Eldar blinked a few times and said, “I think it’s my first time seeing such a high number…”
“It’s not that high,” replied Sung-Woon.
“Well…isn’t this still a rare case?”
Sung-Woon nodded.
It all depended on the species, the character’s age, and level of civilization. Currently, Kyle was an adolescent who was still growing, so by the standards of an average Human his age, his Intelligence ability should be around 15. His Strength of 14 was in the normal range, while his Sociability of 32 was enough for him to become a politician or an entertainer in modern civilization, and a king who would do great things in older civilization.
Then Eldar said, “Even if his Intelligence were 60, he would be called a great genius in the current time period, but his stat exceeds not only 80, but 100?” .
“It would probably be hard to find anyone like him on the whole continent for the next few decades.”
In fact, the reason the world had stagnated for over the past hundred years was not simply because of internal issues in each country.
‘In order for civilization to develop, the right technology and inventions must emerge. Gods can’t hand down inventions themselves since that’s a violation of the principle of causality.’
And there was another problem.
‘Even if there is new technology and inventions, they can’t be a one-time event. The invention needs to lead to another invention.’
However, there had been few innovations over the past hundred years. Technology had spread and been optimized for each country’s environment, but there wasn’t anything new. And this was something that Sung-Woon couldn’t do anything about. New things, new technology, new inventions were not easily made. Even when they were made, they were generally minor things. Until the world developed modern civilization with globalization taking place, many factors would rely on luck.
‘When playing The Lost World, this kind of stagnation would only take a few minutes or at most ten…’
Kyle seemed like a sign of change to Sung-Woon.
“This level of intelligence is adequate for discovering new things, and he even has enough influence to deliver the technology and inventions to various parts of Black Scale.”
In Sung-Woon’s perspective, Black Scale had enough capacity to develop to the next stage. Resources were accumulated, merchants traveled all over the continent, and there were scholars with basic mathematics and scientific knowledge all over the country.
Then Eldar said, “Yes, however…”
“What?”
“There seems to be a critical issue.”
Sung-Woon knew what issue Eldar was talking about.
“He’s the third child, not the first.”
“Yes. The first prince, Vasen, likes to play, but there doesn’t seem to be anything that will disqualify him from succeeding the throne. And since Vasen has already been crowned as the crown prince, it would be difficult for Kyle to become king without doing anything.”
Sung-Woon thought for a moment. It would be easy for him to intervene. If a certain sign was given to King Anpyeong at the palace meeting, the ministers would make a fuss and think that Kyle should become king since Night Sky had chosen him.
‘However…it’s not good to make such a decision so easily.’
And Orazen’s current situation was the result of hasty decisions. The left ministers played the role of secretaries. To make an analogy, they were like the eunuchs on Earth. While the left ministers were made up of many species, the administrative officers that really had an influence on Black Scale were made up of Lizardmen. They supported the authority of the crown unconditionally, and there was no room for treason since the head administrative officers were all Lizardmen.
‘Stagnant water is bound to rot.’
It wasn’t to the point that the Lizardmen were bad, and although there was a thick headed king from the royal family of Black Scale, there hadn’t been an unreasonable fool among them. However, even though the proportion of Lizardmen in Black Scale was rather low in comparison to other species, the proportion of Lizardmen that were administrative officers was overwhelmingly higher. Since Sung-Woon had granted them good Blessings, they had good abilities. But they still made up too big a part of those in power since there were also great talents among species other than Lizardmen.
No longer did Sung-Woon have only Humans and Lizardmen; he had now obtained more species. As much as he aggressively tried to expand his territory for efficiency in the earlier days, it was now time to think about harmony.
‘Having conflict between the species even until modern times? That would surely create a problem that would be a pain in the neck.’
Until now, Sung-Woon had directly intervened in the politics of Black Scale to prevent external attacks and strengthen the royal authority, but he judged that it was now time to reduce his influence and only intervene indirectly.
“So I’m going to use a different method this time.”
“For example…?”
As Sung-Woon explained how, Eldar worried.
“Well, would things really go the way you think? I think you’re overconfident in Kyle’s intelligence…”
“I think things will go well. I’ve used similar methods in other games.”
“Aren’t you going to do as you wish even if I try to stop you?”
“Yeah.” Sung-Woon continued to say, “I’m telling you in advance so that you won’t get in the way because you think something is wrong.”
Eldar sighed and said, “Alright.”
***
There were many gardens at Orazen’s palace.
They were generally based off of the afterlife that the Lizardmen pictured, so there were beautiful natural sceneries with short meadows that came up to their ankles, a few trees, and rocks placed in places to sit or play on.
Orazen’s garden culture was also very popular among the aristocrats of Black Scale, so having a large yard and gardening was made a virtue of the aristocracy. However, there was something that was only at Orazen and nowhere else.
The Elf left minister who had entered the palace only recently looked over the wooden fence with their ears raised.
“Wow, that’s the rumored…”
“Shh. Lower your voice. He’s gonna see us.”
The Elf firmly closed their mouth and nodded.
“…Anyways, so that’s the guardian dragon of Orazen, Manun.”
Manun was a Drake running 25 meters long, and it was about 150 years old. It used to be raised by Beauer, the chief of the Lizardmen tribe called Blue Skin, but the huge Drake then became Lakrak’s after Lakrak knocked him out. It was said that Drakes never died of old age, and Manun seemed to be a living proof of that.
Manun was kept in a special yard in the inner palace, and he had kept growing until a couple decades ago. In the palace’s records, there was an entry stating that the palace was rebuilt several times in order to make a yard big enough to raise Manun. In fact, many of the gardens in Orazen had been created because of Manun.
But now the ministers in the palace thought of Manun as a pain in the neck because although his growth period was over, the cost of feeding him was great given his big size, and in proportion to that, the amount of waste he produced was also enormous. In other words, he cost a lot of money and required lots of people to take care of.
Still, Manun couldn’t be easily removed. He was the drake that not any other king, but the founder of the country and the Thunder Dragon King, Lakrak, had ridden. Manun thus became a symbol of royal authority, and the palace had no choice but to raise Manun even when he cost a fortune and required lots of care. Even after more than a hundred years, though, there were still some ministers who said that he should be released into the mountains where there were few people, while some said that he should be offered as a sacrifice to Night Sky since releasing him would be too dangerous, which meant he would be killed.
While he was a symbol of royal authority, a symbol was just a symbol. As long as there was a real king, a symbol wouldn’t be more important than that. And their concern wasn’t completely unfounded. Although Manun had been ridden by many people over his lifetime, he was still a Drake, one of the most feared creatures on the planet. And Manun was even a 150 year old Drake. If he wanted, he could make the palace into a huge mess overnight.
It didn’t make sense for the symbol of royal authority to threaten the king’s life. Regardless of all that, Manun ate well, slept well, and defecated well in the place the Lizardmen made for him.
However, there was something that the people didn’t know about Manun. Unlike a Drake in its childhood, a Drake like Manun, who was quite old, would become sentient. Of course, no one could have known because no one had lived as long as Manun. He wasn’t intelligent enough to understand what people said or use tools, but he had enough intelligence to recognize that the person who would bring water buffaloes for him to eat everyday, the person who would clean up his feces, and the person who would climb on top of him to clean his scales when he was asleep weren’t food.
And he could even vaguely feel emotions that arose from his heart. Recently, he had been hit with a particular emotion quite often. He felt it in the deepest part of his heart, and it was somewhat frustrating and difficult to deal with. Nevertheless, there was no way Manun would know to relieve it. So he simply spent time as he always did and continued to eat what was given to him, excrete feces, and sleep without being able to relieve the emotion. There was nothing for him to be unsatisfied about since all his desires were satisfied while staying still, but the idea of emotions was unfamiliar to Drakes, so it made him uncomfortable.
Then one day, Manun opened his eyes in the middle of the night because of a shining blue light. It was a blue butterfly. Manun didn’t care if there was a light in front of him or not and stomped on it with his front foot, but the blue butterfly only increased in numbers.
He knew that most things would be smashed if he hit them with his front feet, so he found this interesting. Manun opened his eyes. When he struck the flutter of butterflies, they doubled in number again, and after he used his other foot to strike them once more, there were now enough butterflies to cover his body. The flutter of blue butterflies wrapped around Manun and flew over Manun’s garden. He strolled around while chasing after the butterflies and began to run as the butterflies sped up.
Then the flutter of blue butterflies circled the garden a few times before passing through the wooden wall without any resistance. The wall made of dense wooden bars was ten meters tall, and Manun was not allowed to go over it.
Manun lifted and dropped his front feet in hesitation. Breaking through the wooden bars was nothing for Manun, but the one time he broke through it, many people had crowded around him and poked at him with long sticks while talking loudly. He could have squashed them with his front feet, but he didn’t want to do that. Because they looked similar to the people Manun liked.
Manun remembered his owners from when he was younger. He didn’t like his first owner because he commanded him to do many things. But he liked his next owner. The second owner did grab Manun’s snout and throw him onto the ground the first time they met, but due to the nature of Drakes determining dominance through strength, it was an event that imprinted his owner as a leader that Manun could follow and rely on. And in addition to that, the second owner didn’t really command Manun to do anything and always fed him on time, so he felt happy with his second owner. He was sad when his second owner hadn’t shown up from some point on, but he just forgot about his second owner and continued to live as he still got food put into his mouth everyday.
‘…!’
Only then did he suddenly realize what the emotion lingering in his heart was. Manun was able to shake off those feelings by chasing the butterflies, and he recalled the fact that the second Lizardman had not only fed him, but also played with him like these butterflies. The emotion that had settled in Manun’s heart was boredom.
“Come here, Manun.”
Manun heard a familiar voice. He narrowed his eyes and looked over the wooden bars. His second owner was waving at him.
“I thought God was going to make me do something strange again, but this will be fun since it’s been a long time.”
Manun couldn’t understand those words, but he remembered that when his owner waved his hand like that, it meant it was time to play tag. Manun lowered his shoulders and raised his butt in the air while wagging his tail.
“Manun, let’s see if you’ve improved.”
The 25-meter-long giant jumped over the wooden bars.
***
The Hunting Minister, Deyanin, received a surprising report from his subordinate in the morning, when he was going to work.
“Did you know there was a loud explosive sound in the middle of the night?”
“I heard it wasn’t anything troubling.”
“That’s not true.”
“What was it then?”
“When the palace guards were dispatched to check where the sound came from, it turned out Manun had run away to the mountains.”
“Well, that’s a major concern.”
Although Manun was said to be the guardian dragon of Orazen and a symbol of royal authority, he was still a monster. He wasn’t a simple beast, so it would take the palace guards or even the army to get him under control. And since he was a creature that couldn’t be killed, it would be a nightmare for the person in charge to bring him back alive. And to Deyanin, it was something he didn’t even want to imagine.
“Mr. Deyanin, why do you keep answering like it’s someone else’s business?”
“Huh?”
“You’re the Hunting Minister, aren’t you?”
“What?”
Deyanin felt his mind come to a halt.
As its name would suggest, the hunting ministry Deyanin was the head of was a department in charge of hunting, but only a form of hunting that was entertainment to the aristocrats. Lizardmen had enjoyed hunting since a long time ago as they were good at archery, but it was obvious that they couldn’t have dangerous animals near the palace where the king was. Therefore, prey was released into the mountains when they wanted to hunt, and the hunting department was the dedicated authority for this entertainment.
The job required a lot of physical labor, but it was difficult for members of the ministry to gain political power since they would also be assigned miscellaneous work that the other departments chose not to do. Being the head of the ministry didn’t mean Deyanin wouldn’t be treated contemptuously. And the trouble that fell onto his lap was an extension of that contempt.
“You must quickly get prepared. His Majesty has ordered that a solution to bring Manun back should be prepared before the morning meeting begins.”
Like the other troublesome matters in the past, the task of catching Manun had been passed to him by the other departments.
“Fuck.”
1. A Korean proverb meaning that people or organizations would become stagnant if there is no stimulation or change.
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