Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The Tiratan Knight Kingdom, in the Orc World
Since the collapse of the Holy Seville Empire, the Orc World had been divided yet again. Now, the lords or governors all occupied different parts of the land, and the Tiratan Knight Kingdom had taken over Saga City and the Red River Plain.
The founder of the Tiratan Knight Kingdom was Tiridan. He was a Minotaur, who had participated in the early dragon slaying war, the Northern Expedition, and the founding of the Holy Seville Empire.
He had been defending the Lion King Will and had died in the ghost breakout. As such, he was known to be knight will’s heir.
After the collapse of the Holy Seville Empire, he had occupied the most prosperous city, Saga City, along with the Red River Plain and the Salt Pool. It had been more than 100 years since the collapse of the Holy Seville Empire.
Although the Holy Seville Empire had fallen, the integration of the orc races had essentially been completed. Also, the policies and systems of the Holy Seville Empire had been relatively maintained. However, the tribal system had disappeared, so most of the orcs now lived in the cities.
Bulberg was a newly established orc city. Originally, it was a castle where only nobles lived.
After the empire’s expansion, a new orc city was built around the castle. Recently, a group of human scholars, after spending a lot of money, were allowed by the governor of Bulberg to explore the historic sites of the orcs in the area. At this time, Jonathan hired a bunch of orcs to help him discover the remains of the early rat men. Saga was not the first city where the rat men had lived, but it was the cradle of the rat men’s civilization.
In a hilly area that was next to a village, Jonathan found traces of the early rat men. Someone told him that the stone slate that he was looking for had been taken by a peasant, who wanted to build his pigsty with it.
After receiving this lead, the orcs in the village spent their leisure time helping Jonathan excavate the ruins. As compensation, Jonathan paid them generously for their labor.
At this time, a large number of orcs could be seen, all of them exploring the ruins with great enthusiasm. As they dug deeper and deeper, an ancient city gradually emerged among the rubble.
The city had tall walls and simple houses. During the excavation, Jonathan also found ancient pottery coins, pottery utensils, stone tablets and various living necessities that had belonged to the rat men. Surprisingly, he even found a tomb!
At one time, the rat men were the strongest race of the orcs, which explained why Jonathan found such a large number of orc slaves’ corpses in the tomb. Jonathan thought that these slaves must have been offered as sacrifices.
During his search, Jonathan found no gems or gold, which might explain why the governor of Bulberg was so generous to him. But, these things that he had found, at least for scholars, were invaluable treasures, as they could help the scholars learn more about the early ages!
Even after finding all of these things, Jonathan still frowned. After all, he still hadn’t found what he was looking for. He had come here for a specific purpose, not to explore the history and changes of the early orc civilization!
“Mr. Brown, there’s a something that you should see!” one of the scholars, who had accompanied Jonathan from the Sean City-State Alliance, seemed very excited.
Jonathan immediately got up and went over to him and the group of scholars that he was standing among. Along the way, he passed the ruins of the streets of the rat men’s city. The moment he entered the center of the city, he noticed an ancient building that was sloping and had a collapsed spire.
“What is this? Is it a palace? Call everyone over and start to dig here. Be careful not to destroy anything, especially any writings!” Jonathan yelled.
Compared with other the buildings, this building was infinitely more magnificent. As they continued to excavate, they discovered steps, tall pillars, and ancient orc statues.
“This looks like it is a temple!” A young scholar on the other side was observing a pattern on the building, and he suddenly voiced his opinion in delight.
“See this part below… That means… Sacrifice!” a middle-aged man, who was holding a shovel, exclaimed.
“What temple? For which god?” Jonathan asked anxiously.
“It’s not clear. We can’t confirm until we get inside and have a closer look, but it seems like it’s not any god that we know!” the young scholar said.
The anthropologists in the group became excited, and one of them exclaimed, “This is the lost civilization! The oldest civilization! Now, maybe we can finally found out what the world was like more than two thousand years ago!”
Entering from the window above the spire, they made their ways into the interior of the temple. Their torch lights illuminated a world that no one had entered for many years.
Many portions of the temple had collapsed, which blocked their way in many directions. As such, Jonathan and the others had to spend a lot of time, snaking their ways through the collapsed stairs and ramps before finally entering the center of the temple. A giant statue at the center of the temple had clearly collapsed, leaving only its base there.
“Look… Here… What does that mean… On this wall? Are those words?” Jonathan asked.
Everyone held up their torches to get a better look at the murals on the surrounding walls. Jonathan stood near the first mural. It depicted a blurred figure, who was sitting in the darkness and holding something in his hands.
“Which god is this? Why is he different from the other gods? What is he holding in his hand?” As Jonathan stared at the man’s image on the wall, he suddenly dropped his torch on the ground.
“Mr. Jonathan?” A man, noticing something wrong, quickly ran to check on Jonathan.
Jonathan raised his finger and pointed to the mural, then murmured, “He’s holding… Our world!” Jonathan felt his teeth chatter when he said this.
Everyone turned back and looked at the man in the mural. Suddenly, they felt that the figure on the mural was enlarging.
The blurry item in his hands gradually became a globe, in which innumerable living creatures could be seen, and the sun and stars were circulating around. The man literally looked like he was holding the world as he was sitting and watching the rising and setting of the sun!
At this moment, everyone was shocked, and they could not wait to look at the second mural! The second mural showed the birth of the sun and moon, as well as the evolution of all things.
Then, they saw the third and the fourth murals, which were abstract evolutionary histories of the world, which included orcs, elves, humans, mermaids, dragons and all kinds of other life forms!
“This is impossible! This must be from the rat men’s imaginations!” a scholar exclaimed, wanting to deny what he was seeing. “After all, that was a barbaric age, which existed more than 2,000 years ago! How could they know about dragons, elves, and mermaids back then, as they could not even cross the Alan Continent, let alone explore the whole Orc World?”
Everyone turned to look at the collapsed statue, while they trembled in fear.
Jonathan then said to the others, “This is the Creator!”