Regnum Aetern: Dual Rebirth

’The gods...’

The part that Adrian was most curious about was here, which caused his focus to sharpen unconsciously. Sir Avalon seemed to have noticed this change, causing his smile to widen.

"Excited now, are you? Well, it is understandable. I believe I also used to be rather fascinated by this part, and probably still am. In the legends of the immortals, there were said to be fourteen gods, known as the primordial gods. They were divided into two sides: the primordial gods of virtue and the primordial gods of sin. The primordial gods of sin included The Primordial Pride, The...

Sir Avalon then went on to tell him which side included which gods. In summary, it was exactly the same as the concept of the seven heavenly virtues and the seven deadly sins.

The primordial gods of sin included: The Primordial Pride, The Primordial Greed, The Primordial Lust, The Primordial Envy, The Primordial Gluttony, The Primordial Wrath, and the Primordial Sloth.

Meanwhile, the primordial gods of virtue included: The Primordial Humility, The Primordial Charity, The Primordial Chastity, The Primordial Kindness, The Primordial Temperance, The Primordial Patience, and The Primordial Diligence.

This matched perfectly with the concepts of the seven virtues and the seven sins from Earth.

If it had been before, Adrian’s thoughts would’ve already gone into a spiral by now, believing this to be a clue that this world was the world of a story, or something along those lines.

But by now, Adrian had simply grown too tired.

He remembered how strongly he had reacted when he had first heard the name of this world. That was because the name ’Regnum Aetern’ was extremely similar to ’Regnum Aeternum,’ which were words from Earth’s Latin language, and they meant ’an eternal kingdom.’

And when he had dug deeper, he ‌found that the name of this world was ‌in this world’s ‌ancient language, just like Earth’s Latin. Not only that, the meaning of the name ’Regnum Aetern’ was ’a world that will exist forever’, also similar to the meaning of the Latin word ’Regnum Aeternum’.

Back then, he had believed this to be proof that this was the world of a story, and he was just a step away from solving the entire mystery.

’Ah, how stupid I was...’

If he thought about it deeply, there were tons of similarities between the two worlds. Nobles, empires, the monarchical system of rule, and a lot of other things. They had all existed on Earth at some point in time, too. That was the same for the other humanoid races and humanoid monsters.

Yet he had been stressing over minor things like those.

In the end, nothing was going to come of it. The nature of this world didn’t really matter. It was his reality now, and all he could do was accept that fact.

With a somewhat heavy sigh, Adrian shifted his focus back to Sir Avalon.

"The Primordial gods also picked their own sides. The Primordial gods of virtue chose the collectivists and granted them their protection, because they also liked the idea that the collectivists stood for. The primordial gods of sin chose the individualists for the same reason. This conflict thus became far larger in scale."

This was where Adrian had to pause as his brow furrowed. He thought for a bit before asking Sir Avalon.

"Sir Avalon, you previously said that the three sides constantly clashed, with the intention to destroy one another. The Collectivists and the Individualists had the primordial god’s protection, and since every god had already made their choice, there was no one to protect the moderates. So how did the moderates even survive?"

Hearing his question, the corners of his teacher’s lips curled upward once again as the childlike glint in the man’s eyes became even stronger. It was as though he had been waiting for such a question.

"How did the moderates survive? Haha, that is the most interesting part. They were able to survive because of the Immortal. It was said that the immortal had reached the pinnacle of human potential and was thus able to single-handedly shield the moderates from the divine clash. The moderates even went as far as believing that the immortal was equal to the gods. Though that belief was utterly crushed the same way the immortal was crushed by the Primordial Pride."

Sir Avalon sighed and slowly stood up.

"Well, this is it for today’s lesson. I hope you will be more enthusiastic tomorrow, kid."

And with that, he started walking away.

Adrian hurriedly called out.

"Sir Avalon, please, at least finish before you end the lesson instead of stopping at the most important part. How did it all end? How did the era of divide end?"

Sir Avalon stopped and turned back to him, and then he tilted his head.

"How would I know?"

’...Huh?’

"Everything I was telling you, I had pieced it all together myself through the Legends of the Immortal. And there is nothing after the immortal challenges the Primordial Pride. The protagonist died, end of story."

Hearing that, Adrian could only stare at the man, speechless. After listening up to this point, there were a ton of questions swirling in his mind. And just when they were getting to the part where the questions were going to be answered...

Adrian let out a deep sigh filled with frustration.

Sir Avalon, meanwhile, scratched the back of his head while smiling somewhat awkwardly. But then, he suddenly coughed, as if to clear his throat, and spoke.

"Now, now, no need to get so disappointed, little man. How about I tell you something even more interesting? There is no mention of other races in the Legends of the Immortal, as though humans were the only humanoid race. Not only that, the supposed creator of this world, The Primordial Light, also does not exist in the legends of the immortal."

***

Days continued to pass as Adrian used all his free time to read and memorise the contents of the compendium. He had made quite a lot of progress and had memorised quite a bit of information about various Origin abilities.

He was doing the same today. But then he suddenly saw a Ravenshade carriage enter the estate while he was briefly glancing outside the window.

And as he saw pinkish-purple hair inside the carriage, through the carriage window, Adrian suddenly remembered that it had been a week, and today was the day for another ’adventure’.

He let out a sigh as he closed the compendium.

’What a waste of time... If only the girl were more mature and could use this time more productively.’

Standing up, he left his room and navigated through the hallway as he finally reached the guest room, the one she would usually be assigned whenever the girl came.

Entering inside, he saw Evangeline sitting on a settee near the window, looking outside. He stopped right in front of her and asked.

"Where do you wish to go for today’s ’adventure’?"

She slowly turned to him and... frowned?

"Adi, how could you think about going out for something like that again? If only you had used all that time more productively."

Adrian furrowed his brow.

’What is she even...’

Evangeline met his gaze and spoke as her eyes burned with determination.

"From now on, we will be using this time to train together."