—Just how far in the past was it? Long ago, before Hiroto the Paradox visited this continent anew, before the True Demon King appeared.
The memory of the first time someone set off from this continent. Hiroto was gazing out at the sea with his companions.
A red hull, expanding out wider than a castle's walls. Brand new sails lined up in white. The colossal sailing vessel that was going to navigate them to the new world was right in front of his eyes—a ship named "Knowledge's Gate."
Hiroto the Paradox's companions were not minia, but a group of goblins. Hunted as base vermin in this era, they studied science, gained the power of intelligence and group harmony for themselves, and at last, built the Knowledge's Gate.
These goblins had achieved an undertaking that everyone else asserted as impossible.
Pioneering a new world beyond this continent—it was the end of a dream. "…It zook a while. We're halfway zhere, Hiroto."
Zegegu Zogi the Stone Dam had arrived at the beach much earlier than Hiroto and appeared to have been gazing at the boat.
Nothing but a mere chief warrior ten years prior, Zegegu had grown older, too, and had now become the leader of his clan.
"Indeed. But still halfway to go," Hiroto replied similarly. He thought about Zegegu Zogi's long journey.
Zegegu Zogi had a talent that other goblins didn't: the capability to logically ascertain disadvantages and advantages and iterate on plans aimed toward the future. Hiroto had assisted with Zegegu Zogi's fight, and conversely, Zegegu Zogi had protected Hiroto's life from harm, slowly raising Hiroto's position up among his people.
"With zis, I'll have no regrez left behind…"
To a goblin, with their short lifespans, a mere ten years was a considerably long among of time.
To Zegegu Zogi, it seemed like far back in his past.
"World… The new world. It has a nice ring to it. For us goblins, a world of vast pozential."
"No, not yet. Venerable Zegegu. Looking at the world isn't enough. In your case… You have a duty to see the people you lead prosper and thrive. It's a future that will absolutely become a reality."
"Hah, hah, hah… I don't zhink I'll be living zhat long. Been alive zhirty years. If I arrive zhere, and see it wiz zhese eyes… zhat alone is already zoo good for me."
"You can't go dying now, okay?"
A woman's voice cut in between the two's conversation.
Her back was facing the pair, and her pale feet kissed the water's edge. She had long golden hair and a slender frame.
She was a vampire woman named Ephelina the Snow Sunlight.
"You die, and there might be more goblins looking to chow down on Hiroto again. I need you to be strict with them, or I'll end up with more work."
Hiroto the Paradox, a mysterious and odd visitor, had lived a long time amid the people-eating monstrous races. If he hadn't met his bodyguard, Ephelina, early on, he likely wouldn't have survived this long.
"I'm grateful to Miszer Hiroto. He was zhe only one to lend a hand to us as we were fated for extinczion… Zhere aren't any ozhers among our clan who have inzeracted with a single minian for so long."
"I am simply fulfilling my promise, and nothing more. Transforming this goblin clan into a society that properly recognizes intelligence and cooperation. The next, to protect the goblins themselves from the threat of the minia. It wasn't me who saved you from being destroyed, but your dream, venerable Zegegu."
"Why did you choose us?" "Because you all chose me." "You…picked a difficult path."
"Not at all. I believe this will make things better."
A foreign sky where visitors who deviated wildly from the worldly principles and natural laws of the Beyond found themselves. That was this world.
The information that Hiroto had first sought after crossing worlds was if there were any other visitors like him who had appeared across this world's history— and records of the fates they met.
The first conclusion he received from this information was that it was impossible to achieve immediate reform of minia society centralized around the
three kingdoms.
The deviant presences that brought instability to the world—visitors who brandished their outstanding technology and knowledge—had been largely deemed demon kings throughout history and exterminated through the collective efforts of the minian races.
This world knew that rapid development reliant on a single individual would have harmful effects on their civilization. They didn't integrate the demon kings themselves, but just the vestiges of the technology and power they left behind, and continued on developing their world with stability.
It was almost like this world's antibody mechanism, raised over a long history, against these foreign threats called visitors. A refined and excellent tradition. Therefore, it would be hard to undermine it.
"I simply chose the path where I saw possibility. Not the already-stabilized minia kingdoms…but the other community that energetically reproduced, had a social nature, and was filled with desire and zeal. That was how you appeared to me."
"Ha-ha-ha. An inexperienced and foolish group. My mind here would be bested by a minian child's, surely. Dizappointed by minian groups, witnessing our goblin foolishness firsthand…you must have walked a difficult pazh to reach zoday, Mizter Hiroto."
"…Pfft. Not at all."
Hiroto fearlessly laughed. It wasn't a strong front, but his true, heartfelt enjoyment for this grand endeavor. He had loved the path he had traveled to get here.
"Venerable Zegegu. I believe this world is a wonderful place. I haven't abandoned my expectations for the minia, while at the same time, I truly believe your people are clever, absorbing every experience you face. This world has possibilities that far exceed those in the Beyond! Much like you and I are able to talk right now, venerable Zegegu!"
"You mean…Word Arts? Zhat is what pozzibility is to a polizician like yourself?"
"That's right. In the world of the Beyond, minia can't affect societies outside their own. That is different in this world. The goblin clan I joined forces with has developed technology just as you and I wished, learned language, and are now trying to discover a new world! As a politician, could there be anything so delightful?! There's a chance to bring everyone happiness and riches! This world needs us!"
There was no language barrier in this world. Visitors, without any natural life span, could enact any long-term plan they could ever want. There wasn't any more ideal of a world for a politician.
The many long moons spent fostering goblin culture together with Zegegu Zogi were sure to save more than just the goblins. It was bound to help out a great many people as long as the day came where minian races and goblins could join hands together.
"Yooo! Hiroto!"
Someone called Hiroto's name from up in the sky. A blue wyvern. Raheek the Wet Scale.
"Don't head out now! Real dangerous out there! Kraken'll swallow ya whole!"
"I know. That's why we're waiting like this until it's time to depart." Normally, wyverns were the natural enemies of goblins.
Amid all the contributions Hiroto had made to this plan, the ones he prided himself above all else were enlisting the help of the prodigy Raheek, who had discovered a sea course unknown to even the minian races, and making him agree not to eat the goblins.
"We're counting on you, Raheek."
"That so, huuuh? Well, you guys are all idiots, see! Don't know anything about the sea! I figured you already forgot and got worried for ya! I'm hungry!"
"Your meal's piled up in that carriage over there. Go ahead and do whatever you'd like until sunset."
"Heh-heh-heh! Yer a great guy, Hiroto! May be stupid, but still a great guy!
Ahhh, I can't wait! Settin' sail! Looking forward to it!"
The boisterous, shrill voice passed on by. Ephelina shielded her eyes with her hand and watched him depart. Shrugging her shoulders slightly, she turned around to Zegegu Zogi.
"Idiots are nice and easy to manipulate, aren't they? Sure are loud, though." "Nonzheless…he has discovered a route from zhe skies for us to cross the sea
wizhout kraken azzacks. Raheek deserves commendazion zhe mozt here." "Yeah, sure, it might be that way for you, but still."
Ephelina was coming back up the beach, seemingly grown bored of playing in the water.
Of all of Hiroto's companions, she was the only one who didn't seem to have been deeply affected by their expedition at all.
Ephelina placed both hands behind her back and turned around to Hiroto.
"Hey, Hiroto. So in the legends of the Beyond, vampires can't cross the ocean, right?"
"Ah, yes, there were some stories that said as much."
"So then what'll you do? If I melt or something the instant I cross the sea?" "It'll make me very sad. But that's just superstition. You vampires, for a long
while, didn't know the truth behind your own identity. That's why the superstitions from the Beyond managed to spread like that."
"Huh, that so…? You're not gonna give up on this, are you? Going out to sea, I mean."
"I'm not."
Hiroto had been together with Ephelina even longer than he had known Zegegu Zogi. She was Hiroto's sole bodyguard and close friend.
When the end of his experiment in the new continent was finished, he was sure to return back to these shores. A day may come when not only goblins, but Ephelina could also live as she wished among the minian world.
In Hiroto the Paradox's future, it was indeed them…the companions who held dreams in his stead who would be necessary going forward. Not a single one of them could be lost.
"Miszer Hiroto…someday, one smarzer zhan myself will be born." "..."
Whether he had gazed at the future far across the ocean or read the thoughts in Hiroto's mind, Zegegu Zogi brought up this promise.
"Our lives are short. However, we will be born anew. Zhough each individual one is short…zhat brief life span will pass on into zhe new age, stronger. Zhat is what we goblins do. Not our name or our second name…but zhe third name you beszowed us with, Mizter Hiroto. I guarantee you zhe clan bearing zhis name will be raised to be clever. I alone am not zhe last. One will be born smarter zhan any ozher. Zhat is my…way of repaying you after my death."
"Heh-heh-heh. Me, well… I'll also go along with you, Hiroto. It'd be a waste to hand over something this fun to a bunch of kids or someone else. I'm definitely not going to die, either. Got it?"
"..."
Hiroto faced off into the sun to ensure the other two couldn't see his face.
He thought he was an innately inhuman person. He had been so back in the Beyond and still was now.
Hiroto hadn't been emotionally pained to see goblins attack his fellow minia, and he was able to live on without any desires or dreams of his own.
"Thank you very much." Nevertheless, he felt happy.
Drawing in others' trust made him able to experience these warm feelings.
He could feel the desire to see a world together with them that no one else had ever witnessed before.
The position of the sun was low. The time to set sail would come eventually. With this, he made a promise that wouldn't be kept.
"Let us step foot on this land once more again. All of us, together."
Many days and months passed. Crossing the sea, Hiroto the Paradox realized one of his big goals.
Among the companions he was with on that day, he alone returned to their original continent.
—For their dream. To create a society where minian and monstrous races coexisted together.
Aureatia. Third floor of an apartment complex, the third match finished.
Dant the Heath Furrow heard, earlier than anyone else on this continent, about the vision Hiroto indicated for the world's future and its feasibility.
Could goblins who didn't eat people exist?
That problem has already been taken care of.
"On the new continent, we continued to research. Monstrous races eat the minian races. Naturally, this could be willfully suppressed on an individual basis, but as long as the race exhibited this tendency on a whole, it would be difficult to quell such desires. However, if that was the biggest obstacle to reconciliation between races, we researched if we could selectively breed livestock to serve as a substitute."
"…This isn't a problem that can be solved with a substitute food source, though. The logical perspectives of the minian and monstrous races are completely different. Lycans, for example, are said to not actively eat people, but they're still a race that kills them for fun."
"And if that was nothing more than prejudice? Milord Dant. The difference between us is much smaller than I thought… I have, in actuality, lived for a long time in goblin society. If they were truly a race incapable of mutual
understanding, then I certainly could've never done such a thing."
"Isn't that just an issue of individual wills like you mentioned before? Making them comply with a prohibition on eating any and all members of the minian races is much harder than forbidding them from eating a single, designated individual."
"Of course, I cannot deny that may also be a factor."
Hiroto forced a smile. The truth was he had been in danger of being preyed upon many times.
"However, in that case, why is it that goblins do not eat their fellow goblins? It's simply that they adhere to a clear prohibition not to eat their own comrades and consume hostile races instead. The example that you put forth, about forbidding them from eating any member of the minian races—to them, it's a simple and easily understood rule of thumb. As long as the minian races accept them and they are given plenty of provisions to curb any need to eat people, then it will be possible to include us minian races into their definition of comrade."
"Even then, logical perspective's an issue. There are none among the minian races who believe it's okay to attack others capable of mutual Word Arts understanding in order to eat them. That's the disparity that defines them as the monstrous races in our society."
"…Is that true, though? As I am a visitor, I can't help but find that questionable. The ability or inability to understand Word Arts. In truth, there isn't as major of a difference as the people of this world think there is. Yes, I'll cede that only gigant eat wyverns, given their flavor, but in actuality, wyverns are an exception here, being preyed upon despite communicating with Word Arts. If you're talking about killing adversaries who understand Word Arts, well then, all the minian races do that as well. Is it really that big of a difference on whether or not the body is eaten afterward?"
"…A visitor's thought process there, Hiroto the Paradox. That's completely alien to our world."
"I know. That's precisely why an outsider like myself needs to act in order to bring harmony between the monstrous and minian races."
"You're going so far to introduce goblins into our society, but what do you gain—?"
In the middle of his sentence, Dant fell silent.
That was, in fact, precisely what Hiroto was doing. Hiroto and Zigita Zogi were participating in the Sixways Exhibition in order to prove the benefits of letting goblins enter minian society.
They had suppressed the Old Kingdoms' loyalists, who opposed Aureatia, and even influenced the continent's civilization with the technological innovation of his muskets. If anyone wanted proof of the benefits, he had been achieving exactly that for a while.
"That's precisely why the Sixways Exhibition was necessary. If the hero's the one who defeated the enemy to all… then whoever it ultimately is, they can unconditionally become an ally to all. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Through the title of hero, we'll control the people's emotional backlash and, over a long period of time, systematically permeate society.
"By specifically doing what?"
"First, it'll begin with a slave class. Goblins and other monstrous races will be allowed to integrate as part of a labor force, and with their living areas isolated from minia, we'll give them our substitute food source. Without either starvation or hostility, little by little, we'll see some among them interact with minia and begin a cultural exchange."
After an outcry for equal rights among minian races, it had become difficult to make slaves of elves and dwarves on the continent as in eras prior. In recent years, the value of slaves had been drastically rising day by day. Thus, there was open space in the market for cheap labor whose rights were differentiated from the minian races.
There was no need to seek equal rights from the start. Slowly, gradually. Until eventually, it became too difficult to cut them off from society. That was Hiroto the Paradox's strategy.
"That must mean you've completed it…this substitute food source or whatever."
"Of course."
Hiroto carried a wood box, big enough to need both his hands, from a corner in the room. It was Zigita Zogi's personal property.
Since his arrival in Aureatia, Zigita Zogi hadn't eaten anybody. The same for the goblin army he commanded. Even just Dant's surveillance alone was enough to make the fact undeniable.
"This is our substitute meal." "...What in the…?"
Dant looked inside the box and was rendered speechless. He also needed to endure the nausea.
The box was stuffed with tumors. The tightly packed and chaotically engorged masses of meat seemed to still be alive and pulsating.
A single…clouded eyeball peeked through a gap in the sarcoma pile, and its sight seemed dozy, wandering through the air. It had no will of its own. Or at least, it shouldn't have had one.
"What exactly is this?"
"I already mentioned this before…that we rewarded Ozonezma with one of the spots in the Sixways Exhibition, yes?"
Hiroto's camp had made Ozonezma enter the tournament not because they had anything to gain from his participation.
Giving him the spot in and of itself, allowing him to achieve his own aims, had been the goal.
"That was compensation for this contribution. By calling him to the new continent, we were able to overcome the final hurdle and mass-produce this construct. Ozonezma's skills as a doctor are likely the most cutting-edge medical care this world has. Ozonezma can genetically transfer and incubate cells using a virus. Even testing the faculty to maintain a bare-minimum homeostasis without brain cells is within the scope of their ability."
"Th-that's not… That's not it… You know…what I'm trying to say here.
This thing here—if you're telling the truth, then—is a minian?"
"No, absolutely not. Even though its flavor and texture may be the same, and the raw materials came from a minia, it's absolutely nothing like them. HeLa cells— Oh well, that sort of example isn't going to get things across, will it? These cells, repeatedly modified, are now something completely different entirely, even in a genetic sense."
"But the original minia then—" "Would be me."
Hiroto closed the lid of the box without peering into the flesh mass's single pupil.
The people who had continuously protected Hiroto, Zegegu Zogi and Ephelina, had both left this world a long time ago. However, the goblins never attacked Hiroto. He gave them a substitute.
"Visitors don't have a natural life span. This primary supernatural factor brings eternal youth. In which case, say their cells are ageless cytologically as well—what would happen if they grew cancerous and multiplied endlessly? I've named them Taisai. While they exist as living creatures, they don't die, continuously regenerating as long as they receive nutrients, and serve as a minian replacement for the monstrous races…a new artificial life-form, a construct crafted with the hands of science, so to speak."
"Hiroto the Paradox… This is a truly foolish endeavor. What will the people think when they see that—that thing…? Why… Why would you reveal something like this to me?"
"For your trust. You're able to put much more trust in this than in eating minia, correct? While it is easy to proclaim that these goblins are ones who don't eat people, that won't be enough to instill trust. It's the same as a politician without any personal ambitions. The existence of the Taisai…is the minimum and necessary truth for us to reach a compromise."
"Trust? You expect me to look at that and trust you?" "That's what I hope."
Dant glanced over the closed wooden box with an acrid look.
"…Maybe it might be right. Introducing the monstrous races into society may actually help to restore the world. Just how many citizens in this country would be freed from their toil with the ogres' strength or the goblins' sheer numbers? But…you're telling us to do so, even if it means relying on something that horrifying?"
"Yes. It was necessary to inform you of everything, Milord Dant, as our collaborator."
"…Give me some time to think." "Absolutely. I'll be waiting."
Save the goblins, who were expelled by the minian races and previously driven off the continent.
Save the royal family, now changed into an untenable authority, with the young queen being the sole living survivor.
Save the Order, now persecuted with the loss of faith in the Wordmaker. "You are one of my constituents as well, after all."
Hiroto the Paradox had decided to ally himself with them. He intended to make every one of his promises become reality.