The Martian colony.
Seated on a park bench, Petra gazed at the surrounding facilities, which had only barely recovered to their pre-war condition.
With a sigh, she said,
"I remember this place used to be a park. I never thought they'd turn it into an artificial lake…"
At her words, Orsaga casually swept his gaze across the area.
With but a thought, scenes from decades earlier appeared before his eyes.
He saw this land before it was reshaped — the barren desolation of millions of years, then humanity's arrival over two millennia ago, slowly transforming it into a thriving settlement with shops, homes, hotels, streets, and parks… everything brimming with life.
Then came the era of war.
A colossal, oval-shaped warhead descended from the sky. In endless fire and light, all was annihilated — reduced to a crater tens of kilometers wide and hundreds of meters deep.
Later, peace returned.
When the Human Federation was established, the toxic remnants within the crater were cleansed. Artificial lakes were filled in, alongside engineered plants and animals.
With the passage of time, it became what it is today.
Having seen all this, Orsaga finally said to Petra:
"You're right. It was a park once… until it was destroyed."
Clinging to his arm with a smile, Petra replied,
"I knew I wasn't mistaken. Back then, I even came here with Golariel and the others."
But as she spoke, a sense of melancholy rose within her, and she sighed softly.
"So many years have passed… even the nations themselves have vanished."
As a duchess of Great Britain, heir to a lineage stretching back a thousand years, watching her country be absorbed and reduced to nothing more than an administrative district under the Human Federation left Petra with a complicated heaviness in her heart.
"This is only the beginning."
Seeing her mood, Orsaga gently brushed her cheek and said with a relaxed smile:
"Mortal men and mortal creations are bound to exist only for a brief span. But you and I endure. We will watch stars burn and witness the universe's end. The fleeting things will, in time, all fade before our gaze."
There was no arrogance or disdain in his tone — merely a calm statement of fact.
Petra leaned against him, her fingers intertwined with his, feeling the warmth of the sunlight filtering through the artificial atmosphere.
Closing her eyes, she murmured,
"It's just… sometimes I feel detached from the times. As if history itself has left me behind."
At this, Orsaga paused, then suddenly burst into laughter.
Petra looked up at him in puzzlement, unsure why he laughed.
She waited patiently for an answer, but he showed no sign of stopping.
Finally, pouting in irritation, she bumped her head against his arm twice, forcing him to halt.
Catching his breath, Orsaga turned to her serious gaze and said softly yet firmly:
"What is history? It is nothing more than the record of things that once occurred. It flows like a tributary in the river of time. And such a thing… Only ever eliminates the weak. You, I, and Golariel — we are not among those destined to be discarded. The reason is simple: we stand above history itself."
As he spoke, their dimension suddenly rose higher and higher, transcending the third, the fourth, the fifth…
Until they reached a chaotic realm filled with endless threads and points of light.
Casually, Orsaga plucked one of the luminous strands and flicked his fingers.
The scene magnified.
Dinosaurs ran across the Earth, while in the skies, a blazing meteor hurtled downward.
"This is a sub-universe, a single timeline. When that meteor strikes, the dinosaurs will be wiped out, and the chain of life will be reshuffled. Humanity, along with other mammals, will rise as the beneficiaries of this extinction."
He slid his finger, fast-forwarding millions of years.
The meteor struck.
The Earth's environment shifted drastically. Large creatures perished; smaller ones survived and thrived, eventually climbing to the top of the food chain.
Time accelerated further, and soon, primitive humans appeared.
Gradually, they evolved, developing into modern humans and building civilization after civilization.
Soon, the screen showed humanity constructing a Dyson sphere, harnessing the power of the sun.
Petra still didn't fully grasp his meaning.
Orsaga reset the scene, back to the moment before the meteor's impact.
With a flick of his finger, the meteor shattered into countless fragments, scattering harmlessly.
At that moment, a new branch of history unfurled from the original strand.
Time sped up once more.
Petra watched dinosaurs evolve, diverging into new forms.
One lineage slowly developed into an intelligent, humanlike species.
They rose, conquered, and built a flourishing civilization, ruling over Earth.
"They eliminated their rivals and claimed the throne of history," Orsaga said calmly.
"Do you see? I created history."
Before Petra could respond, he flicked his fingers again.
The Earth on that timeline jolted violently, like a marble struck by a finger.
It was knocked from its orbit, colliding headlong into the sun.
In an instant, the planet and its thriving civilization dissolved into nothing within the star's blazing sea.
Watching the solar flares ripple outward, Orsaga continued:
"And now, I've destroyed history."
Holding Petra gently by the waist, he went on, his voice steady:
"Petra, time, space, causality… These are merely rules that bind mortals. History itself is nothing more than a byproduct of those rules.
We are not mortals. We stand above them.
We do not look up to history. Nor should we fear being discarded by it. For it is we who create it, we who decide its direction. Thus, it is for us to eliminate history — not for history to eliminate us."
_____
T/N:
For readers who would like early access, my Patreon is available for just $4 per month. You'll unlock 140+ advance chapters and help support ongoing works.
🔗 patreon.com/user?u=79514336
You may also search Translator-Sama directly on Patreon.
Your support is sincerely appreciated