Published: January 4, 2026
“Henry, Oscar, are you there?”
“Henry, pardon my intrusion.”
“Oscar, here.”
“The reason I made time today is nothing other than to talk about Albert’s child and his daughter.”
“We have decided on Albert’s child here and sent him back to the capital. As for his daughter, we will keep her here for a while.”
“Your intention is to execute Albert’s child?”
“There’s a promise with Albert. Though it was just a verbal agreement, I said I would look after his family.”
“You intend to restore his status?”
“Yes, do that. And entrust him to Dustin. Make sure he doesn’t do anything unnecessary until he lives out his natural life.”
“As you wish. That seems to be the most suitable choice.”
“Even if we entrust him to Dustin, it would be better to show it clearly to those around.”
“In that case, I will give him a princely title and a character: ‘Prince Mitsu.’”
“‘Mitsu’ as in secret? Impressive.”
“Amazing, like a sealed secret.”
“If we go that far, people will surely understand. That’s all. Any questions?”
“None.”
“None.”
“Then that’s settled. Thank you for your efforts.”
☆
Inside the Governor’s Official Residence, in what looked like a large conference room.
I sat in a chair close to the throne, without a table.
In front of me was a huge board that looked like a wall, and one of the officials was writing the last characters on it.
Each character was about the size of an adult man's fist, making the text clearly readable even from afar.
I gazed at it and nodded.
Near the end of the board was written:
Minister of War: None
Minister of Internal Affairs: None
Your Majesty: Then that concludes, thank you.
All the previous dialogue was recorded there as well, with each line headed by the speaker’s name.
Next to it were nearly ten people operating and deciphering the Humbaba threads.
All of them had large beads of sweat on their foreheads, looking utterly exhausted.
“This is amazing, Master,” Zoe, standing just behind me to my side, said excitedly.
“To be able to conduct almost instantaneous communication and hold a meeting like this.”
“Indeed.”
I nodded, satisfied with the board, which was the result of an idea I had on the spot.
“Until now, we’ve used the Humbaba threads like letters, but I thought if we transcribed them as they come in, we could increase immediacy.”
What I had them do was an extension of what we’d done before.
First, Henry, Oscar, and I arranged a time and waited at our respective locations.
Then, we spoke, sending our words on the spot using the Humbaba threads—that is, instantaneous communication.
Instead of sending each message as a letter, we transcribed them in a list on a huge board.
With many people assigned as senders, decoders, and transcribers, we created a method allowing us to exchange one word in about thirty seconds.
Though this required more money and manpower than regular telecommunication, the immediacy made it worthwhile.
“Yes! I also use telecommunication, but I never thought of this.”
“That’s a thought anyone could have.”
“Huh?”
“A while ago, I heard from Newf that children who aren’t wealthy practice calligraphy in sand.”
“Ah, yes.”
“Then I recalled the sandbox map. It’s used to rewrite battle situations instantly. By combining telecommunication and the sandbox map, I thought we could communicate instantly like this.”
“Certainly!”
“When we actually tried it, one word took about 30 seconds, and the fact that previous messages remained visible surprisingly helped.”
“Exactly!”
“This is the first time, but—how is it?”
Zoe looked toward the group handling the telecommunication.
An official supervising the operators stepped forward, bowed deeply, and answered.
“Considering the inexperience, I believe we can ultimately reduce it to ten seconds per word. Of course, this assumes the best skills and training among those serving the governor and Ministers of State.”
“That’s sufficient.”
Ten seconds per word.