"Hm?"
The vortex coiling around Reilo's fingertips gradually disappeared.
With keen interest, he turned around and looked at the fairly sizable laboratory.
"Seems there were other stories here before the apocalypse. I only came to take a casual look on a whim, but it seems I've stumbled upon something unexpected."
A cruel, ghostly smile crept onto his lips.
They often said that a person's face reflected their heart.
Over the years, he had clearly begun to realize that he was drifting away from the essence of reason. That was why he had withdrawn from the world, doing his best to avoid outside interference.
At that moment, Reilo suddenly became aware of the sinister look on his face. It was a disposition he had gradually acquired during those dark and brutal years more than a decade ago.
Back then...
The Superhuman crisis in the duchies was gradually easing.
No one knew it was because the main force of the invading Superhumans had split into two groups. One had gone to the Central Orora Empire, while the other had traveled in the opposite direction through the Underground World's invasion passage, returning to the underground. As a result, people who had spent years hiding in terror like mice finally enjoyed a brief respite before the wind-eye barrier disappeared.
And in the years before that...
The people of the duchies had endured the spread of the Shadow Wall Demons and the Black Death in succession. Fortunately, compared with the casualties and terror caused by the bizarre Shadow Wall Demons, the Black Death posed a far smaller threat to humanity. That left open the possibility of the two sides joining forces against the Superhumans.
Next came the human and monster alliance, which tried to stop the Superhumans.
But compared with the monsters of the Underground