Chapter 95: Sequel: The Fake Saint Is Off to Japan 5
Hi everyone! Ellize here! I'm taking a break from hanging in Japan to visit a desert island here in Fiori today!
Everything had started a couple of days ago when I'd seen the guardians hard at work to maintain the locomotive.
While my realization was a bit late, it had gotten me thinking: wasn't that steam locomotive way too advanced compared to the rest of Fiori?
At first, I'd assumed that there was a civilization of that level somewhere. But now that I knew Fiori better, it had struck me: there simply wasn't!
The rest of this world was stuck in the Middle Ages—or worse in some areas because of the damage caused by the witch.
The only means of transportation available were horse-drawn carriages, and suspension hadn't even been invented. You felt every single rock along the way. I didn't see how locomotives made sense in the midst of this, which had led me to the question: where the hell had this technology come from?
I wasn't sure I was on the right track, but I'd thought of a few possibilities.
Theory number one: the world used to be far more advanced, but that knowledge had been lost along the way.
That was the most straightforward explanation. A civilization capable of building steam engines used to exist, but they'd been destroyed by the witches and their technology was forgotten.
If that was truly the case, though, I felt like there should be far more vestiges of that ancient civilization. Besides, if the engines were that old, they shouldn't work anymore, right?
Theory number two: one country had mastered this technology.
No matter the world, different countries never advanced at the same exact pace. Case in point: while the Japanese were still busy striking each other with katanas to defend the honor of their lords, some foreigners had already managed to send hot air balloons into the sky. Conversely, while Japanese people now communicated with smartphones and flew in modern aircraft, there were probably still primitive tribes hunting naked and living with nature.
By this logic, one country could've advanced far quicker than the others.
The issue was that I'd traveled pretty much everywhere while hunting monsters, and I'd gone to every single country at least once. I could say with certainty that I'd never visited some sort of technological powerhouse.
Theory number three: a past transmigrator built that locomotive.
If I'd transmigrated from modern-day Japan, who was to say that this hadn't happened before?
If a previous transmigrator had been some sort of genius light novel-protagonist type, they definitely could've brought modern knowledge and technology to this world and kick-started an Industrial Revolution.
There were barely any archives in this world, so almost no one knew the past well enough for me to ask... Well, no one except Alfrea. She'd been around for a thousand years, so I'd gone to her.
"Oh, right, you wouldn't know about this, Ellize," she'd answered immediately. "There used to be an incredibly advanced island in the past. The steam train that you know was built by their engineers as a gift for the Bilberrian—well, at the time, it wasn't called Bilberry—royals. It was a sign of friendship. But, um...my mother relentlessly attacked that island and destroyed their civilization. The island was submerged into the sea, and the few survivors fled to a nearby island—it's called Giappon nowadays, I believe."
Giappon was the pseudo-Japan of Fiori. To be honest, I still wondered why almost every fantasy world had to have a pseudo-Japan somewhere in the East. Still, while Giappon was an island, it was rather close to a continent. Unlike Fuguten, it hadn't been left unscathed by the witch.
I'd gone there in the past and I'd even encountered their king. To be honest...they hadn't really struck me as a genius-scientist nation. If anything, the country was a lot like Edo— No, worse...like Sengoku period Japan.
After Alfrea, I'd turned to Aiz.
"That is correct, the people of Giappon have indeed mastered advanced techniques we cannot mimic. In fact, the steam locomotive that we royals use is still being maintained and repaired by them. However, keeping it functional is the only thing they will do. They're terrified of their own knowledge and refuse to build anything new. They seem to believe that science—yes, I believe that is what they call it—is cursed and will provoke the wrath of the witch."
That made a lot of sense. I didn't see how a thousand-year-old locomotive could've stood the test of time without anyone repairing it.
As it turned out, the people of Giappon did have fairly modern technology, they simply refused to do anything with it because of their trauma. Considering what Alfrea had told me, Eve had bullied them pretty badly, so I could see where they were coming from.
Eve must've realized that science was a big threat to her.
Still, the other thing that Alfrea had brought up—how the island had sunk under the sea—had to be unrelated. While I could probably achieve that, I doubted a witch could've ever submerged an island large enough to have become a nation. It was most likely a natural phenomenon.
With all that new information in mind, I'd decided to take a look at the ruins of the ancient island. While it had indeed been submerged, the summit of its tallest mountain still poked out of the sea.
To be totally honest, I didn't think there was a lot of meaning in what I was doing. A genius regressor surely would've been able to learn crucial things from the ruins, but I was just a former writer. In other words, I wouldn't figure out squat.
I'd just come to satisfy my curiosity, that was all. The battle that opposed the witch and the saint was over, and there weren't any more final bosses for me to beat up. Now, I was able to explore and enjoy the world after the end of the scenario. Maybe I'd find some foreshadowing, as was often the case in these kinds of ruins.
All right! Time to barrier up and dive!
I jumped into the water and looked around as I sank deeper and deeper.
Yup. Can't see a thing.
I cast a spell to illuminate the darkness, and sure enough, I saw remains that indicated a nation had stood right here in the past.
The buildings looked nothing like the skyscrapers you'd find in modern-day Japan, but they reminded me of early modern Europe. There were even cars that looked exactly like the ones in old black-and-white photographs.
There was no doubt the inhabitants of this island had reached a high degree of civilization.
What a waste... Without the first witch going on a rampage, Fiori might've become more developed than Earth by now.
The witches were entirely to blame for the current state of this world.
Well, I supposed this could also be seen as a blessing in disguise. If their scientific knowledge had advanced unchecked, nuclear weapons and the like would've eventually been invented.
Hang on. Could the world have created the witch to prevent scientists from going too far? Nah, that's too far-fetched.
I swam around as I observed the vestige of the civilization Eve had brought to ruin.
I saw high-rise buildings, several vehicles—including tanks—and even what I assumed were firearms. For the witch to have gotten rid of such a country so easily truly showed the gap in strength between her and regular people. Still, she'd most likely used her monsters strategically to defeat them, relentlessly conducting assault after assault.
As I wandered through the streets of the city capital—no doubt once the pride and joy of these people—I eventually stumbled upon the remains of a large building. I sneaked in through a gap—a former window, I assumed—and found myself inside a vast hall.
The floors were made of a peculiar material I didn't recognize, but it looked a lot like marble. While it was now in a poor state, I could easily imagine how magnificent the room must've been in its prime.
Further down the hall was an imposing throne. It was also broken, but the backrest was mostly intact and I could make out letters.
Oho! What does it say?
We have lost.
Our Saitonaruta Empire has obtained the ability to interfere with space and time through intensive magic research.
That technique has allowed us to discover the existence of another world and timeline. We succeeded in creating a rift that leads to it in Fuguten, the closest place to that world.
Through that rift, the wonderful energy of that world has started flowing inside ours: anger, hatred, envy, murderous impulses, belligerence, competitiveness, vanity, the need for approval, and other such powerful emotions that were so scarce on this side.
I have come to learn the truth. Our world prevented us from feeling those emotions. It was controlling us.
Taking in those negative emotions has changed us. The need to become stronger, faster—to go further and higher now inhabits us.
Our longing for strength gave birth to weapons. Our longing for delicious flavors made us develop our culinary skills. And our longing for an easy life pushed us to elevate our standard of living.
The years of stagnation we experienced in the past almost seemed like a lie in comparison to the speed at which our empire grew. At that rate, world dominion was well within our grasp.
And yet...our foolish world refused to approve of our ways!
It took control over the woman to whom we'd given the power to wield space and time. It made her its proxy and turned her against us!
Were we such a threat to the world?!
Either way, our demise is imminent. The absurd powers that the witch—Eve—possesses will soon vanquish us for good.
But it is already too late. The seeds of discord have been planted.
Just like I did, that woman will also soon come to change. I've seen how hatred has started penetrating her soul. She's faithful to the world's will for now, but that will not last.
Foolish woman! You stopped our march toward disruption, but you shall follow the same path!
Foolish world! The humans you love so dearly will be put to death by the proxy you created through your own will!
Phew, that was long.
Whoever carved that onto the throne sure was motivated! And super skillful!
Honestly, I'm impressed. But a throne isn't a diary, bro, come on.
Anyway, I now had a pretty good idea of what had happened and why the rift existed. The world had created the first witch because of them.
This fancy chair's pretty valuable as far as history goes, so I'll bring it to Aiz as a gift.
The second I reached for the throne, though, a voice echoed out from God-knows-where.
"Who's the fool who dared touch my throne...?"
I debated ignoring it altogether and going home, but I decided against it. I looked around, trying to figure out where the sound had come from.
Black mana, which had somehow been lying in wait, appeared and quickly gathered to form a human silhouette.
Huh? Is this the start of a boss fight? I don't really feel like it right now. Can I go home?
"I've been waiting...for the moment when our empire would rise again...and the darkness of people's hearts would triumph..."
"I...see..."
"I knew someone with enough mana to rival the witch would eventually appear. Finally... Finally, the time has come. My revenge against the world starts now! You, pitiful girl, will become my vessel!"
Okay, so this guy ended up staying in this world as a lump of negative emotions just like Eve, huh? And just like her, he needs a vessel to go on a rampage.
The human-shaped shadow stared at me, flickering in the most ominous of ways.
Boy, I really found a hidden boss.
It was sometimes a thing in video games. You'd think you were done, but a new dungeon popped up after you cleared the final boss. Then, you'd find another boss who claimed to be the true mastermind with some long-ass speech you couldn't bring yourself to care about, because you barely even knew them. In most cases, the only reaction you'd have was wondering what the hell that boss had been doing until now.
Anyway, the guy from Si...Sigh Empire—or whatever it was called—rushed at me, looking every bit like the hidden final boss he was trying to be.
Ugh... What an overwhelming presence...!
"Aurea Libertas + light of the people's hearts."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!"
There you go: dead. Looking scary's one thing, but that's not quite enough to win a fight now, is it?
(2k word count)
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