I Will Confess to Her When I Go Home…! 3

Alice forced a wry smile to calm Theresa, who kept trying to lash out.

Alice felt a constant urge to attack Oriana, mistakenly believing Theresa’s hatred and anger were her own.

But she couldn’t let an auxiliary personality control her.

‘Well, according to Theresa, Oriana killed and betrayed me…’

Alice glanced at Oriana.

How could she bring herself to harm someone who looked so desperate to die, the very person who supposedly betrayed her?

Of course, it could be that her memories of her past life were fragmented and showed no sign of piecing together, so she felt no hatred or resentment towards Oriana.

If she knew the truth, as Theresa claimed, she might be filled with murderous intent towards Oriana.

But for some reason, Alice knew, cherished, and had been taken in and helped by Oriana in a world where she had nothing.

But Alice had no idea what was happening, while she knew. She had grown close to her. She was the one who had picked her up from a world where she had nothing and had given her all kinds of help—it was Oliana.”

“Okay, fine. I’m ready to listen.”

【….】

“Alice, I…”

“Oh, Oriana, stop being so melodramatic. You say it’s natural for me to resent and hate you, but I don’t feel anything. So, explain it in a way I can understand, starting with the basics.”

Her heart wouldn’t allow her to truly kill Oriana based on mere words of hatred and resentment.

“Oriana, Theresa, unless you can explain to me in a convincing way how I’m connected to you both from the past, and how I, who died, could continue to exist until now, I won’t move from here.”

【Human, please don’t…】

“Theresa, I’m serious. There’s a limit to being dragged around without knowing anything. At least, I consider both Theresa and Oriana to be my people…”

“I’m…?”

【That, that damned woman is your person? Human, once you hear the truth…!】

“Yeah, yeah. I don’t know how much I’ll despise or hate Oriana. Just tell me the story. Are you going to leave me out if you only talk about things you two know? I’ll be sad.”

Alice spoke as if nothing was wrong.

Of course, both Theresa and Oriana thought it was natural for Alice to react that way.

Because she didn’t know.

Because her memories were fragmented and not properly connected.

All that remained for Alice were faint fragments of the past, and she didn’t know the whereabouts of this twisted relationship and connection.

“…I think I need to tell a story from a long time ago.”

“Okay, great! I won’t be surprised by anything, so tell me everything. Theresa, you can judge whether what she says is true or false, as far as you know.”

【What if I embellish it to my advantage?】

“Will you?”

【….】

Theresa didn’t answer, but she seemed to let out a long, heavy sigh.

And so, Oriana’s boring and somewhat lengthy story began.

No one knows the origin of this star.

There were beings called gods, but they were not omnipotent deities, but rather a type of mental parasite with human-like personalities and desires, exploiting human faith and belief for their power. No one has witnessed the origin of the star or the moment this world was formed.

Even ancient creatures and calamities, like monsters, don’t know their own origins or the origins of this star.

Even if they had existed since the beginning, they often couldn’t communicate or lacked reason, so humans living in the modern era could never know the beginning of the world.

But one thing is certain.

Magic does not exist in this world.

Magic? Sorcery? Magical engineering?

None of it.

Even other-non-human beings, including the demon race, elves, and dwarves, are life forms that could never have naturally evolved.

Mana, an incomprehensible energy, did not originally exist in this world. Energy was not something that could be easily manipulated by human will, formulas, or spells, but something that humans could barely use only after high refinement and satisfying complex physical laws.

It wasn’t a world where mana moved with a mere gesture or a word of power spoken from the mouth, creating energy, miracles, magic, and sorcery.

Simply put, just as Alice’s first life was that of an ordinary human on Earth, this world was originally a very ordinary land with life and natural physical laws, free of anomalies.

Life was born, and those who reached the end of their lifespan became fertilizer for the land. All life desperately struggled to leave its mark while alive.

That alone was enough for the world.

A dull and obvious world where the fierceness of life and the selective elimination and competition of nature were desperately carried out.

However, there was one difference between Earth and this world.

The star of this world was a living, breathing entity.

The star, a vast and immense concentration of life and energy, embraced all the life that bloomed upon it, spending countless years.

Of course, this star could not have will or ego like humans.

The star was merely a massive aggregation of life. It simply lived because it existed in that place, and the land flourished and teemed with all kinds of life, including humans, simply because the star lived.

But someone discovered the source of the star’s living energy.

The source of energy was also called the heart of the star, or the grace and blessing that the star bestowed upon humans and the life of this land.

Some even denigrated it as a malicious and evil alien invasion, claiming that mana was an alien substance and impurity from another world.

But it didn’t matter what the source was.

By someone.

More precisely, by humans who were seduced by the sweet fruit of immense energy, the star’s energy began to spread across this land.

That was the beginning of primordial magic and mana, and all sorts of indescribable sorcery and magical engineering.

The star’s energy was soon called mana.

Mana spread throughout the world, dwelling equally in all life, including humans, beasts, and plants, causing some to transform grotesquely, while others grew larger, boasting beautiful and magnificent forms.

Humans, who could not defeat beasts with their bare hands, strengthened the mana within their bodies and went hunting. Like the primitive humans who first discovered fire, they rejoiced and developed mana, the star’s energy, and all sorts of sorcery, magic, and enhancement formulas derived from mana. This developed system eventually evolved into a form called magical engineering.

And the mana that spread throughout the world also revealed that humans were not the only masters of this star.

As the age of magic began, different races, unlike humans who evolved from primates, began to appear.

No one knew their origins, but it was speculated that certain plants or beasts had undergone rapid evolution due to the star’s energy that had spread throughout the world.

Well, it didn’t matter anyway.

The star’s energy had spread to this land by humans, the age of magic had begun, and now countless lives were beginning to waste and consume the star’s energy as if it were water.

Thus, the races of the world, including humans, misused the star’s energy and lived their lives.

They formed alliances and waged wars.

Sentient beings had always fought and had been endlessly greedy to have everything, so it was not strange.

But there was a problem here.

In this process, they used the star’s energy, from who knows where.

They committed all sorts of miracles, wars, massacres, waste, and development with mana.

As if believing it would be infinite, they didn’t think about the consequences. Mana was drawn from the star’s source like a truly inexhaustible spring, and this eventually led to the star gradually wearing down over time.

Someone who thought the situation was serious realized.

If this continues, everyone will be annihilated.

-Isn’t there a way?

-We must return the energy to the land and the star.

-How?

-In the most primitive and simple way.

The method of returning energy to the star itself was simple.

The star’s energy dwells in everything in the world, the land, the sky, the sea, life, humans, and demons.

So, just kill them.

If you kill and burn life, all the energy within that life will be returned to the star.

But killing a few beasts won’t revive the star.

I don’t want to die.

We don’t want to sacrifice ourselves.

Our family.

Our neighbors, friends, nobles, and lords cannot die, can they?

Thus, a war broke out.

Between humans and everything that was not human.

Of course, the reason for returning energy to the star was not necessarily needed.

Even before, all races hated and despised each other for the sole reason that they were different, and now that there was a cause, there was more than enough reason to kill each other in earnest.

Thus, sentient beings killed and were killed.

I didn’t want to die, and I had to prevent the star from wearing down, so they tore each other apart to the point where it could be said to be ‘necessary’.

Reasons can be attached at any time.

They killed our ancestors.

They stole our land.

They eat us.

Propaganda, fabrication, and deception prevailed, and even if people knew it was deception, they willingly expressed hatred.

As all sentient beings died and were killed, the river of blood on the land never dried up, and the weak and foolish children were the first to die.

Corpses blocked the riverbanks, and mountains of corpses piled up in the fields, with feasts of crows, insects, and maggots taking place every day.

But the star’s wear was regenerating slower than expected, and the scene of massacre and slaughter where sentient beings killed and were killed only grew larger as the days went by.

Someone who saw this scene lamented.

That was Alice.

A person who lived in a peaceful world called Earth and fell into a world where the star was wearing down.

“Huh, don’t tell me I was the savior of the world?”

“…That’s right.”

“Huh…!”

Really?

Why me?

How?

I’m not such a great person?