There was a girl. Though still very young, she possessed extraordinary beauty—a precious child whom no one could bear to see hurt, and who must never be hurt.
The name of that girl, born of noble blood, was Hexia Agarta.
She was the princess of all nations, and the ruler who would one day inherit the Mask and give birth to a new All-Nations.
A cute and noble child. Children raised amid the calculating yet genuine love of countless people generally grow in one of two ways: they either take that grace for granted, or, commendably, try to repay it.
That Hexia Agarta grew into a good child was a tremendous blessing for All-Nations.
—I wish meat would grow on trees! Then the nanny, the servants, and the pages could all eat their fill of meat!
But… the fact that good little Hexia Agarta possessed such enormous talent was too great a blessing. So great that even the nation of All-Nations could not bear it.
—So I made ginkgo fruits that taste like meat grow on the Blessed Ginkgo!
The World Tree, the Blessed Ginkgo, was a male tree.
The fact that meat could grow on trees was a shocking event even to the druids, who were respected by all, and to the witches, who received only slightly less respect than them.
Some claimed that the very existence of meat fruit defied the laws of nature, while others defended it simply as fruit that happened to taste like meat. The chancellor rejoiced that the food shortage had been solved, but the advisers voiced concern, saying it was more difficult to raise than livestock.
Only the witches offered consistent support, though no one else placed any value on that support.
The arguments continued. Because they knew they would never end, the debates grew even more heated. As the sun declined, the moon waxed, and the four seasons repeated, the subject kept circling back to the beginning. Their conversations were so noisy that even chirping birds covered their ears and hid in their nests, and so sharp that even predators stalking their prey were too frightened to approach.
—Proceed.
In the end, however, worldly power prevailed. The matter was settled when Her Majesty, Agarta, personally reached a conclusion.
—If you have any complaints, I shall hear them in my bedchamber. In exchange, let us bear fruit together.
Yes. It was over.
Meat fruit was an extremely delicate and sensitive crop. Even when it shared the same roots, it grew in wildly different ways depending on how it was cultivated. Even the finest druids spent their time without ever figuring out how to improve it.
It was around then that Her Majesty invited the primordial druid, Nebida.
“Your Majesty exploited the princess’s pure goodwill to violate a taboo.”
[Shut up… Shut uuuuuup!]
The primordial druid was worthy of his name. Nebida, well versed in both animals and plants, personally carried out improvements through his knowledge and experience. Dogs, cats, goats, sheep, cows, chickens, pigs, monkeys. All kinds of meat fruit began to grow. Witches and druids alike could only marvel at his outstanding abilities.
Because they could not understand him, they could not approach him; because they could not approach him, the gap only grew wider. The druids once respected by everyone became fools by comparison, and Her Majesty now spoke only with the Archdruid and Princess Hexia instead of those fools. The fools did not dare interrupt. Having felt the difference for themselves, they chose instead to look away.
One day, when the gulf between knowledge and ignorance had grown even wider, druids from the Great Forest came from beyond the woods. Claiming that they had secretly followed the Archdruid, they told a story that left everyone astonished.
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The Archdruid Nebida. That legendary primordial being, whose name every druid had heard at least once—
Had touched the taboo of coupling.
“What? You mean all those beastfolk were born from trees? But the Root Tree’s life force has limits…?”
“That is correct. Beasts born from meat fruit cannot live long. It is the same principle as fruit spoiling and rotting once it falls from a tree. By adopting the way of plants, they acquired a flaw that could never be overcome.”
“But if what you say is true, then you ultimately succeeded in mass-producing beastfolk, didn’t you? How?”
“…By the way of beasts.”
Beasts that grew from fruit spoiled almost as soon as they were born. It could not be helped. Animals were different from plants.
And so Her Majesty summoned the children born of Agarta. Beastfolk with animal ears and tails—the creations of successive Agartas, who had indulged in boredom and stimulation.
—I shall become the king of the beastfolk, Hexia.
Hexia’s brothers and sisters, bearing ears and tails, obeyed their mother’s words. To those raised on love directed toward beasts, Agarta’s command was absolute. She was their leader, their mother, and their master.
—The power usurped from the King of Humanity. The days we spend relying on only its fragments will end someday. Unless I am the King of Humanity, I cannot become a true king in the fullest sense. But beastfolk are superior to humans. If such beasts were newly born…
And then… the countless females—or rather, pistils—still hanging from the fruit, not yet ripened, curled up with their umbilical cords still attached….
Drugged into heat, they hung naked from the fruit. One by one, they were indulged in and violated.
They drank the vitality of the World Tree, causing the meat submerged within the flesh of the fruit to conceive. Like insects laying their eggs inside fruit.
—We shall become living demon gods, and kings of beasts by our very nature.
But to All-Nations, it was an overwhelmingly great blessing and calamity.
Hexia was intelligent and kind. Kind enough that she could not turn away from the meat fruits bearing lives that had been conceived within the fruits she herself had created—lives without love or freedom, lives that could never be blessed.
Nenyap calmly conveyed the truth. It was a pain sharper than a dagger to some. Perhaps Nenyap had refrained from meeting the Archwitch all this time out of consideration for her.
Or perhaps he had merely been cherishing her so that the blade would cut more deeply.
“Young Princess, it was you who asked us to stop the former king.”
A parrot let out a loud, shrill squawk, as if trying to drown out Nenyap’s words. But no matter how loudly it cried, Nenyap’s words could not be covered.
“You intended to drive out the humans who had lived there originally and fill the land with beastfolk fashioned from the tree. By the time we realized what was happening, countless beastfolk had already been born and scattered throughout the jungle… The humans who had been pushed aside and denied Agarta’s favor took up weapons in jealousy and resentment.”
It was only natural that chaos had arisen when enough beastfolk to constitute an entire race had been unleashed. Had it been anywhere but All-Nations, a population of that size would have been identified immediately. But they had spread across a land that was half wilderness, and so Agarta’s atrocity went largely unnoticed.
By the time they realized there was a problem, the problem had already occurred. That was likely why the rebellion had come so late.
“We abused the vitality of the World Tree, defiled the value of birth, and trampled upon human dignity. The World Tree fell into ruin, bearing countless meat fruits like tumors. What we truly intended was to scrape away the World Tree’s tumors… In the end, however, everything burned away in a fury like a raging fire.”
Having calmly conveyed the facts, Nenyap drove in the final wedge.
“Thanks to the princess, we were able to prevent the World Tree from bearing fruits of sin.”
[No one told you to burn down the World Tree! No one told you to kill your mother, steal the Mask, and destroy the country!]
“Regrettably, it came to that because our strength was insufficient. Just as it did because of you, princess.”
Nenyap had not intended it, either. It was simply unavoidable. They had been a rabble of rebels, while Agarta’s power was formidable. If they had hesitated even slightly, Agarta would have seduced and persuaded half the rebels, turning them into her own hands and feet.
To achieve their goal, it could not be helped. If they had not killed Agarta and torn apart her Mask, the rebellion would have failed.
And the one who had intended it was the Archwitch. The target of the Archwitch’s anger included even herself.
“Princess. Therefore, please let us pass. Otherwise, the depravity of that time will be repeated.”
[What utter nonsense…!]
“Are humans not now being created at the summit of the tree of depravity? The King of Humanity is the seed of grave sin meant for that purpose. The only way to end this without repeating the tragedy is to do so.”
The reason they had brought me here was to prevent the tragedy of that time from repeating. Because if I helped, Nebida could create even humans.
[Get them out!]
The parrot cried out savagely. But the force of the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons was not what it had been. The rage and wildness that had seemed capable of covering the jungle had vanished. The Archwitch’s pet familiars stood frozen, their fur merely bristling.
Despite her passionate words, the Archwitch’s emotions had become confused. Her familiars, who felt their master’s emotions exactly as she did, sensed the Archwitch’s hesitation.
Reading the flow of events, Nenyap pressed on once more.
“Let us hurry along the road. Now that the princess knows the truth, the Archdruid will arrive soon as well.”
“Ah, yes. I understand. Thank you. Thanks to you, I now know everything that happened behind the scenes.”
“I told you I would explain as we went.”
“You knew the Archwitch would come.”
“I was forced to kill your parrot, after all. There was no other way to find the place where you were staying.”
“Of course. I understand too. That it couldn’t be helped.”
The Archwitch’s thoughts were fragmented and emotional. The memories I had read from her had focused on what happened after the World Tree burned and fell. Before the World Tree burned, the Archwitch had been young and immature, and had deliberately avoided thinking about the meat fruit.
But after reading Nenyap’s thoughts as well, everything became clearer—what Agarta had planned, and why she had created the beastfolk.
“You didn’t want to destroy the country, either. You didn’t want to burn the World Tree. But the existence of the meat fruit bothered you even more, didn’t it? It must have been difficult for you, too. How did you endure all those years without a country or a World Tree?”
Nenyap climbed back onto the deer and replied,
“Arborification. Thanks to the secret art of transforming our bodies into trees, we woke in turn once each year and cared for one another. That was how we continued our sinful lives.”
“So that’s how you endured. I’ve heard enough.”
“Then hurry onward.”
“No, I said I’ve heard enough. So I’m getting off here now. Thank you for everything. The deer’s back is more comfortable than I expected.”
Hadn’t they told me to jump off if I disliked it? I had liked the story itself, but that only made it easier to reach a conclusion. I seated Shaye on the saddle, then leaped off without hesitation.