Although Heaven Capital of Boro had been held, the collapse of the Heavenly Palace brought Absek no small amount of trouble.
It was not merely because of the rumors among the people and the various factions seizing the chance to make an issue of it. Much of it was also his own fault.
Like most Boro People, superstition was buried deep in his bones. He simply refused to admit it after becoming Supreme Commander, and had even followed The Alliance's trend by preaching materialism and atheism.
At first, it had helped a little. Repeat any phrase often enough, and one would start to feel that it was true.
Especially during the educational reforms, Absek had at one point considered himself a true materialist warrior. He had even mistaken Kabaha, that fellow who could not read the air, for a comrade, forgetting that the reformist officers were his real comrades.
However, self-comforting measures ultimately treated the symptoms rather than the cause.
Even though he deliberately refused to sit in the emperor's chair and had specially built a Commander's Residence to emphasize to everyone that his legitimacy had nothing to do with the Heavenly Palace, its collapse still shattered his defenses.
It was not entirely because his mental resilience was too weak. Part of the blame lay with the Academy.
In his mind, no survivor organization in the entire wasteland understood science better than the Academy.
Yet the Academy had just assured him that the Heavenly Palace could remain floating for another ten or twenty years, only for it to fall to the ground moments later.
It was hard not to make him doubt the Academy, and even science itself, which in turn made him doubt himself.
Was there truly some unseen existence manipulating everything with an invisible hand?
And so, his