“What story are you talking about?”

“Judging that after hearing it is up to you.”

To say that their history, the history they had learned since childhood, was actually wrong, who could accept it with a simple ‘Oh, I see’?

“…Go ahead. I’m curious.”

“Sure. Then… where should I start?”

Silian, who took a moment to pause, smirked.

“You, you wanted to hear it before. The story of our god Salmon and your god Loowick.”

“Yeah. But does that have anything to do with now?”

“Yeah. Unbelievable stories of gods. Our story and yours start from there.”

Despite being very rude, Silian’s abrupt tone, typical of his straightforwardness, caught Sessenia’s attention.

“Loowick was the first god and the original evil. When he opened his eyes, the world was nothing but emptiness. From that emptiness, Loowick thought, and another being was created. That was the second god, the first good Salmon created by Loowick. Loowick watched Salmon create. Every time he touched it, the life force created by Salmon turned into an evil life force. That was the beginning of the division between predators and prey. After 30 dawns and repeated sunsets, when it became the 31st day, the world was finally filled with living things.”

“…I had no idea.”

“How is your god depicted?”

“The first god created the world. Creatures were created during 31 days.”

“Originally, it’s said that it’s the record of the victorious one. In other words, it’s written favorably to the party concerned. As if you didn’t know that your god is called the first god and the original evil.”

Sessenia, who stroked her chin in silence, stared at him without saying a word.

“Anyway, that’s how the myth started. Time began to pass, and over dozens or hundreds of years, the world gradually began to change. And Salmon begged for a gamble.”

“A gamble?”

“Loowick loved Salmon. It was the first ‘thing’ he created. But apart from that, the evil within himself couldn’t be stopped. Loowick didn’t stop creating predators. The land, which was full of life, suddenly had only predators left, and the predators ended up devouring each other. Even though Salmon asked him to stop, he couldn’t.”

“Ah…”

“Salmon was desperate. Because the life forms he created killed each other. So, she begged for a gamble. Even if Loowick was born as the original evil, she thought he could change.”

What Sessenia knew about the history of the empire, the content that never appeared in the myths, was now being revealed.
In their mythology, since the god named Salmon itself does not appear, they thought of it as different gods born in different places. But it wasn’t the case…

In the meantime, Silian started speaking again.

“The gamble was about what would happen if an extreme situation came, whether living beings would attack each other or protect each other. It was Salmon’s gamble with the hope that by watching beings protect each other, Loowick would look at life a bit. However, Loowick said that living things are excessively selfish, and because they are selfish, they will never save each other. Life was born evil from the beginning.”

“I see…”

“Salmon created life. So Loowick chose everything, which creature to choose, which situation to choose. He said that if Salmon made the choice, it would be obvious that it would be disadvantageous to herself. Believing in living things, Salmon said to do so. The one chosen was the wolf.”

“Wolf…”

“He threw appetizing meat to wolves that had been starving for a few days. Naturally, in front of food, in front of something to eat, they usually killed each other even if it meant killing. What do you think the result would be?”

The result was obvious even just imagining it. Hungry wolves, and if meat were thrown, they would obviously have killed each other.

However, Sessenia suddenly thought that it might not be such an obvious result.

“Logically, the wolves would have killed each other. But considering your ‘of course’ just now, it doesn’t seem like that’s the case.”

“Right. In the end, the wolves didn’t kill each other.”

“Why? Weren’t they hungry? Or was there poison on the meat?”

“No. The meat was just made to be delicious, and there was no poison or anything. Since everything was done by the god Loowick, there was no problem.”

“Then why?”

“Instead of fighting, they yielded to one wolf. That wolf had wolf cubs.”

“Ah… You mean they yielded?”

“Yes. The wolves, called inferior animals, turned out to be the most vicious among all the animals in the world.”

Sessenia didn’t think that could be the reason. Surely there must have been deception.

Silian spoke positively about his god, but Sessenia didn’t believe in gods.

So she doubted… Doubting herself felt so foolish.