Blue Water, otherwise known as Ruler’s Wisdom, was a divine artifact and magic tool in the form of a circlet. It was the greatest secret passed down within the royal family of Crystania, revealed only to heirs of the throne and the prime ministers who, in being sworn in, were bound to serve for life. In so many words, when those who inherited it by the right of their blood passed away, the knowledge and wisdom they had accumulated throughout their life was molded into an artificial persona and added to the magic tool, becoming accessible to the next bearer. As a treasure, it was extremely fitting for the royal family of a country that went by the nickname of the Kingdom of Magic.
Those wearing the circlet not only inherited the knowledge and wisdom of all previous bearers but could even tap into a persona’s memories to perfectly reproduce its mannerisms and manner of speech. This was what Rosalind had done just now.
Normally, the personae were there to serve as an adviser through a collective persona. Since the memories of the previous wearers were perfectly preserved, however, the current inheritor could, in effect, bring them back to life. Even without living as them, simply recreating them inside the mind could help significantly in alleviating the pain of losing one’s father or mother, not to mention complete royal duties much faster.
This magic tool was, in a way, a ticket to getting extremely close to living forever, but it wasn’t perfect, especially when the inheritor dug deep into the memories of any particular persona. First, as there had been both men and women who wore the circlet, gender-based differences could become an issue. Secondly, the wearers had all been human, which meant how capable and successful they had been fell all over the spectrum. The collective persona, therefore, preferred to act as one entity in the absence of a specific need. Or perhaps it was the inheritors who wished for it on an unconscious level, but it was sort of a chicken-and-egg problem.
In any case, Sol had found out about it and informed Frederica and the others. In the following discussion, they had come up with a plan to get Rosalind to join the Libertadores. Though they knew it was a bit underhanded, they were curious how she, with the advice of Ruler’s Wisdom, would react. The result, as it turned out, went beyond their expectations.
The contrast between the way Rosalind had started off acting beyond her years and her reaction when the reveal happened won not only Sol but also Frederica’s group to her side. The duality of her nature as both a sage possessing knowledge on par with the All Dragon, Elven Queen, and Demon Lord and an innocent young girl elicited respect and triggered protective instincts in those around her at the same time.
Sol and Frederica didn’t want Rosalind merely because she had Ruler’s Wisdom. Of course, it held great promise in shedding light on the blanked-out history of the millennium since the Kuzuifabra had taken place and all its main players had been sidelined. In fact, it might even be able to provide an accurate account of the events of Kuzuifabra itself. This would be massive, as there was no guarantee that Luna’s mind hadn’t been altered when she was held captive, which meant her memories were not entirely trustworthy.
However, what Sol was most interested in was the possibility that he saw in the magic tool itself. Since he planned on conquering all of the Four Great Dungeons and also had the Tower in his sights, it was safe to say he would be able to get his hands on materials from every monster that lived. Beyond a certain threshold in quality, all magic tools were made from monster materials, and Gawain Baccus, who was now the world’s leading Magic Blacksmith by orders of magnitude, was in Sol’s camp. Gawain had achieved such mastery that it was child’s play for him to figure out what materials were used when looking at a finished magic tool. When combining all these facts, Sol thought it just might be possible to create an even better Ruler’s Wisdom.
Depending on its capabilities, it could become an ark of consciousness. If all the knowledge, experiences, and memories of not only Crystanian royalty but humankind could be archived, humanity’s development and quest for understanding would never again be interrupted. The urge to pass down one’s life work had always been in mankind, be it through oral tradition, art, books, finished products, or any other number of ways. What Sol had in mind would be the perfection of this endeavor.
In fact, setting aside the fundamental questions, such as whether souls existed or what made a human human, if artificial personae made from knowledge, intelligence, and memory could continue debating with each other without end, humankind could continue marching forward even within the confines of an environment like Ruler’s Wisdom.
To make any of this happen, Sol had to first make the current bearer of the circlet and the circlet itself willing to cooperate. Giving her back the country she had lost ages ago was a good place to start. He wouldn’t ask too much—he wasn’t planning on performing human experiments on her or taking Ruler’s Wisdom apart. It would be enough to ask in person how the circlet and its bearer coexisted and, with permission, request Gawain to examine it up close.
If Gawain actually managed to make a superior version, Sol would be more than happy to be the lab rat himself. It wasn’t that he had no other options; he had no qualms about experimenting on his enemies. No, he actually wanted to test the prototype personally. And even if Gawain couldn’t check all the boxes that Sol was letting his mind run away with, at the bare minimum, Sol wanted the bloodline restriction removed so that the wearer could freely choose who to pass the magic tool to. Additionally—and he wanted to confirm with Rosalind how Ruler’s Wisdom actually worked first—there was a function or two that he might want removed.
There was one last use for Ruler’s Wisdom that Sol had yet to discuss with anyone: He was thinking of using it to address the profound difference between his lifespan and that of his monsters. Even if they managed to make his dreams come true, he would eventually die of old age. If all of them could come to terms with the parting, then it was fine. If, however, it would leave them feeling left in the lurch, he wanted to do something about it.
The reason sounded poetic but was far more pragmatic in nature. The main issue was that Luna’s Augoeides was still sealed inside the false moon. If he managed to restore all her organas on his adventure, great. However, there was no guarantee he wouldn’t die before then. If that actually happened, if the person who had summoned Luna was gone, the concern was that she would be thrown back into that prison, which was something that Sol wanted to prevent at all costs.
When the Floating Continent had risen once more, Sol, Luna, and Aina’noa had received contact from a being they could only presume was God. That being understood human speech and seemed to possess human emotions, yet it had the very real ability to directly interfere with the bindings of the All Dragon’s Augoeides and one-sidedly initiate contact with both Sol and Luna through Player. That last one was the most serious.
If the being in question was truly the God who had created this world and therefore had the ability to freely alter all the talents given to humans, all spells and magic tools, and even the laws governing reality itself, resistance would be truly impossible. Just as it was hopeless for characters in a book to resist their author, Sol’s and Luna’s every thought and every action would be nothing more than material to be manipulated at will. Even emotions like rage and grief could be turned into acceptance.
However, Sol’s gut told him this wasn’t the case. Him being a character in such a book didn’t fit with what he knew of the world, and he had never heard of a story where the author—God—had interfered in such a manner. Even if that being truly was the equivalent of this world’s Creator God, their conversation had strongly suggested there were rules even that being couldn’t break. How the rules had come to be was irrelevant. At the very least, the being seemed satisfied with taking a back seat and giving Sol free rein. The lack of any further contact supported this theory.
That being the case, Sol wanted to go all in on securing more options for himself. There was no telling yet how far Ruler’s Wisdom could be taken, but it carried the promise of a way to keep himself and Player in the game even if he was defeated or lived out his lifespan, so he was all for taking a swipe at it. If the only way forward was to shed his human form, he would do so in a heartbeat, though the ideal outcome was to realize all his dreams while he was still alive as a human and then die peacefully in his sleep. Then again, he wouldn’t mind being transformed so that he could continue living forever with Luna if the opportunity presented itself on his travels. She would surely play a large part in his dreams coming true, so if that was what she wished for, it was only right that he reciprocated. That was what it meant to be a good liege.
If Reen, Frederica, and Eliza were willing to go along with it too, they could all have a grand time together—the whole group who had unraveled every last secret of the world, forever living in their continent in the sky. That didn’t sound so bad.
There was no way to know at present whether this would actually come to pass, of course.