The Goddess Descends (6)
Since the cities in this other world had to be enclosed by castle walls, they were all small. That’s why we reached the lord’s mansion in no time at all. I’d already split the personnel on the way, so our numbers were far smaller than when we first set out, but Minerva, the others, and I stayed until the end. Some of the nobles who’d been press-ganged by my silver tongue had been sent east. By now they were probably knee-deep in the mountains of shit their colleagues had dumped there. Of course, there’d been a heated argument over who would head into that dangerous sector. But the bickering ended quickly thanks to Minerva, the supreme woman who didn’t give a single fuck about her political position.
The people included in that “your” had perfectly matching expressions of utter disgust, yet Minerva didn’t even twitch. I guess I can see why rigid, by-the-book soldiers are necessary in wartime but tend to stall out or lose footing in peacetime.
“…It’s here.”
Minerva muttered once we arrived in front of the lord’s mansion. I wasn’t sure if she was referring to the clergyman carrying the white cross on her shoulder or to Primor and her escorts, who looked like they’d come to form a party and run a raid.
‘Well, I figured the auntie would show up this time.’
I scratched my head at Primor’s appearance. Her boundless energy was only surprising the first couple of times; once the spirit of noblesse oblige reached its peak, her movements became predictable.
Primor’s face hardened the moment she saw Minerva.
“…Lady Coolapius.”
She stopped her escorts from stepping forward and continued.
“The reason you have come to this mansion—”
“Enough. It’s true there are scores to settle between us, but discussing them now would be unreasonable. If you’ve come to fight, the answer that you’ll cooperate is sufficient.”
Minerva spoke as if the matter wasn’t even worth hearing. Her cooler-than-expected attitude surprised me, and Primor seemed equally taken aback. A beat late, she nodded, still flustered.
“If our fighting strength increases, there is nothing more welcome.”
“I agree. Are you maintaining a barrier at the moment?”
“No. Far from a barrier, there isn’t even any sign of defensive readiness.”
Signatio, carrying a cross larger than a coffin, answered in her stead.
“Given the gravity of the situation, I will greet you properly later. The reason we stopped is simple. We judged that this defenseless state is obviously a trap.”
“Traps are more often something you have to charge into even when you know about them than something you fall for unknowingly. It’s already too late to pull back.”
Come on, if someone whose limbs were evenly pulverized like the victim of a six-pointed-star murder says that, what does it make those of us who followed her? Fuck. Are we going to have to visit the mages’ guild later to buy prosthetic arms too?
Yet no one could say such a thing after seeing the tree of white light stretching out from the mansion. Up close, it was clear. That thing was extremely dangerous. The thought that postponing for later would be suicidal rose naturally.
“I heard you are the Punitive Executor of the Janus Church. Can you close this rift?”
“As long as we can reach the center of the ritual, easily.”
“I’ll trust you.”
While we exchanged those words before charging in, the scout who had been acting as an observer inside the mansion returned. Just as I expected, Minerva seemed well accustomed to working people like soldiers.
“…Um, excuse me.”
It was then. The female knight Lias, waiting with her spear, spoke to me.
“Yes, Dame Knight. Good to see you again.”
“Indeed. Um… my lady has something she wishes to ask Sir Norde.”
“Ask away.”
Was sending a subordinate instead of asking directly some kind of noble etiquette? As I tilted my head, the knight asked.
“By any chance, do you have any connection to a Mongolian named Yesugei?”
“…Well? Never heard of him.”
Fuck, that was close.
Calming my startled heart, I feigned confusion and asked back.
“But why ask me? Because we’re from the same region? You didn’t ask last time.”
“My lady said Sir Norde’s aura feels somehow familiar.”
I recited the excuse that had flashed through my mind.
“There was an issue during my entry into the country before, so I briefly served as a slave. I saw her then as a customer.”
“…Ah, uh, e-eh. I see. I’m sorry.”
The knight couldn’t keep her expression in check, apologized, and returned to Primor. I immediately understood why Primor had asked that question.
‘She must have found it suspicious that Yesugei didn’t appear in this situation.’
After hearing my answer from the knight, Primor opened and closed her mouth, then glanced at me. Apologizing would be awkward given the status gap, and there were too many eyes watching. It was faster to count what wasn’t a problem. Still, the way she watched me suggested she didn’t actually remember. Well, for her it would be like asking someone to recall a random face seen in a clothing store on Myeongdong street. There couldn’t have been just one or two semi-nude slaves back then. Anyway, it was good for me.
I had simultaneously cast ‘Labor-bug adventurer fuck, truly slave-origin, right?’ and ‘I don’t remember your face?’ Talula makes life difficult for people no matter which world you’re in.
“The interior of the mansion is safe.”
Once the scout returned alive, Minerva ordered a search to begin. Having confirmed with Odin’s Eye that no wicked magic had been cast on them, I followed the group inside.
A muscular man—probably a former adventurer—serving as a noble’s escort told me,
“Stay alert during the search. The chance they’ve prepared some kind of trap is extremely high.”
“Understood.”
I answered, but I personally thought the odds were low. He couldn’t have already kidnapped every member of the Arma-whatever family required for his goal. He wouldn’t have laid traps meant to kill random people. If even one person from the original senate families died after pulling this stunt, it would be an enormous blunder. Once I considered that, it was easy to guess what a guy who had earned his own knighthood through sheer strength would do. If I were in his shoes, that’s exactly what I’d do. Every method that came to mind turned out to be the correct answer.
─Thud!
I fired an ice beam and shattered the head of a statue decorating the mansion garden. The sudden attack made everyone think we were under assault. They watched what I was doing, then watched me continue shooting ice beams despite their stares, and grew visibly confused.
“Wh-what are you doing!”
Uh, I’d love to explain too. But when I activate Beck-an I turn into a linguistic cripple. My brain… my brain is vibrating… ubebebeb.
“No, what the hell are you doing!”
“What am I doing? Blocking my own eyes, obviously.”
─Whoosh!!
I diligently destroyed what appeared to be drones or CCTV installed throughout the mansion, but I still allowed the first strike. Had he noticed I was focusing on every presence around me? That son of a bitch emerged from far away and vertically bisected a soldier guarding one of the nobles.
“Hiiiiik!!”
Looking closer, the noble who had picked a fight with me earlier was crawling across the floor trying to flee. Hey, old man, today’s luck really isn’t on your side.
Unlike me, who frowned at the thick stench of blood, Diabolo smiled refreshingly while wiping the blood from his blade. Behind the bastard with the split grin, the annex was visible. The tree stretching into the sky was, naturally, growing from that very building.
“Head or senses. Either way, you’re gifted. You interfered with me at the auction house as well, and your behavior is far from ordinary.”
“Anyone can see it’s suspicious. You embedded jewel eyes in every single statue.”
“Is that so? Fine, let’s go with that.”
Diabolo spoke after thoroughly soaking his gloves in blood. Just from the way he talked, you would never think he was trash who had murdered an innocent person less than ten seconds ago. He was the picture of a cheerful man.
“Sorry for my lacking skill. I need to observe the guests’ reactions if I want to plan an upgrade to the garden’s quality.”
“You made this place? Your taste is seriously fucked.”
“If one doesn’t understand elegance, it’s difficult to appreciate the aesthetics of this garden.”
“Well. I agree that it’s vulgar.”
Signatio spoke while lifting the cross from her shoulder. Naturally, the rest of the group was already moving to surround the suddenly appearing Diabolo.
“I visited recently on business, but when snow falls the garden’s beauty should be emphasized. Instead it has an extremely nouveau-riche flavor. After you die, spend some time refining yourself in the underworld.”
“Underworld? If you mean Niflheim, I already connected it. Not beneath the ground—above, in the sky.”
Smiling, Diabolo pointed at the branches reaching into the heavens. Signatio muttered as if spitting the words out.
“Niflheim… It is a foreign faith to me, yet you do not seem to believe in the Germania gods either.”
“…Kuhuhuhuhu.”
Diabolo laughed as though he had heard a kindergartener’s creative answer.
“Have you never found it strange? Your Romania church’s scriptures describe a firm and vivid heaven like ‘Elysion,’ yet the ‘sinner’s afterlife’ is glossed over with convenient terms such as the underworld (Mundus) or the underworld (Mantus).”
“Enough. That’s plenty of chatter.”
Minerva drew her sword and ordered the mages to complete the encirclement as she cut into the conversation.
“Religious discussion may be a sinner’s right, but you—who have repeatedly committed crimes worthy of immediate execution against His Majesty’s will—have no qualification to enjoy it.”
To her words, Diabolo answered as if the topic bored him.
“Do you know the greatest difference between faith and reality? It is that reality is equal to everyone, whether they believe or not. Therefore this is not a story of belief.”
He pressed his thumb against his own chest.
“The beginning of scholarship is doubt. Why? Why did the gods of Romania not perish even after the divine age faced its twilight? Why did they begin their activities from ancient civilization onward? Why can the names of Janus and Pomona not be found in any records from the divine age?”
“Fire.”
As I keep saying, Minerva was the type who placed almost no value on other people’s opinions. What she respected was the rule of law, and Diabolo was a motherless bastard who could be legally beaten according to Article One of the constitution.
─Boom! Kwa-gwa-gwang!!
Magic and arrows slammed into that mother-missing bastard without hesitation. Yet there wasn’t a single scratch on Diabolo’s body. It wasn’t magic resistance. He had simply endured it with raw defense power.
“The questions chained together. Have any of you met Loki’s priest? Anubis’s priest? Of course not. Gods who could not answer faith have been forgotten by time. What is worshiped today are only the gods of Romania who most clearly return feedback for belief.”
Diabolo brushed the flames off his coat and sighed at the frozen crowd.
“Why? Why did gods whose only transmitted name was Uranus suddenly begin receiving worship? Because they survived the gods’ destruction? No. The answer was simple. It was the same reason the emperor had no choice but to approve the senate’s founding.”
A crudely made earth golem formed at his feet.
“The gods of Romania were Inventionis Dei—invented gods.”
─Crack.
Diabolo stomped on and shattered the golem he had created.
“More precisely, they began to worship ancient heroes who had reached the divine realm on their own—delusional patients dreaming of the divine age’s return. That is the origin of your faith.”
“Nonsense!!”
With a distorted face, Signatio swung her cross. The speed was enough to blur even to my eyes like thick fog, yet Diabolo caught that insane weight with a sword condensed from darkness.
Kwaaaang—!!
“The sole exception is Uranus! All the other gods are nothing more than suitably stitched-together classic titles! Isn’t that right? God of letters and protection? God of abundance and healing? Would any other gods be so conveniently tailored for humans! They have never once cursed humanity! No wonder the descriptions of hell are so sloppy! To the humans of an age that had lost its gods, merely telling pleasant stories would have been insufficient!”
Signatio tried to prove her faith through action rather than words, but the countering Diabolo was no pushover.
“In this Holy Empire, the gods did not choose humans! Humans chose the gods! That is why Romania has endured as an immortal nation for ten thousand years! By humans revering dead humans as gods!”
The two warriors collided, radiating killing intent. Even I, whose eyes were slowly adjusting, struggled to follow the flow of battle. The gap in level was beyond imagination. All I could see was something red and white rubbing together like a phone stuck in vibration mode!
─Boom!
The two warriors who had bounced off each other paused the fight we had no room to enter.
“Thousands of years ago, the emperor both feared and coveted the power displayed by the mage ‘Arma Shunas.’”
Diabolo coated his chipped blade with dark aura and recited with clear enjoyment.
“But later emperors became obsessed with ruins rather than wisdom. It can only be called foolish. Such power could never be obtained with a single artifact.”
“…………”
“No, I can understand. Even our current lord knew nothing! Powerful strength should of course be controlled, yet that fellow didn’t even know what bloodline he had inherited!”
As if delighted by the fact, Diabolo leveled his black-aura sword at Signatio.
“You must be the same, no? Signatio Armalux!!”
“…What do you hope to achieve by bringing up my pre-ordination name?”
The white-haired priestess with an androgynous voice like Tirsi’s growled.
Diabolo laughed heartily, then smiled gently as though he had regained his senses.
“It is common for noble girls to enter the church, but how many ever reach the position of Punitive Executor! I must thank you for strongly inheriting your mother’s blood. Thanks to three bitches gathering to help me, I have finally reached this point!”
While checking Signatio’s approach with his aura blade, he summoned pitch-black darkness in his hand.
Rumble…!
The ground shook in response. Fuck, so he really was buying time! I had roughly noticed, but during the fight until now there had been no opening for me to intervene!
Pissed beyond endurance, I spat out the irritation squirming in my gut.
“Hey, you son of a bitch! At least explain what the fuck you’re trying to do until the end!!”
“Kuhahahahaha!! Your spirit is excellent! Very well—then open your eyes wide and watch!!”
Floating into the air with magic, he held out his sword and shouted.
“The advent of humanity’s greatest manufactured weapon!!”
Zuzuzuzuzuzu—!!
The tree of light stretching into the sky sent an enormous flood of mana into the annex as though its veins were pulsing. The tree vanished, and a single ice flower bloomed inside the annex. But it was far too large to call a flower. It was big enough to overturn the entire building.
Crack…
From the collapsing structure, crystal-carved ice shot skyward. The ice crystal turned to powder in mid-air as if released from its restraints, scattering everywhere. It left behind only the person who had been inside.
This time I didn’t miss it. Using dynamic vision, I confirmed the sight and froze, forgetting the situation entirely.
“…Ha, fuck.”
Giants radiating cold air. The Niflheim where those bastards lived. The ritual that opened the door leading there. The mage I had first partied with. And the ice magic that had been her specialty. Those fragmented memories churned through the sea of neurons in my brain until a sigh escaped my lips.
“Fate really is fucking shit.”
Fully empathizing with the one-eyed god’s feelings, I watched with an expression as cold as ice as the familiar woman descended before us.
Tirsi, brimming with immense mana, stared at me with empty, doll-like eyes.