Already 4,000 Years
The Constellation Realm.
It was a place where those who possessed legends widely spread among the masses—or who had forged their own legends through great deeds, or great sins—could enter as Constellations. It was also the place that had been newly granted a second life to me, and which I now had to manage.
A world only Constellations could enter.
On its face, the name carried the ring of a truly magnificent place.
And honestly, that wasn't far off the mark.
Everywhere you looked in this world closed to all but Constellations, the scenery was absolutely flawless, brimming with fantastical wonders no one could ever witness in the real world.
If my role had merely been to manage a realm like this, I'm sure I would have formed a wonderful impression of the Constellation Realm.
"Fuck. If I'd known this was the job, I'd have just stayed dead."
But if my actual role was to build that magnificent realm with my own hands—if I'd spent the last 4,000 years rotting away in this place for that exact purpose—well, then the only thing that came out was a mouthful of curses.
To be perfectly honest, when I first opened my eyes and realized I'd been given a second life, I was absolutely thrilled.
Yes, there was the minor issue of my sex having changed, but when your new body was a peerless beauty sculpted to perfect golden-ratio proportions? And when your new life wasn't that of an ordinary human, but of a god? The sex change barely registered as a problem at all.
I was so taken with myself that every time I caught my reflection in a mirror, I'd stare blankly at my own face for a good ten-odd minutes. You could say losing my manhood was actually a win.
On top of that, according to the one who brought me here, my position wasn't some bottom-rung minor deity scattered about like weeds—I was the Supreme God who governed the entire Constellation Realm.
So how could I not be overjoyed?
An ordinary everyman suddenly becoming the Supreme God of the Constellation Realm—I still remember vividly how ecstatic I was back then, cheering and celebrating.
"Such an innocent time, truly..."
But with great power comes great responsibility.
And the responsibility handed to me was, fittingly for the power of Supreme God, one fucking colossal responsibility.
What was that fucking colossal responsibility, you ask?
Its content was none other than dressing up the Constellation Realm so it could actually function.
"...Just thinking about it makes me want to curse."
In the beginning, I hadn't properly understood what that responsibility entailed. So when I asked what the hell that was supposed to mean, the one who'd brought me here finally gave me the full picture.
The Constellation Realm I'd been appointed to rule as Supreme God had only just come into existence—it was nothing but a bare foundation. In gaming terms, it was the state right after installing the game and pressing the start button.
Which meant that I, freshly appointed Supreme God, had a duty to transform this barren, empty planet into a proper Constellation Realm—one that Constellations could actually enter.
The immense power I'd been granted was the payment for that duty and responsibility. And when I was told that failing to fulfill it would mean removal from the seat of Supreme God and a return to the ordinary Cycle of Reincarnation, memory wiped clean, my past self had burned with determination, vowing to somehow see it through.
"I should've just refused and died right then and there."
Accepting that responsibility at that moment was the worst choice of my second life—one I've regretted ever since.
If I'd at least declined and died back then, I wouldn't have suffered through this living hell all these years. But freshly reincarnated and hopelessly naive, I made the idiotic decision to give it everything I had.
I learned how to wield my power from the one who brought me here, and began filling this dried-up realm, which didn't hold a single drop of divine energy, with power drawn from my own divinity.
Using my divine energy, I raised mountains, carved out seas, grew dense forests, and erected temples, palaces, villages, and all manner of structures—breathing fresh life back into the parched Constellation Realm.
If my memory serves, I threw myself into that work wholeheartedly for about thirty years, giving it my absolute all to fulfill my responsibility.
"That's about when I came to my senses."
No—it was when, even after thirty years, the realm's completion meter had barely inched up a mouse's turd's worth that I started feeling something was off. But it took another decade or so after that first flicker of suspicion before I was certain: I'd been conned out of my labor.
By then I finally snapped out of it and tried to stop, but the momentum of forty years wasn't something that could be halted so easily.
That span was nearly twice the length of my entire previous life. Even if only for the sake of the forty years I'd already invested, I couldn't bring myself to simply walk away from the seat.
And so, while I hesitated, decades slipped by in the blink of an eye. By the time that accumulated time reached a hundred years, I'd somehow become someone who cursed my past self as a moron while dutifully carrying out my responsibility anyway.
Which is how, regretting my stupid choice yet unable to abandon all the effort I'd sunk in, I found myself 4,000 years deep before I knew it.
"Fucking hell."
Wrapping up that trip down memory lane, I chewed on the curses rising in my throat and pushed myself up from where I'd been lying. I'd lain down for a short break and some idle daydreaming—who knew such shitty memories would come flooding back?
And of course they had to be vivid as hell, too, making my mood several times worse.
"This is all that bitch's fault."
Normally those memories would have been buried under 4,000 years, unreachable even if I'd gone digging for them. The only reason they replayed so crisply in my head was the Mental Barrier technique I'd been taught by the one who brought me here.
Sure, that barrier was the reason my mind hadn't worn away even after 4,000 years. But that didn't make it any less infuriating.
And what was it they say—speak of the tiger and it appears?
The moment I started grumbling, a presence stirred up behind me.
"Have you ever considered, Arche-nim, that badmouthing me so loudly might wound the feelings of someone who can hear you?"
"Oh, go fuck yourself."
The words tumbled out of me before I could stop them—her voice just had that effect. I turned my head toward the sound, and there stood a beautiful woman with golden hair.
"Honestly. Such a foul habit, gossiping behind people's backs, Arche-nim."
She said this, pointing out the very gossip I'd been indulging in seconds ago. Her face was the kind of beauty that would make most men fall head over heels at first glance—the only woman whose looks could hold a candle to mine, the most beautiful of all.
But knowing full well exactly what kind of insolence lurked inside that gorgeous exterior, I could only snort.
"Behind your back? You heard every word, so technically it was in front of you."
"My body wasn't present at the location, however, so I'd say it still counts as behind your back."
Coming from the woman for whom the entire Constellation Realm was one giant pair of eyes and ears, it was honestly laughable.
Brushing the remark off, I rose to face the woman—or more precisely, the core of this Constellation Realm, the one who'd brought me here. Eve.
"Considering how many years I've suffered thanks to you, couldn't you let a little gossip slide?"
"Hmm... to be honest, working hard in the beginning was entirely your own choice, Arche-nim—"
"Shut it, you witch."
"Ahaha."
I cut off the words I had no desire to hear, and Eve burst out laughing like I'd said something hilarious. When I scrunched up my face at the sight of her infuriating grin, she gathered her chest together and struck a pose.
"Feeling better? Would you like to touch my breasts?"
"What is this, some ancient seduction tactic? My sex drive's been castrated for ages."
"Oh dear. How unfortunate."
"Unfortunate my ass. It's not like I'm leaving heirs behind—no use for it anyway."
Eve's little display, thrusting out that milk-white chest, was the kind of seduction that would turn heads regardless of age or gender—everyone's attention but mine, at least.
Long ago there'd been a few times I nearly caved to that temptation, but seeing as I had a chest of my own, I never actually fell for it. And above all, ever since my sex drive had all but been castrated away thousands of years ago, my gaze stopped going there entirely.
"Haah..."
Still, now that I'd said it out loud, the sigh came out of its own accord. Letting loose yet another sigh—God only knew how many that made today—I turned my gaze to my reflection mirrored on the lake before me.
Sa-raq───
Snow-white hair that looked spun from a winter landscape. A face small enough to fit within an adult man's fist, its crisp features packed neatly into that tiny frame. Light-violet eyes like cattleyas molded from porcelain, a nose so refined my hand drifted toward it without thinking, and lips that gleamed with a lustrous cherry-red sheen despite wearing not a single thing.
And the body?
Even draped in a plain one-piece, my perfectly sculpted figure refused to be hidden. Shoulders that swept down in graceful curves, a modestly full, gently rounded chest, a slim waist—their contours showed through even the loose dress, and the bare legs stretching beneath flaunted breathtaking lines.
Thanks to beauty like this, my past self used to lose track of time staring at my reflection in mirrors and water for fifteen minutes at a stretch. These days I didn't quite fall into a trance anymore, but I still considered it a beauty that never grew old.
Though to have such a stunning face and a castrated sex drive... how do I even put this.
I never had a loved one, and I'd never intended to give my body to anyone, but ever since becoming this body, I was stripped of a desire I'd never once experienced before I ever got to properly indulge in it. It was a feeling I honestly couldn't describe.
But I couldn't afford to wallow in these petty grievances forever. There were far more important matters at hand, so shaking off the stray thoughts, I turned my gaze back to Eve.
"By the way, it's tomorrow now, isn't it?"
"Yes. You've worked so hard all this while, Arche-nim. By tomorrow, the preparations will be complete."
Eve nodded in answer to my question. Hearing that, I looked around at my surroundings with a faint surge of complicated emotion.
"Finally..."
The barren wasteland I'd seen on my first day—nothing but horizon in every direction—was gone. Mountains and seas, valleys and lakes, forests and swamps, glaciers and deserts, kingdoms and temples—every variety of terrain and structure stood across every corner of this world.
The divine energy flowing from them had breathed fresh life back into the dried-up Constellation Realm, and at long last, after the long, long passage of 4,000 years...
The Constellation Realm was complete.
Tomorrow.
Come tomorrow's dawn, the gates of the Constellation Realm were set to open.