Human Disqualification (3)
One hundred years ago, the war between humans and beastmen began.
“Beastmen! Rise up!”
The twelve beastmen who first raised the banner of rebellion against humanity—the Bremen—declared war on the entire human race by seizing a single count’s estate. The beastman population swelled. Humanity’s defeat grew more certain with every passing day. For thousands of years humans had suppressed the beastmen, yet in the end the beastmen claimed victory. What began as a single triumphant battle slowly became total war. Humanity withered, and I, a descendant of that fallen race, was captured on a remote island as an endangered species.
Now, a century later, the beastmen had forged a new culture from the ruins.
“We decided to call the twelve beastmen who led the original Bremen Revolution ‘kings.’ The continent was split into twelve nations, and the descendants of those twelve became the monarchs of each.”
According to Bastet’s explanation, after driving out the humans the beastmen had fractured into warring factions.
“Is there no emperor?” I asked.
“Emperor… A hundred years ago there was a human empire. But because it was the worst oppressor of beastmen, everyone avoids that word now.”
I remembered an old man with dementia on the island who used to ramble about being “a proud citizen of the great empire.”
“Of course, even that empire’s territory now belongs to a beastman nation. Dogs rule it these days. They gathered every canine species—wolves included. Their numbers are far greater than you’d expect.”
“I saw them. Quite a few beastmen with dog ears at the auction house.”
“Exactly. They aren’t one of the four major powers, but they’re essentially the next biggest. Hmm… this is getting a little complicated. Where should I even start?”
Bastet spread her fingers theatrically.
“The original twelve of Bremen. Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig.”
“…….”
Huh?
“There were other beastmen in Bremen at the time, but those twelve tribes were the ones who won the first victory against humanity. And to them… the Dragon’s blessing descended.”
She folded and unfolded all ten fingers, then reached into her robes and produced a single gold coin.
“The King’s Symbol, imbued with the Dragon’s blessing. Look at this.”
“A rat beastman wearing a crown?”
The coin depicted a creature that looked exactly like a rat, dressed in royal robes, gazing sideways with regal poise.
“Is that… a beastman?”
“Yes. Some resemble humans closely, others are basically beasts walking upright on two legs. Their intelligence is roughly the same.”
It wasn’t a human with rat ears or a long tail. This was an actual rat—pure beast, no fursona—wearing a jewel-encrusted crown as the coin’s central image.
“So the King’s Symbol is that crown?”
“Precisely. More accurately, the gem embedded in the crown is the true King’s Symbol. The Dragon granted these artifacts to each king so they could defeat humanity. To put it bluntly—oh, do you know what a Sword Master is?”
“I do.”
Even the island’s humans, who had forgotten philosophy and mathematics but never forgot their grudge or the meaning of strength, had heard the term.
“Beings who channel mana to release aura from their blades, powerful enough to slice through castle walls with a single swing, right?”
“Exactly! With one of these artifacts, even an ordinary human can become a Sword Master.”
“…….”
“And those who are already strong can become far stronger.”
There were surely many reasons the beastmen triumphed over humanity, but the King’s SymbolBastet described had clearly played a decisive role.
“In the end, the beastmen’s victory was little different from the Dragon’s own design. Oh, and the Dragon and dragon beastmen are completely different. Dragon beastmen are said to be drakes who evolved into humanoid forms. The Dragon itself is the sole apex of sorcery—a being over a hundred meters long.”
“……So the entity that could be considered the true ruler of the world abandoned humanity.”
“That’s right.”
The Dragon was a god. Not the kind of monster that dragon slayers could casually butcher in stories. It might simply be an omnipotent deity wearing the form of a dragon.
“It was the Dragon who granted Sword Master–level power to the original twelve of Bremen. Ah, I say this as a beastman myself, but when Bremen first occupied that count’s estate, it was purely by their own strength.”
“A rebellion against humanity. The Dragon saw the potential and chose to invest.”
“Precisely!”
Perhaps the Dragon had been testing humanity for a very long time. The moment the beastmen succeeded in their uprising, it immediately bestowed artifacts brimming with overwhelming power.
“Then, Lady Bastet. To kill the twelve kings, must we seize the King’s Symbol they possess?”
“Yes. Though you don’t necessarily have to take it by force. It’s also possible to receive a voluntary transfer.”
“Transfer?”
“Indeed. In the case of the rat tribe, they actually intermarried with other species to safeguard the crown. The current monarch of the rat nation is a hamster beastman.”
“…….”
My head spun at the idea of a hamster becoming one of the twelve kings, but I understood one thing clearly.
It really is a battlefield out there.
After eradicating humanity, endless disputes broke out over the remaining land—both within tribes and between species. Some were inevitably discriminated against or ignored because of their species’ inherent limitations.
For example—
“What about beastmen who don’t belong to the original twelve tribes of Bremen? How do they live?” I asked, thinking of cat beastmen like Bastet.
“They simply live. Either they grow strong enough to protect themselves, like me, or they gamble their lives in a duel for the King’s Symbol and die.”
“……Would I have to duel them?”
“You might, if necessary. But don’t worry. I have very high expectations for you. I’m certain you can grow strong enough to defeat them all.”
Bastet’s eyes narrowed into feline slits.
“No matter how physically inferior they may seem, I believe in the potential of humanity—the race that dominated this continent for so long. I believe in human wisdom. That’s why they were the rulers of the world until just a century ago.”
The lords of creation. Bastet was placing her bet on humanity’s latent possibility.
Of course, aside from that, there were probably other ways for someone like me—a human who had lived on that island—to defeat the twelve kings.
“What changes when you become a king?” I asked.
“Hm?”
“After you become king and obtain the symbols from all twelve… what happens then?”
There was one thing I needed to confirm first.
“Lady Bastet. Are you trying to become the ruler of the world by collecting all twelve King’s Symbols?”
“……Hehehe.”
Her true motive. She had spent an absurd fortune to purchase a human slave. There had to be a reason—an underlying purpose.
“Revenge. And a wish.”
Bastet was completely serious.
“I’ll set the revenge aside since it’s personal. There is an ultimate reason we must gather all twelve symbols.”
“Which is?”
“The Dragon.”
And the prize she sought to claim by using a human slave as her joker card in this carnival of beasts was something that would tempt anyone who heard it.
“The Dragon will grant a single wish to whoever collects all twelve symbols. No matter what that wish may be.”
At that moment, in the basement of a certain city.
“Tsk. Did we lose them?”
While uniformed beastmen officers busily collected stray fur and debris from what looked like a ballroom, a black-haired woman who appeared to be their leader twitched her wolf ears.
“No… perhaps it was impossible to catch them from the start…”
“Director!”
Another officer came running, saluting sharply as he addressed her by title.
“We found traces!”
“Traces? What kind?!”
“Signs that cleaning magic was used! Not a single hair remains!”
“…Of course. There’s no way the ones who illegally poached every human in the area would leave evidence behind.”
The director slowly scanned the spotless ballroom—clearly an auction house not long ago.
“This is where humans were bought and sold as slaves. Whoever purchased them, they’re no amateurs at covering their crimes. They probably killed several humans during the capture.”
“Are they using the humans for entertainment? Throwing them into underground arenas to fight each other, maybe?”
“An arena? Possibly. Or perhaps someone wants to raise them alongside us.”
“That…”
“Why? Does something come to mind?”
“No, it’s not that. It’s just… some of the others are saying something strange.”
“What is it?”
“Ah, never mind! It might cause trouble if I repeat it…”
“Are you joking with me?”
The director snorted and toyed with her own ear.
“There are two things that really piss me off. One is when someone starts to say something and then stops. The other… you already know, don’t you?”
“It might offend you if I say it…”
“Speak. That’s an order.”
“Well…”
The subordinate leaned in and whispered into the director’s ear.
“There’s a rumor that enslaving humans is… to ‘do humans.’”
“What?”
The director’s face drained of color at the word “human.”
“They do what with humans?”
“Ah, it’s just nonsense. Stupid talk from human-haters. You know how those rumors about humans always circulate. Since they can’t reproduce with us anyway…”
“Don’t spout such disgusting bullshit!!”
The director’s face flushed crimson as she roared.
“Humans are nothing but humans! They are the enemies of us beastmen! To do… to do that with those humans…!”
A short while later.
“So what exactly should I do, Lady Bastet?”
Following her guidance, I had descended into the basement of her residence.
“To seize the King’s Symbols from the twelve kings, what must I do?”
“You’re being more cooperative than I expected?”
“If I don’t cooperate, I’ll be sold second-hand for less than ten thousand gold and end up suffering who-knows-what in some hellhole.”
While imprisoned as a slave I had heard plenty from the guards.
“I have no desire to become lion feed, nor do I want to be thrown naked into an underground arena to fight other humans for my life.”
“How about living as my secret weapon for revolution?”
“At least I’ll be treated like a person here, so that sounds preferable. I’m also curious.”
I waved the bread Bastet had given me.
“Human or not, I’m not an ungrateful beast.”
“I like that answer.”
The bread I hadn’t tasted in twenty years was unbelievably sweet even without sugar or jam.
“The way to defeat the twelve kings is simple. There’s a very straightforward answer.”
Bastet stretched her tail out to the side, then jabbed it playfully through the air.
“Kill the males and dominate the females.”
“……Pardon?”
“I’ll make them taste humiliation. The humiliation of being defeated by a mere human as males and then submitting as females.”
One of the reactions from the other bidders when she spent ten thousand gold had been exactly that.
—Buying a human slave for ten thousand gold? Has he lost his mind?
I had sensed it clearly even then.
“In other words—disqualified as a human, qualified as a beast♡”
Bastet was, without a doubt, completely insane.