The Goddess Department's Rotten Core
The War God let out a long sigh laced with curses from between his clenched teeth. No matter how confident he was in his own martial prowess, accepting that many outsiders all at once would inevitably turn the host into the guest.
In his view, the current chaotic state of the Divine Realm was something the Sly Raccoon Main God and the primordial war gods had brought upon themselves. They accepted far too many goddesses. Though that’s none of my business.
After that, each of them married and multiplied the number of gods and sentient beings. The Main God Star created directly by a Creator God was so vast and fertile that it enjoyed endless prosperity and stability.
Occasionally the demon race invades the Middle World, but the gap has already grown far too wide. Even the Eternal Overlord Demon God, who has only just recovered to the level of an upper demon god, cannot bridge that difference.
While the Main God Star managed by the Divine Realm enjoyed such peace, another powerful enemy appeared. The qualification test to determine the true right to rule the planet as the Main God of the Divine Realm had begun.
“The upper Main Gods of the Substitute God race—! So they were the true enemy of the Divine Realm!”
Gooooooo—!
From far beyond the outer reaches, colossal god-like beings the size of entire planets began to move. Having settled on the outermost planet of this solar system, they slowly advanced while conquering other planets one by one. The gods, grown complacent from long peace, were pushed back helplessly.
The Substitute Gods possess the authority of God-Slaying along with even greater creative power than the gods themselves. They are true God-Destroyers.
The Substitute Gods were a race created by recycling defeated Creator Gods from other universes for use as test subjects. Though they held an overwhelming numerical advantage, the gods were pathetically outmatched in power and fell without resistance. In the end, five out of the ten planets in the stellar system were taken.
And now the great army of the Substitute Gods had reached the front of the Main God Star.
It was then that the Main God of the Divine Realm made his decision.
An alliance with the Demon Realm? He’s really playing a bold hand.
Rumble—!
The War God was still watching when the surroundings suddenly grew noisy. From afar, security police goddesses armed with divine artifacts came rushing in, and a tiresome female voice rang out.
“It’s that male god over there. He suddenly barged into the Goddess-Only Library and sexually harassed everyone like that.”
“.......”
The War God didn’t even glance at the goddesses hanging upside down. At this point, it wasn’t even funny anymore.
When did the meaning of words change? For these goddesses, even a brush of clothing counts as sexual harassment and assault. Is there nothing else in their heads?
The War God hadn’t wanted things to come to this, but nearly every library in the Divine Realm was Goddess-Only. The few male-god-only libraries had pitifully few resources. The reason, apparently, was that male gods didn’t read books in libraries. He found it absurd.
Most male gods fight on the battlefield until they finally get leave and return. How could they possibly have the energy to read books?
The more he thought about it, the less he liked the Divine Realm currently led by the Goddess Department.
The Main God of the Divine Realm and the primordial war gods must be insane. They fought to the death to claim the Main God Star, only to hand it over to the goddesses and be treated like obstacles. Truly impressive.
In the War God’s eyes, this had gone beyond the host becoming the guest. They were practically on the verge of becoming slaves.
Don’t the surrounding divine realms say anything? If I were a high god from a neighboring realm, I’d curse them for running a complete mess. Well, even the Main God himself calls it a mess, so that says everything.
While he was lost in thought, the goddesses pointing their divine artifacts at him began chanting in unison again.
“You have the right to appoint a defense god… mmmph—!”
Smack—!
The War God, tired of listening, sealed all their mouths and hung them upside down.
I’m sick of hearing about defense gods. It’s such a simple spell, yet none of them resist, and they’re so hostile that conversation is impossible.
He now understood why Granzoa had desperately tried to kill him in her craving for positive karma.
She must have wanted to become the Main God of the Divine Realm and change this situation no matter what. Even I can see that it’s strange the place hasn’t collapsed yet. Though it has nothing to do with me.
Whatever Granzoa desired—a Divine Realm completely ruled by goddesses—was of no interest to him, who considered himself only a temporary War God.
After hanging up even the security police goddesses and stepping out of the library, a familiar sight greeted him.
Those turtles with nothing but shields.
They were the male war gods who diligently maintained public order without weapons.
“Everyone advance… hup—! Lord War God!?”
“Did you bring proper weapons this time?”
The male security war gods had grown used to the new War God constantly causing incidents everywhere, but they couldn’t simply back down, so they wore expressions of distress.
The reason the War God couldn’t avoid clashing with the Goddess Department was that most facilities in the Divine Realm were Goddess-Only and prohibited to males.
What kind of Divine Realm makes everything Goddess-Only? Your duty is to protect those rules, but is this place a male god concentration camp?
The grand roads and luxurious rest areas were all Goddess-Only. Every major street in the Divine Realm bore “No Male Gods Allowed” signs. He truly found it ridiculous.
As the new War God continued causing trouble, the intermediate god commander, at a loss for what to do, finally managed to answer.
“We still don’t have weapons. Approval hasn’t come through. However, due to frequent deployments, the weapon issuance procedure has been simplified. If you wait about an hour, we can equip them immediately.”
They had halved the weapon issuance time, yet it still took an hour. The War God, with no intention of waiting that long, simply continued walking.
“If you have business with me by then, come to the Main God Temple later fully armed with an arrest warrant. I’m going home after a month on duty.”
“Th-that would be truly problematic. Reports of sexual assault like this one go all the way up to the highest goddess ministry—the Goddess Department.”
“Are those things claiming I raped them again? Is merely encountering someone rape here? If I look at them, are they going to report that I got them pregnant?”
“We are truly sorry! Still, we are required to take action and report it.”
Despite never having laid a single finger on any goddess so far, the War God had somehow gained a reputation as the Rape God. And some goddess he had never even met would drag in a bunch of security goddesses and insist that she might have been sexually assaulted and possibly impregnated.
His response to such claims was firm.
“Do you get pregnant just from a glance? Even Nuwa, the God Emperor who makes all beings conceive through her blessing water, cannot do that!”
Even when he offered perfectly reasonable rebuttals, the Goddess Department—or whatever they called themselves—would send warnings claiming that false reports of him raping and impregnating goddesses numbered in the hundreds.
When the highest-ranking goddess from the Goddess Department stormed the Main God Temple to impeach me, I simply planted the Lord Slayer Spear right next to her face.
After that, when the goddesses naturally screamed and caused an uproar, all the highest-ranking goddesses from the round table came rushing over. In response, he quickly played every holographic recording he had made during his time in the Divine Realm.
Since everything is always being recorded, when I told them to shut up or I’d seal them, they finally quieted down.
The War God felt a sense of self-loathing. These magical artifacts hadn’t been made for this purpose, yet the number of times he had replayed them to prove his innocence was beyond counting.
“Eternal Memory.”
In the air appeared footage of him entering the library and the goddesses approaching him only to be hung upside down.
“Shall I play the audio too?”
The intermediate commander let out a sigh at the familiar scene repeating itself.
“Huu… No, that won’t be necessary. We will report Lord War God as innocent this time as well. By the way, when will you mass-produce and sell that video divine artifact?”
“Even if I mass-produce it, it’ll be expensive.”
No sane mage would carelessly scatter artifacts containing his own secrets. Yet the intermediate god, apparently no longer afraid, approached and examined the video magic artifact closely before speaking in an earnest tone.
“Please make and sell them anyway. They’ll sell like crazy even if they’re ridiculously expensive.”
“Can’t you just make and sell them yourselves?”
At that, the intermediate god’s expression stiffened and his head drooped.
“For the prevention of sex crimes, the production and ownership of all recording devices capable of capturing and replaying video is prohibited for male gods. When they investigated male gods who had committed sex crimes, photographs and videos of goddesses were found, so they decided to eliminate the root cause entirely and issued the regulation.”
“........”
Male gods weren’t even allowed to own video recording devices. It was getting more absurd by the day.
“If they want to eliminate the cause of sex crimes, they might as well castrate all male gods. But are there really male gods who don’t own even a single erotic video? Do the goddesses claim they don’t have even one photo of a male god?”
The intermediate god commander began to spill information without even being asked.
“Male gods are allowed to possess official recording devices, but they must undergo random inspections. If they are found with obscene photos or videos, they are classified as potential sex offenders and are immediately stripped of their position and sent to the Spirit Realm. However, Lord War God created it yourself and it’s for recording battles, so it’s an exception. Above all, since you live in the Middle World, you can produce them, can’t you?”
Faced with the commander’s earnest plea, he gave a simple answer.
“I don’t want to. You people can just keep living like this.”
The male gods of the Divine Realm have lost the will to fight for their own rights.
This rotten system is beyond saving.
“!?”
“!?”
Not only the intermediate commander but also the soldiers behind him wore expressions of utter disappointment.
Have the male gods of the Divine Realm given up on protecting their own rights? I’ve completely lost any affection for this damned realm.
Burning with anger, the War God hung up every goddess who tried to stop him on the Goddess-Only staircase as he headed home.
Ping! Ping! Ping!
After hanging up every single goddess who got in his way, he reached the main gate of the Divine Realm, turned around, and saw the upside-down goddesses with their skirts flipped up. They looked like fruits hanging in the air. To his eyes, however, they seemed less ripe than rotten.
The Divine Realm is so thoroughly decayed it practically stinks.
“Kyaa! Kyaaaaaaa—!”
Even on the stairs of the Divine Realm, he flipped over and hung up every goddess who pointed at him and whispered among themselves.
I deliberately didn’t seal their mouths this time. Their screams have quite the melody to them.
As the War God approached while casually hanging up goddesses left and right, the senior angel guiding visitors at the entrance froze and bowed deeply. Whether chaos erupted on the stairs or not, this area had already been thoroughly flipped upside down by him once before, so the security goddesses were slow to come running. Or perhaps they had given up entirely; he could feel their gazes peeking at him from afar.
Have they finally given up? They have no tenacity at all.
In that thoroughly soured mood, the War God returned to the Middle World.
I’ve laid out my strategy for the next month. I’ll settle things with the Substitute Gods within a year. Before that, I need to reinforce the Middle World and the Magic Tower a bit.
To fight a powerful race like the Substitute Gods with full force over a long period, stability in the rear was essential. It was an obvious choice.
Whooooosh—!
He used spatial movement from the Divine Realm and arrived directly at the capital of the Holy Empire of War, then walked toward the temple.
As long as I don’t use magic power or divine power, no one will know I am the War God.
These days, many people on the streets wore black robes—the symbol of black mages.
In the past, black mages were targets of curses, but it seems public perception has improved considerably.
Statues of him had been erected all over the Holy Empire of War. They depicted him with his gray robe removed, revealing a torso covered in scars.
It seems that appearance leaves a stronger impression on humans. I only accepted the challenger because it improved my mood and I felt like playing around a bit.
All statues of the former War God had been removed without a trace. Only his own remained.
The city was in a festive mood, and the divine power praising the War God poured into him.
Huu. Free divine power really is nice. The human race’s ability to switch sides is frighteningly fast.
Boom! Boom! Bang! Bang!
Explosions and cheers echoed from the city square. When he looked, he saw that a massive construction project was underway around the grand plaza, surrounding the entire seating area.
The War God roughly understood the situation.
They’re turning the Pope Selection Tournament into a festival? The smell of money is strong indeed.