Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1710, Chapter 1706: Elidu

The language of the Ubaid people is very primitive.

This ancient language posed no obstacle to Hammurabi, the superhuman warrior who shone with golden light and could write and speak it fluently without even needing a translator. Captain Miller watched as Hammurabi traded the supplies from his caravan for all the tribe's surplus grain, which should have been used for brewing, and then continued on his way without a second thought. The southwest monsoon swept across the moist, fertile plains and the surging rivers, carrying tiny grass seeds and moisture towards the distant low hills. Captain Miller sat on the caravan's shaft, and although he had accepted his situation, he was still somewhat intoxicated by the breeze that greeted him from over six thousand years ago.

After nearly two days of travel, they finally caught up with the emperor's caravan with the children. Despite some panic, the children were captivated by the scenery along the way and became cheerful. They rarely had the chance to leave their village and see the outside world. Now they could even witness the royal guards hunting lions at close range. The power of the "angels" imprinted awe into their souls, and their reverence for their only guardian, the "High Priest," also increased considerably.

Captain Miller did not see the Emperor, even though he knew the Emperor was in the convoy. The radiant soul fire emanating from the Emperor's body still shone brightly in the fading sky. Neither he nor the Emperor had any intention of meeting again. The events he had experienced were too supernatural; there was much information he needed to process alone. The Emperor also seemed to believe that he didn't need to know more. Even after the horrors of the Event Horizon, he couldn't fully accept the Emperor's ideas and plans for humanity's future. The Emperor told him that behind the veil existed predators eyeing all intelligent races in the universe. Even though he personally wasn't afraid of those terrors, he disagreed with the Emperor's demand that all of humanity stand with him, even if the Emperor possessed the ability to make his ideas come true.

He always believed that humans should be allowed to be weak.

The Emperor's refusal to accept weakness from the human race would only make him a tyrant. Just as he didn't believe the Emperor's Imperial Guard had the right to kill enemies in this era, he also didn't believe the Emperor had the right to kill those who opposed him for that plan, even if it was the only feasible means. He tragically realized that all the irreconcilable contradictions, conflicts, ambitions, and grudges in this world would only cease under the threat of violence; war wouldn't stop because of peace, but because of nuclear bombs—this insane and terrifying reality stabbed him like a knife cutting into his flesh. Even if the Emperor could stop the wars between humans and force all humanity to put aside their differences and unite, what he would gain from humanity's hatred would be his. History had proven that so-called pioneers, whether right or wrong, never had a good end, and this pioneer possessed a crazy idea and the ability to realize it that no one before or since had ever had. Whenever he thought that this wasn't something he should care about, he could always breathe a sigh of relief. He was glad that he didn't have the power to change this fact, let alone bear this devastating psychological pressure.

He couldn't imagine how a human being could be so insane as to bear such a terrible prophecy.

"Scribe," Hammurabi said to him.

This was his official title; he was the emperor's scribe, known in this era as a clerk. He possessed a cylinder seal made by the emperor, which could be used to imprint his official title and name on clay tablets. This was his job before boarding the warship promised by the emperor—although the title of High Priest was merely a title of praise bestowed upon him by the Ubaids, he was required to stay by the emperor's side and keep records, whether performing his divine duties or holding an official position. In the future, the cylinder seal would serve as legal proof of his identity and the symbol of the exercise of power for every citizen; any legally valid clay tablet document would require the cylinder seal as proof.

"You need to keep a register, Clerk Miller. Number them, make files, but we don't have enough paper."

He saw that the caravans now included many more people from this era. Adult men, armed with stone spears and axes, stood on either side of the caravans, while adult women walked in the middle, carrying loads of grain wrapped in animal hides and simple pottery. Domesticated goats and wild boar cubs huddled haphazardly at the rear of the caravans, leaving droppings and footprints on the tracks. Valuable oxen were responsible for pulling the heavy carts and received sweet berries as snacks for the children.

Captain Miller felt his relationship with Hammurabi had improved considerably; at least he no longer considered Hammurabi to be as cold and ruthless as the other guards. Therefore, he spent most of his time with Hammurabi, who was happy to explain to him the characteristics of civilization in this era—these humans did not possess much linen clothing, and adult men and women almost all wore different styles of clothing made of sheepskin. Some children might only have leather bags tied with straw ropes after being pierced with stone spears. On this hot and humid alluvial plain, non-breathable leather was not the best choice for making everyday clothing, but it was the easiest material for a nomadic tribe to obtain and did not require much processing. They may have forgotten how to make linen fabrics and looms.

The rough clothing, dull pottery, and scarce staple food reserves all indicate that this nomadic tribe's civilization was far behind that of the agricultural tribes he had encountered before. In contrast, the wealthy agricultural tribes not only had ample food and beer brewed using the double brewing method, but their gifts to the "high priest" and "angels" were two pieces of deep purple linen dyed with whelks that grew on the Syrian coast—a dye that remained priceless even in ancient Greece and Rome thousands of years later.

"This tribe were nomads of the Hassuna civilization. They forgot how to farm and weave, and could only tame wild horses to become a nomadic tribe. The site of the Hassuna civilization ruins will be called Nineveh in the future. You will see that the Hassuna civilization did not truly continue; everything was absorbed by the Ubaid civilization."

"Are we heading north?" Captain Miller asked. "The center of Mesopotamian civilization should be in the south. I've looked at the books on the data panel; there aren't many civilizations in northern Mesopotamia."

"We will travel throughout Mesopotamia to gather enough labor to establish a base of operations. Establishing a base of operations requires a lot of resources. In this era, there is already coastal trade. The monarch's orders will be conveyed to everyone along with the Ubaids and pottery, following the footsteps of the merchants. More people will come to the monarch's base of operations to escape the increasingly frequent floods, and eventually a city will be established."

The Imperial Guards led these terrified children from farming tribes to meet the Emperor.

Captain Miller, fulfilling his duty, registered each returning child. If a child didn't have a name, he named and numbered them using the vocabulary provided on the data tablet. All information was recorded on the tablet, awaiting copying onto clay tablets someday. The children calmed down considerably, though the lingering daze from their audience with the Emperor remained on their faces. The candies, unavailable in this era, soothed their nerves. The candies were a gift from the maid. Each child regarded Dinah as a goddess, especially when she appeared beside the Emperor—beauty was an extremely valuable asset. Even in the 21st century, no working woman could possess Dinah's smooth, soft, white skin, nor could she exude the scent of carefully chosen perfume. Sunlight and sweat would damage any pleasing skin—to the people of this era (especially when she stood beside the Emperor), a woman as breathtakingly beautiful as Dinah was a deity; perhaps some would even call her Inanna.

Men would commemorate her with the cycle of barley growth, and women would brew beer in her name, making it a type of beer. When the entire tribe, even the whole city, lit bonfires for the emperor, offering beer and food, and burning offerings to the sky, the winds, and the floods, they would drink beer brewed in Dinah's name from the first grains of the year's harvest. Perhaps in the 21st century, or even further into the future, humanity will never know that when they enjoy a cool, refreshing beer on a hot summer day, the pronunciation of certain words printed on the bottle label can be etymologically traced back to the beginning of human civilization, to a dazzlingly beautiful maid.

Miller, somewhat curious, questioned each child who had seen the emperor, but none could fully describe his appearance—some remembered only a blinding light, others only a tall, luminous figure and emperors scattered across the ground, as if they had entered a vast palace built of gold and jewels rather than a wooden caravan. Some even believed it took a whole day to walk from the doorway to the emperor, a claim that chilled Captain Miller to the bone. They couldn't recall the entire audience; the only evidence of this near-supernatural phenomenon, besides the candy in their mouths, was the pricking of their fingers. This was a genetic testing procedure to ensure the children didn't have any inherited diseases. To the Ubaid and Hasuna people, the pricking of fingers was a ritualistic process. Children selected from the nomadic tribes weren't mixed with the others; they rode in the caravan alongside the procession instead of walking the long journey. Captain Miller also discovered that some families had adults who showed obvious respect for their chosen children, a respect that stemmed from power, which in turn came from the overwhelming violence displayed by the Imperial Guard.

A sociological experiment was launched in front of Captain Miller.

He saw some children raising their fingers, displaying a clear sense of superiority over their peers who hadn't been chosen. They flaunted their fingers as if they were deified by power, and the blood-stained fingers became a symbol of their own deification. The Imperial Guard and the Emperor were completely indifferent to this. The Imperial Guard believed it was inevitable and could only be resolved through education, not oppression. As long as the Emperor's ideals remained unfulfilled and humanity couldn't escape its base desires, this inequality would persist. Captain Miller felt he had received a good lesson; the knowledge that universities had previously refused to teach was now validated in the Emperor's writings.

The month-long journey did not stir up any excitement among the nomadic tribes who had left their homes.

This was not only because the emperor provided ample food reserves, but also because all unsummoned adults and minors spontaneously avoided the emperor's caravan and armored vehicles. No one wanted to expose themselves to the radiance of supreme power; it would make them feel like they had no secrets. However, this inequality still made Captain Miller uncomfortable. Fortunately, the education of the chosen children and all adults under twenty had been entrusted to scribes, while the unselected children would be trained as clerks (a profession that was gender-neutral but predominantly male). Children who underwent genetic testing would receive more rigorous training after basic education, and Captain Miller believed he could quickly rid these children of their bad habits.

Following the teaching process on the data board, he instructed the children to collect clay, pound it with wooden mallets, and press it into wooden molds to form slabs. He also had them gather reeds along the way to make penholders, which they then pressed into the soft clay to form cuneiform script. Once the slabs, placed atop the caravan, were dried and fired, the world's first systematic language with over eight hundred standard letters and phonetic rules was born. These rules would apply to future Semitic languages ​​such as Akkadian and Ebra, Hurian, Hittite (Indo-European), Elamite and Old Persian (Iranian), as well as languages ​​from Asia Minor and Urartu, and even Aramaic, still spoken by the Assyrians in the 21st century.

The first place the convoy made a long stop was a plain adjacent to several Ubaid villages.

The alluvial plains are fertile, but due to frequent floods, the land available for human settlement and cultivation is not as much as one might imagine. Located south of the Euphrates River, near the estuary, this area, though just a sand dune, gradually evolved into a trading hub due to its proximity to several villages. Several nearby Ubaid villages were within a day's walk of this location, and the area's freshwater aquifer provided a place where one could find everything from grains and beer to fruits, vegetables, handicrafts, fish, and textiles. This led to the emergence of the first humans to settle here again.

This area once belonged to the Samarra culture, but the Samarra culture had gradually been replaced by the Ubaid culture further south. When the caravan arrived, the local inhabitants offered no resistance. Although Captain Miller believed that it was simply the emperor and his royal guard leading the way, as with all the villages the caravans passed through, all wariness and hostility towards strangers vanished at the mere sight of the emperor and his guard. Every Ubaid who saw them treated them as gods, and the emperor and his guard were immediately escorted into the temple by nearly four thousand settlers from the city.

This is not a building constructed of mud bricks and thatch in the village of Ubaid.

As one of the earliest commercial districts, this area gathered almost all the commercial wealth of the Ubaid civilization. The temple was built on a 25-meter-high mud-brick platform, with a long ramp of the same length in front of it for walking. The temple was 45 meters long and 60 meters wide, and even the walls with 10-meter-long sleepers were nearly 3 meters thick. The entire palace was decorated with stone carvings, gold, and lapis lazuli pillars. For the people of this period, it was undoubtedly a fortress and the most magnificent palace. The entire city was built around this temple.

The temple, originally used to worship the Earth Mother Goddess, now has a new master. Some Ubaid people believe that the emperor is Enki, the god who built the city, because he came to this city of sweet water.

"They regard the monarch as their ruler, believing this city rightfully belongs to the monarch," Hammurabi said, pointing to the man kneeling at the emperor's feet. Compared to the other Ubaid, the city's settlers also wore linen clothing, but some possessed a deep purple shawl and gold jewelry, a testament to the city's wealth. "They offered all their land and possessions, seeking only to become the monarch's subjects and priests. Some were brewers, some grain merchants, and others were merchants who monopolized linen fabrics in nearby cities and landowners in several nearby villages."

"Alulim, why do they call your master that?"

"The throne descended from heaven, first to Eridu, which is here," Hammurabi said. He was in charge of the outer guard. Mesopotamia was not safe at this time; a week earlier, the emperor's tarot divination had revealed the challenges they would face. "As long as they consider this city to belong to the monarch, and the monarch has ruled here for a long time, then the monarch has an obligation to exercise the power of kingship, which is to protect them."

Captain Miller saw the Emperor extend his hand, his armored fingers gently touching a merchant kneeling at his feet. Judging from the conversation the Imperial Guards had overheard, the merchant seemed to be offering a large quantity of dark purple linen. "There is war in this era, isn't there? I remember you said this place once belonged to the Samarra culture, but the Samarra culture hasn't completely disappeared. These people wanted your master to protect their lives, and your master agreed to this deal, didn't he?"

"Elidoo means 'powerful land, protectorate land.' The monarch has become their protector, and the city truly lives up to that name. After that, you will hear these people proclaiming that the monarch has ruled the city for a long time and possesses its legitimacy. People will find their own reasons to convince themselves; that's religion. They won't be foolish enough to try to deny the monarch's rule with their own power. From then on, this will be our first stronghold."

The Imperial Guard's gaze swept over the kneeling merchants. All the guards had a brief meeting on the communication channel, and the Emperor had agreed to their decision. They were about to conduct a purge of the city to ensure that what was about to happen wouldn't originate from Elidu—humanity in this era had already come into contact with the veil, and no one could guarantee that a mud-brick house wouldn't harbor a shrine from behind it, or some words that existed before the dawn of human civilization—anything could potentially become a conduit for the spiritual entities behind the veil to enter reality, even if humanity wasn't yet aware of what it possessed, it could still suffer from the poison behind the veil.

"Things don't always go the way they imagine, Captain Miller, I'm sure you know that all too well."

I've recently been engrossed in writing Conrad Coates' story in Gotham, and this chapter was completed intermittently.