Contract with Me and Become My Apostle! (3)
"Aaaagh! Aaaaaargh!"
"Fuck, let go! I said let go!"
Was she out of her mind? Yohan tried to shake off the self-proclaimed goddess, his face pale with genuine horror.
But her grip was unbelievably ironclad. No matter how hard Yohan—who, despite his injuries, possessed a reasonably robust build—struggled with all his might, he couldn't pry her off.
"Do not do this! Thou must not give up!"
It seemed the self-proclaimed goddess had been pushed to her absolute mental limit. The mysterious, majestic aura she had exuded just moments ago was entirely gone. Snot and tears streamed down her face as she wept uncontrollably, soaking his already blood-stained clothes.
"Aaaaargh! I apologize for putting on airs before a mortal! I deeply apologize! Please, I beg of thee, change thy mind!"
Finally, the self-proclaimed goddess grabbed Yohan by the collar and began violently shaking him back and forth, left and right.
"O mortal! Thou art an incredibly precious existence!"
With the dizzying sensation of his brain rattling around inside his skull, Yohan genuinely thought he might die right then and there.
"S-Stop—!"
I'm seriously going to die. Yohan shoved the self-proclaimed goddess away with all his remaining strength and roared.
"U-Uuuugh..."
Startled by Yohan's sudden outburst, the self-proclaimed goddess finally loosened her grip and took a step back. Yet, fat tears continued to stream down her face without pause.
"Whew..."
This is driving me insane. Yohan clutched his throbbing head with both hands and let out a long, heavy sigh.
"Look, you said you could last another five hundred years even if you did absolutely nothing."
He questioned the self-proclaimed goddess again, his tone sharp.
"*Sniff*... I have been imprisoned alone in this shrine for thousands of years. And thou art the very first living soul to set foot in this place."
The self-proclaimed goddess wiped her tear-and-snot-stained face, yet she still managed to counter Yohan's argument point by point.
"I refuse to spend my final five hundred years holding my breath, watching thy corpse rot back into nature, only to fade into nothingness."
She laid bare her true feelings.
"Therefore, become my Apostle! Accumulate deeds of goodness, and through them, spread my faith across ten thousand leagues!"
"Hmm..."
Yohan grimaced, deliberately showing his reluctance at her demand.
"Furthermore, becoming a divine Apostle holds immense benefits for thee as well."
But his interest was piqued by her next words, and he tilted his head.
"Like... what?"
When Yohan asked, the self-proclaimed goddess suddenly smirked. She puffed out her chest, straightened her back, and threw a couple of punches into the empty air.
"Power, of course. As an Apostle acting on behalf of a deity's Authority, thou shalt literally wield the power of a god."
"But you just said you don't have a speck of that power left right now."
Yohan sighed and shot back.
"Indeed. As thou hast said, the power remaining to me is exceedingly faint."
Yohan braced himself for another round of wailing, but the self-proclaimed goddess calmly acknowledged his point instead. She even flashed him a sly grin.
"Yet, even this faint power shall be more than enough to exact thy revenge."
"Revenge?"
It was a word he never expected to hear from the mouth of a deity. Yohan blinked in genuine shock.
"The villains who betrayed thee, who trampled upon the trust thou didst place in them as companions. Is it not only natural to seek vengeance upon them?"
"..."
Her words were undeniably true. However, that was a logic usually reserved for selfish mortals.
"Wait a minute. You just told me to accumulate 'deeds of goodness,' and now you're telling me to go track down the bastards who stabbed me in the back and shank them?"
"Of course. Thou askest the obvious."
At his question, the self-proclaimed goddess looked at him as if he was the one being incomprehensible.
"Just retribution is the very realization of justice. If that is not a righteous and good deed, then what is?"
"..."
Ah, right. I forgot. This world is just built different.
Yohan was once again reminded of the moral landscape of this world, which differed vastly from his previous one. After all, modern laws that delegate the authority of judgment to judicial institutions were merely the evolutionary product of the very mindset this self-proclaimed goddess was advocating.
"Sigh..."
What to do? Yohan sighed repeatedly and crossed his arms.
Honestly... the offer of revenge was incredibly tempting. A power strong enough to plunge a blade straight into the backs of those motherfuckers he had once called companions—no, a power far greater than that.
But this was not a decision to be made lightly. According to her, in exchange for the power to avenge himself, Yohan would have to become her Apostle and carry out her divine will. It was, quite literally, a lifelong master-servant contract.
"Ugh..."
Yohan groaned, agonizing over the choice for a long time. This time, the self-proclaimed goddess didn't scream and lunged at him; she waited in silence for Yohan to organize his thoughts.
After a few minutes had passed, Yohan slowly opened his closed eyes.
"Fine. Screw it, let's do this."
He looked at the self-proclaimed goddess and spoke.
"I have long awaited that answer!"
The self-proclaimed goddess cried out with a radiant smile.
Flash!
At that moment, the underground pit was once again flooded with a brilliant flash of light.
— From this moment forth, I shall make thee my Apostle.
— Thou, nameless mortal. I, a deity whose very name is forgotten...
"Hey, if we don't absolutely have to do the whole speech, let's just skip it."
Yohan absolutely loathed tedious formalities like this. There were people in this world who insisted on chanting long, dramatic incantations every time they cast magic just because they thought it looked cool. They were exactly the kind of people Yohan despised.
—To be frank, I too have little interest in such tedious formalities.
Well, at least she's reasonable. For the first time, Yohan actually found himself liking this nameless goddess.
— I bestow upon thee all but a single tenth of the meager power remaining to me.
Wait, ninety percent?! Yohan panicked.
But regardless of his consent, the nameless goddess's Authority flooded into his body. His battered body, which had been on the verge of collapse from injuries and exhaustion, was instantly and completely healed. At the same time, a power so immense that even Yohan—who had absolutely no affinity for magic—could feel it surged through his entire being.
To a god, it was indeed a "meager" amount of power, but to an ordinary human like Yohan, it felt so overwhelmingly vast that he felt as if he no longer had a single rival in the entire world.
Flash!
Soon, the brilliant light enveloping the pit began to fade.
"Is it... over?"
Yohan, who had been squeezing his eyes shut against the blinding glare, muttered softly.
"Yes. It is complete."
A voice, presumably the goddess's, answered from directly in front of him.
"Huh?"
But the tone of her voice was completely different from before. It was no longer the voice of a goddess that perfectly blended maturity and divinity. It sounded... much younger?
With that thought, Yohan slowly opened his eyes.
What met his gaze was the goddess, now less than half her original size. No, she hadn't just shrunk. The goddess, who had previously possessed the form of a mature woman, was now a young girl.
"What the fuck? What happened to you?"
Noticing the change, Yohan blurted out in shock.
"A deity is, by nature, an existence that transcends physical limitations. Thus, maintaining a physical vessel requires a portion of our power."
"Ah..."
Since she had just transferred the vast majority of that power to her Apostle, she had taken on a smaller body to conserve energy.
"But if that's the case, do you even need to maintain a physical body at all?"
Yohan asked, looking down at the now-diminutive goddess.
The goddess crossed her arms and shook her head.
"Thou art correct. However, I have finally escaped this shrine and can venture into the outside world. I wish to experience it fully through a physical form."
As she spoke, her face was filled with genuine, childlike anticipation.
"...Fine."
Even with his cynical personality, Yohan couldn't bring himself to argue or mock her.
"Indeed. Just as thou hast said, I sense not a single mortal presence nearby."
Contrary to Yohan's expectation that she would be overcome with emotion upon seeing the surface, the goddess immediately began calmly observing her surroundings and analyzing their situation. Honestly, this pragmatic reaction made things much easier for Yohan to handle.
"Yeah. This whole area is a wasteland. I used to wander around places like this with my companions... no, those bastards, looking for relics we could sell for a decent price."
A civilization from the ancient past, so distant that its very name was lost to history. The Goddess's Shrine had been buried deep beneath the ruins of that forgotten era.
"Now then, let us set off at once."
"Where?"
Yohan asked back.
"Where else? To the place where those who betrayed thee reside."
The goddess replied instantly, clenching her small fists.
"We shall rip open their bellies, tear out their entrails, and drown them in a pool of their own blood!"
"Hey! Are you sure you're a goddess and not a fucking demon?"
Was that really the kind of language that should come from a holy deity? Yohan yelled, his face twisted in genuine horror. But the goddess merely blinked, looking completely baffled by his reaction.
"Besides, the first thing we need to do isn't my revenge. It's securing faith, just like you said."
She stared at him, her eyes widening as if deeply moved by his words.
"That five-hundred-year limit you mentioned only applies if you do absolutely nothing. If I start using my powers as your Apostle, that time is going to drain way faster."
"That is... true. But dost thou truly prioritize my well-being over thy own vengeance?"
At her question, Yohan shook his head with a flat expression.
"Not really. I'm just prioritizing our survival. Since we're bound by a contract now, it's not like I can just run away on my own."
In truth, this was merely Yohan's assumption. No matter how desperate she was, she wouldn't have handed over her life force to him without some kind of safety measure.
"That is also true."
"I knew it."
So there is a safety catch. Confirming his suspicion, Yohan snorted with a satisfied look.
"One who becomes a divine Apostle binds their very soul to the deity they serve."
"What kind of bullshit is that?"
Wait, that's not a safety catch, that's an explosive collar. Yohan frowned reflexively.
"Then when the hell do I get my soul back?"
"When my faith blankets ten thousand leagues."
It was just one obstacle after another. At this point, he was starting to feel like he'd been scammed into a highly unfair, one-sided contract.
"Right. Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that."
"About what?"
But there was a much more pressing issue at hand. The goddess tilted her head at his words.
"You keep talking about 'faith' and 'worship,' but at the end of the day, serving a god means starting a religion, right?"
"Indeed."
"Well, I don't know how things were back in your glory days, but these days, if you worship any god other than the Primary God sanctioned by the Holy Kingdom, you're branded a heretic."
Yohan made a slicing motion across his throat with his hand.
"If you're lucky, they force you to convert. But usually, the moment you're caught, they break you on the wheel, impale you, or burn you alive."
This was the real problem. He had agreed to her plea and become her Apostle, but gaining divine power didn't instantly solve everything.