Steampunk Era: Mad Abield

Speaking of fun, Mr. Antoine of the Northern ideology invited Malin to give a lecture at the craftsman workshop he presided over.

Speaking of lecturing, Malin loved it. To teach someone how to fish was far more joyful than simply giving them fish. So, carrying his prepared teaching materials, he arrived early the next morning at the Copenhagen craftsmen’s workshop. Mr. Antoine had prepared a large classroom for him—this was originally used by the craftsmen seeds from the regions of the Northern Kingdom when they came to the capital. Antoine, being a Great Craftsman, had some strength of his own, but he had never seen Malin’s blueprints. As for everything happening in the South, he could only gain an inkling by paying high prices for firearms.

For him, having Malin come to give a personal explanation was a great honor. You must know that nowadays, for a Great Craftsman, keeping secrets was considered a virtue. Malin, openly running a large workshop and gathering a group of craftsmen, dwarves, humans, half-humans, gnomes, elves, and even Frost Giants to work for him, had long since transcended what Great Craftsmen would do—how could a Great Craftsman possibly have such ability?

Privately, many in the crafters’ circles had already viewed Malin as the God of Craftsmen—in this era without a God of Craftsmen, Malin was the most likely candidate to achieve such a divine status.

Of course, Malin just smiled at this. Others thought he wanted to become a god, but what Malin really wanted to do was to slay the gods, to eliminate all the chaotic Evil Gods and the unreliable gods of this world. It would be best if the God of Justice allowed him to leave on his own, but if he refused, a battle would ensue between them.

Of course, in Malin’s view, this would surely be the last resort.

Become a god? That’s not my pursuit. What I desire is for the world I am familiar with to return before me, the world where mortals eventually come to realize their mortal nature, the world where mortals create everything. Perhaps mortals may stray, but mortals... are the true masters of this world.

Of course, Malin knew all this was but a dream. The world had changed, and humans from before the Era of Great Destruction could not even survive in this world for long, only able to peer at the outside world through the transparent walls of shelters.

Nevertheless, this did not hinder Malin from regarding these people, yearning for knowledge, as Earthlings. They are still the indomitable natives of this planet, and their every action and every word narrate the performance of the human race—an eternally resilient species emerging through the saga called history.

Humans might fail, might go extinct, for their history is but the smallest of civilizations between two ice ages on Earth. In the universe, there must definitely be existences greater than humanity... but real humans will never submit.

...