Merchandise of a God
The World Tree Order's festival had ended in spectacular success. From what Rinea told me, more than ten times the expected number of elves had poured in—so many that it would hardly have been an exaggeration to say every elf in this world had gathered in one place.
"God, you were wonderful!"
Even Rinea had shown a different face once she stood on the official stage. I had always thought of her as endlessly energetic, something of a tomboy, yet during the festival she had carried herself with a surprising measure of decorum. Of course, the moment we came back, that composure vanished without a trace. I, for my part, simply savored the elven women of the shrine changing me back into everyday clothes.
I didn't have to lift a finger; they dressed me of their own accord. It had been embarrassing the first time, but this was the second, and I was growing used to it. Back in my original world, Haru and Maru changed my clothes for me as well, so I had little resistance left to being dressed by someone else's hands.
"So is that the end of it, Rinea?"
I asked with my curiosity plain in the question. I was, after all, the one they called a god, and I had come down in person—yet the whole affair seemed to have wrapped up a little too quietly. There were surely other events still to come, but that was how it felt so far. Rinea looked at me as she answered.
"Originally the festival was planned in four parts...! But we were afraid you might dislike it, God..."
To put her words simply, she wanted to show me off as often as she could, yet she was holding herself back for fear I would find it too exhausting. I didn't offer much of a reply. If I so much as hinted that I wanted to appear more often, they would roll me out without mercy—that much was obvious. I didn't know whether my feelings might change later, but for now the urge to loaf around was far stronger.
"You did well. Any more of it, and I think I would have been completely wiped out."
I praised her for bringing the festival to a close at just the right moment, and Rinea, clearly pleased, broke into a bright smile. Before I knew it, the elven women who had been changing my clothes slipped out of the room, leaving only the two of us.
The chamber looked finer than the royal apartments I had only ever seen on television—so brilliant it might as well have been a king's bedroom lifted whole and set down here. Glittering jewels were set into this room as well. With gems embedded in every surface the eye could find, I finally understood just how much money the Order was making.
I sat quietly on the bed, and Rinea stole a glance at me, reading my mood. Catching that look, I spoke.
"If you've got something to say, you can say it, Rinea."
"Well... it does concern the Order, but it requires your permission, God..."
What she brought me, hesitating all the while, was a document. Its contents were simple.
The Order shall produce a variety of goods in the likeness of God, so that God's image may be made widely known among the elves—and, incidentally, so that revenue may be earned.
Even if I refused, I had a feeling they would make the things eventually anyway, so I gave my approval without a second thought.
"Do whatever you like!"
Perhaps because I had thrown myself into the festival all day, fatigue soon caught up with me, and I dragged my tired body onto the bed. This child's body still demanded a great deal of sleep. Seeing me like that, Rinea quietly rose and left the room.
"Have a pleasant night, God!"
"You sleep well too, Rinea!"
I tossed the good-night back at her and sank into sleep, never once imagining just how fast the World Tree's Order could move.
"Eh...?"
When I woke the next morning, I ate a lavish meal and made my way back to the room. What greeted me there was none other than merchandise produced in less than a day. At that speed, it would have been fair to say they had already finished the prototypes before I ever gave my permission.
"Isn't this a little too fast?"
"Please think of it as the devotion of the faithful who serve you, God. Master artisans of more than seven hundred years gathered like clouds and brought forth these masterpieces!"
Rinea explained them one by one as she spoke.
"You may begin with the prototype statues here. They were carved from wood grown in the finest groves. Statues made in your image, God—and we tried our hand at a variety of poses!"
Making them life-sized would have been no small labor, of course, so the statues were very small—small enough to rest in the palm of a hand. Even so, perhaps because master artisans had made them, they were so precise, and so perfectly identical to me, that they hardly bore comparison with anything from the modern world. Curious how they had managed it, I asked Rinea.
"How did you make them like this?"
"With magic and spirits, nothing is impossible, God."
The craft of this place was advanced enough in its own right, but she said they had been made with magic and the arts of spirits—things that simply did not exist in the modern world. As a bonus, I received the monstrous answer that if they put their minds to it, they could turn out tens of thousands a day.
Marveling at this world's capacity for production, I picked up a statue and turned it this way and that. It felt less like a sculpture and more like a figure.
"This will be the first time elves across the world see your true form with their own eyes, God—not the shape of the World Tree—so we made them with the greatest care."
Rinea, I decided, would have made an excellent merchant. Listening to her, I felt as if I might buy the thing in a trance. Of course, I had no reason to purchase this statue. It was modeled after me, and that made it embarrassing. I had wondered once or twice what celebrities thought when they looked at merchandise made in their own image. Now that I was in that position myself, I found there was, in fact, a certain shame to it.
They were taking my appearance, making a god of it, and worshipping it. And didn't people usually settle on a single pose when carving a statue, just to keep the work manageable? Holding up the figures struck in all their various poses, I asked Rinea.
"Why are there so many different poses?"
She answered as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"To stir the desire to collect, of course! A single pose would be a little dull, wouldn't it? And with our techniques, limiting ourselves to only one would have been a shame."
"R...right? But are there actually elves who buy things like this? I don't think I would..."
Even in modern society, the number of people who bought figures like these was vanishingly small. Hobbies deserved respect, so I had nothing to criticize, but simply purchasing one probably put you in the top one percent. Most people not only never bought figures—they didn't even know such things existed.
"We won't be able to keep them in stock, God. The moment the statues go on sale, they'll sell out—that's a certainty. I've already reserved one of every pose at the shop."
"You're buying these too, Rinea?"
I said it while turning over a statue frozen mid-cheer, both arms thrown high. I had no idea why it was striking that pose.
"I am the shrine maiden of the World Tree—of course I must buy them! No, I can say with certainty that there is not a single elf who would refuse!"
"Is the price expensive, or cheap?"
I asked uncertainly, having no sense of what this world's currency was worth. Whenever I had used a shop until now, I had relied on Rinea's favor, so I knew very little about the actual goods of this place.
"We set a very reasonable price! God, are you perhaps short of money? Say the word, and I will open the Order's storehouse and fill your pockets to the brim! Our elven faithful offer a portion of their income every year, so the Order's storehouse is always full!"
So I'm rich here too. My own wealth was starting to frighten me. According to Rinea, the shrine's vault was effectively my wallet. If I wanted, I could draw from it as much as I pleased. I had no idea how much they had stockpiled, but she told me there was no need to worry. Like a national pension, the elves voluntarily offered up a share of their income, and so the vault was always full.
"I don't need any right now..."
I set the statue down as I said it. To think they were working so hard to earn money just to fill my wallet. It felt like I was getting something for nothing, and the feeling left me uneasy. When I had been a man, I was nothing but a penniless unemployed nobody; after my body changed, I had become rich enough that no one would have envied me in vain. To think life had something like this in store.
"And these are glossy prints made from photographs of you, God..."
For a while after that, I had no choice but to listen to Rinea go on about the merchandise bearing my image. They were goods with my face on them, so I had to look over each piece and inspect it myself. If any of it turned out strange, or the quality was poor, it would be like throwing cold water over the elves who bought it.
My own face was on the line with these goods; giving them a careful inspection at least once was only proper! And Rinea, seeing me like that, only smiled brighter and launched into an even more detailed explanation.