The Goddess Department's Reckoning
The reception hall of Granraha’s personal temple—still far larger than the average individual shrine—was nearly full. Of the original eight goddesses, Granraha had secretly gone over to the Dimensional and War God, and three more had joined, bringing the total to ten. While the goddesses anxiously awaited Granraha’s return with results, the sudden appearance of the management goddesses caught them off guard. The newcomers immediately revealed their full Intermediate Lord divine ranks and demanded appointment as Divine Realm management gods.
When the goddesses asked why these former ordinary gods from the Spirit Waiting Station had risen to Upper God status and become Intermediate Lords, the answer was outrageous.
“You thieving bitches!” the black-haired goddess roared, her divine power flaring as she lashed out at the newcomers. Their sudden arrival and the record of their past deeds went far beyond anything she could stomach. They were the worst kind of criminals—thieves who had stolen divine power and vitality for eons. The surrounding goddesses flushed red with fury and joined in.
“All your secret vitality pipelines got cut off? So you had no choice but to crawl over here? One of you even went to spy on the new Divine Realm’s lord?”
“……”
“All those years you claimed you’d rather hide in dignity than fight the Divine Realm’s ruler—turns out you were just too lazy?”
On top of that, they had only performed Upper God duties while siphoning off the highest-tier divine power and vitality. And what was that about training inside the Divine Power Sun Sphere? What would happen to the Divine Realm if even a small anomaly occurred? Everyone would die! These insane bitches!
“……”
The management goddesses offered no reply to the blunt accusations.
“You’ve used every loophole behind the scenes, haven’t you? Ha! And you had the nerve to call us herd animals while doing it!”
“What kind of goddesses are you thieves? And now you want the Divine Realm management god positions? We should strip you of the stolen power first.”
Rumble! The black-haired goddess’s lightning authority began to activate, yet the management goddesses’ expressions remained unchanged.
‘Just as expected.’
‘If we don’t clean this up properly now, they’ll become a problem later.’
The Dimensional and War God already knew everything about their theft. More importantly, he had issued an official document forgiving past wrongs, so exposing everything cleanly was the better option.
‘We may be management goddesses, but our divine power is high enough that we won’t lose.’
‘The problem is we can’t beat these combat-type goddesses.’
‘We’d have to endure a grueling battle hoping they tire first, but that’s not our style.’
There was a simple way to resolve this.
“Here. The amnesty document.”
Flutter—! Flutter—!
When the goddesses saw the documents bearing the Dimensional and War God’s words waved before their eyes, their expressions turned hollow.
‘Every god in the Divine Realm received one.’
‘We thought it officially smoothed over our rebellion.’
‘But when we heard every god got one, we found it strange.’
‘And here it is again. This situation is completely messed up.’
The goddesses’ subordinate gods had reacted strangely happily, and now it made sense—they had all secretly secured their own copies. Otherwise they wouldn’t be running around with such renewed vigor.
‘Even the newly regenerated divine generation warriors despaired at their fallen power, only to rejoice the moment they received these amnesties.’
‘They cheered upon confirming the eightfold increase in divine power support from the highest Divine Realm and rushed straight to the training grounds.’
Seeing even the Goddess Department goddesses—who had been forced to return stolen power—happily running to the development center with just one amnesty document made it painfully clear how close the Divine Realm had been to collapse.
‘No god fails to treat these amnesty documents with care.’
‘Only we were too busy fighting and checking the primordial warriors while trying to advance the Divine Realm. Everyone else secretly secured theirs.’
The realization that the management goddesses who had quietly withdrawn to seclude themselves had stolen the most left the others dizzy.
‘If we try to punish them, we’re the ones who rebelled and should be reflecting.’
‘They’re waving around the amnesty the Dimensional and War God himself granted.’
Even as they brazenly demanded the precious Divine Realm management god positions, there was nothing the goddesses could do. If pushed to the brink, these women would flee straight to the Dimensional and War God and cling to him, begging for the positions while acting coy.
‘If four Intermediate Lords side with the male gods, we truly won’t be able to handle it.’
The benefits of the highest-tier Divine Realm management god position matched those of an Intermediate Divine Realm lord, required no certification battle, and left far more time for training—making the competition fierce.
‘We’re also aiming for independence eventually, but we’re still working on securing it.’
‘Even if the management goddesses have high divine power, we can win.’
‘We can win, but they’re already Intermediate Lords after hoarding so much and training in their spare time.’
In pure rank, the management goddesses stood higher. Given the Dimensional and War God’s calm and rational nature, he would likely appoint them to high positions based solely on their divine ranks without further consideration.
‘He’ll decide and enforce it immediately, and then they could become our superiors.’
No matter how they looked at it, fighting the management goddesses would bring more harm than good. Even the hot-tempered black-haired goddess, unable to contain her anger, eventually collapsed onto the sofa with a hiss.
“Agh—! This is giving me a headache. I thought the unknown leakage of divine power and vitality was just the Divine Realm aging, but it was this mess. It’s a miracle it hasn’t collapsed already! A miracle!”
“The fact that you’re not management specialists played a big part.”
“What?”
The management goddesses began explaining step by step.
“If you had only learned proper Divine Realm management from us and operated accordingly, it would have at least maintained this level.”
“Every Divine Realm has this degree of loophole exploitation. If anything, the strange ones are you for not taking anything at all. There are a few who refuse to participate, but oddly enough, everyone else only takes a little.”
“They only held back because they were watching you. After all, if the top is this clean, getting caught means immediate death and power recovery, so they couldn’t go too far.”
The goddesses’ stance on corruption was firm.
“Of course! Do you know how hard this Divine Realm struggled in the past? How could we steal anything?”
“We provided 200 billion vitality to the Demon Realm as alliance payment. The remaining 300 billion goes to taxes for the Main Divine Realm and maintaining the Upper Divine Realms.”
“On top of that, we’re grinding our teeth trying to keep the Divine Realm’s lord in check while he tries to hoard more power. How could we let those below us take anything?”
“We’d rather kill them on the spot than waste the power recovering it!”
“You management goddesses, playing around as Upper Gods while being only Intermediate Goddesses, should be dealt with first!”
The management goddesses looked at the black-haired goddess, whose killing intent was surging as she prepared to lunge, and snorted before waving the documents in their hands again. The other goddesses’ angry expressions were also ominous, so they needed cooling down.
“Are you planning to ignore the amnesty the Dimensional and War God granted? You’re not in a position to do that right now, are you?”
“Thanks to the Goddess Department’s brats, you were completely cornered, tried to stage a collective rebellion, got crushed by power and politics, couldn’t even fight, and still received this ‘forgiveness,’ didn’t you?”
“If you reject the amnesty that smoothed over your rebellion, your sins won’t disappear and you’ll become ‘rebellious gods,’ you know?”
“The current Divine Realm lord is nothing like the sly raccoon who hated losses. If there’s even a chance of victory, he’ll go all out regardless of his own damage.”
“You think you can beat the Dimensional and War God’s Intermediate Lords on your own? Your output is at the highest lord level, right?”
“Ugh—! Sigh!”
The black-haired goddess sighed while staring at the amnesty document and sank back onto the sofa. What the management goddesses pointed out was exactly their reality. Having it stated so cruelly drained all her strength.
“If you lose a rebellion, it’s not just a one-stage power recovery—it’s complete erasure and total power confiscation. Winning would be fine, but…”
The most terrifying aspect of his universe’s strict rules was the absence of any concept of “insubordination.”
‘The strong are simply the superiors.’
‘Insubordination only means the weak yielding their position to the strong.’
In this universe ruled solely by survival of the fittest, higher beings were more generous.
‘Those in high positions but weak are eliminated through lord battles and certification wars, leaving only the strong.’
‘Needless to say for the Divine Realm’s ruler.’
Surviving countless brushes with death, growing stronger, and seizing what one desires through one’s own power was the fundamental law of this universe. Therefore, the weak insulting the strong was an unforgivable grave sin.
‘Even winning as a group would be fine, but losing means suffering a horrific fate bound by the karma contract.’
‘Not death or extinction, but complete erasure.’
Watching the black-haired goddess and the others stiffen at the sight of the amnesty, the management goddesses’ eyes gleamed. Even cornered, this weak reaction from the goddesses was unexpected.
“So you’re not simply Intermediate Lords with high output?”
“Even if your output is at the highest lord level, eight combat-type goddesses with the best authorities capable of handling four Upper Lords with 20 billion divine power each, plus Lord Slayer, are here.”
“If all four of us Intermediate Lords combine, couldn’t we handle them?”
“Honestly, we thought you’d at least propose an alliance first, but we were completely ignored.”
“No contact for alliance, and all the loopholes you used before have vanished, leaving you to wither. At this rate, we might as well secure the Divine Realm management god positions.”
The management goddesses knew the goddesses’ strength. They possessed the most vicious highest-grade authorities capable of opposing Intermediate Lords and even Lord Slayer, honed through countless battles against lords in the universe’s early days.
‘The Main Divine Realm fears these goddesses.’
‘Their records are too brutal, and if they regain their original strength, the male gods will decrease again—they’re worried about that. In the old world that valued stability over strength, they would have been marked for disposal long ago.’
‘Their dream is to create a Divine Realm like before and return to being complete goddesses, but it’s impossible.’
‘The Main Divine Realm will interfere by any means necessary.’
Even though he had introduced a system that revered strength, the god race that valued stability wouldn’t allow it. If the goddesses returned as Divine Realm lords, they would fight their neighbors and kill male gods, naturally reducing the Main Divine Realm’s forces. There was no way they would permit that.
‘These goddesses can’t be handled by ordinary gods—only at least Intermediate Lords can face them equally.’
‘But no matter how strong they are, they can never pass the certification battle without the Main Divine Realm’s support.’
The sight of these powerful goddesses—who warranted the Main Divine Realm’s vigilance—being at a loss before the amnesty granted by the new Divine Realm’s lord was refreshing. And more interesting than these complicated circumstances was the fact that they hadn’t been subdued by force alone.
‘Judging by how they’re only watching, they’re almost mentally subdued as well.’
‘If it were coercion or threats, they wouldn’t hesitate to fight, but seeing them hesitate like that… it’s absurdly because they were subdued by goodwill.’
The goddesses had always fought against desire and malice directed at them. Facing an opponent who offered only consideration without any demands was unfamiliar, leaving them unable to respond properly.
‘They’ve never dealt with someone treating others with goodwill, so they don’t know what to do and can’t come up with countermeasures.’
‘This is amusing. Handling these vicious goddesses so skillfully with nothing but goodwill makes me even more interested. So let’s probe a little.’
“By the way, what was the price of your alliance with the Dimensional and War God? Your output is at the highest lord level, and you’re offering something to the Divine Realm’s ruler as alliance payment—yet you have nothing to give. You’ve only been receiving your fixed salaries all this time, so you’re extremely poor, aren’t you?”
“!!!”
“!!!”
The goddesses’ expressions froze completely, as if their core had been struck. The management goddesses burst into laughter at their troubled faces.
“Hohoho—! Since your pride as former Divine Realm lords won’t allow you to say you’ll devote yourselves in loyalty for forgiving the rebellion, it’s an alliance, right?”
“Becoming subordinate gods is absolutely out of the question for creating a Divine Realm, so you all decided to offer your bodies? Well, if he’s called a lust god that even the Succubus Queen couldn’t handle, the beauty of you goddesses—the pinnacle of light goddesses—would be worth coveting.”
Twitch—! Twitch—!
The goddesses all showed startled expressions before forcibly returning to calm faces. Seeing their reactions, the management goddesses also sensed something was amiss. Dismay and anger filled their hearts.
‘They actually did it.’
‘I was completely disinterested because the Divine Realm was such a mess, but it’s changed a lot.’
The most powerful goddesses in terms of military force offering their bodies to resolve matters—this was the ultimate humiliation.
“You really did that?”
“Forgiving a rebellion is on a completely different level from forgiving theft. You’ve already been doing it with him, haven’t you?”
“Wow! You’re all already concubines? What kind of disgrace is this for goddesses when he’s not even a Creator God?”
As the conversation grew increasingly serious, the goddesses shouted.
“Who’s a concubine?!”
“What did we do?”
“We didn’t do what you’re thinking—!”
The goddesses screamed at the increasingly harsh accusations. Already struggling with self-loathing while unable to do anything but wait for alliance news, being insulted as “concubines” by these thieves was driving them mad. But the next words made them forget to retort.
“Then what? Why would that cold Dimensional and War God leave you alone after you rebelled? He even killed half the High Elf clan the moment they apostatized after becoming his followers, didn’t he?”
“If Granzoa, an Intermediate Lord, hadn’t become a subordinate god, he would have wiped them out! Why would such a vicious combat-type lord give only you special treatment?”
“Don’t even think of saying something ridiculous like you’re valuable lords in the Divine Realm! There are plenty of mercenary gods who would rush over right now and swear eternal loyalty for the highest-tier Divine Realm management god position.”
“More than anything, what kind of alliance negotiation is possible when you have nothing to offer? Why send Granraha, the ‘Lord Assassin,’ for negotiation instead of assassination? Even if you tried to assassinate him in an emergency, dimensional authority makes it impossible to approach anyone of equal or lower rank, right? Tell me what you did to receive forgiveness for rebellion from the Dimensional and War God and achieve an alliance with no price!”
“Of all people, why send Granraha, the most hot-tempered assassin, as negotiator?”
“……”