Civilization Chronicles: Rise of the Divine Creator

A few among the younger generation felt pangs of jealousy when they realized this, but most just felt ashamed of their own uselessness and weakness.

This went doubly so for Eris and Christina.

The two of them had experienced these kinds of feelings before, and they were working hard in their own ways to change that, but they still needed time to grow.

Fortunately, it seemed that the situation wasn’t quite as dire as some were thinking, a point Celestina made clear with her next words, "Currently, the Darr Kingdom is still just in the early stages of building up material and supplies. Organizing logistics and soldiers quietly on a small scale in an attempt to conceal their intentions."

"How far along their plans are, or for that matter, what their plans are, we still don’t know," Celestina continued in a calm, stoic tone, "but we can’t afford to just sit on our hands and wait. We need to start making preparations of our own."

The Marquess then went on to explain what little information she and the other leaders of the kingdom had managed to put together over the last month or so, which admittedly wasn’t much.

An uneasy quiet filled the office once Celestina was done speaking, with no one knowing quite what to say next.

War.

Those who had experienced it already knew it was a special kind of hell, one that they would rather avoid if at all possible.

As for those who hadn’t yet set foot on a true battlefield, they were mostly feeling a mix of dread and excitement; the hot-blooded members of the younger generation in particular were even somewhat eager to prove themselves in battle.

After all, what was the point of all their training, their drilling, their sparring, their practicing, if not to fight?

It was a naïve perspective, one they would swiftly be stripped of once they tasted the true horrors of conflict on a nation-wide scale, but such was the folly of youth.

As the oldest, strongest, and most experienced in the room, Celestina understood what was going through all of their minds at this moment, but she chose to remain silent. Some lessons had to be learned the hard way, and though it pained her to see her subordinates, and her descendants injured and killed, there was nothing she could do to stop it.

Celestina was powerful, yes, but she had nowhere near the power necessary to single-handedly stop a war. If she did, the Darr Kingdom wouldn’t have even considered attacking them in the first place, if indeed that was what they were planning.

Still, this meeting couldn’t remain silent forever; someone had to step up and keep the conversation going.

Seeing how no one else wanted to take up that role, Pauline figured the responsibility had fallen to her, but before she could speak up, someone unexpected beat her to the punch.

"How much time do we have?"

The calm, almost casual tone Lucas used to ask this question was both impressive and somewhat disturbing to many of the others in the room.

How a boy so young could be so composed after receiving such catastrophic news was beyond their ability to comprehend.

Had he just been putting up a strong front, others might have been a bit more understanding, but from the boy’s posture, body language, and overall disposition at this moment, it was clear that rather than being scared or unnerved, Lucas really was just curious about how long they had left to prepare.

Even Great Elder Pauline, who rarely got surprised, was taken aback by just how indifferent this 10-year-old boy was to the current crisis. In fact, if she were forced to assign some kind of description to Lucas’ mood right now, it would probably be exasperation, if not outright annoyance.

From what little she had managed to gleam about her mother’s First Disciple, Pauline didn’t think Lucas was particularly cold, callous, or cruel, traits that would allow him to view other people’s lives as insignificant.

He also obviously wasn’t naïve and ignorant of what going to war would mean.

If anything, the young boy was the exact opposite; incredibly intelligent and perceptive, yet caring to a fault.

But if that was the case, his attitude towards the approaching war could only be interpreted as him not seeing it as a cause for concern.

Regarding the anomaly that was Lucas, Pauline’s curiosity was only growing stronger by the minute.

She had always been excellent at reading people and figuring out what motivated them, what their goals were, and what lengths they were willing to go to in order to achieve their objectives. It was what made Pauline so effective as both an administrator and a noble.

However, she just couldn’t get a read on this little boy, no matter what viewpoint she tried to analyse him from.

Since that was the case, though, the only approach Pauline figured she could take to truly understand Lucas was to categorize him as something completely new, completely different, someone who didn’t fit any of the molds, stereotypes, or preconceptions she had about commoners, nobles, youths, or adults.

In other words, she had to treat him as something ’alien’, like... like he was from a different world altogether.

It had to be said that Pauline’s instincts were incredibly sharp. Given all the foreign knowledge inside of his little head, thinking of Lucas as someone not of this world was indeed the best way to understand him.

It wasn’t like Lucas was completely removed from the Rockwell Kingdom or Servist in general, but his perspective was so outside the norm that it altered his very definition of common sense, causing him to frequently act in ways that others found strange, unexpected, or even illogical.

For instance, on the Blue Sky Continent, people went hungry and starved to death every day. That was normal, and everyone knew it. It was sad, but that was just how life worked; after all, there was no way for everyone to always have enough to eat.

To Lucas, however, everyone being able to eat whatever and however much they wanted wasn’t just some impossible fairy tale, it was a completely achievable goal, one he was working towards even now.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!