Chapter 1138 — An Unexpected Exchange Between Gods

He lingered before this message for a long time before he finally remembered something, and awkwardly, by force of will, opened the comment section beneath the news. A flood of dazzling replies poured into his view. Though the neural network was still in its early days, the comments under this news item were astonishingly numerous—proof that the fleet bound for the north had drawn the attention of countless people across the Empire. Amorn's gaze swept over those replies and found that most were blessings for the fleet's safe passage, or wishes that Tarronde would soon emerge from its difficulties; the rest were largely questions about the dragons and that northern continent.

Almost no one paid any attention to the god who had fallen on that continent—to the mortals of the Loren continent, perhaps a foreign god of an alien race was not worth their notice; or perhaps they simply had no idea that the Dragon God existed at all.

Amorn hesitated, wondering whether what he was about to do counted as a "taboo." But Milmina's words before she left surfaced in his mind, and considering that everything he did was presumably being monitored by someone, he felt reassured instead. Fumbling his way to the very bottom of the message, he left a line of his own:

"Guardian of Tarronde, fare you well. You did all you could, and you did the best that could be done."

Watching the words he had formed in his mind turn into text upon the interface, Amorn felt a sense of novelty and could not help but mutter to himself. But he had not mentioned the Dragon God's name in his comment, nor included any religious hint or suggestion. A remark like this... surely it would not alarm that network administrator whom Milmina had called "very difficult to deal with"?

He calculated in his mind, and a few seconds later found that no eight-legged white spider or lantern-carrying old man had come running out to make trouble for him. He finally relaxed, shook his head with a faint, self-mocking smile, and made to exit the pile of interfaces before him and go wander other parts of this Nexus City—he had already whiled away far too long in such a single plaza.

But just as he was about to do so, a synthesized voice suddenly sounded in his mind, halting his departing steps: "A user has just replied to your comment. Would you like to view it?"

Amorn was taken aback, and instinctively chose to view the content by force of will. A new interface rose in his "field of view," displaying a guestbook-like conversation format. A neural network user named "Tea Egg" had sent him a message, and the content was so brief it consisted of a single word: "Thanks."

Amorn stared in surprise at this baffling message. He could not imagine what there was in his little sigh of emotion to be thanked for, and in his puzzlement he asked offhandedly: "Why say thanks?"

At the same time, his attention fell upon the other party's peculiar name—what exactly was a "Tea Egg"? It looked like a phrase awkwardly pieced together. Some kind of food? Or some method of processing food?

The former God of Nature was thoroughly perplexed, but he did at least realize that in this incredible neural network, many people did go by strange and curious names. If even an odd label like "Tea Egg" could be seriously adopted as a name... then perhaps "Highway Stag" was not so unacceptable after all?

Amorn relaxed his brow slightly, only to find that this "Tea Egg" who had sent the message had not sent anything new. His question had sunk like a stone into the sea, unanswered.

Probably already gone... after all, not everyone was like himself or Milmina, with nothing to do and able to idle in the courtyard all day. The other users of the neural network were all busy rushing about in the real world.

Amorn felt he had found his answer, and with a touch of regret closed the communication before him. When all the interfaces vanished, the plaza with its towering oak tree appeared once more in his field of view.

Milmina still had not returned, and probably did not intend to. The girl named Patty had also left the bench by the shrubs. Seeing this, Amorn shook his head, turned away from the tall pillars, picked a direction at random, and began walking slowly.

This enormous city deserved to be explored with care. He had no intention of zipping about everywhere by teleportation the way Milmina did—that would be disrespectful to the mortals who had built the city. Of course, the main reason was that Milmina had not taught him how to use Nexus City's teleportation functions before she left...

...

Deep within the Cecil Palace, in the brightly lit hatching chamber, a specially made magic-net apparatus was running steadily. It consisted mainly of an indoor magic-net terminal and a hemispherical device less than a meter in diameter connected to it. At this moment the words "Neural Network Connecting" were projected above the terminal, and the runes on the surface of the hemispherical device pulsed slowly like breathing. Deep within the two devices, the soft humming of the rune base plate and the neural interface was pleasant to the ear.

Not far from the two devices, upon a pedestal at the center of the room, the pale golden dragon egg stood quietly. Runes drifted slowly across its surface, faintly resonating on the magical level with the neural interface beside it.

How long this resonance lasted, no one could say. Only when that constant soft humming finally fell quiet did the runes on the surface of the golden egg disconnect from the neural interface. Betty, who had been dozing nearby, happened to wake at that very moment. The maid rubbed her somewhat groggy eyes: "Ah, Lady Enya! You're awake?"

"I wasn't asleep," came Enya's voice from within the golden egg. "I was only browsing the contents of the neural network... This really is a fascinating thing."

Hardly had she spoken when the door of the hatching chamber was pushed open from outside. Gao Yang strode in, remarking casually as he did: "To earn a word like 'fascinating' from you is high praise indeed for a neural network that is still far from mature. The node scholars and magic technicians who stay up late working overtime every day ought to be pleased."

Betty immediately stepped forward, greeting Gao Yang with a happy smile and a curtsy, then lowered her head: "Ah, you told me to come and check on Lady Enya, and I accidentally fell asleep..."

Gao Yang patted Betty's hair, sending the girl off to rest, while Enya said with a smile in her voice: "You've just come back from Thorin Fortress?"

"I've been back a little while." Gao Yang came to stand before Enya as he spoke.

"And that little elf empress?" Enya asked with some curiosity. "Did she come back with you? Or did she go straight back to her elf kingdom?"

"She's gone back to make some important arrangements, but she'll return before long," Gaodai said.

"Is that so... It's no short journey from here to the Silver Empire. For the ruler of an empire to cross the continent twice in such a brief span of time — whatever she has to do must truly be important."

"Indeed. She's going to draw the final curtain on the elves' age of myth..." Gaodai paused, then a flicker of curiosity came over him. "But why this sudden interest in her? Have the elves caught your fancy?"

"No. I merely caught a trace of Hragor in her — only a trace," Enya said softly. "Both of them are greeting the end of the age of myth, yet their fates are not the same... I hope they both succeed."