There are countless Earths in countless parallel universes, and there is a very inconsequential place among them. And that's where the story I'm going to tell happens.

In this world, at the end of the twentieth century, a force broke down all these barriers of nations, national borders, and beliefs with absolute force, so that all mankind was reduced to subjects before they could react. Those who dared to resist were wiped out within two years.

In 2000, mankind completed the unification of the power of the entire planet, and the concept of national borders no longer existed on the earth from this year, and the original "country" was re-named as a new title of "prefecture" or "county", and only the names of each city remained.

A word that has not been mentioned for a long time has reappeared on the stage of history - the emperor.

For better or worse, at least in this universe, the earthlings are finally united not in the form of a federation, but in the form of an empire.

In fact, from a long-term perspective, if a group of monkeys, or a group of bugs, or even a group of robots invade from outside the galaxy in a few years, the Earth Empire will definitely be more effective than the Earth Federation.

Of course, that doesn't happen in this story.

It all started in December 2100.

Sakura's Mansion is one of the smallest "mansions" in the world, and the empire was originally going to include it in the Dragon County, but considering its geographical location on the sea, there have been many earthquakes and tsunamis since ancient times, and there is a volcano on it that is active, and it is possible to sink into the sea one day, and the jurisdiction of the Dragon County is already very broad, so the upper echelons of the empire finally decided to set the Sakura Mansion as a separate "house".

In the winter of this year, on the streets of Hokkaido, a teenager ran out of breath, and the cold air of the early morning scraped on his face like a knife.

He was neither tall nor short, neither fat nor thin, with a public face, and the lenses on the bridge of his nose were as thick as the bottoms of two beer bottles. Wearing a black school uniform, carrying a shabby schoolbag on both shoulders, from sideburns to discipline buttons to trouser legs, he can't find a trace of fault, a typical good student.

But this good student, once again, was late.

"Oh, Ikeda-kun, I'm sweating profusely today, so let's sit down. The teacher who said this was Matsuo, a middle-aged man who was Ikeda's homeroom teacher and taught mathematics.

It's a very good school, and it's one of the best places in the entire Sakura-no-fu high school. However, compared to the colleges attended by nobles and royal families, it is not worth mentioning.

Because of the remoteness of the area, Ikeda had to catch a bus that rarely departed every morning to get to school, and if he missed it, Ikeda had to run for about 40 minutes to get to school, so he was always late for a few times a month because he didn't catch the bus for various reasons.

Matsuo was a snob, and Ikeda was the kind of poor student he despised so much, and he often used the slightest mistake Ikeda used as an excuse to embarrass him in public. Fortunately, Matsuo seemed to be in a good mood today, and did not further humiliate Ikeda for fun, but continued to lecture on his lessons.

Ikeda breathed a sigh of relief, and he slipped into his seat, stowed his school bag, and pulled out his textbook.

Because of his tardiness, Ikeda sat down and the first class ended in just over ten minutes.

Matsuo didn't talk much nonsense, and walked outside the classroom with the bell for the end of class, but when he got to the door, he turned his face and glanced at Ikeda with an unkind look, and Ikeda clearly saw a sneer from the corner of Matsuo's mouth.

"Hey, wet mosquito coils, I have something to tell you, come to the rooftop. "The squad leader Miura is a tall and sturdy fat man, the family is very rich, I heard that my father is the director of a big hospital, so the snobbish Matsuo will let Miura, who has average academic performance, be the class leader.

"Oh, well......" Ikeda didn't react to the name "wet mosquito coil," as that's what the other boys and even girls in the class usually call him. The mosquito coil refers to his ridiculous glasses, and the wet mosquito coil actually means that it cannot be used, so this nickname is basically equivalent to "waste".

Because it's a high school student, there are very few bad teenagers in the real sense, but a bully like Miura is all over the universe, from kindergarten to society, and this kind of character can be seen everywhere.

Ikeda has always been bullied by Miura, in addition to running errands, he also has to write homework or something, and teachers like Matsuo naturally turn a blind eye.

After arriving on the rooftop, Miura didn't say a word, and inexplicably beat Ikeda, he was very heavy and unmeasured, and Ikeda just curled up with his head in his arms during the whole process, without any sign of fighting back out of anger, just gritted his teeth and endured.

Maybe it's because I'm used to it.,As soon as he entered the school, he was deliberately beaten by the seniors in the senior class.,Later, along with the grade, he was also regarded as the best target of bullying.。 Ikeda, who is now in his second year of high school, is just a fool in the eyes of first-year freshmen, and is not considered a senior at all.

The class bell rang, and Miura stopped and turned to leave.

"Why?" Ikeda struggled to squeeze out the words.

"Huh?" Miura spat and replied casually, "If you want to explain the reason, it may be boring, I haven't beaten anyone for a long time." ”

The door to the rooftop was shut, and Ikeda was still lying on the ground, his self-esteem perhaps more hurt than the bruises on his body.

Maybe he should cry at this time, but he can't cry anymore.

For students like Ikeda, there seem to be only two paths: changing schools or committing suicide.

It's a pity that he didn't have the conditions to change schools, and he didn't have the courage to commit suicide.

All he could do was continue to live this life.

............

On the evening of December 10.

When the bell rang for school, Ikeda spent every day of his high school life as if he were a year, and when he got home, he had to do a lot of chores, because his father, a gambler and drunkard, was drunk all day long, and he usually did three things: he was drunk, he beat his son to practice, and he drooled and slept profusely.

Ikeda walked feebly through the familiar streets, the whole world was gray for him, and every moment of his life was like an ordeal.

As he reached the middle of nowhere, Ikeda suddenly stopped, looked at a shop on the side of the road, and said to himself, "Is there a bookstore here?" The sign reads "BOOKS" and the shop windows facing the street are piled up with books, making it difficult to see what's going on.

Perhaps out of curiosity, or simply because he didn't want to return to his messy home too soon, Ikeda pushed the door open and entered.

Inside, the space seems to be larger than it looks from the outside, the layout of the room is roughly a cross, except for the bookshelves around it, several tables are stacked with books, and there are books stacked in the corners and on the floor.

The peculiar smell of paper and leather fills the air, and it is not unpleasant. A few steps further in, you can see a desk, and on the sofa chair behind the desk sits a man, who looks to be in his twenties or thirties, with messy hair, wearing a black shirt and suit, with an open neckline, and a raunchy appearance.

Tianyi didn't make any reaction to the customer's door, still holding a book in one hand and a spoon in the other, slowly stirring a cup of coffee on the table.

"That...... Boss...... Excuse me......" Ikeda instinctively wanted to ask where the bookstore came from.

Tianyi didn't let him finish his words at all, and he didn't take his eyes off the book in his hand, just put down the spoon, lazily raised his arm, and pointed to the three rows of bookshelves in the left corner of his left and said, "The things you want to see are there." ”

Ikeda felt that the situation in front of him was indescribably strange, but he still walked towards the rows of bookshelves, and he did not know why he did what Tianyi said, as if the boss's simple words could lead him to all the doubts in his heart.

When he got there, Ikeda realized that all the books on this shelf had black covers, and it was impossible to judge the contents from their appearances alone, so it didn't matter if he picked up any of them. So he casually took a book from the shelf, and turned his head to look at Tianyi, where he was still reading and drinking coffee, completely ignoring himself.

"What a quirky fellow......" Ikeda muttered under his breath, opening the book in his hand.

The first page is a blank sheet of paper, and when you turn to the second page, the title of the book is written in the center.

It was written in a kind of green ink that made people feel uncomfortable to look at, and it was written in three words—Ikeda Nobo.

"My name?" Ikeda instantly got goosebumps and said to himself, "Is it a coincidence?

He flipped back a few pages, and the text was in a modest black typeface, except for the title, but the content made Ikeda almost scream in terror.

"People like Dad, let's die. ”

"Miura, that bastard, really want to push him down the stairs. ”

"I want to be a popular boy like Fujita. ”

Ikeda flipped through the pages quickly, his face gradually filled with horror and shame, until about two-thirds of the way through the book, the rest of the book was interrupted, leaving only a few dozen pages of blank paper.

And the last two lines are: "Is it a coincidence??!!!

At this time, Tianyi finally put down the book in his hand, took a sip of coffee, and then turned to look at Ikeda: "Put the book back, and we will talk about a deal." ”

Ikeda's trembling, hesitation, instinctive fear of the incomprehensible, and his reluctance to let go of the book full of his "heart" made him struggle, and for a moment he did not follow Tenichi's words.

Tianyi sighed: "Put the book down and come over, otherwise I'll chop you up and feed the pigs." ”

Ikeda compromised, placing the book back on the shelf, remembering the location, and nervously headed towards Tenichi's desk.

Tianyi showed a smile that couldn't be faker: "Ikeda-kun, feeding the pigs or something is a joke, don't mind, the content you saw just now is free, but only this once." Tenjo picked up the book that he had been reading in his hand since Ikeda entered the house, and the book also had the appearance of a black book cover.

"The title of this book is Kazuya Miura. Tenichi was very pleased with Ikeda's expression when he heard this, and he continued in a very provocative tone: "As long as you do something in exchange, you can read the contents." ”