Chapter 36
Chapter 36
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: The Empress's Epiphany
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Great Lord Igugwoden!
The mere fact that they had pinpointed where He resided filled them with a sense of ascension to yet another level.
Evolution. Recognizing the divine, transforming into a higher-dimensional being!
Igugwoden!
—All things exist to fulfill the words of the god.
The words of the god must be made reality.
But there was still so much preparation needed before they could fulfill the "words of the god."
In a state where they couldn't even properly manipulate the world's time, it was only natural they couldn't dare trespass into the divine realm.
To make such an immense feat reality, their learning and divine power were still insufficient.
Once it became clearer. Once they gained even more power... someday, they would turn the words of the god into reality.
The god's generous bestowal of "divine power" meant sacrificing Himself to grant them the world.
The clearer their existence became through that power, the more they felt it—the warmth and grandeur of the god's love.
—All He desires is their continued sponsorship from the god.
To fulfill the words of the god, they needed only the god's divine power.
As long as the god continued providing "divine power," there was no need to provoke His displeasure.
They signaled their agreement to one another.
It was less an expression and more a resonance.
—So that Lord Igugwoden will cherish our world.
So that Lord Igugwoden will not abandon us.
—Long live Lord Igugwoden!
All for Lord Igugwoden alone.
* * *
The fateful day.
The very day they recognized Lord Igugwoden's existence and realized He cherished and loved them.
Eirene kept replaying that moment in her heart, the one that had transformed her entirely.
She no longer denied the existence of the god.
The god exists, and we, His creations, revere Him as "Igugwoden." To Eirene, He was something a bit more special—her Master.
The one and only being who could possess her.
It felt like waking from a sweet dream, but Eirene didn't want to dismiss it as mere sensation from an illusory world.
'Was it... really just an illusion?'
Even now, closing her eyes brought it back as vividly as yesterday.
The rainy day, holding hands as they slipped out of Igugwoden Citadel.
The time she was carried on his back, blushing furiously at being called "ripe."
The moments spent at the monastery they reached together—the happiest, most peaceful times of her life...
She had realized upon returning here that they were illusions.
Yet what she felt was emptiness.
Igeon's breath still lingered deep in her heart, but if that was merely part of a "divine descent experience" shown by the god—
'……!'
In that instant.
A thought flashed through Eirene's mind like lightning.
'That's right. Perhaps... it could be...!'
If the thought struck, she had to act.
Eirene rose immediately from her throne and hurried off.
* * *
"They have just passed through the castle gates, Your Majesty."
At her adjutant's words, Eirene nodded from within the carriage.
"It's not far from here. Proceed straight ahead as instructed."
"Yes, ma'am!"
Her choice was to head straight to Aegerdeng Monastery.
An emperor's movement brought all sorts of nuisances, so she waited until nightfall. For a secret visit, the darkness was convenient.
Though dark, the monastery wasn't far from Igugwoden Citadel.
She had visited only once, but of course she remembered the path. How could she forget the road she walked with no one less than Lord Igugwoden—with Igeon?
After cresting a few hills, Eirene halted the procession, stepped down from the carriage, and ordered her adjutant.
"Stand guard and wait here. I'll go the rest of the way alone."
Looking down with her chin slightly raised in imperious fashion, the soldiers bowed their heads and shouted.
"Yes, ma'am! Understood!"
She had decided to go alone for one reason.
She couldn't let her soldiers see her disheveled.
After all, just approaching this place made her heart race wildly as a woman.
Thump, thump.
"You've ripened nicely."
"No need to be disappointed. Quite the opposite—it's good. You've ripened so well. I think there's beauty in resonances that can only be created with time."
Just recalling that voice tickled her insides mercilessly.
Her legs twitched involuntarily. That gentle voice stirred her depths.
It invaded her relentlessly, as if determined to leave clear proof of his presence here.
Igeon, Lord Igugwoden, was a god. She knew she couldn't meet Him.
Yet... why did her heart pound like this?
'I miss you... Lord Igugwoden...'
After a short deep breath, she pressed on.
Past this hill, turning left, the view that should appear—
'……!!'
Eirene froze in place.
She had no choice.
There was... nothing.
No trace of the monastery anywhere.
Just a few trees. Trees that had stood beside the food stall from her days of volunteer work with Igeon.
Confirming that tree shattered even the doubt that her memory was wrong.
'…….'
Eirene wandered the empty lot in a daze.
—I knew this would happen.
That it was an illusory world.
That it was a place like magic, created by the god to grant her enlightenment... She knew that.
When she came to, Erin leaning on her with the holy scripture was the biggest proof.
So why had she come here?
What had she hoped for?
Blessed with the god's love by chance, realizing His existence, serving Him as Master—what more could a creation greedily desire?
Why had she rushed here... to seek traces of him...
"……."
Tears welled in Eirene's eyes once more.
She, who had been pointed at as heartless for never shedding a tear.
Whenever she thought of Lord Igugwoden, tears flowed uncontrollably.
Her sole master. The being she wanted to serve with body and soul...
'Igeon... Lord Igugwoden...'
Eirene prayed quietly in the empty lot.
Thank you for loving me.
I will live this life for Lord Igugwoden.
In cooperation with the Igugwoden Church, until the plain facts of Lord Igugwoden spread across the world—
'……Huh?'
A sound in that moment.
Quiet, but clear.
—The sound of flowing water.
Eirene followed it.
Pushing through bushes and trees, she reached the source—
'……!!!!'
...A massive hot spring.
An inexplicable hot spring, its presence here defying understanding.
And Eirene wasn't seeing it for the first time. After all, she had been here—
"……Your Majesty?"
"!!!"
Turning at the woman's voice—
There stood the virgin chosen by the god—Saintess Erin.
"Saintess...?"
"What brings Your Majesty here?"
"W-Well..."
To the flustered Eirene, Erin pondered briefly—
Then curved her lips in a strikingly charming smile.
"Care to join me?"
* * *
Splash—
As the two women entered, the hot spring water surged as if it might drain away.
But it wouldn't. This was no ordinary hot spring.
Saintess Erin. Truly chosen by the god, she possessed an overwhelming divine power pouch unmatched by any peer.
Her snow-white skin and platinum hair that shone just as brilliantly exuded a sacred beauty so evident that even a stranger would call her a saintess.
And beside her, the empire's ruler—Empress Eirene von Ainsberg.
Despite her age, her skin was as taut as Erin's.
Moreover, perhaps because of her age, her figure was lethally voluptuous, oppressively so.
Bonus: breasts so absurdly massive they rivaled Erin's gigantic divine power pouch.
A convention of divinely chosen women with magnificent bosoms.
If the god beheld this sight, He would surely let slip an "Uhuhu" of delight.
"Is that true, Saintess?"
"Yes. This hot spring was granted to me by Lord Igugwoden."
According to Erin, praying to Lord Igugwoden made the spring water overflow.
Normally, Eirene would dismiss it as religious nonsense, but now she knew Erin wasn't one to lie.
"I see..."
"Perhaps because it's blessed by the god, no one has known of this place until now. Only I could perceive it."
As she said, not a soul stirred nearby.
She instinctively knew no one else could ever come here. A phenomenon inexplicable save by "the will of the god."
"But Your Majesty finding it... probably means."
—That Your Majesty has been chosen as well.
"I've... been chosen?"
"Yes. Just like me... proof that you're receiving Lord Igugwoden's abundant love."
Erin slowly approached Eirene... and gently brushed her water-soaked side-swept hair.
"I'm glad Your Majesty has received the god's love too. Hehe..."
"……."
The god's love— Igeon's... Lord Igugwoden's love.
Eirene's heart pounded fiercely once more.
"Um... Saintess. I have a question."
"Ask away."
"The god... I mean, the plain facts of the god you shared with me... were they all just illusions?"
Even her deposition.
Even becoming a sacrifice for a new era.
And the god manifesting briefly to stop it...
"All of it... illusions?"
Erin closed her eyes silently.
Then clasped her hands in prayer.
The saintess's prayer—perhaps the only one that could reach the god.
"The god exists."
"Yes. I know that now."
"I, a mere proxy of the god, can't know what Your Majesty experienced... but whatever it was, it can't be dismissed as mere 'illusion.' Proof of that—"
—You're in this hot spring, aren't you?
"……!!!"
Yes.
This hot spring... the one where she gazed at the starry sky about to pour down, it existed just as in reality!
Then everything she went through... was real.
"All is the will of the god, Lady Eirene."
"Saintess..."
Eirene felt a corner of her heart warm once more.
This was a plain fact. A dish of Lord Igugwoden's utterly plain facts being stuffed relentlessly into her body and soul even now.
"...Until I confirmed Lord Igugwoden's visage in the portrait, I couldn't bring myself to know. Whether I could believe in the god, or beyond that—believe in people."
"!!!"
"But now it's different. Since learning of Lord Igugwoden, I can believe in people. Even if faith betrays me, believing isn't a sin... Lord Igugwoden taught me that."
"When you can believe in someone, you can move forward..."
Eirene looked up at the sky.
Countless stars twinkled.
Stars embedded in Eirene's blue eyes. One star for faith, one for love.
"I will establish the Igugwoden Church as the official state religion of the imperial family."
"……!"
"I'll announce it tomorrow. So that Lord Igugwoden's plain facts can be shared with the whole world..."
Eirene turned and smiled at Erin, her benefactor.
It was a resonant smile. One of profound beauty and warmth, impossible without the thirty-six years of solitude and the enlightenment that followed.
"Please take care of me from now on, Saintess."
The saintess smiled wordlessly and took her hand.
The moment they overcame the greatest barrier to spreading Lord Igugwoden's words.
* * *
Indeed.
This moment truly breached the barrier.
For Erin, whose greatest goal was propagating the god's will—even winning over the empress—it was profoundly meaningful.
Yet Erin couldn't simply revel in it. Couldn't blissfully ponder the future.
That remark, uttered with the happy expression of a girl in love.
"...Until I confirmed Lord Igugwoden's visage in the portrait, I couldn't bring myself to know."
She confirmed His visage?
Your Majesty... directly beheld Lord Igugwoden's face?
A face even I don't know?
Why...?
"Give it all to me." Those were the god's words. Erin had never once thought to defy them.
Yet one phrase kept circling her mind—
—Why... before me...
to someone else
did You show Your face, Lord Igugwoden?