“I expected too much from an elementary school graduate.”

If you don’t know something, at least study up before coming here. Why do you always charge in headfirst?

The Regressor bristled at my taunt.

“I know that much! The bottomless pit is the hole that formed when some ancient tyrant massacred prisoners and incurred Mother Earth’s wrath!”

“And that is precisely where an elementary civic school education ends. Now, let us hear from the top student at a secondary military school.”

It was too firmly established a fact for her even to get angry. At a loss for words, the Regressor resorted to childish nitpicking.

“You said you were Level 0! How could you have been the top student at a secondary school?”

“Oh dear, you really don’t know. If you disappear like a ghost without notifying the school, you immediately become Level 0. We call that dropping out.”

She couldn’t even argue. It wasn’t something she would ever have experienced.

While the Regressor floundered, I explained the advanced history taught at secondary military school.

“After routing the rebels in an unstoppable advance and taking vast numbers of prisoners, the Overlord decided to kill all three hundred thousand of them, both to solve his food shortage and to make an example of them. By then, however, faith in Mother Earth had spread among the people, and killing enemies without burying them was considered taboo. That displeased the Overlord, who already had corpses trailing in his wake. So he decided to eliminate the faith of Mother Earth along with the prisoners.”

What was the easiest way to destroy a religion?

Simple. Fuck up its reputation.

Thoroughly enough that it could never recover.

“In those days, there were wanderers who called themselves buriers and buried the dead in exchange for meals. At first, ordinary people welcomed their willingness to do such unpleasant work. But as the war dragged on and more wanderers appeared begging for food, people gradually came to resent them. Sometimes bandits even traveled around calling themselves buriers.

“The Overlord exploited that. Announcing that countless deaths awaited them, he summoned every burier in the country, using the grave goods of the soldiers about to die as bait.”

Mother Earth, once the mother of everyone who stood upon the earth, began to lose her influence around that time. The empire had splintered, its emperor was gone, and kings waged bloody wars to reunite it and claim the imperial throne.

Countless wars were fought. Corpses piled into mountains, and blood stained the rivers. Amid the endless deaths and as many tragedies, the contenders for emperor dwindled to two.

The Overlord and the Monk King.

Two kings who were opposites in every respect, including their ultimate fates.

“The buriers, whose numbers had swollen enormously by then, gathered in droves, never imagining this would mark the beginning of a terrible massacre. Or perhaps they knew and simply pretended otherwise. After all, they had come for the grave goods of prisoners who were going to die.”

Then the Overlord’s herald called out to Mother Earth’s workers, who had gathered like a swarm of insects.

“The Overlord commanded the assembled buriers: ‘All these people will be killed and placed in the pit you dig. So dig the largest pit you can. The more bodies it holds, the more grave goods you will be able to claim.’

“At that declaration, the buriers, blinded by wealth, competed to dig up the earth.”

Wandering buriers who needed others to die so they could fill their own bellies. Pretending not to know how their actions would look, they prepared a grave for three hundred thousand under the pretext of serving Mother Earth’s will.

The buriers dug for three days and nights. Each day, the ground sank deeper, and heaps of earth as large as hills rose around it.

The vessel of their greed was larger than anything. Even a pit that could hold three hundred thousand corpses would not sate their desires.

After just three days—only three days—the buriers had dug an enormous pit that could easily accommodate three hundred thousand people.

“And when the grave was finished... the first people shoved into it were none other than the buriers, their eyes sparkling with anticipation. The Overlord had never intended to let those thorns in his side live.”

“Good heavens!”

The undying one exclaimed. The Regressor’s displeasure had vanished somewhere, and she was listening intently.

Only Tyr looked puzzled.

What was going on? She should have been the most interested. Normally, nobody listened more closely to old stories than she did.

‘This is a little different from the story I know...’

Huh? She knew this story? Our living piece of history?

Damn you, Military State! What the hell have you been teaching me? Don’t you cross-check anything?

Continuing a false story would only embarrass me further. I hurried to wrap it up.

“Then the buriers, dying alongside three hundred thousand prisoners, heaped curses upon the Overlord. Mother Earth answered their pleas and cursed him. The site of his massacre—this very place—became the bottomless pit, while the surrounding land became a desolate wilderness where not a drop of water flowed and not a blade of grass could grow.”

There was more I wanted to say, but it would be awkward if this living witness to history contradicted me, so I hastily finished my explanation.

“That historic site is right here: the bottomless pit.”

As soon as I finished, the undying one asked, as though he had been waiting for his chance.

“Wait, Teacher. Did merciful Mother Earth truly do such a thing? Render an entire tract of land utterly unusable?”

Until a moment ago, I had thought so too. That was what I’d been taught.

This was precisely when I needed the art of dodging responsibility.

“Or so I was taught. At a secondary military school in the Military State, that is. If any part of my story is incorrect, please contact the Military State’s education bureau. It isn’t my fault.”

“No, it is simply a little different from the story I heard. I thought the bottomless pit was created by the Sky God’s wrath.”

The undying one offered the story he had heard, but I found it absurd.

I could understand Tyr correcting me. She was a living history book who had lived around that era. She had firsthand experience.

But I wouldn’t stand for corrections from you. That was my pride as a civilized person.

... Not that there was anything I could do about it.

“There are other perspectives, as Rash says. The buriers distorted Mother Earth’s will and actively cooperated in the massacre. One theory does hold that the bottomless pit is the mark left by the Sky God’s divine punishment, inflicted to punish them for eternity.”

Whether you fell into an ordinary pit or the bottomless pit, you died all the same. The only difference was that those who fell into the bottomless pit could not return to Mother Earth’s embrace after death.

In that case, perhaps the pit’s curse was aimed at the buriers themselves... That was another interpretation.

“In any event, that is the whole story as I know it.”

The abrupt conclusion displeased the Regressor again.

“What? That’s it? That ending feels a little sloppy.”

“Well, everyone knows what happened afterward, don’t they? Cursed by Mother Earth, the Overlord went down the road to ruin. A massacre of three hundred thousand, and his lands turned to desert when the bottomless pit formed. However powerful he was, he couldn’t destroy his entire support base and emerge unscathed. He spent the rest of the war at a disadvantage, eventually surrendering victory to the Monk King in their final battle.”

The Overlord, a king so mighty that his dominance seemed to blanket the world, had ultimately met his downfall.

The Monk King, mocked for shunning killing as scrupulously as a monk, had won in the end.

The Overlord became the defeated king.

The Monk King became the victorious king.

This incident was said to be the turning point in their balance of power...

“How strange. That is quite different from the story I know.”

“Now! But no line in a history book can compare to a word from someone who experienced those times! Listen closely, everyone. Here is history brimming with life, told by a living history book!”

Tyr began her story without even realizing I was teasing her a little.

“Do not take it as certain. Mine is also a story I heard from others. When I was alive, the empire founded by the Monk King was beset by enemies invading from beyond the wilderness. Even then, when the Sky God’s followers were ascendant, buriers still wandered the world.”

Of course they did. The founding of the Holy See hadn’t wiped out faith in Mother Earth.

Its reputation might have suffered terribly, but the faith was as widespread as weeds. Even a concerted effort couldn’t root it out.

“According to what they told me, that entire sequence of events was a cowardly scheme by the Holy See. The Sky God’s apostles had intended to side with the Monk King from the beginning. They were furious, saying those apostles had beguiled the Overlord with sweet words, leading him to massacre three hundred thousand people and trample the faith of Mother Earth at the same time.”

“Oh. That is a very interesting story. Information that completely overturns the existing interpretation. Is there any evidence?”

Tyr nodded, offering her opinion more eagerly than ever.

“After winning and becoming emperor, the Monk King made the Sky God’s religion the state faith. He also supported the establishment of the Holy See. People who had been no more than priests of a wandering tribe became a mighty power that dominated the world in less than half a century... Does that not strike you as suspicious?”

Certainly, Tyr’s account was the closest in time to the actual events. Had I been a historian, it would have been important enough to make me want to spend my whole life living with her and drawing out what she knew.

But it was far too biased.

That was inevitable, given that Tyr had spent her whole life fighting the Holy See, and most of the storytellers she met had been followers of Mother Earth.

“That, too, is an interesting perspective.”

Tyr looked visibly hurt by my lukewarm response.

“You do not believe me... Yet there is not a single lie in what I have said.”

“I’m not doubting you, Tyr. Your account alone is as valuable as an ancient document.”

Whether that document was reliable was another matter.

“You know very well how much history can be distorted by perspective. The Holy See slandered you terribly, after all.”

“... Does that not make my account all the more plausible? Those hypocrites of the Sky God—their greatest weapon has always been their voices. They are masters at twisting and distorting the words that echo through the world to suit their whims. Mother Earth’s buriers may have fallen victim to that as well.”

‘I heard so many stories in those days! Though I spent my life as the Holy See’s enemy, I sought out their shameful secrets and weaknesses to hunt them down. My information should be... reasonably reliable. Yet even you...’

She was starting to feel genuinely hurt.

When her heart was stopped, hadn’t she brushed off a little misunderstanding without a care? Why the change in attitude now?

“Come on. If you’d witnessed it yourself, of course I’d believe you. If you’d lived through that time, we could be sure, but you’re younger than the bottomless pit, Tyr. Just because you’re right doesn’t mean every story someone told you must be true.”

There seemed to be something fundamentally wrong with comparing her age to a geographical feature, but hearing that she was young softened Tyr considerably as she answered.

“... That is true. I was born some hundred years after the Monk King ascended the imperial throne.”

“Exactly. Compared to the bottomless pit, you’re a baby. You don’t know how the story might have become distorted by then, or what rumors were circulating. As you know, the world changes rather quickly.”

“Indeed...”

‘I did not see it myself, so I cannot be certain either. As he says, I am younger than the bottomless pit...’

Watching Tyr nod felt like watching an absurdist play about the ages.

Before she could come to her senses, I clapped my hands and announced,

“All right! We’ve cleared up our misunderstandings and expanded our knowledge. Shall we call it a day? Let’s use as much of the food Shei brought out as we like and have a feast!”

I was trying to gloss over the whole thing when Tyr, who had been quietly lost in thought, stirred.

She approached with quick little steps, looked up at me, and spoke.

“... Hugh. Having given it some thought, I notice you keep comparing my age to the bottomless pit’s. Are you, perhaps, making fun of me?”

Oops. Caught.

What now?

I replied in a vacant voice.

“A-ahaha?”

“...”

THUD!

A tiny fist buried itself in my solar plexus. My body folded at a ninety-degree angle, and a beat later, terrible pain struck.

Blood manipulation was way too powerful. Her fist hadn’t even slowed after making contact. It had lifted me slightly off the floor.

“Guh! Wait, Tyr...! That punch really stings...!”

“... Hmph.”

Tyr spun around and left the room. Meanwhile, I lay groaning on the floor.

After I had rolled around for a little while, the undying one stood over me and clicked his tongue.

“Tut-tut. I knew this would happen. I kept quiet out of consideration for your position, Teacher, but you brought this on yourself.”

“Worry about yourself...!”

I might get punched in the solar plexus, but at least I wouldn’t get eaten...! I was several times better off than you.

“Ah, speaking of which. Could you perhaps make the room warmer? Callis keeps feeling cold, perhaps because she lost so much blood.”

Rubbing my stomach, I answered curtly.

“What prison has individual room heating? Put another blanket over her.”

“I already have!”

“Then what am I supposed to do if she’s still cold? Sleep holding each other or something.”

“That, too... we already...”

What? They’d gotten that far already?

“Do not misunderstand! I may never turn away a willing woman, but I would not make an injured woman exert herself! It would be disastrous if her wounds worsened!”

Once Callis recovered, she would finish harvesting him. I answered indifferently.

“Then you’re already doing everything you can. Go make sure she eats properly.”

The undying one displayed a rare lack of confidence.

“Must... I be the one to look after her?”

“Who else? Me?”

“That... strangely, I find that objectionable too. Forget I said anything. I shall do it.”

You were going to do it anyway. If you’re already on the plate, just behave and let yourself be eaten. Stop being a nuisance.

I lay spread-eagled on the floor and sank into thought.

In the past the Regressor had seen, when the undying one awoke...

Judging by the lieutenant general’s words and actions, he had probably come then as well. Back then, nobody in Tantalus could have stopped him with the King of Cats at his side.

The me of that past would have died then.

By contrast, I was alive now.

I had succeeded.

I had done my best and escaped death. With that, I had fulfilled my duty to myself.

As I considered the death I had escaped, my altered fate, and how I should act once I got out, my thoughts suddenly reached beneath the bottomless pit.

Wait. Come to think of it, did that mean the vengeful spirits of the buriers and three hundred thousand corpses lay beneath this land? Corpses that had spent over thirteen hundred years beneath the bottomless pit without rotting or being eaten by bugs?

... Well, it would probably be fine.

“Woof?”

When I showed no sign of getting up, Azi pressed her forepaws against me repeatedly. At her summons, I sprang to my feet.

“Well, shall we process some ingredients and apply heat to them, pointlessly dressing up their flavor and aroma without adding any nutritional value?”

“Woof!”

Azi barked happily without the slightest idea what that meant.