The Emperor’s Daily Nitpicking - CH 39

Oswald and the two priests turned their heads to look at him.

Kevin stared at the black stone water platform for quite a while before realising that the others were looking at him and froze. “…… What is everyone looking at me for?”

“You have a big reaction,” Oswald said with some wonder. “Like you’re especially surprised.”

Kevin looked at him even more strangely. “How many years have passed since the time of the Old Gods? Phae has been buried in the ground for an indefinite number of years, and his totem suddenly appears. Isn’t it worth being surprised?”

“Yes, it is surprising, but you’re usually too tired even to pull the corners of your mouth. I’ve never seen you looking so surprised,” Oswald said.

Kevin snorted. “Is this the time to study how expressive I am?”

He had a point. Oswald glanced at him again, not continuing to press the issue, and turned to the two priests. “So, what is your interpretation of this Phae totem?”

These four black water platforms had been around in the Jinshi Empire Observatory for a long time, even back when the Jinshi Empire was first established. Each of their changes held a mystery. The early priests were known as “emissaries of miracles” and were probably the few in the Euna clan who carried the “remnants of the gods”; they were rarely seen.

A great priest could detect or even foretell many things with just a few changes in the water platform and played a vital role in establishing the empire, making it an extremely important and high-ranking position.

But as times went on and the further away from the age of the gods, the less powerful the priests became, with each generation becoming less capable than the next. It was difficult to decipher the general meaning of a message, let alone detect all the secrets and information.

But even though the priests of today were not as good as they used to be, they were still indispensable. Without them, others would not even be able to interpret the general meaning and simply look at it in confusion.

“We have interpreted there are traces of the god of light, Phae, in the desert to the west, in the area of the Old Rose Fortress.” One of the priests replied, “Priests Mowgli had the same insight as we did before he became dazed and unconscious.”

Oswald raised his hand. “Wait–traces can mean many things. What exactly do you mean by traces? Be more specific. Is it some sort of signal or what?”

The Priest said in an extremely indescribable tone, “Although it is impossible to believe……we believe that the trace refers to the traces of the god of light, Phae, himself, meaning that he should have been present near the Old Rose Fortress.”

Kevin: “……”

Oswald: “……”

Kevin didn’t have to be surprised this time as Oswald could barely keep his expression in check.

For a moment, he almost blurted out, “Are you guys still asleep? Go back and stay asleep if you’re not. What kind of nonsense are you talking about here?!”

But after thinking about it, he swallowed it back.

The observatory was quiet for a long time. Even the old Priest Mowgli, who had been going crazy and making a fool of himself, suddenly fell silent.

He crouched in his place in the corner, staring at a stain on the stone pillar, and almost made himself look cross-eyed before suddenly muttering in a low voice, “Coming back…… again……”

After a few “coming back” statements, the old Priest Mowgli shivered, and his expression turned from bewilderment to panic, pushing himself desperately against the wall and screaming. “I want to live. I want to live…… Do not let the sun fall!”

The crowd was rendered speechless by this madness. Oswald’s expression finally snapped out of disbelief, gradually squinting as he looked at the two priests.

The mad old Priest Mowgli, still desperately making his presence known, shrank back in the corner and muttered to himself for a moment before suddenly grabbing the stone bar and standing up again. He gestured around the circle of people with an arrogant and indifferent expression before finally stopping his gaze in front of Oswald and Kevin and saying sternly, “Kneel down!”

The crowd: “……”

The two young priests shrank their necks and finally couldn’t bear it any longer as they dragged the old priest aside with coaxing. One of them bowed low at Oswald and said, “Your Majesty, I’ll take Priest Mowgli to the medical officer’s courtyard first. Donne is here. He can answer all your questions.”

As soon as Oswald had pinched his brow and nodded, he picked up the old priest on his shoulders and hurried out of the observatory.

Priest Donne, who had been left behind, explained to Oswald, “We were also very shocked when we interpreted this. It does look very much like nonsense, but it is true. Priest Mowgli even deciphered a vision of a scene.”

“What scene?” Oswald asked, frowning.

Donne replied, “He said he saw the Old Rose Fortress under a rainstorm and a dark-haired man in a white robe standing by the broken wall, carrying a golden longbow in his hand and looking back at the half-collapsed tower of the Old Fortress. Priest Mowgli said he could not see the man’s face, only a dazzling pattern of a golden-feathered phoenix on the side of his neck.”

The crowd’s breath hitched.

Everyone and anyone who had read the “History of Gods” or heard the name of the Old Gods knew that the god of light, Phae, had a golden bow and arrow as his usual weapon. The presence of the traces of Phae and the sight of a man with a bow and arrow standing next to the Old Rose Fortress spoke for itself.

Oswald stared, “Is this an inclination or an actual scene?”

“It is an actual scene, Your Majesty,” Donne replied. “Priest Mowgli said it was a scene that happened by the broken wall of the Old Rose Fortress.”

Oswald was still slightly unconvinced. “Could it be that…… someone dressed up as Phae?”

Kevin, however, shook his head in a small movement when the others weren’t looking.

It couldn’t be.

The only person who would look closest to him would be Merlot, who Thenez had created. Nowadays, people only knew that the gods were symbolised by a totem but didn’t know what it meant, thinking it was something like a seal or a signature to distinguish their identity. In fact, a true totem is engraved on the body of each god and imprinted on their soul.

Merlot, wearing the same white robe and carrying the same golden longbow, might look similar to him in appearance, but the pattern of the phoenix wing feathers around his neck would be impossible to imitate.

Not to mention that Merlot’s Latter God era had also long passed by a thousand years or so. He had long since lain underground or perhaps had been reborn as a human……

In other words, if what Mowgli saw was real and the man in that scene really did have the phoenix pattern on his neck, it could only have been the god of light, Phae himself, and not anyone else dressed as him.

The joke was too big!

Kevin couldn’t help but laugh for a moment–he was standing here with all of his parts intact, so where did another God of Light come to pose next to the Old Rose Fortress?

Who was he kidding?

However, there was no need for the priest to spout nonsense at a time like this, so……

After laughing, Kevin looked down and frowned again: What was happening here? And where did that god of light come from next to the Old Rose Fortress?

“What else did Priest Mowgli say?” Oswald even changed the tone of his voice as if his throat had tightened too.

“The priest also said something……” Donne trailed off a little as he said this, lifting his eyes to look at Oswald as if he was deliberating on what to say. With that expression and that look, it was clear at a glance that it was not a pleasant thing to say.

“I won’t blame you. Just say it straight.” Oswald said impatiently, “Don’t dawdle.”

Donne tilted his head to the black water platform, reached out and traced his finger twice over several of the shining star dots before pointing back to the almost invisible phoenix totem. “The priest said that the god of light, Phae, appeared at the Old Rose Fortress with blood on his white robes and countless bodies at his feet, but no faces could be seen. And the four sand dots moved out of their position, indicating …… that our country will have great calamities, so heavy that they will topple the country. He could sense a great connection between these two events but couldn’t tell exactly what it would be like.”

Oswald’s face instantly turned grim.

The fact that the god of light, Phae, had reappeared was so incredible that one simply could not believe it. If he had only heard of such a thing, Oswald might have been surprised and found some people to look around the Old Rose Fortress but would never have put too much emphasis on it; after all, there were much more realistic problems at hand.

But the fact that such an unthinkable thing was linked to the survival of the Jinshi Empire made it impossible to take it lightly.

He was silent for a moment before nodding and saying in a deep voice, “All right, I get it. You keep an eye on the Water Platform and report any further changes on time.”

“Also-” he glanced again at the water platform to the south that had driven Priest Mowgli mad and said, “Keep an eye on that one too. I’ll send some extra men to the observatory later.”

When he finished, he gave Kevin a tilt of his head and said, “What are you staring at again? Let’s go.”

The two rolled onto the hippogriffs and headed straight for the Wujinxuan Palace with a tug on the reins.

With their wings spread out, the hippogriffs sped along the railway path. In the blink of an eye, they were in front of the gates of the Wujinxuan Palace. However, Oswald did not stop the hippogriff but tugged on the reins and let it turn straight up the high tower of the city wall.

“What are you doing here?” Kevin asked.

Oswald dismounted and led him inside the high tower, standing at the fence and looking down.

It was the highest point in St. Andis. As you looked down, you could see nearly the entire royal city, the ebony roofs so serene and imposing that it could make one’s heart surge on the one hand and somehow calm it on the other.

It was a calming force for the Jinshi Empire after a thousand years of storms.

“Do you believe that Phae will ever reappear in this world?” Oswald spoke sombrely.

Kevin replied, “Are you asking about the god of light or Phae?”

“Is there a difference?” Oswald glanced at him.

Kevin nodded. “The difference is great…… because the time of the gods has passed.”

Oswald was puzzled by his meaning for a moment, but then he turned and added, “I was surprised just now, but I actually believe it because I found footprints, but no remains in the statue of the god in the Tomb of Phae. I have a hunch that Phae is still alive.”

He paused and added, “And even more oddly, I even have a feeling that Phae, the god of light, is not far from us.”