King of the Gods (2)
"King of the Gods. His name is Baal."
The inscription carved into that small stone fragment I'd obtained from an old man immediately caught my eye. Gods wouldn't tolerate anyone above them—surely they couldn't have a king. Yet this fragment of a stone tablet from ancient times flatly denied that fact.
Should I believe the widely accepted truth? Or this tiny, shabby piece of tablet? Common sense told me this little rock was nothing—toss it aside. But my gut screamed otherwise. It shouted that the truth this fragment held was anything but ordinary.
After that, I began investigating the stone fragment in various ways. Material: marble. Dating magic revealed the tablet's creation era as the time when gods walked the earth. The age of the gods. The era when archetypes of myths scattered across the world truly existed. Whether this tablet from that time held truth or lies about a king of gods—I couldn't easily judge.
But... it was worth investigating. In an era when countless gods lived alongside humans, with scarce records or unearthed relics remaining, uncovering what happened could bring me great wealth and fame.
First things first: the king of gods. Baal. Unearthing the truth of that name would be step one. The king of gods—put another way, the highest among them—might be the Goddess of Life... but for now, let's set her aside. What I needed to find was the king of gods buried in forgotten history.
With Baal as my sole clue, I'd search myths scattered across the world's regions for Baal or similar names. If luck was on my side... I'd find another lead.
And with that, the coronation ceremony came to an end. Baal's final words had turned everything into a total mess, and Sagarmatha had erupted like a volcano in a rare burst of rage—but hey, it was over.
Yeah. Naturally, the next steps were calming down the wildly thrashing Sagarmatha somehow, then scolding Baal.
"Baal. That last remark of yours—wasn't it unnecessary?"
"But I needed to declare it was mine."
"All things in this world?"
It reminded me of some pirate king who claimed he'd left all the world's treasures somewhere, but whatever, I'd let that slide for now.
"Anyway, the coronation went off without a hitch, didn't it? That's what matters, right? The gods in the plaza didn't raise any objections either."
"The plaza gods all scattered at once to tour the Pantheon once it ended—so of course they didn't! But Sagarmatha was furious!"
That was the first time I'd seen that kid blow up like that. They say quiet people are terrifying when they snap—and it holds true even for gods, not just humans.
But why had Sagarmatha gotten so mad? Did Baal's words rub him the wrong way? He was always so taciturn, so it was even harder to figure out. Did it hit a nerve somehow? Thanks to that, I ended up spending time with him to cool his temper...
Hmm. Just hanging out to soothe him—such easy kids. As their mom, it worries me. What if some sleazy guy sweet-talks them? I won't approve anyone who isn't a proper job-hav—er, god!
"So, what does a king of gods actually do?"
"Well... about that."
I pulled the rolled-up papyrus scroll from my bosom and handed it to Baal.
"It's a list containing the names of every god in this world. Study it and memorize them all."
Infinite scroll listing all gods. Linked to GodTalk for automatic updates.
Names of Baal and Creator omitted (self-explanatory).
The hefty scroll was packed with names. Starting with Baal, it was filled with gods' names, and even after unrolling and unrolling, it seemed endless. Well, it was a magic-made scroll, so that was expected. I'd enchanted it with infinite extension and a spell linking it to GodTalk to copy over every registered god's name automatically—as long as GodTalk existed!
The minor issue was that my name and Baal's weren't on it, but whatever—that was trivial. Who ever has their own name in their messenger friend list anyway? For Baal's, I'd just omitted it. No need for his name on a list he'd be checking.
"All of these...?"
"Memorize 'em all if you can, but as many as possible will do."
At my words, Baal dropped one end of the scroll, and it began unspooling across the floor.
"How am I supposed to memorize this?!"
The scroll hit the ground and kept unfurling endlessly, looping around the throne area. If left alone, there'd be no room to stand, so I grabbed it with mana, halted the roll, and rewound it automatically.
"How do I memorize all these names?!"
"Hmm... can't?"
"I can't!"
This wasn't working. Sigh.
"No king memorizes every single subject's name anyway! It's not like kings have to know them all!"
"Hmm... you're right."
Gods were even born from little hills and streams—memorizing every tiny one would be tough. For humans, it'd be like memorizing tens of millions of citizens' names. Wait, population's grown; it's over a million now per country or something.
"Fine, then. Carry this scroll around and check names as needed. Memorize the major influential gods, at least."
"Ugh... annoying, but no choice! I'll give it a shot!"
Good. The effort itself is what counts.
"By the way, got a name for this scroll?"
"A name? Didn't really think of one."
"Hey! That's no good! Everything touched by Gaia's hand—even the smallest thing—becomes extraordinary! Give it a proper name!"
Hmm. Fair point. From a human perspective, yeah. That obsidian spear I fixed for the lizardmen way back... they still treat it like treasure.
"How about 'Roster of the Gods'?"
"Too plain and literal. Hmm... Pantheon Roster. It's a list of all gods, so Pantheon Roster it is."
Huh, similar to Pantheon. Whatever, doesn't matter. It'll be in Baal's hands from now on—call it whatever he wants.
The Pantheon is the grand hall of all gods. Thus, everything about gods is said to be found there—making it inevitable for researching a god named Baal. Of course, the Pantheon is a realm forbidden to humans, so direct entry for investigation was impossible.
However, some gods who favored humans enjoyed sharing their possessions with mortals. And among those shared items was knowledge known only to gods.
The list of gods. The Pantheon Roster was one such example. Known to be penned by the Goddess of Life, this list held countless gods' names—but gods themselves could access only portions. The versions passed to humans were even scantier.
Humans had compiled those fragments into their own lists of gods. Crude compared to the original held by the Goddess of Life, but it at least organized the varied regional rosters—a godsend for them.
These lists were managed by the Church of Life, though greedy sorts occasionally leaked them for a few silver coins. For someone like me, conducting less-than-upstanding research, that was a blessing.
I spent a bit to collect as many Pantheon Roster copies as possible—from lists thousands of years old to recent ones. At first, it felt like a waste, but after meticulously poring over them for ages, I grasped some results.
First: countless gods' names. No Baal among them. No position called "king of gods" either. Gods appeared and vanished across volumes, but Baal was thoroughly absent.
I was deeply disappointed at first. Was Baal a fabrication after all? Was I chasing shadows?
Then, a spark hit my mind like lightning.
What if Baal truly existed as the king of gods? Maybe he wasn't missing from the list—what if he simply didn't need to be on it? Like the most famous god, the Goddess of Life, absent from these rosters.
Perhaps the king of gods' name didn't belong on such a list. With that thought, I rechecked the rosters, scanning gods and their domains.
A true king of gods would oversee something fitting. So, amid myriad gods for elements, world trees, sacred mountains, seas, vast plains, wide rivers, raging storms... one domain stood empty.
The sky. In myths worldwide, across diverse pantheons... no god of the sky existed.
As if that seat was reserved. So, if Baal existed—if he was the king of gods...
He would be the god of the sky.