Omniscient First-Person’s Viewpoint
Chapter 327: The Land Where the Golden Lord Wanders

Surprisingly, nothing happened during the night.

The Dholes only entertained the thought of raiding or stealing from our Catafract but never acted on it.

It was fortunate for them—since Hilde, a Star General, was watching them with bloodthirsty eyes.

Hilde sulked as she complained.

“What a shame. If they’d attempted to steal something, I could have killed them… in self-defense of course~”

“We’re here to negotiate a truce. Stop saying things that could provoke them.”

The Regressor dismissed it as a bad joke, but from reading her thoughts I knew she was serious and it made me shudder.

She’s a bit strange, too.

Before Hilde could unleash her bloodlust, we decided to leave.

After finishing our preparations and boarding the Catafract, we called for the driver.

“D.G., are you there?”

The golem, who received the call, took a while to respond.

[…Com…unication… limits… reached…]

The golem’s crackling voice echoed weakly.

Its creaky arms tried to grip the steering wheel but faltered, its head drooping as if exhausted.

Hilde tapped the golem, muttering.

“Tch. Looks like it’s hit its communication limit~ Such a shame.”

“We’ve crossed out of the Military State’s territory. It’s a miracle we even got this far. D.G., mission over. There’s no need to transport this machine any further. Understood? Shut down.”

The golem gave a faint response, before losing all power and coming to a complete halt.

The Signaller support ended here.

From this point onwards, we had to rely entirely on ourselves.

Hilde folded up the golem and tossed it into the back before settling into the driver’s seat.

“Sigh. Well, guess I’ll drive from here. Just make sure I don’t get bored. Father, how about feeding me some snacks while I drive?”

“Where would we find snacks out here? All our supplies are canned goods.”

“Tch! Damn country!”

With Hilde’s irritated click of her tongue, the Catafract rumbled forward, heading deeper into the wilderness.

Just before dawn, the faint light of the early morning sun began to brighten the sky, as the Catafract rattled along the wasteland.

With the roof removed to lighten the load, despite its excellent performance, the vehicle looked more like a cart than anything else.

Wind, light, and dust hit me directly through the exposed top. Aside from that, the wide wheels delivered every bump and dip of the uneven ground straight to my backside, making the land itself sing its rough song.

Both sky and earth seemed determined to make life difficult.

But, as annoying as it was, such inconveniences were proof of life itself.

We feel discomfort because we’re alive, striving to continue to live.

While I enjoyed the cool wind brushing past, one person—half-dead—was not pleased with the sunlight.

As the sun rose over the horizon, Tyr grumbled in discomfort, adjusting her parasol.

“In all my long life, I have never traveled such a bright path. There is not a single spot of shade.”

“Hold on. I’ll set up a tent for some shade.”

“No need. Some flimsy fabric flapping around is worse than nothing.”

“I’m not setting it up just for you. We’ll need it if it rains.”

I made a show of setting up the tent, though it wouldn’t be much help.

Still, it seemed to calm Tyr’s irritation a little, so I went ahead and created some temporary shade.

**｢Hmm. Your efforts are noted. I will accept this act of goodwill.｣**

Despite saying it wasn’t necessary, Tyr obediently sat under the tent.

She still held her parasol over her shoulder but looked noticeably more relaxed as she grumbled.

“Did you not say we were in a hurry? Why did we not travel at night? It seems we are wasting nearly half the day. You do not look like people pressed for time.”

“Why the rush? When you’re in your coffin, you can’t tell the difference between a day and a month. Now, you’re complaining about just one night.”

“That is when I’m immersed in darkness. When the sun shines its blinding mug, it is impossible not to know when a day has passed.”

“Sometimes I also wish the sun wouldn’t rise when I don’t want to get up, but here we have no choice. We need to see what’s ahead.”

Tyr scoffed.

“No matter what comes our way, at worst, it would just be rocks or fences. I can either break through or avoid them.”

It’s odd that breaking things comes before avoiding them, but there are obstacles in life that strength alone cannot overcome.

“That won’t work this time.”

Annoyed, Tyr retorted with a slightly angry face.

“Do not underestimate me. The night is my time, and the darkness is my light. Even if there is no light at all, I can handle it.”

“I’m not saying your power is lacking, but—“

Before I could finish, Hilde, spotting something, jerked the steering wheel sharply.

“Watch out!”

The Catafract shook violently as the front wheels hit something hard, lifting off the ground for a moment.

The cargo briefly floated, and Azzy, startled, let out a yelp.

Fortunately, the vehicle, designed by the Military State to withstand any terrain, wasn’t seriously affected.

I, however, took the brunt of the impact.

Hilde veered to avoid whatever had suddenly appeared, forcing me to cling to the railing for balance.

Amidst the shaking, Tyr asked.

“… Did we not just travel through the wilderness?”

“Yes.”

“Then why does it now feel like…”

Tyr slowly scanned the surroundings.

Sparse trees stood on gentle hills, with small ruins scattered like pebbles.

The remains of a village long gone, its traces barely visible as if it had been abandoned for centuries.

Tyr asked.

“It feels like we have stumbled upon some ruins. What village is this?”

Ah, the most meaningless question in the Fallen Dominion.

I wasn’t sure how to explain, but the Regressor answered instead.

“Who knows? Whether this was once a village of the Golden Empire, or a settlement built and destroyed by the Fallen Dominion, or even if it just appeared like this yesterday—nobody knows. It’s the Fallen Dominion, after all.”

“What do you mean by ‘nobody knows’?”

“It’s not just this. You might be walking on sand one minute and come across a pile of rocks the next. A cliff might suddenly appear in the middle of a village. Nothing is strange here because nothing has any reason to exist.”

The Regressor paused as we reached the top of a hill, revealing what lay beyond.

The Catafract descended and as the hill receded, something monumental came into view.

The Regressor muttered.

“That’s probably the same.”

It was a massive wall, so large that it stretched across the horizon like a grand monument.

The fortress blocked our view, rising high enough to obscure what lay beyond and extending far enough that one side disappeared from sight.

However, on the other side, the wall simply stopped.

It hadn’t collapsed or crumbled—it just abruptly ended, as if construction had been halted mid-way.

It didn’t seem like the wall had ever fulfilled its purpose of dividing the land.

For us, though, it was fortunate.

Hilde steered the Catafract toward the side where the wall did not continue.

The closer we got, the more imposing the wall became.

It towered vertically over the well-packed ground, and despite its size, there were no signs of wear or damage.

Perhaps it had never seen battle, or maybe it was built so strong that no battle could harm it.

Tyr marveled at the sight.

“What an incredible structure. I have never seen a wall so tall and grand. Its height is dizzying and the endless stretch of the wall is awe-inspiring. If only it had not been cut off, it could have been a monument in history. I wonder how much time it took to build something so vast…”

The Regressor answered Tyr’s musings.

“One day.”

“Hm? Shei, did you just say one day?”

“Yeah. The wall was built by a single person and it took just one day. That much, I know for sure.”

The Regressor wasn’t exaggerating.

I’ve never met the Golden Lord face-to-face, so I can’t say what’s true, but that part is a known fact.

Still…

“Shei, stop giving surface-level explanations and tell the full story. Who built it? And what exactly does he do?”

It’s a difficult thing to explain, but it’s time to stop skirting around it.

How long are we going to avoid directly addressing it?

The Regressor hesitated, clearly uncertain.

“Uh….”

**｢I’m not confident in explaining it. The Golden Lord’s abilities are so alien. Honestly, I don’t fully understand them myself.｣**

Wow. That’s quite the admission.

I can understand not being able to explain something as strange as the Golden Lord’s power, but you’ve been confident in everything else so far?

Because you haven’t explained anything properly thus far.

“C-Cough. Why don’t you explain it? You seem to know it well enough.”

“Time for a lesson, I see. It’s been a long time since we had a class. Very well, Trainee Shei, pay attention!”

“I-I know it too! I’m just letting you explain it!”

“There’s a saying that if you can’t explain something, you don’t really know it, Mr. Shei…”

“Hey!”

“Shei, how long must we wait?”

“Ugh, fine.”

I really need a blackboard and a pointer, but those are hard to come by in this vehicle.

I’ll have to make do with just words.

I leaned back and began the explanation.

“I’ll make it simple. The Golden Lord’s ability is alchemy. It’s the most powerful and expansive form of alchemy in the world, almost like creation itself.”

“Is it the same alchemy you used to toy with scraps of metal?”

“Our alchemy is child’s play compared to the Golden Lord’s. That wall we saw earlier? It might look like something powerful destroyed part of the wall, but it’s the opposite.”

The reason why the people of the Fallen Dominion ride around on vehicles.

The core reason why, despite being a land of alchemy, everyone lives like nomads.

“The Golden Lord ‘alchemized’ that wall as he passed through this wasteland.”

It’s the power of the Golden Lord to reshape an entire nation’s territory.

The Golden Lord overturns the world—or rather, creates something entirely new.

Creation is inherently destructive, and to avoid that destruction, the people of the Fallen Dominion became wanderers.

I paused to swallow before continuing the explanation.

“Think about it. Doesn’t it seem strange? Why is the wall built below the hill? Why does such a massive structure abruptly stop? The answer lies in alchemy. The wall was built below the hill because the materials for it—earth and stone—were taken from there. And the reason the wall ends without a trace is not because something destroyed it, but because the Golden Lord simply stopped building it there.”

In the Fallen Dominion, no structure or landscape is strange because everything exists for one simple reason.

It was created by the Golden Lord, and that’s the only explanation necessary.

However, Tyr, whose knowledge had been frozen for 300 years, raised a question.

“Why did the one called the Golden Lord stop building the wall?”

“Nobody knows, except the Golden Lord. Some people think walls are outdated, yet he still builds them. No one knows why he wanders the land, filling empty spaces with structures. It’s all speculation.”

“Strange indeed.”

“Well, you’re an unusual figure too, Tyr. Before I met you, people thought you were just a sleepy vampire. The Golden Lord is the same. We won’t know anything for sure until we meet him. I’m just relaying what I’ve heard.”

If you’ve studied well, this is common knowledge.

Most people know the history of neighboring countries, especially potential enemies.

**｢How does he know this much…? Isn’t he supposed to be from the Military State? He talks like he’s lived in the Fallen Dominion.｣**

That’s what second hand knowledge can do.

While the Regressor muttered to herself, Tyr seemed to recall something, clapping her hands together.

“Ah, I remember now. Hu, you once spoke of a land that collapsed because someone produced an infinite amount of gold using alchemy. Was that the Golden Lord?”

“Oh, you remembered that? I’m glad my lessons weren’t in vain.”

“Fufu. Of course. It is only proper to remember what you teach.”

“That’s right. The one who threw the prosperous Golden Empire into chaos and brought about its downfall was the Golden Lord, Democrias. Because of him, all the gold and weapons in the Golden Empire lost their value. In a world where fakes outshined the real thing, the people of the Golden Empire couldn’t trust anything anymore. Their society crumbled and their economy collapsed. The rich were ruined and the poor fell further into poverty. In the endless turmoil, all the blame fell on the Golden Lord and the alchemists who followed him. The king of the Golden Empire tried to execute every alchemist, but…”

From here on, there’s no need to explain much further.

The result is already laid bare in front of us.

I shrugged and finished my explanation.

“Judging by the way the Golden Empire collapsed and the Fallen Dominion ended up like this, it didn’t work out, did it?”

What really happened…

I’ll know once I meet the Golden Lord.

The king of the Golden Empire, one of the Five Sovereigns—known as the Monster of Logic, who could comprehend and analyze all human technologies.

How could she be “Devoured” by a mere human?

Why does the one who killed her now call himself the Golden Lord?

I’ll get my chance to find out.

“And that’s why the Fallen Dominion can’t farm crops unless it’s in exceptionally blessed land. Even if the land is perfect for farming, once the Golden Lord passes by… the fields will turn into palaces draped with carpets.”

That’s why people in the Fallen Dominion regard gold as dirt. They’re not deceived by appearances.

They take what they need—food, transportation, clothing—and either create it themselves or steal it if necessary.

Their logic begins and ends with survival.

In a land full of tools, the way of life is closest to the wild.

Our Catafract passed by the incomplete wall.

It couldn’t serve its intended purpose, leaving the inner side open to the wanderers.