Humans are involved in the extinction of the celestial race.
　What does that mean?
　He tries to think about it, but he has no information at all and can't come up with an answer.

　I can't believe I'm asking him these questions.
　It's still hard for me to talk about my hometown, too.
　I know that Iris might be feeling the same way.

　But still.

　But we have to move forward now.
　I need to move on to find out what happened to Iris.

　I decide that and continue the conversation.

'What does that ... mean?　I know this may be hard for you, but can you tell me more about it?
Yeah, yeah. Okay. If it's Rain-sama, I'll tell you everything. Well, as I said before, it's not for the purpose of understanding each other, but to let you know that it's impossible to understand each other.
And that's okay.
Hmmm, so let's talk about that.

　Somewhat happily, Iris spun around on the spot.

'Now, now, where was I?　I got sidetracked and forgot about it.
You're about to tell me about the celestial race.
Oh, yes. Yes, of course. About us Heavenly Folk, isn't it? I understand that you know very little about our Heavenly Tribe. Well then, I'll start by explaining about the Heavenly Clan. But there's no need to get defensive. I do not intend to give you a long lecture. I'll just give you a brief explanation.

　Iris sat on the ground.
　She let her body relax, not caring if the dirt stained her skirt.

　Then I popped next to her.
　I sat down next to Iris, inviting her to do the same.

　A small silence.
　I felt as if I was alone with Iris in this big world, a strange illusion.

''The Celestial Race is a race blessed by the gods.

　Eventually, Iris softly opened her mouth.

''In the sense that we were blessed by the gods, we may be similar to the god race. But there was a definite difference between them and the gods.
Is that...?
''We, the Heavenly Clan, are the gods' sentry. Instead of the gods who cannot descend to the earth, we execute the will of the heavens. That is the role that we, the Celestial Race, have been given. That is the biggest difference between us and the gods.
'So........the information about the Heavenly Clan being God's messengers was correct?
Yeah, yeah. Yes, it is. It looks like there's some correct information left in places. As expected, they couldn't lie about everything.

　When I hear those words....
　Some of the legends we've been hearing about the Celestial Race are lies.
　Which one is a lie?

'I mean, you're talking about God plainly...I've never heard of God not being able to come down to earth before.
'Oh, is that so?　I think even a normal person would know this much.
I didn't get to go to church and learn about God's teachings...

　If my hometown hadn't been attacked by a demon, maybe I would have started attending church eventually...
　I don't have that opportunity anymore.

　Besides.....
　I stopped believing in God when my hometown was attacked.
　Not that I don't believe in him, but...
　I stopped praying more than I should have because I understood that I was the one who could help me in a time of need.

　I digress.
　I quietly listened to what Iris had to say.

Our mission as celestial race is to carry out the will of heaven on behalf of the gods. I'm sure you'll be able to find a great deal more to say about it. Those are the two points.

　That celestial race is now called demons and is the enemy of men....
　What an irony.

I think we had a good relationship with the humans back then, well it gives me chills to think back, but I think we had a good relationship with them. The humans knew that we were the spires of the gods and they respected us.
Hmm?　Wait a minute.

　Iris speaks as if she has seen the scene.

'Do you have a minute?'
What is it?
Sorry to interrupt you, but how old is Iris?

　The extinction of the Heavenly Clan was a long time ago.
　And you talk about it as if you know what happened back then...

　For someone who looks like this, Iris is much older than me?

Huh.

　Iris let out a sigh.
　Then she turned her zit eyes on him.

'Dear Rain. It's not polite to ask a woman such a question, is it?　And moreover, to interrupt an important conversation to ask such a question...
Wow, sorry. I just got caught up in the moment and...
But that's probably what's "typical" of you, Rain. The freedom to be unencumbered by anything...in a way, it may be a virtue.
"Well thank you?


　It goes from zit eyes to a smile.

　It occurs to me.
　If only I could smile all the time like this....
　I wish we could have a relationship where we could laugh at each other.

　But according to Iris, that's absolutely impossible.
　What in the world has happened in the past?
　He listened to Iris.

"Well, I digress for a moment, but we've developed a good relationship with humans in our own way. It was no exaggeration to say that we became good neighbors. The Celestial Race was close to humans and together we walked the path of development.

　The life of the strongest species cuddling with people....
　Imagining the scene made me feel a little more relaxed.

　Is it like my party now?
　The days must have been happy and peaceful.

　I wasn't wrong in my imagination, and Iris had a peaceful expression on her face.
　I'm sure the days spent with the rest of us were not a bad one, even for someone who hates people so much.

'It was one of those days. The Demon King was resurrected.
The Demon King...?
You know this, don't you, Miss Lane?　The demon king periodically replaces them, resurrects them, and after a period of dormancy, they enter a period of activity.
'Well I know about that too.
"We are the protectors of humans. We are the protectors of humans, and we are the vanquishers of demons. We have chosen to cooperate with humans and fight demons together.

　Iris looked grim as she remembered the battles of that time.

'A lot of my people died. A lot of people died. Still, we couldn't defeat the Demon King.''
Is the Demon King so powerful...?
Yes, he was so powerful. Even though we, the Heavenly Clan, couldn't defeat him even if we were bunched up we were just hunted.

　Iris bit her lip.

　What kind of thoughts are they having right now?
　A rage against a demon king?
　Or are you just frustrated with yourself for not being able to keep up?

　It seemed to be both.

''If we don't do this, we'll be wiped out... the Demon King will win and everything will be destroyed... that's what we've decided to do, and we've decided to take the last step.
A last resort...?
It's a suicide bomb.
Huh.

　Those words, said so plainly, made me gulp.

The Heavenly Clan has the greatest specifications among the strongest species. Not to mention their physical abilities, they also possess strong magical powers. It's a plan to unleash all of our power, cause it to run amok, and then hit the enemy..................such a plan was taken.
No, it can't be...
''The enemy is not so naive as to be able to defeat the Demon King with the self-destruction of a single Heavenly Clan member. All the Heavenly Clans have been gathered and all of them have decided to make a suicide attack.
'You had to go that far...?　I'm not going to do that....
That's how powerful the Demon King is.

　Iris had a bitter look on her face as she remembered those days.

　Still.

　Iris's story wasn't over yet.
　She hasn't touched on the part of why she came to hate humans.

''Well can you tell me the rest of the story?
Yeah, no problem.
I'm sorry.
Hmph, please don't feel sorry for me. It's true that it's painful to remember those days, but for me, it's over now. I don't mind it that much.
'Well I'll leave it at that for now. Thanks.

　How could it not be hard?
　Still, Iris continues to talk to me.
　I bowed my head, at least as a thought.

''Well I'm going to keep talking, okay?　We, the Heavenly Clan, have decided to blow ourselves up, but not all of us. If we did that, we would be wiped out. Young people like me were left behind without a suicide attack.
'So that's what happened...'
Then, a suicide attack was carried out and in exchange for the lives of our Heavenly Clan, we succeeded in inflicting great wounds on the Demon King. Next, the human heroes attacked and stabbed each other, and succeeded in defeating the Demon King. There were a lot of other things that happened, well, there were a lot of things.......but that's not relevant to this story, so let's skip that part. Anyway, that's how we succeeded in defeating the Demon King, but we, the Heavenly Clan, were able to greatly reduce his numbers.

　It was an epic story.
　To have to risk one's life until the strongest species was on the verge of perishing...
　Once again, I am reminded of the threat of the Demon King.

　Just.........

　From what I've just heard, I don't see any reason for Iris to hate people.
　There's more to the story, I guess...

　What reason is waiting for us?
　What truths are hidden?

　As much as I dread to hear it...
　But we can't run away.

So ... and then what?
''Our Heavenly Clan has been greatly reduced in numbers, making it difficult for us to achieve our raison d'etre.
The raison d'être ... an agent of God's will?
Yes, that's right. The only people left were women and children. They couldn't be the guardians of humans or fight the demons, and they were too busy trying to keep their species alive. The gods recognized that.
'Well, yeah. It's not possible to do that even if you are told to work hard, and if you were told that, you would get angry. God wouldn't have said anything so reckless, would he?
Yes, you're right. The gods didn't say anything rash.

　I felt a tugging at that word.
　God doesn't say that kind of thing.
　I mean.....

But the humans were reckless. They asked us to protect them as we have always done.