Original Valter had been struck by a carriage, suffering grievous injuries that crushed his entire body.
And when I factored in the truth that my soul had entered after usurping his body,
that accident must have been a fatal wound that led to death.
“I finally came back to life for real, but at this rate, I’ll be stuck in bed for months without a doubt. Damn it, I can’t have that.”
But waiting around with bated breath for my body to heal through natural means left me crawling with impatience.
Having vowed revenge,
I had opened my eyes intending to slaughter them all, yet in reality I couldn’t do a damn thing.
Anyone in this situation would feel the same, but my temperament was especially incapable of accepting it.
What happened after my death.
Furthermore, a maddening thirst to devour the structure of this changed world gnawed at me at every moment.
So to resolve this,
I took out knowledge covered in three hundred years of dust.
No.
By my standards, having crossed through time, I took out knowledge that had been no different from common sense—something I had used constantly.
Having fought an evil spirit that attempted to destroy my mind every single moment; having truly used this every time I so much as blinked.
Since I had entered a different body, it wasn’t as if I needed any special preparation to use it now.
Hooo, hooo—
And so I steadied my breathing,
took out 「Extreme Mana Circulation」, and tuned this body.
Then, even though it was a body I had entered for the first time, before long I grasped the sensation of my body floating lightly.
“…I understand. Valter. So this body had this kind of mana structure.”
Before long,
a mana diagram of young Valter’s body flowed into my mind.
If so, everything that followed would be smooth sailing.
Mana Circulation was a foundational technique that dispersed mana clumped abnormally throughout the body, maximizing human capability and regenerative power.
Normally, merely performing it a few times would heal minor wounds instantly…
In other words, it was a regenerative art essentially serving as the source of a frontline warrior’s combat endurance.
But mine was tenfold more potent.
The sensation I had mastered was a circulation of a different realm, specially trained to gain mental resistance against evil spirits.
Thus, when high-ranking magi laid eyes upon this,
hadn’t they even attached the title ‘Extreme’ to the front of ordinary Mana Circulation?
So it was only natural that the effects were extraordinary on the body of young Valter, who seemed never to have performed Mana Circulation even once.
“I won’t need splints or bandages anymore.”
Three days later,
I shook off all injuries, rose from my bed, and began to navigate the count’s palace.
Of course, I hadn’t told anyone that I had woken up.
Normally, it would be proper to visit my parents and pay respects first; I knew that much.
However, as I said, there were facts I needed to devour, so I was merely hurrying toward Count Tark’s study, where everything could be checked.
“Oh my, young master!”
“Who are you? Judging by your attire, a servant?”
“Eek?! Have you forgotten me?! But how can you move…? No, more importantly, I shall inform Countess Valeria, your mother, at once! Please wait!”
“Inform Mother? I’ll be visiting her in due time, so don’t pay me needless attention. I have matters to attend to, so keep my passing through here a secret.”
“S-secret…….”
Gulp.
“Then, please allow me to fulfill my duty as a servant, at the very least. To check if you are recovering, may I perform a brief physical examination?”
“What do you mean by examination?”
“Why, of course! Remove all your clothes, so that this body’s—”
“To put it politely, I take no pleasure in forcing myself on women. If you don’t wish to get hit, step away from my body and keep your mouth shut.”
“—E-ek♥, young master? T-that, what you just said. Please, say it once more…”
“Ugh, you bitch in heat like a pig…!”
Patter—
It was none other than
the reason this world had become filled with crazy women desperate for men.
This was an enormous sense of dissonage that could not be clearly explained as a mere change wrought by the passage of time after being reborn three hundred years later.
I had to know that reason.
“Is it here?”
In the study I had finally reached with difficulty,
I pulled out books haphazardly and turned their pages.
But there was one problem.
……….
……
…
They were definitely characters I knew.
Damn it all, I could read them sporadically, yet I couldn’t understand a thing.
Could a language reform have occurred over the past three hundred years?
It was then that I viscerally realized three hundred years was quite a long time—enough to alter even the structure of writing.
Just then, from behind, I heard a frail, sickly rasp that could hardly be called a voice.
And it was calling for me.
“Valter… Brother?”
Well, I didn’t know much about my original self,
but information flashed through my mind.
There must be only one person who would call me Brother.
“Ia.”
So I called that name as carefully as possible to avoid causing a fuss, and as expected, she—Yeret had mentioned her as my sister—was indeed Ia. Her face brightened at the name I called, and she fidgeted as she spoke.
“I heard you had woken up. To think you could move… I had been wanting to visit you…”
“It turned out that way. I am grateful for the thought.”
“Ah.”
But when I humored her with a few casual words,
Ia only deepened the flush that had risen to her cheeks as she replied.
“You never used to speak a single word to me, and now you even call my name… Ia am so happy.”
Closing the book in her hands and hugging it tightly to her chest, she looked exactly as happy as her words suggested.
Perhaps the boy Valter, the original owner of this body, had been quite passive in his social relations with those around him.
Or perhaps outright hostile.
The way she rejoiced at me simply opening my mouth with empty pleasantries was the very image of an innocent young girl.
Well, normally I wouldn’t have cared whether she did or not.
But thinking about how flustered I had been earlier, unable to read the books…
Perhaps this was for the best.
This girl might have come at just the right time.
“Ia.”
“Yes, Brother?”
“It’s fortunate you came; sit beside me. There’s a text I wish to read, but though my body has recovered, my head is so foggy I cannot make sense of it.”
“I can do that as much as you wish. However…”
“However, what?”
“Beside you… Is it truly alright for Ia to sit there?”
“Why wouldn’t it be? You’re my sister.”
At that, Ia—who had been hiding her exhilaration without showing it—did not display the same shameless, heat-crazed look as the other women.
She simply took a deep breath where she stood, sat down beside me as lightly as a falling feather, and read aloud the several books I handed her.
“This part here; I’m curious about.”
“Mmm. The ratio of men to women is 1:60. After the ‘Three Hundred Years of Despair’ began, a new axiom of humanity, statistically proven—”
And as I listened to that part, I thought,
‘…Just as I suspected, the gender ratio is completely shattered. What Yeret said was true.’
Now, this world had changed into a bizarre structure where if one man was born, sixty women were born.
Well, it was a bizarre phenomenon not easily understood;
but with simple assumptions and arithmetic…
When a kingdom of 1.5 million existed,
1,475,000 of them were women.
And men numbered a mere 25,000, did they not?
Amazingly, in the three hundred years immediately following my death, the world had been reorganized such that men had been reduced to such scarcity.
Therefore,
it was only natural that the world had gone so mad.
“Then read this next, Ia.”
“The moment a boy is born. Upon discovering this, the Church immediately reports to the lord, and his existence is requisitioned at the source. It is written that he then lives his entire life bearing the duty of causing villages and seeds to flourish… Though that is a natural fact.”
What I opened next was the Laws of House Tark.
To put it simply, it seemed men were dragged away immediately upon birth and used as 「Seed Stallions」 for the preservation of humanity.
“But why wasn’t I dragged away?”
“Because Brother is the sole heir to four generations of House Tark… You have the free right to choose ‘sowing.’ If Brother wishes it, everyone is prepared to follow you for the preservation of the seed?”
As she spoke, Ia glanced up at me.
I didn’t know what expression she wore, but it was quite meaningful.
“In the end, the goal is preservation of the seed. Then whether one is dragged away or not, it’s a damned privilege either way. I have no need for it.”
“……….”
“Do you want to do such a thing with me? If the purpose is preservation of the seed, that is.”
“I… I don’t really know.”
“Neither do I.”
To think they had enshrined such a thing in law.
If this were three hundred years ago, even a passing dog would laugh.
But having heard all the facts,
I completely understood, on one hand, why such a law had been inevitable.
Well, with the gender ratio collapsed to such an extreme, whether it proves fatal or nourishing, wouldn’t they have to insist on something to maintain the nation and the world?
Thus, rather than despairing, I felt oddly refreshed.
With the world in such a state,
even the largest community, the nation, was desperately snatching men away;
it was obvious that the taboos within the family, the basic unit of that community, could not possibly remain intact.
The reason my sister Yeret had panted upon seeing me must have stemmed from precisely this kind of awareness.
If that was the case, it was not something I could change as an individual.
I simply had to adapt appropriately going forward.
“Ia, I’m sorry for only asking obvious questions. I hit my head as well, so I truly cannot remember; would you mind answering me?”
“If it’s what Valter oppa wants, Ia can tell you everything. Because Valter oppa was in pain.”
But for some reason, I got the impression her form of address had shifted to something more intimate.
Well, it didn’t matter.
“Why aren’t many men born in this world? It’s not as though we were cursed by the heavens; someone must have caused this.”
“Why, it’s obviously because of the Hero, Seradion.”
And the moment I heard that name,
I couldn’t help but ask blankly,
“What did Seradion do?”
“…After being defeated and captured by the Demon King, she was made to make a wish. And that wish happened to be, ‘I want to live in a world with a male-to-female ratio of 1:60.’”
“What?”
And what followed was more than enough to blow my mind.
All of this had been by Seradion’s design.
Shit.
Is she out of her mind?
“Ia doesn’t know the details either. But Seradion’s wish was just that.”
And that was precisely
the most idiotic thing I had heard since reincarnating three hundred years later.
“She was once called a hero, but she’s still alive and continues to spread that wish to all of humanity… She’s the worst. A degenerate and a pervert. A useless human being, oppa.”
But at Ia’s next words,
all my focus was seized.
“Seradion is… alive?”
“Uh…? O-oppa. Why do you look so scary? Ia is a little frightened.”
“I’m sorry. But is it true that the person who was active three hundred years ago is still alive?”
“Y-yes… It’s a well-known fact.”
And if that was the case, I retracted my previous statement.
I would have to apologize to the evil spirit in my body for calling her a blockhead when I met her again.
Though three hundred years was a bizarrely long gap,
it seemed I had landed at the perfect time and place.
I didn’t know how she was still alive,
but if she was, then with this life, I could pierce Seradion’s heart.
Just as had been done to me.
It was precisely then that a light of clear purpose ignited within me, who had until then lacked any such thing.
After leaving that library,
I picked up a sword.
And exactly three months later.
“Valter, sole heir and successor to Count Tark, receive the direct appointment to the Royal Knights.”
I was summoned to the Royal Knights.
The byname Sword Demon was not something that could be hidden simply by trying to hide it.
However,
perfectly adapted, I merely spoke.
“I refuse.”
Fuck off.
Whether it was the Royal Knights or whatever else, it was none of my concern.
Because I had something I had to do.