Human (1)

If history was the major I was most interested in after coming to the Academy, the one I was next most interested in was 'anthropology.' In this world, anthropology includes not only humans but also elves, beastfolk, dwarves, demonkin, and various other races.

Therefore, in anthropology class, we learn about the distinctive traits of each race, along with its strengths and weaknesses.

However, Halo Academy's educational approach focuses on humans and compares them with the other races. That is probably because it is an educational institution founded by humans, and most of its students are human.

Even so, the international students—in other words, members of other races who enrolled at Halo Academy—were generally satisfied. They too knew that although the world was vast and filled with diverse races, humans had always been at the center of events.

"According to recent research, the human population is approximately 1.6 billion, while all the other races combined number only around 800 million. Thanks to this vast population and limitless capacity for development, humans have been able to maintain the upper hand until now. And..."

An elderly gentleman with gray eyebrows so thick they were almost heavy was explaining something enthusiastically at the front of the lecture hall. I sat in the front row and listened attentively to his entire lecture.

The old gentleman's name was Professor Roy Magnus. As you can see, he was the professor in charge of anthropology. Like Professor Birus, the humanities professor, he was passionate about his subject, so there wasn't a moment when I had time to be bored.

"Of course, the other races also have unique strengths, so they keep humans in check at every turn. Dwarves can control the weapons market, while every individual elven warrior is as powerful as a human knight. The same goes for the beastfolk. Finally, when it comes to magic, the demonkin are as outstanding as the elves, to the point that no other race can compare. What about us humans? We have no exceptional qualities by birth. The event that revealed all these strengths and weaknesses was the Race War."

Anthropology was inextricably linked to the 'Race War.' The war had revealed the light and darkness of every race, and humans had taken the lead in earnest. I wholeheartedly agreed with this point as well.

But I had a separate question. When Professor Roy paused his explanation to catch his breath, I quietly raised my hand. The moment I did, Professor Roy's face brightened and he looked at me.

"Ah, yes. Isaac. What question do you have today?"

"... ..."

I let out a wry smile at the professor's words. Anthropology was the major I was most interested in after history, so I had fired off all sorts of questions from the very first class. Because of that, Professor Roy also seemed to have a favorable opinion of me.

Of course, in inverse proportion to that, the other students didn't look upon me very favorably. I had received extra credit for asking so many questions, after all. In any case, I should ask what I wanted to ask.

"You said earlier that the human population is 1.6 billion, while all the other races combined number less than 800 million, correct?"

"That's right."

"Let me focus on the elves for now. Elves have the lowest birth rate of all the races, so their population is the smallest as well. I've heard that even if you estimate generously, the elven population is only around 100 million."

"And there are 250 million dwarves, 350 million beastfolk, and around 100 million demonkin. That's roughly how the numbers work out."

As Professor Roy explained, the elven population was quite small even as a proportion of the total. One might think that 100 million out of 2.1 billion wasn't so bad, but that was only when viewed from the perspective of my previous life.

One mustn't overlook the fact that only 'humans' existed on Earth. Considering the elves' racial characteristics, their population was alarmingly small.

"Yes. On top of that, elves can live to around 1,000 years. Compared to humans, who barely live past 100 even at their longest, that's an enormous figure. Even a rough calculation puts it at more than ten times as long. But even taking that into account, I think it's strange that the elven population is so small."

"In other words, you're saying that it's strange for the elven population to be so small despite countless humans dying over those 1,000 years. Is that right?"

Professor Roy neatly summarized the question I wanted to ask. When I nodded, he made eye contact with Cecily, who was sitting beside me.

After holding her gaze for a moment, Professor Roy soon looked away and surveyed the rest of the room. Aside from Cecily, who was a demonkin, everyone in the lecture hall was human.

"Hmm... That's a fairly interesting question. Since you only mentioned elves, I'll tell you about their cultural characteristics after their biological ones. First, Isaac, how much do you know about sex?"

"...Pardon?"

I was dumbfounded by the sudden ambush of a question. Any other question would have been one thing, but being asked about sexual knowledge out of nowhere left me unable to do anything but panic.

The professor who had asked the question hurriedly added an explanation when the atmosphere in the lecture hall grew strange.

"Ah, don't get any strange ideas, everyone. I need to explain some basic sexual knowledge for this, that's all. In any case, Isaac, what's your answer to my question?"

"Uh... I know everything I need to know."

I answered, but I couldn't stop my face from turning red. I sincerely hoped the explanation would be worth an answer like that.

While I was having those thoughts, Professor Roy cleared his throat and began explaining things one by one.

"Ahem. Then I'll explain. You'll learn this in biology as well, but some students may not be taking biology, so listen carefully. First, humans—in other words, human women—have a chance to conceive once a month. Elves, however, have a much longer cycle. According to research, it occurs once a year on average."

"Wow..."

I was genuinely amazed by Professor Roy's explanation. This was why the elves' birth rate was so catastrophically low. In fact, it was more amazing that they hadn't gone extinct despite having such a long cycle.

"And there's one more thing. Elves have certain cultural characteristics as well. Unlike humans, elves tend to regard sexual intercourse as a sacred 'ritual.' Even the sexual desire of elven men is rather mild compared to that of humans. Ah, in this case, it would be more appropriate to say that human sexual desire is stronger than that of the other races."

"... ..."

"The reason the elven population is so small is a combination of all these factors. Well? Do you understand now?"

I slowly nodded at Professor Roy's question. True to such a mysterious race, the reason for the elves' low birth rate was mysterious as well.

More than anything, I felt strangely moved. In my previous life, I had only been told that elves had a low birth rate, with no explanation beyond that. It was considered a kind of 'common knowledge' that required no explanation, so no one ever wondered about it. That included me.

But that wasn't the case now. Even as I understood the reason, the clear explanation made me keenly aware once again that I had been reincarnated into a fantasy world.

"Thank you. I feel as though my mind has been cleared up thanks to you."

"I should be thanking you instead. In all the years I've taught, I haven't seen many students ask such interesting questions. I hope you'll ask more questions like that in the future."

"Then what about the beastfolk?"

"Hm?"

That question hadn't come from me. Nor had it come from Cecily, who was sitting beside me. I turned my head.

Looking toward where the voice had come from, I saw a beautiful woman with dark brown hair raising her hand. Her expressionless face, seemingly devoid of even a hint of emotion despite her stiff manner of speaking, was her defining feature.

In the meantime, the dark-haired woman, now the center of everyone's attention, asked the question she wanted to ask once more.

"I'd like to know why the beastfolk population is so small."

"Your name is... Leona. You're Leona, correct?"

"Yes. That's right."

"What are you curious about?"

"Beastfolk are just as sexually driven as humans, and their menstrual cycles are similar to ours as well. Yet their population is only 200 million. I'd like to know why that is."

Leona's question was a valid one. The beastfolk had an appearance that looked like an equal mixture of human and animal, and although they had once insisted on living primitively, they had established their own country around 300 years ago.

Even so, their population was strangely small compared to that of humans. Their nation had only been founded recently, but even taking that into account, the number was remarkably low.

After hearing Leona's question, Professor Roy stroked his chin as though thinking for a moment, then answered with slightly more uncertainty than before.

"That's a fairly complicated matter. The beastfolk have cultural characteristics of their own, but during the Race War, they were practically massacred by us humans. At least tens of millions of beastfolk must have disappeared. That's why relations between them and humans are still so hostile."

Professor Roy was talking about the worst war crime committed by humans during the Race War. The Holy Theocracy 'Savior' had a history of indiscriminately massacring demonkin, but that had been limited to a single country. This incident, on the other hand, was a crime committed by the 'human coalition.'

When the beastfolk whom the human coalition had enslaved joined the elves, the coalition killed every beastfolk they came across. To me, it was several times worse than Nazi Germany's massacre of the Jews during World War II—the 'Holocaust.' Even more appalling, they had paid rewards for killing beastfolk.

Because of this madness, the beastfolk population was not merely cut in half; it fell to roughly a quarter of its former size. It was a piece of history that offered a glimpse of how cruel humans could become.

"Besides, the beastfolk are a race that has been fanatical about combat since birth. From a human perspective, one might call that barbaric, while from the beastfolk perspective, they consider themselves honorable warriors. Because of that cultural trait, they are more likely to die in battle than of natural causes. There is even a tendency to look down on beastfolk who die of natural causes, saying they failed to die honorably."

"... ..."

"Even so, compared to 300 years ago, their population growth rate is similar to or even higher than that of humans. The answer Leona wants concerns an ongoing process, so I can't give you a definite answer. Keep that in mind."

"Understood. Thank you for explaining."

After giving her characteristically curt response, Leona sat back down. Hearing her story made me suddenly wonder what relations between humans and beastfolk were like.

'Quite dangerous... in some ways.'

The relationship between humans and beastfolk could be defined in only one way.

Sworn enemies and slaves.

The beastfolk unilaterally hated humans, while humans regarded the beastfolk as insignificant. I had heard in passing that beastfolk were frequently sold as slaves on the black market.

Simply put, humans considered beastfolk inferior to themselves. The fact that the demonkin had been a common enemy made the phenomenon seem less pronounced, but if one looked closely, discrimination against beastfolk was no less severe.

"Isaac. Are humans and beastfolk on bad terms?"

Cecily must have been curious about that as well, because she whispered the question to me. Her red eyes were filled with curiosity.

I glanced at Professor Roy, then answered quietly.

"Yes. Humans consider beastfolk inferior to themselves, while beastfolk regard humans as demons who massacred their fellow race without mercy. As Professor Roy said, it's a vicious cycle that has continued ever since that incident during the Race War."

"Like how our demonkin were treated as a ticking time bomb by every race?"

"It's similar, but unlike with the demonkin, humans are the only ones who treat beastfolk as slaves."

"I see."

Perhaps Cecily felt a sense of kinship after suffering harsh discrimination from the moment she was born. She nodded with a complicated look in her eyes.

She lowered her gaze, as though thinking for a moment, then spoke tentatively.

"Then if a story about humans and beastfolk appeared in The Chronicle of Xenon, couldn't they reconcile? It changed even the perception of our demonkin completely, so why couldn't it do the same for them?"

"I don't know..."

I rubbed the callus on my finger from holding a pen and thought hard. As she said, it was true that The Chronicle of Xenon had changed people's perception of the demonkin, but even I hadn't expected that to happen.

Moreover, the relationship between humans and beastfolk was bound by a chain called 'hatred.' Just as revenge begets revenge, breaking a chain bound by hatred was extremely difficult. Even if it was The Chronicle of Xenon.

"Would beastfolk even read The Chronicle of Xenon? Maybe because the protagonist is human, the newspapers have evaluations from dwarves and elves, but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find anything from the beastfolk."

"You never know. They might actually be enjoying it without saying anything."

"Then..."

I answered with a quiet chuckle.

"It would make quite an interesting story."

Contrary to the words I spoke aloud, this was what I was thinking.

'What if they're really reading it?'

Cecily had no way of knowing, but there was a storyline in which Xenon and the beastfolk prince built trust in each other and eventually became friends.

Through that storyline, humans offered the beastfolk a heartfelt apology and formed an alliance to fight the demons.

'It isn't realistic at all...'

No, that wasn't right. There was a living example right in front of me that made realism irrelevant: the demonkin, who had been looked down on by every race, not just humans.

Cecily tilted her head when I merely stared at her.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?"

"...No. Nothing."

"You know your face is red again, right?"

"... ..."

"Be honest. Did you think I was pretty?"

I simply kept my mouth firmly shut.