85. Since We Have Plenty of Time
85. Since We Have Plenty of Time
"................."
A suffocating silence hung in the air.
Not a single sound could be heard.
What existed was void. A helplessness that felt like it would sink endlessly if one remained still.
Once
when his manhood was severed and he became a woman's body
and when he looked at himself like that with mockery and his wife left him—
".....This...."
It hurt.
His heart, it hurt so much that—
"Ah... aagh....!"
It hurt, it hurt, it hurt—
it hurt so unbearably—
his heart was in agony, even breathing hurt—
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!"
A scream.
A cry.
A sound reaching its end.
And what remained was—the returning solitude once more.
"........."
It was fine.
Because he was used to it.
This solitude, this silence—he was used to it.
For someone so worn and weathered that he could no longer feel anything, he pitied his own divinity for wavering over something so trivial.
".....Hah."
Divinity.
Dignity as a god.
And now, his own dignity was...
"What bullshit."
To be disrespected even by a human.
Fine.
Do as you please.
Was he the type to be shaken by losing a single piece of trash like you in the first place?
"An apostle is appointed by the Main God, that is, by me."
So he said he would abandon the apostle position?
Go on then, come crying and repenting later.
Would he truly be able to stretch out his legs and sleep soundly after daring to discard my Divine Authority, my name?
[Huh? Is this... could a divine oracle really be coming to me...?]
"Then... yes, that child would be good."
A child with a vessel incomparably better than useless trash.
Vessels incomparable to 'trash' were overflowing beneath this earth.
So Put another way, if it wasn't a case of bestowing apostleship as mere pastime entertainment, but appointing an apostle solely aimed at being the best—
[Thank you, Main God. I shall serve you for all my life, for all eternity!]
"Yes. That's right."
—Wouldn't that be the proper form?
Cronus bestowed Divine Authority upon a child of the lower realm and waited for him to soon become his apostle.
[Ah.... aah.....!]
At last, as time passed, the human who gradually became the god's apostle—
[———Aaaaaargh!!!]
".......Huh?"
Scream.
Shriek.
And then
[Peo-eo-eo-eo-eo-eong!!]
"......Ha!"
He exploded to death.
He scattered as fragments of flesh and bone.
Simultaneously, Cronus felt his own dignity as a god being chipped away.
"...So after all, a human is just a human."
Why was it?
The reason was only one.
The dignity of Cronus was simply too 'alien' for a 'moderately talented person' to endure.
Not a nature like fire or wind.
Not an 'idea' like light or darkness.
The concept of 'time' existing beyond the boundary of dimensions.
The vessel for accepting 'time'—something impossible to even perceive—was something that transcended the realm of talent.
"Fine. Humans are overflowing anyway."
But Cronus, unable to accept that fact...
[It hurts....! Ah.... aaaagh.....!]
"....Why."
One.
[──Cough....!]
"Why...!"
Another one.
[Khaaak......!!]
"Why, whyyyy!!!"
Yet another one.
As the apostles he appointed died one after another, his divinity kept diminishing.
By nature, a god's dignity was something his followers voluntarily raised.
After wasting all the divinity Cronus had accumulated until now on fruitless ventures, he sat down in vain, having lost even the little power that had returned to him.
"...Ah, I finally remember."
Why he had appointed 'Timeless', 'Chrono', as his apostle.
There was no particular reason.
He just desired his power so fervently, and he had felt a strange connection with him.
A sense of kinship.
A bond beyond that.
He had appointed him as an apostle without realizing it due to some kind of pull, and he became the only apostle who survived after accepting his power.
"That's how it was...."
However, to contain 'time', there were inevitably things that had to be discarded.
Because of that, the talent he should have originally possessed vanished, his body grew frail, and he became a constitution solely capable of manipulating 'time'.
To accept the vast dignity called 'time', called 'Cronus'—
he broke himself, chipped himself, distorted himself to create—a 'distorted vessel' to contain a 'distorted thing'.
The one and only in this world.
The 'one and only apostle' who could accept him.
And thus, all the more so. He too had intended not to hold back in giving power to that child as his Main God—however,
"It changed."
The soul changed.
From a soul that looked only at him
to the soul of an outsider who had crossed over from an unknown dimension.
Therefore, he closed his heart again and ignored him, telling him to do as he pleased.
But what was the result?
".............."
He overcame it.
He overcame his trial.
And once again, he spread his name far and wide as his apostle.
It was good.
He was truly joyful.
At first he had tried not to expect anything, but he ended up gradually looking forward to it.
When Zeus came and screamed later—
he was so overjoyed that that child was his child that he practically jumped around.
Therefore, he, Cronus, had thought that child fanatically worshiped him.
"....Was it wrong from the beginning?"
But the premise had been wrong from the start.
The reason that child made an effort was simply because he had threatened him.
It was nothing but a desperate struggle shown because he didn't want to die after being told he would be killed.
And even making him pleased was merely a struggle to avoid being caught out.
It was never 'faith' shown through worship or fanaticism toward him.
"Is it, my fault?"
He agonized.
Was it truly his own problem?
And the answer that came after that agony was one.
"There is no fault of mine."
Even if the opponent had changed,
even if that opponent had been 'Timeless', there would have been no change in his attitude.
He would merely have demanded fanaticism from that child, and if the fanaticism was followed, he would have responded accordingly.
If the child had been driven to a crisis before death, abandoned himself, and sought him out—
at that time, he would have opened both arms and embraced that child.
But that child did not seek him out and relied solely on his own strength.
Then there was no reason to step forward. There was no god anywhere who approached a believer that did not seek them.
He was merely perfect as a god.
He could not be understood by humans as a god.
Therefore, when humans turned their eyes away of their own accord, what fault could there possibly be in the will of himself, a god?
"I did nothing wrong."
How could the rightful master of the heavens make a mistake?
If one was made, it would merely be a trivial issue stirred up by the fears of immature, youthful days.
So if there was a problem, it was not himself but his child.
It would have been a matter that occurred because the apostle's mindset was not in the state of an apostle.
"Indeed, that child already said it."
He was a resident who came from another dimension.
A resident of a completely different world, with no experience of war or battle, without even divine miracles.
If someone suddenly pushed such a person forward saying, "Act as an apostle," refusal was only natural.
The result of someone who was not an apostle entering an apostle's body and moving—was a matter of course.
Then what was the easiest way to end this situation?
"Put someone suitable as an apostle into the apostle's body."
Simply put, replace the soul. However...
...Unfortunately, the Underworld was not his domain.
"What a pity... I might have been able to do it back when I once held all power...."
What should he do if he couldn't change the soul?
The soul of one who was not an apostle nested inside the body of an apostle.
But if the soul couldn't be replaced, the remaining path was only one.
"Must I polish that child, 'Chrono', into a soul worthy of an 'apostle'?"
There was a saying that the one who feels more regret gives in.
Now was exactly that situation.
"Still, this is an investment."
Even if he had turned his back out of distrust and dissatisfaction toward him now, his essence was ultimately the 'Apostle of Cronus'.
A moment of regret would surely come in his life as well.
A time would come when he could not handle things with his own power, with his own strength.
Then, all he had to do was reach out and save him at that time, and use that as pretext to 'educate' him as an apostle.
Like that.
Imagining the sight of him finally becoming his 'true apostle' and spreading his name far and wide...
"...Huh... huhuhu....!"
Already, he couldn't help but laugh without realizing it.
Cronus sat down and quietly waited for Chrono to request help.
After all,
"There is plenty, and plenty more, time."
Would there not be even a single mistake throughout those long ages?
So until then, all he had to do was think about how to make him into a good apostle.
...
..
.
Around that time, in Chrono's case—
"What's wrong? This isn't like you."
"....Sorry."
He was planting his head into the ground.
"Huh? What's there to be sorry about? Just act like you normally do, okay?"
"Sorry!"
Eve was sitting on his waist.
"Just do 100 more like usual? Oh, can I add the chant?"
"Sorryyyyyyy!!!"
At this very moment,
Chrono sincerely wished to turn back time.
As a side note,
after the long, long time of punishment ended,
Eve spoke to Chrono, who was half—no, completely collapsed and exhausted.
"I'm a little annoyed, but I should still say it, right?"
"Eh...?"
Eve bent her knees and looked at Chrono.
"Thank you, Chrono. I never dreamed that that teacher would suddenly show me 'that kind of thing' either."
"Ah....."
The 'NTR Event' he had once told Eve about.
Normally, once an event occurred, it usually couldn't be stopped until someone intervened, but...
"At first I wondered if he seemed like a woman and was a little tempted... but still, no matter what, suddenly showing that in front of someone seemed a bit off. So just as you said, I reported him right away."
"......Mm..."
She seemed to have overcome it with her own power.
No, to be precise, the warning could be seen as having worked successfully.
This actually worked...
As he stared blankly at Eve, she smiled gently and pressed firmly on Chrono's cheek.
"But you know what? Did you know there's one more person who did that to me?"
"What?"
What the hell.
There's another NTR event?
As far as my memory goes, there was definitely only one person—
—Wait, hold on?
"At first I wondered if it might be the same case and thought about reporting it, but... well, I can think of it as the spiritedness of young days, right?"
"....Coach?"
Eve pressed his cheek harder with her finger and spoke.
"After you graduate, you'll take responsibility for sure, right?"
"............"
Coach.
Even without you, I already have two...
And I'm even raising one white horse(?)...
...I don't know anymore.
I should just pray I don't become Chro/no.