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Two?

Why were there two? Judging by Fourth Epoch ruins found in previous archaeological excavations, the seats in the image should have belonged to whoever held the highest position and greatest power there. Yet there were two? Were they great nobles of equal standing? And there were forty-one inverted candelabras on the left and forty on the right. Even for the Fourth Epoch, with its love of asymmetrical beauty, wasn't that excessive?

Alger, the Hanged Man, had once skimmed the church's records of ruin explorations available to bishops. Questions filled his mind, but he was no archaeologist or historian, and his knowledge of such matters was only superficial. He was not too shocked.

Miss Audrey, on the other hand, had read many Fourth Epoch texts and papers when she was younger, in her pursuit of the Beyonder world. She distinctly remembered that the empires of Solomon, Tudor, and Trunsoest all had strict, clearly defined hierarchies that no one could cross...

A layout with two seats and leaders of equal standing might topple the foundations of quite a few existing historical theories... No wonder Mr. World had called it "strange." It really was strange!

But this also showed that Mr. World had studied Fourth Epoch history and customs... Was he an archaeologist? An explorer? A professor or student in some university's history department? Or, like Mr. Tower, did he possess knowledge so vast it seemed like Omniscience?

While Audrey was pondering this, Xio, Judgment, who sat one seat away from her, suddenly recalled something and blurted out:

"The Tudor-Trunsoest United Empire!"

Ever since he had made the World pose the question, Klein, seated at the head of the table, had kept his attention on Mr. Tower. In his mind, only the Tower might know something about it.

To his surprise, Miss