Annoying Things
Before I knew it, Juno was standing beside me, gazing down at the collapsed Setas and me with his signature weary, irritated expression.
Was Setas originally fated to die like this? Now I finally understood why Setas hadn't left his name in Wider's previous life.
But then why had Juno appeared?
[Do you want to save him?]
Of course I did. But the fact that he was asking meant there would be some price to pay. Gods were like that.
Did I have anything worth trading for Setas's life?
"I want to save him."
[A price is required.]
There it was. By now, I knew a thing or two about gods myself.
"What do you desire?"
I wanted Setas to live, but I couldn't pay an exorbitant cost for it.
[You don't possess anything worth the price right now.]
Fine, then don't even ask.
"So Setas dies?"
[We'll settle the price later. Do you agree?]
On credit? It felt off somehow. Who knew what he'd demand down the line?
But if it was something I didn't have now, then even if I gave it to him later when I did acquire it, it wouldn't matter much, right? For instance, something like the red gem I'd given to Kutula— it might be a divine treasure to the gods, but to me, it was utterly useless.
If I had to choose between the red gem and Setas right now, it'd be Setas without question.
"I agree."
[Don't meddle in things beyond you. You're still a millennium too early.]
With those words, Juno vanished. Time began to flow again.
As if by magic, Setas's heart started beating once more.
"Kuhk!"
Setas awoke, expelling the breath caught in his throat.
"You okay?"
Setas caught his breath for a moment, then patted himself down, checking every inch of his body.
"I just died, didn't I?"
"Yeah."
"Figures it was because of that."
He seemed hesitant even to utter the word "truth" now.
"Yeah, that was it. Juno came and revived you. He said you're a millennium too early to speak of it."
I'd have to be careful too— one wrong word, and I might drop dead for real. It felt like not just the body, but the soul itself could be erased.
"The Supreme God saved me?"
"Yeah. I agreed to pay the price."
"My lord..."
Setas started making this touched face, so I smacked the back of his head.
"If you're grateful, work like a slave."
"I'm strongly opposed to slavery."
With that bit of banter, the minor incident passed. But it had been major enough to warrant Juno's descent.
Either way, Setas had escaped his original fated death. And from then on, he never breathed a word about what we were doing— or even mentioned the truth again.
I asked if there was a reason for such hypersensitivity despite the need for caution, and he said he'd seen something in a dream when he died. He didn't explain in detail, but for someone like Setas, who'd lived nearly 150 years before reincarnating and was showing this level of restraint, I took it as sufficient reason.
Whether it was sincere or not, Juno had said delving into the truth was a millennium too soon. Would I even be alive in a thousand years? If I perfected and consumed an elixir of immortality, maybe.
As Setas listened to the territory's various secrets from me, he often provided fresh insights. His original world already had solutions to many of these issues.
For Eltis's case, he said cloning something like genes could prevent his clan's extinction, but this world's technology wasn't advanced enough yet. Eltis, upon hearing this, claimed he could live another millennium anyway, so no worries— but what about Setas lasting a thousand years?
When I told Setas about Wider's regression, he took it rather nonchalantly. Regressors were rare in his world but not unheard of, apparently. Unlike Wider's quiet approach, they tended to cause massive chaos, so some countries executed them on sight. Be grateful you were born in this world, Wider.
And when Setas heard about the dwarves, his eyes lit up.
"That's right up my alley. I even have a PhD in magitech and a master technician certification."
Setas occasionally dropped terms from his old world, but by now I could grasp the gist from context, even without knowing the exact meanings.
So I took Setas to the New Continent.
"Whoa, my lord's teleportation magic is no joke. This is on par with warp tunnels from my world. Mind teaching me the formula later?"
It was praise, anyway, so I felt good. Not that I couldn't teach him the formula— though it'd require an avatar at its core, so even Setas might struggle to replicate it.
Delivering Setas to the New Continent dwarves predictably sparked some friction at first. Bastet took one look at him, snorted disdainfully, and vanished somewhere. The dwarves crowded around, encircling him.
"Isn't that a human brat?"
"What's a kid doing here?"
By now, they should've realized no normal humans ever came here, but dwarves were slow learners on that front.
In the end, only after Setas beat them all down could the hierarchy be established.
"I sense that one's aura."
A dwarf sprawled on the ground muttered.
Drakan? Setas used something akin to word magic, but not Drakan's aura. I'd asked since Setas wielded something similar to natural energy, and he called it meta-energy— an advanced fusion of mana and qi. Theoretically superior to my natural energy, so I learned it too. But mastering it naturally would take time.
"Is that so? So this one's connected to him too. That's why he's so strong at such a young age."
As the dwarves kept spouting nonsense, I cut in.
"He wants to see the flying ship blueprints you drew."
"Lily, bring the blueprints!"
The dwarf yelled toward the mansion without getting up, and I realized I'd forgotten about her.
"Wait, hold on—"
Before I could say anything, Lily was already hurrying out, blueprints in hand, moving with surprising speed.
"Oh, the count's here. No wonder Bastet suddenly took off."
Lily's smile was dizzying. But glancing at Setas beside me, he seemed unfazed.
"You good?"
"That charm from the pretty lady? Mental pollution like this is a breeze. Back home, plenty of outer gods and demigods invading used seduction."
He seemed fine. Setas said he currently had less than a twentieth of his past life's power. If a fully powered Setas was the norm, how terrifying must his dimension have been with three thousand such beings? No wonder they could take on gods.
Setas took the blueprints from Lily with a beaming smile.
"Thanks, sis."
"Aw, what a cute guest. Want something to drink?"
"Hehe! I like sweet stuff. Yeah!"
The kid was stiff and haughty with others but melted for Lily. You're a guy after all, Setas.
Though that night, I'd witness Lily downing hard liquor like cold water. Shockingly, she outdrank the dwarves. I half-suspected she had a subspace in her stomach.
After a quick glance at the blueprints, Setas tossed them aside like trash.
"This is a mess."
"What did you say?!"
The dwarves shot up en masse, freaking out. But having just been thrashed by Setas, they didn't dare charge.
"Look closely. I'll explain once. If you adjust it like this here, the power output... yeah, efficiency skyrockets. You'll need to redesign from scratch."
"Hoo, indeed!"
"Such a method! We were total idiots!"
I barely followed as Setas rattled off technical jargon, but the dwarves treated it like divine revelation, fawning over him.
Looked like Setas would be stuck on the New Continent for a while. What to tell his mom? Say he's on a business trip?
Leaving Setas and the dwarves lost in their own world, I returned to the territory. Bastet was lounging in my office.
"You still don't like Setas that much?"
[It's an instinctive revulsion.]
I'd probably hate bunking with a serial killer too. Bastet putting up with it made her the nice one.
I said nothing more to her. Time would sort it out. If not, oh well. If I could fix everything, I wouldn't be human.
I visited Setas's mother and vaguely explained her son wouldn't be home for a few days. Despite her absolute trust in me, she looked a bit worried about her young boy being away.
"He's perfectly safe, don't worry. I just borrowed him temporarily because he's so exceptional."
As I reassured her, back on the New Continent, a booze party was already underway. And these lunatics— half-succubus Lily and the dwarves— were feeding booze to a two-year-old.
Worse, Setas was chugging it down eagerly. Not your average kid, sure— his soul was a 144-year-old geezer— but still not normal.
An hour later, I watched Setas belch breath. The dwarves marveled, calling him a true heir.
Days later, monitoring via avatar, I saw Setas and the dwarves had nearly finalized a new blueprint. I headed back to the New Continent.
"Almost done?"
Setas showed me dozens of blueprint sheets and launched into a detailed explanation. I caught half of it— I wasn't clueless in the field— and realized they aimed to build not just a flying ship, but a flying fortress.
"So, how long to build it?"
Time was key.
"Hmm. Generously, about ten years?"
I wanted to smack him. My hand twitched.
"By the way, my lord, about that continent where the other races are?"
I'd planned to discuss that with the dwarves too. I dispatched avatars toward the direction they'd indicated.
It'd been nearly two years, but no continent teeming with other races. Just occasional islands with a few hundred monsters, then endless ocean.
"Sounds like a phase dimension."
"Phase dimension? What's that? Like a barrier?"
"Similar, but different. It's creating a dimension within the same dimension. Back home, the battlefields against gods were in phase dimensions. Otherwise, Earth would've shattered hundreds of times over."
True. Thinking of Kutula and Nyarla's clashes, the world should've been toast.
"So the other races' New Continent is inside a phase dimension?"
"Yep. From what the dwarves said, that's it. No human in this world could create one, right?"
Obviously not. Setas's theory explained why we couldn't find it.
"Can you locate the phase dimension?"
"No need. Phase dimensions overlap precisely with this one. Like nesting subspaces, same as your technique, my lord."
But we lacked the tech to interfere with it, didn't we? Or did we?
I eyed Setas.
"I'll open the phase dimension. But I haven't regained my full power, so I need some help."
Setas listed preparations: mostly special minerals to craft something like a magic circle. And an absurd amount of energy— me and Howard would supply it, with Eltis assisting.
After a month of prep, a massive mechanical device stood before the New Continent mansion. Setas's design fused with dwarven craftsmanship.
"Activating now."
With Setas's declaration, the machine hummed to life. I'd watched it built, yet had no clue how it worked. Still, it seemed functional.
My concern was whoever created the phase dimension. God-related or not, would they sit idle if we forced it open?
"10! 9! 8!"
"Just do it."
"Yes, sir."
As Howard and I poured in our full energy, Setas cut the countdown and yanked the largest lever.