"Did I sleep for one night or for a hundred years?"
Ray sat up in bed with a completely blank expression.
He looked around the room and wondered whether he'd somehow crossed into another world in his sleep.
Where had the crumbling plaster and creaking wooden floorboards gone?
Why were the walls now freshly painted white?
And what was with the neat, solid flooring that didn't make a sound when he stepped on it?
Ray scratched his head, rubbed both hands over his face to make sure he was fully awake, then got out of bed and opened the room's only window.
The sight outside was completely unfamiliar.
The streets were crowded with pedestrians. Some wore mysterious-looking mage robes and carried staffs, while others had magical orbs or spellbooks floating beside them.
There were lightly armored rangers carrying bows and arrows, dressed for mobility.
There were also warriors clad in full plate, sacrificing speed for protection while carrying all kinds of one-handed weapons and shields.
More importantly, the crowd wasn't made up solely of humans.
Lizardmen, elves, dwarves, and other races mingled freely in the streets.
The whole place looked like the quintessential adventuring city from a fantasy story.
The problem was that Ray distinctly remembered going to sleep in a human city.
A human city that had been rather hostile toward other races.
So what the hell had happened?
And these wide, clean streets, along with the orderly buildings that were noticeably taller than he remembered...
Was this really the same city?
[System, you didn't randomly drag me into another world while I was asleep, did you?]
[Why would I do that for no reason? Your main mission is complete, but that doesn't mean you can't stay here and adventure for a while.]
[This happened because of that adoptive father of yours.]
[Just look at his Host! He's already capable of casually manipulating causality and time! He took a developmental possibility that only existed in theory and directly made it real. It's basically the equivalent of grafting a nonexistent future timeline onto reality itself and turning a hypothetical possibility into actual history!]
[He literally took the best future this world could have developed on its own and made it the present.]
[In this version of history, the different races fought constantly during the early stages, but eventually reached a point where coexistence became the only practical answer. None of them could completely eliminate the others, so each nation established its own territory. Over time, the barriers between races gradually weakened until mixed societies like this became normal.]
[Magic and Martial Arts developed side by side, and even technology has started emerging. They still call much of it alchemy, but this world has genuinely broken free of the distortions caused by the players and started developing its own identity.]
[It's honestly unbelievable that someone from my class already has a Host at the sixth rank. And judging by how comfortably he handled all of that, he clearly hasn't just reached it. He moves like someone who's been operating at that level for a long time.]
[Then I look at his Host...]
[And then I look at you.]
[Wow. Life really isn't fair.]
Ray's eyebrow twitched.
[Funny. I was just thinking how much I envy his System. Even if everything that Host accomplished came from his own effort, at least his System didn't actively make things harder.]
[Unlike you. You don't fix your bugs, you panic whenever something goes wrong, and if I criticize you for five minutes, you start crying like a kid. At this point, I'm not sure whether you're helping me grow or whether I'm babysitting you on behalf of your instructor.]
[Waaaah!]
Ray spread his hands helplessly.
He put his equipment back on, strapped the greatsword across his back, and headed downstairs.
The tavern below had changed too.
The greasy, battered tables and chairs he remembered were now spotless and polished enough to reflect light. Judging from the materials, they weren't cheap either.
Even the staff had changed.
The waitress was now a beastkin woman resembling an anthropomorphic lop-eared rabbit, while the bartender was a wolfman.
Ray pulled a coin from his pocket.
It was still gold, though the portrait and symbols stamped onto it had changed.
At least its purchasing power hadn't.
He could still afford a proper breakfast.
After eating, Ray set out to familiarize himself with what had effectively become an entirely new city.
His first stop was the Adventurers' Guild, where he wanted to see what sort of jobs were currently available.
By the time he came back out, he'd already learned quite a bit.
The races of the various nations now lived in relative peace, but centuries of warfare and competition had driven countless branches of magic, alchemy, Martial Arts, and experimental technology forward at reckless speed.
That had left behind consequences.
Magical beast incidents had become increasingly common in recent years, and adventuring had consequently exploded in popularity across the continent.
Standing armies remained stationed around major settlements to protect the general population, while capable adventurers accepted commissions to destroy monster nests, hunt dangerous creatures, and eliminate experimental abominations left behind from earlier eras.
Naturally, not every adventurer took on dangerous combat work.
Some handled lower-ranked jobs such as delivering letters, transporting fruit, or guarding shipments.
In other words, plenty of them were glorified couriers and hired escorts.
Ray spent much of the day wandering around and taking in the transformed city.
Eventually, a strange intuition pulled him toward a quiet courtyard.
There, sitting on a stone bench in a sunny corner, was Caelus.
He was reading a book.
"Dad!"
Ray's face lit up.
"When I woke up, I seriously thought I'd been transported again. I never imagined this world could turn into something like this. It practically feels like an entirely different universe!"
He unstrapped his greatsword first, set it aside, then dropped onto the stone bench beside Caelus.
Caelus closed his book slightly.
"I observed several possible futures this world could have reached under its original development and selected the best one among them."
"There are still points of friction and unresolved problems, but far in the future, the intelligent races of this world will eventually become part of a single broader civilization."
Ray's eyes widened.
"Wow. So enough time living peacefully together really can bring intelligent species together."
Caelus went quiet.
Ray slowly turned toward him.
"...Right?"
Caelus remained silent.
"Don't do that. Why are you suddenly not saying anything?"
Caelus sighed.
"Strictly speaking, peaceful coexistence wasn't what started it."
Ray stared at him.
"The turning point came when a group of humans with unusually broad romantic preferences began forming relationships with other races."
Ray's expression froze.
"They had children."
Caelus continued in the same calm tone.
"And after that, beastkin girls, draconic girls, lizardfolk girls, and eventually even insectoid monster girls became increasingly common."
"As social attitudes became more permissive, interspecies relationships kept spreading until racial integration became impossible to reverse."
Ray opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Opened it again.
For several seconds, he seemed desperate to make some kind of comment, but absolutely nothing came out.
Finally, he managed one word.
"Impressive."
Caelus sighed helplessly and closed the book in his hands.
Only then did Ray notice the title on the cover.
The Interspecies Review Guide.
"This was compiled by that particular organization," Caelus explained. "It supposedly contains the accumulated life's work of most of its members."
He looked down at the book.
"And somehow, it became one of the cultural catalysts that ultimately helped different races integrate."
Caelus stared into the distance for a moment.
"Humanity truly is remarkable."
Ray was silent for a long time.
Then he delivered his final verdict.
"Humanity never stood a chance."
(To be continued.)
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◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)