion ended up in this state, I guess he failed, huh?”
As for what happened… I might find out when I meet the Golden Lord, but I haven't met him in person yet. I suppose I'll get the chance this time.
The King of the Golden Empire, one of the Five Sovereigns. The King of Steel, who was called the Monster of Logic and possessed the power to understand and analyze all human technology… why was he 'devoured' by a mere human? And why does the man who killed the king call himself the Golden Lord?
This is a chance to find out.
“That's why they say you can't farm in the Fallen Dominion unless the land is exceptionally blessed. It wasn't good land for farming to begin with, but even if you laid the foundation, one pass from the Golden Lord… and your painstakingly cultivated golden fields would turn into a carpeted royal palace.”
That's also why in the Fallen Dominion, they value gold no more than rocks. They are not deceived by appearances. Food, mounts, clothes. They make what they need at the moment, or if that's not possible, they take it to get by. There is no logic there beyond survival.
A land that uses the most tools in the world, yet whose way of life is closest to the wild.
The Cataphract moved past the unfinished Great Wall. The wall, failing to serve its purpose, revealed its inner side to the wanderers.