Chapter 32: Heavenly Saint, Vasily Valvaroi 3

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“I know the future of this world because I retain memories of a past life.”

“…A past life?”

“Before I was born as a man named Johan, I lived as a different human being. I still remember that.”

“Oh… I see— …do I?”

“You don’t believe me, do you? Anyway, I have memories of living in a country called Japan, on a planet called Earth, in my past life. Back there, it had been about five thousand years since humanity first emerged.”

“…………So you lived somewhere completely unrelated to us.”

“That works.”

Vasily didn’t fully understand everything Johan was saying, but she interpreted it in her own way.

“And this world is based on a story called ‘Ryona Ero! ~A World Where Strong Women Are Violated and NTR’d~.’”

“…………Sorry. Could you say that again?”

“‘Ryona Ero! ~A World Where Strong Women Are Violated and NTR’d~.’”

Was I too hasty with my decisions? Maybe I shouldn’t have trusted him after all…?

“…I know exactly what you’re thinking right now. If I were in your position, I’d be thinking the same thing.”

Johan said that with a wry smile. Vasily didn’t understand the full meaning of his words. Still, she pieced together the parts she did understand and guessed that it probably wasn’t anything good.

“Ryona refers to a genre where acts involving bloodshed or injury are combined with sexual acts. ‘Violation’ should be self-explanatory, and as for NTR—”

“Ah—uh—wait! Stop! Don’t explain!”

“I have to explain it or you won’t get it.”

“That’s true, but still!”

Though deeply curious about the outside world, Vasily was still only fifteen. There was no way such extreme genres had developed in her village, and she was in the middle of experiencing a mild culture shock.

She understood marriage and having children. But excessive sexual acts were beyond her knowledge, and she had never heard of such things being practiced in the village.

Acts involving bloodshed or injury combined with sexual acts…?? That’s grotesque!! Are humans and the outside world really that depraved!?

“Ah… Do you know what goblins or orcs are?”

“…Y-yes, I’ve heard of them. The men are eaten, and the women are dragged into their lairs and—”

“Yeah, that. Roughly speaking, doing horrible things to women who lose in battle. That’s ryona ero. And this world is built on stories like that at its core. A truly garbage world.”

To help Vasily, who still hadn’t fully processed it, Johan continued calmly.

“I wasn’t challenging dungeons alone, you know. Around dungeons there were small settlements, and it was common to team up with others who shared the same goal. It was a gathering of people with no common sense or manners. Men would get into fights constantly, sometimes even killing each other. And if there was a woman, the group would assault her together. Behavior worse than animals was just normal there. It was a hellhole.”

Vasily closed her mouth, unsure what to say. Johan didn’t seem to expect a response and continued speaking without concern.

“I thought it was just because the civilization level was low. Even Japan only barely got there by the Heisei era. …But that wasn’t it. This world isn’t Earth, and it isn’t Japan. It was a world whose outcome was decided from the start. Haha…No wonder things never worked out.”

“…Do you hate it? This… world of ours?”

“…I don’t hate it. It’s the other world I always dreamed of. I couldn’t hate it. I just…I just wish it were a world where people could trust each other more.”

Hearing that, Vasily thought to herself.

This man is despairing of the world.

From what she heard, things happened here that were unthinkable in the village. If men banded together and assaulted women in the village, they would be executed immediately. Fights were rare, and even when relations soured, there were mediators. Other elven villages and the dwarves were no different.

Some races revered conflict, but once people formed groups, rules emerged, and they followed them. That didn’t exist here. The world Johan described sounded to Vasily like tales of barbarians.

“I tried a lot of things. Encouraged my family to keep clean, made soap, cooked meals…. Everything I could remember. Some things even worked. But I was a farmer’s sixth son. I had no standing. The soap I made was stolen. I never even got a bite of the food I cooked.”

“…………”

“I got beaten for not working and had everything taken by my eldest brother. Well, that’s just how it is. That’s how it was supposed to be. It only changed after globalization, the information age, and the spread of the internet. And on top of that, this is a ryona doujin eroge world. Of course nothing worked.”

His dry laugh carried resignation.

“I thought I’d rise up, become important, maybe even build a country. If you’re powerful, people follow you. I thought maybe then I could ban evil and create a peaceful, moral society. But I wasn’t special. It didn’t work. So I gave up and dove into dungeons, hoping for even the slightest chance. And then…”

Johan looked directly at Vasily.

“…Vasily. Three thousand years from now, you’ll be defeated by the Demon Lord’s Army. Your arms and legs will be crushed and torn off. Your freedom will be taken. You’ll be raped repeatedly by monsters, turned into a breeding vessel, and finally used up as a meat shield, dying after even your sense of self is erased.”

“—!”

“You think knowing lets you avoid it? I don’t. Even ordinary humans are terrifying when they gang up and use violence. And there are individuals who overpower them and monsters who treat even those individuals like toys. Your village won’t exist in the distant future either.”

“That’s absurd! The village disappearing—!”

“There’s persecution of demi-humans by humans. I don’t know when, but there’s a time when elves and dwarves vanish. That’s probably when it happens.”

“Don’t be ridiculous—!”

She bristled at the repeated insults, but thinking about what Johan had already described, she couldn’t fully dismiss it as impossible. A world where you couldn’t trust strangers or even neighbors, or family. If such a world expanded and reached the village…

“…Then we’ll drive them away. We’re strong.”

“Think about the numbers. While one elf is born, a hundred humans are. What do you think happens when they keep breeding only the strong?”

“…………”

“Human evolution is fast. They keep evolving through conflict. Can elves maintain the current gap?”

“……………………”

The man before her knew things even the village’s wisest elders didn’t. There was probably no human alive with more knowledge. It was hard to believe. And yet…

To dismiss it all as delusion or lies went against Vasily’s principles. She wanted to know the outside world. Whether it was beautiful or ugly, she wanted to know what couldn’t be learned by staying shut inside the village. There was danger. She knew that. But she wanted to know. She wanted to see a different reality, no matter how ugly it was.

“…I see. Then I understand that this will happen to me. So? How do I avoid it?”

“The key is that the Demon Lord’s Army will rise and run rampant. If you can crush it before it forms, the entire future will change.”

“And how do we crush it?”

“I don’t know. I don’t have the lifespan or strength to do anything about it. But what about you? Do you think you could?”

Elves lived long lives. The older their lineage, the longer they lived. The reason was unclear, but it was believed that the closer one’s blood was to the original elves, the longer their lifespan. Vasily was third generation. The first generation founded the village. The second inherited it. By the third generation, the direct influence of the first had faded. She was a new generation yet still benefited from the old. A hybrid, one might say.

“What does this Demon Lord’s Army want?”

“To rule the world. This continent, the one I lived on… Basically everything across the seas. They want to turn all land into a paradise for monsters.”

“That’s unacceptable.”

“But humans are ugly. They can’t cooperate. What will you do?”

“…Is there no choice but to act?”

“As far as I know, no.”

“Then I’ll do it. Fortunately, I have plenty of time.”

Even without Johan, Vasily would eventually have gone outside. She didn’t know when, but if she died like that somewhere despite the village being gone, she assumed it would be the result of entering human society.

“Put simply, this is a world crisis. Is there anyone else who knows?”

“No, but a Prophet will appear eventually. That one should be able to answer some things.”

“…Aren’t you the Prophet?”

At that, Johan blinked blankly.

“…Me? Nah, I’m not that. Even if you call it prophecy, it’s only fragments.”

“But it’s true that you’re trying to give me knowledge. If I go out into the world, I don’t intend to erase your existence, but—”

“…No. Don’t make me public. I’ll die in a few decades anyway.”

“…Still…”

“Just you remembering me is enough. If history changes, the prophecy fails. That means it was wrong. There’s no reason to publicize someone like that.”

That’s… Too empty.

Vasily almost said so, but stopped.

“Just call me a Reincarnator.”

“‘Reincarnator’…”

“I was born here. It’s not impossible for others like me to appear later. If that happens, it’ll be confusing if I’m lumped together with a Prophet.”

“…Understood. Reincarnator.”

“Yeah. I’ll teach you things besides story knowledge. I can teach you things like agriculture and economics too. Just general education, but it’s better than nothing.”

“…Then I’ll need something like parchment.”

“Having parchment would help, but it won’t be cheap, right?”

“I am a princess, you know. That much is trivial.”

“Oho~ Spoken like someone with power.”

She snorted proudly.

“Would it be difficult for me to go to the village?”

“Better not.”

“Then here. How about time?”

“I’ll slip out before noon. After that, I’ll count on you.”

“Works for me.”

Strangely, Vasily felt exhilarated. What she’d been told was terrible, but it gave direction to her vague desire to escape the cage. Her wish to see the world had gained a cause: saving it. It would be a long, harsh road but if she was going to die anyway, living to prevent it was one way to go.

“…Oh, right.”

“Hm?”

“If nothing happens, laugh in front of my grave.”

“Haha! Fine. I’ll do that. When I die of old age, I’ll laugh loudly.”

So, leave it to me.

Johan smiled at Vasily, looking relieved. From that day on, the exchange between the Reincarnator and the original story character continued… Until five years later, when the reincarnator Johan died of illness.

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