Cecil Palace.
The brilliant summer sunlight poured through the large crystal glass windows, spilling into the long corridor as the sounds of summer insects filled the air from the courtyard. The angled sunlight draped over Gawain’s shoulders, and as he walked past an open window, he couldn’t help but stop and look adrift towards the direction of the insect sounds.
Summer... In this lush season of life, the courtyard has welcomed the liveliest time of the year. The continuous calls of insects herald a vibrant miniature world, hidden among the shrubs, trees, nursery beds, and near the fountains, where countless insects and small creatures breed and hasten to reproduce in this time of abundant food and rain, bustling away.
The resplendent, radiant giant sun in the sky brought abundant energy to those little creatures.
However, the brilliance of summer insects is short-lived, especially in this northern kingdom, where the energy the giant sun brings will gradually wane over the next month. Temperatures will fall, rainfall will decrease, plants will go dormant... The "miniature world" amidst the shrubs, groves, and garden nursery beds will also soon meet its end, losing all life in the coming harsh winter—until the cycle repeats the next early summer.
Gawain stood by the window for a long time, imagining what changes were happening in that small kingdom constructed by insects, imagining if one of them had a wise thinker who accidentally discovered the secrets between sunlight, seasons, rainfall, and "doomsday," how would this wise insect view the world they live in, and how would they attempt to save their species’ fate, or perhaps... face the seasonal change with resignation, bowing their heads to accept the end of summer?
This question clearly has no answer, so Gawain finally only sighed softly—this universe is in its prime summer, yet mortal civilizations that pride themselves as superior intelligent beings face a harsher fate than insects. The summer of this universe will never end, and the replaced "end" is not a winter but a "tide" that is far quicker and harder to resist than winter. Insects may hide in caves relying on hibernation to wait for spring, but in this universe, there is no safe "cave" behind the omnipresent magic.
The only way to survive, perhaps, is to stop being a "bug."
A familiar aura suddenly emerged from the air, and Amber’s figure gradually clarified in the sunlight. She agilely jumped to the ground and looked up at Gawain: "You’re in a daze standing in one place again?"
Gawain finally awoke from his contemplation, pulling his gaze back from outside the window to glance at Amber: "Have you been slacking off again?"
"Do I look like someone who usually slacks off!? " Amber immediately widened her eyes upon hearing this, placing her hands on her hips with a righteous air, "I just came back from the Administrative Office, and by the way, passed on a message—the ambassador from Talronde has crossed the northern identification line and will soon land in the imperial capital. The landing field by the White River is ready, and Aunt Heidi has also gone with officials responsible for reception. The visitor is a familiar face after all, won’t you host them here and treat them?"
"That truly is a formal affair," Gawain looked at Amber unexpectedly for a moment, then nodded, "I got it, let Betty handle this—she’s already pretty adept at it."
"Alright," Amber casually waved, then couldn’t help but glance at Gawain a few more times, "But speaking of which, what were you thinking about earlier? You looked serious like you were ready to regroup those aristocrats on Broken Stone Ridge and fight them again..."
"What in the world kind of metaphor is that?" Gawain was amused by Amber’s peculiar metaphor, so much so that the serious mood he had been brewing since earlier dissipated significantly. He shook his head with a smile, "It’s nothing much, just discussed something with Kamel earlier, suddenly made me feel like this world we live in... really is a place without favor."
"World? Without favor?" Amber was bewildered by what she heard, scratching her head and soon revealing a vigilant look, "How come now your crazy talk is getting beyond my understanding?!"
The final bit of seriousness in Gawain’s heart finally vanished completely, wiped away by this jumpy Shadow Assault Goose. His eyelid twitched as he glanced sideways at Amber standing beside him: "...As if you ever correctly understood what I said—alright, alright, instead of causing a fuss here, you should go do something productive, like finding where Betty is."
Before he finished speaking, Amber’s figure was already fading into the air, leaving only her voice echoing in the empty corridor: "I don’t need you to tell me..."
Gawain shook his head with a smile as he watched the direction in which Amber vanished, then contemplated briefly before turning to head towards the Hatching Room.
Just as he approached the vicinity of the Hatching Room, an unexpected figure appeared in his sight—a silver-white metal ball was floating in the air, flying in this direction from the corridor ahead. That notable humorous smile made the scene visually impactful, and judging from the direction it came from, this metal-ball alien seemed to have just left the Hatching Room.
"Ah, it’s the King!" The silver-white metal ball not far away happened to see Gawain emerge around the corner of the corridor. It quickly accelerated towards him and emitted a cheerful voice from within, "So nice to see you here, what brings you?"
Gawain was halfway through about to greet when hearing this threw him off balance for a moment. It wasn’t until the other reached him that he, with an odd expression, opened his hands: "This is my home."
"...Seems about right," Saint Nicholas Egg stopped in mid-air for a moment, awkwardly admitting, "Sorry, I was just busy running tests on Lady Enya’s internet system which made me a bit dizzy..."
"I saw you coming from the direction of the Hatching Room," Gawain nodded, then queried with some curiosity, "What happened? Did Enya’s internet connection have issues?"
His tone grew a bit serious—because the matter is indeed more than just "giving a retired person internet access to pass time." Behind it lies a comprehensive and bold experimental project, endeavoring to verify the controllability of the mapping relationship between gods and thought tides, to validate if the "chaotic region" at the bottom of the neural network can be converted into effective anti-divine protection. Hidden within the custom network device Enya uses are the most advanced technologies of the Empire so far, with several experimental groups monitoring the system round-the-clock in shifts—any fault in it pulls directly on Gawain’s nerves.
Also, therefore, when issues arise with the system, it calls for the intervention of the "Grand Artificer" Saint Nicholas Egg himself.
"Rest easy, it’s not a major issue," Nicholas, aware of the seriousness of this matter, immediately wobbled his body up and down and reassured, "It’s just that the simulation brainwave converter was overloaded and burnt out, causing the neural cable to fail to locate—just replace a component, and there’s no mental pollution leak or reverse infiltration scenario."
"The simulation brainwave converter burned out from overload?" Relieved to hear it wasn’t something grave, Gawain couldn’t help but frown still—because this remains a noteworthy flaw, "How did it suddenly burn out? That thing’s power usage shouldn’t be high, and Nariteer already personally tested it, divine power can’t penetrate the protection wall..."
"It’s been running for too long," without waiting for Gawain to finish, Nicholas swayed his body side to side and interjected, "I reckon you folks should’ve reminded her not to hang online around-the-clock—machines need breaks too, especially one subjected to the mental impact of a deity. I checked just now, the connecting equipment hasn’t been powered down since installation..."
Gawain: "..."
Stunned for a couple of seconds, he finally muttered with a peculiar expression: "So Enya’s actually been perpetually online, never logging off, regardless of what she’s doing?"
"Of course, why else would it burn out?" Nicholas commented with an exasperated tone, letting out a very human-like sigh afterwards, "Sigh, let’s not dwell on it, I still have to take a trip to Defied Fortress, two sets of equipment burned out there as well."
Gawain: "...?"
So these retired gods have been soaking in the neural network intensively for nearly half a month without anyone knowing?! And they even burned out the equipment they used to go online?! Can’t these three do something else usually?!
Yet, no matter how wildly his mind was racing, Gawain could only show a slightly helpless smile on his face. He shook his head with a smile, trying to keep his tone as calm as possible: "Well, I can understand their usual boredom and... the novel feeling of being able to come into such close contact with the mortal world. Don’t worry, I’ll remind them later."
"That’s good," Nicholas shook the ball and said, "Hopefully, these powerful ’gods’ can restrain themselves a bit. After all, the equipment provided to them is specially crafted with significant costs even for the most basic components—I really don’t want to face Lady Heidi’s practically ball-killing expression after this quarter’s financial settlement."
As he spoke, he turned around and floated to the side: "Alright, if you have no other arrangements, I have to get back to work. I’ve got two more burnt-out neural interface devices waiting for me to fix."
Gawain nodded, watching the shimmering silver metal ball float to the other end of the corridor, but suddenly, a strange thought popped into his mind. He couldn’t even tell if it was bold or whimsical—inspired by this thought, he called out to Saint Nicholas Egg: "Nicholas, wait a minute."
"Huh?" The metal ball stopped in confusion, "What’s up?"
Gawain opened his mouth, still feeling that his thought was too bizarre, but since he’d already called the ball to stop, he had to speak up: "You’ve been interacting with Enya quite a bit lately, right?"
"Indeed," Nicholas floated up and down a bit, "Lady Enya’s equipment was newly installed, and I personally installed it, so naturally, it required a lot of calibration work. Is there any problem?"
Gawain: "I’m just curious, what’s your impression of Enya...?"
At this moment, he was using all his strength to maintain a somewhat normal expression, while continuously emphasizing in his mind: They’re both round, they’re both round, anyway asking isn’t wrong, better than being idle...