"So why are you so excited?"
Evan looked at Herta curiously.
At the moment, only Evan, Herta, and Screwllum remained inside Herta's office.
March 7th had already dragged Stelle off to find Asta.
"Didn't I mention it before?"
"...Actually, no. You hadn't joined the Genius Society back then, so you wouldn't know."
"I've devoted myself to researching the concept of the Circle of Knowledge."
"But every time I try to step beyond it—to create a larger circle—something always goes wrong."
"Something goes wrong?"
Evan looked at Herta.
To be honest, his status as a Genius and an Emanator was mostly thanks to the Authority of Reason.
It was essentially an upgraded version of "if I can imagine it, I can build it."
As long as it existed within the Imaginary Tree's framework...
He could reconstruct virtually anything.
But Herta and the other Geniuses...
Were completely different.
Everything they achieved came through painstaking theories and endless experimentation.
"Yes."
"Something always goes wrong."
Herta nodded before explaining the problem.
"Right when everything reaches its critical point..."
"Our database suddenly crashes because of storage hardware failure."
"The lead researcher gets shipwrecked while on vacation."
"A particle conversion experiment accidentally collapses because someone touched the wrong control."
"Disasters always appear at exactly the worst possible moment and shatter all my progress."
"The explosion came from an ordinary particle inside the laboratory."
"It began switching rapidly between two quantum states, releasing enormous amounts of energy."
"To put it simply..."
"A perfectly ordinary particle suddenly turned into a bomb without any warning."
"When I finally crawled out of the wreckage..."
"The inspiration I had just grasped..."
"...was already gone."
As she spoke...
Her expression gradually became more emotional.
It was rare to see genuine anger on Herta's face.
"I found a rope leading beyond the Circle of Knowledge..."
"And then someone cut it."
"What others dismiss as subjective speculation..."
"A genius recognizes as an inspiration."
"I have a feeling..."
"The barrier we've encountered inside the Simulated Universe..."
"...is preventing us from obtaining certain knowledge."
"It's hiding a certain piece of history."
Preventing knowledge from being uncovered...
Combined with Screwllum's earlier explanation that the missing region corresponded to the era of the War of Schools...
The answer became rather obvious.
The Scepter System.
And the Fourth Genius Society member...
Polka Kakamond.
Before Evan could voice his thoughts...
Screwllum suddenly spoke.
"My hypothesis..."
"Perhaps Enigmata glanced at the Simulated Universe."
"I have formulated 3,215 possible explanations."
"Which one would you like to hear first?"
Herta rolled her eyes.
"Now that's subjective speculation."
The War of Schools occurred after the Second Emperor's War.
The Scepter System created by Rupert II had eventually fallen into the hands of the Intelligentsia Guild.
Various academic factions went to war over control of its computational power.
Rumor claims...
That the Scepter System could produce the ultimate scholar.
One possessing limitless lifespan...
Unlimited knowledge...
And perfect research capabilities.
A true genius created exclusively for the Intelligentsia Guild.
The Scepter System itself consisted of countless inorganic artificial neural clusters created by Rupert II.
Planetary-scale computational interference devices spread throughout the empire.
Each faithfully executing the Emperor's commands—
Observation.
Calculation.
Interference.
"So..."
"Your real objective is the Scepter System?"
Evan asked.
"No."
Screwllum answered instead.
"For Herta..."
"There is another objective."
"Herta has always wished to expand the total amount of knowledge in the universe."
"And the foundation of her personal research..."
"...began with an unsolved problem left behind by the War of Schools."
"Oh."
Herta casually shrugged.
"I want to study the Scepter System."
"And revive Rupert II."
"What do you think?"
She tilted her head upward toward Evan.
"That's..."
"A terrible idea."
"If I'd known you wanted me to enter the Unknowable Domain..."
"I would've charged you a lot more."
"You're even more troublesome than Ruan Mei."
"I-It's not literal resurrection!"
Herta protested.
"I only want to reconstruct a complete Scepter System inside the Simulated Universe."
"Recreate the Emperor's external neural network."
"Then..."
"We'll have access to the mind of the Fifth Genius."
"And I'll finally be able to ask..."
"...her?"
"...him?"
"No."
"It."
"The question someone once asked at the end of the War of Schools..."
"The same question that I eventually solved."
Herta looked at Evan proudly.
Clearly waiting for praise.
Screwllum sighed helplessly.
"Conclusion."
"Herta's proposal is overly stubborn and rather absurd."
"If she wishes to persuade Mr. Evan..."
"My recommendation is that she offers something more appealing."
"Fine."
"I'll do it."
Evan waved his hand.
Screwllum froze.
Clearly...
His logic circuits had not predicted that outcome.
Even now...
Artificial intelligence still couldn't fully understand humans.
Human thought processes truly were something else.
"W-Wait..."
"I haven't even started trying to persuade you yet..."
"You're really agreeing?"
"Ha! I knew it!"
"I knew you'd help!"
"See, Screwllum?"
"I told you he'd agree!"
"HAHAHAHA!"
The tiny Herta stood proudly with her hands on her hips.
If Evan didn't know how Herta's puppets worked...
He would've thought her nose was about to stretch all the way to the Blue.
"Let's go."
"This'll actually be my first time entering the Simulated Universe."
"I heard there's even a simulated Aeon body."
"Is it fun?"
"Oh, it's great!"
Herta's eyes sparkled.
"Which Aeon do you want?"
"I can make one for you next time."
"Nous?"
"Or maybe Akivili?"
"The simulated Aeon body was originally modeled after Akivili anyway."
Evan considered it briefly before shaking his head.
It wasn't that he didn't trust Herta.
He simply wasn't sure how the real Aeons might react to such a thing.
Using his own consciousness to enter the simulation seemed far safer.
The Scepter System had originally been Rupert II's attempt to imitate Nous' method of thinking.
An unimaginably vast network of artificial neural clusters.
From microscopic quantum fluctuations...
To galaxy-wide matter annihilation...
The Scepters spread throughout the empire.
Faithfully carrying out every observation...
Every calculation...
Every interference command.
Under certain conditions...
These planetary-scale computational devices could even temporarily distort the laws of physics within an entire region.
Unlike Rupert I...
The flesh-and-blood Rupert II proved even more ruthless.
Grotesque mechanical megastructures.
Self-evolving differential engines.
Cold metallic weapons carrying out the Anti-Organic Equation.
The once-mighty machine legions became nothing more than expendable tools.
Through the Scepter System...
Rupert integrated his entire empire into his own consciousness.
Every signal.
Every machine.
Every thought.
The entire empire became extensions of a single mind.
The Emperor became...
Its sole ruler.
Its sole administrator.
Its sole thinker.
Ultimately...
The Scepter System existed to overcome the limitations of organic life.
Transforming an empire into the Emperor's external brain.
Near the end of the Second Emperor's War...
Rupert II attempted one final experiment.
He would expand his own consciousness through the Scepter System...
To create an unknown Knowledge Singularity.
He wished to abandon the role of Emperor...
And become nothing more than a seeker of truth.
The experiment became known as...
Self-Coronation.
Unfortunately...
He died before completing it.
The Scepter System later collapsed completely during the War of Schools.
Some claimed...
That a single surgical blade had severed his train of thought.
Simulated Universe
The world resembled an endless sea of chaos.
As his consciousness descended...
There was no need for Herta to perform any additional operations.
The moment Evan opened his eyes...
He found himself standing inside a boundless, chaotic expanse.
"So this..."
"...is the Simulated Universe."
He carefully surveyed his surroundings.
The Simulated Universe was, fundamentally, a world constructed entirely from data.
Unlike the Authority of Sentience...
Its operation had little to do with consciousness itself.
The instant he entered...
His consciousness had simply been converted into data.
If he possessed the Authority of Corruption instead...
Perhaps the compatibility would've been even greater.
Looking around...
He saw that the world had been divided into numerous regions.
The largest contained several interconnected layers.
Nearby lay the Swarm Disaster.
Beyond it...
The golden mechanical landscape of the Emperor's War.
Finally...
An eerily quiet void stretched endlessly ahead.
The Unknowable Domain.
"Herta?"
The surrounding space remained chaotic.
Even with the power of an Emanator...
Evan couldn't accurately determine directions here.
Only one consciousness shone brightly in the distance.
Apparently studying something.
"You're slow."
"I've already been here for several system hours."
"...Huh?"
"The time flow inside the Simulated Universe is that ridiculous?"
He and Herta had entered together.
Yet she claimed she'd already spent several system hours here.
The temporal distortion was absurd.
"What do you mean ridiculous?"
"The Herta outside isn't my entire self."
"This version of me has already been inside the Simulated Universe for several system hours."
"I have no idea how you got here."
The puppet Herta remained as expressionless as ever.
"This isn't even an area that's open for testing."
"So be careful."
"Who knows what's hiding inside that empty region."
Without another glance at Evan...
She turned back toward the flowing streams of data before her.
The mysterious void contained far too many unanswered questions.
Enough to completely capture Herta's attention.
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