Noble
An era had passed since the world was created, and not a little time with it.
The woman with a white ring hovering above her head walked down the corridor in high spirits.
With her long pink hair and a wad of cotton tucked in her arms, she opened the door.
Then her face filled with confusion.
"Huh...? Where did she go this time?"
Kamiel, who usually assisted the Goddess in the inner chambers of the Celestial Realm, had come to the divine sanctuary where the Goddess always resided, carrying a report on the earthquake caused by a battle between two angels.
But all that greeted her there was an empty chair.
It wasn’t strange for the Goddess not to be in her seat. She was always wandering here and there, impossible to pin down.
Still, she wasn’t a bad person. In fact, all the inhabitants of the Celestial Realm adored her fiercely.
She seemed to do whatever she pleased, whenever she pleased, and yet she never caused trouble for those around her.
Even so, Kamiel still felt a little hurt.
She had gone to the trouble of building a lavish, grand castle because she disliked the thought of the Goddess living in such a shabby place, and yet the Goddess had slipped away without a word.
Kamiel, who had spent more of her life than anyone agonizing over how to build a beautiful castle worthy of the Goddess, was still wearing a disappointed expression when she thought of the Goddess’s smile, and her face brightened at once.
Hmm... I should go where she’s been visiting a lot lately.
Kamiel, the Angel of Creation, opened a gate leading to the planet the Goddess had been tending. The entrance the Goddess made was always left open, so that any angel could come and go with ease.
As she passed through the tall oval gate, its upper and lower edges glowing white, she found the person she had come looking for, just as expected.
It was already the dark of night.
Not far from the gate, the Goddess knelt beside a massive tree with her eyes gently closed. Next to her, a black hatchling dragon was squealing with delight while a young elf ran around it.
"Eire. Don’t bully the poor thing too much."
Without opening her eyes or turning her head, the Goddess spoke. The young elf called Eire then grabbed the hatchling dragon and rubbed her head against its own. The hatchling wore a distinctly disgusted expression, but it couldn’t move an inch.
"Bully it? It’s being so well-behaved in my arms. I’m sure this little one likes me!"
At the young elf’s words, the hatchling dragon shook its head fiercely. Though it had only been born a few months ago, it understood every word they were saying. The Goddess, who had taken in the whole scene, gave a soft smile.
"That child has many abilities. You may get scolded by it later, so be gentle with it."
"Huh? Little one, are you really going to give me a beating later? After I’ve been this nice to you?"
The hatchling dragon, as though it had given up, didn’t even react. The Life Tree that had given birth to Eire gently rustled its branches.
"Two visitors came to watch today."
At the Goddess’s even, uninflected voice, Kamiel summoned white wings and flew quickly toward her. A breeze stirred, and the young elf let out an oomph as she nearly tumbled over, only barely managing to keep her balance.
"I came looking for the Goddess because I had a report to deliver."
Kamiel bowed to the Goddess as she spoke, then looked up into the tree. A man leaped down from a high branch in one smooth motion and grinned impudently.
"I got here first, and now everyone’s making a racket."
"You’re far too disrespectful before the Goddess, Lucael."
The man with short ash-gray hair stood in a slanted, insolent posture. Smirking, he opened his mouth again.
"If it bothers you that much, why don’t you act like me?"
"Not at all. I don’t even know why an angel like you exists."
"Is that supposed to be picking a fight? The Goddess is right here, so why are you the one starting trouble?"
"How about showing a little respect? It’s our disgrace that there’s an idiot angel like you."
"At least I’m not as rigid and stuffy as you."
Kamiel clenched her teeth in fury. If it hadn’t been in front of the Goddess, she might already have raised her voice and fought him.
The Goddess, who had been silently watching their argument, intervened to calm the two angels.
"Both of you, enough now. The children are watching, and you’re frightening them."
Kamiel and Lucael turned their heads. The hatchling dragon and the young elf were clinging to each other, trembling violently. Kamiel clasped her hands and bowed her head to the Goddess.
Lucael, hearing the Goddess’s words, looked wronged.
"Tch. I was just standing here quietly. That woman started it first."
He had barely spat the words out when he flinched in surprise. The Goddess had already opened her eyes and was looking straight at him. Under that indescribable, wordless pressure, Lucael shrank back too, though he still muttered resentfully to himself.
Knowing exactly what Lucael was thinking, the Goddess rose to her feet. Lucael, caught off guard, looked up at her in panic.
"I-It’s not like you’re going to get angry over something like this, right? If the great Goddess got angry over this, that’d just make you seem petty."
Just as Kamiel was about to rebuke Lucael for his behavior, the Goddess smiled brightly and spoke.
"Mm. Everyone seems to be in a bad mood. Why don’t we all look up there? I’ll show you something mysterious."
Everyone looked up at the starry night sky. The moon gave off little light, so the sky was dark, and the stars shone all the more brilliantly for it.
The Goddess looked at the heavens and blinked once.
Then the stars that had been decorating the sky began to change.
They trembled, and then started to move along arcs of light. Countless stars were falling to the far side of the sky like rain.
The meteor shower, the falling rain of stars, painted the pitch-black heavens in dazzling color.
"Wow...."
Eire murmured before she could stop herself. Everyone gasped at the spectacle they were seeing for the first time.
Pleased, the Goddess smiled at the watchers. The mood shifted, and the tension between them dissolved.
"All of you, try not to fight so much. Life is far too short to spend it seeing only beautiful, wonderful things. And you mustn’t destroy this place again."
Kamiel’s face reddened in embarrassment. The reason she had come looking for the Goddess in the first place was because the aftermath of the two angels’ fight had split the continent apart.
She cleared her throat and spoke.
"Thank you for your advice, Goddess. But if I may ask one thing..."
The Goddess nodded, and Kamiel asked,
"What exactly were you doing here?"
Kamiel had glimpsed the image of the Goddess moving with her eyes closed. Whenever the Goddess was making something, an angel’s eyes could usually infer at least a little of what it was.
But even as she watched, she could make no sense of it at all. Everything was unstable, and everything seemed to be swallowed by chaos. Seeing it had made Kamiel feel faintly afraid.
The Goddess couldn’t answer right away. In truth, even she did not know exactly what she was creating, and so she had not named it.
Beings who had not yet been assigned a future and were carving one out for themselves. Lives that could easily be destroyed, yet could also walk down any path.
And yet the Goddess wanted to see life on this planet that could grow happiness and dreams as it moved forward.
After a moment’s thought, the Goddess said,
"Weak, but strong life."
Those listening to her answer tilted their heads in confusion. The explanation was too sparse to grasp.
The Goddess added further,
"Lives that are individually weak, but that live together and dream of the future."
Still looking puzzled, Lucael scratched his head.
"We’ve got angels here already, so why make something like that?"
"The moment you use even a little of your strength, this planet would be left in ruins."
When the Goddess chided him, Lucael fell silent. He was, after all, the very one who had split the continent cleanly in two.
But the Goddess’s intention was not to scold him. She looked at the two angels, the elf, and the dragon.
"They’ll probably be terribly unstable at first. So you’ll have to take good care of them. Understood?"
"Of course! If the Goddess is putting so much care into their creation, then they must be absolutely adorable."
The young elf and the hatchling dragon’s eyes sparkled. The two angels nodded as well.
But then Lucael, who had suddenly thought of something, looked perplexed.
"That sounds a little strange. If you’re the one who cares, then shouldn’t you handle it yourself? Why are you asking us?"
It was almost as though she were leaving.
Kamiel, who did not especially like Lucael, found herself agreeing with him for once.
They all assumed the Goddess would remain with them forever, immortal and unchanging. It was hard even to imagine her being absent for a single day.
"No one knows what the future holds."
The Goddess spoke without emotion. With angels, whose emotions were relatively straightforward, one could understand them to some extent, but with the lives she was now creating, it was impossible to predict how the future would unfold.
And yet she wanted to see more people living happily. This continent was far too broad a land to be inhabited by angels alone.
As if to reassure them, the Goddess said gently,
"I want to live here with all of you and manage this planet together. Will you help me? It’ll be very rewarding."
At her words, they all nodded. Anything was good, so long as it was done with the Goddess.
Somewhere deep beneath the castle of the Marinella Kingdom.
The royal family of Marinella and its ministers had gathered in one place. The nobles who had fled for their lives had hurriedly led their families away from the capital.
In the middle of a room marked with a massive magic circle, a bright red button pulsed uneasily.
"Father. Shouldn’t we trust them? There’s a chance they can hold it back."
"That’s right. We should watch the situation a little longer."
The magic circle of the great weapon known as Meteorfall rumbled with a deep, resonant hum. It was the kingdom of Marinella’s last line of resistance, a tool of war deterrence meant to stop the Empire. If it were the Empire’s power, they would somehow intercept it and retaliate, but if the kingdoms joined forces, they might still be able to stand against it.
This magic circle, which had to be maintained by the mana charged by two hundred mages every year, possessed enough destructive power to redraw maps. There were many procedures required to activate it, but things had been moved through quickly, and only the final step remained.
However, even a weapon that could erase anything had one problem.
The target was the very center of the capital.
If Meteorfall were activated, the nation itself would not vanish, but because it was the kingdom’s largest commercial district and the residence of the nobility, it would suffer damage that would be difficult to recover from.
What should I do....
Declen, the king of Marinella, agonized over the choice. If he pressed it, he, his family, and everyone in the capital would be crushed before they could even evacuate.
Watching the situation through a hologram projected by a royal mage, the others swallowed hard, their faces turning blue a moment later.
The being overwhelming the Hero’s party with power enough to evaporate tens of thousands of soldiers seemed to face no restraint at all.
"So from the very beginning... the choice was decided."
Clenching his eyes shut, the king pressed the button with his index finger. His heart was terribly heavy.
It was an unavoidable choice, for the sake of the nation’s survival and the peace of the continent.
They all closed their eyes. If they failed to stop the rampaging holy knight here, she might become a great calamity for the continent.