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George III moved his fingers slightly, gently wiping the Balam-style patterns off the Magic Wishing Lamp to reveal its golden base.
He recalled how to use it-recite the invocation "Eternal Genie" in a language capable of stirring spiritual power, then make a wish. No more than three wishes were permitted; if there were more than four, something extremely terrifying would happen.
It was simple, practically two safe wishes for free. Even an ordinary person who could speak a language imbued with Beyonder power could use it.
After seeing the actual object, George III suspected that the name "Magic Wishing Lamp" might have something to do with the magical lamp imprisoning a spirit in Roselle Gustav's court tale, One Thousand and One Nights. Even their methods of use were identical. But the Magic Wishing Lamp, 0-05, had appeared countless years before Roselle, so George III concluded that Roselle must have based the story on this Beyonder item.
If Roselle had seen this item, why was it still on the Southern Continent?
Had the angels of the Church of Steam and Machinery, the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun, and even the Churches of Storms and Evernight all been blind back then, unable to recognize a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact? Even if they had simply tried burning it, surely they should have noticed when it failed to burn.
George III was also puzzled by the facts. All three people who had come into contact with it had died, as though some unseen force had delivered it to him in a manner that would attract notice while remaining reasonably plausible.
"0-08?"
Having cooperated with the Twilight Hermit Order, he naturally knew more about 0-08 than the Churches' Beyonders. He even had certain suspicions about its unexpected theft, though he could not be