Paradise (3)
“You’re late.”
“No way... weren’t you reincarnated...?”
The Hero was utterly flustered at the sight of his deceased wife standing right in front of him, and I let out a small chuckle as I watched him.
Well, of course he would be. When someone you thought was already dead and reincarnated suddenly shows up alive and well before your eyes—who wouldn’t freak out? Exactly.
I gave the Hero’s shoulder a light pat and said, “Strictly speaking, your wife has already reincarnated.”
“Huh? But she’s right here in front of me...”
“I gathered up the fragments of her po soul that hadn’t fully dissipated in the Underworld, pieced them back together, and reconstructed her using your memories of her. She’s like a clone that’s inherited your wife’s memories. Of course, she has no hun soul of her own, and since she was remade based on your memories, she can’t even move properly without you around.”
While creating Paradise and linking it to the Underworld, I’d stumbled upon those remnants of her po soul left behind after her reincarnation. A normal po soul would’ve vanished in days, but even fragmented and mostly lost as it was, the fact that some of it from her reincarnation years ago still lingered... well, you could call it a miracle.
“Even for me, reassembling shattered po soul fragments wasn’t easy. It took up about half the forty-nine days since you died—right up to now.”
Creating Paradise itself hadn’t been as tough as I’d expected. Since it was a non-material space, I didn’t need to build everything from scratch; I just had to implement changes that reacted to souls, which was a bit of a hassle. If I’d just made it a simple soul-storage vault, I could’ve wrapped it up in three days.
Hmm. After finishing the basics, the rest of the time went into features like letting souls shift into desired forms, separating po souls so only the hun reincarnates... that sort of entry-exit system. It’s weird, honestly—starting a world from scratch like this felt way easier than tweaking an existing one. And once it was made, reshaping this new world was a breeze compared to fiddling with the pre-existing one. It was almost like I should’ve done it this way from the start.
“Incredible... I don’t fully get it, but wow.”
The Hero started inspecting his wife from every angle. She looked just like she had in life, after all! Though without a hun soul... her emotions were a bit muted, and she’d zone out sometimes. But that’s unavoidable without a hun; there’s nothing I can do about it.
Hmm.
“Honestly, I can’t tell there’s no hun or whatever. Anyway, dear, you look good as your younger self.”
From his wife’s words, the Hero realized his body had reverted to his youth. Even the sword on his back. Not the real one, though! I’ve got the genuine Hero’s Sword.
“Here, you get your prime physical form back. It’s whatever you think of as your peak. That sword on your back isn’t the real deal, but it’ll perform just like it.”
The Hero drew the sword from his back. His younger self from back when we adventured together, gaining experience. The fearless days when he smashed monsters without a second thought.
Hmm. Nice to see this look again after so long.
“So... what am I supposed to do here?”
“I didn’t really have anything specific in mind for you to do.”
“Huh?”
I chuckled softly at his surprised expression.
“You just live here, that’s all. Do whatever you want, and if you feel like it, give newcomers the rundown as a senior resident.”
Not that it’s mandatory, of course. I just want folks who deserve eternal happiness to actually get it here.
“A senior, huh...”
“Just explaining things is enough—no need to stress.”
There isn’t much to explain anyway. The Hero nodded at my words.
“Got it. Never done any explaining before, but I’ll give it a shot.”
“Good. Make yourself at home, then. I’ve got some business to handle.”
“Huh? Business?”
“Yeah, just a quick errand.”
Leaving the Hero behind, I slipped out of Paradise. And the Underworld gods got three skullfuls of payback.
“I didn’t ask for much! I just said to wrap up that kid’s soul trial quick and send her off easy—and you slap a crime on her? A ridiculous one at that?!”
“No, that’s not—”
“Crime of monopolizing a god? Monopolizing a god? That guy?! He asked, sure, but I made the call! You should’ve come to me first, you idiot!!! And what pisses me off even more—you tried to pin a nonexistent crime on an innocent soul! You moron!!!!!”
My punch shattered the veil crown on Yanluo’s head, leaving a massive dent in his skull. But he won’t die from a beating like this! He’s a god, after all!
“Gahk!!”
“Be grateful to the others that you’re still in one piece. If you’d actually pinned that crime on her, my rage would’ve demolished the Underworld. What’s the point of it if it can’t properly judge the dead?!”
“S-sorry...”
Yanluo groveled on the ground, with the other two standing silently to either side. Watching Yanluo get pulverized, they trembled slightly—probably realizing they’d be smashed too if they’d agreed with him.
“H-haa, but... it’s true that one human wasted the goddess’s time—”
“Shut your mouth!”
My uppercut launched Yanluo’s body into the air, tracing a perfect arc before crashing down.
“Don’t let anything like this happen again. Got it?”
“Y-yes! Understood...”
Leaving the thoroughly wrecked Yanluo behind, I turned to Thanatos and Ceres.
“You two as well. Be careful with bad judgments.”
“Yes. We’ll keep it in mind.”
“Yeees! I told you guys it was a bad idea so many times. Self-inflicted wound, Yanluo.”
I could kinda understand why Yanluo thought that way, but what he did was way too outrageous. Still, I beat him plenty... so he won’t pull any more innocent framing stunts.
Paradise. Heaven. Eden. Utopia. Shangri-La. And many other names for that land.
A world free of pain, brimming only with satisfaction. A realm where one escapes the harsh struggles and agonies of the mortal plane, plunging into eternal bliss.
They say only a tiny fraction who pass the Underworld’s strict judgment can enter this happy world.
The proper way in is to pass that trial, but that’s no easy feat. So some wizards—necromancers, who bind dead souls as minions—devised an unorthodox method.
Summon souls of heroes clearly in Paradise back to the mortal world, then send them back and trace the path to forge a door into Paradise.
But it wasn’t simple. Hero souls are noble entities in themselves, beyond ordinary handling. And crafting a Paradise door with them required immense mana.
To pull it off, powerful wizards gathered. Pooling their strength, they crafted a ritual.
They drew vast mana from ley lines to fuel it.
Used mana to forge false bodies, holding the heroes’ souls briefly.
Bound them with powerful contracts in case the bodied heroes rebelled.
And finally, built a massive soul vessel to temporarily bind the heroes’ hun souls as they shed the false bodies and returned to Paradise.
Thus, seven heroes from Paradise were summoned and granted bodies.
But here’s the problem.
To open the Paradise door, they needed six of those seven hero souls. And the door would let through only one person.
So the wizards went to war over the door.
The bodied heroes fought to savor one more life.
And war broke out.
“That’s the novel’s plot. Whaddya think?”
“Whoa...”
The sleepy-eyed girl blinked awake a bit, staring at the book her friend held up.
“Past heroes summoned to partner with wizards and fight! No true mage’s heart wouldn’t race at that!”
“Well, yeah, I guess... ahem. It’s... okay, maybe.”
The sleepy-eyed girl felt a complicated mix of emotions.
“Oh, and it’s based on a true story. They say it’s drawn from that old serial wizard murder case.”
“True story, huh...”