Wan Lan folded her arms and lowered her gaze to the ancient map.
"Heh, isn't this the booklet they called mythology? So it was an actual record?"
Su Wuwei nodded, somewhat wistful.
"Some things couldn't be passed down and could only be hidden in stories. When certain groups' achievements were too great, they would be compiled into poems that people sang and passed on.
"Only things everyone knew like these could avoid having their continuity arbitrarily severed. But too much was destroyed, and they've been kept in the dark for too long.
"They've had all sorts of terrible notions carved into their heads and still think those are their own ideas. Look, we can read the language here because our former writing spread to this place.
"In other words, this world must at least have had contact with an extraterrestrial civilization once. But why it ended up in such a wretched state probably has everything to do with that thing."
Wan Lan nodded earnestly and spoke of what she had seen on her trip.
"I went to subjugate several neighboring tribes. From their chiefs, I learned that everything they had was stolen from this tribe.
"This place used to be very advanced. The people here were intelligent and had enough to spare to help them, even helping them establish their own systems of language and writing.
"But they couldn't accept that sincerity. They were accustomed to living like beasts, accustomed to eating people. Beasts wrapped in human skins couldn't give what they didn't have.
"So instead of developing themselves or thinking of following a better example, they banded together to carve this place up, tacitly taking turns enslaving its people.
"They burned their books, destroyed their culture, killed the people here, and then severed their heritage.
"The first generation might