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Page 77
But when he made his wish and broke away from Valhalla to become human, the seventy-two demons gained their freedom and even gave birth to a new unified consciousness, Goetia. In other words, he could no longer command them.
They might show leniency towards me because of my past identity, but the plans they are about to carry out cannot be stopped because of my existence.
Romani knew very well what kind of person he was in the past.
He also fully understood why the seventy-two demon gods, who saw the same scenery as him, wanted to carry out the burning of humanity.
They felt that their past was merely a machine for fulfilling the duties given to them by God, and for this reason, they have repeatedly accused themselves of inaction.
However, he could not explain it, nor could he explain it. Under his suppression, they could not stir up any trouble. But when he was no longer King Solomon, their troubles that had been suppressed for thousands of years finally erupted, and they finally came to this point.
Romani, as their creator, was both gratified and troubled to see that they had come to such a conclusion. Now that he knew everything, all his worries had been put aside. He no longer needed to live in constant anxiety, nor did he need to ponder the questions of why humanity was destroyed, who did it, and how to save it.
If there's really no other way, it's just a case of "what's the use" and it explodes again. Compared to the unknown terror, this is nothing. It's definitely an experience of being overstimulated.
Thinking of this, Dr. Roman couldn't help but touch the ring he was wearing.
Moreover, once the burning of humanity begins, the Restraint Force will send someone to take charge of the incident, giving me a chance to rethink how to help the seventy-two demon gods grow further after breaking free from my mental constraints.
Chapter 175 The Enigmatic Queen (Part 1)
Considering how to guide the seventy-two demon gods, Dr. Roman came to Le Zhengling's side. Under the current circumstances, Le Zhengling absolutely could not be imprisoned, and the best solution was to immediately send him to Leonardo da Vinci's workshop.
As the second Heroic Spirit summoned by Chaldea, Leonardo da Vinci possesses an extraordinary status and position. Within Chaldea, he is indispensable, both in daily maintenance and as a deterrent force. Therefore, as long as Yue Zhengling is sent to Leonardo da Vinci's territory, no one can do anything about him.
With this in mind, Roman, acting with a speed completely unlike his usual slacking-off habits, picked up Le Zhengling and ran toward Leonardo da Vinci's workshop.
However, the moment he picked up Le Zhengling, Le Zhengling suddenly opened his eyes again. When he saw Dr. Roman's appearance, his eyes began to change from dazed to full of joy, and finally became tender and affectionate.
"Put him down! Romani Archman!" Rafe shouted immediately after noticing Roman's actions, but what happened next left everyone confused.
Yue Zhengling reached out and gently stroked Roman's face, as if caressing a beloved. He then parted his lips and spoke in a deeply affectionate tone, "Ah, we meet again, my beloved~"
This scene silenced everyone in the room.
"You, you, you! What did you say?" The first to recover was Dr. Roman, one of the parties involved. He simply couldn't understand why this person would suddenly say such a thing. Could this person be one of his thousand wives and concubines in the past? He just wondered what method he had used to change her appearance?
But that doesn't make sense. If that were really the case, this person would have said those words when they first met him. Why wait until now? And isn't this person a man? Wait a minute—I remember the test results from earlier seemed to be…
While the doctor was lost in thought, Yue Zhengling's expression changed again. The tender and affectionate look vanished in an instant. Roman saw the transformation from astonishment to contemplation to a blank expression. Finally, the hand on Yue Zhengling's left cheek pinched his cheek hard, relentlessly squeezing it without any mercy.
“It hurts so much, it hurts so much!”
Dr. Roman kept shouting, and when he didn't know what to do, he heard Le Zhengling say in a sinister tone, "Aren't you going to put me down?"
Upon hearing this, Dr. Roman immediately let go and put Yue Zhengling back on the bed. The other party had also finished venting and released his hand that had left red marks on Yue Zhengling's face.
"She's really got some skills... No wonder she's a woman who likes to use back channels." Le Zhengling muttered to himself in an unhappy tone as he was placed on the bed. Everyone was completely baffled as to who the "woman who uses back channels" he was referring to was.
Actually, during the examination just now, Yue Zhengling was pulled into a dream again, but unlike Merlin's experience, although his consciousness was outside the dream, he was still very clear about what was happening in the outside world.
This is different from his previous conversation with Merlin, where he communicated with the outside world and viewed it through a curtain in the dream world. This time, the moment he entered the dream, both the outside world and the dream world were connected.
As for how this was done, it all started when his consciousness was brought into the dream world.
When Yue Zhengling felt an overwhelming drowsiness again, he had a premonition that something bad was about to happen. Sure enough, when his consciousness shifted back to the dream world, he saw this unusual scenery before him.
All around was a vast Gobi Desert, in front of him was a quietly burning campfire, and in the distance, a hazy full moon hung high in the sky.
"It really does bring back some nostalgic memories." Le Zhengling took a deep breath. The temperature in the Gobi Desert at night was extremely low, and he shivered reflexively the moment he inhaled the cold air.
I had spent several nights in places like this in my past life. I was with a professor when we went to investigate an ancient site near Jerusalem, and we spent a few nights there in the Gobi Desert.
The appearance of this scenery clearly indicated that Merlin was not looking for him—this was a feeling he had no reason to have.
But after waiting for a while, no one came to find him. Feeling a little bored, he had no choice but to sit by the campfire and quietly watch the flickering flames.
Before he knew it, the moon was high in the sky. Yue Zhengling, who was getting a little impatient, was about to leave. Although time passed much more slowly in the dream world than outside, since the other party had no intention of showing up, he had no intention of wasting any more time here. After all, he was also very interested in his test data.
However, just as he was about to leave, a clear bell sound came from afar, and a dark figure slowly appeared.
Knowing that the person in question had arrived, Yue Zhengling abandoned her thoughts of returning and squinted her eyes, quietly watching the direction from which the sound came.
Slowly, through the bright moonlight, he finally saw what the dark figure was—
It was a tall Bactrian camel, and a figure sat between its humps. Just as the unofficial history described her, she was an uncertain existence like a mirage.
The white smoke swirling around her, the animal ears on her head, her alluring dark brown skin, and even the symbol of the Eye of God, representing wisdom, floating beside her—all these things suggest that this woman is shrouded in mystery.
When the mysterious woman drove her camel into the area illuminated by the campfire, the strange bell sound still echoed.
Le Zhengling looked her up and down, but ultimately couldn't figure out where the ringing came from.
"Traveler, may I rest here for a while?" The woman's voice was as clear as a nightingale's, yet it also seemed veiled by a fine gauze, giving it an unreal quality.
Le Zhengling doesn't dislike others playing mysterious, because it represents a kind of fun. Humor is a good way to bring people closer, so she doesn't mind playing along with her.
"Woman, if you stay here, we'll be alone together. For the sake of my integrity and chastity, you should go rest somewhere else." Le Zhengling waved his hand, looking at the woman on the camel with a half-smile.
The woman opposite her was clearly surprised by Yue Zhengling's answer and didn't know how to respond for a moment. In the end, she could only shake her head and smile bitterly.
"Just like that person said, you're not playing by the rules—a person of possibility."
"Yes, after all, if we play by the rules, wouldn't you old monsters see through our strategies? —The enigmatic queen."
After this exchange, both realized that the other knew who they were. After looking at each other for a few seconds, they both smiled.
Chapter 176 The Enigmatic Queen (Part 2)
Le Zhengling knew that the woman before him was none other than Solomon's lover, whose very existence was shrouded in mystery, in addition to his thousand wives and concubines—the Queen of Sheba.
It appears in the Old Testament (Book of Kings) and the New Testament.
She was a mysterious queen who ruled the Kingdom of Sheba, a kingdom south of Jerusalem. However, to date, no one has found conclusive evidence to prove the actual existence of the queen and her kingdom.
In the magnificent founding legend of Ethiopia in East Africa, one of the candidate kingdoms, the Queen married King Solomon and became the mother of the first emperor.
The Book of Kings in the Old Testament records that in the mid-10th century BC, the Kingdom of Israel was prosperous and peaceful under the rule of King Solomon. In particular, the magnificent Temple of Jehovah and the royal palace, which he built over 20 years, made him famous far and wide.
A foreign monarch, the Queen of Sheba, having heard of Solomon's fame, greatly admired him. Accompanied by a large retinue, she traveled in a grand procession, laden with spices, precious stones, and much gold on camels, to Jerusalem to meet Solomon. She deliberately posed three difficult questions to Solomon, testing his wisdom to see if he was as infinitely wise as rumored. Although the last question slightly stumped King Solomon, he ultimately solved it with the wisdom bestowed upon him by God (see guide).
The Queen, seeing Solomon's great wisdom, and bewildered by the magnificent palace he had built, the exquisite food served at his banquets, the orderly ranks of his courtiers, the servants standing on either side, and their fine clothing and adornments, was so astonished that she was deeply moved and presented him with generous gifts. Solomon, in turn, warmly welcomed this foreign monarch who had traveled from afar, and upon her return home, presented her with many precious gifts.
Legend has it that although Solomon fell in love with the Queen of Sheba at first sight, the queen was not interested in him. Later, Solomon devised a plan to seduce her and force her to marry him.
The gist of this interesting legend is that Solomon fell in love with the Queen of Sheba at first sight when he met her in Jerusalem.
Unfortunately, the queen valued chastity above all else, and only after Solomon swore he would not touch her did she agree to move into Solomon's palace.
However, the cunning Solomon also made a condition: the Queen was forbidden from touching anything in his palace. Before the Queen departed for home, Solomon held a grand banquet for her, deliberately having her eat a lot of spicy food.
When the Queen felt thirsty in the middle of the night, she secretly slipped into Solomon's room and drank a bottle of water. Solomon, who had been plotting something, claimed that the Queen had broken her promise, thus freeing him from the bond of his vow. In this way, Solomon was able to spend the night with the Queen.
Well, later when I was playing FGO, in the Remnant of the Psalms, which is the fragment of 1.5.4, the story of the bond between the Forbidden Garden of Depths: Salem the Heretic and King David, and after realizing what kind of person the Doctor really was, I finally discovered that both of them were designed by King David.
Whether it was the passage leading to Solomon's bedroom or the fact that there was only one place with water in the entire temple, it was all told to the Queen of Sheba by King David, who pretended to be a good person. He even tricked his own son into attacking the Queen of Sheba.
In fact, the Queen of Sheba was not initially qualified to enter Jerusalem to meet King Solomon. However, while waiting outside the city for notification, she and her party met a harmless and kind shepherd who claimed to be passing by and loved to sing and dance. She was later told that there was a hidden "Gate of the Spirits" in the city wall, and that if she were the queen, she could enter through that gate.
Finally, Sheba, accompanied by a few followers, entered Jerusalem through the Spirit Gate, making her arrival a fait accompli. This is how her arrival reached King Solomon's ears, and the main gate of Jerusalem opened to welcome the Queen of Sheba and her entourage.
During the subsequent audience, in order to observe whether Solomon possessed the extraordinary wisdom that people believed him to have, the Queen of Sheba, who was born with the wisdom of a demon, posed three difficult questions to him.
As a girl born of a demon's daughter and a human man, the Queen of Sheba was not an ordinary human. Her birth was imbued with special significance, which was officially activated the moment she met King Solomon.
The Queen of Sheba bore King Solomon a son named Manerick, who later went with her. When Manerick grew up, he went to Jerusalem to visit his father and was crowned the first emperor of Ethiopia.
Solomon gave his son the Ark of the Covenant and a ring, which was the relic that the former director used to summon Solomon, and the genuine ring that Dr. Roman wore on his hand.
Even more interestingly, the country that destroyed Solomon's Temple in history was called Chaldea.
Back when he was a history graduate student, he would play games and compare them with history, and he would think more than once that Mushroom and his team were really good at writing scripts. But when he found out that he had been reincarnated into the Type-Moon world, he found that these historical records matched up perfectly.
However, precisely because of this, given the ambiguity surrounding many things, Yue Zhengling could only have a maximum understanding of about 70% of the various beings he knew, and when facing this one, he didn't even have a 50% understanding.
He speculated that in the Grand Order timeline, regardless of whether the Burning of Humanity occurred or not, the Queen of Sheba held a special significance.
After all, the completion of the near-future observation lens, Sheba, is consistent across all world lines.
Moreover, Le Zhengling suspects that the Queen of Sheba is the backdoor of Alaya—or rather, she is the user of the backdoor.
Whether it was the manner of her birth, the hints King David gave her, or even her becoming the mother of King Solomon's child, all of this indicates how extraordinary this enigmatic queen truly was.
Now that the other party has appeared out of nowhere, Yue Zhengling, who is already suffering from a nervous breakdown due to her tumultuous past experiences, is prepared for what is about to happen.
Sure enough, after a short silence, the exceptionally beautiful and intelligent queen had figured out the reason for Yue Zhengling's silence. After all, the nightmare had warned her beforehand that this seemingly young child possessed incredible knowledge and had a vision of the world's development that surpassed all those with clairvoyance.
That's why, after confirming that Yue Zhengling had appeared in this world, she hurriedly contacted Merlin for help and then ran over to find him.
“Stranger, I beg you to save Jedidia.” The Queen of Sheba looked at Le Zhengling with hopeful eyes, eyes that seemed to have found a last hope, which filled Le Zhengling with fear.
Knowing exactly what she was praying for, Yue Zhengling had no choice but to keep offering her hope. So he withdrew his business smile and said expressionlessly, "No hope, just waiting to die. Goodbye..."
Chapter 177 The Enigmatic Queen (Part 2)
Jedidiah was the nickname of King Solomon. Yue Zhengling was not surprised at all that the Queen of Sheba called King Solomon that way, after all, the two were husband and wife in name only.
Although the historical records state that King Solomon had a thousand wives and concubines, the Queen of Sheba was not among them. Moreover, Solomon's official wife was the Egyptian princess at the time. Although in the end, the heir to the throne of Israel was a child of Sheba, Solomon's favorite was still the Queen of Sheba. However, now that a timeline of human reasoning has been burned, Le Zhengling knows that he is not capable of changing the final outcome.
It could even be said that, given the current situation where even self-preservation was a problem, telling Leonardo da Vinci everything was already the greatest effort he could make.
However, based on his speculation, in this timeline, the doctor's death is inevitable in order to prevent the burning of humanity. Of course, this is just speculation, since the doctor probably wouldn't have to die if the burning of humanity were successful.
This conjecture is based on the premise that the doctor reveals his identity at the last moment and that the first Noble Phantasm fails to activate. Since Goetia was able to spare Mash's life, it would be perfectly normal for him to spare his former master and creator so that he could see the new world he had created.
Ultimately, Goetia's reason for carrying out the burning of human beings was because he had witnessed Solomon's indifference, human suffering and misfortune, and the brevity and fragility of life in the past. Out of compassion, he wanted to create a life that would not die and would be perfect.
Moreover, based on what I've learned about the conversation between Goetia and Solomon in the final chapter, the Temple of Time, Goetia has an inexplicable attachment to Solomon, much like the relationship between a child and their parents. You could even say that Goetia did all this simply to prove to Solomon that he was wrong in the past.
However, Goetia did not know that Solomon, whom He had known in the past, was merely a spokesperson—or rather, a puppet—acting in accordance with God's will.
The true Solomon is the one who, after winning the Holy Grail War and breaking free from the spirit origin of Solomon, acts entirely on his own will, loves sweets, loves to slack off, and is hopelessly addicted to online idols.
Le Zhengling knew what he could and could not do. In other words, after returning to this world, all his seemingly bold actions were based on an invisible warning line.
Whether it's telling Leonardo da Vinci what she knows, sharing her past experiences in the post-apocalyptic world with Merlin, or even seemingly courting death by talking to Rafe, everything she does is driven by a strong purpose.
The purpose of this was to see just how strong the inertia of the world is, and how deep the tolerance of Alaya is for him.
The verbal reminders he had received earlier made it clear to him that the warning line had not yet been crossed and that Alaya had not appeared, but this did not mean that he should directly step into the final crucial point of intervening in the burning of human reason.
One must eat one bite at a time. Intervening and probing are two completely different things. Le Zhengling was certain that if he agreed to the Queen of Sheba's request, he might face death again.
In the post-apocalyptic world, although Yue Zhengling separated the abnormal part of himself, his memories were synchronized before he left that world. Therefore, he obtained the knowledge given to him by Yug and used the spiritual particle calculation device at the Atlas Institute to enter the Mooncell to analyze this knowledge, which at least prevented him from completely losing his mind.
It was precisely because of these conditions that, before leaving that world, I gained a small portion of the wisdom of the Outer Gods and a general understanding of the laws governing the world.
However, since the Yogg who descended to be beside another version of himself was only an avatar, his knowledge was limited. Based on this, he gained even less. After arriving in this world, he used the two conversations with Leonardo da Vinci and Merlin as a basis to establish a single worldline model for the Type-Moon universe.
If the manuscript he wrote in the very first world was the outline, then the new world model he has planned now is the foundation. Although he doesn't know why he is doing this, he seems to have a vague idea that he must do it. And since he has nothing better to do, and without a clear goal, being a lazy bum while thinking is the best way to kill time.
However, this does not include the current situation.
"How could he be beyond saving? He's still alive, and there are still several years until that incident. If it were you—if it were you, the one Merlin spoke of who represents possibility—you could definitely do it, right?"
Hearing Le Zhengling's refusal, Sheba was somewhat agitated, but she didn't lose control. Moreover, a sly glint flashed in her eyes. "Is it because the price isn't enough? No problem. As a businessman, I prefer mutually beneficial win-win terms. As long as you name a price, I will do my best to help you achieve it."
"I'm sorry, it's not that I don't trust you, but the request you made is beyond my capabilities—after all, I'm just an ordinary person. Even if I know some things, that's all I know. That's all I can do." Le Zhengling stood up, dusted off his backside, and took a few steps back.
"You're really being modest. You've already become a Heroic Spirit, and you even have the potential to become a Heroic Spirit of the highest rank. How could you possibly be an ordinary person?" Realizing that Yue Zhengling was very wary of her, Sheba didn't press forward. Instead, she took a few steps back, just like him, to create some distance between them.
Psychological distance is an important means of measuring trust between people and a way to make people feel safe. Although it is unknown whether this method will be effective for Yue Zhengling, she does not want to provoke him too much. She also follows Merlin's advice to make him feel harmless first when he shows a negative attitude.
Sure enough, seeing Sheba retreat, Yue Zhengling breathed a slight sigh of relief. "Madam, since you're here, it means Merlin is helping you, right?"
He wasn't stupid. The Queen of Sheba didn't have the ability to enter dreams, so after a little thought, he realized that among those who knew of his existence, only that smiling peeping tom had the ability to send people in.
"Yes, and in return, I promised not to interfere with his teasing of Jedidia." The Queen of Sheba said this with a sly smile.
Upon seeing that smile, Yue Zhengling immediately labeled Sheba as dangerous, and at the same time, he foresaw the doctor's bleak future.
Well, to be honest, Chaldea Album is actually quite interesting. The main character is Romani, the female lead is Sheba, the second female lead is Leonardo da Vinci, and the third female lead is Magical☆Merry. Just imagining those complicated relationships and their special genders makes me feel a little excited.
Chapter 177 The Method of Salvation (Part 1)
"To be honest, ma'am, although my perverse sense of humor tells me I'd love to see a story called 'Chaldea Album,' the risks are too great. My little body can't possibly take on a Demon Pillar." In the end, Yue Zhengling shook her head, suppressing her inappropriate thoughts.
Hobbies are one thing, but if you risk your life for them, then you're truly a fool.
"What are you afraid of?" Sheba could see the apprehension on his face, and knowing this, she was confident that she could dispel his worries in the upcoming transaction. After all, above being a queen, being a merchant was her true nature.