With such a tongue-twisting title, Ronan would never have recalled it straightaway if the Martial Emperor had not already narrowed the field and set him on the right track. In fact, even searching through the information contained in the "Twelve Kingdoms" entry, item by item and level by level, it still took him two seconds to pin down whom the title belonged to:
"One of the Barren Ruins True God's subordinate gods?"
"So you classified the 'King of Firm Gold' under the 'Barren Ruins Divine Kingdom'?"
Her question really did make Ronan feel a little like a student being tested by his teacher. He instinctively reviewed the logic behind his classification before answering, "Yes. Is there a problem?"
"No. I was just thinking that your grounding in greater cosmic history and the history of gods is quite solid. Classifying deities by allegiance, even at the most basic level, generally exposes you to erosion by the rule power inherent in them, even if Earth is not yet covered by the Divine Cloak... For you to still be this lively, your proficiency in Ritual Ancient Script must be advancing at an astonishing pace. You've become quite methodical at channeling and discharging that power."
"...Thank you for the compliment."
Ronan had nothing to say to that. At this level, knowledge and power had to match, and ultimately both had to form a coherent system. It was perfectly natural for the Martial Emperor to infer his strengths and weaknesses from the smallest clues. Besides, wasn't his rapid improvement in Ritual Ancient Script due in considerable part to A Brief History of Human-God Relations, which the Martial Emperor and Raven had "coauthored"?
In that sense, the Martial Emperor was something of a teacher to him.
That thought made Ronan's feelings toward the Martial Emperor even