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I hurriedly escaped the Divine Hall and headed for the ground.

As I descended through the floor of the Divine Hall, I felt like I could hear the voices of Asherat and Arthur above my head, but I couldn’t actually hear them! I really couldn’t!

Their voices were filled with desperation, but I ignored them as I made my way down. Once I hit the ground, those two shouldn’t be able to chase after me!

If I hesitated even a little longer in the temple… it felt like I would get swept away in the overwhelming storm of work that Asherat would dump on me.

They would probably hold me down at a desk, demanding that I deal with an infinite flood of tasks!

Isn’t that a bit much? I just woke up! I should at least get a breather after waking up, right?

And Arthur, who had been standing at the door for nearly hundreds of years, was a huge burden as well. I mean, what on earth was he thinking, pretending to be calm?

I knew he had rational feelings toward me. Getting a ring from him didn’t exactly leave room for doubt.

But to fancy me, when those feelings stemmed from childhood, was something I could overlook. Admiring an adult who rescues, protects, and cares for you in dangerous situations isn’t strange, right?

Even if the body I was using at the time was that of a rock lump… The fact that he liked me meant he was seeing beyond appearances, so I could give him some credit for that.

However, it was utterly baffling that he continued to like me even after knowing my identity as a god! No matter how much of an emperor he was, I’m a god, after all!

To be honest, I thought he would adequately admire me up until I left, then find a nice woman to marry and live happily ever after. What made him so messed up…? Ugh… it’s really beyond me.

And on top of that, he even became a god himself and ascended! Not to mention he kept watch at the door for hundreds of years! What did he think would happen, me awakening at any moment and him just… waiting?!

If I weren’t so understanding, it would have been a case of “AHHH! STALKER!!!” with a full-power smack thrown in!

Well, being a stalker is kinda true. Hmm… a stalker who chased after me all the way to becoming a god…

Ugh. I really don’t get how Arthur ended up like this. Sure, it’s fine that he likes me, but continually confessing feelings he’s never going to get a response for… that’s a bit hard to understand.

After all, I’m not going to reciprocate those feelings.

Ahem! Anyway! I felt I shouldn’t stay in the Divine Hall for various reasons, so I burst out and began to take in the world at a leisurely pace.

First off… Right. Let’s figure out how the life on the ground changed over the long yet short span of 300 years.

How about I start by checking out the Lizardmen?

Over the span of 300 years, there had been considerable changes in the ecology of the Lizardmen.

While their abilities were limited, they gained prayers that allowed them to overcome environmental restrictions, spreading out across different places in the world.

Typically of a benevolent nature, the physically robust Lizardmen were welcomed wherever they went.

As warriors, they could take down any monster, and as hunters or fishermen, they possessed the skilled abilities to feed a small village all by themselves.

Wherever they showed up, Lizardmen were welcomed, leading them to start settling in various places around the world.

Ah, of course, this was as long as they could secure sufficient amounts of water. No matter how much they prayed to the water spirits, they couldn’t do it every single day without a hitch.

Though Lizardmen’s scales regenerate, pulling them out daily would leave them as scale-free Lizardmen!

Ahem, anyway, having settled in various places, the Lizardmen started doing all sorts of things.

The biggest achievement was successfully making paper from trees other than papyrus.

Not the commonly seen papyrus, but a different kind of paper. A somewhat whiter paper made from different material.

Upon closer inspection, it appeared that a Lizardman who already had the technique to create papyrus had settled down elsewhere and, not wanting to waste his skills, tried to reproduce papyrus using various trees.

After numerous attempts with multiple types of wood as materials… he finally succeeded in inventing paper.

Of course, the quality was nowhere near modern paper… but what can you do? You can’t compare it to what modern technology produces.

In fact, it was even slightly inferior to the papyrus. The only strengths over papyrus were that it was somewhat more moisture-resistant and easier to procure materials.

Anyway, the method of making paper from trees other than papyrus slowly spread out, and using paper became a more popular practice.

Thus, the existing papyrus began to be treated like high-end paper, while the paper made from other trees became low-quality paper used by those who couldn’t afford the pricey papyrus.

I wondered whether the introduction of this new paper had struck a blow to the Lizardmen, but surprisingly, it hadn’t affected them hardly at all.

Those who previously used papyrus continued to do so, while those who couldn’t afford papyrus replaced it with the low-quality paper.

Mages, nobles, royalty, and the wealthy continued to use papyrus, so the overall sales didn’t drop.

Well, let’s stop talking about papyrus and switch over to paper.

The most significant change brought about by the invention of paper was the decrease in the price of books.

Of course, the need to hand-copy with ink didn’t change, but since the cost of paper comprised a big portion of the overall book cost, a reduction in paper price naturally led to cheaper books.

Back in the days of solely having papyrus, only the upper class could obtain books, but now, with lower prices, even the middle class could afford them.

Thanks to this, there was a slight reduction in illiteracy, but that’s not that important, so let’s gloss over it.

That wraps up the discussion on papyrus and paper. And… what was I saying? Oh, I was in the middle of talking about the Lizardmen.

The Lizardmen, having previously been restricted by moisture, set out in search of liberation, expanding across various regions of the world.

Some went to other countries, some headed north, only to find they could bear the humidity but not the cold, so they returned, while others sought to interact with Elves or Dwarves.

There were even particularly brave Lizardmen who crossed the massive mountain ranges that spanned the continent and ventured east.

I’m not sure how they crossed those rugged mountains, but… it seems the humans of the East were quite shocked to see the Lizardmen for the first time.

At first, they were frightened and hostile, but upon learning that this Lizardman was strong and had a kind heart, they received assistance from him and started to treat the Lizardman as a valuable ally.

And after all sorts of happenings, they even ended up crowning the Lizardman as king while praising him.

Umm… and about the mixed-breeds between humans and Lizardmen, that’s a bit awkward to mention.

At first, it was hard to believe that a Lizardman mixed with a human? How? But then I thought about it and realized there were bird… I mean, beastmen too. Since this world allows for hybridization among all kinds of races, it wouldn’t be strange for a Lizardman and a human to mix.

That said, the hybrids born from the union of Lizardmen and humans, apart from their strong physiques and vertically split pupils that appeared only under certain circumstances, were fundamentally similar to humans.

The split pupils… those eyes were a bit unique, as they appeared to be normal human eyes, but revealed their true forms when emotions heightened.

I have no idea how hybrids turn out like this, but hey, maybe that’s all part of life’s mysteries. Even I, the Goddess of Life, can’t comprehend this mystery.

Thus, the hybrids of humans and Lizardmen inherited the throne and, after facing various conflicts with neighboring countries, conducted many affairs until… well, it seemed they unified the land known as Jungwon, fought over by many nations in the midst of fierce wars.

I don’t know the details of that process… but surely, it involved intense battles. According to the records, it seems tens of thousands were mobilized for each battle.

But hold on, while the wars in the west max out at around ten thousand, why does it seem there’s so much more population here? Is it because of abundant food? Or perhaps because they primarily relied on rice, which has a high yield per unit area? But rice also exists in the west…

Ah, now that I think about it, even the rat beastmen, who primarily eat rice, have quite a population. Could it really be due to the rice? I’m not so sure.

Anyway, the hybrid of Lizardmen and humans… the newly crowned king, hailed as the Dragon King, declared the unification of Jungwon and changed the name of the nation to Zhu.

Thus, the Empire of Junara was established.

 

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