The Nebula’s Civilization

At the temple of Night Sky in Orazen.

The greatest priest of the religious order was the king of Black Scale, but a king who wasn’t the direct heir couldn’t become the chosen one, so it was simply considered a nominal title. Nevertheless, the monarchy of Black Scale was closely intertwined with the religious order, and there was no notable conflict between the two.

‘That’s surely because of the chosen ones.’

Shune Lak Orazen thought to himself as he walked along the corridors of the temple.

The chosen ones. Among Night Sky’s followers, those with particularly strong faith and were deemed worthy would receive Night Sky’s power—the power of Lightning.

When spring came, Lightning was used on the farmlands around Orazen for good harvest, and the demonstration of said power attracted not only the faithful citizens of Black Scale from rural areas, but also travelers and foreign merchants who didn’t even believe in Night Sky. The priests knew it as a simple event to showcase the power and authority of their god, while the citizens of Orazen did not know the mechanism at play.

When the land was struck with lightning, nitrogen entered the soil and made it more fertile, thus facilitating farming. As a result, there was a joke that when the spring events came along, merchants would become busier than the priests in charge of holding the events.

Anyway, even though they were chosen ones who had received such great power, there had never been a case where one of them abused the power or used it to threaten others.

‘Since they are handpicked by Night Sky.’

The chosen ones were not limited to a particular place of origin, or the Lizardmen species for that matter; they were found across different parts of Black Scale, and sometimes even outside the country. They were served with the utmost devotion and were pretty much treated like saints of the religious order. And of course, the fact that they all wanted to use their powers for good strengthened their faith in Night Sky.

‘We do gain access to the powers by becoming priests, though. Just not to the extent of the chosen ones…’

In The Lost World, once a particular Small Area reached level 11 or higher, the priests would be able to use the powers granted by the Small Area. Until then, the chief priest or a priest the god paid most attention to could gain access to the Small Area’s power in accordance with the Small Area’s level. The priests would be borrowing the power of their god, so Faith points would be consumed, but players usually allowed the priests to use such powers since the resulting Miracles would strengthen faith.

‘However, our power pales in comparison to that of the chosen ones.’

Only a few Miracles were available to the priests of Black Scale, including using Electricity to create small sparks to surprise people, defeating or summoning a swarm of insects, or to calm groups of birds or livestock. But of course, even those Miracles were surprising in the eyes of an ordinary person.

‘Still, those powers aren’t the important ones. Oh no, was that an inappropriate thought? I’m sorry, Night Sky. I don’t think I was all that wrong though.’

While thinking to himself, Shune stopped in front of a door. It was the Chamber of Revelations, located in the deepest part of the temple.

‘The supreme power of Night Sky, the revelation priests.’

Each priest serving Night Sky had different roles. There were trainee priests who had not yet chosen their role, calendar priests who were brilliant when it came to matters of astronomy, and also sermon priests who organized events or spread the word of Night Sky to the people. However, it was the revelation priests who had the most power among them.

Revelation priests recorded the divine revelations given by Night Sky. They interpreted those revelations and chose how and to whom they would disclose it. It was such an important position that even chosen ones couldn’t just become revelation priests, and most could only become a revelation priest near the end of their lives, when they were respected as seniors.

Shune wasn’t very interested in the power itself, but was very interested in the fact that they would be the first to receive Night Sky’s message. Since it wasn’t possible to become a chosen one through effort, he had the desire to become a revelation priest one day.

“I am a trainee priest, Shune Lak Orazen. May I go in?”

After a moment of silence, a voice spoke up from the other side of the door.

“Come in.”

Once inside, Shune saw a small garden and a number of elders sitting on the maru. They were the revelation priests. They were looking down at something with their backs to Shune, and Shune could easily guess they were looking at a message left by Night Sky.

Shune walked in while keeping his head as low as possible as per one of the rules of the Chamber of Revelations. Then one of the revelation priests said, “Shune, I thought I’d heard the name before. It turned out to be the second prince.”

“It is a title I have already abandoned.”

“How can you say that when it is still your secular title?”

“That’s because I am still a trainee…”

“Then it’s true that you’re still a prince.”

Embarrassed, Shune said, “I quickly came as I was told there was a revelation from Night Sky to be passed on. Has the interpretation been complete?”

“Just now. You arrived just in time.”

One of the revelation priests walked out from the maru towards Shune. In the revelation priest’s hand was the revelation, that was the word of Night Sky, as well as their recorded interpretation.

“Take it to His Majesty.”

“To the palace and not the inner temple?”

“That’s what I said.”

“But I came on an errand for the inner temple.”

“Enough, why is a young man like you such a straight arrow? This is an urgent matter, so take the revelation to the palace. If the inner temple doesn’t hear back from us soon, they’ll probably send someone else.”

Shune was puzzled, but decided to do as the revelation priest said. As soon as he bade his farewell and turned to open the door, he checked to make sure if there were any signs of another person around the corridor.

‘It’s not sealed. Doesn’t matter if anyone sees me.’

Even though he was a trainee priest, a priest was a priest. Miscellaneous tasks such as cleaning, restocking, and gardening, were done by those who hadn’t become actual priests yet, but delivering revelations was an errand that they did do because of its importance.

‘So it would be okay for me to enjoy reading the word of Night Sky after the revelation priests. Let’s see…’

Shune opened the revelation and was surprised by what he read. He hurriedly ran to the palace to find his younger brother.

***

“A new evil god.”

Kyle Lak Orazen was glad to see Shune as he hadn’t seen him in a while, but he couldn’t help but be shocked by the revelation that Shune brought.

“I knew a war would break out, but not like this.”

Kyle summoned the new Administration Minister while Shune was still present. The new Administration Minister was Kyle’s former teacher, Ravwin. Although he was a reputed scholar, Ravwin acted awkwardly as if he wasn’t qualified to assume the role, but he was still recognized for his outstanding abilities.

“For what reason have you summoned me, Your Majesty?”

“Night Sky has given a revelation.”

“Night Sky?”

“We will announce the revelation later, but there is something urgent that needs to be done before that. I will issue a royal decree.”

“Please do, Your Majesty.”

Kyle thought for a moment, and once he had organized his thoughts, he said, “Let all the local officials along the coast know that they should block off or take into custody any villagers or groups who have interacted in any way with pirates or a species that look similar to fish. Local officials may exercise discretion to carry out this order, and if that isn’t enough, they can request for the support of other local officers or the palace.”

Although the past century hadn’t been completely uneventful, Black Scale had maintained peace for more than a hundred years, only to be broken by this seemingly sweeping event.

But Kyle said that it was an urgent matter that had to be done, so Ravwin decided the questions could wait until the order was fulfilled.

“Leave it to me, Your Majesty.”

Ravwin stepped out of the hall with hurried steps.

However, that only covered one part of the revelation from Night Sky.

Shune then said worriedly, “But a war! I’ve only known peaceful times, so I am very worried, Your Majesty.”

The appearance of an evil god was not the only matter Night Sky had revealed. Night Sky had also warned that other countries, including Danyum, could pick a fight with Black Scale under the guise of fighting the evil god.

Noting Shune’s worry, Kyle said with a more relaxed expression, “It is a matter of concern, but nothing to worry ourselves sick over, Brother.”

“Your Majesty, please be careful about how you talk even when it’s just the two of us.”

Kyle awkwardly coughed and said, “...I understand.”

“And this generation of Black Scale’s soldiers aren’t the warriors who used to fight alongside Lakrak a hundred years ago. They are regular people who thought of Black Scale as the greatest and looked down on the other countries. The lasting peace we’ve enjoyed may actually be poison.”

“Just because there’s poison doesn’t mean everyone has drunk it.”

“Which means…?

Kyle calmly said, “There have been signs of war here and there even without the evil god being involved. Rather, because Night Sky has told us about the emergence of the evil god, the other gods would also inform their subjects, which is for the better. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have known where the war would start and what we would need to be wary of.”

To Shune, that was indeed good news.

Kyle continued to say, “If there is a problem, it would be that we have to prepare for a fight in the south from here on out.”

“Aren’t Black Scale’s ships much better than those of Danyum and Stone Cave?”

“But not as good as Danly’s. I don’t think Danly would pay much attention to this fight, but…if that's not the case, and all five countries jump in to undermine Black Scale, there will be cause for concern.”

Shune nodded.

Even though Black Scale was a great country, it couldn’t rival the rest of the whole continent combined.

However, in Shune’s perspective, Kyle didn’t seem as shocked as Shune had been when he first saw the revelation.

“So is there a way?”

“Of course,” Kyle said. “Hwee Ravina Muel would have arrived at Sashian by now.”

“Sashian?”

As far as Shune knew, Sashian was nothing but a small harbor town. But there were rumors that those who got secret orders from Kyle were coming from and going to Sashian. Something was going on; that was for certain. However, the ministers who opposed Kyle had traveled in secret to Sashian once and discovered nothing. There was thus even word that Sashian was being used to trick the ministers.

“And by Hwee Ravina Muel, do you mean that alchemist?”

The fact that an alchemist named Ravina had entered the palace was a secret in itself. There were many ears from the temple, however, and it was inevitable for such information to reach priests of high status, as well as Shune, who was a royal. All Shune knew was that the child the Hwee family had abandoned had returned, and that she was rumored to be an alchemist and had not been seen at the palace recently.

“Ravina is not just an ordinary alchemist.”

“I have never thought of an alchemist as ordinary, but… Do you think that the alchemist’s wicked knowledge will save us?”

“Hm, well, do you disapprove of alchemists as a priest?”

Shune shook his head and said, “No, I do not.”

“Because?”

“All things are done according to the will of Night Sky. If an alchemist is a part of that, that would also be the will of Night Sky.” Shune then added worriedly, “However, did you send Ravina to Sashian by herself? If alchemists are so important, wouldn’t the other countries also have noticed?”

“No. I sent her with the Technology Minister, Rumf, and an escort.”

“Oh, I was wondering about that.”

“And even if she was sent alone, that wouldn’t have mattered.”

“Pardon?”

“Ravina had traveled alone for months from Asbestos to Orazen.”

Kyle looked to the south.

“She is the closest to becoming a wizard on this continent.”