Chapter 269: Stone Tablet of Wisdom
Within the Prawa Theocracy, in towns and villages controlled by ＜Paraiso＞, the churches had been completely destroyed and turned into vacant lots.
This was intended to strongly impress upon the populace that by eliminating the symbol of authority that was the church, they were now completely under control.
And now, a further measure was added.
Churches were usually built in the center of towns. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say that the towns had grown around the churches.
In any case, the basic structure of the Prawa Theocracy was that there was a church in the center, and the town spread out radially from it.
The churches had been razed to the ground, and even the rubble had been neatly removed. When ＜Paraiso’s＞ Multi-legged Heavy Machines arrived, they leveled the ground with tremendous force.
Although the area was already flat, they smoothed it out without a single deviation, compacted it, drove in stakes, and laid out pure white tiles.
The former church sites in each town and village were paved with pure white tiles within a day and a night.
In the center of the leveled ground, a pedestal was prepared.
Beside the pedestal stood a Communicator Doll, guarded by Primates for VIP protection.
The residents gradually gathered, noticing that the scene was clearly different from usual. Normally, if they lingered too long, the Sheriffs would urge them to return to work, but on this day, the Sheriffs were only standing around the square, and they realized that something special was about to begin.
And then, almost everyone who could move had gathered in the square.
At that moment, a Rotorcraft approached the town. The rotors were scattering noise with a flapping sound, but the residents were used to it.
Something was falling from the sky again.
That’s what they thought, and they focused their attention on the Rotorcraft.
The Rotorcraft being used this time was a super-large aircraft for transporting heavy objects. And indeed, it was suspending a huge structure from its belly.
The Rotorcraft came directly above the square and slowly lowered the huge structure it was carrying.
There was a deep hole in the pedestal, and the structure was placed into it.
What was installed in the center of the square was a huge black board.
A Monolith, in other words.
After the Rotorcraft, having unloaded its cargo, disappeared over the horizon, the Monolith glowed faintly and displayed text on its surface.
“From now on, text will be added here once a day.”
“Compliance with this text is required.”
That was written on the surface of the black board in white letters.
“If you have any questions, I will answer them.”
And then…
The Communicator Doll, which had been standing motionless, spoke.
“If you have any questions, I will answer them today. From tomorrow onwards, pray aloud in this square. I cannot answer everything, but the next day, this Monolith will show you the way.”
In this way, a Stone Tablet that would bring civilization appeared in the Prawa Theocracy.
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“What do you think?”
“Well, I think it’s an interesting spectacle?”
Since the other party was a religious nation, this kind of thing would probably be accepted relatively easily.
Instead of a monk’s sermon, the Monolith would speak to them.
“It seems to have a scrolling function as well, so you won’t miss anything, and it’s very thorough.”
“We will add text every day for 380 days a year. Someone will probably copy it down. It’s easy and good that they’ll create their own scriptures.”
Whether it was really easy or not, it was a sufficient merit that there would be no need to dispatch Communicator Dolls to each town.
Communicator Dolls were convenient units, so it would be a waste to use them only as messengers. They wanted to use them only for solving serious problems.
Of course, if they didn’t show their faces from time to time even if there was nothing, the sense of gratitude would fade.
＜Ayame Zero＞ would handle that sort of thing well.
By the way, the Monolith’s power source was a nuclear battery. It was maintenance-free and could be operated for decades or even centuries, so it was suitable for this kind of use.
However, since the Monolith itself also needed maintenance, the overall lifespan would be shorter. Of course, this would not be the case if regular maintenance was performed.
“Does this thing have its own AI?”
“Yes, Ma’am. For now, it’s in Yakari Port. In the future, it will be moved to a place with stable geology inland.”
The Monolith and the Core AI were incorporated into the network grid and held information mutually. Even if they were locally cut off due to natural disasters, communication would not be impaired as a whole. By operating multiple Core AIs simultaneously, fault tolerance was greatly improved.
Internal affairs in the Prawa Theocracy would be managed by this Monolith network. ＜Ringo＞ would not intervene, and the dispatch of Communicator Dolls would be kept to a minimum. It would be a touchstone for the operation of entrusting internal affairs to AIs for local management.
“I think the operation itself is fine, but it’s hard to predict what kind of backlash there will be from the locals.”
“Yes, Ma’am. We assume that this country, with its religious foundation and low resistance to instructions from higher beings, has a foundation for acceptance.”
Humans don’t show their faces, and instructions are given from the Monolith.
Certainly, it was dry and uninteresting. And what kind of reaction would humanity show when such a society was created? Because they didn’t have that knowledge or experience, they built this kind of governing system as a semi-experiment.
In short, it was data collection.
“The lecture hall in Afrasia, Royal Capital, is becoming something interesting, isn’t it?”
The Hall of Wisdom built in the Royal Capital of the Afrasia United Kingdom. They had adopted a system of giving instructions to the dukes by voice, but because they were using Communicator Dolls in conjunction, the evaluation was dispersed and difficult to measure.
However, since they were using local forces for maintaining public order, it was difficult to change the system now.
Vested interests cannot be resolved overnight.
Of course, there was also the solution of crushing everything, but well, it was too late now. As expected, suddenly eliminating them without any major problems would be emotionally unacceptable to the residents.
Because the Communicator Dolls were directly crushing them when there were real problems, there was also the background that they were being recognized as a justice enforcement agency.
“I thought they’d be more wary, or keep their distance.”
“Communicator Dolls are being accepted by the locals more smoothly than expected. It can be said that their position within the Afrasia United Kingdom has become solid.”
The unified currency circulating within the Afrasia United Kingdom, fox-girl-branded daily necessities, agricultural fertilizers, and pharmaceuticals. Basically, all kinds of tools were supplied by ＜Paraiso＞.
Since all of these were sold at reasonable prices, their popularity was bound to increase.
Of course, the labor provided in return was not being wasted.
They were engaged in farming, animal husbandry, and Burnstone mining. Some were also engaged in the manufacture of metal products, woodworking, and porcelain manufacturing. Naturally, the performance was not comparable to that of ＜Paraiso＞ products, but since they couldn’t continue to supply them forever, they were currently putting some effort into educating them.
And they were collecting know-how in these areas and providing feedback as appropriate.
The Afrasia United Kingdom, and now the Prawa Theocracy, would be used as vast testing grounds for ＜The Tree＞.
“The learning index is also improving, so it’s not bad. Hmm, I wonder if external stimuli are important after all.”
“Yes, Ma’am. In particular, the results show that information gathering using the five senses is the most efficient for Brain Units.”
When comparing Brain Units that were using Communicator Doll terminals with those that were not, there seemed to be a difference in the growth rate of the Neural network.
＜Ringo＞’s prediction was that this was because the density of the information being input was different, and because the feedback to the output was more diverse.
“The environment for safely operating Communicator Dolls has been established. We will be able to further accelerate the education of Brain Units.”
This is the expansion phase of The Tree. After all, it’s a distributed grid. A distributed grid solves everything. I don’t know.
The various Kemonomimi girls are very popular locally. Diversification is the recent trend.