Volume 3: The Land of Mist Chapter 74: Exit
"Did he really say that?"
William slept for two days and one night before waking up. After waking up, the first thing he did was to inquire about the current situation in Ava Continent.
William asked this after listening to Remedios' report on the current situation in Ava Continent, especially the attitude of Morton, the Lord of Fenghuo City, towards him.
Remedios nodded, her face filled with an expression as if she wanted to say something but hesitated.
Seeing this, William asked directly:
"So what do you think?"
"Morton is currently still in the embassy, being guarded by someone I trust. He cannot go anywhere without my order. And he is the only one who witnessed everything in Black Crow Watch and knows that you have returned. In other words, things are still under our control."
Remedios quickly reported her handling method to the presiding judge in front of her.
But that was not what William wanted to hear.
"No, I'm not asking you how you plan to deal with this matter. I believe you can handle this kind of thing yourself... What I want to know is, what do you think about what Morton said?"
William asked with a serious expression.
Remedios was stunned for a moment, and repeated William's question with some confusion, as if she didn't understand what he meant.
"What do I think?"
William nodded and said:
"Or I can ask more directly, do you really want to return to the End Watch and continue to serve as a member of the Judgment Thirteen?"
William's impression of Remedios still remains in the era of a thousand years ago. After all, to him, that was only a few months ago.
If it was the free-spirited lady ranger from a thousand years ago who was allowed to manage the entire Ava Continent, it would be better to kill her. After all, she couldn't stand the blessing system of Ava Continent that completely stifled the possibility of the future, so she chose to give up her blessing as a high elf and crossed the sea to become an adventurer in the Vic Continent.
But time has passed, and she has been the "Shadow Queen" of Ava for hundreds of years. In comparison, the time when Remedios went on adventures with the members of the Tribunal should be a brief episode in her long life.
In other words, if there is a conflict between the positions of the rulers of Ava and the members of the Tribunal, she should protect the interests of the former more.
And what Morton raised was a key question that hit the nail on the head.
In any case, William's current mid-term goal is to overthrow the current Riel Empire and integrate the forces of the world to fight against the Moon Realm. In order to achieve this goal, whether he is willing or not, whether he is suitable or not, he must become the actual ruler of this empire.
What he couldn't do in the game before, he now has to do.
Ava and Vic Continent are not two different countries, but two different civilizations. They are fundamentally different in terms of race, belief, culture, etc. If William wants to integrate Ava into the new empire, then he has no choice but to use force like the current royal family of the Riel Empire.
With this trend, even if Remedios was willing to support him with all her strength, she would not be able to change the internal divisions in Ava and the various hidden dangers that would arise in the future.
In this conflict that can be described as a clash of civilizations, everything will be fine unless Morton, who knows the truth, is dealt with alone.
To put it in a more understandable way, the human civilization on the continent of Vic has never had any claim to the elven civilization of Ava, so there is no option to incorporate the Ava regime into the empire's territory without bloodshed.
On the contrary, it is because of the two high elf colonists, the Forest Elves and the Ice Elves, who came out of Ava, that Ava may even be able to find the "since ancient times" claim of the Empire's Jade Province and Cold Stone Province in the classics...
Of course, William can suppress all of the above problems with his own force.
Although summoning the "Holy Spirit Army" in the real world may not reach the strength of the previous summoning in the Moon Realm due to the influence of the efficiency of communication with the astral realm, it is no problem to use it to flatten one or two independent city-states. Even if William does not use that trump card, relying only on his own body is enough to directly defeat most of the opposition forces of the high elves.
But the problem is that he is not playing a coloring game right now, where he can pass the level just by painting the entire map into the color he wants.
If you really do this, someone will die.
Many, many people will die, and many of them are innocent.
And with so many people dying as a price, the goal of integrating the resistance forces in the world that he hoped to achieve would not be achieved. The rule of fear and high pressure may make the other party surrender in a short period of time, but it will definitely bring more severe negative effects in the future.
If Ava Continent is really annexed and completely assimilated into the Empire, it will take at least a century. And according to the Ironhearted Widow, a new Moon Realm crisis may break out in the next few years.
For William, killing is much easier than making someone surrender. After all, killing does not require the other person's opinion, but making someone surrender willingly requires considering a lot of things besides one's own strength.
If this is the case with one individual, let alone a country.
Therefore, whether out of his own conscience or because he did not want the current resistance forces to be wasted for no reason, William could not do this.
William's question caused Remedios to fall into a long silence, as if it was not until William actually asked her that she seriously thought about the question for the first time.
Seeing this, William continued to add:
"Morton's words may be unpleasant to hear, but they do make sense. The citizens of the free city-state of Ava will not accept that they have to obey the orders of a human chief judge above you, the ruler of the continent. Of course, there is still some time before I step into the spotlight. Before that, you can conceal both identities at the same time, but after that, you must make a choice."
William said this in the hope that the other party could find a .
He needed Remedios's fighting power, but he could not give up the power of Ava. It seemed that this was the only way to maximize the integration of Ava's power.
At the very least, when the next Moon Realm crisis breaks out, Ava Continent must never again rely on the protection of spirits to stay out of it.
After a long while, Remedios asked back:
"Lord William, in your mind, am I still the End Watcher and a member of the Judgment Seat?"
"Always."
William nodded.
"Even after a thousand years?"
"At least in my heart, you always will be."
William replied somewhat guiltily.
After all, to him, the so-called thousand years was just a moment.
"In your heart..."
Remedios received a positive answer and, without noticing William's strange expression, she stroked her chest and took a deep breath.
"Then the leader of the End Watch, the Chief Judge of the Thirteenth Judgment Seat, His Excellency William Kane. I, the Third Judge of the Judgment Seat, Remedios Moonshadow, the Vigilant Moon Sentinel Force, formally submit this application to you..."
"I wish I could step down from the judgement seat."
Wha…what?
Before William’s expression changed from confusion to surprise, Remedios said:
"If you agree, I will stand on an equal footing with you as the ruler of Ava. Regarding the upcoming Moon Crisis, I will negotiate with the End Watchers on behalf of Ava."
Epilogue: Origin of the Moon
I have to admit that Remedios's proposal is the best option at the moment.
This is also the reason why William finally nodded in agreement.
After more than a thousand years and nearly eight hundred years of ruling, Remedios now shoulders the fate of the entire Ava continent, and this is not a responsibility that can be easily let go.
Perhaps from a personal perspective, Remedios would prefer to put down her current burden and return to the Judgment Seat to continue serving as a ranger and sentinel. But the reality is that, apart from her, there is no other powerful, prestigious, and trustworthy person in the entire Ava government to take charge of the overall situation.
So the ruler can only be her.
Since she has assumed the responsibility of a ruler, she must first consider the pros and cons from the perspective of her people.
On the other hand, William also felt that he was not qualified to tell her to put down the burden she was carrying and have a good rest , as she had done her job.
Even though William really wanted to say this to her, even though the other party might also want to hear this.
But if that were really said, it would be the greatest denial of Remedios' efforts over the past thousand years.
Therefore, two people who clearly know what the other person wants deep down in their hearts can only tacitly let things develop in a direction that neither of them wants.
This is probably how the world is.
"So you agreed to this?"
After hearing what William said, Blake asked in disbelief.
"Why? You want to separate from the family too?"
William turned around and asked jokingly.
“No, no…”
Blake waved his hand quickly, then he sighed and said:
"It's not about the division of the family, Lord William. Remedios... has had a hard time. She didn't even plan to take over the entire Ava Continent back then. If I hadn't found her and made a contract with her, she wouldn't have been imprisoned on that throne for the next eight hundred years... I think she should have been tired enough."
William said nothing.
At this moment, the two of them were walking in the wide corridor of Dawn Fortress. Apart from the echo of their footsteps, everything was silent.
After walking for a long time, William slowly said:
"I know."
William knew this when he saw Remedios for the first time and saw the old age and fatigue in her eyes.
"And I owe it to her, and to all of you..."
…………
At the end of the corridor is the Treasure Hall.
A place that could only be reached by entering a special code through a console.
In the past game, William used space magic to set up a permanent portal, connecting this place with the interior of Dawn Fortress.
This was originally a place where game developers placed game items for testing, but after William connected it, he used it as a display room for his own game item collection.
Theoretically, all the props in the game are contained here, whether they have appeared in the game or not, whether they belong to the player or the NPC character.
Or to put it another way, all the props that appear in the game are actually copies called from this place.
In the past, based on some strange obsession with the concept of "uniqueness", whenever William obtained an item in the game, he would delete the item that originally existed in this place to ensure that his collection was unique.
Now William really wants to go back and give his original self two big pouches.
In short, after completing the game with all the items collected, except for the scrap eucalyptus items that have never appeared in the game and the plot props that cannot be obtained by players during the plot process, all the props in the entire treasure hall should be unique.
As a game , it is very normal to have such a developer warehouse. Basically all RPG games will have such a place for developers to conduct testing.
However, if this world becomes a reality, then the existence of William's treasure house is very intriguing.
The first question is, where is the geographical location of this treasure hall?
William looked up at the starry sky and thought so in his heart.
The present world, the moon realm, the astral world, the light realm, or perhaps some unknown demiplane?
Since we can get here through the portal, then the possibility that this treasure hall is in a corner of the world should be the greatest. After all, based on the principle of portal spells, it is impossible to go to the moon realm or the astral realm just by tearing the space.
But if this is the real world, there is no way to explain why I can't use positioning spells to mark my location.
On the other hand, William also tried to fly to the end of the starry sky to see if he could fly out. But the final result was that after flying to a certain distance, the concept of space here became very vague. No matter how far he flew physically, as long as he stopped and looked back, he would return to his collection of treasures.
The boundaries of this space seem to change only with the amount of things stored within.
“No matter how many times I come here, I will be amazed at your great achievements.”
Blake, who was teleported to the treasure hall with William, exclaimed in awe at the seemingly endless starry sky.
Although he was not a Void King, as a high-ranking Moon Realm being closest to that concept, Blake himself was in charge of his own Moon Realm domain, "Black Crow's Watch". Therefore, he naturally understood how incredible it was to create such a space.
He was able to control Black Crow Watch because he himself symbolized the concept of "despair". All the "despair" emotions in the world worked together to maintain the stability of that moon realm.
Even so, the Moon Realm that he controls is a limited space.
The Chief Judge, relying on his magical talent, was able to open up such a boundless and stable space in this world where the laws were as solid as a rock. This was a feat that only the Holy Spirit or the Void King could achieve.
"Um……"
Hearing Blake's boast, William didn't know what else to say except "hmm".
It's impossible to tell the other party the true origin of this space, right?
William could only silently thank God that the portal he had set up was permanent, and that the formation had not been destroyed by anyone in more than a thousand years.
Otherwise, all the props that you have collected with great effort will be locked in this place where you don’t know where.
"Your Excellency the Judge, what exactly is this space..."
"Okay, Blake, I didn't bring you here to hear you brag about me."
Seeing that Blake seemed to want to continue speaking, William interrupted with a light cough.
"I'm sorry, Your Honor."
Blake lowered his head slightly, feeling a little embarrassed, and then asked:
"So what's going on? Why do you have to come here before you tell me?"
William touched the wound on his right shoulder that was difficult to heal and said:
"I don't know if Camilla can indirectly get some information about me through this wound, so this is the only safe place to discuss these things."
As he spoke, William raised one hand, and several meteors fell from the starry sky towards them.
Blake was about to ask what topic required such caution, but after feeling the aura of the falling "meteors", the expression on his face instantly became serious.
Serious and somewhat gloomy.
"Your Honor, these things..."
Blake turned around and looked at William, who also had a serious expression, and asked carefully:
"Why do you have these things?"
"So, these things are real?"
William did not answer Blake's question. He had already gotten the answer he wanted to confirm from the other party's expression.
[Iron Oath], [Blank Scroll], [Burning Branch], [Seed of Hope]...
There are a total of eight items with the [Source of the Moon] entry.
Seven DLC plot props that were originally discontinued, and one prop that originally belonged to another plot line.
Blake stared at the seed that was emitting a soft white light, then looked at William and said:
"But how is it possible... there is another one?"
William did not say anything, but took out the [Iron Stone Oath] that the Iron-Hearted Widow El had given him from his storage space, put it together with the one he already had, and then asked:
"Do these two things give you the same feeling?"
The two dried hearts made of iron and stone seemed to be made from the same mold; even the patterns on them were exactly the same.
But this is only the surface situation. As for the deeper essence, William, who is not in the Moon Realm, cannot see it.
Blake reached out his hand and took the two iron hearts. After weighing them against each other, he replied in a daze:
"This is impossible..."
Seeing this, William nodded slightly and asked:
"So it's the same?"
"Completely consistent, but this shouldn't be possible..."
Blake said.
"Why not?"
William continued to ask.
"These things are just like the Judgment Arms in our hands. They correspond to the essence of each Void King one by one. There shouldn't be any copies..."
Hearing this, William actually wanted to tell him that there were actually copies of the Judgment Armament originally, but he deleted them because of his personal habits.
But what Blake said made sense, these items did have the entry "unique". If I hadn't connected to this space through the console, I would only have seen one in the normal experience of the game.
In fact, this is more in line with the logic that this world should have.
Therefore, Blake's words forced William to start considering a problem that he was unwilling to think about before.
What do I mean to this world?
Recalling what the member of the Takma Cult said before, that this world is just a cage for the people in this world, William couldn't help but wonder - did he travel to a parallel world based on "End Watcher", or did he become data and enter the electronic world composed of zeros and ones?
If it is the former, can the experiences that I have previously known be fully adapted to this world?
If it is the latter, will the authority you have be limited only by your identity as a player?
