As time flowed on, the world continued to change without pause.
Small villages grew into larger ones, shallow streams gradually widened into something resembling mighty rivers.
Tiny saplings stood tall as majestic trees, only to be felled by the hands of man.
And so, as I wandered through this ever-changing world, something rather bothersome caught my eye.
A hazy form that resembled a human. Though lacking any physical body, it was undoubtedly present and moving about.
Though quite faded, it managed to maintain some semblance of self-awareness.
Not a spirit, but something far weaker and fleeting.
I immediately recognized what it was.
After all, there lay a dead human corpse at its feet.
A corpse that looked just like it.
It was the soul of the deceased.
“Aaah… aaaah…”
The soul of a young man stood there in a daze, muttering faintly, seemingly unaware of his own death.
This was the first time I’d encountered such a soul. What could it mean? Why had it appeared now?
If souls truly existed, shouldn’t there be countless of them in this world? After all, how many humans have died throughout history…
Could it be that humanity’s growing intelligence has started pondering life, death, and the soul?
Come to think of it, people used to just bury their dead without much thought. But recently, they’ve started holding what seem to be funerals…
Have they begun to believe in an afterlife? Is that why?
So perhaps belief in the soul has started to take root?
Then something must have triggered it… Hmm…
If things changed so suddenly, the most recent cause might be… the law?
No, executions by law have been around for ages. If they caused souls to appear, we would have seen them long before. Could there be some factor I’ve overlooked?
Hard to say. Could it be due to gods making people contemplate life after death? Or was it the eclipse?
Too many possibilities. I can’t pinpoint the exact reason with certainty.
Approaching the motionless soul, I spoke.
“Aaah… who am I… where am I…”
He hadn’t been dead for long. The corpse showed signs of having fallen from a height – broken neck, bruised all over – but not yet decomposed.
Poor guy.
With a stone axe at his waist, he was likely a woodcutter gathering firewood.
I cautiously addressed the man’s soul.
“What is your name?”
“I… my name is…”
He reacted to my voice, but couldn’t properly recall himself. Troublesome.
I didn’t want to leave the corpse and soul here abandoned. Guess I’ll have to do something.
Summoning magic power, I animated the mangled corpse to walk slowly.
Let’s head to the nearest human village first.
As the corpse began walking, the dazed soul instinctively followed behind.
Thus, the soul, the corpse, and I made our way to the nearby human settlement.
—
Finding the man’s family wasn’t difficult. When we entered the village, several people screamed upon seeing the corpse.
Judging roughly, the population was about 50. In such a small community, not knowing one of their own would be strange.
“Good heavens! Krut! What happened to you!”
“Go get Onet right away! Krut’s in terrible shape! Bring all the herbs!”
The villagers, failing to notice my hidden presence, assumed the corpse was merely injured and tried to help.
What could they possibly do when he’s already dead?
I withdrew the magic animating the corpse, causing it to collapse limply.
“Damn it! Krut!”
“Told him not to go into the mountains after the heavy rain! And he went anyway!!”
The villagers carried the body into a house. Soon, loud wailing echoed out.
It was the man’s younger sister mourning.
“Here… this is our village…”
The man’s soul drifted into the village and saw a girl clinging to his corpse, crying her eyes out.
“Oh… Onet… my… sister…”
Though he’d forgotten everything about himself, he still remembered his family.
Realizing his death at last, the soul weakly dropped to its knees.
“Yes. You have died.”
“Who are you…?”
“Why do you think I’m a god?”
“Don’t know. You just seem like an enormous presence to me.”
Can souls see things normal humans can’t? Or is it because he’s faced death?
The soul could perceive some of my power, though certainly not all of it. A fragile soul like his would disintegrate if it saw my full strength.
I was suppressing my power significantly. That’s probably what he sensed.
“Can you resurrect me if you’re a god?”
“Hmm. Never tried it, so I don’t know.”
Lie. I could rewind time to save him before death.
But would that be right?
Don’t know.
Reconstructing the corpse and inserting the soul… never considered that before. This is my first time encountering a soul after all.
Wonder what would happen if I tried? Kinda curious now.
“What happens to me now?”
“Don’t know.”
First time dealing with a dead person’s soul. No preparations for this situation.
No grim reaper or death gods exist here. No established process for handling deceased souls.
Wait… am I supposed to create one? An afterlife? Seriously?
Such a hassle…
“You don’t know anything…?”
“You humans… you’ve encountered death countless times before. Why are souls appearing only now?”
Should I create a heaven? Or reincarnate souls through rebirth? Which should I choose? Don’t know. Hmm.
Whichever it is… looks like I’ll have to work hard creating it. Tch.
“I don’t want to die… can’t leave my sister… hate this… don’t want to die…”
“Hmm…”
The soul began twitching slightly. Was it having some kind of seizure, or were negative emotions transforming it?
The translucent soul started turning black.
“This is quite an interesting phenomenon.”
“Revive… me… bring me back to my sister!”
“Sorry, can’t do that.”
The soul, turning darker and larger into a monstrous form, charged at me.
“Tch.”
“RAAAARGH!”
A light slap sent its upper body flying off.
“Hmm… so it turned into an evil spirit when left alone? Problematic.”
Feels like those shonen manga with grim reapers. Those had holes in the evil spirits’ chests though.
“GHAAAARGH!”
Even without its upper body, the evil spirit kept writhing around. Pretty resilient even after my deliberately weak attack.
“Can’t bring you back to life, but I can help you protect your sister.”
“Cough… what…?”
“Simple. Make your soul into your sister’s guardian spirit.”
Seems souls have some amount of power. Should be able to function as a guardian at least.
“If you don’t like that, I’ll have no choice but to make you disappear. What’ll it be?”
The regenerating upper body of the man gave a slight nod.
—
Well then. After appointing the first soul I encountered as his sister’s guardian and overseeing the burial of his corpse, I resumed wandering the world.
Souls began appearing everywhere. They only manifested when intelligent beings like humans died, not regular animals. Seems like it’s due to the development of intelligent thought.
Did the existence of gods spark thoughts about death and afterlife? Hmm… guess it was inevitable.
Perhaps the contemplation of death by intelligent beings generates souls through some combination of thought and magic power. Anyway, something like that.
If I leave these souls be, the world might get overrun by evil spirits. Need some kind of system to collect and process them.
Alright then! Time to create an afterlife!!
