---

The Fourth World is operating smoothly.

Right. Automatic warmth production. Very nice.

In contrast, the Third World is quite cold when you consider just the warmth.

Still, there’s a reason they’re not rushing to increase their supporters.

Technological advancement.

They’ve started implanting machines directly into people’s life forces.

The Mechanical Device is transitioning from robots to powered armor. While the technology that moves by itself seems superior, it’s understandable as they can’t trust that intelligence.

There were similar things in Daegon’s world too.

However, once they entered the stage of being able to manipulate genes, they immediately replaced machines with bio-machines. Plus, since Daegon’s original race lived in the water, their bodies gradually got larger.

According to Daegon’s memory, metal corrodes quickly in the ocean.

In this world, things might flow differently.

And in the Third World, besides Daegon’s technology, there’s another alien technology.

It’s the technology of the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign, bubbling away in a small cauldron called Bern City.

For some reason, they’re focusing on food cultivation and developing farming now.

Considering that it’s a practically closed city and many people there detest trade with the outside, it’s not too strange when you think about it.

Besides, this is an urban area, not a rural one, right? Even if they want to produce food, they only have their own little gardens to rely on.

No, it used to be a big city.

Now it’s almost in ruins. Abandoned buildings have been completely blocked off. Only a few sturdy buildings are maintained.

The population has also decreased, and buildings deteriorate quickly without people.

The atmosphere inside Bern City feels post-apocalyptic, making it a bit scary to think about development. I just fear it will collapse as it is.

Ugh.

Technological advancement takes centuries to wait for, so let’s just keep experimenting. That way, if it suddenly collapses, I won’t be hurt.

Still, once technology gains momentum, it develops exponentially, so I believe waiting until a thousand years won’t be necessary.

Other than that, excluding the site for technological development, I don’t really like this country.

I’m tired of being disappointed and expecting a big incident at the Royal Academy every time.

The conflicts that actually occurred there were more or less patched up.

Of course, it hasn’t been without its ups and downs in between.

I thought there would be endless fights between foreigners and locals, but they just politically suppressed the involved parties and called it a day.

It’s just a new toy to hit when bored.

That’s all there is to it.

As a reaction, those who were unjustly oppressed attacked the commoners living in the dormitory. I thought finally, the opportunity had come, and I planned to rush to the dormitory.

However, since I happened to provoke a kid from the Solindiges faction, I was blocked by the others in the dormitory, and the instigator was expelled.

Since then, the Academy has quieted down.

If you don’t expect anything, you won’t be disappointed.

While that was happening, there has been a change; I’ve become close to Mogrei. And Victoria and Mogrei have a subtly strained relationship.

When I skim through Victoria’s memories, there’s nothing particularly bad that could cause a rift, but they seem to have an inexplicable awkwardness towards each other.

As a result, Victoria naturally spent more time with Polaris, while I spent more time with Mogrei.

That said, it doesn’t mean Victoria has distanced herself.

Somehow, she has come over to my house to play and ended up sticking around.

Taking care of one person is no trouble, so I just left her be, and now she comes and goes as if it were her own home.

Still, every time she came over, I took care of the laundry all at once. Then she started to casually test the waters, asking if she could move here. It was late spring when she finally asked me if she could come over.

Me?

I rejected her.

She looked disappointed, but it seems she didn’t give up, dropping by every few days and leaving her stuff. Is she planning to shamelessly throw herself in later?

By the looks of the world visible through the Harvesting Machine, I won’t be here when that time comes.

—

So, while there were small incidents happening at the Royal Academy, the season transitioned from spring to summer.

The weather has become hot and humid.

Accordingly, many issues have arisen.

An epidemic has started to circulate here too. No, it’s not just in the capital. In a city where many outsiders come and go, the same illness spreads everywhere.

Unlike Jeber in the Fourth World, this country immediately recognized and dealt with the epidemic.

They developed a medicine that works against it and controlled people’s movements.

The problem is that controlling it is nearly impossible.

There are too many immigrants. As countries are increasingly engaged in civil wars or wars, many flee to escape the fighting.

In fact, the royal eliminations triggered in some countries intertwined with certain ideologies and spread more widely.

Those without fur have no human rights.

Yes.

A group of beastmen banded together and declared a separation from humanity.

There’s a reason for this. Since they rejected the Mechanical Devices, and those countries couldn’t accommodate the next version of the Mechanical Devices, they started employing physically capable beastmen.

As a natural result, the status of beastmen rose.

And the beastmen who achieved such a high status ended up rejecting humans.

Mechanical Devices were tools that were difficult for beastmen to use, so the backlash for being excluded from related professions was significant.

Additionally, the reason using them was challenging is that fur often got caught in the winding mechanism, causing frequent accidents.

Especially tails.

If just the fur gets tangled, it’s one thing, but often the tail gets pulled into the machine along with the body, making it unusable. Hence, factory owners primarily hired humans.

Not because they valued lives, but because the machinery was expensive.

What do you think someone who was alienated from the urban working class will do?

The answer is simple. To avoid being pushed out again, they’ll discriminate against others to ensure they can never rise, drawing a line and tearing apart anyone who crosses it.

If that had ended at simple racism, it might have been manageable, but the mixed experience of being able to overthrow the king twisted it into something massive.

Just as a single ideology rapidly expanded through a dark reality in the realm of faded memories, it happened here too.

As a result, they cast blame for all misfortunes onto one race.

In this world, beastmen and humans are just different races, after all.

They rejected a specific race and built a world for beastmen. However, it wasn’t a kingdom but rather a form that synthesized all beastmen’s opinions.

Of course, there are those who rise to the top, and those who fall to a lower rank in that system.

But exactly what happens is still unclear.

Because the available information from the Harvesting Machine doesn’t reach that far.

Still, the people harmed didn’t simply run away. They sought cooperation, even selling major regions of their homeland to the neighboring kingdoms to survive.

That ignited an explosion, like a fire igniting a powder keg.

It’s simple, isn’t it?

To explain why the world is deteriorating, it’s easier and simpler to say that those without fur are the problem rather than providing a detailed explanation of the rejection of Mechanical Devices.

The ideology proliferated as a consequence of the war. And it spread across the continent.

Perhaps, this world is facing its first world war.

Yet, nobody has used the term world war yet.

Because the concept itself doesn’t exist.

A war broke out on the continent shaped like a “k.” Not K, but k. This continent primarily stretches across the southern hemisphere.

The area where this country is located, towards the I side, is relatively peripheral, thus not catching fire greatly, but the main explosion sites are across the lower c region.

Whether it started as a civil war or an invasion under the pretense of aiding a civil war, eventually, peaceful lands on the continent have disappeared.

Most fought to claim their rights and survive on their own land.

Some fled far away.

But when that happens across dozens of countries on the continent, even a few end up numbering immensely.

Death always follows war.

Not just from weapons, but from famine caused by reduced productivity, plagues that fester from corpses, and refugees turning into thieves while fleeing.

The spread of the epidemic isn’t coincidental. It’s an inevitable result.

To explain once more, this country is located geographically in the upper left of the k-shaped continent.

Going down is connected to the continent, but above it is just one small country. Thus, this country is relatively detached from the war.

The Royal Academy effectively serves as a refuge. In other words, it means this place is relatively safe.

What a mundane place.

So, I’ve been contemplating moving my residence to a war zone recently.

This country is incredibly comfortable.

The people are nice, and while various waves of the era are flowing in, they’re not lethal. There aren’t many deaths.

In the Fourth World, wizards are waging territorial expansion wars, and conveniently, the Harvesting Machine provided by Jeber brings in plenty of warmth.

But what’s here?

The Harvesting Machines from Brightshin are involved in transport, killing thieves, or slaughtering fishlike beings from the Atlan fortress city, but it’s still limited.

Compared to the Second World, it’s a paradise, but now that I have the Fourth World, it feels a little lacking.

I want to be a bit greedier.

I’ll maintain my character while being careful not to get caught doing evil deeds. Because warmth is entering.

I’ve become greedy.

So, under the scorching sun of a midsummer day,

I wrote in a letter about the many deaths happening far away as an excuse, adding that I would return just in case.

And I sent it to the faculty office at the Royal Academy.

Though there’s the conflict between Mogrei and Kanna, and the internal faction struggles at the Academy are still not resolved.

It’s lacking warmth as much as I expected, and countless warmth is disappearing into thin air from places I could easily walk to.

To acquire that precious warmth, I left this country.