Of course, we were not really going to the city plaza. The moment we left the open residential area, we turned into a little passage. After that, we made several more turns around corners until we came to a parking lot. There, we saw a parked gray, unassuming, rustic car.
I was getting sick of carrying these fellas around in this world. Thus, I got those Xyrin Commanders who seemed to only know how to cause trouble for the city management to do other things such as get me this car.
This car may have looked rustic and unassuming, but that was only because I did not want to draw attention to myself. This car that belonged to carbon-based beings was infused with Xyrin Empire technology. Not only was it extremely fast and safe, but it also made no noise whatsoever when driven. It had many functions that were added by Xyrin Commanders who had their minds filled with ideas of war and battle such as phase transition engines, phantom shields, two heavy-duty Reshaping Photon Cannons, bone-razing missile clouds with hyper-space ammunition-feeding technology, an entire collection of shows starring Iijima Ai[1]…
I will shoot this bastard, Sicaro! I will really shoot him!
“For purely comedic effect, that subordinate of yours is worth keeping around,” Sandora commented when she saw the pirated discs that Sicaro left on the driver seat.
“…Less nonsense. Drive!”
Although I already learned how to drive thanks to information shared by Pandora, only Pandora could fully realize the potential of this car, which was as good as a moving war fortress. That was why she was in the driver seat. However, this little girl was too short. While seated in the driver seat, she had to stretch her leg out all the way in order to reach the accelerator. There was no other choice. Pandora was the shortest one in her class; she looked just like a primary school girl.
If not for the fact that there was no primary school department in Second Middle School, I would not have sent her to junior middle school. Pandora was small and adorable, but this became the first hurdle she had to overcome as the main driver. After working hard for a long time, her face became flushed. I could not tell whether this was because she was anxious or because she was feeling frustrated by her own size. At last, she had no other choice; she clicked a button beside her driver seat and caused the entire seat to lower at once until she could comfortably reach the accelerator.
This way, Pandora’s head was completely blocked by the steering wheel. If one looked at the car from the front, they would think that it was a ghost car without any driver.
The good thing was that Pandora did not look at the outside world using her eyes. Although her head was being blocked by the steering wheel, her driving was not affected. The only problem was that the sight of a gray, rustic car driving on the road without a sound and a driver in the middle of the night… would be strange to onlookers for sure.
Thus, on the first day of Chinese New Year, at one in the morning; a car that looked like it came straight out of a horror movie rushed towards the suburbs in a flash of white smoke.
While seated in the steady car, I finally had the time to talk to the Xyrin Apostle called Aliya.
“It’s an honor to speak with you.” The moment the connection was set up, a warm, female voice sounded in my head.
“Your name is Aliya?” I was intrigued by the other party’s name. The name Aliya had an impressive background. There was a legend in the world that this name represented the consciousness of every human being in the world. It was an existence that belonged to the first-tier of divine beings.
I thought about the Xyrin home-star’s world second arbitration Gaia, and the Xyrin General next to me, Pandora. The names of all the subordinates under me seemed to have some connection to characters in the world’s legends.
However, due to information loss, Pandora could not dig up enough information to answer this question of mine. Even she could not recall where her name came from. Sandora was a Xyrin Emperor from even further away; naturally, she did not understand much about the subordinates under me. Before I got more information, I could not make too many conjectures connecting the world’s legends with the Xyrin Apostles’ names.
“Aliya is very honored to answer your question, my lord. Aliya is the world’s first arbitration organ.”
“Sandora,”—I turned to face the blonde beside me—”what is a world’s arbitration organ?”
“You don’t even know that?” Sandora asked, shocked. “That’s basic common knowledge!”
Which ordinary high school student on Earth would take any information regarding the universe’s empires and armies as common knowledge?
Sandora seemed to have the same thought. Frustrated, she shook her head and said, “I forgot that you are not the same as ordinary Xyrin Emperors. I have to explain this to you in simple terms. You humans once came up with the Three Sage Theory. Have you heard of it?”
“Three Sage?”
“The Three Sages is a fantasy judgment system proposed by some of your brightest scientists. The simplest model is used when judging criminals; you set up three computers with high intelligence and knowledge of all human laws. Then, inform the computers of the crime that these criminals committed. The three computers would come up with three independent judgments based on their own information base.
“Under ordinary circumstances, they would come to the same conclusion: guilty or innocent. However, since all three computers have high intelligence, they have a certain degree of flexibility. In addition, the real cases would not be as rigid as the ones in the program. The existence of many external factors would make it very difficult for the computers to determine if the criminal is guilty or not.
“Because of these, the computers would come to very different conclusions. The final judgment would be given based on the majority. In other words, the judgment that two computers come to would be the final one. This is basically what the Three Sage Theory is.
“Of course, the real Three Sage system is much more complicated than this. The way that it makes judgments would not be so sloppy as well. It has to conduct more intensive inferences and analyses. There would also be circumstances where a certain judgment system would have veto power.
“Since computers do not have as many emotions as humans do and they cannot be bribed, this way of judgment would be much fairer than conducting trials in court. Unfortunately, given the human race’s current state of technology, it would be impossible to create three supercomputers with enough power and intelligence to become judges.
“Yet, what is impossible for humans is possible for the Xyrin Empire. In fact, in Xyrin Emperor, a judgment system that is far more advanced and powerful than the Three Sage Theory has already been in use. In this system, the entity with the greatest authority is the world’s arbitration organ. When the three computers of the world’s arbitration organ come to the same decision, this decision would be of equal authority as a Xyrin Emperor’s command. This is also to avoid accidents caused by the mistake of Xyrin Emperors. Do you understand?”
“I guess so…” I shook my heavy head. I understood how the world’s arbitration organ worked in general. Three super-intelligent computers were specially made for judging between right and wrong. According to the majority, these computers could help the Xyrin Emperors conduct their daily affairs.
I guessed that on the days when I played the arms-flinging shopkeeper, Gaia, Aliya, and another arbitration organ—whose name I did not know—were helping me manage the affairs of the empire faraway. Yet, why was one of the arbitration organs—Aliya—coming to Earth now? Was she planning to drag this half-hearted Emperor who was used to skipping classes back to the Empire to do work?
Just thinking of this possibility made me shiver.
“What’s the matter? Are you feeling cold?” Sandora asked me curiously. Then, she shook her head and said, “The carbon-based body is too weak.”
“I’m alright. That’s right, you said that the world’s arbitration organs are much more powerful than the humans’ Three Sage Theory imagines. How powerful are these three super-beings exactly?”
Sandora smiled excitedly and said, “It’s just as their names suggest!”
“Their names?”
“The world’s arbitration organ—in other words, they arbitrate on the world’s operation.” Sandora wagged her fair, delicate finger in front of me. “For example, how many nuclear reactions should take place on a star in one second? When should a particular planet stop spinning? Should a particular being become stronger or weaker?
“They are also in charge of doing all the work that gods do in human legends. That’s the job scope of the world’s arbitration organs. When the Xyrin Empire was at its strongest, every little thing that happened in every inch of this entire universe was in the palm of our hands. We were as powerful as divine beings!”
At that moment, I was so shocked that I was speechless. I kept making incomprehensible sounds, but I did not know what to say. They were in control of the operation of the entire universe? The Xyrin Empire was that powerful? They seemed even more powerful than divine beings!
My first reaction was one of disbelief. However, very quickly, I cast aside my own doubts. Sandora’s mind was connected to mine; we had the exact same information base. When we gave all access permissions, one could say that a part of us was shared. I would know at once whether she was lying or not. Everything that Sandora just said was the truth!
“What a pity.” Sandora’s expression suddenly darkened. “For some reason, the Xyrin Empire has fallen apart. Our power has been greatly weakened. I believe that the world’s arbitration organs have been greatly weakened as well. From my sensing of the situation, the arbitration organ called Aliya is now extremely weak. I’m afraid that it would not be able to recover even a tenth of its original power.”
A tenth… even one-tenth of a divine being’s power could be terrifying!
I suddenly thought about a ridiculous but very probable possibility: could the divine beings in human legends have been the Xyrin Apostles that once came to Earth?
[1] She is a Japanese actress who used to be a porn star.