Gift of a New Era
Let me tell you an old story.
What? You think you already know it? You don't know this one.
Yes. The story I'm about to relate concerns the destruction of the old humanity.
The great god Zeus once resolved to obliterate mankind. Why he did so, I cannot say.
I know only that the old humanity offended Lord Zeus. I cannot guess what could have angered the merciful Lord Zeus, but he wiped out mankind in a Great Flood.
Do you see the rivers that wind across the land, the seas that push far inland? All of them are scars left when Lord Zeus commanded the goddess Poseidon to drown the world with the ocean.
We may never know precisely how the old humanity met its end, but is it not precisely the duty of a historian like myself to unearth the truth?
I discovered a relic of the past.
After ages of wind stripping away the soil, I found the traces of an ancient city, exposed once more.
What I saw there was truly horrifying.
The mere fact that someone could imagine such things against the great gods of Olympus... the very thought makes me want to vomit out my own mind.
But then, have you heard this story?
How, after the old humanity perished, the current race of humans came to be.
The origin of our species is a being called 'Pandora'.
She was the first of our current humanity, shaped directly by the gods.
But Pandora was a woman.
A woman cannot bear a child on her own, can she?
So the gods sent Pandora to those who had survived from the old humanity.
Some among the old humans managed to escape the wrath of Zeus.
Most likely, they were the ones who had refrained from acts that would enrage a god.
But even they committed a sin.
Tell me, when you see a beautiful woman, what do you wish to do?
You want to violate her, don't you?
Hmm? You ask what happens if you do such a thing and get into serious trouble?
Precisely.
Nowadays, you would get into trouble.
More than trouble, it is a crime defined by the laws of the state.
But when Pandora descended, there was no such thing.
Truly, it was an utterly barbaric age, without law or custom.
So when the gods sent down a woman like Pandora, what do you think happened next?
The humans violated Pandora without restraint.
To be clear on one point: Pandora was human, and yet not human.
It is more accurate to think of her as a doll that was made into a human.
What's that? You ask if the gods simply abandoned Pandora to be ravished?
That is a possible viewpoint.
But I think differently.
Pandora was a hope the gods sent for the sake of mankind.
It was mankind that recklessly violated that hope.
They violated her, and violated her, and violated her again.
They would never have imagined that the children they spawned by violating Pandora—our very ancestors—would eliminate the old humanity.
They bound up those who would not easily die, and killed them until they were dead.
The old humanity was completely wiped out, and a new humanity, different from the old, came to rule the world.
The children born from the marriage of Lady Pyrrha, the daughter of Lady Pandora, and Lord Deucalion, whom the gods sent to be her partner—those children became the founders of countless royal lines, including the very kingdom we inhabit now.
In a sense, we can all be said to be beings born from Lady Pandora. Heh heh.
...As a historian, if I had one curiosity, and if I were ever to meet Lord Zeus, there is something I would very much like to tell him personally.
It would not be a statement from the standpoint of our current humanity, but an expression of gratitude from one living being.
Such creatures deserved their annihilation.
Ah, yes.
I had seen it with my own eyes.
The hideous vileness of the old humanity.
The final fate of those who dared defy the gods.
And that is why I burned all the materials I discovered.
So that no one might ever dig into the mistakes of the past out of idle curiosity.
So let this be engraved in your hearts.
Humanity lives on thanks to the gods of Olympus.
Worship the greatness of the gods and follow them.
Only then can we receive their protection and survive.
The Monsters of the Earth.
Without the protection of the gods, we cannot stand against these monsters.
Never forget it.
You absolutely must not anger them.
* * *
Project Pandora was a success.
The word 'success' felt peculiar when applied to the destruction of mankind, but humanity was no longer something akin to the incarnation of the Titan gods.
Now they were jealous of one another, envious, and divided into a ruling class and a ruled class.
Humanity had moved beyond tribal society and was advancing into the form of ancient kingdoms.
And there I was...
"Hey, Mr. Yu. What are you doing now?"
"Shh. There's our prey over there."
I lay still on the ground with Hunter Mr. A, holding my breath. Below the cliff, a colossal white horse, easily over three meters tall, was striding along with an elegant gait.
"Are we really going to hunt that thing?"
"We have to. Didn't the kingdom put a bounty on it?"
I raised a bow made of wood. The arrow nocked on the string had an iron head tempered in flame.
"The number of women gored to death by those horns is over ten, you know. And among them was the daughter of a noble house."
"Yeah. I do lament that. But... if the rumors are true..."
"Rumors?"
Hunter Mr. A whispered to me in a truly hushed voice.
"They say unicorns kill any non-virgin woman on sight, right?"
"That's right."
"So does that mean the women a unicorn kills are... that?"
"If you want to be precise, it's a little different. Forgive me, but may I be somewhat rude regarding your mother?"
"Don't. I already got the point."
Hunter Mr. A scowled at me. I swallowed my next words and loosed the bowstring.
Thwip.
"Gyaaack!"
"Tsk."
The unicorn, an arrow buried in its eye, began to scream. As red blood streamed across its white coat, I felt a pang of pity.
But that thing was a wanton mass murderer who killed women at random. It slaughters anyone who isn't a virgin.
"I've heard a rumor it even gored its own mother to death."
"Whoa. What a total maniac."
"That's why we've come to kill it. Ordinary people can't catch the thing."
"Oh, oohhh..."
I set the next arrow on the bow. But the unicorn, having spotted us on the cliff above with its remaining eye, began ramming its head into the cliff face.
"Damn it."
My aim was thrown off. The beast, growing frenzied, started slamming its horn wildly into the rock.
"W-we're in serious trouble! In that state, it'll ram anything and anyone, woman or not!"
"It's fine. I've recruited the strongest hunter there is to deal with it."
Whhzzz—
BOOM!
A massive boulder sailed through the air above our heads. It looked as if a huge chunk had been ripped straight from the mountainside; the boulder landed accurately right beside the unicorn's flank.
Kyaaaack!
The unicorn screamed and toppled over. I raised my thumb toward the opposite side of the cliff.
"Well done, Diana!"
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
From beyond the cliff, a giant of a person over two meters tall appeared, backlit by the setting sun. The giant, who looked as large as the two of us combined, leaped down below the cliff wielding a huge club in one hand.
"Th-that's dangerous!"
"It's fine. That thing can never attack her."
"What do you...? Gasp!"
The hunter was astonished at the sight before his eyes.
Whimper, whimper...
The unicorn tried to nuzzle its head against Diana. As if overwhelmed by the sheer violence bearing down on it, the unicorn closed its eyes to the death approaching it.
"A unicorn can never attack a virgin."
"...A virgin? That thing is a woman?"
"What?"
I grabbed the hunter by the collar.
"What exactly do you mean by referring to my daughter as 'that thing'?"
"D-daughter?"
"Father."
The giant, Diana, climbed back up the cliff and set her club on the ground, blood dripping from it.
"It's done. Let's go wash up."
"Alright. Look here, go and report to the king. Tell him we've killed the unicorn, the 'Non-Virgin Killer'."
...
A little later.
"Phaaah..."
I entered a small nearby spring with my daughter, Diana.
I had set up a barrier of lightning around us that barred humans from entering, so we could relax and rest easy.
"Artemis, stop playing with your chest."
"Why?"
"Because I don't like watching it."
"Heehee."
With her hunter mode switched off, Artemis was splashing water over herself, showing off her body.
Even hundreds of years after her birth, this sort of mischief hadn't changed much, but my level of composure in handling her was another matter entirely.
"If you tease me like that one more time, I'm calling Leto."
"Ah, d-don't do that. Mom is really scary."
"Good. Then behave and get into the water."
"Tch."
A verbal lashing is a fearsome thing.
If Artemis misbehaves, I summon Leto to my bed.
Of course, the 'lashing' she gets there is with love in bed.
Since the play at those times isn't the kind Leto prefers, she gauges the situation by what position I'm thrusting in, and then either scolds or praises Artemis accordingly.
"Thanks to you, we safely killed a crazed unicorn. If you act like this, how can I praise you?"
"That's true, but still..."
Artemis submerged herself up to her chin and grumbled.
"If people hear that I'm still bathing in the same water as my dad at this age, they all kinda..."
"..."
Ah. So it's finally here. Puberty.
"They tease me, asking how I can be alone and naked with Lord Zeus and not do anything."
"Oh, that's what this is about? I was worried for a moment."
—I'd thought it was that common thing. You know, the one about not doing laundry with your dad.
"I'll talk to Leto about it."
"Thank you. But lately, Father..."
"Yes. Monsters are appearing in great numbers."
Monsters that humans simply cannot handle.
"...Humans are too weak."
Compared to the old humanity we destroyed, the current humans are so pathetically weak that they cannot live without the help of the gods.
"As if I wasn't already losing my mind searching for that thing, now there are monsters sprouting from the ground..."
I know who is creating these monsters.
If I had my way, I'd sweep them all away at once, but for now, there's a specific object I need to find.
"Just find the clamshell already, dammit."
'That clamshell.'
"Prometheus, you damn bastard. You should have told me sooner that fate had changed."
At last, from the foam of the sea, it was born.