William didn’t like being the bad guy, but if it prevented more souls from being destroyed… then he didn’t care. Besides, regular everyday citizens had absolutely no reason to be concerned. There was no way they- or anyone- was going to accidentally destroy a soul. In fact, from a regular person’s perspective, the fact that things even had souls barely even mattered.

The only thing was that souls were the determining factor in who could use magic. However, as years passed William noted that a larger and larger percentage of the population was able to use magic- at least a little bit. Very few people became very powerful… which is why William had to show up to the World Council in person to remind those there that some people were. People had short memories… so every few dozen years an appearance would be appropriate.

William hoped he never had to carry through on his threats at all. That would mean someone actually had destroyed more souls. It was unlikely for anyone to even start approaching the level of what the Demon King and old gevai lords had done, enough to unbalance the whole soul economy to the level of many souls coming from other worlds, and William would be happy if it remained that way. He still wasn’t sure if Earth was somewhere else in the same universe or in a different dimension of sorts. Maybe he would never find out… but maybe he would. After all, while the universe was very large… and they were just starting to be able to explore it.

While he was at it, William could see just how long he really might live. Gevai had nearly infinite lifespans after all… though other people were growing in lifespan as well thanks to studying them. William hoped that was good. People still died from disease and accident, of course, and even gevai mostly died from old age eventually. Even if it would lead to overpopulation eventually… by that point they would be able to safely travel off-planet. That wasn’t just a vague hope, either, but Theo’s plan pretty much guaranteed it. Humans from Earth had done it, after all.

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There were a few difficulties with space exploration. There wasn’t much in the way of mana in space. Even if there had been, without a medium for sound to travel through it would have been almost impossible to access it. However, mana could be stored for times where conventional technology was less effective. Furthermore, it could even be gathered from what would otherwise be wasted byproducts such as heat energy.

In fact, the biggest remnant parts of magic in technology were generally ways to get energy from otherwise hard to access sources. There were many more cases where it just wasn’t worth the expense to bother. Of course, there were also other limitations to magic. It needed special materials or a powerful enough wizard to function, so using more common materials for technological parts was often better. Of course, some materials useful in technological parts were also rare, but they could sometimes be found or synthesized with magic. The same was true of magical materials, but it was generally more difficult.

While there was no mana in space itself, they did know that the moon and other planets had mana around them. They weren’t completely sure if there would be mana outside of the system, but as far as they could tell there should be.

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Even as civilization developed, there were still problems with dragons occasionally even with pacification systems and other attempts to avoid their notice. In total, there were probably only a few thousand adult dragons throughout the entire planet, but they couldn’t be tamed and would attack anything that seemed to be a reasonable source of food or magical materials when they felt the need.

Wiping them out wasn’t a problem, but there were arguments against that. Conservationists of course didn’t want an entire species to be wiped out… but even those not interested in the morality of it still found reasons they should be kept. For example, dragon scales and dragon heart crystals were very valuable and if dragons were wiped out then they couldn’t collect any more. That would increase the value of existing parts, but there were so few going into the market that it wouldn’t be more profitable to stop the supply completely.

Because of this value, there were some would-be poachers of dragons but since weapons to take out a dragon couldn’t be easily concealed they were rarely successful. Likewise, there were few enough people trained enough in magic, ki, or the body to fight with the dragons without large guns or tanks. Magical guns existed, but they required expensive ammunition and at some point there were too many costs and such specialized equipment that it was easy to get caught.

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While William wasn’t running things in Cruonia anymore, it wasn’t as if he had no influence. He still had personal sway, and also knew many people who were still involved. Lila had heavy ties to the ministry of education, and while her passions for free education often caused her to butt heads with people who thought it was impractical, she often got her way.

In other areas, Jordan held great sway. Though most of it was behind the scenes, Jordan probably had more power than those who became president of Crunoia. While the military rarely had need of a leader, Jordan’s genius wasn’t just limited to battlefield tactics.

William had taken some time to figure out what it was that Jordan actually wanted with all of that power… but it was surprisingly simple. Jordan wanted control over things for the same reason as anyone else- a sense of security and safety. Most people just weren’t willing to go to such lengths for it. At least Jordan was trustworthy. Along with others, William felt safe leaving the world in their hands. Besides, he would still be around if he really needed to do something. However, he also couldn’t try to solve all the problems himself- even if he could do it, it wouldn’t be good for society functioning if something happened to him.