["We will not interfere with anything you do. None of it has any significance to the military authorities. You need only occupy this place. If you die, that too will be beyond our control."]

The words delivered by the golem were utterly unexpected.

Do nothing? The Military State, which put not only criminals but ordinary citizens to hard labor whenever it felt like it, wasn't giving me any duties?

I knew the Military State far too well to celebrate. Whenever it behaved unexpectedly, you had to read the true intentions hidden beneath the surface.

Alarmed, I was about to ask the golem something when the prison's front gates flew open with a deafening crash, almost breaking off their hinges. Something shot out with tremendous force. As it left the yard, an alarm sounded to signal the disturbance, and the searchlights began frantically tracking the escapee.

But it was pointless. She ran so fast that even the searchlights couldn't keep up. By the time a beam reached its target, she was already gone.

While even the searchlights floundered, having lost their target, the girl leaped like lightning and landed in front of me. Her sudden appearance left both me and the golem speechless.

A moment later, she snapped her head up and barked, her tail gently wagging.

"Woof! Nice to meet you! Nice to meet you!"

Triangular ears stood at attention, and a golden tail swished at her waist. Her large eyes stared straight at me, brimming with boundless goodwill. Her luxuriant hair bounced.

She was a dog beastkin, a descendant of the sin committed by humans in the distant past.

Crouching on all fours like an actual dog, she looked up at me from near my feet.

What the hell was this? I awkwardly raised a hand in greeting.

"Uh... hello?"

"Hello! Hello! Hello!"

The dog beastkin bounced up and down in welcome. She showed no desire to attack, and even her movements were friendly. Her reaction was less human than that of a well-trained dog.

She looked so innocent and friendly that I couldn't even muster the wariness I should naturally have felt upon meeting a stranger.

That was why it took me a little too long to realize.

It was extremely strange for her to feel such affection for someone who had appeared out of nowhere.

And I, a mind reader, couldn't properly read this being's thoughts.

"Let's play! Let's play! Let's play!"

"What? Why would I?"

"Woof! Let's play!"

The dog beastkin ducked her head to the ground, caught my trouser cuff in her teeth, and tugged. I was wondering what she was doing and trying to shake her off when a sudden jolt struck me, as though a rope attached to a freight wagon had snagged my foot.

My leg, which had been supporting a grown man's weight, was lifted helplessly off the ground. I toppled over, and the dog beastkin sped off with me in her grip. My body dragged helplessly along. Thump, thump. At that incredible speed, I bounced like a stone skipping across water. It felt as though a freight wagon were racing along with me tied to it.

Then came the pain.

"Aaaaagh!"

I'd considered the possibility of suffering something horrific in the notorious Tantalus, but never dreamed I'd suddenly find myself being drawn and quartered. And by someone who liked me, no less!

Grabbing hold of something was useless. An even greater force simply hauled me onward. Friction heated my clothes. Beads of blood welled from my skin where it scraped against the concrete and dripped away.

I was going to die. At this rate, I really would die. Flailing both arms, I shouted desperately.

"Wait, stay!"

"Woof!"

Then something astonishing happened.

The dog beastkin, powerful enough to drag me along with her jaws alone, obeyed my command and stayed.

Without the slightest hesitation.

I was dumbfounded.

"Huh? You're actually listening to me?"

You don't need to read minds to know this. Anyone who's lived in the world knows that more people dismiss what you say as bullshit than actually fucking listen.

Especially when you're telling them to stop doing something.

But when I ordered this girl to stay, she stayed without a moment's hesitation. No deliberation. No resistance.

Wait a second. What was going on? Confused, I read the girl's thoughts.

I couldn't read them.

'Stay? Stay! Stay, stay!'

No, to be precise, I could read them and get a rough sense of what they meant, but I couldn't clearly understand them. It was like reading an untranslated book from another country. All I could do was make vague guesses from the atmosphere and emotions coming through.

I couldn't read her thoughts.

Impossible. Wasn't she human?

Told to stay, so she stayed. Without doubt or hesitation. Like an innocent little child... No, the fact that she didn't even question it made her thought process closer to a dog's than a human's. Like a faithful hound obedient to humans.

Yet she looked like a human with dog ears and a tail, and the strength with which she'd dragged me far surpassed anything human.

Wait. Unless she was a deranged beastkin who believed she was a dog, could this being possibly be...

"A Beast King?"

Once humans, the two-legged beasts that walked the earth, became the undisputed rulers of the world, the Beast Kings took human form. They wore human bodies and spoke as humans did, representing a species of beast and expressing its views to humanity.

But in essence, each was the sovereign of a species. A being that represented, spoke for, and acted on behalf of all its beasts.

And among them, the dog beastkin before me was the King of Dogs, the representative of every dog. A "puppy."

"This is insane. A Beast King is a divine being. Why would you lock something like that in prison?"

And in Tantalus, of all places. Had the Military State gone beyond insane and completely lost its mind? I immediately turned to protest to the golem when...

'... I smell blood.'

A thought reached me from deep within.

An instant later, every hair on my body stood on end.

The drops of blood from my wounds trembled. Darkness bound me. Unable even to turn my head, I watched my blood move out of the corner of my eye.

The blood on the concrete vibrated violently, then rolled off in one direction. Ordinarily, it should have left long streaks behind, but the blood spilled in Tantalus defied even that common sense. It rolled in little beads like marbles, as though the concrete floor were ice.

With trembling eyes, I followed the blood's progress. The drops approached a distant doorway steeped in darkness and seeped through its gaps.

Then a dizzying satisfaction emanated from beyond the door. The fullness a predator might feel upon biting off a piece of flesh, quenching its thirst with its prey's blood.

... And terror came first when I realized that blood was mine.

'... Impure. I have never considered myself a picky eater, but this blood is utterly unfit to drink.'

I hadn't offered any, yet this thing helped itself and then complained about the taste. Pretty picky for someone locked up.

But I couldn't voice those complaints lightly.

After all, I didn't even need mind reading to realize what was beyond that door.

Beyond it was a vampire. A queen of blood who had lived a thousand years and would live forever unless killed.

Tyrkanzyaka, the Progenitor.

The oldest darkness, who had shut herself away in the bottomless pit because conflict with humans was a nuisance.

"This is fucking insane..."

Dangerous criminals? No criminal, however vicious, could compare to those two. The King of Dogs was a divine being, and the vampire a heaven-defying monster that mocked such gods. Ordinary people would never encounter them, much less dare meet their eyes.

Though terrified by a scale of power utterly beyond my reach... inwardly, I felt relieved.

Fortunately, those two were either friendly toward humans or indifferent to them. The King of Dogs loved humans, and the vampire would keep me alive if only for a supply of blood. Unless I offended them terribly, they probably wouldn't kill me.

Perhaps I could even coax the pair of them over to my side...

Just then.

"Fly."

A beautiful voice rang out, rigid yet sharp. It was lovely enough to make any passerby turn to look, but all it conveyed was cold hostility and murderous intent honed like a blade.

The moment I read that intent, I hurried away from the golem. An instant later...

"Sky Cherry Blossom."

A hairline crack appeared in space.

In this land of nothing but light and darkness, both twisted as though space itself had been gouged out. A diagonal fault opened in the dark. Sparks blazed from the severed air, and lightning flashed through the dark bottomless pit. An invisible blade split the golem precisely in half.

The golem's light went out in an instant. The pinnacle of magical engineering housed within it, the precisely designed machinery, the circuits, the mana—all of it.

Divided in two by a single stroke.

One half of the golem slowly slid off and fell to the ground. With a brief crackle, its body collapsed.

The cut was so clean that I might have been looking at a cross-sectional diagram. It almost seemed as though sticking the halves back together would restore it to working order.

But the golem's crystal eyes never lit up again. The remote-controlled golem had ceased functioning. Static crackled from its microphone before it cut out with a pop.

Instead, the beautiful voice, seemingly honed into a blade, rang out.

"There was still a spare golem left? They're like cockroaches. I'm sick of them. Surely there aren't any more."

A girl with short black hair and loose trousers slowly approached. She snatched a transparently shimmering sword out of the air and glared at the golem as though it were her sworn enemy.

After lingering briefly on the golem, her eyes turned toward me.

"Now, then... who are you?"

Instinct sounded an alarm, screaming that I would die if I didn't do something right now.

Reflexively, I used my mind reading on her. In as much detail as possible.

There was nothing special about her.

She was an ordinary extra who had grown up in an orphanage, lived in the back alleys, suffered exposure to crime, disease, and violence, and died. Someone so commonplace she wasn't even worth a story.

She had learned a little swordsmanship, only to be beheaded by a wandering swordsman, and studied magic, only to have her whole body burned by a mercenary mage. An ordinary person who lacked the talent to achieve greatness at anything, who couldn't turn an opportunity into success even when she seized one.

The only difference was that she had an infinite number of opportunities.

... Huh? What did that mean? Had I read that right? I didn't understand.

Across five deaths, she had wielded a sword and gained the skill to cross blades with the Sword Saint.

Across another seven deaths, she had learned magic both directly and indirectly, obtaining the magical power to stand against the Demon King.

That only meant she'd earned the right to stand before them. Fighting either head-on would still end in a crushing defeat.

And even that wasn't the end.

"Answer me."

The girl retrieved the treasured sword Sky Cherry Blossom. A legendary sword obtainable only on the highest mountain. Resembling the sky itself, the sword that could never be obtained without knowledge of the future gave a low hum. She raised Sky Cherry Blossom again and faced me.

Someone who had passed through thirteen deaths, repeating endless attempts to prevent the world's destruction.

Shei the Regressor stared at me with her sword in hand.

"If you don't answer... I'll kill you."

To become stronger. To prevent the end of the world. To end her regressions and gain eternal rest.

A regressor who had reached the bottomless pit while searching for extraordinary opportunities.

She was seriously weighing my life. Whether to kill this thing or spare it. Which was the right choice for carrying "this run" forward.

If I didn't meet her standards, she intended to kill me and eliminate a "variable."

"... Ha."

Monsters that could run faster than searchlights could follow.

Exert control over blood from hundreds of meters away.

Destroy a military magic golem used even in war with a single strike.

Yet I actually felt relieved, and waved both hands in a friendly greeting.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all!"

Yes. The ones who remained here were incredibly powerful. Even ten thousand petty criminals like me would probably be slaughtered in seconds. They were more than capable of it.

But so what? When had I ever survived by being strong?

I'd lived in the back alleys for over ten years. Even in those cramped streets, there had been countless people stronger than me.

Yet in the end, I was the one who survived.

The mighty man who could shatter rocks with his bare hands lost his head to a swordsman who could cut steel. That swordsman fell into a trap set by a wandering mage and burned from head to toe. The mage, demanding payment, drank a poisoned beverage and dissolved into a handful of bloody liquid.

Only I, the one who could read minds, survived by keeping the swordsman happy, taking a wide detour around the mage's trap, and picking out exactly which cup held poison.

It was no different here.

However monstrous they were, as long as I could read their thoughts...

If I kept these supreme beings happy, avoided the tender spots deep within their hearts, and grew sufficiently close to them...

What reason would they have to kill me? No. What reason would I have to die?

I'd spent my whole life as a back-alley swindler. When it came to pleasing others and catching their interest, nobody could match me.

Spreading my arms wide, I shouted at the top of my lungs.