The Cyrenaica envoy, repeatedly calling out "Buck Buck", withdrew from the audience.
“What’s next on your schedule?”
The secretary blinks.
What the hell is this pervert doing today?
The way you speak is also really weird. There's no such thing as polite speech in the dictionary.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, sir.”
“No, what should I do next?”
That's wrong.
No, Buck Buck thinks about the rules of the slums.
Even the poor who risk their lives for a single debenture, and the prostitutes who spread their legs for a single silver coin, have rules.
Like handing over fish caught in District 3 to a broker in District 2. Asking a Greek bard to sing his songs to secure a job at a better tavern. Passing off an old cow that doesn't produce much milk as a fresh cow.
Everyone follows rules to eat, live, and breathe.
Because that is the shackle called survival, the fate called labor.
“Oh, Buck Buck, Buck Buck is eternal. Nothing is set for the eternal Buck Buck.”
“What about work?”
“If you say it’s work….”
The secretary rolled his eyes and continued to study Buck Buck's face, like a fat puppy watching its owner's face.
It's frustrating.
Buck Buck thinks back to a few days ago when he was singing for a piece of bread.
His songs are songs that soothe the sorrows of the common people, epics of heroes from far away across the sea.
Even in that song.
The tyrant of Athens, the warrior of Hittite, and the pharaoh of Egypt all do ‘work’.
At the very least, I have to listen to the nonsense of my damned subjects and concubines.
“Whether it’s reviewing some paperwork, interviewing someone from somewhere, or even encouraging the palace slaves to do some acrobatics.”
“That’s not something that will last forever.”
“So then, what does Buck Buck usually do?”
"Eternal Buck Buck, you've chosen an unusual setting this morning... It's embarrassing for me, a humble person, to say this, but just as you usually do. I think you can do whatever you want."
Buck Buck sighs and scratches his Orihalcon mask.
Long ago, when bar patrons would make fun of him for his ugly face.
I used to envy the Greek warrior who fought the Hydra with his face covered by a golden mask.
When I actually tried it on, it was really uncomfortable. I couldn't take it off at will.
Buck Buck decided to use what all Atlanteans had.
Of course, not all Atlanteans include the ‘humans of Earth 3’.
Ah, the ever-shining, damned empire of the South Pacific.
“Where is the archives?”
“I am waiting for you everywhere, O eternal Buck Buck.”
“Bring it.”
####
All Atlanteans.
To be precise, the Atlanteans, the wealthy class who reside on Earth 2 and above, have a recorder.
From legal disputes with your neighbors to filing for divorce from your wife.
A true ‘recording device’ used in all fields.
She wears strangely clingy black pants and a short skirt, and on her head she wears something similar to the hats worn by Hittite priestesses.
The archivists say that they existed before Atlantis, and that they are similar to the golems claimed by Greek alchemists…
No one knows where they were born or what they are.
Simply, as an Atlantean, when you become an adult, you can receive a record book from Anat's Great Temple and use it.
On the back of every recorder, something is written in a script that the Atlanteans cannot read.
Because this mark is indelible, it became an important mark that distinguished the general public from the archivists.
‘Maid - Android.’
“Archive, nice to meet you.”
“Eternal Buck Buck. Good morning.”
I know a lot about the Buck Buck Records.
Even in the slum bars, there were customers who carried the archives around like concubines or prostitutes.
“I need to know what I usually do.”
“You’re not a buck buck.”
Buck Buck's eyes, no, his eyes are behind the mask.
It grows bigger than that of a Nubian slave who is turned on by an Egyptian dancer.
"Don't worry. I'm bound to Buckbuck with the secret oath code 13331."
"no…."
"If Buck Buck is dead, or if you're in a state where you're dead for some other reason, then all I have to do is change my 'perception' of you to recognize you as Buck Buck."
“I don’t quite understand what you’re saying… but the gist is, you’re saying you’re changing ships?”
“If the owner dies, the records will be destroyed as well.”
“You’re so clever.”
“Because all beings want to live, O precious and eternal Buck Buck.”
The slum kid knows very well what the mercenary who throws him some small change wants.
In front of him, the only way to survive is to show off like a cat and clap your hands to enhance the taste of the alcohol.
So, Buckbuck immediately understood the archivist's intentions.
“Then, the old Buck Buck… well, I’m talking about myself.”
“Of course.”
“That punk, show me what you usually do.”
“The command is too comprehensive, O Eternal Buck Buck.”
Buck Buck awkwardly spins around the hole he is holding for the first time.
“Yesterday… no, two days ago this morning.”
“Confirmed. Outputting the video.”
The butler projects a holographic image into the air.
Among the past envoys from Hittite and Carthage, there were some who collapsed in shock after seeing this video.
Of course, to Buck Buck, who is an Atlantean, this is nothing.
“Save me! Call my husband! Help me!”
“Are you sure this bitch is a virgin? If not, you’ll be damned.”
"Eternal Lord Buck Buck, this woman's husband left for Egypt after the engagement ceremony. He's an employee of our embassy. I've already cross-referenced this with information from the archives."
“Okay. I’m going to rape this bitch, and you send the video to your husband.”
“Before the sacred wedding of Anat, raping a virgin is against the law of Atlantis, Article 4, Section 3….”
“Should I rape your little sister too? I thought she was a virgin? Huh?”
“Sorry, Buck Buck is forever!”
A woman who has yet to lose her girlish charm desperately lifts a thin cloth to cover her chest.
Buck Buck is drooling in front of her, giggling while holding the Aether Blade.
"turn off."
“Then she committed suicide. She hung herself, facing Egypt, beyond the South Pacific horizon where her husband was.”
“I told you to turn it off.”
“You can also play scenes of hymens being torn, blood flowing, and rape with crying.”
“Please turn it off.”
“As you command, O Eternal Buck Buck.”
Buck Buck nervously fiddles with the edge of his mask.
“Four days ago, time zone: this time.”
“Confirmed. Outputting the video.”
The archivist plays the following video.
"That's right! That's what I'm saying! No, go deeper! You idiot!"
“Brother… Please save Brother. Please, Buck Buck, I beg you.”
“Why didn’t you cut off that Carthaginian prostitute’s tongue? Huh?”
“Your Majesty, Your Majesty has ordered that the ‘participants’ be brought in with their bodies intact for this game.”
“Really? Me?”
"yes."
“Oh, I forgot because the drugs were too much. I need to cut down on the medication.”
He lifts the Buck Buck Hall high and slams it down on the throne.
A Nubian mercenary approaches the naked woman, licking his lips.
“I don’t like it! I don’t like it!”
"If you make it within 3 minutes, it'll be 100 deben! If you make it within 2 minutes, it'll be 300 deben! But if you make it before the woman feels it, I'll throw you into the lion pen myself."
Next to the man who has already lost his breath, a woman is crying and caressing his cheek.
“It’s a game where you deliberately capture only siblings, kill the older brother, and rape the younger sister next to the corpse.”
“….”
"We'd have Nubian mercenaries and Celtic warriors join in, forcing women to feel it, and tearing open any women whose hymens were lost. We'd set up execution skewers on the docks of the Third District."
“….”
“And, as for those of a higher status….”
"turn off."
“It’s just the beginning.”
“Turn it off.”
“As you command, Eternal Buck Buck.”
The archivist closes the hologram.
“What the hell is wrong with that guy?”
“That guy, my great Buck Buck. That’s exactly what you look like.”
The archivist looks at Buck Buck with a smile on his face, as if he finds it amusing.
“Don’t play with words. I’ll just throw it away.”
"Before I'm discarded, I must scream desperately. The great Buck Buck is true! True!"
“Would you please shut up?”
“The archives were originally designed to speak.”
Buck Buck waves his hands downwards.
One of the Atlantean hand gestures, signifying surrender.
“Thank you, Buck Buck.”
"Why on earth did that kid do that? I have no regrets."
All the empires of the world bow their heads.
There is no need to be hungry, no need to be sad, no need to be lacking, and no need to die.
But even though I made a mistake and lost…
Anyway, but why?
“That is why, O Eternal Buck Buck.”
"what?"
"The previous Buck Buck was wise. Despite possessing everything—he deliberately filled it all with something lacking. He always acted a little regretfully. He always received something a little short."
“….”
"Because human desire is infinite. Because human greed knows no bounds. Because human pleasure is like a wine bottle with a hole in it. It's Hera's vase, never to be filled."
The archivist's expression is expressionless.
He just mutters indifferently, as if telling the story of a ruined country.
"But the last Buck Buck wasn't like that. He didn't achieve it on his own; he simply inherited what was his father's. In other words, he simply stole it."
"so…."
"At first, it wasn't that bad. Just, occasionally, I'd give the messengers a hard time... or harass the women I met at the festival... or draft a few of the guards to hold a fight."
Buck Buck is quietly listening to the archivist.
"But Buck Buck knew. He was the only one in this world. No one could say anything to him."
Even Buck Buck knows about Buck Buck.
Indeed, unless, like in a myth, a god descends and destroys the world.
Because Buck Buck will last forever.
“So, Buck Buck plunged into a never-ending orgy of pleasure, becoming more and more intense, more stimulating, more greedy.”
“But in the end, I couldn’t fulfill all my desires.”
“Of course. That’s a vessel that no one can fill.”
The story of the archives is over.
“What do you think?”
“I don’t know what that means. Oh, eternal and precious Buck Buck.”
“If you were suddenly given the absolute position of Buck Buck… what would you do?”
“I’m an archivist. I’m not a buck.”
“So, if that’s the case.”
The archivist moved his lips expressionlessly.
"Buck is absolute. Unlike the Egyptian pharaohs or the Athenian tyrants, he possesses an ancient power that cannot be broken, no matter what he does. In other words, he is a dictator with unchangeable power."
"so?"
"So, I guess I could just enjoy it like I used to. A life I've never been able to enjoy before, where I can do whatever I want with others, where no matter how much money I spend, it never goes away. How many lives like that are there?"
“….”
“It is the life of a man unique in the world, one that even Osiris and Zeus would envy. The life of the highest being.”
Buckbuck thinks about it.
Not a very interesting story.
The man named Geureojo, that name is just a nickname given to him by someone.
The story of a man with only that name, living in a slum port.
####
The slums of District 3.
The complex alleyways that cross the port and the slums, and the shabby lives scattered among them.
Orphans are no big deal here.
These are, in fact, poor souls who were ‘born’.
Where are the benevolent goddess Athena and the goddess of creation Anat?
Don't they care for those orphans who lick even the crumbs of bread out of hunger?
Even questions like this have become vulgar now.
“Hehe! I brought you bread!”
“Haru, you… didn’t steal bread from the hairy old man’s shop next to Pier 3, did you?”
“No. I didn’t even go to Pier 3.”
Geureu and Haru are orphans who are considered to be among the ‘long-lived’ ones here.
A shaggy boy with an ugly, stained face.
A short, cute girl with slightly pink hair.
In a street where even God has abandoned them, an orphan boy and girl are happily sharing a piece of bread.
“Don’t even come near that place.”
“Why?”
“No, that’s not why… That old man is harassing the guard.”
After the second generation of Buck Bucks came to rule Atlantis, the differentiation of each Earth accelerated.
Atlantis, the ideal country praised by the wise men of Athens, has long since disappeared.
Only the kingdom of the tyrant, who reigned with invincible power, remained in its place.
The poor people of Earth 3 live in conditions worse than those of animals.
Plato's teacher said this:
"The utopia across the sea has become a hell ruled by 90% tears and 10% pigs."
Perhaps, that is an accurate assessment.
"The other bakers let it slide—but that one told the guards everything. So, you absolutely mustn't go there, okay?"
“Okay! Got it!”
“You, you always act so clumsy. Remember what I said last time?”
“Yeah! I remember.”
He swallows a hollow laugh.
One day is stupid.
He keeps everything he says, but because of his clumsy personality, he tends to forget things quickly.
Perhaps, sometimes, I went to Pier 3 without thinking. Anat's priestesses sometimes offered relief there.
The meat pies distributed by the priestesses were a blessing from God to the orphans.
“I guess I should go with you next time.”
“Why?”
“One day, he’s an idiot, so if I don’t go with him, he’ll probably get lost.”
“No? Haru is smart.”
“Who said that? Did you hear that in your dreams again?”
“No! It was the priestess from Babylon who said that! One day, she said she was so smart! She said she would take me to Babylon and train me to be a priestess of the temple of Marduk!”
He spat out the bread he was eating.
“Ah! You idiot! You’re wasting your bread!”
“You… what did you just say?”
“That’s stupid. Haha~ I’m stupid~”
One day, he raises his small hand and strokes Geureo's head.
The thing that he loves most is to calm himself down when he falls asleep, swallowing his tears from hunger.
More than any goddess, a single touch from that fern hand brings peace to the soul.
Today, that didn't work either.
“No! Not that! What I said before.”
“Oh, it’s a waste of bread. It’s all gone… The pigeons will love it. Coo coo coo. Pigeons are cute.”
“You’re taking me to the temple of Marduk?”
One day, he breaks off a piece of bread he was eating and gives it to Geurjoo.
“Eat this, it tastes better when you share it.”
“Haru! You just… rejected that?”
“Huh? But?”
Marduk was the supreme god of Babylonia.
Becoming a priest of Marduk meant being responsible for food, clothing, and shelter in Babylonia.
It's not like such things never happen. Atlantis is a country where people from all over the world gather.
Priests from far away Egypt, Carthage, and Babylonia sometimes take in orphans here.
They want to educate them in their own country and make them into some kind of show priests.
Because the ‘female priestess from Atlantis’ would be a huge publicity hit.
“Are you crazy?”
"no?"
“Leave here… and go to Babylonia, where you will eat well and live well.”
An opportunity like this will never come again in your lifetime.
You might starve to death tomorrow, or be captured by a capricious noble, or something else terrible.
But you turned down the chance to get out of here?
“You’re really an idiot! Huh? Are you really that stupid?”
He puts down the bread and jumps up from his seat.
In that frost, a few seagulls flew away towards Atlantis as if they were annoyed.
"but…."
“Nothing to get hurt, nothing to die, nothing to go hungry… and you turned that down? Huh!”
“But if you go to Babylonia—you can’t come back here.”
“You idiot! Why are you here? You won’t come even when I tell you to!”
“Then, I can’t see you….”
"what?"
Little Greujeo is speechless from embarrassment.
“Why me….”
“When Haru was crying next to his mother, when he was crying alone next to his mother who had gone to the goddess Anat… who was it that held his hand?”
“….”
“When one day your stomach hurts so much that you’re about to cry, who goes to the pharmacist and begs you to do it?”
“….”
“When Haru was getting beaten up by the troublemakers at Port 2, who was it that quickly whistled and saved Haru?”
"I am…."
A sullen girl thrusts her face into the face of an ugly boy.
and.
Very small lips come close to the dry lips.
That's right, Haru and I kissed for the first time.
Dirty, smelly, underfed, and shorter than his peers.
And yet.
For the first time since I was born.
Not even the ladies of District 1 could handle it.
Something.
The scent.
I felt it.
“Hey, you….”
“Hahaha! That’s wrong, your face is red!”
“You really!”
“Ah! It’s a Carthaginian trading ship!”
"hey!"
“Get out of here! What are you doing? Come quickly!”
Haru wakes up laughing and kicks his seat.
With a small body, he runs towards the port where the merchant ships are approaching with more strength than anyone else.
“If I catch you, I won’t let you go!”
Even if it's wrong, I'll follow it and run.
wee.
The highest point of the palace is the Buck Buck.
More, I was happy.