“What kind of story is it?”

“It’s up to you to listen and judge.”

Who could simply accept and say “Oh, I see” when told that their history, the history they’ve learned since childhood, is actually wrong?

“…Go ahead. I’m curious.”

“Alright. Then, hmm… where should I start?”

After a brief pause, Silian smirked.

“You, you wanted to hear it before, didn’t you? The story of our god Salmon and your god Lowrik.”

“Yes. But what does that have to do with now?”

“Well. The unbelievable story of gods. Your story and mine begin there.”

Though very unkind, that unkindness, Silian’s characteristic manner of blurting things out, made Sesenia focus her attention.

“Lowrik was the primordial god and the first evil.”

“Evil…? A god?”

“Do you think it’s impossible?”

“No… not exactly…”

“It must be recorded differently for you.”

There was much she was curious about and wanted to ask, but Sesenia didn’t ask anything. She just listened to his story.

“Lowrik was the primordial god and the first evil. When he opened his eyes, the world was nothing but void. In that void, as Lowrik thought, another being was created. That was the second god, Salmon, the first good that Lowrik created. Lowrik watched as Salmon created. Every time he touched them, the good life forces Salmon created turned into evil life forces. That was the first division of predator and prey. After the sun rose and set 30 times, on the 31st day, the world was finally filled with living things.”

“…I never knew that.”

“How is your god depicted?”

“The primordial god created the world. Living beings were created over 31 days.”

“They say history is written by the victors. In other words, it’s written favorably for the party involved. Just like you didn’t know your god was called the primordial god and the first evil.”

Sesenia stroked her chin silently and stared at him.

“Anyway, that’s how the myth begins. Time began to flow, and over decades and centuries, the world gradually began to change. And Salmon proposed a bet.”

“A bet?”

“Lowrik loved Salmon. Because it was the first ‘thing’ he created. But apart from that, the evil within him was unstoppable. Lowrik didn’t stop creating predators. The land that was once full of life was soon left with only predators, and the predators soon came to the point of devouring each other. Even though Salmon asked him to stop, he couldn’t.”

“Ah…”

“Salmon despaired. Because the lives she created killed each other over and over. So she proposed a bet. Although Lowrik was born as the primordial evil, she thought he could change.”

This was content that never appeared in the imperial history or myths that Sesenia knew.

Since Salmon as a god didn’t appear in their myths at all, she thought they were different gods born in different places. But now it turns out that wasn’t the case…

Meanwhile, Silian began to speak again.

“The bet was about whether, in extreme situations, living things would attack each other or protect each other. It was a bet that contained Salmon’s hope that Lowrik would look at life even a little as he watched them protect each other. But Lowrik said that living things are too selfish, and because they are selfish, they will never save each other. Saying that life is inherently evil from the beginning.”

“I see…”

“Salmon created life. Therefore, Lowrik said he would choose which creature and which situation, all by himself. If Salmon were to choose, it would obviously be disadvantageous to him, he said. Salmon, who believed in living things, said to do so. And so, wolves were chosen.”

“Wolves…”

“They threw tempting meat to wolves that had been starving for days. Of course, in front of food, in front of something to eat, it was common to kill each other to take it.”

“What do you think the result was?”

The result seemed obvious just imagining it. They were hungry wolves, and if meat was thrown to them, of course they would have killed each other.

But suddenly, Sesenia had a thought that the result might not be so obvious.

“Common sense would say the wolves killed each other. But from the way you just said ‘of course,’ it seems that’s not the case.”

“That’s 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 freshly made and delicious, and there was no poison or anything like that on it. Since all the preparations were made by God Lowrik, there couldn’t have been any problems.”

“Then why?”

“Instead of fighting, they yielded to one wolf. That wolf was pregnant.”

“Ah… don’t tell me they gave it up?”

“That’s right. No one expected the wolves, who were called inferior animals, who were said to be the most vicious of all animals in the world, to act like that.”

Sesenia hadn’t thought it would be for such a reason either. She thought there must have been some trick.

Although Silian spoke positively about his god, Sesenia didn’t believe in gods.

So she doubted… but now she felt stupid for doubting.

“It was only then that Salmon realized. That Lowrik loved her very much. No matter how evil he was, no matter how much Lowrik enjoyed watching killing and being killed, he must have known. That there’s no animal that cares about family as much as wolves do. Especially wolves that live in packs, they value females and cubs extremely highly. Because they’re intelligent and devoted animals. And he couldn’t have not known about the pregnant wolf.”

“You mean he lost on purpose.”

“Yes.”

“What was the stake in the bet?”

“If he lost, Lowrik would also live by sharing his power with humans, just like Salmon. He asked that to be the stake, so that by watching the lives of such humans, his evil might gradually soften. Salmon looked at Lowrik with pity, you see. Lowrik, who didn’t know how joyful it is to watch the things born full of life live. That’s why she made this bet.”

“Indeed… Lowrik’s heart must have felt truly special.”

Anyone could see that there was nothing even slightly advantageous for Lowrik. Rather, it was something that would shake his beliefs.

For Lowrik, who had been evil since his existence, what Salmon said was something that shook his very foundation.

The fact that he did that…

“In the end, they say Lowrik left after saying one last thing. ‘I will do as you do. I will look into humans and share my power with them. I will live like you, so stop hating me. Salmon. Being hated by you is painful. If, much later, I come to truly love humans like you do, and care for them… when the evil filling my heart disappears, I will come to meet you again.’ That is said to be the last appearance of Lowrik that Salmon remembers.”

“I see.”

“That she doesn’t hate him. That Salmon also loves him, her creator. But those words were never conveyed in the end. Although the love of humans and the love of gods may be different, the feeling of care is the same. So they say Lowrik gave his power to humans in a very distant place, lest the humans he created might harm Salmon. That’s said to be the origin of the Elzerat Empire. Perhaps because of that incident, the emblem of the Elzerat Empire depicts a wolf holding something.”

“I didn’t know the reason for the wolf being depicted…”

“What about your myth, your country’s history?”

At Silian’s question, Sesenia carefully put into words the content she had read hundreds of times throughout her growing years.

“The imperial history I know is,

[In the beginning, God Lowrik was in the form of a young child. It is said that he liked new things and things he had never experienced more than anyone else. A god who had never manifested on earth even once. That god did not love humans. He only blessed those who won in wars.
The stronger ones received the god’s choice. And it was the current Elzerat Empire that received that choice. From very ancient times, the Elzerat Empire enjoyed fighting with other countries on the frontier, and always won in those wars. Lowrik, called the primordial god and the god of war, blessed such Elzerat Empire, and that continued.
The Elzerat Empire was strong. And that strength became a problem. Whether the constant winning battles became boring or not, the god no longer bestowed blessings.

The watching came to an end.] That’s it.”

“Rather than just saying they were chosen, saying they were the final victors in battles between strong humans sounds more plausible, so they probably phrased it that way.”

“…Then why did the god leave our side? Why did he create such a situation?”

“Because Salmon… ceased to exist. He was enraged.”

“…Ceased to exist?”

It was quite a strange thing. For Sesenia, myths and imperial history were quite boring things.

They seemed like forced records of victory. But now it was quite intriguing.

“Yes. The god loved humans, and the god did not love humans. You know, don’t you? That your god doesn’t love you.”

“Yeah.”