Chapter 1385: Chapter 1384: Legacy

As Sir Scott’s final words fell, the image stored within the space played to its end. In a soundless instant, the hazy light suspended mid-air dispersed like a collapsing snowfall, turning into countless particles of fine starlight and quickly vanishing into the air, triggering what seemed to be a chain reaction. The moment the light dispersed, the entire platform was suddenly swept by a stream of brilliance, which condensed into bright white lines rapidly converging towards the central area, while the light that had been shrouding the center like dense fog quickly dimmed and weakened in the ensuing seconds.

Diana stood a bit dazedly, looking at the spot where Sir Scott disappeared. Her ancient cognitive core was processing, seemingly handling an overwhelming load of emotional information. Gawain even heard an unusual noise emanating from within her, prompting him to ask with some concern, "Lady Diana, are you alright?"

"...I’m fine," Diana blinked, coming back to her senses, "I can continue the mission."

Her voice remained detached and calm, as precise and serene as a machine — even more tranquil than usual.

Gawain gazed into Diana’s eyes, then nodded momentarily, turning towards the central area of the observation platform. The white light shrouding the center had now completely receded, revealing the objects previously hidden within. Gawain gestured towards them, "Let’s go check out those things. If I’m not mistaken, that should be the ’legacy’ Sir Scott left you."

"It was left for all of us," Diana said softly, stepping towards it. Gawain signaled the people following them, and the group, following the flow of white light on the ground, moved to the center of the observation platform and saw the scene clearly—

At the center of the platform was a circular pedestal about a meter in diameter, gentle in its concavity, its surface made of some unknown material reflecting the brilliant cluster of stars above. In its center rested a "crystal" seemingly composed of layers of pale blue crystals, no bigger than the palm of one’s hand. This "crystal" was surrounded by a myriad of stars, with mysterious glows undulating along its surface, and surrounding the platform, six chairs were symmetrically arranged, four of which each held a dark-colored urn, while the other two seated Alphonse Hall Scholar and Sir Scott Prandin.

In this Otherworld, the remains of the two ancient scholars had not decayed but turned into complete mummies. They sat quietly in their final positions, their heads still held aloft, their sunken eye sockets seemingly gazing through the seven hundred years at the crack high above in the space, peering at the clear starry sky presented through the rift.

Diana came before the two ancient scholars, bowing her head in silent tribute, and the others around instinctively held their breath, expressing their respect in a brief silence. Then Amber’s gaze fell upon the gesture Sir Scott maintained after death—his now withered and rigid fingers pointing beneath his chair, as if deliberately guiding others’ sight to that spot, prompting Amber to widen her eyes slightly, "Ah, there’s something on the ground!"

Everyone’s attention was immediately drawn over, only to find that the ground near those six chairs was densely inscribed with text and symbols! Radiating outward from the central pedestal, they extended in an orderly fashion, covering almost a third of the platform’s ground, and due to the stability of the Otherworld environment, these inscriptions remained clear and discernible to this day—everyone’s attention had been so focused on the star-reflecting pedestal, the "crystal" at its center, and the bodies of the ancient scholars that no one noticed the ground’s "patterns" were actually text before Amber spoke!

"This is..." Sir Philip’s eyes widened instantly as he set eyes on the vast array of cryptic characters and another type of completely unfamiliar script. Just a glance made his head spin, but beside him, Gawain immediately recognized those scripts; part of them were human vernacular from the Gondor Empire period, while another part was the Extraterrestrial Signal received at both Sorin Hub and Bitter Winter Hub!

"This is the ’legacy’ left by Sir Scott and the others," Gawain spoke solemnly, "it’s the ’alien dictionary’ they translated over twenty years."

Sir Philip widened his eyes, looking at the dense inscriptions on the ground, muttering softly as if to himself, "Inscribed in the ground... it’s right to inscribe it in the ground... there is no more stable and lasting recording method, after all, spells decay over time, storage devices become unusable with the collapse of civilizations, only these inscriptions on the ground can endure the erosion of the longest ages..."

"Record all of this," Gawain ordered gravely, "do not disturb anything before the recording is complete to prevent this sanctuary space from collapsing prematurely."

The accompanying personnel immediately got busy, using the equipment brought on this journey to record the inscribed symbols and text, creating several backups stored in magic crystals. In addition to preserving magical images, a few mage scholars took out their enchanted parchments and quills, beginning to transcribe all the characters on the ground into the thick scrolls using shorthand spells—these scholars, without a need for special reminders from Gawain or Amber, understood the significance of these carved characters, and regarded this centuries-old knowledge legacy as the most precious treasure in history.

And after the accompanying expert scholars began recording these things, Diana and Gawain, along with others, voluntarily left the central area. They traversed the ground once measured by Sir Scott’s footsteps over twenty years, slowly reaching the edge of the entire observation platform. Sir Philip looked beyond the edge, watching enormous weightless architectural fragments slowly rotate and operate within view, beyond which lay a vast, seemingly boundless void of illusory light, stirring his reflection, "To be trapped here for twenty years... it’s unimaginable."

"Luckily, they had a sky full of stars overhead." Gawain glanced at the enormous rift atop this Otherworld, though he didn’t know the principles behind this rift, didn’t know how the ancient Gondor Master Mages had ’brought’ the starlight scene of the real world into this sanctuary. Nonetheless, he believed that this starry sky must have inspired Sir Scott, Alphonse, and Bailo seven hundred years ago, especially when they realized there were other thinking, communicative civilizations among those stars; the cold starlight must have become the only consolation after the world’s end — acknowledging that, although their immediate world lay shattered, there were other worlds teeming with life far across the light years.

"Speaking of which, when you led the large troop through the Wepland Area, you didn’t notice there were people in this observatory," Amber seemed to recall something suddenly, looking up at Gawain, "they must have been hiding in this sanctuary back then, right?"

"Even if they weren’t hiding in this sanctuary, it would have been difficult to encounter us," Gawain lightly shook his head, "Wepland is not just an observatory; it’s a large area consisting of expansive towns and numerous research facilities, observatories, museums, warehouses, research institutes... The Gondor studied extraterrestrial objects here for many years; the observatory was just one of the core facilities here, and for the refugees at that time, who were escaping and urgently needed supplies, the appeal of this kind of facility was clearly outshined by the ruins of towns and imperial warehouses along the way."

"Extraterrestrial objects..." Amber murmured thoughtfully, turning to glance at the "crystal" placed on the central round platform of the observation platform, "if I’m not mistaken, that piece should be what Sir Scott mentioned as the ’extraterrestrial object.’ Being able to continually release energy and maintain a sanctuary in an Otherworld for seven hundred years is a remarkable thing. What do you think we should... do with it?"

She was reminding Gawain, as well as Diana beside them—what Sir Scott left behind wasn’t just the inscriptions on the ground, but also a tangible "item," the "crystal" emanating a faint blue light, which undoubtedly was the critical piece that protected this observatory when the Well of Deep Blue erupted, and was why the observatory hadn’t been breached by the myriad perils of the Wasteland in the subsequent seven hundred years. Its value was immeasurable, making its disposal a pressing issue to confront.

As Gawain’s staunch henchman, Amber naturally hoped this crystal piece would belong to the Cecil Clan. After all, the entire Wepland Area is now under Cecil control. The observatory was first discovered by people under Sir Philip’s command, and the entire exploration operation is now being led by the Cecil Clan. Adhering to the principles of "everything in the wasteland is unclaimed" and "first discovery, actual control," the relics discovered in these ancient facilities seem to rightfully belong to the initial discoverer.

But logically... this thing isn’t really unclaimed.

Sir Scott’s message clearly stated that the legacy here was left for Diana, which is quite awkward — the heir is right here, and everyone saw the recorded images just now. You can’t just pretend otherwise, can you?

This is a messy account and troublesome affair. After two minutes of thinking, Amber felt dizzy and had to sigh, murmuring quietly: "Ah, it’s easier to dig up a barren grave..."

Gawain couldn’t clearly hear Amber’s mumblings but could guess what was going on in her head. Moreover, the confusion on his side could even go a step further — the "meteor shower" that fell in the Wepland Area essentially consisted of fragments from the space station that Amon collided with the Firmament three thousand years ago. As the "satellite spirit," he can be considered an heir to the Voyager’s legacy. So, if you calculate it this way, do the debris that fell from the Firmament Station belong to him? Back in the day, the Wepland Meteor Shower caused considerable economic losses to the Gondor Empire. Should this responsibility fall on Amon or on Gawain? If it’s on Amon, then currently, Amon is the Empire’s senior advisor and his direct supervisor is Gawain, which makes the accounting even harder to figure out. After all, although the Gondor Empire is gone now, there are still many descendants of the Gondor Empire...

This is an utterly meaningless roundabout account. If anyone feels they have too many brain cells, they could try to calculate it. But Gawain always feels that his brain cell depletion has been serious enough, so from the start, he never planned on expending too much energy on this confusion.

He possesses the entire Firmament Space Station, and soon he will begin the restoration and exploration work of the Firmament Station. In the long run, sea demons, dragonkin, elves, humans — these races will all come in contact with the Firmament Station. Unless Gawain plans to fundamentally overturn his long-held beliefs and principles of action, he cannot avoid this development — that is, unless he decides to let the races of this planet continue to lie within the gravity ring, without anyone touching the Voyager’s legacy, and then one day in the future let himself slowly perish with the races of the earth.

He needs to truly grasp the secrets of the Voyagers and must not repeat the old path of the Inversion Tide Empire. He requires the intelligent beings of the whole world as his support, and to achieve this goal through open, transparent, and rational research development rather than "elite contact, deification of worship." He needs (and must) allow all mortals on this planet to break free from the shackles of the mind and step out of the cradle, because only then can he prevent the future in which all things are extinguished.

Therefore, the Voyager’s legacy is destined not to be hidden — previously, when his power was insufficient, he had to hide these things because many matters were not under his control. But now, he is powerful enough, and the Cecil Empire has the capability to become the helmsman of this era, so he must think in the manner of a "helmsman."

Thus, what he only needs to ensure is that everything is within his grasp — the research and exploration of the Firmament Station must be open, but the authority of the Firmament Station must always remain in his own hands. The mortal races of this planet will surely rise and eventually step out of the cradle, but this process must not lose control. This is not only taking responsibility for himself but also for those companions who have followed him, trusted him, and supported his ideas all along.

As for the current "crystal piece," Gawain also has this attitude: To whom the crystal piece specifically belongs is not important, but knowledge belongs to everyone. After all, everyone must develop, and he also needs everyone to develop. Ensuring Cecil’s share in the research throughout the process is enough.

He looked towards the center of the Star Observation Platform. That small block, emitting a faint blue light and seemingly stacked with layers of crystals, appeared particularly conspicuous in his sight. He closed his eyes slightly again, and that crystal piece still floated in his view, with a line of annotations emerging around it — damaged ion energy group, critical components missing/altered, not recommended for recovery use.

It seems due to Cassandra and Asharena rebooting part of the systems on the Firmament Station, Gawain’s control capabilities over that space station have been further enhanced. He noticed these additionally emerging "annotation information" when he saw the crystal piece just now.

Now he can even directly sense the "existence" of that crystal piece and vaguely perceive the "energy trajectories" extending around it.

But that’s about it — he is not an expert in this field, and the Voyager’s authority does not allow him to acquire the corresponding knowledge out of thin air. He doesn’t understand the principles and control methods of this crystal piece, and probably even given a hundred years, he still wouldn’t understand.

But it doesn’t matter, there are many smart people in this world, and these smart people can all be his support.

"Lady Diana, this crystal is the ’legacy’ left for you by Sir Scott," Gawain opened his eyes and looked at the ancient mech maiden beside him. "Technically, it should belong to you — but for the long-term development of the entire alliance, I hope we can share the mysteries that this crystal might contain."

"I understand what you mean," Diana’s expression seemed unchanged. "Before setting out, His Majesty Rosetta also discussed this issue with me regarding how the ’legacy’ possibly discovered within the Wepland Observatory should be allocated — we can slowly negotiate the specific items. But knowledge... knowledge should belong to everyone."

She lifted her head and looked towards the central area of the Star Observation Platform, her voice becoming somewhat deep.

"Personally, I don’t actually care much about that crystal. I just hope... to take away the remains of Sir Scott and his companions. That’s all I wish for."

"Of course," Gawain stood upright, his expression becoming solemn. "Rightfully so."

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