Ch.1006Memories and Worries

The four of us returned to the front lines, leaving the burning World Tree behind.

As we raced through trees that were withering and crumbling like sandcastles, I experienced something truly bizarre.

‘…so, the only remaining method is…’

‘But…that way…the Aishan clan would…’

Unknown voices invaded my mind, and inexplicable scenes unfolded in my consciousness like fragments of memories.

Voices I didn’t recognize.

Landscapes from a distant past I had no recollection of.

I instinctively realized that these strange memories seeping into my mind belonged to the World Tree that had died burning in my hands.

Or more precisely, should I call them fragments?

The remnants of divinity—scraps that remained after being consumed by twilight flames—were being absorbed by me, the one who killed it, passing on the memories contained within.

…Honestly, I wasn’t particularly interested, but since I was being forced to hear and see them regardless of my wishes, there was no way to ignore them.

So I became an audience to the memories, listening to and watching the life of the fairy woman who had just died.

Memories from when she was still just an ordinary fairy.

Memories of the unified human empire Xanten, which conquered the continent after receiving knowledge of magical arts called runes from Alfodhr, and of the fairy Lasil who was a second-class citizen there.

—-

As befitting burnt remains, the World Tree’s memories were severely damaged, and therefore only a tiny fraction of her life was properly transmitted to me.

Even those were full of noise and blurry, making them difficult to comprehend.

That made it all the more frustrating.

If they had been intact memories, there would have been the advantage of gaining detailed insight into history from four thousand years ago, but these damaged memories were honestly useless for anything.

There were only three or four relatively intact memories.

Just some information about the ancient empire of Xanten and memories of what fairies experienced during that era.

—-

Thousands of years ago.

The world belonged to humans.

Ever since Alfodhr, one of the four great creation gods and father of all things, bestowed knowledge of magical arts called runes upon humanity.

Humans gave these powerful runes—forged with the blood of the fallen and prisoners—to their demigods, and with that power subjugated all other races to conquer the entire world.

Thus was born the Unified Human Empire, Xanten.

Having conquered the continent, Xanten ruled all races within its borders by dividing them into four categories: first-class citizens, second-class citizens, slaves, and sacrifices.

First-class citizens were free people guaranteed all rights as citizens, consisting of all humans who hadn’t committed crimes and an extremely small number of other races.

For a non-human to attain first-class citizenship, they needed to accomplish feats worthy of saving the nation.

Most non-humans who couldn’t possibly have achieved such feats were classified as second-class citizens.

They were lower-class people stripped of rights to own land, leave their residences, choose occupations, or marry freely—a class somewhere between serfs and slaves by today’s standards.

Even this position was only given to docile non-humans.

Rebellious and violent non-humans, those with massive debts, and criminals not sentenced to death were considered slaves, not even citizens.

And those deemed too heinous even for slavery—rebels and serious criminals—became “sacrifices” used to strengthen runes.

These were the four classes of the Xanten Empire.

Though this was merely the nominal classification, in reality, due to supply and demand issues for sacrifices, cases of strictly adhering to this system were actually rare.

Think about it. Could the demand for sacrifices throughout the empire possibly be satisfied with just death row inmates and rebels?

Not even close. They were far from sufficient. As a result, even slaves and second-class citizens were frequently disposed of as sacrifices over trivial pretexts.

A country where everyone except first-class citizens could die like dogs at any time—that was the Xanten Empire of thousands of years ago.

—-

Unlike orcs who were despised for their violent nature and threatening appearance, fairies belonged to a relatively well-treated class within Xanten.

Their generally exquisite appearance and life expectancy several times that of humans.

Their safety in that they posed no threat even if they rebelled, being so weak.

Moreover, thanks to their racial ability to bless crop growth, they could increase harvests nearly tenfold when assigned to farm work.

From the humans’ perspective, they were literally a race born to become lifelong serfs.

Therefore, Xanten treated fairies relatively mercifully. Killing them en masse would only lower the empire’s agricultural production.

Of course, “merciful treatment” was only by human standards.

From the perspective of the fairy girl who owned these memories—one of those second-class citizens—humans were simply terrifyingly cruel beings.

Yes, the woman known as the fairy god, the World Tree, was once merely a second-class citizen of the Xanten Empire, a serf raised in containment zones for bountiful harvests.

From birth until the Xanten Empire was destroyed by the suddenly descended god of monsters, exactly four thousand years ago from now.

Perhaps that’s why.

“Hey, look over there. Isn’t that kid a pointy-ear?”

“It really is. Can those things even come out of the containment zones?”

“Shouldn’t we report this to the management office? Tell them to collect this stray pointy-ear.”

Through her eyes, the human empire was a hell filled with discrimination, contempt, mockery, abuse, exploitation, and violence.

Not all humans displayed such cruelty, but at least all the humans she had encountered were such people.

“I heard keeping fairy slaves is trendy these days, and they do look cute. Wonder if I could touch it?”

“Don’t touch that filth. It’s obviously a stray pointy-ear. They say they spread germs.”

“No, I don’t mean touch it like that. I want to kick it once. I heard they’re lighter than they look and fly away like balls when kicked.”

“Oh, that sounds fun. Since it’s a second-class citizen that escaped from its containment zone, there shouldn’t be any problem.”

The young fairy who got lost and unfortunately strayed outside her containment zone had to be dragged back with internal injuries after being kicked nearly to death that day.

Even that was considered merciful by imperial standards.

Normally, having left the containment zone would have automatically relegated her to slave status, but due to her young age, she was specially returned to the containment zone.

Additionally, she was able to receive some treatment because reducing the fairy population would lower crop yields.

The treatment was barely enough to keep her alive, but thanks to it, she was able to return home despite her damaged internal organs.

“Be grateful you were born a pointy-ear. Had you been a useless beast, such mercy would never have been granted.”

The management office employee who roughly treated her and sent her back to the containment zone looked down at her with eyes half filled with contempt and half with pity.

She survived only because she was a fairy with many uses.

Had she been a second-class citizen of another race, they would have left the child to die and demoted her parents to slaves for negligent supervision.

That was life as a second-class citizen in Xanten.

—-

‘Hmm…’

I let out a quiet sigh as I watched the World Tree’s memories. My mind was somewhat troubled.

Am I sympathizing with her situation? Of course not. I understand she lived a miserable life, but that couldn’t excuse the atrocities she committed later.

That’s that and this is this. Even revenge should have its limits.

Even the French revolutionaries who rose up against the nobility’s atrocities and discrimination may have cut off their heads, but they didn’t try to herd nobles into livestock pens and breed them.

Therefore, I had no intention of offering sympathy or empathy to the World Tree or ancient fairies. They crossed the line a bit too far.

The reason for my unease wasn’t pity for them, but rather the behavior exhibited by humans thousands of years ago.

Free people classified as first-class citizens with all rights legally guaranteed by Xanten standards.

However, not all first-class citizens received the same treatment. As the title “Empire” already revealed, there existed a loose hierarchy among humans of that era.

The problems resulting from this were more serious than one might think.

The statement that all first-class citizens were equal was merely a facade.

The human society I witnessed through the World Tree’s memories was one where those with money and power oppressed those without, even more commonly than in the current continent.

It seemed like a society that would naturally have sparked a revolution had it been in Europe.

However, the humans of that time—the powerless people being oppressed—seemed to have no complaints about such a life and didn’t even attempt to resist.

The reason was simple. They were surrounded by those living lives incomparably worse than their own.

The second-class citizens, slaves, and sacrificial non-humans.

Instead of rebelling against powerful humans by venting their accumulated frustrations, powerless humans found satisfaction in the reality that there were those inferior to them.

Those who couldn’t be satisfied with just that, instead of risking dangerous acts like revolution, vented their frustrations by pouring hatred and disgust on those beneath them.

Like kicking a lost fairy girl until she vomited blood, or butchering a werebeast slave to death. Things like that.

Some would burn werebeast slaves alive and bet on who would last longer, while others would entrap fairy families with debt, ruin them, and then violate wives and daughters in front of their husbands.

Such acts were rather rare among upper-class humans. However, lower-class humans were cruel to non-humans to an extent that would make even demons stick out their tongues.

And most upper-class humans either didn’t know about this at all, or knew but ignored it or even encouraged it.

As long as lower-class humans were directing their frustrations at non-humans, those frustrations would never be directed at themselves.

The upper class rotting away comfortably without fear of revolution. The lower class becoming increasingly cruel to non-humans. Non-humans living in hell.

That was the true face of the Unified Human Empire, Xanten.

‘What a shitty situation.’

[Hmm? What did you say?]

‘Nothing, just talking to myself.’

I couldn’t possibly view this situation favorably.

Not because of hate crimes against non-humans, but because most humans had become satisfied with that yoke. With a wheel that could only decline without progress.

All progress in the world begins with dissatisfaction. We call it progress when something new is created to improve something uncomfortable.

But the humans of Xanten, instead of being dissatisfied with and trying to improve the corruption and tyranny of the upper class that caused them suffering, found satisfaction in abusing sacrificial lambs beneath them.

There was no progress, no progress at all.

The empire’s corruption had lasted for nearly a thousand years, approaching a millennium, yet they lived like that for hundreds of years without ever staging a revolution.

Using all the frustration that should have been the driving force for fighting to improve things to vent on non-humans who were just taking the abuse.

How could a country function properly like that?

The Xanten Empire grew increasingly corrupt and weakened internally as years passed, and eventually collapsed.

To the god of monsters, called Baltyr, who suddenly descended like a calamity one day.

Well, the empire’s last emperor was apparently a fairly decent human, and he spared no effort in trying to reform the corrupt empire.

Had his reign lasted longer, the fate of Xanten might have been significantly different.

Not just the emperor, but the imperial princess of that time was also said to have shown mercy and compassion even to non-humans, to the extent of being revered as a saint.

But before they could accomplish anything properly, the god of monsters descended upon the world, and the descended god and monsters thoroughly destroyed the empire, killing only humans.

Thanks to Baltyr and the monsters suddenly disappearing at some point, humans didn’t go completely extinct…

But it took over a thousand years for them to establish a proper nation again and prosper.

Even then, that prosperity didn’t last very long.

Two thousand years after Xanten’s fall. Humans who had barely recovered were once again thoroughly destroyed by the hands of several non-human races who hadn’t forgotten their old grudges.

After that, well, all of humanity became slaves and food for non-humans, forgetting history and civilization, living like beasts.

Until Carolus, who rebelled against such circumstances, liberated humanity from non-humans.

—-

Was this intended by the World Tree, or just a coincidence?

Through the World Tree’s memories, I learned how ancient humans lived and how they perished, which led me into deep contemplation.

Contemplation about the treatment of fairies who had lost their god and survived.

Complete extermination… seemed a bit much.

Unless fairies gathered in one place, extermination would be impossible if they scattered and hid everywhere.

Rashly attempting extermination and leaving survivors would only create future problems.

With fairies having lost their god, the World Tree, even if problems remained, they probably wouldn’t pose a serious threat… but you never know.

Since this world is full of all sorts of strange occurrences, something like a new fairy god being born a thousand or two thousand years later might happen.

Additionally, I was slightly bothered by the World Tree’s nonsense about us being the same as them if we killed all the fairies.

Above all, killing all fairies, even children who were just thirteen or fourteen years old, didn’t sit well with me at all.

If my head had been hot with anger, maybe, but now that I’d cooled down, I wondered if going that far was the right thing to do.

…Yes, complete extermination doesn’t feel right.

I still believed it was the most certain method if it could be realized, but nevertheless, it didn’t feel right. Should I say I understood it intellectually but didn’t like it emotionally?

So I pushed the extermination plan to the corner of my mind and considered other options.

For example, Lacy’s approach… I didn’t like this either.

Lacy had told me before.

After destroying Alvheim, she would kill most of the fairies and save only a very small number of young fairies, confining them in camps and managing them as a protected species.

Doesn’t that sound familiar?

Yes, it was exactly the same as Xanten’s policy. A policy that might work fine in the short term but would inevitably eat away at the country as time passed.

Perhaps because I had witnessed the outcome through the World Tree’s memories, I couldn’t bring myself to agree with Lacy’s approach.

Then what should be done?

The moment I finally reached a conclusion after much deliberation coincided almost exactly with our arrival at the border region of the great forest after racing eastward.

—-

“Behold! The end of the great tree these vile beings serve, arrogantly called the World Tree! The victory bestowed upon us by the gods!”

The frontline where fairy forces and the Holy Army had clashed.

The frontline we returned to was more like an execution ground than a battlefield. An execution ground where believers slaughtered those who had lost their god.

There was no need for us to hurry back; the tide of battle was already flowing toward an overwhelming victory for the Holy Army.