Chapter 5 – From 「Goddess」to 「Satan」  

….Now then, the story of my personal life has dragged on for a bit too long. Let’s return to the story of the new humanity already.

As a result of a long time of researching, species other than the Long-Eared became able to use magic but it seems that the magic that the Long-Eared use and the magic that other species use are simply “magic which resemble each other”.

To briefly explain it, the efficiency rate is bounds apart.

If we say that in the case of the Long-Eared using a rate of 100 magical powers, approximately 90 of it is turned into magic. But the efficiency rate drastically drops when a species other than the Long-Eared uses magic. Even if they use the same 100 magical power to activate magic, only about 20~30 gets transferred to the magic at best. All the other magical powers are discharged from the body, losing their effects.

Well, the magic that the Long-Eared used is limited to inside the forest, and is one-sidedly suited towards battles. Whereas the magic that every other species use could be accessed anywhere in the world and magic for everyday use has also been developed.

If I was to differentiate between the two, then the magic that the Long-Eared used would be Ancient magic and the magic that everyone else other than the Long-Eared used would be Modern magic.

Using the modern magic, they had applied it to various everyday situations.

Of course, it was also applied to navigation technology so the primitive sailing boats had disappeared along with magic ships, using magic as its driving power, replacing them.

Magic ships were able to travel even without wind, and therefore were much more convenient for travelling long distances. Several huge magic ships were created, further expanding the activity range of the new humanity.

Sea routes which spanned the immense ocean were also created; with several of them having the artificial island as their landmark. As a result, the amount of huge magic ships passing through this artificial island has increased as of late.

At first, there were many people who spoke of me as the Death God, but the amount of sailors who treated me as a Goddess increased as the times passed by.

Recently, when the sailors spot me taking a walk around the edges of the island, they would start excitedly waving their hands this way. Among them are some who would even throw kisses or bring their hands together and pray for the safety of their voyage.

Well, I had never done anything for them before but they seem to be satisfied with it.

In actuality, there were sailors inside a tavern at the port:

“You know? I was smiled upon by the goddess!”

“Humph! You youngster! The goddess even waved to me!”

“Fools! I even had a kiss thrown back at me after I threw one at her!!”

Making a lot of noise.

Just a side note: I had not once smiled towards them nor waved my hand at them, much less thrown any kisses in return. They had just selfishly convinced themselves inside their own heads.

Among the ships that approach the artificial island, a special one has started to mix among them. All the ships up till now have simply passed by the artificial island as they head off to somewhere but lately, there have been quite a few ships with the artificial island as their destination.

Although it was impossible to approach the island’s vicinity due to the barrier, they had stopped the ship in a place a bit further away and started performing some sort of ritual on the deck. The identities of these people were priests or fortune tellers that were dispatched from each country. They had struggled to come all the way to this artificial island just to predict the fate of their country’s future.

During this time, various countries had accepted the artificial island as The Island of God and various religions worshipping me as a goddess had formed all over the world. Priests and fortune tellers from these religions travel to the middle of the ocean just to prognosticate the future. Every time, they would sacrifice young boys and girls with beautiful appearances to the artificial island. They would tie the child up and throw them off the ship into the sea. It was quite a strange sight but if this is their decision, I have no other choice than to accept it. (TL: she means the decision, not the children)(ED: wouldn’t that be quite dark if she meant the children?)

However, I have no intentions of undoing the barrier not to mention foreseeing anything for them. As things have always been, I do not intend on making any contact with the outside world.

The prophets swallowed a type of drug and crazily danced a mysterious dance with the priestess’ for a whole night on the deck, just to return back home the next morning. When they returned to their relative countries, they would speak of the things that the “goddess had told them”.

Of course I had not advised them on anything but in the reports they spoke of, it was as though I told them even the minuscule of details. Whether they should wage war on the neighbouring countries or whether they’ll find gold if they dig up the mountain or if you’ll become immortal by combining this and that.

I really did admire how they could churn up the lies one after another.

A national policy was created by using “words of a god” that the church had informed the central part of the country of. Even though the countries are ever so expanding, why is it that the prophets are the ones who decide the future of the country?

I can only think that they are abandoning the very obvious idea of properly gaining knowledge and predicting the future based on what they know.

Well, both people and countries tend to grow by repeats of trial and error. Even if they fail and die or fall, that in its own way is a splendid result. There is no need for me to intervene and nor do I have the intentions to do so either. I will just continue observing.

As I continued my observations, the world gradually started to deform.

Animals other than the new humanity started becoming more ferocious. (TL: so in the end, what do they look like?)

No, it wasn’t on the level of becoming ferocious. Their evolution were clearly becoming more violent.

For example, the small mice became larger and more ferocious as time progressed.

Their hair fell off, the skin mutated into a greenish colour; they started walking on two legs and attacked the new humanity with sticks and rocks that they picked up. (ED: starting to become something like an RPG.)

Of course the change wasn’t only in mice. Various animals and insects, fish, and even plants had become more ferocious.

And although the new humanity retaliated with armies of their own, the armies eventually were not enough to deal with this threat.

Ultimately, collaborators appeared within the citizens. New humanity called them adventurers, a type of occupation that deals with animals that have become more ferocious. The countries called these animals demons and gave out rewards when the demon was subjugated. Adventurers were able to make a living by investing the money into the market.

But the number of demons never diminished, rather they continued to increase. In return, the new humanity developed even more powerful magic to defend themselves. Of course flame magic that burns the demons to death, but magic for strengthening their own bodies and even magic that weakens the demons. Just like this, the field of magic continued expanding.

Except, the amount of demons increased and strengthened in proportion to the development of magic. No matter how much effort the new humanity put into subjugating the demons, it did not result into much. Even after the commencing a mass purging of the demons, the amount of demons would increase to more than before the next month.

While the new humanity was worrying about the demons, I investigated the cause of the demons. Well, I found the reason relatively quickly since it was only sorting through the data that the drones had sent in.

The cause of the manifestation of demons was due to the existence of magic itself. By using magic, “remnants of magic power” in the atmosphere, basically pollutants will be released. And by inhaling these pollutants, the animals and plants will become more ferocious and turn into demons. This is the reason that demons were born. Especially since the exchange rate of modern magic is a lot worse than ancient magic. It has a rate of 30% at best, with the remaining 70% of remnants being dispersed from the body.

Due to that, the forest in which the long-eared lives in barely contained any demons and the larger countries that actively use modern magic to hunt down the demons are tormented the most.

Well then, why is it that animals and plants can demonify, but new humanity doesn’t?

It was because the mana organs protect the body from the pollutants. As long as they have the organ inside them, even despite not being able to use magic, there will be no problems. Even if a little magic remnant enters the body, the mana organ would intake it as nutrition so there is no chance of turning into a demon.

Although the probability is considerably low, those born without mana organs or those who lost their mana organs through accidents or sickness will turn into demons if they live in a place dense in magic remnants for half a century. However, since the new humanity treated it as a newly found disease, no one realised this.

Even the Ancients had quite the trouble with air pollution, water pollution and soil contamination. This could be counted as one of the trials given to new humanity.

The young girl excitedly observed as to how the new humanity would overcome this trial.

Among the new humanity, a worldwide conference was held with several knowledgeable people invited in order to discuss the solution to fundamentally solve the problems of demons.

Why were the demons born?

For what purpose is it that demons exist?

What should humanity do?

Or so they had discussed.

If I had participated in that conference, I would have said something along the lines of:

“The demons were born as a result of modern magic”

“The magic remnants are being purified inside the bodies of these demons so it is due to them that the Earth’s environment is being maintained”

“If you wish to prevent the occurrence of demons, then you should stop using magic and consider methods of using magic to not produce any pollutants or any methods that can purity the pollutants that are released”

Of course I had not received an invitation letter to the conference and even if I had received one, I would not have attended. This is something that is absolutely necessary for their growth.

While I was excitedly anticipating the reports from the drones that I had snuck into the conference room, the conversation took a weird turn.

“These demons must be made by something that has exceeded the bounds of human knowledge”

“There is no doubt that the one who did this has the powers of god”

“Then there is a high possibility that the goddess did this to torment us”

Slowly, the conference came to a conclusion of “the goddess had created the demons just to torment humans”

And finally,

“The cause of all demons is due to the goddess and after this conference, we shall refer to the goddess as Satan” (TL: the raws say demon king instead of Satan but since the title is like that… and also Satan is shorter to type.)

The conference ended as such.

I could only tremble at that decision.