Chapter 88
Chapter 88
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 88
Chapter Title: The God of Light and Order☆ (4)
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It had been about a week since the goddess’s oracle (?) descended upon Central Prism Academy.
Twitch—!
Orange cat ears moved incessantly.
The only sound that echoed in the quiet space was the scratching of a pen.
*Scritch, scritch…*
“Fufufu—☆ Is there anything else you’d like to hear~☆ The goddess knows everything, everything—☆”
Lotha listened intently to Urðr’s words, jotting them down in her notebook. Her wariness of this place had long since faded, replaced by an insatiable curiosity.
“Fufufu…☆”
Watching her, Urðr wore a smug expression. Reciting knowledge she had merely heard and seen in the ‘past’ as if it were a divine oracle felt better than she expected.
-You must listen to your seniors and help those in need~♪
-As expected, the will of the World Tree exists to help people…!
Even when she spoke universal truths that everyone knew, watching her juniors nod seriously as if they were hearing a profound revelation… it was a strangely ticklish feeling.
Riding this wave of confidence, Urðr casually dropped some information about the magic the ‘past Lotha’ used to wield, her tone brimming with self-importance.
“Yep♪ If I were to give you some ‘World Tree’-like advice, wouldn’t it be more romantic if you delivered your spells with the rhythm of a poem~☆”
Twitch—!
At the mention of her area of expertise, Lotha’s eyes sparkled like jewels as she looked up.
“Romantic…? What does that mean? Please be more specific! You’re saying the sequence of a magic incantation wasn’t what’s important?”
“Uh, um…♪”
She hadn’t expected this.
Following the general script she’d coordinated with ‘Clara,’ Urðr had been explaining helpful information based on ‘vibes.’ Lotha’s question made her flinch.
*Oh dear—☆ I don’t know much about magic in detail…*
If Lotha suddenly demanded, ‘Why is someone as incompetent as you a goddess!’, she wouldn’t know what to say.
…
*Hmm… She’ll probably get it if I just explain it well enough—☆*
Urðr continued her explanation, breaking out in a cold sweat internally.
“N-No☆ Uh… um… oh! Right—☆ Instead of a golden cat, think of birds chirping! With a *kaboom—!* and a *swoosh~☆* How about that? Like pigeons taking flight in front of a train station? See?”
“Birds… Hmm… A longing to fly? The ‘story’ derived from that has theological…!”
Urðr desperately tried to recall her hazy ‘past memories,’ attempting to describe the way her ‘past junior’ had used magic.
Fortunately, her passion, conveyed by flapping her hands like wings, seemed to get through.
Lotha pondered for a moment before nodding in understanding.
Then came her shy follow-up.
“S-So? What’s next? …ma’am?”
The awkward, belatedly added honorific,
made Urðr burst out laughing, clutching her stomach.
“Ahaha—☆ What’s this, what’s this~♪ Why the sudden awkward formality? Just talk comfortably like before—☆”
“Ah… that’s because as I kept talking with you, Goddess… ma’am, it started to feel like I was talking to Clara, so… Thinking about it, it seems rude to a goddess…”
“…”
“It’s a habit from talking with my friends that keeps slipping out… ma’am.”
“…”
Urðr was suddenly reminded of the Lotha from the ‘vanished time.’
“…”
A junior who had maintained a subtle distance from the clumsy, trouble-making Clara until the very end.
The ‘past Lotha’ had mostly stuck with Alvitt, with whom she could communicate well, and had a dogmatic side, a habit from shouldering her problems alone.
*She was a good kid deep down, but she was very firm about her own domain—☆*
But…
The ‘current Lotha’ followed ‘Clara’ with a strange obedience and seemed to have no reservations about sharing her worries.
*I see… so that’s how it is.*
She had changed.
The same person, yet a different person.
“…”
It was a fact she had to remind herself of over and over…
The junior before her was different from the one she knew. Even if it had only been half a year, the difference felt like an unbridgeable gap.
Besides, it was the ‘current Clara’ who had guided this girl to become who she was now.
“…”
Urðr expended considerable effort to recall the ‘forgotten past.’ It was the reason she had become a goddess and entered the ‘Well of Fate.’
*The ‘past’ I saw was…*
This world was [Fated] to be destroyed.
It was a truth she realized only after the ‘Dragon’ was defeated.
“…”
In the end, Ratatoskr succeeded in awakening the ‘Dragon.’
As a result, [The Dragon Crouching in the Abyss] began to run rampant.
Her juniors—the [Fate of the Three Heroes]—had succeeded in stopping them all. She had thought… her world had been saved by them.
*But the things that appeared after that…*
The remains of two beast gods awakened by the ‘deathly power’ left by the Dragon—the ‘Serpent’ and the ‘Wolf.’ Their power was too much for the Academy City to handle, having exhausted all its strength fending off [The Dragon Crouching in the Abyss].
And so, everyone, including the Five Colors, died.
“…”
Amidst it all, she had belatedly awakened to her [Fate] as [The Saintess of Sacrifice].
Because her own power was so weak.
She had reached her [Fate] as [The Saintess of Sacrifice] far too late.
“…”
Too late.
So she [Sacrificed] her everything to turn back time.
She thought that if she could just start over, she could change things.
But…
She had learned far too late,
that every miracle comes with a price.
Her [Sacrifice]… had severed her soul from everything else.
*I never thought… another soul would enter the void created by my [Sacrifice].*
And so, the world she had rewound was different from the one before—because of the outsiders who had flowed in from another universe.
“…”
Urðr stopped her train of thought and looked at the Lotha before her.
“Goddess… ma’am?”
“…Yes♪”
As much as time had changed,
as much as souls had changed,
another threat was approaching this city.
“…”
Because this world’s [Fate] was to be destroyed.
In that case, she would… [Sacrifice] herself to stop it.
The ‘Well of Fate,’ a place she had simply arrived at by following the flow.
And the fateful encounter with the ‘new Clara.’
Urðr made a resolution.
This time for sure—
*I have to help the other me… the other Saintess.*
That was her duty, the one left behind because of her incompetence.
* * *
A lukewarm midsummer breeze blew through the grand auditorium, which was now filled with tents like a campground.
Ever since our encounter with the gentle goddess of the past, we had been living in the auditorium, treating it like a campsite.
*That chick sheds a massive amount of some strange white powder, so we can’t let it into the dorms.*
The oracle time happened a couple of times a day.
This oracle (?) was Lotha’s turn, so the rest of us decided to wait outside.
*Well, even if we call it an oracle, it’s mostly just us chatting about random things before coming out.*
Strictly speaking, Urðr—‘Clara’—was also a student of Central Prism Academy.
So, we were having these girl-talk sessions disguised as oracles to make sure she didn’t get lonely.
“…”
It might sound strange.
But I felt like she was another junior I needed to look after.
“…”
There were things we had given and received between us… She had become someone I couldn’t just leave alone anymore.
*I’ve told Hilde about the existence of [The Nameless Hawk] and the ‘Well of Fate’…*
A goddess residing in the World Tree, which was treated as a personal deity in this world.
And the beast god of order who was the only one to have helped humanity in the distant past—[The Nameless Hawk].
The news that two divine beings had suddenly appeared at the long-forgotten Central Prism Academy was a shock even to Hilde. As a result, she seemed to be having trouble intuitively grasping the situation.
In the end, we decided to talk about the details when we met later.
*Hilde still doesn’t know that Urðr looks exactly like me. How will she react?*
The ascended one… the past goddess Urðr, for all intents and purposes, was just Clara.
Meaning, her appearance wasn’t much different from my current one.
What would she say if she saw us together?
Would she be delighted, saying it was a Clara buy-one-get-one-free event?
Would she go wild like a gamer rushing into a convenience store for a character collaboration product?
I was half curious, half nervous.
“…”
Honestly… seeing her go gaga over another pink-haired girl would probably leave me feeling miffed and lonely.
…
…
…
“…?”
A sudden sense of unease made me flinch.
“Oh dear me—☆”
Huh.
What is this.
This is the reaction of a totally jealous female.
“…”
I couldn’t help but hang my head.
*Dammit…*
Do I have to admit it?
*That I’m on the verge of being fully corrupted by the pink-haired path…*
Ever since that day we wore dresses and fooled around, it felt like my Pretty side’s thoughts had been accelerating.
*At some point, I started having trouble remembering things about my past life.*
Little by little…
Bit by bit…
It felt like my past-life personality was fading.
But was it terrifying? Well… I don’t know.
Isn’t life about forgetting and changing little by little anyway?
Hilde.
Frida.
Nina.
Selma.
Maya.
The Five Colors of the Academy City.
The juniors at Central Prism Academy.
The dwarf merchants in the shopping district.
And so on…
For all that I’ve forgotten, the things that have filled the void are meaningful,
so I didn’t feel like I had become meaningless because of what I’d lost.
If I thought of this as just an extension of life, I could accept it calmly.
*Or is this also because of Clara’s fate… the [Fate of Sacrifice].*
…
The [Fate of Sacrifice].
Have I ever actually made a sacrifice?
*I don’t recall doing anything as dramatic or noble as a firefighter.*
The image of a saintess is something holy and lofty.
All I remember is just dealing with problems as they came.
“…”
With those thoughts, I drank the iced tea in the cup I was holding.
*Slurp—*
*This feels like some kind of school retreat.*
I sat in a chair, sipping my chilled tea, and watched Alvitt checking on the health of the little chick… [The Nameless Hawk]. As for Kara, she had received a request from the dwarves in the shopping district and was out on a job.
[The Nameless Hawk] let out a pathetic cough.
“Gwaaack—! Cough, cough…! I think I smell something burning in my nose…! Piiiii…!”
“Hmm… It seems you have acid reflux from things going in and out of your throat too often…”
Alvitt examined the giant chick’s throat, then went to the dining hall to mix hot water into a lukewarm concoction. She then poured it slowly from a kettle.
Like a baby bird receiving food from its mother, [The Nameless Hawk] stretched its neck out and drank the water. As its burning throat soothed, it shed tears of gratitude.
“*Sob*… Thank you, [Hero]…! Piiik—! The moment I regain my giant wings, I shall carry you first and fly through the skies of this world…!”
“No, thanks.”
“Aah—! If only I could regain my strength and bestow upon you a great holy sword—! Piiik—!”
“I already have a sword, you know.”
“Then you can just use both! Piiik!”
“D-Dual-wielding…? That sounds complicated…”
Alvitt pushed away [The Nameless Hawk] as it tried to hug her emotionally.
The image of Central Prism Academy, with a summer breeze blowing through.
“…”
I muttered while watching the scene.
“How peaceful—☆”
At that moment.
I felt a multitude of presences passing through the school’s main gate in the distance.
“Spoke too soon—☆”
I wonder which delinquent wants a clubbing today—☆
I stood up with that thought… but the ones who entered were not delinquents.
“The revelation, we have reached the land of the revelation, sisters! This is the place the Sword Spirit spoke of—!”
“Is this it?!”
“Yes, it is, sister!”
“My goodness, the traces of the great World Tree and the Norns are here…!”
“Oh, why did we not realize it sooner?”
“To think the fates of the [Hero] and the [Saintess] would be here…!”
“What a truly humble and elegant place!”
“Oh my, look at that broken window…! What theological significance could it hold?”
It was a horde of hundreds of pointy-ears… from Holy Alfheim High School, all dressed neatly in white uniforms.
Alvitt muttered as she saw them.
“Huh…? What in the world are they doing here…?”
“Who knows—☆”
“Piiik—! Students with a familiar scent. A very fragrant and nostalgic scent of the World Tree…! Piiik!”
“You know, the way you said that was really creepy.”
“Piiiii…”
Twitch.
The elf students’ ears perked up.
And then, the hundreds of pointy-ears charged toward us in unison.
“There they are! There are the [Hero] and [Saintess] chosen by the Sword Spirit!”
“No, that divine beast of such noble bearing is…?!”
“The God of Order!! The Incarnation of Order!! A divine bird!!”
“Seize them!! Seize them and escort them—!”
What is this…?