"Hypha Incident"

A bird?

Duncan had indeed considered where he should begin in explaining the truth about the Great Annihilation and the current state of the Deep Sea Era. After all, the collision of worlds and "incompatibility" were such abstract concepts that not everyone could understand them in a short time. But he had never expected Rune to begin this subject with an utterly ordinary-looking little bird.

He looked up and found that Morris beside him had already taken on a thoughtful expression the moment he saw the "Madman Bird."

Under the curious gazes around him, Rune placed the bird on the table before him. His voice was calm and clear, like that of a patient instructor in a classroom, explaining the ultimate truth of this world to the bishops present—

"Black-feathered Puffins may be among the oldest and most widespread birds in this world. They live along the coasts of peaceful city-states, on remote islands in perilous seas, and even in certain terrifying waters classified as 'anomalies,' where explorers have found traces of these little birds... Yet judging solely by their physiology and habits, Black-feathered Puffins possess nothing special at all. They are merely resilient birds, nothing more.

"Until 1723, when scholars suddenly proposed a very interesting—or rather, imaginative—idea: What did the 'everything' of this world look like through the eyes of animals that lived alongside humans, yet perceived the world differently from humans?

"The first to propose this idea was Hypar Strom, a renowned scholar of the Truth Academy. The thought had occurred to him while playing with his pet dog—he gazed into the dog's eyes and suddenly thought of the differences between the animal's eyes and brain and those of a human. He realized that such a unique sensory system must perceive and understand its surroundings in a marvelous