I pictured Diana.
A robot...
A robot...?
Her?
Honestly, it doesn't really click.
"In a broad sense, yes."
Mugen-san answered solemnly.
A robot in a broad sense... Somehow, a certain blue, earless robotic cat from a famous anime popped into my head.
"I see..."
Right.
To Mugen-san, this seemed like a massive, earth-shattering revelation, but to me... it wasn't exactly a shock. Or rather, it wasn't a problem at all.
I mean, from the beginning, the people over there were unmistakably a "different race," and since they were from another world, I already knew their biology was different from mine as a human from Earth.
Of course, I might have been shocked if she moved with clunky, mechanical motions, but Diana is expressive, surprisingly caring toward her comrades, a sleepyhead, a bit of a slob... it just didn't compute.
If Diana is a robot, then she's a robot so advanced that she's virtually indistinguishable from a human.
"What's this? You're taking it better than I expected."
"No... well, yeah. I guess so. It's more like it hasn't really sunk in."
"Right... that makes sense. Real A.I. doesn't exist yet in this era."
"Real A.I.? I hear the term 'Artificial Intelligence' all the time; doesn't it exist?"
"Not even close. It's finally starting to look like it... but that's about it. Essentially, they're still grasping at clouds. Real A.I.—what they call artificial consciousness or Strong A.I.—won't reach a practical stage for another 200 years."
"200 years...?"
Wait, why does this guy have this kind of knowledge?
What exactly are the wizards of that world? This is ridiculous.
"Don't look at me like that. Are you curious how I know such things?"
"Of course I am. Aren't you from another world, Mugen-san? Why do you know about future technology on Earth?"
"Because I know it as historical fact. I went back to the past and heard it myself."
"To the past?"
See? Now he's making even less sense.
Maybe he really is a dangerous person. A genuine nutcase.
"Hey, don't look at me like I'm some lunatic. When I say 'the past,' I mean the past of Emes-Palette. You've heard of the Age of Spirit Civilization, haven't you?"
"I think so... wasn't that a thousand years ago? I've heard it was an incredible era."
A time beyond comparison to the present, filled with holders of Unique Vocations and wielders of Magic and Holy Swords, where monsters and magical beasts roamed free. Even now, relics from that era are treated as treasures and traded for high prices.
That doll that broke my mirror was supposed to be a relic from the Spirit Civilization, too.
"I wanted to unravel the mysteries of that Age of Spirit Civilization. Many records remained, but most of them made no sense to me at the time. My wife's family home had various materials, but as for where the 'Heroes of Myth' came from and where they went... no one knew."
The Spirit Civilization was a thousand years ago.
In Japan, that would be the Heian period. It's unimaginably ancient. It makes sense that records would be scarce.
"So, I actually went there. A thousand years into the past. And I learned the truth."
"Wait, seriously? How?"
His proactivity is off the charts. Did he build a time machine? Or get a gadget out of a certain robotic cat's pocket?
"One of the ultimate magics of the High Elves is called the 'Hourglass of Time.' It's magic that can wind back time to a certain point."
"Whoa, that exists?"
High Elves are too overpowered.
The rejuvenation magic was one thing, but winding back time? Just how far does it go...?
"Spirit Magic is special in that world. It creates miracles through the 'Manipulation of Causality'—the power of God."
"So... you used that...?"
"Yeah... Well, a single jump could only take me back about a year, so it took a mountain of Spirit Stones... about a thousand of them, roughly."
"A thousand..."
As expected of a former world-class hero. A thousand Spirit Stones is an entirely different order of magnitude.
"S-So, how was it? The Age of Spirit Civilization..."
Mugen-san paused.
He ordered a refill of his coffee, and the waiter poured it from a decanter. He savored a sip of the piping hot coffee before finally speaking.
"...What do you think that world is?"
"That world... you mean the other world... Emes-Palette, right? What do I think it is...? I don't know."
"You don't?"
"...No."
I don't know. There's no way I could.
All I can call it is a magical world accessible through a mirror.
But one of its residents is sitting right in front of me. Objects can pass through the mirror, too... If you think about it normally, that world must physically exist somewhere... right?
"I read through the archived logs on some message boards and summary sites. There were a few pretty sharp comments scattered in there. People said that if 'the world' means this universe, then an 'other world' would just be another planet."
"I think I remember reading something like that."
"But don't you think it's a bit too similar to Earth? The oxygen levels. The presence or absence of unknown pathogens. The length of a day. The temperature. Even the humans. Even the proper nouns were the same as the ones you know, weren't they?"
"Now that you mention it... yeah. I just vaguely figured that's just how it was, but..."
Because it was a fantasy world, I just accepted it as 'it is what it is.' Is it different? Is there a secret?
"Isn't it strange? Do you really think such a coincidence is possible? A world where everything is identical to Earth, where humans can live without any problems... it's weird. Even the food over there is equivalent to or better than what we have on Earth."
"..When you put it that way, yeah, it's strange."
It's strange.
But since it didn't cause me any harm, I just thought I was lucky.
A world identical to Earth.
So, does this story connect to the Emes-Palette of the 'Spirit Civilization'?
"...To put it simply, that world was made by humans from Earth. That is the truth I discovered—the truth I had to discover—by going back a thousand years."
"...What?"
"Emes-Palette was a world created by Earthlings, for Earthlings."
As he sipped his coffee, Mugen-san said those words without changing his expression.
* * *
"Starting from now—about 170 years in the future—the world's first VR game will be created. Do you know what VR is? Virtual Reality. In other words, a game where you yourself enter the game world."
Muge-san began to speak in a low, measured tone.
According to him, Virtual Reality technology itself will enter a practical stage in about 150 years. Shortly after that, the tech will be applied to gaming.
"Within that, a single popular genre will emerge: the VRMMORPG. You have role-playing games now, right? Dragon Quest, Wizardry... It's like those, but experienced as a physical reality. You transfer your consciousness into the game. Theoretically, the method involved saving a copy of your personality into the game; that copy would play the game, and when you quit, the memories were 'pasted' back into the original. Back then, they called it 'soul copying' or something similar, and it apparently caused quite a stir."
Mugen-san spoke of the future as if it were ancient history.
"Wait, so are you saying that world, Emes-Palette, is just a VRMMO world? But it felt so real... I could even bring physical items in and out."
I mean, this is supposed to be a story about the future, right? What's going on?
Oh, right—this man said he could travel to the future and the past... Which means... he actually went there? To the future of this world?
"No, that's not it. But it's close. You're right that it's a 'game world.' Even you enjoyed that world as if it were a game, didn't you?"
As if it were a game...?
I hadn't really thought of it that way, but if it is a game world, does that mean every aspect of life there is gamified?
Receiving a blessing, getting a Vocation, leveling up that Vocation, adventuring... Well, I didn't do much adventuring, but it certainly has game-like mechanics.
However, the people I met there were all "real" people. The idea of it being a game world just didn't sit right with me.
"Of course, I didn’t live thinking it was a game. I enjoyed my life. But as truth, it is a game world."
"But how can it be? It was completely real. There’s no way it was virtual!"
At my words, Mugen-san's eyes turned distant for a moment.
He took one deep breath and finally gave me the answer.
"...That world is a gaming planet, created based on the third-generation VRMMORPG 'Emes-Pallete: Find Your Unique Color'."
"...What?"
A dumb sound escaped my lips.
What the hell is a "gaming planet"? That's way too grand.
That world is a different planet from Earth...?
Wait, thinking realistically, is that even possible? No... but there's magic and stuff...
I was spiraling.
He was saying Earthlings created that world for a game. That it was a whole planet for gaming. I couldn't make heads or tails of it.
"In the future—about 800 years from now—humanity will make two massive discoveries. One is the 'Discovery of Ether,' and the other is the 'Manipulation of Causality.' These two things, quite literally, changed the history of mankind. In that world, they correspond to 'Mana' and 'Spirit Power.'"
"...I see."
I could do nothing but nod.
I never imagined a story like this would pop out.
'Manipulation of Causality'? I didn't even know what that was supposed to mean.
"With those powers, humanity will take control of the galaxy. Enough power to remodel an entire Earth-like planet into a game world... Hm? You don't seem that surprised."
I was too surprised. My brain was overheating, or maybe it just felt too unreal.
Talking about the world 800 years in the future feels no different from a fairy tale to me.
"The VR game version of Emes-Palette was an ancient title by the time planet-shaping technology existed. Yet, they specifically chose Emes-Palette as the theme for the terraforming. Why do you think that is?"
"I-I don't know. Because it was fun?"
"That was part of it. It was a game system that felt just right for the humans of a thousand years later. But the primary reason was that Emes-Palette was 'the game that gave birth to the world's first true A.I.' A good companion for humanity. A true neighbor. An irreplaceable game where a partner essential to human history was born. That was Emes-Palette."
I need to organize this a bit.
Mugen-san was born in Erishe. He jumped 1,000 years into the past. Then, something happened, and he came to this world 150 years ago.
He just said the first A.I. will be created 200 years from now. That means the VRMMORPG Emes-Palette—where it was born—is a game from 200 years in the future.
VR tech: 150 years from now.
VR games: 170 years from now.
Ether and causality manipulation: 800 years from now.
The terraformed Emes-palette I went to was created 1,000 years after that...
"Wait, so the Emes-Palette I was going to was created 1,000 years after the terraforming... which means it's about 2,000 years in the future from now?"
That would be it.
The timeline jumped so much it made no sense.
"That's roughly correct. Though it's my fault for miscalculating when I made the mirror. I didn't realize distance included the concept of time..."
"In other words?"
"After I learned the truth, I wanted to leave that world and visit 'First Blue'—the ultra-advanced Earth. So I combined my Unique Skill with my wife's spirit magic and created that mirror. With Ether and causality manipulation, it was theoretically possible. But I was too foolish. I succeeded—but I missed my target by over 2000 years. Well... That's why I'm here."
So that's what happened...
Mugen-san said he went back 1,000 years in Emes-Palette and discovered the world was a game and the "Heroes" were players.
The Heroes logged into that world 'through a mirror' from their own rooms on their own planet.
When Mugen-san explained his situation, they were thrilled.
They even gave him a tablet loaded with an encyclopedia of their history and knowledge.
"Going back to the Artificial Intelligence... A.I. refers to an artificial personality that actually possesses a 'self.' At the time—about 200 years from now—A.I. research had hit a complete dead end. Theoretically, it should have been finished, but a 'self' just wouldn't emerge. Even with quantum computers that surpassed the human brain in capacity and reaction speed."
We're back to A.I talk.
Apparently this part is essential to him.
Mugen-san then went on to give a long explanation.
"Many proposals were tried to birth A.I.—distributing proto-personalities to personal computers and having people converse with them, building incomplete androids to live alongside humans.
One attempt was integrating A.I. into VR games. The third-generation VRMMORPG 'Emes-Pallete: Find Your Unique Color' was one of those projects.
In Emes-Palette, every player was assigned a 'Support Pixie'. An NPC to assist them. The A.I. was nearly complete, so it faithfully followed commands and became a popular feature.
Players could choose from several types:
Pixie.
Cait Sith.
Salamander.
Spriggan.
And High Elf.
Among them, the High Elf—focused mainly on support magic—was unpopular. She behaved oddly and awkwardly. But one Japanese male player loved her and continued using her. He also had a female player he'd grown close to in-game. The three of them played together often."
Gradually, the male and female players fell in love.
...But for reasons unclear, the woman died of illness. She passed away while logged into the game. And at the moment of her death, the High Elf A.I.—the male player's support pixie—experienced a breakthrough. Self-awareness emerged.
That was the world's first true A.I.
And ever since, that artificial intelligence has been copied and loved worldwide as the First Generation A.I.
—Her name was 'Kaguya'."
"Kaguya?"
"Yes. Like the famous Japanese folk tale, right? The world's oldest science fiction. From then on, all A.I. were given names related to the moon... By the way, my wife's name is Selene."
Selene... that was the name of the Greek goddess of the moon.
When we were naming the knight order, I'd hesitated between "Artemis" and "Selene". Of course, the reason I chose moon goddesses for the knight order was because of Diana. The name Diana is a famous name for a moon goddess.
Of course, I never thought there was a connection just because she shared a name with an Earth myth...
"'Kaguya' was a good A.I. An almost ideal personality. They say this was because of how the two players who adventured with her for so long raised her; those two are called the 'parents' of Artificial Intelligence. Kaguya's personality was one of loving humans, cherishing them, keeping them from danger, protecting, and supporting them. She inherited the nature of a support character—a High Elf—and was sensitive to an extreme degree regarding human death and love. It's said this is because she was born from the parting-by-death of two people who loved each other. That was Kaguya's greatest strength, and her biggest flaw... well, this is all knowledge I got from the tablet."
An A.I. born from a death-parting.
A sense of self born through an intense experience.
"I got a bit sidetracked. Anyway, Emes-palette took the world by storm as the game that birthed the first A.I. Then, after 800 years, it was reborn and reintroduced as a gaming planet through terraforming... Actually, the future people, from the perspective of now, have significantly diminished physical abilities. It seems there was an intent to get them to move a bit if it were a game. The future-player types I saw were all overweight and slow. They were all nice guys, but they left the physical combat to the NPCs. Even so, they could fire off some absolutely insane magic. Even I, called the Great Archmage, completely lost my confidence."
Everyone in the future is a wizard?
Wait, did he say Ether was discovered? So it's a world where magic is practically applied.
"Emes in Emes-Palette means 'Truth' Pallete is 'Color'. In Japanese, the 'Colors of Truth'. Apparently, its selling point was that you could do vocational training for a 'Job' that suited you. And to ensure people could enjoy it as a standard RPG, the basic jobs of 'Swordsman' and 'Magician' were standard equipment for everyone."
So the Swordsman and Magician Vocations I have were standard equipment...
Well, Swordsman changed into the Unique Vocation "Fourth Magic Sword Wielder," so it's possible I had a natural talent for it to begin with.
"The first-generation A.I., Kaguya, was outdated by the time of the Emes Palette era we lived in. But first is first. For a certain purpose, the Mother A.I.—the god of Emes Palette—created the High Elves of that world."
First-generation A.I.
Humanity probably didn't stop at one personality. New A.I. must have been created over time, making the first obsolete.
I don't really understand that part.
"So the first A.I. wasn't used in our Emes Palette? And... are the humans there even human?"
"Human... is close, but not quite. They aren't artificial humans. Earthlings forcibly remodeled the native lifeforms of the planet. That's what Emes-Palette people are. I'd like to be considered human too, by that definition."
So they reshaped the planet's biology itself with super-science.
There were stories about the Spirit Civilization Era—but nothing before that.
Of course not. Civilization didn't exist before Earth intervened.
"Then why did the Earthlings disappear?"
"...That... is hard to say, but it seems, it was my fault."
"What do you mean?"
"NPCs... that is, 'a being who were supposed to be just non-player character, obtained Unique Vocations and travel through time to meet the players'. That fact was apparently taken up sensationally back in their home country. Public opinion surged that 'Emes-Palette must be liberated,' the laws were revised, and gaming on that world was completely banned. Because of that, the Earthlings all pulled out a thousand years ago."
What an irony.
He jumped to the past because he wanted to know about the Age of Spirit Civilization, only to become the catalyst for ending it.
"Even though it was banned, they couldn't exactly return the planet to how it was, so Emes-Palette was just abandoned. Leaving only that game system behind. Vocations. Guidance. Spirit Stones. Monsters. Magic Crystals... Regardless, the people living normally in Emes-palette are proper living organisms. More accurately, you could call them creatures that were remodeled by human ego."
"So only High Elves are artificial humans? What about Cait Sith and Spriggans?"
From his story, those races—including High Elves—were originally support pixies in the game.
Surely they existed on the remodeled planet too.
"Support Pixies were implemented. I actually saw them when I went back to the Age of Spirit Civilization. Of course, the Support Pixies were artificial. Though the A.I. installed in them were the latest models."
"Then High Elves were originally that too, right?"
When I asked that, Mugen-san made a troubled face.
Then, he ordered an extra serving of whitebait pasta... Maybe he was just hungry.
"High Elves were not implemented. The Mother A.I.—the god governing that world—refused to create High Elves as support pixies."
"Does that kind of thing happen?"
"Mother A.I. surpassed humanity. An artificial god capable of manipulating causality and reshaping the world. In that world, the Sun God, the Great Spirit, and the Night Sky Goddess are all aspects of Mother A.I. If Mother refused, it was judged to be for a greater reason."
"So...?"
"High Elves exist—but not as support pixies. They were implemented as Special Guide Fairies. Leaders of the fairies—Elves, Nightmares, Undines. From the Spirit Civilization Era onward, High Elves were known to possess power second only to the gods. Yet no player ever obtained one. The acquisition conditions were unknown. Many wondered why Mother did that. Plenty of players wanted a High Elf as support."
So when Mugen-san appeared a thousand years ago with a High Elf, he must have been mobbed with questions.
In short, High Elves are androids—but not support units.
"But why would Mother A.I. do that?"
"Mother is both mother and daughter. To fulfill the wish of her parent—her root ancestor—the first A.I., Kaguya. That alone was her purpose. So in Emes Palette, she created High Elf Kaguya as a perfect, complete special race."
In other words—
"The dream of the A.I. 'Kaguya.' Or her hope. Or her original sin... 'That those who love each other may be united and live forever.' To fulfill that, even if she has to bend the laws of causality, she draws fate toward her—That is the true identity of the 'Special Guidance'."
That is the true nature of the 'Special Guidance.'"
The first A.I.'s inextinguishable desire given form.
Lovers should be bound by eternal love.
Perhaps because she awakened from the pain of death separating lovers, that desire was inseparable from her core.
If removed, she would cease to function as herself.
Does Diana... want to live for eternity with me, too?
