The earliest laws were born from the most primitive principle imaginable.
Blood for blood.
An eye for an eye.
You killed my family, so I avenged them by killing you.
In the earliest eras, that was considered perfectly reasonable.
That was the foundation of humanity's first crude legal systems, and it was widely accepted.
But as societies developed and civilizations advanced, laws were rewritten to better suit the needs of their age.
Those ancient principles were gradually adjusted in the interest of maintaining social stability.
In older times, if someone murdered your parents and you killed that person in revenge, even the authorities might consider your actions justified.
Some officials might even acquit you entirely.
In a modern society, however, with far more comprehensive institutions and a greater emphasis on preserving overall stability, revenge killing would still be considered a crime.
You would still have to bear the consequences.
That difference was not necessarily because one era was right and the other wrong.
It was because the needs of society had changed.
And so the law changed with them.
Long ago, Ena, the Aeon of Order, had pursued the ideal of a perfect system of law.
THEY wished to establish a structure under which all people could live peaceful and stable lives within Order.
Then came the Swarm Disaster.
The Swarm swept across the universe.
Countless civilizations were thrown into chaos.
Living beings everywhere suffered.
Faced with despair and unbearable hardship, more and more people began to believe in Order.
They prayed for Order.
They longed for Order to bring them protection and peace.
The number of believers continued to grow.
More and more Pathstriders walked the Path of Order.
Even the Path itself expanded.
Yet Ena came to believe that this was wrong.
Suffering had given birth to faith in Order.
But every person who embraced that faith was clinging to the same lie.
That as long as they believed in Order, peace would inevitably follow.
That was false.
And Ena knew that once people trapped themselves within a lie they desperately wanted to believe, even an Aeon could not easily wake them from it.
Order was supposed to be something that developed alongside civilization.
From the tribal customs of primitive societies to the interstellar systems governing advanced civilizations.
Order was not immutable.
It was not eternally correct.
If everyone became trapped within the belief that a single form of Order was unquestionably right, then Order itself would become frozen.
Because people sincerely believed in the perfection and authority of Order, no one would question it.
No one would attempt to improve it.
No one would push it forward.
That distorted faith ultimately drove Ena to a decision.
After the Swarm Disaster ended, THEY deliberately provoked a great conflict.
Then THEY allowed THEMSELVES to disappear, surrendering the power of Order to Harmony.
Only after Ena was gone could living beings escape the restraints of a singular Order.
Only then could they avoid losing themselves beneath an eternal, unchanging system.
...
Caelus sat at a desk, continuously writing across one scroll after another.
He was recording everything he had learned about law throughout more than thirty million cycles.
He knew what would happen after each law was implemented.
What consequences would emerge.
What loopholes would appear.
How those loopholes would later be exploited.
He organized all of that knowledge carefully.
Then, in the next cycle, he would hand it to Cerydra.
For now, however, he first had to fulfill his current role properly.
He was still a general.
Caesar herself did not particularly mind him becoming involved in civil administration.
But the people beneath her were another matter.
Caelus knew them far too well.
Even with examples of failed conspirators still fresh in everyone's minds, it would not take long before people forgot the consequences and started scheming again.
Some would try to drive a wedge between him and Caesar.
Others would begin plotting ways to "help" him seize the throne.
That was without even considering the soldiers under his command.
Those soldiers had personally watched their general lead them through one supposedly impregnable city-state after another.
Every battle, Caelus led from the front.
Every charge, he was the first into the enemy lines.
Even during sieges, he was the first one through the breach.
If the wrong people started whispering into those soldiers' ears, they might very well decide on their own that their general deserved a crown.
That had actually happened in one of the previous cycles.
So for the time being, Caelus spent his days dealing with endless military administration.
Then came the campaigns.
One after another, he led armies against the rulers of city-states that refused to join the Flame-Chase Journey.
In the original timeline, Cerydra had refrained from launching large-scale campaigns immediately after taking Okhema because she needed to preserve military strength.
Those who opposed her had instead been left to Hysilens.
She assassinated them one by one.
Everyone knew Caesar was behind it.
Everyone knew an assassin was operating in the shadows.
Yet none of the targets escaped their fate.
This time, however, with Caelus effectively serving as an impossible advantage, Caesar's armies became unstoppable.
Anyone who resisted was crushed beneath the advance of her forces.
Even city-states that proudly claimed their walls could never fall were broken open when Caelus personally destroyed their gates.
It did not matter how noble someone believed themselves to be.
It did not matter how devoutly they worshiped the Titans.
It did not matter what extraordinary abilities they had been born with.
Before Caesar's army, there was only one choice left.
Kneel and beg for mercy.
At the beginning of the wars, the rulers of the various city-states spread every rumor imaginable.
They claimed Caesar executed people every day.
They claimed she ate infants.
Some even said her soldiers were monsters transformed through demonic power, and that anyone who failed to resist would be massacred.
But as one proud ruler after another lost their head, those rumors gradually disappeared.
Eventually, the people began referring to Caesar by a single title.
The Great Emperor.
They called her Caesar the Great.
Because she was going to unify all of Amphoreus.
...
"Lord Caelus, so this time you've decided to become a general?"
Caelus was inside a military tent handling administrative work when Lygus walked in.
His tone carried a faint hint of amusement.
"Your timing is convenient."
Caelus looked up.
"What information do you have on Idrila, the Aeon of Beauty?"
"You seem much more hurried than the last time we met."
Lygus studied him.
"Did something happen?"
"I returned here from the future."
Caelus answered directly.
"In that future, Irontomb had already been defeated."
"Even the causality of its defeat had been fixed in place."
"Unfortunately, when I attempted to transform Amphoreus into a real planet and allow its data-based inhabitants to become genuine living beings, Nanook intervened."
"Once I fully exercise the authority of Creation, I effectively establish a Path of Creation within this universe."
"That directly conflicts with Destruction."
"Nanook will never permit it."
"THEY will do everything possible to stop me from using that authority."
"At the same time, because the Path of Creation originates from outside this universe, its power system differs from the native structure here."
"That difference could introduce an enormous amount of uncertainty."
"If that happens, Nous may intervene as well."
"So I returned from the future."
"I'm preparing a new plan."
"And I need your help."
Caelus explained everything.
Lygus listened in silence.
After a long moment, he finally spoke.
"Why are you so certain I will help you?"
"Because you're a scholar."
Caelus replied.
"And the experiment itself is meaningful."
Lygus considered that.
Then he smiled.
"...Fair enough."
"That reason is convincing."
"I also want to witness what happens when this false world becomes real."
"I want to see how it differs from the world we know now."
"And more importantly..."
"This plan involves opposing Nous."
"So naturally, I have every reason to assist you."
"One thing in advance."
Caelus's tone remained flat.
"Even if you help me, if the people of Amphoreus decide to come after you later, I won't protect you."
"How heartless."
Lygus laughed.
"But that's fine."
"After all, blood for blood and an eye for an eye have been part of the oldest forms of order since intelligent life first learned to make laws."
(To be continued.)
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◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)