S1 - Waking To A New World
I’m dreaming.
“Atone.”
It’s an awful dream.
“Atone.”
It feels like everything keeps getting worse and worse.
“Atone.”
I want to do something, but no matter what I try, my actions only seem to make everything worse.
It feels like I’m being dragged down into an endless swamp.
The more I struggle, the deeper it sucks me in.
And just as my entire body gets dragged under the surface…
I wake with a start.
I guess I was having a bad dream.
The kind of nightmare that leaves you feeling utterly hopeless.
When I open my eyes, the first thing I see is an unfamiliar ceiling.
As I stare up at it blankly, I sense someone moving right next to me.
“Shun! You’re awake?!”
Looking toward the source of the frantic voice, I find Katia sitting next to me.
Her face, like her voice, shows anxiety, fatigue, and most of all relief.
“Are you all right?”
“Uh…yeah. I’m fine.”
Under the pressure of Katia’s intensity, I automatically respond.
“Oh, good. When you wouldn’t wake up no matter how much Healing Magic I used on you…I thought you might never open your eyes again.”
Katia must have been by my side using Healing Magic all this time.
That explains why she looks so tired.
Just as that thought crosses my mind, she suddenly breaks down in tears.
“Huh? Wha—?!”
“Thank goodness. I’m so glad…”
I flail around, uncertain what to do about Katia’s crying.
“C’mon, I’m fine. See? Nothing’s wrong. Okay?”
I try to show her that I’m perfectly intact. I know it’s a pathetic attempt at comfort, but I figure it’s better than nothing at all.
It is true that there’s nothing wrong with my body.
I’m not injured, and I don’t feel any pain.
Aside from being a little sluggish since I just woke up, I’m the very picture of health.
…Physically, at least.
“Are you sure you’re all right? You still look pale…”
Katia is still uncharacteristically worried.
If it was enough to make her cry, maybe I was in a worse state than I realized.
I do remember groaning a lot while I was knocked out.
It’s probably normal to be worried if someone won’t wake up even if you use Healing Magic on them and is groaning painfully in their sleep.
“Yeah, I’m okay. I guess I’m a little thirsty, though?”
I must’ve been sweating a lot in my sleep; the clothes I’m wearing are stuck to my skin, sucking up all the moisture in my body.
Now my throat is parched from all the liquid I’ve apparently lost.
“Ahh. I’ll go get you a glass of water, then.”
Katia stands immediately and sprints from the room.
Watching her go, I sink listlessly back into the bed.
There are letters floating in the corner of my vision, or maybe the back of my mind.
It’s the same sensation as when you Appraise something.
These letters have been giving me an ominous feeling all this time.
Just focusing on them makes me feel a little sick.
But unlike Appraisal, I can’t erase this display.
The letters spell the word “Taboo.”
Fighting back the nausea, I focus on the sinister word.
Then the word “Taboo” becomes the top of a menu.
Taboo Menu
System Overview
System Header Descriptions
Update History
Points List
Reincarnation History
Special Option n% I = W
“Urgh!”
Just opening the menu is enough to make me feel violently ill.
It’s repulsive, like being shown some kind of concentrated evil.
A chill rises within me, ignoring my thoughts and feelings.
My instincts urge me to close the menu right away, but I manage to hold out.
Still fighting the nausea, I open the System Overview.
System Overview
Conditions Prior to System Installation
MA Energy
Conditions After System Installation
As soon as I open this menu, the nausea grows even stronger.
It’s as if I can hear a voice coming from the letters.
“Atone.”
The thought pounds into my skull like a curse.
I make a conscious effort to both acknowledge and ignore it, along with the nausea and discomfort it brings.
It’s self-contradictory, trying to ignore it and pay attention to it at the same time.
But otherwise, I feel like I might go crazy.
To be honest, I don’t want to see any more than this.
But I’ve got no choice.
I have to know if what I saw in that dream was true or not.
The dream I had was about an utterly hopeless story.
Rather than being from any particular person’s perspective, it was like a bird’s-eye view of the story of this world’s past.
When Potimas, the patriarch of the elves, was still human…he brought chaos and destruction to the planet and the gods that had always lived here, all solely because he didn’t want to die.
I saw the memories of the goddess Sariel and the people closest to her, who did everything they could to save the planet from total annihilation.
This is just a hunch, but I think that part was separate from this “Taboo.”
Maybe someone showed it to me on purpose.
For now, I’m not going to dwell on what that person’s motives were.
First, I have to find out if it’s all true.
Forcing my body not to tremble, I look at each option in turn.
Before the system, MA energy, after the system.
Each heading contains information, just like what I saw in the dream.
Before the system was put into place, this planet wasn’t so different from Earth.
However, there were creatures called dragons, which of course didn’t exist in our world.
The writing is stiff, only listing the events without emotion.
But when I scan the words with my eyes, I feel a powerful message assaulting my mind.
“Atone.”
I shake it off and keep reading.
Humanity discovered a new power source called MA energy and began to use it.
They didn’t know that it was the very life force of the planet and that using it would drastically shorten the life span of the entire world.
This incurred the wrath of dragons, who nearly destroyed humanity.
But humanity was protected from the dragons by the goddess Sariel.
The dragons gave up on the planet and humans alike, and flew away.
Not long after, the MA energy was nearly entirely used up, and the countdown to the destruction of the planet began.
Forgetting that she had protected them, humans decided to try to revive the planet by using the goddess Sariel as a sacrifice.
Administrator Güliedistodiez was enraged by this.
He put the system into place in order to save Sariel.
It was meant to both uphold the goddess’s wish and preserve her life.
As I read all this, Katia returns with a glass and pitcher of water.
“Shun?! You look pale as a sheet!”
Is my face really that pale?
Katia rushes over, puts the glass and pitcher aside, and places a hand on my forehead to start casting Healing Magic.
Since this is a mental condition, physical Healing Magic won’t have any effect.
But Katia’s consideration does soothe my aching heart.
“Thank you. I feel a little better now.”
I really mean this, but Katia still gazes at me with worry on her face, looking unconvinced.
Since I’ve broken into a cold sweat on top of all the moisture I already lost in my sleep, I’m even thirstier than before.
I reach toward the glass Katia put next to my bed.
But before I can pick it up, Katia grabs it, fills it with water, and brings it toward my lips.
Is she trying to help me drink it?
That’s kind of embarrassing, since I’m not sick or anything…
“I—I can drink it myself…”
“No, you cannot!”
Katia’s intensity overpowers me, and I relent.
The cool water travels down my parched throat.
I drain the glass in seconds, and Katia fills a second glass immediately, somehow sensing that it wasn’t enough.
Once I drain the second glass, I finally take a deep breath.
I was still reading the Taboo menu even as I drank.
For the most part, it was the same information from my dream.
There were a few parts missing, like Potimas’s name, or the fact that the dragons stole the remaining MA energy when they left.
But other than that, it matched my dream perfectly.
I close the System Overview.
I’d like to look at the other parts of the menu, too, but I don’t think I can handle it right now.
When I take a quick glance at the rest, the System Header Descriptions fill my sight so thoroughly that it’s hard to even look at them.
It would be difficult enough to take it all in normally, and the pressure on my mental state grows with every letter I read. I don’t see any way I could possibly read it all right now.
Giving up, I move on to the next section, the Update History. This part is just as packed with information as the last.
At that, I run out of steam completely.
I close the entire Taboo menu.
Even then, the word “Taboo” doesn’t disappear from the corner of my mind, nor does the whisper that it emits.
It’s not nearly as bad as when the menu is open, but I can hardly stand the thought that it might go on like this forever.
Heaving a long sigh, I get out of bed.
“Shun, you should keep resting for now.”
“No, I’ve got to go.”
I’ve been hearing a commotion downstairs for a while now.
This must be the second floor of this building.
I leave the room as if guided by something and walk down the stairs.
Katia follows anxiously behind me.
And when I descend the staircase, I see the same person I spotted right before I passed out.
“Would you mind if I listen in on this explanation, too?”
In response to my voice, the pure-white girl turns around.
Her multiple pupils all fix squarely on me.
The same eyes that killed my brother Julius.
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