The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

"Lord Governor?"

Isa looked at Lind, who looked like he'd seen a ghost after the prayer was over, and cautiously asked him a question.

At this moment, Linde turned to look at Isa and remembered Isa’s peculiar oracle from before.

I was prejudiced and thought that the divine oracle was just a single sentence.

It was indeed a sentence, but it was a sentence in three different languages. I treated the three sentences as a whole, which is why I didn't notice Isha's somewhat broken Mandarin.

"Your Excellency, have you also heard the goddess's divine decree?"

Just by looking at Lind's expression, Isa already guessed that Lind had definitely heard the goddess's voice, but Lind's reaction was even more exaggerated than Isa had imagined.

Linde did not answer directly, but asked, "Isa, what do you think the goddess is? Or what is a god?"

"Your Excellency, isn't this a bit...?"

Originally, Isa could still discuss these issues with Linde very rationally, but now that the goddess has really started responding to believers again, Isa has no choice but to become devout as well. Could it be that the goddess has discovered that the governor was exploiting the goddess to make holy water?

Seeing Isa's hesitation, Lind said nothing more, but prayed again, this time in his mind he used Chinese.

"My Goddess, restarting will take time."

That cold, synthesized voice rang in Linde's mind again: "Request received. System self-check in progress. Restart will take approximately fourteen days."

Two weeks—a timeframe that was closer than Lind had ever imagined—and two weeks later, the system known as the Goddess successfully restarted.

Linde had actually made a similar guess when he heard the Lantern Dream say that the goddess could automatically respond to believers after she fell asleep. However, Linde thought that the goddess was a product of this worldview, a being similar to artificial intelligence, or something similar to artificial intelligence created by the goddess in her sleeping state.

But Linde didn't expect that the goddess might actually be an artificial intelligence system, and that the default language was even Chinese, English, and Russian.

This immediately transported Linde from a fantasy world to science fiction—no, to the Golden Age.

Then, while still in a state of prayer, Linde asked the goddess a few more questions: "Goddess, where are you now?"

Lin Delian omitted the honorifics, but the synthesized voice in his mind still responded: "System restarting, please try again later."

The following questions received similar answers, indicating that Linde would not be able to obtain any more information until the goddess's reboot was complete.

After getting up, Linde looked up at the ceiling of the prayer room. The goddess was an artificial intelligence system, so what were the other gods?

"Isa, do you know how to pray to other gods?"

Upon hearing this question, Isa, who was familiar with Lind's beliefs, immediately understood what Lind had discovered in prayer, and began to teach Lind the prayer methods of other religions that she knew.

Linde tried them one by one but found no response.

Is it because he considers himself a shallow believer in the goddess, rather than a believer in other gods?

If you ask other deities in Chinese, English, or Russian, will you still get a response?

Linde turned to Isa and ordered, "Have the Church inquire with the Central Vatican about whether they have received any new divine pronouncements from the Goddess, and see what the situation is on the Central Vatican's side."

After Isha left, Lind said to the shadows, "Pay attention to all the public opinion surrounding the goddess, especially from the Central Church. Report any new discoveries immediately, and have Lantern Dream come over again."

"Spread the message that our Northern Church received the oracle from the Goddess, along with the contents of the oracle."

The so-called content was, of course, just simple syllables. After confirming the pronunciation, Lucanus bowed and left in the shadows.

Linde, on the other hand, rushed back to his office.

Seeing Linde rushing towards her in a hurry, Tia, who was still eating potato chips and reading a book, asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"

Seeing Linde's completely different expression and his relentless approach, Tia immediately sat up straight, tensely asking, "What do you want to do? I'm warning you, I have many restrictions on me. If you do anything reckless..."

Although she said that, Tia didn't make any move, letting Lind hold her shoulder.

Lind said seriously, "Tia, you are a devout believer in the God of Nature, right?"

Still not understanding what was going on, Tia could only nod blankly.

"How does it compare to my faith in Goddess?"

Hearing this, Tia was amused and annoyed. Anyone who knew Linde even slightly knew that he probably wasn't even a casual believer. His greatest faith in the goddess was probably the guilt he felt for constantly making holy water and taking advantage of her.

"What do you think? Could you please take your hand away first?"

Lind then realized he had been a bit too excited. After letting go, he returned to his desk and wrote down a few syllables with a pen and paper. If Lilith were nearby, she would recognize these syllables as being read aloud in a similar pronunciation to the oracle in Common Tongue.

But then Linde stopped writing. If Tia herself didn't know the meaning of these syllables, what use would they be?

So Linde turned to the bewildered Tia and said, "Come here, I'll teach you a new language."

"Not interested in."

Tia patted her shoulder and tried to lie back down on the sofa.

"This concerns the god of nature; it's very important!"

But Tia just rolled her eyes at Lind and lay down on her own.

"If you don't get up, we'll send you back."

Upon hearing this, Tia immediately sprang to her feet.

It seems that the God of Nature is not as effective as Avelia for Tia, which makes Lind a little worried. Is Tia really devout enough? Oh well, as long as she is more devout than him, that's fine.

Next, Linde simply taught Tia the pronunciation of a few Chinese characters, but did not explain their meanings. Tia looked at the textbook that Linde had hastily put together and scratched her head. Linde only taught her the meaning of the characters, and did not even teach her the pinyin. Although Tia knew how to pronounce these characters, she had no idea what they meant.

But that was enough. Next, Linde asked Tia to pray to the god of nature in this language. Seeing Linde's consistently serious expression, Tia finally did as he asked.

During her prayer, Tia silently recited in Chinese: "Great God of Nature, your devout believer requests to inquire about your own condition."

Tia then prayed again following the complete procedure, and after getting up, she looked at Lind's expectant gaze and said, "There is no response."

"Now I'll tell you what this means, and you can try praying again."

After saying that, Linde explained the meaning of the sentence to Tia, and even taught her the basic meaning of some characters.

Completely unaware of what she was learning or how important this knowledge would be in the future, Tia shook her head again and said, "Still no response."

"No response?"

Linde lowered his head and fell into deep thought.

But Tia shrugged and said, "Isn't that obvious? The God of Nature doesn't respond to His followers casually, let alone in a language he's never heard before."

"Do not."

Linde said quietly, "Perhaps the god of nature and the goddess are fundamentally different things."

Tia rolled her eyes. What's wrong with Linde today? Has he been infected by those cultists from the Lantern Dream?