Deep into the Night
The sun sank. Dusk climbed the sky, and the moon showed its face.
The gods of Olympus walked in Eve's wake, meeting the light of the setting sun as it poured down from the horizon. Arche had already turned back, saying she was tired and would go rest first—and thanks to that, a thoroughly ridiculous scene had taken shape: a crowd of fully grown men and women, gathered all amicable and close, trailing along at Eve's heels.
"……."
"……."
The trouble had all been settled, and yet—perhaps because they had been enemies until only a little while ago—a silence heavy enough to be awkward hung between them as they walked. Eve, striding at the very front, didn't seem to mind in the slightest. If anything, that indifference only made it more unbearable for the gods of Olympus.
And so they began, Zeus among them, trading looks that urged someone to say something—anything. The one chosen at the end of that silent contest was Hermes, fair to call the smoothest talker of the Twelve Olympians.
"Ahem…!"
"Hm? Did you have something to say?"
The moment Hermes cleared his throat, Eve's head turned. Caught under her gaze, he felt his tongue lock up in a bitter throat—but only for a moment. When it came to getting along with people, nine times out of ten the name that came up was Hermes, and true to that reputation he soon worked his stiffened tongue loose and opened the conversation as easily as water finding its way downhill.
"I thought the same when I first arrived in the Constellation Realm, but… the scenery here is extraordinarily beautiful. Look wherever you like, and there's not a single rough edge. It almost feels as though I'm dreaming."
The first subject he chose was the landscape of the Constellation Realm. And the praise was no hollow courtesy, pretty words he didn't mean. He had said it because he truly thought so—words drawn up out of sincerity. Nor was it Hermes's opinion alone. The other gods were nodding along, each in their own way. Seeing that, Eve let a laugh slip, plainly pleased, and answered him.
"Hehe. Well, isn't that obvious? Every bit of the scenery here is something Lord Arche took special care to make for me."
"Pardon? She made it? What do you mean by…"
He had been about to smile back at her laugh. But he couldn't help catching on the words she had just spoken, and so he had no choice but to ask. That Arche had made every landscape here—the claim simply would not settle into sense.
She created all of this scenery? Is she actually serious?
Creating something out of nothing? That, in itself, was nothing strange. The gods of Olympus could do as much—grow trees from bare earth, call clouds into a sky vast as the heavens. But if creating something from nothing rose to the level of making a whole landscape, of making nature itself, then the story changed. A creation or two was one thing. Nature was something that had been there from the beginning. You might spend vast divine power to change the weather for a while, or shift the lay of the land—temporary alterations. Making nature itself out of sheer nothing was impossible.
True, one's influence grew a little within the domain one governed. Even so, the principle held. What Eve had just said denied that common sense head-on. They had already felt, in the battle a little while ago, that the gap between Arche and themselves was as wide as heaven and earth—but surely not to the point of overturning common sense itself? Unable to swallow it easily, Hermes asked again.
"Are you truly saying Lord Arche made all of this scenery herself?"
"The land and the sky were more or less already in place, but everything else—the mountains and the seas beyond the flatlands, the forests and the deserts, from the clouds in the sky down to a single blade of grass on the ground—all of it was made by Lord Arche."
"Hah… that truly is astonishing. I never imagined she had made every bit of this with her own hands."
Only once Eve had driven the point home a second time could Hermes accept the fact in front of him. She would hardly have gone out of her way to lie about a thing like this. And once he accepted it, he understood at last why every landscape in sight was, without exception, perfect. Arche had shaped the scenery to her own ideal. Of course it looked that flawless. Nodding as the understanding settled, he turned back to Eve with a curiosity that had just occurred to him.
"Then what, exactly, does Lord Arche preside over? What divine authority does she hold, to have made all of this scenery…?"
What he wanted to know was what Arche governed. Zeus, Poseidon, Hermes himself—if you were a god, you had a domain that was yours. So what domain did Arche hold? She was that strong, and this far beyond reality. He couldn't help wondering what she presided over. To the question he put, Eve answered with a smile that kept creeping wider.
"Lord Arche doesn't really preside over anything. She's a god who was different from all of you from the very way she was born."
"…You're saying she presides over nothing?"
"Yes. If I absolutely had to name something, I suppose you could say she presides over this Constellation Realm. Going by office, she's the Creator God of the Constellation Realm."
"Creator God? Hah… that is quite the tremendous office."
At a title grander than he had expected, Hermes could only click his tongue. He had thought that presiding over something, at the very least, would make her the same as the rest of them—yet Eve's answer was that she had differed from them since birth. Faced with an exchange that smashed every scrap of common sense he held about the gods, he scratched his head.
"I'm sure you're all thinking it already, but you'd do well to stay in Lord Arche's good graces from here on. You'll be living together for a few centuries at least. A few millennia."
"Haha. Just as you say, I expect everyone already intends as much. You needn't trouble yourself with worry."
To Eve's playful warning, Hermes answered with an easy, good-natured smile. Once the talk of Arche ran its course, the conversation slipped naturally on to the next subject, and as the topic changed the other gods began to join in as well. The atmosphere that had frozen so awkwardly started, little by little, to grow loud and lively.
And in the midst of that clamor, swelling rowdier by the moment—
"……."
"……."
—there were still two of them, eyes alight, turning the talk of Arche over in their minds.
"Haa… I'm tired."
Maybe it was because, for the first time in ages, I had met people other than Eve and myself. I came home feeling my mind gone weary, though I had barely done a thing—back to the summit of Cliff Mountain, where all the years I had lived were carved into the stone, and to the humble cabin I had built there.
"Yeah. Nothing beats home…!"
Once I was inside, I threw myself straight at the enormous bed. There had been a time when I, too, longed for a grand house. I had raised a temple up in the sky, and built a vast mansion.
But with great power comes great responsibility. Make a house that huge, and a single month was enough for dust to start gathering everywhere the eye could see, while the time it took just to wander from room to room only grew. Nothing but a nuisance. I could have made something like an automaton and set it to the cleaning, and getting around could be solved with gates—but I had no desire to burn divine power living in a big house for no good reason. What I settled on, in the end, was this humble cabin.
A cabin just the right size for one person to live in, with every piece of furniture it needed. There was no internet, of course, so nothing like a computer or a television—but after four thousand years of living here, I had grown more accustomed to going without the comforts of modern civilization than to having them.
"So starting tomorrow I help out a bit with the Guide training… and we start taking in new Constellations five days from now, didn't she say?"
Sprawled on the bed, I stared up at the ceiling and sorted through the schedule Eve had given me. For four days from today, the plan was to train the Twelve Olympians as Guides. I'd have to watch the trial run five days out with my own eyes and see how it went, so I'd be busy. No—thinking it over, it wasn't only until five days from now. It was more honest to say I'd stay busy straight through until the Constellation Realm settled into a stable orbit. A realm that had only just begun to run in earnest would need a few years, at least, before it steadied.
"Heh. Still, I don't mind it."
Today alone had worn me out plenty, and yet the prospect of being busy from here on didn't strike me as unpleasant. And no wonder. For the past four thousand years, this Constellation Realm had been nothing but me and Eve. Not a bug, not a single animal—how glad would I be, once new Constellations came into a realm that desolate and the place began to come alive?
"Hehe. Ahahaha!"
But the laugh had barely burst out of me.
Knock, knock, knock—
At the sudden sound of knocking, a question mark all but popped out of me.
"…Hm?"
There was no chance the one knocking was Eve. She was the sort who, in the time it took to knock and wait, would already have appeared at my side and made herself known. Which meant the one knocking now was none other than one of the Twelve Olympians. Only a single presence stood outside the door. There couldn't be more than one.
"…Who is it?"
"It's Aphrodite, Lord Arche. If it isn't any trouble… might you permit me to come in?"
After a brief silence, an answer came at once from beyond the door. The name Aphrodite, carried on a sweet voice—a sticky voice, as if honey were dripping from every word, asking my leave. I drew my brows together. I wondered why she had come here alone, but there was no hostility in that voice. And I knew perfectly well that whatever scheme she tried, she couldn't do me any harm. So I let the silence hold a moment longer, and then I answered her.
"I don't know what you came here for, but… come in."
I had no idea why she had shown up at an hour when the sun was long gone, but if she had meant to harm me, Eve would have told me ages ago. And so I gave her permission to enter readily enough.
Creeeak—
The cabin door began to open, slowly. The instant it stood all the way open, I felt the question I had been holding until just now resolve itself cleanly. More precisely—the question of why Aphrodite had come here at all.
"Hehe… thank you for permitting me to enter, Lord Arche."
Unlike this morning, when she had been properly dressed, what Aphrodite wore now was hardly different from being half-naked. The moment the door opened, a bewitching fragrance tickled my nose, and she came toward me with a soft, swaying step that drew my gaze along after her. Watching her close the last few steps, I couldn't help letting a sigh escape.
"Haa… Eve, you little shit…"
I was going to beat the hell out of her for standing by and letting this happen. Right now, that was the only thought in my head.