"How much do you know about the King of Humans, Lord of the Blue Tower?"
"Before Year One, when humans were still beasts, he ruled this continent. That the human who defeated your sins escaped from being a beast and disappeared. However, that there are still those who search for the king."
"You know everything necessary!"
"The living Demon God, Nebida, was one of the targets of the Demon God Temple. The Demon God Temple contacted her a few times. She is the Demon God who discovered the lineage of the species. Since such a person is searching for the King of Humans, the possibility of it being true is high, isn't it?"
"That's right. There was a Lord of All Creation I knew too, and they firmly believed the King of Humans existed, you know? I was half in doubt, but to think he would really appear."
The King of Humans has returned after a long silence. What meaning could this hold? First of all, every king existing in the world would find their throne and crown uncomfortable.
The King of Humans is the King of Beasts in name and reality. Since he is the proxy of all beasts, he possesses the qualifications of a king without needing a throne or crown.
"If the King of Humans has appeared, then all the kings who have been ruling with their heads held high until now become completely unnecessary! I'm saying we just need to clean up those outdated and corrupt rulers and let the King of Humans rule!"
"You're trying to make Hughes king."
"You speak as if it's someone else's problem. You're the same, Lord of the Blue Tower~? Trying to seduce Father with your body, aren't you?"
When did she watch? Hilde smiled as if she knew everything towards the startled Lord of the Blue Tower. Since she had already tried once herself, she already knew it wouldn't work.
"You lack confidence, right? Keeping those who listen well, executing those who disrupt order. Judging what is good and what is bad. Struggling without anyone to ask. A position where you know nothing but must act as if you know everything. I know it well too. Because I was right below the struggling person."
Spiritual Coffin Sieghilde. Hilde, who was once the shadow and executioner of the Military Nation, knew the anguish of the Lord of the Blue Tower well.
A dictator has no choice but to be dogmatic. If his standard wavers, those below will shake as if an earthquake has occurred.
Hilde was merely Yuel's limbs, but even limbs can fathom their master's mind to some extent. Because even with the slightest hesitation, the limbs feel that tremor.
"But if it's Father, it's a different story! Father is never wrong. He doesn't struggle. He even understands the sinners you had to cold-heartedly cut down!"
"…!"
"If Father becomes king and rules a nation, that nation will become something we cannot even imagine."
The insight that pierces through human psychology. The exquisite balance of freely crossing laws and morals while never crossing the line of good. And the personality that unravels someone's resentment and gains their trust.
What's more surprising is that his strength isn't that great compared to his abilities. Of course, he's stronger than an average person, but he falls short compared to Masters or Sorcerers.
What if he had been just a little stronger, or had more dominance?
Having finished her imagination, the Lord of the Blue Tower looked at Hilde and said.
"Then we are competitors."
"No. We're collaborators! We have the same goal, don't we? Making Father king!"
"His body is one. He can't be the king of two nations."
"Father won't even want to be the king of one nation. It's annoying, right? Father doesn't need a nation or power, so why bother?"
Hughes isn't the type to voluntarily shoulder the shackles of responsibility. He is free and lazy. He is smart and superior, but his actions are just like a beast's.
Such a man wouldn't volunteer to be king.
"But Father will soon need a nation. Since he was born as the King of Humans, it's an unavoidable fate. Others won't leave Father alone, and Father will have no choice but to be swept up by others' influence. It's the fate of a man with many sins!"
"The moment it's revealed that he is the King of Humans, Hughes will need protection in some way."
"Yes! When that time comes, Father will have to choose a nation. Nations he has personal connections with. The Military Nation, the Allied Nations, the Principality, the Sorcerer Federation.... Now, here's a quiz. Which nation should Father choose?"
"The Sorcerer Federation."
The Lord of the Blue Tower answered confidently, but Hilde shouted with a mischievous smile.
"Bzzzt! Wrong! The correct answer is, all of them!"
"…All?"
"Copper coin, silver coin, gold coin, alchemy coin. When four coins are lying on the ground, what should you do? Just take them all! Why must you choose only one?"
That's because they're coins. Even the Lord of the Blue Tower would show that much flexibility with coins. But a nation isn't a coin. It's not a subject where the same logic applies.
However, Hilde was sincere.
"The Military Nation has the Signalman. The Allied Nations has the Lord of the Remnant Green Society. The Principality has the Progenitor. The Sorcerer Federation has the Lord of the Blue Tower. Father will build a harem empire, and achieve peace with that body!"
The Lord of the Blue Tower was speechless at Hilde's absurd plan.
****
"Hughes. Are you interested in the Sorcerer Federation?"
Lankart came out of nowhere and said something out of the blue. Having just finished my work, I wiped the sweat from my forehead and said.
"Interested? In what sense?"
"I mean power. Weren't you planning to put the Lord of the Blue Tower on the acting Demon King's seat, and then take it for yourself?"
Now I'm slowly starting to think. Instead of waiting for this guy to be struck by heavenly punishment for misspeaking, shouldn't I just smack him first and fix him?
"Not particularly. If I were going to, I would have done it a long time ago."
"Then why aren't you doing it?"
Well, what for?
Lankart asked me with a puzzled look.
"The Sorcerer Federation, where knowledge is power, is the nation where you can be most active. It evaluates your value the highest. Compared to your true value, it's still far from enough, but it doesn't matter since we just need to use each other anyway."
That was Lankart's point. Wouldn't it be easier to move around if you held power in the Sorcerer Federation?
There was no hope in the Military Nation. Even if you rose to the position of a general, you had to work your bones off. Even greater surveillance and shackles come with it.
The Sorcerer Federation guarantees greater freedom to those who are more outstanding. Here, you don't need to live in hiding like in the Military Nation. Lankart pointed that out.
However, I answered disinterestedly.
"You know. My goal isn't something like that."
"Then what are you doing now?"
"I'm waiting for Lady Sei's preparations to be finished while doing some work on the side. As you said, the Sorcerer Federation is a nation that's easy for me to utilize, so I'm expanding my influence as well."
Then Lankart asked with skepticism.
"Do you really believe she will summon the Celestial God?"
"Yeah."
"How on earth? That woman is one of the dumbest people I've ever seen. I don't believe such a woman would know the truth."
It's because he doesn't know that Sei is a regressor. It would have been different if you knew too.
I answered.
"Lady Sei is the person closest to the secret of the Celestial God among all the people I've seen."
"Isn't the Celestial God just a World Law made of a few Demon Gods? By guess, it includes light, atmosphere, clouds, and lightning. They're just Demon Gods, they shouldn't be overwhelmingly great or outstanding compared to other Demon Gods. How does that connect to the truth?"
The 'truth' he spoke of was a bit different from ordinary knowledge.
What Lankart seeks. Truth. The knowledge beyond the Demon Gods.
I don't know if such a thing really exists, but to move Lankart as an ally for now, I had to roughly play along.
I said.
"I'm talking about the power of the Saintess. Prophecy."
"Prophecy does exist in reality, but I speculate that it's a hypothesis predicted through multiple observations and a self-fulfilling prophecy obtained by moving tens of millions of believers. As the Lord of the White Tower demonstrated, light is the best means of observation as well as communication. Actually, such circumstances are visible in the most famous Saintess of Karma."
Prophecy is a power that actually exists, but its interpretations aren't all the same. Among those who don't believe in gods, many think that prophecies are absurd, limited, and even untrustworthy.
Well, unless you're the very first Saintess, there is no perfect prophet in the world. I can understand such interpretations, but....
"No. The power of the Saintesses is the truth. They can make real prophecies."
I declared. Then Lankart's expression changed completely.
"The power of the Saintesses isn't a play or a trick, but a real authority?"
"Yeah."
"Then that means."
It's neither a trick nor anything else. It's real power. Where did it originate from? Probably a Demon God. Just like Earth Magic or Alchemy, the Saintesses are drawing on the power of a certain Demon God.
Lankart's brain flashes. Among the tens of millions of pieces of knowledge spread in his head, the most closely related ones connect. A genius's thoughts are so fast and instantaneous that I can barely keep up....
Sigh. It's too tiresome to explain every little detail.
"That means a Demon God of Knowledge exists."
"Yeah. That's right. Knowledge, information, observation, or measurement. Whatever the name, there is a Demon God who governs that domain."
That is the conclusion I've reached.
It was quite a shocking fact. Knowledge, wisdom, information. To govern that itself? What kind of truth is hidden in knowledge and information that makes it possible? If it is possible, where is the limit of that Demon God?
The bewildered Lankart said.
"Is the Celestial God who gave power to the Saintesses the Demon God of Knowledge?"
"That is a question. There are definitely other Demon Gods inside the Celestial God, but I don't know if the Demon God of Knowledge is among them."
"Perhaps the Demon God of Knowledge is outside the Celestial God. To find that out..."
"Lady Sei has to summon the Celestial God."
Confirming the Demon Gods inside the Celestial God is the first priority. Until then, whether I like it or not, I have to match Sei's tempo. I don't know what she's hiding, but the knowledge she has is real at least.
Lankart propped his head on his hand, thought for a long time, and then spoke.
"Hughes. You told me. That we have a grader."
Ah, right.
When was it again. When Lankart plotted to kill me over an academic issue? To appease this crazy bastard who couldn't tolerate a human superior to himself, I brought out a tasty bait.
"The discovered principles. The truths one has uncovered. My imagery. I said there is a supervisor of this world who grades them, scores them, and grants power."
I said what's important isn't the Military Nation's grades, but the supervisor watching this world. I said there is a being on a completely different level from the Military Nation's grader.
Lankart was so hooked on that conspiracy theory-like story that he completely forgot his plan to kill me.
"You said the reason my right-hand world is powerful is because it's connected to the truth. You said that when I almost killed you."
Right. I almost died by your hand then. Come to think of it, I'm getting mad. What nerve does this son of a bitch have to call himself my friend? Aren't we enemies?
"I thought you were so smart that you had grasped not only the inherent sorcery but also the truth beyond the Demon Gods.... But considering the fact that you are the King of Humans, it looks different."
Yeah. We are enemies. This uselessly smart bastard is hard to deceive. No, rather than hard, I should say I don't really bother.
"King of Humans. The King of Beasts who 'represents' all humans. Was that also the doing of the Demon God of Knowledge?"
"Probably."
I answered briefly.
"The King of Beasts would have existed separately from that. But... changing that form was probably the doing of the 'Demon God of Knowledge'."
Otherwise, would the King of Beasts existing on earth have taken on a human form?
The world is full of unknowns. If you solve one question, two or three more follow in succession. Knowledge is as narrow as a small boat navigating a vast ocean.
Lankart was feeling a thrill from this pouring sequence of doubts.
'I'm glad I'm Hughes's friend. If not, I would have stayed like a frog in a well with just one inherent sorcery!'
It's a misfortune to be Lankart's friend. Because of that, I still can't shake off this unhelpful and self-willed acquaintance.
Still. It's good to have at least one person who knows me this well.
...Though I'm not sure if it's really just one.
****
The time is slowly approaching.
Pretending not to know anything, being able to converse playfully is only for a moment. This happy moment will also end soon. Sei can no longer stay a fool either.
Then he won't treat Sei like a fool either.
Recalling the moment when one first fell into Tartarus. The turning point of regression. The starting point of everything. From the moment of knowing nothing, using him as a save point to share information, and at some point, coming to know everything about each other.
Knowing is irreversible. Once you realize it, you can never go back.
Sei erases her memories with the Heavenly Wheel Mirror and repeats this cycle, but this too will end someday. Because even Sei's soul cannot endure an eternally repeating cycle.
What was different in this cycle? There were many minor changes, but the big one was that Sei distanced herself slightly from him. Her desire to keep her cross-dressing hidden until the end maintained a subtle distance.
Perhaps because of that, she realized her feelings later than in any previous cycle. But they could be together longer.
Sei smiled. She had cross-dressed. She had acted like a man. She had built walls and been on guard. She had been anxious about being found out.
Was that why, in this cycle, he shared exceptionally close ties with many women? Perhaps that was another reason she grew more distant from him.
Despite that, she was still drawn to him. Was it because of her body's memories engraved in the Heavenly Wheel Mirror? Or was it because he was irresistibly lovable?
I don't know. Because Sei is a fool. But there is one thing she knows for sure.
Sei reached her hand toward the sky. Her Seven-Colored Eyes, sparkling in seven hues, illuminated the entire sky. Celestial Gods, Demon Gods, knowledge, truth. In her eyes that see light, she holds the infinite knowledge engraved in that distant universe.
Sei, a fool, might not understand, but knowledge exists even if it cannot be understood. Calling forth the knowledge engraved in the sky with the Heavenly Wheel Divine Eye, Sei smiled happily.
"This cycle was happy too."