Chapter 382: Lightning Did Not Fall From the Sky - 3
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 382: Lightning Did Not Fall From the Sky - 3
The wall, now a cascade of cards, fluttered down, revealing a small, dim room.
Inside the first Thunderarch's secret space, a small bookshelf and an attached desk stood alone. The bookshelf was packed tight with all sorts of books, their covers worn with use, suggesting they had been read often. A single notebook lay on the desk, illuminated by a lightning lamp.
A notebook holding the Thunderarch's secrets. I'd already grasped some of its contents by reading the current Thunderarch's mind, but I had only read 'the notebook as the Thunderarch read it.' Humans process information through the lens of their own knowledge. If I wanted the real truth, I had to see the notebook for myself.
Just what secret had the first Thunderarch been hiding? If my guess was right…
I turned to the first page of the notebook. And there it was.
-A today no different from yesterday guarantees a tomorrow that will continue on.
Not even trying to hide it. This confirms it.
The first Thunderarch… Claudia was founded by the Sanctum.
-The Golden Lord has reshaped the world the Creator made. Because of that cursed Divine, the world has lost its permanence. One thing can become another, and the steel-clad promise that bound all things together has become worthless scrap. A today like yesterday is impossible. The irreversible changes wrought by that Divine will turn humans into something else.
-However, the current Golden Lord, though fearsome, is a monster that has lost its reason. If we stand on this hill, watch him, and prevent the changes he creates, then we may yet endure.
-We will reclaim the lost order.
Endurance, order… Anyone can see this is the Sanctum's rhetoric. It seems the Thunderarch doesn't know, probably because there's nowhere to study theology around here.
I clicked my tongue and turned the page.
The following pages were filled with methods to distinguish the Golden Lord's fake gold, the limits of alchemy, and a long list of technologies to be wary of.
-He can create even food? The blessings of the Sky God and Mother Earth themselves?
At some point, the entries began to focus on the crops created by the Golden Lord. Below a hastily scrawled note of astonishment, the findings of an investigation were recorded in a more stable hand.
-The crops the Golden Lord creates are unnatural. When humans eat them, it causes great problems. The effects are more severe in children whose bodies have not yet fully grown.
-A fortunate thing. No, is it not to be expected? Crops crudely mimicked with alchemy could never be healthy.
After that, the author seemed to write with excitement about various topics, but the entries gradually grew shorter until a single sentence was added at the end.
-According to Franc's research, the side effects of the Golden Lord's crops diminish the more they are fermented or altered. If starvation is imminent… I do not recommend it, but consume them only after as much processing as possible.
-Beware the Homunculus. This land must not end up like the duchy beyond the mountains.
Following this was a detailed discussion on food processing methods and how to gather and dispose of the Golden Lord's crops. A being that followed the Golden Lord, harvesting and processing his crops all at once. This looked like the model for the Dominarch, plain as day.
Perhaps soured by this compromise with reality, the author wrote little else about the crops. Instead, their interest seemed to shift elsewhere.
-Alchemy is certainly dangerous, but it is efficient when used properly. The power to freely shape steel has dramatically reduced the facilities and resources needed for metallurgy. In particular, it has lessened the burden on the sages by reducing the time spent on trial and error to an instant.
-The sage Franc argued for the active use of alchemy. Now that it has been revealed to the world, it cannot be hidden. I agree, but we must always be cautious in wielding its power.
-If alchemy can make imagination reality, then perhaps it can make our ideals reality as well.
The Sanctum doesn't just reject the Divine. They fear the irreversible changes that destroy the existing order, but they are second to none in using the Divine's power. They've collected more of it than anyone else in the world, and they're the best at using it.
And so, those blessed by fate steadily developed Claudia.
An alarm to announce the coming of lightning. The Lightning Towers to evade and block it. The Thundergear that allowed humans to wield the power of lightning. A list of inventions detailing how to utilize that power and how it could benefit humanity. The core concepts that now defined Claudia were written out in full.
And in the midst of Claudia's brilliant leap forward under the Sanctum's blessing for the future…
-Franc. I warned you to be so careful. Why did you…
A single sentence, steeped in dark despair.
The sage Franc. The most frequently mentioned person in this notebook, the engineer who laid Claudia's foundations. He was likely a sage dispatched to assist the owner of this notebook… Why would such a passage be left behind?
-It is almost a relief. Lightning originally belongs to the Sky God. If it was bound to appear someday…
-It is merely one more thing to protect. I will become the Thunderarch and guard the lightning.
After this, mentions of people or technology became noticeably scarce. The rest of the notebook was nothing more than a simple timeline.
No more information. Tch. If it were a person, I could have read them easily, but I'm not the King of Notebooks.
In any case, one thing was certain.
Like so many other gods, the Thunder God has become a part of the Sky God. He may not have been originally, but he is now. Like the old faiths dismissed as myths and folktales, he will dissolve into the heavens, serving as a handmaiden to glorify the Sky God.
All thanks to the Sanctum stealing the lightning.
Flipping through the pages, I soon reached the end. There was no other information of note. But at the bottom of the last page, a final phrase remained.
-...A successor is needed. A powerful and special being who will protect all these secrets for generations to come.
Just as I was mulling over those words, the basement door burst open. The guardian of the city, having forced the steel door with a bolt of lightning, glared at me with a quiet fury.
"I don't recall giving you permission to be here. What is the meaning of this?"
Tch. She's quick on the uptake. I spun around and spoke hastily.
"That's why I snuck in. How did you know I was here? The hunt for the Thunder God is in full swing outside. Structurally, there's no way I could have been caught."
"I felt as if a bug were gnawing at me from the inside. It was an incredibly itchy, grating sensation that wouldn't go away, so I came to check… To think a thief would sneak in during this time."
Seriously, the hunt for the Thunder God is happening right now! You're just going to drop everything and come here because you feel like a bug is crawling inside you? You should have just gritted your teeth and dealt with it later!
But complaining was pointless. This proved something.
The Thunderarch objectively and subjectively should not have been able to come find me. How could she possibly pay attention to this place when a battle between the Thunder God and the Regressor was unfolding right above her? She had no room to spare any attention. She wouldn't have even imagined someone would try something like this.
And yet, the Thunderarch had arrived with impossible speed.
A simple coincidence? Animal instinct?
Things like that don't just happen so conveniently. Not for me, and not for my opponents. If I drew the best possible hand and went all in, only for my opponent to slap down a joker, it wouldn't be a once-in-a-lifetime stroke of bad luck—it would be a setup. You'd do well to believe the words of an expert.
This wasn't intuition. It was a revelation.
Like a priest receiving the Saintess's Call, or a signaller receiving a transmission. Someone told her to come. Otherwise, the discontinuity in her thought process makes no sense!
Regardless, I was caught red-handed. There was no talking my way out of this one. I said, "Lady Thunderarch. There's a truth I've come to understand."
The Thunderarch dismissed me at once.
"A truth obtained through unjust means has no legitimacy."
"But it's still the truth, isn't it? Shouldn't you at least hear it?"
I tried to talk my way through, but the murderous-looking Thunderarch was in no mood to listen. She approached with clear hostility, each step deliberate. Before she could reach me, however, she encountered a small obstacle.
"La-Lady Thunderarch…"
Jerry, who had collapsed earlier, grabbed the hem of her clothes and whimpered.
"Th-that man is saying bad things. That you… that you're hurting the children."
The Thunderarch's steps halted. Unable to bring herself to shake off the small hand gripping her clothes, she turned and soothed Jerry.
"Jerry. Don't listen to him. We were not wrong."
"Right? Th-that man was lying, right?"
"That is…"
"That's not it, is it, Lady Thunderarch? You could have saved these children, couldn't you?"
I used the opening Jerry created to strike at her vulnerability with the sharpest words. A crack formed on the face of the Thunderarch, which had seemed so perfect it was flawless.
"The disabilities that occur in the Fallen Dominion are because the food created by the Golden Lord mixes in their bodies. It causes them to twist and break as they grow. You know this, which is why you cultivate food in the Lightning Towers, right?"
If one were to classify the Thunderarch as good or evil, she would undoubtedly be good. Her sense of duty and her actions were all for the sake of the city. There was no malice in them. Her care for these children was, in the end, born of goodwill.
"But you know, don't you? If the mixing is the problem, then the solution is to not let them mix."
However, while she held goodwill in her heart, her blind adherence to the notebook had twisted something terribly.
"And you also know that because someone deliberately gathered the newlyweds and children of the Fallen Dominion and provided them with that food, the plague of disabilities has never ceased."
Others might not know. But one person, the Thunderarch of Claudia, knows the truth. Because she is both the beneficiary and the cause.
When the two mix, disabilities occur. In that case, time should naturally separate them into two unmixed groups. That is the proper way of things.
But because someone artificially mixed the two, the dark shadow hanging over the Fallen Dominion remains, even hundreds of years later.
"Humans can do anything. But was this really the result you wanted? To keep passing down the curse that haunts the Fallen Dominion to future generations?"
"Silence."
"I don't think so. If that were the case, there would be no reason for you to be taking care of these children."
The sound of the children's crying grew louder. The shadow of calamity, rampant throughout the Fallen Dominion. The Thunderarch, who had both neglected and protected it, was now glaring at me as if I were her mortal enemy. Under her resentful gaze, I posed a question.
"Don't misunderstand. I'm not here to blame or criticize you. I just want to ask your heart. Do you, personally, like what is written in this notebook?"
"We were not wrong. This notebook belongs to the first Thunderarch, who created the order of Claudia. Thanks to their efforts, Claudia has prospered."
"Do you really think so? Even though the tragedy of the Fallen Dominion has continued under the order this notebook created?"
"That is a problem that arose because the Golden Lord exists. It is not the responsibility of the previous Thunderarchs, nor is it Claudia's."
"Fine, let's say that's true. I have no intention of playing a childish game of passing the buck. Honestly, it's true that all these problems started because of the Golden Lord. But then why can't you hold your head high? Why have you hidden these children, crying out in pain, deep underground?"
To hide them from the eyes of others? There was no reason for that. It was a well-known fact that of the children born in the Fallen Dominion, a third died, a third were born with disabilities, and only the remaining third were born seemingly healthy. Having a child in the Fallen Dominion was akin to participating in a very dangerous gamble.
It was only natural that Claudia, a place where such mothers and children flocked, would have many children who died or suffered from disabilities. If anything, people would cheer for and praise the Thunderarch for taking them in and caring for them. Everyone would.
"Isn't it just because you wanted to look away, Lady Thunderarch? Can you really call that being proud?"
But one person—the Thunderarch, who had touched the truth—would want to bury the guilt of having contributed to the Fallen Dominion's state deep underground. Because she couldn't hold her head high at all.
A shadow fell over the Thunderarch's face. Unable to watch his respected Thunderarch being tormented any longer, Jerry shot to his feet and cried out shrilly.
"Don't say bad things to Lady Thunderarch! She's the one who protects us… Lady Thunderarch?"
The Thunderarch silently let go of Jerry's hand. A Thunder Disciple, once so similar to the Thunderarch, but who had become different for not being chosen. The Thunderarch looked at the child and fell into a brief reverie.
'I am the chosen one. I have always acted according to this notebook, using my abilities to protect Claudia. But… it is also true that the children of Claudia suffer. As he says, it would be a lie to say I haven't felt a sense of wrongness.'
…is definitely what she's thinking. I read it with my mind-reading ability.
The Thunderarch, as a human, sympathized with the suffering children and tried to protect them. It was the mindset of an arrogant but fundamentally good person.
'However, one cannot live in this world simply as one pleases.'
But from a corner of the Thunderarch's mind, another thought overflowed.
The thoughts that came flooding in after that contained no human anguish. The leader of Claudia, the guardian of the Fallen Dominion, and the recipient of the Sanctum's revelations. The duties she had to perform were countless, and the obligations she shouldered were far too great. Her every word, her every action, could shake Claudia to its core. The responsibility, too much for any single person to bear, had forged her into a woman of iron.
"To protect a today no different from yesterday, that order must be maintained. If that order brings suffering, then that is the original sin those born in this land must endure."
Casting aside her anguish, the Thunderarch spoke with unshakable resolve.