—
Thus began their conversation, which started as little more than mutual probing but soon evolved into an exchange of ideas between scholars. They discussed all manner of scientific topics, ranging from simple mechanical levers to their understanding of gravity.
Regis explained that gravity in his world was not influenced by a solar system but only by the core of the planet—or more accurately, the core of a very large asteroid—since in his world there was no solar system, only a collection of massive asteroids freely traveling through space.
Although Regis did not explain it explicitly and had no knowledge of planets, solar systems, or other astronomical concepts as Gustave knew them, Gustave was able to infer much from his explanation of his homeworld, leaving him astonished by the many inexplicable phenomena of Regis universe.
Their discussion continued for so long that Regis had to hypnotize his maids once more, simply to allow their talk to carry on well into the morning. Even though he knew that the entourage was probably already in a panic, searching for his whereabouts, he did not stop—such a discussion between fellow scholars was far too enjoyable for him to ignore.
During one of these scholarly exchanges, Gustave once again felt both a chill and a sense of awe at how this natural-born genius could, with nothing more than a glance at his RDBM creation, devise a framework reminiscent of a 13th-century Chinese hand cannon.
However, instead of relying on gunpowder, Regis's version employed Fire Rune Magic as its propulsion system. Though it still lacked the sophisticated reloading mechanism present in Gustave's own design, the very concept filled him with an inexplicable dread.
Because, truly, just as he himself had once drawn inspiration from the concept of Vibranium, Regis—or rather, any of the countless geniuses in this world—could be inspired simply by observing his RDBM projectile machinery.
After all, what one truly needs to elevate their standard of living—or in this case, the standard of weaponry—is merely a spark of inspiration from a higher civilization.
Just as he had once been inspired by the creations of Marvel, so too could they learn to craft something akin to a pistol once their tools and devices reached the necessary level of sophistication.
Although there is a saying that a modern person would be unable to improve the living standards of a medieval one if transported to that era, Gustave knew that saying only held true when one lacked the proper tools and means to bring such technology into existence.
And while the world of The Witcher lacked the assembly lines of modern industry, it possessed something that could serve as their substitute—magic.
Indeed, without magic, the creation of a pistol would remain stalled until another technological breakthrough occurred.
A clear example of this was Regis himself, who once attempted to design a hand cannon without the aid of Fire Rune Magic, only to find himself stumped—claiming he would need a more advanced alchemical distillation station to proceed.
Because of that, Gustave knew it was only a matter of time—if he were ever to reveal the RDBM to the public, pistols would likely soon be invented in this world.
And should such an invention fall into the hands of the Nilfgaardians—a well-oiled machine of a nation, unified under a single purpose—Gustave could easily imagine the inevitable outcome: the age of swords and axes would give way to mortars, rounds, and eventually, pistols and bullets.
For that reason, he had pleaded with Regis at the time to bury the invention until the Continent was ready—or until he and his kingdom were.
Although he was a Beyonder of the Paragon Pathway, he was still human at heart—harboring a selfishness he masked beneath the guise of acting for the greater good of humanity. Even then, his selfishness had never concerned inventions that could improve quality of life, but rather those that might endanger his own survival.
What unsettled him even more was not Regis's refusal—Regis had, in fact, agreed—but rather a faint recollection unearthed from the depths of his [Recall] memory.
Regis had mentioned that some mages of the North—acquaintances of his long before their passing—had once designed something similar. Some of their creations were far less sophisticated, but others were even more advanced, with one of them featuring a homing missile targeting system.
And the one who had created that homing-targeting mechanism was someone Gustave knew well from Season of Storms: Ortolan, the very same figure who had developed the anti-aging elixir.
He had nearly forgotten about him—or rather, that detail had slipped his mind—because much of that book was buried beneath pages upon pages of sex scenes.
That old mage had already been experimenting with comparable designs, and judging from the passage stating that "almost none of the inventions saw the light of day"—with emphasis on inventions in the plural—Gustave realized that the late Ortolan might have produced many such creations, possibly even more advanced than a simple pistol.
One of those inventions that had actually been completed and tested was the Telekinesis-Powered Arbalest—a weapon equipped with a homing targeting system capable of striking precise points.
Although the design was eventually scrapped—its critics dismissing it as unreliable due to its lack of perfect accuracy—the narrow vision of that medieval age failed to recognize its true potential. Had they known of modern missiles, whose explosive payloads make pinpoint accuracy less essential, their judgment might have been different.
Thus, it would have marked not merely the age of mortars, but the age of explosive mortars with homing targeting systems—a hybrid technology bridging medieval craftsmanship and modern weaponry, made possible only through magic.
That thought alone filled Gustave with dread. If he were to create many inventions in the future—ones even more advanced than Ortolan's designs—and they were released without restraint, they could become sparks of inspiration that might drive the geniuses of this world into reckless excess.
And when everything eventually spiraled out of control, he feared he would come to understand what Einstein must have felt. Einstein had merely discovered the mass–energy conversion equation, yet that single revelation inspired countless brilliant minds—many lacking wisdom—to create nuclear weapons.
Thus was born the near-cataclysmic age that almost cast Earth back into the Stone Age. It was only through sheer luck that humanity was not reduced to rubble, but instead pushed through that grim nuclear era—emerging into a modern age capable of developing the early prototype of Iron Man's Arc Reactor.
Because of this line of thought, from that moment on, whenever Gustave set out to invent something, he not only calculated its technological advancement but also considered its potential impact on society—especially in the field of weaponry.
However, if an invention merely improved the quality of life, he would release it without restraint, assuming its inspiration did not extend into the realm of arms and warfare.
This train of thought also led him to another conclusion: whenever he invented something, he had to assume that, buried somewhere among the old mages' archives of discarded creations, there already existed a version more advanced than his own.
Because of that, he resolved to ensure that his own designs—particularly in the realm of weaponry—were at least two or three generations ahead of anything those old mages had once conceived, even if only within the bounds of his imagination.
After all, although the Northern Kingdoms were far more barbaric and disunited than Nilfgaard, they were overflowing with brilliant minds and intellectual mages—too many to count.
Regis himself admitted that he could not name all of them without spending hours recounting his acquaintances and their acquaintances in turn.
There was Ortolan the mechanical engineer, Alzur the geneticist, Raffard the chemist, Alexander the epidemiologist, Eltibald the cosmologist, Idarran the evolutionary biologist, Stammelford the seismologist, Larissa the pyrologist, Monck the meteorologist, Henson the hydrologist—and many, many more.
Unlike in modern society, where scientists such as meteorologists or hydrologists possess no power beyond their research, in this world such titles carry far greater weight.
A meteorologist here could literally command storms and typhoons, for the presence of magic served as a bridge between understanding and the physical manifestation of that knowledge.
And among those brilliant Nordling minds, only Alexander—the new-generation mage and friend of Keira Metz who appeared in The Witcher 3—stood on a level even remotely comparable to those ancient legends.
The rest of the new generation of sorcerers lacked their predecessors' drive, consumed instead by schemes and power plays meant to feed their egos and affirm their superiority.
Even Vilgefortz fell into the same category—forgetting to refine the power he already possessed and instead looking elsewhere, swept away by the current of a new generation of sorcerers obsessed with ruling the world rather than understanding it.
This realization also made Gustave recognize that the enemies he needed to consider did not come only from the South, but also from the North.
Although the new generation of mages was far less terrifying than their predecessors, he feared that, if pushed to desperation, they might unearth the tomes of those old masters—filled with lost inventions—and once again stand on equal footing with him, despite his modern knowledge.
As for why the new generation had yet to unearth those tomes and designs in the original timeline, Gustave speculated that it was due to Nilfgaard's swift and relentless invasions of the Northern Realms.
The ceaseless wars and recurring disasters suffered by the Nordlings—time and again, both in the books and the games—had left them too preoccupied with survival to even consider searching the ruins of ancient mage laboratories for power that might turn the tide.
Because of that, Gustave knew exactly what he had to do for his Sequence 8 Archaeologist method of acting: to secure as many of the North's hidden remnants as possible before the great game began. That way, when it did, he would already control most of the northern pieces—granting him extra pawns compared to his opponents.
Not only that, but he also realized he had no choice but to make the first move—to become the one who strikes before being struck. For even though, by the events of The Witcher 3, Alexander's work remained incomplete, Gustave's interference with the timeline meant that the possibility of that epidemic-obsessed maniac completing his research was now far greater.
And since Gustave was, at heart, a mechanic—one especially vulnerable to biological weapons—he refused to gamble his life in a battle of wits against Alexander. Even with his modern knowledge, he wasn't confident he could out-research a sorcerer.
Thus, he firmly placed Alexander on his list of enemies to be eliminated swiftly, before turning his attention back to the topic Regis was currently discussing.
"Just as I mentioned earlier, Prince Gustave, I am inclined to agree that your… instability originates from the absence of what might be called a foundation of sanity—a clean-slate anchor, if you will. Your mind, as I perceive it, carries far too much—an accumulation of knowledge drawn from the collective subconscious of your Pathway."
"Interestingly, in this world, the Pathway has not been divided into the customary Pillars by the Primordial Chaos, as you described in the history of your own realm. As a result, the pressure upon your psyche—your compulsion to surrender to madness, the recurrent episodes of delirium—is markedly greater than it would be in your native world."
"It should be noted that the influence from this 'Godhood Beyonder Characteristics' is not confined to your lineage, nor solely to your Pathway. It extends through the very fabric of the world itself."
"Consequently, even at the earliest stages of your development—long before reaching the adult state you call 'Angel'—you were already subject to a tide of influences beyond those of your own lineage."
"Though I must concede that your repeated descents into delirium have, in a way, tempered your resistance, they have also denied your mind the repose it so desperately requires. It is akin to a muscle compelled to exert itself without rest—not strengthened by the effort, but frayed, trembling, and on the verge of collapse."
"So, you now face two intertwined problems. The first, ensuring that your mind receives adequate respite, has been fortuitously remedied by the Sanguinite Ring. The second, however, remains: you must return your consciousness to a clean-slate state—as though you were newly born, unburdened by the weight of an adult mind."
"Should you, however, prefer to retain that precious consciousness of yours, I may have something of use—a paper, written by a rather eccentric acquaintance of mine, Covinarius, on the phenomenon he termed tissue memory retention."
"In it, he proposed that a fragment of living tissue could, under certain conditions, reconstitute an entire pattern of experience. He rather poetically titled his resulting brew Resonance."
Looking at the paper, Gustave heard a sigh escape from Regis and immediately understood what had stumped the application of this theory to him.
"Regrettably… the final ingredient—a blood sample from another of your own kind—is presently beyond your reach. And given that you have no knowledge of the whereabouts of the rest of your species, it may well prove a task of extraordinary duration, perhaps spanning hundreds or even thousands of years."
Nodding his head, Gustave agreed with Regis's assessment of the duration—but for entirely different reasons. Rather than the difficulty of locating another Beyonder, it was the sheer time required to research and identify substitutes for the ingredients of the Pathway's potions to create another Beyonder.
Unlike his own Earthly knowledge of chemistry—where the periodic table provides a framework to easily identify or synthesize substitutes—researching ingredients for any LOM potion was a largely blind endeavor, undertaken without prior reference or guidance.
Even a Fool Pathway formula that was already listed in detail offered little clarity, because the composition of its ingredients was never fully explained—aside from visual descriptions and vague effects. As a result, research became a blind process, relying on brute-force testing of every item available on the Continent, one by one.
And that did not even account for the possibility of a single ingredient being incorrect—forcing him to create an entirely new substance with similar properties, a monumental undertaking. Nor did it consider the formula as a whole being slightly flawed, which could require him to redo the entire research process from scratch.
Many other complications made the task even more daunting; creating an RDBM from scrap metal seemed like child's play in comparison to researching the Potion Pathway ingredients, which he deduced was a task a thousand times more difficult.
Furthermore, advancing in the Sequence—particularly from the 4th Paragon Sequence, which bears the title of Alchemist—he deduced would not help him either.
At its core, the Alchemist in the Paragon Pathway is not a master of chemistry. Rather, it is akin to the Alchemists in Fullmetal Alchemist, focusing on the creation of life forms rather than the crafting of mystical ingredients—a fundamentally different discipline from the conventional understanding of alchemy.
With no other choice, Gustave set the paper on Resonance aside, placing it at the back of his mind, and instead focused his research on the Sanguinite. When there was nothing more to pursue in that direction, he turned his attention back to Resonance and the research on creating another Beyonder.
Although he knew this was only a stopgap measure, his hands were tied, leaving him no choice but to proceed. The process would take an extremely long time, leading him to deduce that, in the future, he might have to pause at certain Sequences until he could brew the Resonance before resuming his ascent up the Pathway.
—
Hearing the bustling sounds of the city and noting through his [Knowledge] that it was already 9 a.m., Gustave climbed down from the cushioned settees and bowed to Regis. "Master Regis, thank you for saving my life and providing me a way out of this disease."
"Perhaps if the knowledge from my homeworld is insufficient for you, I can assist as a correspondent in one of your research projects without asking for anything in return—not even to be named on the papers."
"Or, if you desire something more tangible, simply say the word; my mother, Meve, possesses a modest amount of wealth."
Shaking his head with quiet exasperation, Regis declined the offer once more.
"As I have said, Young Prince Gustave, there is no need for anything of the sort. Your modern knowledge is more than adequate. Moreover, I assist you solely for my own convenience, as I cannot endure the… nauseating insanity of your mind."
He paused, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "As for a correspondent, additional assistance would indeed be useful. Recently, the residents of Dillingen have experienced a minor dispute with the Dryads of Brokilon."
"They hope to resolve matters concerning the green eerie wives before the Saovine New Year, and I must be prepared to offer my services should a surgeon be required."
"Not only that, do not concern yourself with titles. No matter the scale of one's contribution as a correspondent, credit is due where it is deserved."
Nodding, Gustave could not help but ask, "Do you intend to spend the New Year here? If so, will you celebrate alone or with friends? If alone, you should come join me in Cintra—it is always better to have someone familiar to celebrate with."
"Sure, I would love to… Oh yes, one more thing."
Rummaging through his space-expansion satchel, Regis produced a handful of salt stalactites and handed them to Gustave. "Here. Take these, and lick them whenever you have free time. More than that—keep them nearby before going to bed, or before taking a bath. They will help hasten your mind's spiritual recovery."
Nodding, Gustave replied, "I'll keep that in mind."
He was well aware of salt's efficacy in spiritual matters—one notable example being in The Witcher 3, when the old Wolf Witcher, Reinald, had trapped the Red Miasmal in a chamber of salt stalactites.
With that done, once his maids were awakened, Gustave and his attendants gathered several blocks of salt that Regis had given him and returned to the ship, resuming their journey with Cintra as their final destination.
—