After hearing the story of the "Mad King"—or rather, the "Swan King"—Iver slightly furrowed his brow.
He reached up to stroke his chin and fell into deep thought.
Sherlock did not interrupt Iver's thoughts, either. Everyone around the table remained silent, quietly waiting for Iver's opinion and assessment.
"...I have two questions."
Suddenly, Iver asked, "First, what Level was the Swan King?"
Since people called the Swan King the "perfect creation of the Twin Mirrors," and even regarded him as the "earthly apostle" of an apostle reincarnated into human form...
Did that mean the Swan King himself had also been an extraordinarily powerful transcendent? After all, in this world... the more insane someone was, the stronger they usually were. Their madness most likely indicated powerful Path adaptability. And once they possessed adaptability, it meant that they would level up much faster than others on that Path, with a far higher potential ceiling.
Even if an ordinary person possessed extremely strong Path adaptability, they might still be unable to find occult tomes and thus be unable to become a transcendent; but as long as a transcendent possessed high-level adaptability, they could become a high-ranking transcendent as long as they successfully completed the Promotion Ritual. And as long as the corresponding Path was not banned locally, having a sufficiently high Level meant that they would naturally gain access to higher-level occult knowledge.
—And the Swan King had been a genuine king.
Not to mention that the Path of Beauty was originally the inherited Path of the Iris Family. Even when Avalon's royal family was at its most desperate, Princess Isabel had Sherlock assisting her with her advancement; the Grand Princess of Star Antimony also had the expert Laro the Clown escorting her.
As the ruler of a nation, the Swan King could