Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1174: Chapter 1173: Goddess of Magic’s Speculation

Milmina’s attitude towards this matter seems a bit too indifferent, which of course relates to her former divine "perspective"—she does not think that the beliefs of certain mortal groups are worth making a fuss over, especially when these mortals have never established a connection with her.

To a god, mortals in this "isolated area" are as transparent and need no attention; however, for Gawain, this matter isn’t so simple.

"This isn’t just a ’little odd’ issue," Gawain’s mouth twitched slightly, speaking with notable seriousness, "Isn’t it said that all mages in the world are either believers or peripheral believers of the Goddess of Magic? Although belief in the Goddess of Magic is the loosest and broadest among all belief systems, this loose and broad form of belief results in mages’ widespread belief in the Goddess of Magic..."

He spoke of the "common knowledge" he knew, yet Milmina shook her head: "That’s merely your mortals’ perspective, I’ve never said that."

Gawain frowned: "Is the reality not that way?"

"At least not in the Violet Kingdom," Milmina said seriously, "and even on the Loren Continent, not all mages believe in me—the term ’peripheral believer’ is a very vague concept because it can barely establish an effective belief connection, so its judgment becomes very subjective and generalized. Sometimes a mage doesn’t believe in gods at all, but when faced with a magical model that is really difficult to solve, they may habitually curse ’the Goddess of Magic wouldn’t even bother to look at this thing.’ In these cases, people might assume he’s a peripheral believer... you can see how unreliable such judgments are."

Gawain rubbed his brow, organizing his thoughts while speaking: "Alright, alright, let’s not discuss this. Let’s talk about the Violet Kingdom... You say so many mages in the Violet Kingdom don’t believe in you... that’s really quite surprising..."

"It’s very normal, because mages themselves are very mysterious, and the Violet Kingdom is the most secretive and closed among the Mortal Nations. Almost no one knows the real situation inside the Violet Kingdom, just instinctively believing such a Mage Nation must be the territory ruled by the Goddess of Magic... but what’s the actual situation? They’ve never prayed to me for centuries, and besides themselves, only I know this fact."

As Milmina spoke, she spread her hands humanly: "Don’t say you find them mysterious; I also think they are quite mysterious."

"...But why is it like this?" Gawain furrowed his brow, unable to suppress his curiosity, "a nation composed of mages, why would it actually present a state where belief in the Goddess of Magic is extinct..."

"How would I know?" Milmina shook her head, "The situation was like this after I gained consciousness. Since there are no believers on that land, I have no way of knowing their internal situation, and since the Violet Kingdom has been isolated from the Loren Continent since ancient times, my belief is hard to spread across the strait—and besides, belief in the Goddess of Magic itself is very loose, those mages who believe in me aren’t as enthusiastic about spreading faith and establishing churches as the priests of other religions; they’d rather solve two more sets of major problems if they have time than study how to spread belief... I myself am even less inclined to pay attention to these matters."

For a moment, Gawain unexpectedly found himself speechless, facing the Goddess of Magic whose attitude is so effortlessly indifferent, he could only twitch the corner of his mouth, deeply admiring this lady’s laissez-faire mindset.

Truly deserving praise is being an entity who can carve ’thank you’ on the table after observing their own funeral.

Steadying himself, Gawain finally had to accept this reality that was beyond his expectations; a series of questions prepared earlier lost relevance before he could even voice them, so he reorganized his words and asked: "You just said... you have no way to know their internal situation? You can’t see what’s happening inside the Violet Kingdom, is that what you mean?"

"Without believers, there are no ears and eyes, this is the operating rule of us gods," Milmina’s attitude finally turned serious; she patiently explained, "We can understand everything that happens in the world through believers—at least those with a certain degree of sincerity, through their senses, but conversely, we can only understand things that believers can see and hear.

"Do you know what the human world looks like through the eyes of a god? You can imagine it. When I was still on my divine seat, the world I saw was numerous flickering light spots in darkness, each flickering spot was a believer with devout faith, and around these light spots, a small area of space was illuminated, that’s the area perceptible to their senses. A god’s vision is composed of these countless light spots and their surrounding ’bright areas,’ relying on them to piece together a world that can be perceived.

"And when I cast my gaze toward the Violet Kingdom... all I see over there is a pitch blackness, not even a speck of flickering light, let alone any ’vision."

"Pitch black..." Gawain unconsciously muttered softly, his mind sketching the picture Milmina described, a picture not difficult to imagine. He furrowed his brow and then turned his gaze to Amon, "What about you? Can you see the situation in the Violet Kingdom?"

He was actually asking casually because the areas affected by Amon were limited to the southern parts of the continent; believers of the God of Nature are indeed rare in the northern parts of the mountain range. The Violet Kingdom is a very sealed-off place too, never heard of any Domain of Nature belief inside them—but he still held onto a hope, that is the "wandering" tradition long passed down among white elves.

After reaching adulthood, silver elves often follow the tradition to travel throughout the "world." Even powerful High-Ranked Rangers dare explore the elemental world; perhaps in ancient times, some elf wanderer stepped into the Violet Kingdom? If so, this might become a glimpse for Amon...

However, Amon’s answer soon shattered Gawain’s expectations, as the God of Nature lowered his gaze, his deep and pleasant voice carrying regret: "Sorry, my gaze has never crossed that strait—it’s pitch black to me as well."

Gawain nodded, curled his fingers to support his chin, sinking into contemplation, then suddenly, a flash of insight illuminated his mind: "Wait, Lady Milmina, I remember the Violet Kingdom established a new tradition six hundred years ago; they would select talented ’apprentices’ from the Loren Continent to go to the City of Thousand Towers. These so-called apprentices were mostly Loren spellcasters already with certain power; among these spellcasters, wouldn’t there be someone who could become your ’eyes’?"

"I’m aware of this tradition too—although I seldom respond to the prayers of real-world believers, I have always been paying attention to changes in the world. I’m aware of matters outside the Violet Kingdom," Milmina nodded, "Thinking of this now, this indeed seems odd... Over six hundred years, the number of apprentices selected by the Violet Kingdom from the Loren Continent isn’t small, yet there really isn’t a single one among them who believes in me. Even though some of them later became my believers, at least at the time when they were selected as ’apprentices’, they hadn’t established any belief in the ’Goddess of Magic’..."

Milmina spoke unconcernedly, but Gawain listened carefully, his gaze instantly froze, as if thunder flashed in his mind, a line of thought nobody had imagined rose to the surface of his mind.

Milmina keenly noticed the change in Gawain’s expression: "Did you think of something?"

"...For six hundred years, countless people have tried to find out what the criteria are for selecting apprentices in the Violet Kingdom. They have searched for clues among various possible conditions such as the apprentices’ talents, places of residence, races, ages, personalities, bloodlines, and more, but no one ever thought that the real commonality lies here...

"The criterion for selecting apprentices in this Mage Nation of the Violet Kingdom is actually the inability to believe in the Goddess of Magic..."

Amon had been silently listening without interjecting. At this moment, he couldn’t help but say, "Isn’t it a bit early to draw this conclusion now?"

"...Indeed, we cannot make this conclusion yet," Gawain paused in silence, nodded gently, and said, "But at least the current clues can converge to this point: from six hundred years ago to this day, all the mage apprentices who were allowed to study in the City of Thousand Towers have at least one thing in common, that is, they have never believed in the Goddess of Magic. In this regard, I think Lady Milmina’s judgment is absolutely accurate."

"What could be the reason behind this?" Amon seemed finally interested in this topic and asked again, "A country with such a large population, taking such a strict attitude to prevent a particular faith from spreading within its borders, no country on the Loren Continent has ever achieved this—it’s not easy in this world. They must have a reason for doing this, right?"

"And they have done it so successfully..." Milmina added from the side, "’Not a ray of light’, although I don’t care about this matter, the anomaly of this matter itself is worth noting. I don’t know exactly how many people live in the Violet Kingdom, but there is a saying among mortals—wherever mortals gather, there is fertile ground for faith. Mortals always encounter hardships, and among those who encounter hardships, there will always be some who pray. The Violet Kingdom has countless spellcasters, haven’t they come across a single unsolvable problem in thousands of years? Even cursing would mention my name..."

The latter part of Milmina’s words was noticeably lower in tone, causing Gawain to take a closer look at her. Amon’s voice came from the side, "Be honest—you really don’t care?"

Milmina casually said, "Do I look like someone who cares with this carefree attitude?"

"...Whatever you say."

Gawain didn’t mind this kind of everyday bickering between Milmina and Amon, as he was already deep in thought.

The Goddess of Magic was right—a kingdom this large, especially one dominated by mages, with no members who believe in the Goddess of Magic, this fact itself is the greatest oddity. Its strangeness even surpasses the reason behind the Violet Kingdom’s selection criteria for "apprentices"...

The most crucial question is: how did they achieve this?

Amon and Milmina noticed that Gawain had fallen into silence while thinking, and they also involuntarily paused. After some time, Milmina suddenly said, "Earlier, you mentioned that some behaviors of the Violet Kingdom seemed ’suspicious’ to you, what exactly is the situation?"

There was no need to conceal this matter, so Gawain quickly organized his thoughts and shared his recent discoveries with the former goddess before him: "It’s the black box—full scope, long-term, difficult to explain by coincidence black box. This includes a large number of traditional fields of..."

After a detailed explanation, Gawain’s voice fell, and after a brief moment of thought, Amon spoke, "This can be considered from the perspective of confidentiality needs and national interests—in fact, before you established something like rune logic, this kind of black box technology transfer was the norm in this world. Those that could be deciphered and analyzed were rare, even despised by mainstream academic groups."

Gawain nodded, "That makes sense, but considering the various anomalies currently shown by the Violet Kingdom, the ’black boxes’ they are spreading... it’s really hard not to pay attention to them."

Milmina had been silent for a long time after listening to Gawain’s explanations, which finally caught Amon’s attention. The God of Nature’s gaze swept towards her: "Have you thought of something?"

"I am speculating on what exactly those Violet Mages intend to achieve," Milmina said softly, almost as if talking to herself, "The ’black box magic,’ the packaging of technology and knowledge does not affect the transmission and efficacy of spells. Even to some extent, even with the presence of black boxes, mages can still ’research’ and ’advance personally,’ an outcome determined by the special nature of magic.

"So, the black box spells spread by the Violet Mages do not affect the establishment of the Loren magic system or the growth of Loren spellcasters. Therefore, at least to some extent, these ’obstacles’ they set up are not for their own national security or to delay the development of competitors—if they indeed view the Loren Continent as a competitor.

"They must aim to achieve another purpose—if indeed they have this ’purpose.’

"Speak your mind," Amon urged, "There’s no outsider here."

"Let me give a hint," Milmina ignored Amon and instead focused her gaze on Gawain, "If a magic system’s ’black boxes’ become more numerous, even to the point where the entire system’s fundamental theories are all composed of black boxes; if the powers held by spellcasters are all in an unexplained state, where people can only chant inherited spells as if reciting classic prayers, without knowing the mathematical logic and energy rules behind those symbols; if rational analytical and research behaviors are thoroughly suppressed, and scholars no longer pursue the knowledge behind techniques but only idolize the miraculous effects produced by encapsulated spell molds, then what would be the long-term consequence of such a situation?"

Gawain finally understood the deeper meaning behind Milmina’s words, and the answer this pointed to made his expression turn stern for a moment: "...Magic would become a form of divine phenomenon."

"This is just my hypothesis." Milmina said calmly.

(Holy cow!)