The Nebula’s Civilization

“Keep your voice down.”

Deyanin, the Lizardman, was looking around in between the bookshelves in the second library. The only other person in the library was Hwee-Mun.

Then Hwee-Mun, the old woman with her white hair neatly tied back, said, “It’s all because you’ve said something so ridiculous. For the past hundred years, it’s been a rule for the first child to become the crown prince.”

“But there were exceptions.”

“You’re spouting nonsense again. There were specific reasons for those special cases.”

“So why not this time?”

Hwee-Mun sighed and contemplated what Deyanin had said.

Everyone in the palace was hush hush about the fact that the first prince, Vasen, had a problem. Even though he was quite old now, he neglected studying in favor of playing. There was a rumor that he had recently learned how to hunt and had been riding around the mountains with the good-for-nothing people of Orazen.

“But Deyanin, not a lot of ministers will think that way.”

Deyanin was a young Lizardman with white scales and red eyes, and was born in a nameless small village in a valley of the peninsula.

Deyanin snorted and said, “How much do you think the ministers would like a king who is ignorant when it comes to national affairs and only likes to play?”

“Watch what you say.”

Hwee-Mun cleared her throat. However, Deyanin wasn’t wrong.

More than a hundred years had passed since Lakrak died. Lakrak’s descendents continued to be the royal family of Black Scale, and although there had been remarkable kings, one would be hard-pressed to say they were as successful as Lakrak had been. And out of the kings of Black Scale, there was a king who had not received such favorable evaluations.

Hwee-Mun thought to herself.

‘Though this is a presumptuous thought, objectively speaking, King of Serenity is also like that. He received an epithet of only keeping the country peaceful because he hadn't made any administrative achievements for the past decade after becoming king.’

Hwee-Mun greatly sympathized with the white Lizardman’s words. However, Hwee-Mun was the head of the left ministers[1]—a position created after Lakrak’s death.

Lakrak and Zaol only had three children, but those three children went on to have more children. As the royal family expanded, there was a need for people to assist the king and the royal family and do miscellaneous chores, but things could get troublesome if they were Lizardmen as well. Since they would be residing in the palace, there was a possibility that they would have a child with one of the royal family members, and political problems would arise if that happened frequently. Therefore, the royal family of Black Scale found a simple solution.

‘The royal family needs workers, but if the workers are also Lizardmen, it would become difficult to prevent disorder in the royal family. Therefore, no Lizardmen could get the job.’

Of course there was the option of castration, but that wouldn’t be viable since no one would send their children to the palace if that was what awaited them. Since then, the position was given the name left minister because they would be in charge of managing the inner palace of the throne.

And so, as Hwee-Mun was in charge of left ministers, she was responsible for preventing disorder in the palace and keeping peace.

Hwee-Mun then said, “I’m sure you know that King of Serenity is suffering from a disease, right? He’s a particularly sensitive person, so he will get greatly upset if he hears such a strong opinion.”

Deyanin nodded.

“Huh, I didn’t think of that. Then of course, you, the head of the left ministers, should make hints about my opinion in advance.”

“What?”

“Wouldn’t things turn into chaos if I appeal for the first prince to give up becoming the crown prince and say that the third prince should be appointed instead? So you must do your best to manage things, especially for His Majesty’s disease. Well, I’m gonna get going now.”

“W…wait. Deyanin?”

Hwee-Mun couldn’t help but grab Deyanin’s forearm when he turned around. This young Lizardman was greatly stubborn, so Hwee-Mun had no choice but to say that she would give the king hints as soon as possible, which was the next day. Deyanin seemed dissatisfied, but he promised not to raise an appeal tomorrow.

Hwee-Mun sighed as he watched Deyanin leave.

‘How many lives do you think we have?’

The majority of the current ministers of the government, also known as the right ministers[2], were the descendants of Lakrak’s warriors in the past. The warriors of that time, or to be exact, the deputy warriors, had been recognized for their achievements and gained the status of aristocracy. However, there was a problem with them.

Just as the royal family who continued Lakrak’s bloodline weren’t all the best, not all descendents of the warriors acted as warriors should.

‘Some joke around saying that it would be difficult for them to oversee national affairs since they are descendants of warriors… but warriors of that time were wise men who didn’t just fight because they had powers.’

Nevertheless, the current ministers abused their status as aristocrats and had been passing on their positions without actually achieving anything.

It was very difficult for Deyanin, a Lizardman, to become a right minister since he hadn’t inherited any noble blood, and he was even prejudiced by others and considered to have an ancient curse because of his white scales.

‘Though the hunting minister is the lowest of all positions, he got very lucky.’

Regardless, Hwee-Mun regarded Deyanin highly because he had earned his position with his own effort. What would happen if such a person brought up the idea of the third prince being crown prince? If he was lucky, he would save himself through some political machinations and return home, but if he was unlucky, he would be buried without anyone even knowing.

Hwee-Mun thought about Deyanin’s words, which had caused ripples in her calm mind. No, it would be more accurate to say that they had caused big waves.

‘The third prince…’

***

At the same time, the third prince Kyle Lak Orazen was with his teacher, Ravwin Quez.

They were having a short break and enjoying some refreshments after studying. The refreshments seemed simple: rice cakes made by using water mills to pound rice from the southern plains of Black Scale. But they tasted particularly good when dipped into honey collected from the beehives in the western valley of Orazen. And what they had to drink was green tea made from the leaves picked by the Elves in the northern coast.

“Allow me to ask you a question, Your Highness.”

“Go ahead.”

Kyle quietly looked at the inside of his tea cup. In Ravwin’s perspective, Kyle was a bright and intelligent person, also known as a genius, but he couldn’t be properly evaluated because of the part of him that was blank and dull.

Then Ravwin said, “You have already read all the books in the first library, so I must ask you for the future directions of your studies. What is your favorite book?”

Kyle slightly furrowed his eyebrows and looked up at Ravwin.

“It’s hard to answer because there are so many books I like. Can I only pick one?”

“No. You can answer from your heart. However, I also wish for you to briefly tell me why you like the book.”

Kyle nodded as if that wasn’t a hard thing to do

“Firstly, Mr. Owen’s Travel Journal is very interesting since it talks about many species and lands I haven’t been able to visit.”

Ravwin put on a wry smile. It was a book no children would dislike. ‘Storyteller Owen’ lived in the period of time when Lakrak lived and left many anecdotes about Lakrak. There were always tales singing praises about Owen all around Black Scale, and Owen himself had engraved stories onto monuments with a chisel and hammer. Among the stories, the most famous one was his Travel Journal.

Owen saw them as nothing but his own personal journal, but his writing was very detailed. He had traveled to many places and many countries, and he was such a skillful writer that his journal read like he was speaking to the readers, so it ended up circulating in many other countries other than Black Scale as well.

One famous anecdote related to the Travel Journal was that it was incomplete. After Owen had written up to nine volumes, he traveled to the west in his later years, and there were no more records left. Owen had likely died, but many people thought he would still be writing a journal for the last time somewhere out there. And due to those assumptions, people looked for the elusive tenth volume of his journal, but it was still nowhere to be found.

‘As expected, he does act his age sometimes.’

However, Kyle’s following words broke Ravwin’s expectations.

“And I also like Mrs. Zaol’s Algebra Theories and Orazen’s Architectural Design.”

“Hm.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Keep going.”

“Mrs. Zaol’s books give the pleasure of making sense of the principles, but I could also feel the warmth of her consideration of others.”

“Consideration?”

“Yes...did I judge wrong?”

“No.”

Zaol was Lakrak’s companion, so she was also well known as the queen, but to scholars, she left a strong impression as a mathematician and an architect. Her mathematician side could be seen in one of her books, Algebra Theories.

What Ravwin found more interesting was Orazen’s Architectural Design, written by Zaol as an architect.

Zaol had overseen the construction of the four waterwheels at Automation. Then she overcame the great challenge of building the capital of Black Scale. In her designs, the palace and the size of rivers weren’t the only things taken into consideration, but also the convenience of the people living in Orazen.

‘However, in the book Orazen’s Architectural Design, only the numerical values and blueprints were shown. It would be very difficult to figure out the heart of the architect just by looking at numbers and straight lines.’

Kyle continued to say, “Oh, I also like Morale, which was written by your ancestor, Mr. Quezle.”

“It’s an honor. How did you come to like that one?”

“Hm, it’s difficult to explain.”

“That’s okay, feel free to take your time.”

Quezle’s Morale wasn't necessarily a book that detailed lots of Quezle’s thoughts. Rather, it was a book that contained his observations about Lakrak and the conversations the two had.

Kyle nodded and began to say while looking at the courtyard, “You get punished if you take someone else’s belongings, right?”

“Yes.”

“That is why there are laws. However, there are bad things that aren’t punished by the law as well.”

“Can you tell me an example?”

“Like saying something mean.”

Ravwin nodded.

Kyle continued to say, “Just because you say something mean doesn’t mean someone would punish you while saying that you broke the law. However, people do not simply say hateful things. While letting all their emotions out that way can feel good, not everyone is like that.”

“Why is that so?”

“Because hearing something mean feels bad. People who don’t say hateful things are people who know how it feels to hear it. So in the book Morale, it says that people shouldn’t say hateful things. Though it also always says, ‘King Lakrak was like this too.’ But anyways, that’s what I like about the book. If I hadn’t read that book, I probably would have also frequently said hateful things to others and thought that it didn't matter.”

“Haha, no way.”

Ravwin found it interesting that young Kyle understood ethics. Ethics were overlooked in the education kings received, but it could be considered the most important lesson. Without any ethical and moral standards, kings would act according to their moods, and that could be the shortcut to the country’s doom.

‘Lakrak, the one my ancestor Quezle served, followed the guidance of the marvelous Night Sky, so of course he would be the manifestation of ethics.’

In fact, Lakrak was also known as the apostle of Night Sky. Perhaps Night Sky had simply sent their own apostle to the world in the appearance of a Lizardman.

Some time afterwards, Kyle listed the reasons he liked the other books such as Yur’s Battle in the Plain, as well as Sairan Muel’s Night Sky, which could be seen as a theology book. And out of the few books that Lakrak wrote, Kyle mentioned The Way to Read the Sky, which was an astronomy book.

Ravwin was pleased with Kyle’s reading history, but at the same time felt sorry for him. It was a good thing that Kyle, the prince, liked studying. But Kyle was the third prince, not the first.

‘It’s unfortunate. Of course all this knowledge would come in good use later on, but…’

Ravwin shook his head to get rid of the trivial thoughts. Instead, he thought about how he could teach Kyle new knowledge.

‘At this rate, I won’t even be able to be his teacher since the prince already knows more than I do about some fields.’

Concerns about the royal family weren't his business anyway. As a teacher, he simply needed to teach Kyle.

Kyle, who had been chattering, suddenly became quiet. Ravwin thought there was no way Kyle was already finished, so he looked at Kyle.

Kyle then said, “Teacher Ravwin.”

“Yes. What is it?”

“I’ve given you a lot of answers today, so I should be allowed to ask you something I’m curious about as well, right?”

“Of course. I told you that you could freely ask questions when it comes to studying, didn’t I?”

Kyle shyly smiled.

“Well, it’s not related to studying. Perhaps it may be related somehow, but I’m not confident that it is since I have little knowledge.”

“It’s funny that you’re not sure about something for once. Tell me, what is it?”

Kyle looked Ravwin in the eyes and asked, “Do you think I could become king?”

Ravwin spat out the tea he was drinking. Fortunately, he spat it towards the courtyard, not at Kyle’s face.

1. A term used in Joseon history which is used differently than in the story. In the story, this term refers to people who manage the palace affairs. ☜

2. In the same context as the term ‘left minister,’ this term refers to people who manage national affairs in the story. ☜