The Reason (1)
The Reason (1)
Do you know what it's called when something is black, smells burnt, and makes you gag the moment you put it in your mouth?
Ahh.
That is called "burnt meat."
I didn't want to know either.
"How did it end up like this?!"
"Quiet, Zahard."
Irene trembled as she carried the food over. There wasn't a trace of confidence in the hand she held out.
The "thing that used to be meat" on the plate was screaming.
Even a necromancer would recoil from this.
"Eat up."
"If I eat that, I'll die!"
"......"
"Don't pretend it's fine and eat it! I said don't eat it! You'll seriously die!"
"L-let go."
"Don't act tough—I said don't eat it!"
I barely managed to stop Irene from putting that hideous thing—meat or whatever it was—into my mouth. One glance was enough to tell whether it was dangerous or safe.
Only a few minutes ago, Mierkant had said wistfully, "Heh heh heh. I'm truly sorry for doubting you, Zahard. I never thought I'd get to eat meat this delicious in my entire life..."—and now he was slumped over the table, trembling all over!
"What the hell did you do in the kitchen?!"
In the end, I rolled up my sleeves. I'd been planning to just freeload, but that wasn't going to work.
She's no help at all!
I strode into the kitchen.
"The outside is a lump of carbon, so why is the inside all squishy?!"
"I grilled it over high heat to get rid of the gamey smell."
Right in front of me, whoosh! Flames shot up. I stared blankly at the pile of every scrap of firewood that had been gathered together.
"This is ultra-high heat?! You'd burn down a whole thatched house with this!"
"Only greater firepower can purify the world..."
"Stop talking like an arsonist!"
I opened a cookbook. My hands moved quickly.
All knowledge in the world can be converted into skills—provided certain special conditions are met, of course...!
For a basic cooking skill, just reading a cookbook was enough!
[You have acquired Meat Cooking (F).]
I got the skill. That was enough. It was only F-rank, but all it really did was guide my hands.
Besides, in my original world I had plenty of experience working part-time at a barbecue restaurant!
This was a piece of cake!
[Exquisite fire control!]
[You have acquired Lightly Grilled Meat (C).]
[Due to Meat Cooking (F), the meat becomes a little chewier.]
[Meat Cooking (F)'s skill rank increases!]
I took a small bite. Done!
Yeah. Now this is meat!
"I'll take this!"
"It still has a gamey smell..."
"If it doesn't have a gamey smell, is that even meat?! Just eat it!"
Hector swallowed a piece of meat. He trembled, then his eyes rolled back.
"Th-this is... real... meat...?"
"A heavenly taste..."
"Holy shit... this is fucking delicious...!"
"Wh-why is it so good?!"
Mierkant, who had been sitting limply in his chair, reached for the meat. Irene was still trembling from the trauma of her own grilled meat, but after a moment she cautiously put a piece in her mouth.
".......!"
Do you know the expression of a deeply moved priest?
Mierkant was having a belated religious experience.
"...Oh God."
['Ra' is displeased.]
[She scoffs, asking what kind of reaction that is over a mere scrap of meat.]
"Would you like to try some?"
-........
A piece of meat quietly vanished. I heard chewing near my ear.
A few muffled little chewing sounds followed.
-...One...
I heard Ra's voice for the first time in a while.
-Give me just one more piece!
I knew it.
I'm a master at grilling meat!
"......"
Irene frowned, clearly unhappy that her cooking had been cleared away. When she pushed the meat dish away, I snatched the bowl from in front of her with a clack.
"Hey, if you don't want to eat it, then don't. It's not right to scowl in front of food."
"......."
Irene glared at me. Then she snatched the bowl back with a clack.
"I never said I wouldn't eat it."
And with that, one bite.
Irene trembled as if she'd been electrocuted. Her eyes widened and her hands sped up.
"It's good, right?"
"......"
With sauce on the corner of her mouth, Irene haughtily turned her head away.
"...It's passable."
Good.
I'll tame you too. Even in a scenario where you don't become the Blue Falcon, your talent with the sword is genuinely useful!
One more slave added!
. . .
The church changed quickly. I took command of the orphans I'd fed plenty of meat to.
"Let's start with the walls."
We didn't have enough money to hire workers. But we did have enough money to buy materials.
Crash!
We rebuilt the sections of wall that had collapsed here and there. The work was rough because the children had done it rather than professionals, but it was far better than before.
"Paint them too. Generously. Don't hold back."
"Wh-why do we have to do this kind of work?!"
Not everyone listened to me. Occasionally, there was a kid who acted up.
I smiled slightly. I approached the kid in a friendly way and patted his shoulder.
"Hey. Buddy. Think about it. That meat we ate until we were full just a couple days ago... do you know where it came from?"
"W-well, from donations...!"
"Right. Those donations. But where do those donations come from?"
I whispered like a snake.
"From the faithful, of course. The more followers the church has, the more we can eat our fill. So what should we do?"
"...Recruit followers?"
"Right! Exactly! But think about it. Imagine you're a believer. If you saw a church in this kind of mess, would it make you want to believe? Wouldn't it shake your faith instead?"
"...Ah... um..."
"Buddy. Even you think so, right?"
"Y-yeah."
Children are easier than adults. Their thinking is simple, and if you speak to them as if you respect them, they come around quickly.
"Then go work. We have to eat our fill again tomorrow."
"Wh-what about you?"
"Or I'll do the painting, and you give the orders."
I snatched the kid's paintbrush away and took a couple of steps.
"W-wait!"
Yeah. I knew he'd call me back.
"I-I'll do it! I don't really know what to do, so I can't do this kind of thing!"
A person suddenly saddled with a burden will naturally refuse it. Even more so if it's work they've never done before.
"You should've said so from the start. No complaints now, right?"
"Uh-huh..."
Good!
Work! Slaves!
Let's live a little more like human beings!
"Friends! Tear out the whole kitchen! Make everything sparkle! If you do a good job, I'll personally cook dinner tonight!"
Amid the cheers, I overhauled the entire church.
"Clean up the garden! You brats! It's too filthy to live with!"
We pulled the weeds and left the ground clean and neatly leveled.
"Tidy your rooms! Dust them off! Let's air the place out! Slaves! Move!"
"S-slaves..."
"Your way of talking is getting..."
"If you've got complaints, leave! But then no dinner tonight!"
"W-we'll do it!"
The rooms were spotless. Not a speck of dust remained.
After one deep cleaning after another, the place was finally fit to live in. The damaged spots had been repaired, and even the ugly gaps beneath the doors were patched.
I breathed in the fresh air. With the holes filled and the repairs finished, the warmth that had once leaked outside now stayed inside the building.
It wasn't cold. We were full. There was a warm place to sleep.
Overcome by three miracles in a row, Mierkant shed tears of joy.
"It feels like we've gone back to the old days... Zahard... it's all thanks to you... now I have no regrets even if I die..."
Judging by his eyes, he'd believe any bullshit I fed him. Right. Good. I'd train him well.
Heh heh.
Irene stared at me in disbelief. She seemed about to say something, then gave up.
"...This place really doesn't suit you."
What.
Are you still a hater?
"You suit the church headquarters better."
Oh, never mind.
She's a good person who knows talent when she sees it!
"Want another piece of meat?"
"...Sure. Why not."
Once the major construction was over, I could finally stretch my legs out. Hector and the others would be running around with the thugs for a while as I'd ordered... I could meet them in the early evening and work them through training.
Hmm.
It's safe to say all the urgent fires have been put out.
Was it about time to have that talk?
"Ra."
-......
"I know you're listening. Let's talk. Why did you bring me here?"
-You're quick to ask, aren't you, you damned brat.
Ra's voice came to me. I lay on my bed, in what was practically a room to myself, and stared up at the ceiling.
"You mentioned something before about a doomed world-line... don't tell me you're about to make me some fairy-tale hero."
-......
"Come on, seriously. That cliché would get a novel roasted. If I were a reader, I'd immediately post, 'Dropped.'"
-...You little colt. You really do just run your mouth...
"Is it true? It's not, right? If you're going to make me do something like that, I'll just live here however I want. I'll shake down the kids and live with my belly full."
-Why did I have to bring someone like this...
"What do you mean, someone like me? You're the one who dragged me away from a perfectly good life. Honestly, if it hadn't been me but some clueless idiot, they'd have frozen to death by now."
-Stop talking. Let's talk!
Flames flared up before my eyes. I adjusted my posture and sat up.
"I'm listening."
-What an ape of a man. Talking to you at length is exhausting, so I'll keep it short.
Something like a planet appeared before my eyes. I tried to grab it, but my hand passed through. An illusion.
-That's this world. We call this planet A-12.
"We're suddenly going cosmic?"
-Shut up and listen quietly.
The planet-like thing split apart. In an instant, it separated into hundreds of identical-looking planets and appeared before my eyes.
-Each one of these planets is a false world-line that split off from the original. I call them simulations. I run them and choose the best scenario from countless possibilities. As the world's administrator, my role is to select the best possible world-line.
"...Isn't that just rerolling? Choosing the account with the best gacha pull and playing it."
-Something like that. The game you played was part of a game simulation another god made for me. I had run into a situation with no answer, so that god tossed it into their own world to see whether another solution might emerge.
"Is that person the god of Earth or something?"
-That's enough about my junior god. We'd be here forever if I went into detail. Just listen. The game you played was originally impossible to clear. Yet several people broke through absurd odds and cleared it anyway. Those were the candidates I selected. I had to choose one of them to save my world.
"So this really is some otherworldly-hero story... but why me?"
-Because you were the most persistent.
"...Excuse me?"
Ra made all the other planets disappear, and the one remaining planet grew larger.
-You alone completed every achievement. You pushed through absurdly slim odds and cleared scenarios packed with SSS-rank danger. You grabbed every trap I deliberately scattered in plain sight and still made it to the end. I had no choice but to pick you, the candidate with the best chance of success.
"No. Shit! So the sudden difficulty spike was because of that?! Do you know how hard I worked to clear it?!"
-In the first place, that wasn't a game! It was closer to a test I set! If you talk back one more time, I'll set your head on fire!
"...Ah, yes."
-Don't pout like that. It makes me want to smack you once.
Ra cleared her throat, then suddenly lowered her voice.
-I used to manage this world without much trouble. But at some point, a great hole appeared. It grew larger by the day, and now it's nearly big enough to swallow my entire world.
"Summarize it in three lines, please."
-...Do you really want to be set on fire?
"Skip the long epic and just tell me the outcome. You said you didn't want to talk to me for long either, right? The whole 'In the beginning, there was nothing' stuff is kind of boring."
-Why did I have to bring something like this...
Ra sighed.
-Fine. I'll give you the short version. First: I manage this world. Second: an unavoidable destruction scenario has settled onto the original world-line, not one of the simulations. And for the record, I didn't cause it. Something from 'outside' did. Third: you need to deal with it.
"How am I supposed to do that?"
-Every simulation I ran ended horribly. Something from outside this world corrupted people who were meant to live in the original world. I call them the Fallen. The ones who fall in the simulations include... the Immortals. The Weeping Nuns. The Royal Knights. Astina's Dog... all names you've heard before.
"...They're all characters from the game, right? Sometimes enemies, sometimes allies. And sometimes... aren't those the main NPCs who end up becoming the final bosses themselves?"
Ra agreed.
-Correct. My world's destruction will come at the hands of one of the Fallen. No one knows how. What matters is that at some point, nothing but a fathomless void remains to greet me. You've always won in situations where you never knew who would fall or turn against you, haven't you? So help me. Guide the people who might fall. Kill those who do in my name, and save this world. That's your purpose.
"Hold on."
Hmm.
Let me sort this out.
"This world is real, right? It isn't a simulation, so we only get one chance."
-Correct.
"Since it'll be similar to the game, scenarios I've never experienced will unfold before my eyes?"
-That's right.
"...In a situation where I don't know who'll stab me in the back, I have to pick out the Fallen among the important NPCs and kill them?"
-You're quite glib. That's a rather fine summary.
I smiled.
"And what do I get in return?"
-Infinite glory and the opportunity to serve at my side...
"Not doing it. Fuck that."
I sprawled out on my back.
"Who do you take me for, a sucker?"