Falling Out
Of course, if Jade Cauldron Grand Scholar insisted on indulging in such fantasies, Multi-pupil Grand Scholar naturally wouldn't contradict him. Let him keep living in those beautiful illusions.
The situation in the Underground World was so complicated now that it was only natural for Jade Cauldron Grand Scholar to have a distorted understanding of it. Even he, Multi-pupil Grand Scholar, had been confident about the Underground World right up until the battle in the Surface World. Even when things weren't going well on the surface battlefield, he'd believed the Underground Race only needed one breakthrough opportunity.
All it would take was opening up the situation in one local area, and the surface battlefield would surely turn in their favor, perhaps even reverse the tide entirely.
It wasn't until their plan had completely collapsed, he, Multi-pupil, had become a prisoner, and he'd witnessed the Surface World's true strength that he finally came to his senses. It turned out that all his previous self-confidence had been nothing but outdated perceptions, fantasies born of an inability to let go of the past.
In truth, the Surface World had progressed far beyond their imagination over the years. The gap in strength between the two worlds had been steadily shrinking, and might even have disappeared entirely.
In the Underground World's view, Surface Humans had always been timid and weak, with poor individual combat abilities and nothing to offer besides technology.
After the Era of Strangeness began, the population had been drastically decimated, with at most two out of every ten people surviving. Even the Underground World, with its vast population, would surely have struggled to bear such a staggering loss. The frail Surface Humans could hardly have endured such a huge reduction.
But who would have thought that, although the successive cullings of