So Nonhuman Pandemonium Has a Community Too?

The internet is a magnificent thing.

Of every invention humanity has ever produced, nothing has shaped my life as profoundly as the internet. Think about it. I can lie in my own room and admire nonhuman illustrations drawn by someone on the far side of the planet. I can even talk, in real time, with people who share my tastes. For a nonhuman devotee like me, the internet was nothing short of heaven.

And yet.

"......There's internet here, too?"

I stared at the message floating before my eyes.

"Whoa."

The awe slipped out of me on its own. Nonhuman Pandemonium had the internet. And not just any internet — this looked like an information network linking the entire world.

"This is basically an isekai community."

Honestly, I was a little excited. If nonhumans gathered online, what kind of posts would even show up? How to eat a human so it tastes good? Tentacle care guides? Neck-maintenance tips for knights who don't have heads? Just imagining it was fun.

But there was something I had to deal with first.

I looked out the window. One of the three moons was looking at me. No — a colossal pupil shaped like a moon had fixed its gaze on the guest room of the mansion.

"......"

Our eyes met. At least, that was how it felt. And then another message arrived.

"......No."

I muttered, dumbfounded.

"You looked first."

"Inside my screen?"

I touched my CRT head and felt the chill of glass. White noise was rolling across it right now. Was that an acceptable answer?

"Just electronic circuits, or something like that?"

"......?"

What is she talking about?

I tilted my head, wondering if this was just the poetic way nonhumans talked. The messages kept coming.

"......"

A chill started creeping up my spine. The fact that the other party was a nonhuman didn't bother me at all. Being watched, down to every little movement, by someone I'd never met — no, by a moon — was a different matter entirely.

I thought for a moment, then sent a reply.

The reply came at once.

"Huh?"

All at once, the world beyond the window went dark. The enormous pupil that had been lighting the sky a moment ago began, slowly, to close. At the same time the temperature in the room plunged.

"No, wait—"

I hammered out a message.

A moment later, the pupil that had stopped opened again.

The pupil hanging in the sky turned slowly, and a message appeared.

"......"

For a while I looked back and forth between the message and the moon beyond the glass.

"......A moon?"

"An actual moon?"

My mouth fell open.

"Waaaaaah!"

In that instant my voice rang through the whole guest room.

"It's a real living moon!"

I had always loved giant creatures. Settings where a celestial body or a force of nature was itself a living thing were my particular weakness — living planets, living suns, whales that swam the void. And now there was an actually living moon right in front of me, and it was shaped like an eye.

"Whoa. This is seriously incredible."

I pressed right up against the window.

"Miss Lunaris!"

"Is the entire moon your body?"

"Then the pupil I can see right now?"

"Whoa!"

I was delighted.

"That is seriously cool!"

In that moment, the moon hanging in the sky flinched.

"No, think about it. A living moon! And a gigantic eye looking down on the world from the sky!"

I rushed on, too excited to stop.

"The design is absolutely perfect!"

When no message came for a while, I tilted my head.

"Miss Lunaris?"

Then the moon in the sky began to flush red.

"Huh?"

The white of that great eye shifted to pink, and the pupil wavered from side to side.

"About what?"

I laughed.

"Of course!"

And so, for about ten minutes, I delivered a passionate lecture on the beauty of a living moon. During those same ten minutes, a strange phenomenon unfolded across the night sky of Nonhuman Pandemonium. The third moon flushed deeper and deeper red, until at last it bathed the entire heavens in pink.

Of course, I had no idea how serious a matter that was.

At that same moment, in the Clockmaker's Mansion.

Orvelia had been about to take tea in her room.

"......?"

Tick.

The clock hands stopped. Slowly, she turned her gaze to the window. The sky was pink.

"......Lunaris?"

Orvelia's voice dropped. Lunaris, the third moon and a high-tier entity who observed the night sky of Nonhuman Pandemonium, had watched countless beings of the realm for ages, yet she almost never spoke with anyone directly. That same being was showing her feelings now. And so blatantly.

"Don't tell me......"

Orvelia rose. Her eyes turned toward the highest clocktower of her estate. There stood a vast clock that observed time, and the direction its hands indicated was Baek Hoon's guest room.

"......Hehe."

Orvelia laughed. But the laugh was not her usual one.

"Truly."

She set her teacup down with care.

"He really is someone one cannot look away from, even for a moment."

Tick.

Every clock in the mansion advanced one mark at once. She looked out at the moon beyond the window and whispered, very quietly:

I sat on the bed and explored the Nonhuman Pandemonium Public Information Network.

"Let's see......"

Several boards floated on the screen.

"......"

I looked at the screen, then slowly grinned.

"This is insane."

This is heaven, isn't it?

The name Object Head Social Club especially appealed to me, so I opened the board without hesitation.

"......Hold on."

I read the last line again.

"Collecting heads?"

It was a slightly frightening rule, and at the same time it made me curious. What kinds of beings were in a place like this? I looked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠through the list of posts.

"Whoa......"

I read them one by one, marveling. There really were all kinds of object heads. The gramophone head and the mirror head, especially — I wanted to meet them at least once.

Just then, a new post went up.

I left a comment. A reply landed almost at once.

"Oh?"

I blinked. Televisions really didn't seem common in this world.

The board went quiet for a moment.

I hesitated, then photographed my CRT screen and attached it to the post.

A moment later, the comments exploded.

I recorded a short audio file.

"Hello. I'm Baek Hoon."

A moment later:

"Huh?"

I tilted my head. It was an ordinary voice. Why was everyone reacting like this? I found out soon enough.

"......"

I muttered.

"No, what is this......?"

I had only said hello. What kind of reaction was this supposed to be?

The Silent Theater, in the west of Nonhuman Pandemonium.

There stood a stage that had not ceased its performance once in several hundred years. Seated upon it was a woman in a beautiful gown whose head was an enormous gramophone. A golden horn opened like a flower, and from within it countless notes were spilling free. Her name was Serena — mistress of the Silent Theater, and the Witch of Melody, known as the possessor of the most beautiful voice in Nonhuman Pandemonium.

"......Ah."

That same woman now clutched her gramophone head with trembling hands. The voice that had come through the network a moment ago —

That short greeting was repeating endlessly in her mind. No — her very existence was answering that voice.

"This is......"

Serena murmured, her voice shaking.

"Impossible."

For hundreds of years she had collected sounds beyond number. From the death-cry of a dying star to the first wail of a life not yet born, she had prided herself on having heard nearly every sound that existed in the world. But the voice she had just heard was different. No melody existed inside it. And at the same time, every melody did. It was like a primordial resonance from before the very concept of sound was born.

"......I found it."

When Serena rose, a beautiful melody poured from her gramophone head. The audience of the theater, hearing that melody, began to weep all at once.

"At last......"

She clutched at her own chest.

"I've found the one who will complete my song."

And as she slowly smiled, her voice spread through the whole theater.

The north of Nonhuman Pandemonium. The Mirror Palace.

In a vast hall where thousands of mirrors reflected one another, a man slowly rose. Above the collar of his black tailcoat sat an ornate silver hand-mirror, and nothing was reflected on its surface. That was his curse. Called the Mirror Duke — Duke Vermion — he could reflect everything in the world, and yet he alone could never see his own appearance.

A short while ago, through the screen of a being named Baek Hoon, he had seen his own face for the first time.

"......"

Duke Vermion touched his head with a trembling hand.

"I was......"

His voice cracked.

"I looked like that?"

What had been reflected on the CRT was not the mirror-headed man he had imagined. It was a being who held countless faces within, and every one of those faces had been his own.

He laughed.

"Haha......"

What began as a small laugh soon became something close to madness.

"Hahahaha!"

The mirrors of the palace shuddered all at once.

"How fascinating!"

He slowly extended a hand, and Baek Hoon's photograph rose into the empty air.

"What a truly fascinating person."

Duke Vermion brushed the CRT head in the photograph with his fingertips.

"If it is you......"

His voice sank.

"You could tell me who I am."

I was happily reading the comments on the board.

"Wow, this is actually fun."

The community of Nonhuman Pandemonium was far livelier than I had expected. It wasn't even that different from the internet back on Earth. There were question posts, idle chatter, and people fighting with each other. The manner of the fighting was a little different, of course.

I replied to FlowerVaseGirl.

FlowerVaseGirl answered at once.

"Oh."

I smiled.

"That's kind."

There are good people in this world, too.

Then a new notification appeared.

"......?"

I blinked.

"Already?"

And in the very next instant—

"......"

I stared blankly at the screen.

"What the fuck!"

Why were there so many of them?

The Nonhuman Pandemonium Public Information Network. The High-tier Entity Anonymous Board.

In a chat room there, countless beings were talking about a single subject.

And so the name Baek Hoon began to spread across all of Nonhuman Pandemonium.

"Haa......"

I flopped back onto the bed. So many messages had come in that I'd meant to answer them one by one at first, but there was no way I could keep up.

"Is there a block function or something?"

I dug through the network settings and found a single entry.

"......Broadcast?"

I tilted my head.

"Oh."

My eyes lit up.

"This is straight-up streaming, isn't it?"

A fun idea struck me all at once. A broadcast where I talked with nonhumans in another world. On Earth's internet it would just be an ordinary stream, but the thought that every viewer would be a nonhuman made my heart pound.

"......This is crazy. This is going to be so much fun."

I looked over the broadcast settings.

I smiled and pressed the button.

"All right. Let's do this."

Ding.

"Oh, someone's already here?"

I looked at the screen, and a chat popped up at once.

"Ah, Miss Lunaris!"

I greeted her gladly.

"Hello!"

"......Huh?"

The number started climbing fast.

I panicked.

"No, why are so many people coming in?!"

The chat window exploded.

I stared blankly at the screen. This felt like it was getting out of hand. Then a new message appeared.

The chat went silent all at once.

I blinked.

"Ah, yes."

And I answered the way I always did.

"Hello!"

A moment later, another message appeared.

I read the gift's description and muttered.

"......No, what is this?"

In that instant, an enormous crimson heart appeared in the middle of my guest room.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Every time the heart beat, the whole room shook, and beyond the window the third moon began to flush red.

I watched the two of them chat and thought:

......Huh?

Don't tell me.

"Are they fighting in the chat?"

In that moment, every clock in the mansion stopped, and the guest-room door opened.

"Mr. Baek Hoon."

Orvelia came in. Hundreds of pupils had surfaced across her clock face.

"Might I ask......"

She looked at the crimson heart floating in the center of the room, then smiled slowly.

"Who is it you are speaking with just now?"

At that question, a cold sweat broke over me.

"......Ah."

This feels like something has gone very wrong.