"What should I call you?"
"Me? Call me whatever you like. So much time has passed since the Mythical Era that even I have forgotten what the outside world used to call me."
"Then why did you end up giving me the name Nanoda?"
"Don't humans always like to give a new name to a new existence when it's born?"
Those conspicuous twin horns were hidden beneath a tall, wide-brimmed black mage's hat. Fortunately, there was no one nearby — because anyone who caught sight of Nanoda constantly shifting expressions and muttering to herself would have assumed she had lost her mind.
"And why did you want to become human?"
When Nanoda asked that question, It fell silent. The smile — so vivid it almost seemed false — faded away, and when It finally spoke, the easy words carried a trace of something heavy.
"After I carved out my little corner of survival, I spent a long time watching the world change from the shadows. The long-lived races were all consumed by the divine wars of the Mythical Era. My contemporaries among the Demon Race died in those same wars. And yet — humans. Those laughable, fragile short-lived creatures actually survived that age. Not just survived — they multiplied, grew more numerous with every generation. Meanwhile, every other long-lived race was either already extinct or well on the road to ruin."
"Of course, one can't discount the so-called Goddess's protection over humanity. But even so — those tiny humans, armed with nothing but a handful of divine gifts, managing to endure while colossal beings tore each other apart... they really were a fascinating race. I watched them from the shadows all the way from the age of the gods to the present. What they call emotions, what they call faith — it filled the hollow place inside me. I came to love humans."
"Those were things I never had. So I tried to imitate them — and eventually, to become one. Besides, hunting and killing prey... I grew bored of that long ago."
Hearing this, Nanoda gave a small nod. That hollowness, that longing — now that they shared the same body, she could feel it with a strange, aching clarity.
Perhaps this was what people called empathy.
"From where I stand, your expressions, your mannerisms, even the way you communicate — they're already very close to human. You're just a bit of a shut-in. And maybe a little obsessive. And slightly... warped."
It was the first time Nanoda had ever felt, directly and undeniably, the fierce longing her predecessor had carried — the desperate desire to become human. That feeling was being transmitted through the very body they now shared.
"You can sense it, I imagine. I am still hollow. Everything I show — in the end, it's only imitation."
It let out a quiet sigh. Nanoda nodded. The words of comfort she might have offered lodged in her throat and went no further.
It had always known the Demon Race's incapacity for true emotion — and had carried that knowledge across an incomprehensible span of years.
In the silence, the body came to an abrupt, uncontrolled stop.
"Barely out the door, and already the luck is terrible."
Nanoda shook her head.
From both sides of the long, rutted dirt road came the thunder of rapidly approaching hooves. Pebbles rattled along the verge. Wildflowers were crushed and bent flat. A gang of bandits — scarves of every color wrapped around their heads, steel blades in hand — came riding in hard from all directions, surrounding Nanoda where she had stopped in the middle of the road.
The horses slowed as they drew near. A dozen or more bandits formed a loose ring around her, steering their black mounts in lazy circles, some of them whistling, some lazily swinging their blades.
"The public order in the age of the Unified Empire really is something to worry about."
She had no idea whether she simply had a constitution that attracted bandits, or if she was just extraordinarily unlucky — but somehow, every time she stepped out the door, she ended up running into this sort of crowd.
It seemed that whether in the Unified Empire a thousand years ago, or among the scattered nations of the continent a thousand years later, there would always be people who chose the bandit's life.
"In my view, it's their luck that's terrible — not yours."
It smiled, fangs glinting. In the old days, rabble like this would have been nothing more than a light snack.
"(whistle) — toll road, sweetheart! Pay up or turn back!"
Even the lines were straight out of a script. Practically professional extras.
"If you don't want to die, get out of my way. I'm busy," Nanoda said, her tone utterly flat.
Her first priority was finding the stele the Goddess had left behind. She had no patience to waste on this.
An invisible killing intent leaked out. The horses around her felt it first — they shifted and shied, suddenly restless.
"Think of this as a practical lesson in magic — let me handle it. You were about to show them kindness and just scare them off — but that would be cruelty to yourself, not mercy to them. Did you not see their eyes? That's the gaze of predators. To them, you're nothing but prey they can carve up at will."
It shook its head, still smiling. The most efficient solution was always to finish it immediately.
"The hell are you muttering about?! You out of your mind?! Drop everything you've got, right now — or we'll chop you into pieces, all of us together!"
One of the bandits felt his horse buckle slightly beneath him and yanked hard on the reins. His blade caught the light as he leveled it at the girl in front of him.
"Oh? Come on then. Take a swing."
The killing intent Nanoda had been radiating vanished in an instant. She grinned — brazenly, without a shred of caution — threw her arms wide open, and gave every single one of them a double middle finger.
"Get her!"
The entire gang erupted.
Reins snapped. War cries split the air. A storm of steel blades came sweeping down from above.
"Watch closely. This is Paradox."
In an instant, Nanoda felt the entire world around her go still. The blades hung suspended at the tips of her hair. The hooves of the charging horses froze mid-air, locked in place.
The frame of the world stopped moving.
"And now... let's flip it."
The words had barely left its mouth when the bandits — still mounted, still frozen — began to lift off the ground. Slowly, gently, like balloons drifting upward, they rose.
Nanoda felt her field of vision tilt and sink. The scene before her inverted. In the next moment, some nameless force had turned the world upside down.
Strangely, she was still standing on solid ground. But the weightlessness in her gut told her the truth — reality had been flipped, and those rising bandits were, in fact, falling — plummeting toward the vast blue canvas of the sky below them.
"Done."
It clapped its hands once, lightly. The inverted world righted itself.
The moment the Paradox dissolved, a series of dark shapes fell from the sky.
A few of the bandits had just enough time to register what was happening — but the screams never made it out. Men and horses hit the ground together, erupting into sprays of red mist.
A corner of the broken wildflowers was splattered crimson. A dozen red circles bloomed suddenly in the grass along the roadside, their centers sunken into the earth — bone and flesh collapsed inward, barely distinguishable.
The bandits who had been so vicious moments ago looked, now, like tomatoes dropped from a great height. Thoroughly, irreversibly pulped.
"You see? That was the combination of two paradoxes. Within the range of my Paradox Magic, the world itself bends to what I dictate."
It smiled — slightly pleased with itself. The killing had been as casual as flipping a pancake.
They were simply too weak. Not a single one of them had ever had the ghost of a chance.
"Honestly — did you have to take out the horses too?"
Nanoda felt a flicker of genuine regret. She had been planning to steal one of the horses and ride off. She hadn't expected It to wipe out every single person on the scene in one go.
The Goddess had left ten steles scattered across the continent. Several were already lost, but the majority were located near areas of human activity.
In this era — before flight-type magic existed, when the Demon Race held dominion over the skies — flying around openly to search for the Goddess's steles would draw far too much attention. It wasn't a wise approach.
____
👻🔥Seek: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Oshi No Ko: Co-starring with Kana Arima
Let's hit these goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = 1 extra chapter for the public!