Can you believe?

Raja then said, "By choice? What do you mean by choice? Are you telling me that Gen chose not to become a King?"

And Balkan said, "Exactly."

"But why would he do that? Wouldn't it be better to become a King all at once?"

Anna then said, "It's kind of complicated. Becoming a King is not the best option in all cases?"

And Raja said, "Why do you say that?"

"Well, for starters, there is a prerequisite to becoming Half King."

"A prerequisite? What is it?"

"Only essences that other people have taught can become Half-King."

"Taught by other people? Why is that?"

"It's quite simple. You know that each person has their comprehension of an essence, right?"

"Yes. You and I can have the same essence, just with different comprehensions."

"It is the same with essences that have been taught. Teachers pass on to their students their own comprehension of the essence, or if they have learned it from someone else, they pass on the comprehension that was passed on to them. The problem with this is that, as I said before, each person has their own comprehension of an essence, and even if two people's comprehensions are very similar, they will never be the same. This causes the person who is learning the essence to end up using an essence that they don't have one hundred percent comprehension of, which causes them to lose a little strength when using the essence. However, usually, the strength lost is minimal, which makes it worthwhile to go down this path because, after all, it is much easier to learn than to comprehend."

Raja then said, "I get it, but why is having learned someone's essence the prerequisite to becoming Half King?"

And Anna said, "It is because a person who is at the Half King level already has the comprehension of a King, but they choose not to become King for a reason. Can you imagine what that is?"

"No. What would that reason be?"

"The reason is that they want to comprehend their essence instead of using the one they have learned."

"And why would they do that since the power is about the same?"

"Well, most don't do that, and the few that do don't do it because they want to."

"Are you telling me that this happens by chance?"

"I wouldn't say by chance. When people turn Half King, it's always because of a conflict of comprehension."

"Conflict of comprehension?"

"Yes, as people who have learned the essences go up in level, they begin to form their comprehension of it. Most of the time, the comprehension is similar to what was taught, but there are cases when it is a little different and sometimes even completely different. When a person who has a different comprehension from the original gets to the king's level, he has two options. The first is to follow the learned comprehension and form his crown, and the second is to rely on his comprehension and form half of his crown by modifying the learned comprehension."

Raja then asked, "You mean Gen chose not to become a King?"

And Anna said, "Not necessarily."

"What do you mean? Didn't you say it was a choice?"

"And it is a choice, but when you get down to it, it's not the person themselves who decides."

"Not them? Then who decides?"

"The person's true self."

"True self? What is that?"

"We all have dreams and goals that we want to achieve, but we do not always follow the path that will lead us to achieve them. Sometimes, we don't follow the path because it is more difficult, sometimes because it is risky, sometimes because we don't know how to follow it, and for many other reasons, but the real us is different, it will never stop doing whatever is possible to achieve our goals. In most decisions about essences, it is the true self that chooses which way to go. There's Gen, for example. The decision to become Half King was made by his true self."

Raja then asked, "I get it, but why would his true self choose to go that way? At the end of the day, he will have more work just to have a little more strength."

"It's simple. His true self chose that because regardless of what Gen would say, that's what he really wanted."

"Gen wanted that?"

"Yes, there's no doubt about it. If he didn't want it, he would be a King now."

"I can't comprehend why someone would deny being a King. I comprehend that the strength of a Half King is about the same, but still. Why choose the hard way?"

Balkan then said, "There's no reason Raja. It's very simple."

Balkan then bent down and picked up a red bottle from under the counter. He then put it on the counter and said, "What color is this bottle?"

And Raja said, "This bottle? It's Red, but what does that have to do with what we were talking about?"

"Easy there. What if I tell you that this bottle is blue? Would you believe that?"

"Huh? What do you mean Balkan? Just look at this bottle, and you can see that it is red. No one would believe it's blue unless it's a trick."

"It's not a trick."

"Then it is red."

"What if I told you that if you believe it's blue, you could become a King now."

"Well, in that case, I would believe it's blue."

"Are you sure you could do it?"

"Of course. What's so hard about saying that this bottle is blue, even if it's a lie?"

"No, Raja, you didn't comprehend what I said. I didn't say that to become a king, you have to say that this bottle is blue. I said you have to believe. Can you believe that this bottle is blue?"

"... I don't think so."

"So there you go. That was a very basic example, and you couldn't accept something that you considered wrong. Now imagine if instead of colors, I was talking about essences."

"Can you imagine believing in a version of your essence that you consider wrong?"

"Of course not."

" Then, if you were in Gen's shoes, most likely you would be in the same situation, with half a crown on your head."

"But Balkan. I don't think anyone could believe things like you asked me to."

"Actually, most of them can't. If everyone who had their essences taught became a King, the vast majority of them would have a half crown. It's rare to see someone who can believe something that he considers to be wrong."

"And how do these people who learn the essence form a crown? Can they get to the point of believing it?"

"No, it's simpler than that. You just take a person with no experience at all, namely a child, and train them using your essence as a basis."

"But even then, won't they form their own opinion?"

"Well, most do, but there are some people who manage to stay on the essence path."

"And those people who do become King with the essence they have learned, right? That seems to be a good way to create King-level people."

"I wish it were. The reality is that the vast majority, even though they have yet to form their comprehension, don't even come close to the King level. The vast majority of them stop at the Material level."

"But still, after a few years of using the essence, that person would most likely make it to the level of influence."

"Not really, Raja. The vast majority of people who learn an essence fail to develop it after a certain point in their life, and this is because they can no longer comprehend the learned essence, preventing them from leveling up."

"And isn't there a solution to that?"

"There is, and it's quite simple. All it takes is for the person who is stagnated to begin to comprehend the essence of his own path, and when he reaches the level where he left off on the other path, he will be able to continue normally. However, that hardly ever happens because the vast majority of people who are chosen have a shallow level of comprehension, and they would never have become awakened naturally."

"Got it, then-", but Raja stopped talking and thought, 'What is this feeling?' and then looked in Gen's direction and realized that he had his eyes closed.

He then thought, 'What a fright. I thought Gen was-', but he was interrupted by an invisible wave that came out of the half gem on Gen's forehead.

The wave went through everyone in the restaurant, and it didn't stop there, continuing all over the city and even all over the desert. It then continued through the surrounding countries until it reached a mountain far to the northwest of the continent.

On this mountain, a man was sitting on a chair while watching a group of people practicing their spear fighting. The man had short gray hair and was wearing a kimono that had the crest of a spear pointing at the sky.

The man then stood up from his chair and said, "Enough for now, let's -", but before he could finish, he turned his head and began to look in one direction. 

After a few moments, he began to laugh and then said, "Hahaha, you finally made it, Gen. It seems that the day when we will meet again is getting closer and closer."