Past narration — Ariel

Right after system activation?

What good would that do, asking something like that?

...It's not exactly a pleasant thing to hear, you know?

Still want to hear it?

Hmm. Then, just a little.

If I had to describe the situation back then in one word, it was terrible.

That’s it.

Terrible beyond words.

Everywhere was like hell.

I was overwhelmed with my own problems, so I only knew about other regions through hearsay.

But still, you can imagine, right?

First, countries that relied on MA energy as their primary source—there was nothing they could do.

You see?

Just imagine.

What if all electricity vanished in modern Japan?

Even add gasoline to that, if you want.

The point is, the energy they depended on simply disappeared.

That was the inevitable outcome. Relying on it, daily life would collapse.

Moreover, at the time, every place was destroyed by dragon attacks.

With many people already displaced, the inability to use energy was a double blow.

Recovery was impossible.

Just surviving that day was barely manageable.

The hardest part for me was food.

In a situation where even eating was impossible, my body required more nutrients than others.

My companions would prioritize food for me, but it was never enough.

A child younger than me would suppress their own hunger and offer me food.

It was unbearable. I felt shame. I wanted to die.

I seriously considered it more than once.

But each time, everyone stopped me.

“Didn’t Lady Syrius say to keep living?”

I ate while crying.

Even so, it wasn’t enough. The taste of sand I forced down to mask hunger—still unforgettable.

That’s how I survived, day after day. But soon, fighting began spreading across regions.

Not due to system flaws, exactly. More like a scramble over the last scraps of resources.

As I said earlier, food shortages were severe.

People fought over rations. Killings erupted across the land. The scale grew.

If they had the strength, they could’ve cooperated to break the cycle.

But humans prioritize the immediate over the future.

All they could think about was seizing what was present.

Our orphans avoided the conflict entirely, fleeing from place to place.

But no matter what, there was always the chance of being drawn in.

At the time, I was nothing more than a burden. I had no capacity to fight—none at all.

There was a status-based adjustment from the moment the system activated, but that still depended on the original ability.

Spending most of my day in bed, even with the status boost, I remained below average.

There was nothing I could do.

Then, one day, I reached a point where I truly didn’t know what to do.

That was when the men—Gobgob included—went off to fight.

We were survivors of Potimas’s human experiments.

But surviving didn’t mean we’d live.

Gobgob had only a few years left.

The research was meant to extend life, yet the child born from it was far shorter-lived than a normal human—green-skinned and frail.

No surprise he was treated as a failure.

I won't live much longer.

He said that and left.

So I gave him my favorite pressed flower bookmark and told him,

"Take this. I like it. Come back with it."

In the end, he just smiled vaguely and never returned.

Even though he was a coward.

Putting on a show at the very end.

Idiot.

...Idiot.

After that, we kept fleeing the war's aftermath, drifting right and left. But it seemed the situation had shifted—no longer a struggle over food, but a conflict between humans and Evolved.

We were merely swept along. We didn’t know the exact sequence of events that led to this shift.

Only that, at some point, the pattern had formed: humans attacking Evolved.

The Evolved—what we now call the Demon Clan—possessed superior physical capabilities and higher stats than humans.

But they were fewer in number than humans, and initially did not unite among themselves—so they were attacked exclusively by humans.

What about the food supply?

Well, there was competition, fighting, death—population decreased over time, and with it, the need for food diminished. But the primary factor in improvement was the emergence of monsters.

Why monsters at that point?

Just listen.

Now monsters reproduce and increase naturally, but in the beginning, they appeared without origin.

Probably prepared by D-sama.

Normally, this would cause chaos—and chaos did occur.

But when monsters began to emerge, people had already begun to utilize status and skills effectively.

As a result, monsters did not pose a significant threat.

The monsters at that time were prototypes, which contributed to their lack of strength.

They attacked, but could be repelled easily.

In truth, humans were far more terrifying back then.

And those easily defeated monsters—

Naturally, their flesh was harvestable.

Well, you understand the rest.

Anything, whether monstrous or not, was edible if it could be consumed.

Ironically, the threat of monsters failed to qualify as a true threat, instead becoming a form of relief.

Perhaps it was only because of this surplus that the movement to suppress the demon race emerged.

The demon race, driven to the brink, was pushed northward into the Kasanagara Continent, where they united and launched a counteroffensive.

After that, as is known, the long history of conflict between humans and demons began along that boundary.

It took quite some time to reach that point.

The prolonged conflict leading up to it was truly dire.

Perhaps mentioned briefly before, but the first Demon Lord was a vampire.

An exceptionally dangerous Demon Lord—though not powerful in direct combat—utilized the traits of vampirism and cunning tactics to expand their ranks, launching relentless attacks on the populace.

They advanced with the intent to exterminate all living things.

Had humans and demons united earlier, history might have changed. Unfortunately, the outcome was a three-way stalemate.

More accurately, a state that couldn't even be described as three-way.

No one knew who was ally or enemy.

Even among the orphans, we eventually scattered.

The faction that believes people should be helped, as taught by Lady Sariel.

The faction that argued they must fight to rescue Lady Sariel as quickly as possible.

I’ve said it before—each of us at the orphanage survived Potimas’s human experiments.

Some were complete failures like me and Gobgob, others were partial successes—failures in part, but successes in part.

Superior physical capabilities. Uncommon skills.

Combined with those attributes and skills, it was possible to achieve higher capabilities than an ordinary human.

We, too, were children when we fled in panic. Time passed, and we grew.

What? Not developed?

Hahahaha. What are you saying?

I am growing so splendidly, am I not?

Hahahaha.

Cough!

Returning to the matter at hand, the orphans split into two groups, each beginning to walk their own path.

You know?

The First Hero and the First Saint—they both came from our orphanage, you know?

They are all gone now—some fell in battle, others lived to old age.

Most of them are offered at the moment of death.

Refused reincarnation, offering her entire soul as energy to the system.

Everyone... everyone just vanished like that.

You're foolish, aren't you.

...You're foolish.

Even I, left behind, am supposed to understand this.

I cannot fight, unlike you all.

Even existing is all one can manage.

While I was sleeping in bed, everyone disappeared.

What kind of nonsense is this—leaving me, a useless one, as the last remaining?

Moreover, I don’t know why, but I’m becoming ageless.

Whether due to the system's influence or not, Potimas's research had quietly borne fruit.

Or both.

I don’t know the truth, but I stopped aging from the moment the system activated.

That is why they still live.

Moreover, the constitution that had plagued her for years was already overcome through stats and skills.

With the Gluttony skill, any substance can be consumed in unlimited quantity. Toxins within the body are decomposed by the system and do not generate.

Status rose slowly over a long period of time, progressing from average to above average, and further still beyond that.

Thus, I exist now.

Potimas must have been bitterly disappointed—me, the one he abandoned, achieving the immortality he sought.

If only I hadn't abandoned it back then!

Something like that, thinking to oneself.

That’s the one thing I can’t help but think—serves you right!

Huh? What was Potimas doing right after system activation?

Come now?

He’s been entirely absent from the public stage for a while now.

The so-called cloud concealment?

Thought I’d been quiet long enough, and suddenly there it was—Elves, a new race, already seeping into public awareness.

Really. Out of nowhere.

That’s exactly what they’re good at, that kind of maneuver.

Well, roughly speaking, that’s about it for system activation’s immediate aftermath.

How was that?

Not exactly a cheerful tale, was it?