Chapter 349: The King Who Kills Others, The God Who Kills Himself - 5
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 349: The King Who Kills Others, The God Who Kills Himself - 5
“I am in awe of Your Majesty's teachings! At first, I thought you were merely trying to dismiss me… but my faith was lacking! Please forgive this foolish one!”
At first, he had thought it was a cruel joke. He thought she was trying to amuse herself by testing his wits. So, instead of scolding her, he had played along.
But… it soon became clear that his disciple's discovery was the truth, the absolute truth.
“Just as Your Majesty surmised, all things are, in fact, one. Just as the iron our craftsmen use is fundamentally one, despite its many forms, so too is all matter born from a single source! Some pure form that constitutes all matter! Of course it can be changed!”
The disciple firmly believed that Elric had already grasped this truth and had posed the problem to share her understanding with others. That was why he spouted incomprehensible explanations every time he saw her.
But Elric could not understand a word he was saying.
It defied all common sense. How could one turn iron into gold?
One could forge a weapon from iron, but the iron remained iron. Alloying it with other metals was like mixing sesame seeds into flour dough; it didn't change the dough into glutinous rice or buckwheat. The latter was called something other than a technique. It was called fraud.
Elric, with her royal authority, understood this clearly. But what her disciple was saying went far beyond the knowledge she… no, the knowledge humanity had accumulated until now.
“When I lacked faith, I dared not even guess. But once Your Majesty enlightened me, my eyes were opened! I am not certain whether it is a particle so small as to be invisible, or if it flows like water. Perhaps it is so small that its form is irrelevant to what we know. After all, even fine sand can flow like water between stones!”
She didn't know.
An unwelcome guest had intruded upon a world where everything was divided into the possible and the impossible: the unknown. No matter what knowledge she applied, she couldn't grasp even a speck of what he was saying.
But for her, who had reigned her entire life… she lacked the courage to declare that she did not know. To do so would be to deny the name of Elric, passed down since ancient times, and the authority it held.
Yuria Elric composed her crumbling expression and spoke.
“You have grasped it correctly. I, too, had surmised something similar, though I did not delve into it as deeply as you have.”
“Your Majesty is busy with the affairs of state, so that is to be expected. I am simply overwhelmed to be the first disciple to understand your true intentions!”
Not at all. Those were not her intentions. Her disciple had simply misunderstood.
“Can you show me this form?”
“Ah, well… I have given it some thought… but just as a furnace is needed to melt pure steel, a furnace hundreds of times hotter would be required to isolate that pure form… Perhaps Your Majesty…”
Needless to say, she, with the Authority of the King, knew the answer.
Impossible. It was beyond the reach of current human technology.
“It is impossible. Even if the desired temperature were reached, the furnace itself would melt.”
“As I thought… Then the only way is to use unique magic as a workaround. Unique magic is the only way to spread the truth Your Majesty has realized to the world.”
If unique magic was the only way, Elric could not follow. She shook her head.
“I cannot. It is nearly impossible for one who wields the Authority of the King to learn unique magic.”
It was the truth. Those who wielded the Authority of the King had, for generations, lacked an aptitude for unique magic. Their overwhelmingly powerful authority consumed the talent for manifesting one's inner world.
However, that truth was used to hide another.
The truth that Elric could not even begin to fathom its principles, let alone manifest a Spiritual World.
It is said that a king does not know the hearts of their people, but neither can the people dare to guess the heart of their king. The disciple, who endlessly respected, revered, and adored the great Elric, was oblivious to her inner thoughts as he exclaimed.
“Th-Then I shall become Your Majesty's unique magic!”
“…You will?”
“This, too, is a grace you have bestowed upon me. To repay that debt, if for no other reason, I will use this power for Your Majesty for the rest of my life!”
Elric let out a hollow laugh.
Something she had never learned nor taught, her disciple had reached on his own through a simple misunderstanding. He had surpassed even the Authority of the King, reaching a realm no human had yet attained.
Perhaps boredom had been a rather luxurious emotion. Compared to this powerlessness, this inferiority, and this base pleasure…
“I permit it.”
“Thank you!”
“And from now on… spread your discovery far and wide, Demo.”
Demo, having received the acknowledgment of the king he adored, beamed and bowed his head.
“I will obey!”
Several years passed. A new class of people called alchemists appeared in the Golden Empire. A few artisans, taught by Demo, succeeded in turning steel into gold. The alchemists naturally came to enjoy wealth and power, rising as the true power brokers of the empire.
Where there is light, there must be shadow. As the alchemists rose, the blacksmiths and artisans who formed the foundation of the Golden Empire had to endure difficult times. Even the most celebrated artisans of the empire lost their competitive edge against alchemists who could create gold from scratch.
But it didn't matter. The gold of the empire spread throughout the world and returned as all manner of wealth. Even renowned craftsmen could live in luxury just by picking up the scraps the alchemists left behind. They forgot their skills and spent their days drowning in alcohol.
Hiding the ever-widening cracks with the brilliance of gold and silk, the Golden Empire sank endlessly into extravagance and pleasure.
Then one day.
“S-Sir, our shop will no longer be accepting gold from today…”
The collapse, as it always does, arrived quietly but surely.
“There’s… there’s too much of it. There are more gold pieces than grains of rice. Please, give me something else…”
Who could have predicted it?
Gold. It had long been the symbol of wealth, a precious metal used as currency anywhere in the world. Its value as a catalyst for mana was also high, so everyone coveted it.
But when the gold stamped out by alchemists became more common than stones, people began to treat gold like rocks. The logic of economics had overturned a value that had been established for thousands of years.
It was the first time in history such a thing had happened. No one had predicted it, and no one was prepared. Naturally, no one had a solution. The chaos grew uncontrollably.
“Please, buy my gold!”
“I have this much gold, why won't you sell to me?!”
“Bandits attacked? Go hire mercenaries! Tell them I’ll give them all the gold they want… What? They won’t take it?”
The tower built on gold crumbled in an instant. The loss of faith in gold was all it took for every piece of it in the empire to lose its value, becoming a burden. It was a feat that not even the greatest alchemist could have accomplished.
When everyone simultaneously became poor while nothing had actually changed, riots broke out. People no longer sought to fight with the logic of gold. Instead, they took up weapons of steel. The artisans, who had lost their wealth and power to the alchemists, rose again with the dawn of the age of steel.
The first thing those who held weapons did was attack the alchemists. They killed the alchemists, the source of all their troubles, and plundered their possessions. Until then, alchemists were merely artisans who turned steel into gold, complete novices in combat. They were helpless against the successive attacks. The gold they had trusted so much, and the people they had commanded with that gold, could not save their lives.
A nationwide hunt and execution of alchemists began. Blood-stained gold was scattered on the ground. A sudden storm of blood swept across the entire Golden Empire.
“Demo, you traitor, listen well. Your foolish actions have plunged the nation into misery, a crime that is difficult to forgive.”
Even Demo, the first alchemist, could not escape the flames of disaster.
“Shackle his neck and chain an iron ball to him. Then, whip him and make him wander the Golden Empire. I shall leave his judgment to the people.”
With the hatred for alchemists reaching the heavens, the creator of alchemy would surely be stoned to death by the people.
Yuria Elric, the King of the Golden Empire, looked down at Demo with cold eyes and pronounced his death sentence.
*
Yes. I felt it. This memory resembled the memories of the past I had seen in the depths of the Abyss.
There's a phenomenon known as residual thought. When a person who has reached a certain level of mastery dies, the mana and qi they cultivated in life linger on after death. Sometimes, it can even force the body to move, re-enacting the habits of their life.
Whether through cremation or burial, once the funeral rites are performed or the body is damaged to the point it can no longer maintain its form, the residual thoughts disappear. But if the original form is preserved by some means, they can remain. Like at the bottom of the Abyss.
And… like in this Golden Palace.
The only question is, why am I sensing King Elric's thoughts instead of the Golden Lord's?
“Tyr. Do you feel anything…? Tyr?”
Huh. Where'd my bodyguard go?
She was right beside me, we were walking together, but now she's gone. What is this? Reading her thoughts, it seems she's nearby.
But more importantly… something is strange.
I pushed through a cornfield, so why is there a clearing here?
No matter how tall the corn was, there was no wide clearing like this when I approached just a moment ago. The only thing visible beyond the corn was more corn. But after passing the Fireblastarch and crossing just one row of corn, a clearing suddenly appeared.
It was a pastoral scene. I could see a large village hall that also served as a warehouse. It was unadorned, which gave it a more charming feel. Behind it was a low hill, and beyond that, a stream trickled by. The sound of a turning water mill was loud.
A typical countryside landscape.
Of course, none of this was visible from the outside. It was as if I had entered another world.
As I looked around, farmers emerged from the cornfield behind me, trudging forward.
Carrying armfuls of corn, the farmers headed for the warehouse. They silently filled it with corn and then went back to harvest more, like worker ants.
But I couldn't feel their presence. I couldn't read their thoughts.
Because everyone working here was a homunculus.
“You! How did you get into the Golden Palace!”
Amidst them, an old man in a straw hat was staring at me, his face a mask of horror. It was Dominarch Hector. So, this man was connected to the Golden Palace after all.
‘How did he get here! It shouldn't even be visible from the outside!’
The fact that I can read his thoughts means he's the original. I found my way here by reading your mind, old man.
“Didn't I say I'd give you a day! This is a breach of contract!”
“Excuse me? What are you talking about? I was just looking at the cornfield and happened to wander in here. You're saying this is the Golden Palace?”
“What…!”
The flustered Hector quickly composed himself and shouted.
“Don't lie! In this vast cornfield, you just happened to find the Golden Palace, which is protected by Guardians? By chance? What nonsense!”
He's quick on the uptake. But what's he going to do about it? Besides stubbornly insisting I'm lying, what can you do? If you can't prove it, then it's the truth.
“It really was a coincidence. I was simply scouting and ended up here. If you had just told me the location of the Golden Palace, I wouldn't have come here, even by chance.”
“The moment you started scouting, you intended to come!”
“No, I didn't. Were you inside my head to see for yourself?”
If you could do that, you'd be the King of Humans. As I brazenly stood my ground, Hector could only fume in silence.
It was then.
“Enough. Let him come.”
The door of the village hall opened, and a woman appeared.
Her brilliant golden hair, which looked as if it were spun from real gold, was tied back in a simple ponytail. Her form-fitting clothes didn't seem intended to show off her figure, but rather to keep any flowing fabric from interfering with her work. Wearing leather gloves and boots that reached her ankles, the woman pierced me with a sharp gaze.
“Are you the Golden Lord?”
“I am not. However, you have something to say to Us.”
“I came to offer peace to the Golden Lord. Who are you supposed to be?”
But the woman placed a hand on her chest and introduced herself.
“I am the Goldenarch, Yuria Elric. The Sovereign of Understanding who rules the Golden Empire.”
The ruler of the Golden Empire, the sovereign who possessed the power to replicate all the world's technology.
And the king who was ‘devoured’ by the Monster of Logic.
“Furthermore, I am the Golden Palace… that rules the Fallen Dominion.”
The homunculus of King Elric spoke with composure.