Published: January 22, 2026
It had been a little over two weeks since we began dungeon exploration.
Lately, we had been operating on a rotation of two days exploring the dungeon and one day off, and today was that day off.
At first, Log and Sophie were constantly nervous, overwhelmed by the mansion’s atmosphere, but gradually, they got used to life here and seemed to have become friendly with the household servants.
Today as well, the four members of the Twilight Moonbow and several servants who had the day off apparently went out into town.
As for me—
“Orun-kun, sorry to keep you waiting. I’ve organized my thoughts, so could you listen to what I have to say?”
I sat down on a chair in Abel’s research room, facing him across the desk.
As he said, I had come here to fulfill the promise of listening to his story in exchange for being allowed to read the books in this room.
“Of course. Every book in this room contains content I’m learning for the first time, and it’s been very fascinating. I was also looking forward to hearing your story, Lord Abel.”
“I don’t know if I can live up to your expectations. Well then, let’s begin right away.”
“Please go ahead.”
“As I mentioned before, I have a hobby of historical research. I’ve been devouring various documents, but from a certain period onward, documents from before that time are abnormally scarce. That period is the age of fairy tales. It’s a famous story, right?”
The age of fairy tales refers to the time when a hero from long ago defeated the evil god.
It was during the old calendar era, even before the first year of the current Four Saints Era.
Aside from the content of fairy tales, most traditions and records from that time have been lost.
“Yes. I’ve heard that the reason for the loss of these documents was due to the damage caused by the evil god, which spread on a global scale.”
Details are unclear, but during the age of fairy tales, conflicts broke out around the world with the emergence of the evil god.
As a result of being caught up in these events, nearly all traditions and records from that era were lost, which is the prevailing theory.
However, the tales of the hero have survived because they were passed down orally.
“Yes, it’s probably true that the evil god’s damage engulfed the entire world. Thanks to my status, I was recently able to read some of the few remaining documents from that time. But there were many strange descriptions in those documents. If you take those documents as true, there are contradictions with the current accepted theory.”
“...What contradictions?”
“The accepted theory says the hero defeated the evil god and founded the kingdom in the same year, which is said to be the first year of the Four Saints Era. You know that, right?”
“Yes, I do.”
That’s common knowledge.
The year the hero founded the kingdom is said to mark the beginning of a new era—the Four Saints Era.
“This is the contradiction. According to the documents I read, after defeating the evil god, the hero focused on ‘something.’ After that was completed, the kingdom was founded. That ‘something’ apparently took several years. In other words, there should be at least a several-year gap between the hero defeating the evil god and founding the kingdom.”
“...So the kingdom wasn’t founded immediately after defeating the evil god? In that case—”
“Exactly. There should be more documents remaining from the several years between defeating the evil god and founding the kingdom. Otherwise, it would be strange, because by then the evil god’s damage would have ceased.”
If Abel’s story is correct, it indeed contradicts the accepted theory that the documents were lost due to the evil god’s damage.
So perhaps the loss of documents is unrelated to the evil god?
Documents are records. They are, in a sense, the very traces of the people from that era.
For such important materials to be lost in large quantities, there must be a definite cause.
I had thought that cause was the evil god’s damage. In fact, I still think so.