Annette had been born into a civilization that had long possessed the ability to travel between the stars.
She was writing her history assignment.
Character after character was transmitted to her device through a brain-computer interface. Once she finished revising it, she could send it in directly.
Annette was writing about her favorite—and best—subject: the "counterparts" brought about by an "Epochal Shift."
Since the previous epoch, counterparts from parallel worlds had brought interstellar-age technology into their civilization.
It was a very strange phenomenon, yet it truly existed. It seemed to have begun in ancient times. Throughout recorded history, it had already happened six times.
The first time was also the first time their ancestors came into contact with that miraculous "parallel world."
At the time, the ruler was a powerful king known as the Eagle King. His great army had trampled the entire continent flat, and he could no longer find a single opponent.
Then, after an eclipse, an army as powerful as the Eagle King's emerged upon the continent—and they, too, called their ruler the "Eagle King."
The two armies clashed, but as the battle continued, they discovered in horror that across from them stood beings "similar" to themselves.
They were called similar because those people were not completely identical to them. There was always some slight difference.
For example, they had been wounded in a battle where their own counterparts had never suffered an injury.
Or perhaps they were healthier than themselves, and the scars on their own bodies did not exist on the other side.
These differences caused tremendous chaos. The fighting swiftly ceased, and scholars from both sides began discussing the differences between them.
They then discovered that even the scholars were extremely alike. Only a small number of people had failed to find their own