Ch.152Butterfly Effect (1)

They say that if a coincidence happens once, it’s truly a coincidence, but when it happens twice or three times, it becomes inevitable. Even if all this were somehow coincidental, it wouldn’t be easy to dismiss.

The same goes for the Biography of Xenon. The corruption of the World Tree’s roots, signs of demon summoning, and finally the Reaper of Helium.

It wasn’t just once or twice—three consecutive incidents resembled events from the Biography of Xenon, leaving me speechless. What’s more, Helium’s “Reaper” was an exact copy of the “Demon Hunter” from the Biography of Xenon.

A special force barely acknowledged even by Helium’s high nobility. Warriors whose primary mission is to assassinate their own kind who have become demons rather than other races. And finally, delving deeper into dark mana, risking transformation into demons themselves at any moment.

Looking at this alone, they were virtually identical to the demon hunters in the Biography of Xenon.

[The Reapers had been waiting for an opportunity to come into the light. Though repeatedly thwarted, they’ve now strengthened their resolve because of this incident.]

[This proves the Biography of Xenon is not merely a novel but a book of prophecy. The corruption of the World Tree’s roots, traces of demon summoning, and finally Helium’s secret organization.]

[The first coincidence might be just that, but three times makes it inevitable. The same applies to Helium’s Reapers.]

[What will be their first move? And how powerful are they? All eyes are on what happens next…]

As the newspaper reported, Helium was strongly pushing for the Reapers to emerge publicly. With the rapid increase in awareness about demons, they apparently couldn’t find any reason to keep hiding the Reapers’ existence.

Just as the Biography of Xenon was beginning to be treated as a book of prophecy, Helium’s king seized the opportunity to introduce the Reapers to the public.

At first, everyone was understandably surprised, but since an identical secret organization appeared in the Biography of Xenon, they simply accepted it. They even responded with “as expected” and more people began to study the Biography of Xenon thoroughly.

But what good does that do? I’m on the verge of running away from home, my mind going blank.

I don’t know how things ended up like this, but one thing is certain.

‘If anything else strange appears, I’m truly screwed.’

I’m already screwed, though.

Beyond the triple coincidence—or rather, triple truth—if a fourth one happens, it’s only a matter of time before I’m branded as a prophet or a regressor. Even if I clarify my position through letters, no one believes me, which makes this all the more frustrating.

How can I calm this situation down? With my head pounding as if struck by a hammer, I carefully closed the newspaper.

The situation is so absurd and stifling that I don’t even have the energy to speak.

‘From the latter part of volume 14, it’s the beastkin section…’

Volume 14 is about Alfheim being occupied by demons and the struggle to prevent the World Tree from becoming nourishment for Diabolos. There’s a scene where elven and dark elven heroes charge toward the corrupted World Tree with one heart and mind.

But the World Tree has already fallen into Diabolos’s hands, creating an irreversible situation, and the revival of Diabolos, who has taken the World Tree as nourishment, is imminent. In the end, the two heroes choose to self-destruct using the World Tree’s enormous mana.

For one reason only: for Alfheim, the land directly chosen by God. This scene will clearly demonstrate the patriotism of both elves and dark elves.

‘To completely destroy such a massive World Tree… it would require an explosion of unimaginable scale. Ordinary magic would never be enough.’

This is where elves and dark elves truly become one. Elves handle the power of “light” transmitted by Luminus, while dark elves handle the power of “darkness” gifted by Mora. You can probably guess what happens.

If these opposing forces are forcibly combined, a massive repulsive force is generated. It’s one of the clichés often employed in past lives.

The two heroes gather their powers to prepare a massive explosion to cleanly destroy the World Tree that has become nourishment for the great demon. The demons sense the danger and try to stop them, but all their attempts fail.

Finally, the two heroes shout the majestic line, “For Alfheim!” and charge toward the World Tree. The scene ends with the World Tree, which had sustained life for 3,000 years, engulfed in a massive explosion.

Thanks to the noble sacrifice of the two heroes, the revival of the great demon is barely prevented, but Alfheim is still occupied by demons. Xenon’s group and the heroes’ successors, with no time to mourn, barely manage to escape with the surviving elves.

Afterward, Xenon’s group calms the confrontation between elves and dark elves at the dark elf settlement and begins gathering allies to prepare for the coming war. Humans, demons, and dwarves willingly help because they know Xenon’s reputation well, but the problem is the beastkin.

The beastkin in the Biography of Xenon are almost identical to those in reality. Things like the Holm River or the types of tribes.

Also, the relationship between humans and beastkin in the Biography of Xenon is bad at best, never good. The reason why the prince of the beastkin became “Wrath” is deeply connected to humans.

‘No. Surely there’s no one in Animus with circumstances similar to Satan?’

Satan’s situation is not as simple as Lilith’s and is rather complicated. It’s a tragic circumstance that would drive an ordinary person to suicide.

To explain who Satan is, he was a tribal chief and a “general” who received the trust of all beastkin. The rank of general is similar to the warchief of the elves.

In fact, in Animus, tribal chiefs often serve as generals. Being the chief of a tribe means you’re strong, so naturally, you’re in charge of military power.

However, not all chiefs automatically receive the rank of general. Leona emphasized this.

Anyway, Satan protected Mad—the Animus in the Biography of Xenon—as a general for decades, but he also made many enemies. Because of this, those who harbored grudges murdered his wife and children.

Even this would cause great pain and sorrow, but it wasn’t the end. Satan, consumed by grief, stepped down from his position as chief and focused on training the army at the suggestion of the grand chief, but…

This too ended in tragedy. While he was briefly away, his tribe was attacked by humans and completely massacred.

The mastermind behind all these incidents was none other than the grand chief who had established relations with humans. The grand chief, manipulated by human treachery, made choices that should never have been made.

Naturally, Satan, exploding with rage, challenged the grand chief to a Holm River duel, but was met with bitter defeat. The grand chief, though unwise, was militarily superior to Satan.

Afterward, betrayed by his homeland, Satan wandered for decades before joining the demon side and once again challenging the grand chief to a Holm River duel.

The result?

He cleanly severed the grand chief’s neck as if opening a can. Mad fell into great confusion after losing the grand chief, and Satan, having achieved his satisfying revenge, returned to his base.

After that, Satan’s younger brother, who could be considered the protagonist of the beastkin side, leads the story.

‘Surely this won’t be exactly the same?’

While Lilith’s case was strictly personal, Satan’s situation is a major event that could overturn an entire nation. Political strife might be familiar to humans, but it would be shocking to beastkin.

Besides this, I plan to unfold the story for each of the Seven Deadly Sins, which will show the flaws of each race in their entirety. Especially Greed, who is set as the exiled dwarf king with tremendous material desire.

‘Anyway, the beastkin part continues until volume 16, so it should be fine…’

I lay on the bed, looking up at the ceiling and pondering. There’s virtually nothing I can do in the current situation.

Maybe I should just give up and focus on writing. Whether they treat me as a prophet or a regressor, I’ve said multiple times that I’m not. If they’re disappointed, I can just get angry in return.

‘But couldn’t they just ask God directly? He would immediately answer that I’m not.’

While I am a reincarnator, I’m definitely not a prophet or regressor, so the gods could provide a definitive answer. But looking at the newspapers, there’s no mention of this.

Rather, a strange phenomenon has occurred where there’s no answer even when asking God. Although communicating with God is very difficult, the church isn’t stupid and would know how to do it.

Moreover, since lying would result in “divine punishment,” the content in the newspaper is likely true.

‘Why is there no answer?’

Please save me. What if something else strange appears?

I sighed deeply and slowly got up from the bed. Rather than wallowing like this, it would be better to read a book.

With my current state of mind, even writing feels burdensome. I’ll write once the situation calms down a bit.

‘But is there anything else that could appear? It seems like everything that could come out already has.’

The corruption of the World Tree’s roots, signs of demon summoning, and finally the Reapers.

I think everything that could appear has already appeared, but what else could come…

‘…Ah, right.’

The steam locomotive. The invention created by a dwarf who inherited his master’s will through perseverance.

‘But that’s something that absolutely couldn’t be made with current scientific technology, prophecy or not?’

The steam locomotive was invented during the Industrial Revolution. While this world may resemble the modern era despite its medieval appearance thanks to magic, there are things that even magic cannot accomplish, like machinery.

In the first place, this world barely has the concept of machinery, let alone engineering. So I expect that the invention of the steam locomotive would not appear for at least a few hundred years.

‘If it were to be invented…’

Not just steam locomotives, but steam ships, steam cars, power plants, vessels, and all sorts of inventions would pour out.

Add to that the Second World War planned for publication after the completion of the Biography of Xenon? Wouldn’t the scientific power of this world increase explosively?

Thinking about this made me slightly afraid. It feels like I’m abnormally accelerating this world’s civilization.

‘…Maybe I should visit a temple later?’

I think I should. I tried to calm my uneasy feelings and focused on reading.

*****

Dwarves, masters of craftsmanship and invention, are a race that naturally loves to create things. Because of this, they often settle near mines, and the Kingdom of Makina, the land of dwarves, is built near a massive mine.

The Kingdom of Makina is the largest trading hub for weapons commerce, and many people visit to purchase dwarf-made weapons. Unless you’re talking about margins through distribution, if you visit Makina directly, the prices are surprisingly affordable.

The reason is that even a carelessly made sword by a dwarf is of excellent quality, equivalent to a masterpiece for other races. Dwarves know this well, so they set high prices for weapons they’ve put their heart and soul into.

But this has its drawbacks, namely “greed.” Throughout history, commerce related to weapons involves enormous contract amounts. Especially in this world where “monsters” exist, the demand for weapons is inevitably high.

As a result, high-performance dwarf-made weapons naturally became a priority, and the number of people making contracts increased. The peak of this was the racial war 300 years ago.

Humans desperately bought dwarf-made weapons to narrow the gap with elves, and dwarves reaped enormous profits from this.

Eventually, dwarves got a taste for money and began producing only so-called “mass-produced” weapons, while their creative abilities regressed. Why bother with creativity when you can make a fortune from humans by making any weapon?

Even if there was a need for creativity, it was limited to weapons, with no attention paid elsewhere. Previously, they had created inventions like refrigerators and air conditioners, but after the racial war, dwarves were consumed by greed.

Living comfortably in the present, they have lost their ability to create anything new.

Bang!

“Hey! Kids these days! They have no will, no will at all! It hasn’t even been a year, and everyone’s giving up? Does that make any sense?!”

A man with the characteristic bushy beard and stocky limbs of a dwarf shouted, pounding the table with his fist. He held a beer mug in his hand, and his face showed signs of intoxication, having already drunk quite a bit.

Another dwarf watching him chuckled and spoke. His face was also reddened from alcohol.

“Eins, my friend. No matter how much you stick to it, what can’t be done can’t be done. Even if that book is called a prophecy or whatever, our current abilities are far from sufficient.”

“That’s right. If we could make it, we would have done so already.”

“You…”

When the dwarves didn’t support him at all and instead mocked him, Eins gritted his teeth. But soon he sighed and muttered in a dejected voice.

“Is it really impossible…”

It had been several months since he started trying to invent the “steam locomotive” from the Biography of Xenon. He had made no progress and was stuck in place.

He had a rough idea of how the steam locomotive in the Biography of Xenon worked, but that was it—he couldn’t create anything new.

Until now, he had only known how to make weapons from iron and other ores, and his creativity had regressed after the racial war. Moreover, all the manpower he had gathered left, saying there was no possibility.

In the end, only Eins remained. Somehow, he ended up trying to invent the steam locomotive alone, just like in the book, but he didn’t mind.

It had been a long time since his creative desire, which had disappeared after the racial war, had flourished again. It was the driving force that reignited his passion after being stuck in a rut.

“Stop that and just drink beer. Let’s go to the mine tomorrow and mine that mana stone. It makes more money than that black rock that just burns well.”

“No. The book says the steam locomotive runs on that coal. The answer must be there.”

“Ah, come on. That stubborn… Do as you please. We’re going to the mine tomorrow. We’ll give you all those rocks, so do whatever you want.”

“Why stick to something so strange… tsk tsk.”

Eins felt even more miserable at his friends’ mockery. He wondered if the eccentric dwarf in the book felt the same way.

But it had only been one year. Just one year had passed. Though not as long as elves or demons, dwarves boast a lifespan of up to 300 years. So one year is a very short time for a dwarf.

Despite their mockery, Eins gulped down his beer. Though he hadn’t made progress yet, he couldn’t give up.

After finishing his beer, he spoke.

“Phew… Alright. You’re going to the mine? Let’s go together. I should clear my head a bit.”

“Good idea. By the way, we’re going to the Hax section, so prepare your equipment well.”

“Hax? Where’s that?”

“What? You didn’t know?”

The dwarf looked astonished at Eins’s question. Remembering that Eins hadn’t been to the mines recently and had only been making equipment, he explained.

“The Hax section is one of the mines we’ve been digging since the racial war until now. But because we’ve dug and dug, it’s become extremely deep. Maybe because of that, high-quality ores and mana stones often come out.”

“Really? First time I’ve heard of it.”

“But to go there, don’t we need to bring that too? The thing that uselessly consumes a lot of mana stones.”

“Ah, damn. That’s right. We’d just waste precious mana stones for nothing.”

“What’s that?”

Having not entered a mine for several decades, Eins couldn’t follow their conversation. He hadn’t had time to pay attention to other things while helping his father with his work.

The black-bearded dwarf took a sip of beer and explained in his characteristic gruff voice.

“There’s this thing. In the Hax section, water keeps filling up as we dig, maybe because of the geology. We dwarves have short limbs, so it’s hard to bail out the water one by one. So, unable to stand it, we made a machine about 80 years ago.”

“The problem is that the damn machine consumes several times more mana stones than we mine. It’s petty and dirty, but we have no choice but to use it. It’s pitiful to be born a dwarf at times like this.”

Eins’s reaction to this story:

“What principle does it use to bail out water? Seeing that it needs mana stones, it doesn’t seem ordinary.”

“It’s nothing special. So, you know…”

The black-bearded dwarf explained everything as if it really was nothing special. Eins was initially indifferent, but as he listened to the explanation, his eyes gradually began to shine.

And when the explanation finally ended…

“Sh-show me that quickly!”

“What? Why suddenly?”

“Never mind, just show me quickly! I think I just need to tweak it a little!”

Eins shouted excitedly, as if he had discovered a treasure.

A few days later.

[The Kingdom of Makina, land of dwarves. The ‘steam engine’ from the Biography of Xenon’s steam locomotive has been invented!]

[Not a steam engine, but a machine operated by mana stones, so it’s named ‘magic engine’…]

[Eins: This should have been invented long ago. I realized that dwarves have lost their creative abilities. We dwarves should not settle for the present but create for a greater future…]

[What remains is the invention of the magic locomotive using the magic engine. Having made progress so far, all that’s left is to make it run. With the invention of the magic engine drawing worldwide attention, interest in the steam locomotive from the Biography of Xenon also increases…]

“… …”

Fuck.