History Lesson (1)

"… How was it? This year's newcomers."

When I got home, Lyuka asked me.

"Mn, it was pretty fun. Made friends with a really cute futanari newcomer Master."

"… As expected of Naoto-san. As naturally as breathing, you go and get acquainted with attractive Garumon."

Lyuka was impressed.

"She's a noble, said her parent was Wallace… When I said I didn't know him, she laughed about it…

"Who's Wallace, exactly? I feel like I've heard the name, kind of…"

"… Hk."

Lyuka's expression shifted as if to say uh-oh.

"Hm, did I say something off?"

"… No.

"If Naoto-san revealed your identity when telling her, since it's already widely known that Naoto-san is a Master from another world, there's no issue at all.

"But if you were posing as a Master from this world with your identity concealed…

"That'd be a little awkward.

"Ten years from now would be one thing, but for a newcomer debuting this year not to know Wallace shows a serious lack of common knowledge.

"… Ruria-san, was it?

"That person, she didn't get angry? She must be quite kind."

Lyuka let out a haa of a sigh.

"Mn, no question she's kind. She thought I was being bullied by Sice and stood up for me."

"… Kus."

At the picture of a newcomer Master defending the A-Class rank 1 Master, Lyuka let a smile slip.

"To Ruria like that, did I do something rude? I really messed up…"

"No, this is my carelessness. My apologies.

"… Naoto-san, you'll soon stand in the position of S-Class Master, the one who shoulders all of this world. You won't be in a position where 'I don't know this world's history because I'm from another world' is an acceptable excuse anymore.

"I've held back from pushing knowledge on you until you ask, but…

"It's about time being uninformed becomes a problem.

"It'll be a somewhat long talk, but…

"How about, in between special-training sessions, you bit by bit learn this world's history?

"I'd like to explain it for you."

Lyuka offered.

"History, huh…"

… Mn, honestly, I'd been immensely curious about it.

But it was a subject I'd deliberately avoided.

… Because it seemed liable to be one of the answers to the question that just wouldn't leave my head: whether this world was a game or not.

If this world was a game… it might be one that, with some higher being flipping the power switch, would vanish in an instant.

The uncertainty made me want a clear answer, but even if I learned it was so, I didn't want to leave this world.

I'd been pushing forward in a haze, with no clear path.

But I couldn't keep running from it. If this world was a game, I had to think about how to avoid being deleted.

So somewhere along the way I wanted to put the matter to rest, but…

I didn't want to throw the question at Lyuka.

Because if this world was a game…

Lyuka, born an NPC, would mean she was a game character…

A fictional existence?

I didn't even want to entertain such a doubt.

I'd resolved to trust Lyuka.

Doubting Lyuka's very existence was something I'd absolutely never do.

You could call me a thought-stopper, whatever you wanted, but on that one thing I wouldn't budge.

… So no matter how much I doubted the world's origin, I wouldn't dig in now.

Throwing those doubts was something for when I met someone close to the core of the system.

Whether this world is a game or real, the box stays closed for now. Schrödinger's cat is fine.

Surely once I'm S-Class, I'll meet someone like that too.

I'd confirm then.

… With my heart set on that,

"Right. As long as I'm going to settle in this world for life, I can't not know the history.

"I'm interested too, so I do want to know. Please."

So I asked Lyuka to explain.

"Yes."

Lyuka looked very happy. She loved explaining this kind of stuff, after all.

I love that side of Lyuka.

And so, Lyuka's history class, opening at last.

Kanan, Maika, Haru, Setsuna… the Earth-origin members who didn't know this world's history were all assembled.

"Yumi and Sawako, you've been in this world for quite a while too. Don't you know the history?"

"Yes, embarrassingly. Shiraki had no interest in such things."

"Kensei was just absorbed in this world's day-to-day life, too."

"… I mean, Seika… you've been here twenty years, right?"

"You got a problem!? It's not like I ever had a chance to hear about history!"

… Mn, well, can't be helped.

"In speaking of this world's history, there's a particular set of figures one cannot leave out: there are four Masters called the Legendary Masters.

"I'd like to structure the talk around them."

So Lyuka began.

"Legendary Masters… like Rodriguez?"

"He's just an amusing Master. I mean the proper great ones."

I made a weird interjection right off the bat.

"The four Legendary Masters are:

"Augusta the Great

"Kaiser the Conqueror

"Silvana the Invincible

"Leonhardt the Hero

"That makes four."

Of those, I knew the current S-Class number 4 Leonhardt, and… Kaiser I'd read about in a feature on a past Transition Incident.

The other two I was hearing about for the first time.

"Leonhardt is legendary, even ahead of number 1 Satoru?"

"… Yes. I'll explain about that."

Lyuka smiled gently.

She'd grown a little, and seemed a bit more big-sisterly, more and more teacher-like. Well, the previous version, where the little loli explained things to me, was nice too.

"There are countless other Masters, big and small, who come close to those four's achievements.

"Satoru, certainly, if things continue as they are, he may be the next to be called a Legendary Master.

"I'll talk about such important Masters too, as appropriate.

"But still, those four's deeds stand out so far above the rest that they're the ones called the Legendary Masters.

"First… Augusta the Great.

"… Though saying that, Augusta's appearance is still a little ways off."

"… Year 0. This world began."

Whoa now. Tons of things to call out right off the bat! What did she mean, the world began!?

… For a game, I'd understand. For a console game, it's the day the game was released, or the day the user started playing. That's the start day.

Even clearer is an online game. For an online game, the service-launch day is unquestionably the day the world began.

… The game theory was getting hugely plausible suddenly…

No, there was also the possibility that a calendar reform set the world's start… a stretch, maybe.

But well, I wouldn't poke at that.

I quietly heard the rest.

"There aren't many records left from that period, but…

"At the time the world began, it's said there were about 100,000 Masters and about 1 million Garumon.

"1/100th of what we have now.

"At the time there was no ranking system; all Masters were essentially C-Class equivalents, and could hold 8 Garumon.

"HP capped at 10, so it wasn't strictly equivalent to C-Class.

"And the framework of Garumon Battle existed, but the system where winning let you take an opponent's Garumon was universal across all Masters.

"… In this state, the moment the world began, the World Tournament opened.

"To decide the Garumon Master to rule this world.

"And so, each Master obtained Garumon, sought stronger and more beautiful Garumon, and competed for the Garumon Master position, vying with one another.

"However, this World Tournament was a tournament in name only, a sloppy event.

"It wasn't held with a venue and gathered Masters like today; instead, Masters wandered the world as they pleased, and when they met another Master they'd battle, and the winner was decided that way.

"What counted as the winner was also, at first, an utterly reckless rule.

"Each Master held 3 stars, and winning a battle let you take 1 star from your opponent.

"Collecting the stars of all Masters in the world meant winning."

"… So win 100,000 times? That'd never end."

"Exactly. Soon, winning let you take back the stars your opponent had taken from you.

"Losing reset you to 0 wins, but winning let you take stars back.

"Of course, since you'd lose one Garumon, it'd be hard to win again."

"Also, taking all stars without leaving a single Master out was unrealistic, so they revised it to require only 80% of the total population's stars.

"With that, the rule became a bit more realistic, but…

"In the first 10 years the population had ballooned dozens of times over, so gathering 80% of stars remained impossible. It took ten years."

"Population dozens of times bigger in 10 years…"

Don't poke, don't poke.

… No, this is completely a game!

For an online game, user count growing dozens of times, 20-30x ish, in 10 years, yeah, that could happen.

Well, on Earth, a game that's run 10 years is rare in itself.

In that case, this world has already been running 300 years.

In the present, from that 10th year, the user count has grown some multiple more.

10 years got 30x growth, and 290 more years brought another 3x. Was that the right user-count curve?

The growth had clearly slowed.

… But as long as server costs and revenue balanced and the service was profitable, it'd continue.

If it's in the red, they'd shut down the service fast. If it's been running 300 years, surely there's no problem, I want to believe…

… Whoops, I'd skewed too far toward the game theory.

But for any reason besides "this world is a game," I couldn't think of why the population would have suddenly increased so much.

If every couple had 3 kids a year, in 10 years you'd grow 30x, but this is a world where you have to have sex at least a thousand times to make a baby.

The population doesn't grow at that pace.

… And even if it did grow, the babies are 10 and under, so the Master count doesn't increase.

… But, don't poke, don't poke.

"Please continue."

"Yes."

Lyuka didn't seem to mind my misgivings particularly.

"The world's first World Tournament.

"With rules allowing up to 3 losers'-bracket revivals, with situations entangled in various ways, through chaos, with countless dramas…

"And 10 years later, the first Garumon Master was decided at last.

"The one who won that first tournament and became the first Master of Masters, the first Garumon Master was…"

Augusta? I'd guessed, but…

"Rasty.

"Even now called Genocide Rasty, the infamous first Garumon Master."

Looked like I'd guessed wrong.

"… Genocide is alarming. Did he commit a massacre?"

"… In reality, he himself didn't commit the massacre.

"Let me continue.

"The Garumon Master has the authority to decide everything in this world.

"… In modern times, the Garumon Master is just the principal figure with the loudest voice at the S-Class Council.

"But back then, he was the one who could decide everything in this world, an existence on par with a god.

"With that authority, the first thing he decided was…

"The right of the first night was a right held by the Garumon Master.

"For the Garumon Master, virginity protection doesn't trigger; he can freely have sex with any Garumon.

"All Masters in the world must permit the Garumon Master to have sex with their Garumon.

"Indeed, virgin Garumon must be offered up to the Garumon Master first.

"The Garumon Master can freely take other people's Garumon if he so wishes.

"He instituted such absurd rules.

"Under Rasty's reign, if a Master wanted to have sex with their own Garumon, they had to first offer her up to Rasty.

"If Rasty took a liking to the Garumon, he could keep her for himself.

"Only if Rasty decided he didn't need her did he return her, and only then could the Master have sex with his own Garumon.

"… That sort of system."

"That's horrible. The pinnacle of bad law. Did no rebellion break out?"

"Of course, one was on the verge of breaking out.

"But… this rebellion against the Garumon Master, the only one that nearly happened in the world, fizzled out."

"Did it get crushed entirely by the Garumon Master's authority?"

"No, the need to rebel ceased to exist.

"Year 10. A few months after the first Garumon Master was decided.

"… The Primordial and Strongest Demon God, Tiari Belzebute.

"As if descending suddenly from the heavens, she appeared in human territory and began attacking humanity.

"Rasty, the first to stand against her, and his believers and followers, were the first to be killed.

"Nearly all of them, Masters and Garumon alike.

"… And so the infamous right of the first night fizzled out."

"… Now that's a satisfying tale. I've heard about Tiari Belzebute before."

"Yes, that's right. The person I explained before, the one who is Ursula's grandmother.

"… Up to that point, Tiari being welcomed is the story, but Tiari's goal was the enslavement or extermination of all humanity.

"She'd merely eliminated the human side's leaders who might have been obstacles to that.

"What followed was a one-sided massacre.

"… The person called Rasty has, today, become a byword for the worst possible Garumon Master.

"For inviting Tiari's massacre, he came to be nicknamed Genocide Rasty.

"… According to later historical research, among those who actually knew Rasty, few spoke ill of him.

"Rasty was strong, extremely jovial, an extreme womanizer. But cheerful and charming, an appealing person, it seems.

"Indeed, on the point of trying first to face down the Demon God's threat, he was responsible and brave.

"… However, as a result of that bravery, if you die, it's all for nothing.

"His responsibility and bravery weren't praised; he came to be known only by his bad name, the first and worst Garumon Master in history.

"… In reality, the worst part for humanity at the time was that the Garumon Master who should have led humanity died first, and humanity, having lost its leader, fell into great confusion and couldn't mount a properly organized resistance to Tiari's attacks.

"And so humanity continued to be one-sidedly slaughtered.

"The death toll caused by Tiari is said to number several hundred thousand, with nearly 90% of that killed in the first year."

"Eehhhhh…! A world of tens of millions, and several hundred thousand dead… that's 1%.

"Earth's WW2 was 80 million out of 4 billion? So 2%… well, not on a world-war scale, but as the kill count for a single Demon God, it's off the charts…"

I was startled.

"For your reference, this world's population statistics are always given in terms of Master count only.

"The death toll for Masters is in the hundreds of thousands. Garumon deaths are naturally 10x that, in the millions."

"That's even crazier!"

10% of the population!? Could that level of damage even happen? An army surrounding for mass slaughter, sure, that could work, but as the kill count for a single person, it's preposterous!? What god of destruction was she?

Ursula's ancestor was too much!?

"Yes, the death toll was so vast that for a long while popular consensus held that half the world's population had died. Even the population was hazy, hence the fuzzy tens of millions…

"Even now that historical research has progressed and we've determined it was about 10%, many still remember it as half having died."

"Haaa…"

Well, the more excessive a number is, the more it gets inflated.

A sloppy tournament dragged on for 10 years, the inexplicable winner enforced an inexplicable law, then a Demon God attacked and 1/10 of the world's population died.

This world's opening was just way too hard mode. An unbelievable catastrophe.

For the game theory, the balance is way off as a game.

A garbage game like that would see users vanish overnight.

… Mn, hold on. If it's a full-dive type, where once you start you can't get out until you die…

A worldview of order around cute Garumon, do them as you please, fun battles used to lure users in, then the true face revealed…

Well, in any case, set the game theory aside for now.

The people living in this world had no choice but to live in it, even with the threat of a Demon God.

"With no one able to oppose Tiari Belzebute's rampage, the world looked set to be wrapped in darkness.

"Just when people were trapped in despair… one Master stood up.

"His name was Augusta. The man who would later be called Augusta the Great."

"Oh, the Legendary Master appears."

This was hot.

"Augusta was the leader of the anti-Rasty insurgency.

"He himself wasn't an especially strong Master.

"He'd reportedly been eliminated fairly early in the World Tournament.

"But he was clever and full of charisma, an appealing Master, it seems.

"And he held one precious Garumon that made him special.

"That was Prophecy Princess Himika.

"She could foresee threats descending on this world, such as the Demon God's attacks, in advance.

"Based on that, he rallied people… and was able to deal with the Demon God effectively."

"Heeh…"

"Augusta, in particular, what do you think he did?"

Oh, a sudden quiz format.

Hmm, let me think.

"… Hearing that hundreds of thousands of Masters and millions of Garumon were killed in one year…

"What I'd wondered was, how many consecutive Garumon Battles did Tiari rack up?

"That's the part I'm stuck on.

"Even if Tiari's skill uses were infinite, and her attacks were infinite-power all-target piercing breakthrough…

"From the moment a Garumon Battle is set up to the moment of attack, in this world's system, that takes at least 10 seconds, right?

"One hit kills 3, second battle 3 more… shortest is 20 seconds.

"Kill 6 in 20 seconds…

"Ah, in one day she could kill 25,000. Over 365 days, that's 9.46 million. So even 10 million is doable. Even at less than that pace, a few million is achievable."

Hmm, I don't know.

"… As expected of Naoto-san.

"If Naoto-san had lived in that era, you would have been called Naoto the Great.

"… Though I'd think Naoto-san would have won the tournament, not Rasty."

That was giving me too much credit.

"No, I haven't answered yet."

"No, that's the correct answer.

"The reason millions died was that after Rasty, no one challenged Tiari to Garumon Battles.

"If you challenged her, you'd die for sure.

"But if you fled and hid, your building would be crushed and you'd be crushed to death. The town would be burned and you'd burn to death.

"Rather than be unilaterally trampled, they steeled themselves and challenged her to battles, but…

"To minimize the mental burden, they'd surround her in large numbers and launch out-of-battle attacks all at once.

"… For doing such a thing, they were unsparingly wiped out by her all-target attacks.

"That mounting a strong opponent in a group is the height of folly became clear at that very point.

"Plenty of people still repeat it now, though.

"What was most terrifying was the Demon Art Belzebute that Tiari Belzebute unleashed.

"If used within a Garumon Battle's battlefield, the Sickness only persists during the battle and doesn't carry over after combat ends.

"But if used in an out-of-battle attack, it could give actual diseases to both Masters and Garumon.

"Masters and Garumon afflicted by the disease, even if they survived, would eventually waste away and die.

"And by escaping back to their towns alive, the disease spread even to those who hadn't fought, expanding the death.

"Millions, that vast a number of deaths, it happened as a result of people charging in without any strategy at all."

"I see…"

In that case, one person killing a few million… still too many, but more plausible than fighting 20-second Garumon Battles every day for a year straight.

"Augusta, on taking up the leadership of humanity, first reformed things by ordering that against Tiari Belzebute, battles be issued one Master with 6 Garumon at a time, in Garumon Battle.

"Those who fought Tiari almost certainly died, fast. They'd die in 20 seconds, 6 at a time.

"… But only 6 die at once. And the damage is confined within the battlefield, so post-death disease doesn't spread to the surroundings.

"… And Tiari's skill uses were not infinite.

"Nor was she so diligent as to attack every day without rest; nor was her stamina infinite.

"She couldn't fight a hundred battles in a day, and her raids were apparently every few days.

"As Tiari was challenged to Garumon Battle after Garumon Battle, she'd run out of skills, or grow exhausted…

"and come to withdraw.

"By this means, where a Tiari raid would normally have produced thousands of deaths, the damage could be reduced to 1/10, even 1/100.

"Augusta's achievement was great enough.

"And so Augusta became humanity's leader…

"and humanity recovered a measure of stability.

"Year 20, the second World Tournament was held.

"But the people, having so greatly valued Augusta's achievements, conferred upon Augusta the position of Garumon Master through discussion.

"This is said to be the only case in history where the Garumon Master was decided by discussion.

"Augusta, as the people expected, even after becoming Garumon Master, never once abused his power, and built up many of this world's systems.

"He abolished the infamous right of the first night first thing.

"Many of the systems that exist today were enacted by Augusta.

"The class-rank system from E-Class to S-Class was also enacted.

"… S-Class Masters were instituted as those who'd take on the duty of fighting when Tiari attacked.

"The number 24 was also set at that time.

"As the battle procedures became somewhat established, it had been determined that if Tiari fought 24 battles in a day, she'd surely withdraw, hence the number.

"S-Class Masters are those who, in Tiari's attacks, would die next.

"Accordingly, they hold the highest authority and are greatly respected.

"A-Class Masters are the S-Class reserve, those who'll be promoted to S-Class if a vacancy opens.

"B-Class is the A-Class reserve…

"As such, the higher the rank, the higher the authority and the greater the respect.

"Those who, respected by the people, wished to hold higher authority came to aim for upper ranks more and more.

"… Even if it meant being fated to die next.

"Augusta weakened the Garumon Master's authority.

"With S-Class Masters in place, the Garumon Master's authority became restricted.

"Without a vote in the S-Class Council, the Garumon Master could no longer enact arbitrary laws.

"Even now the Garumon Master holds great authority, but the S-Class Council can invoke veto power over the Garumon Master's decisions.

"With this, reckless laws like the right of the first night could no longer be enacted.

"Combat command against Tiari Belzebute, the law and system enactment as Garumon Master.

"For these achievements, Augusta gained the people's acclaim and came to be called Augusta the Great."

"Hoh."

So an admirable person had existed. A figure out of history…

"He's a great Master who could be called the world's father."

"… Indeed. Not knowing about Augusta is shameful as a resident of this world."

"That's right.

"… But many of today's Masters and Garumon don't know Augusta's name.

"Schools are supposed to teach history too…

"It really is lamentable."

So Lyuka argued with heat.

"More to the point, you're from the faerie territory; properly speaking, human history isn't your concern.

"Why are you getting so worked up?"

So Yuria, listening from beside us, teased Lyuka.

"Isn't it fascinating? Human history. I, too, now living as one in the human territory, think Augusta should be respected!"

… Hm? Just now, that history was the history of the human territory, and… the faerie territory's history is separate?

Hmmmm? Which would mean the human territory was established at year 0, and…? In that case, the game theory isn't necessarily so plausible after all…?

Hmm, the game theory, in the end, what about it?

I said I wouldn't worry about it, but it kept bothering me.

I had to stop worrying…

But the history Lyuka was telling was more interesting than I'd expected. What was coming next was something to look forward to.