Chapter 101

Chapter Intermission Just Pretend You Don’t Know Gods’ Games We Play A gleaming silver city—the Myth City of Heckt-Scheherezade—drifted through a perfectly blue sky, higher than the birds, higher than even the clouds. No one visited its library, where millions of old records lay dormant. It was the quietest place in the whole city, which also made it the most secret—the spot best suited for conversations that shouldn’t be overheard. There would be no one to see, no one to listen. That was why this had always been the favored meeting place, the home base, of the five people who made up Mind Over Matter. Or perhaps more accurately, the four gods and one human. “They’re going to come here tomorrow, I hear.” “Bwha?! H-Heleneia, sweetie, that’s news to me-ow!” A girl with red hair jumped back so dramatically that she fell out of her chair. At first glance, she looked delicate and weak, but her eyes, wide in her exaggerated reaction, burned with immeasurable power. She was the Great Beast Nibelung, the god who had offered the cornerstone of Superhuman Arises to humanity, and now she slammed both her hands on the desk. “Are mew talking about that human, Fay?!” “Nibel, please.” Across from her, the girl called Heleneia sighed quietly. She, too, appeared delicate, with lavender hair and jade-green eyes. “I believe I sent an electronic message to the team stating that Fay and his companions appeared to have left Ruin early yesterday morning.” “Mew know I don’t like reading! Mew have to tell this one with your words!” “Fine…” Heleneia was the leader, and she’d only done the leader’s duty of reporting information, but for some reason, Nibelung was mad at her. “They’re traveling by special express train. They just arrived in the Flower-Viewing City of Aerlrith.” “Meowhat?! That’s practically on our doorstep! Heleneia, mew have to tell us such important things sooner!” “…I did tell you.” Heleneia sighed again, sadly this time. “They didn’t reach out to Arcane Court headquarters. They’re pretending their trip is all about sightseeing, and I’m sure they’ll come up with an excuse to come to headquarters when they arrive here. A friendly tour of the facility, something like that.” “Ah-ha-ha! We’d better be ready for the paw-ssibility that they’ll figure out who we really are!” The red-haired girl, Nibel, climbed back onto her chair. Where Heleneia looked concerned and thoughtful, Nibel swaggered like she was in complete control of the situation. “It’s all good for this one, but mew’ll have problems if they sniff you out, right, Heleneia? You do have that human parent, after all. Meowthing could be more of a shock than finding out one’s own daughter was a god in a past life!” “I’m going to play dumb.” “…Gonna try to put them off the scent? If they have the snake with them, they’ll find us for sure.” “Nonetheless.” Heleneia sounded firm and resolute. “Uroboros can say whatever she wants; there’s no way for the humans to verify it. I simply won’t give her the time of day.” “Hmm? If mew say so, Heleneia…” “The snake, Uroboros, will not come.” “What?” “Bwuh?” The two girls were absolutely flummoxed by this interjection from a boy’s soprano voice. “Elder…,” Heleneia said. “Are mew sure about that, ol’ Ararasoragi?” They turned toward the voice. A boy with brown hair sat on the library floor, gazing into the air. He was charmingly boyish, but his behavior and tone exuded maturity beyond his apparent years. “Sure? What a question.” He continued to stare into space. The boy—or, more appropriately, the god Ararasoragi, King of the Spirits—had observed this with supernatural powers. He saw what happened in faraway lands. “That snake just ran off from the hot springs region of Aerlrith.” “Why?” Heleneia asked. “Yeah, meowhat’s going on?” Nibelung chimed in. “Ah… So that’s the reason. Mmm… Yes, that’s substantial indeed.” “Sorry?” “Hmm… What a…truly cosmic scale! Yes, the sight of such a thing would certainly spark the competitive nature of the snake Uroboros.” “Erm…Elder?” “Hey, ol’ Ararasoragi, mew gotta actually talk to us.” The two girls didn’t understand what the brown-haired boy was saying, nor why he was now nodding to himself with a look of conviction on his face. “No… I don’t believe I shall tell you. It would be too cruel to you.” The god in the form of a brown-haired boy shook his head. He sounded oddly disappointed. “Heleneia, Nibel. This is for your own good. Yes… One expects much healthy growth in the future.” “…Uh?” Heleneia made a perplexed sound. “Hey, ol’ Ararasoragi, have mew gone soft in the head?” asked Nibelung. The two girls looked at each other again. The brown-haired boy ignored them, however. Instead, he clapped to redirect their attention. “In any event! We need not worry about the snake now. Put your minds at ease.” “…I’m not quite sure I agree with your reasoning.” Heleneia flipped the pages of an old book she had at hand. “Still, Uroboros’s absence is a boon. If no one is going to see who and what we truly are, then the need to confront them directly disappears. I had been thinking of greeting them as Mind Over Matter, but now I think I’ll pass.” “Mew plan to just hide in the library?” “Yes. We should lie low until they go home. As for the rest…” Heleneia trailed off, but her line of thought was quickly picked up by a young man with a monocle who was tucked in a corner of the library. “The dragon,” the youth said. He had a calm, intellectual demeanor, but for some reason, the book he was holding was upside down. He was Nafutayua, the artifact spirit. This god had a more voracious appetite for knowledge than any other and loved solo games more than anyone. At the moment, he was immersed in a private challenge of reading upside down. This was typical for him. He would become so absorbed in one solo game after another that even speaking was too much trouble for him. Yet this god ceased his playing and spoke, something which, to Heleneia’s knowledge, happened perhaps once every ten years at best. “The dragon? Ah, you mean the former god Leoleshea,” Heleneia said. “………” Nafutayua was silent. “Thank you. But she isn’t worthy of our concern.” Heleneia smiled at the young man, who had gone back to reading his upside-down book. “Leoleshea might catch our scent, but in her human body, she won’t be able to pin down us gods. The plan remains: We stay in the library and play a bit of hide-and-seek.” This was the end of the discussion. If Uroboros, the snake, was not coming, then there would be no one who could tell who they really were. Let Fay and his friends come to the Myth City; Heleneia and her compatriots would simply stay put and keep a low profile. “Thank you all for contributing your perspectives on this matter. Nibel, Elder, Nafutayua…and Chaos.” “Yeah. There’s one thing I’d like to know.” There was a rustle as the four gods turned as one toward Chaos, the only full human in the room and Mind Over Matter’s team coach. “You won’t hear objections from me about any of this. If Fay really shows up, a lot of the citizens are going to expect you to have a chat with him…but I’m the coach. I can come up with a good administrative excuse. I’ll say Heleneia’s busy getting ready for the next round of the gods’ games.” “That would be helpful.” “But that’s not what I want to ask about. How’s the chairman doing, Heleneia?” “…………………” Heleneia was silent for a very long time. She suppressed the slight smile that threatened to play across her lips, tugging on a lock of her lavender hair instead. Finally, she said, “Do you mean how my dear father is today, or how he was yesterday?” “Both.” “Yesterday…wasn’t good. But I’m sure he’s better today.” “Is that right?” Chaos knew. “Not good” was, in part, what Heleneia hoped for. “Not good” meant the chairman would need complete rest and quiet. The gods were all-knowing and all-powerful. But Heleneia, half-god and half-human, had lost nearly all her omniscience and omnipotence. She had to leave her father’s health in the care of his doctors. “I think, when Fay gets here, you could tell him exactly what’s going on. Say your father the chairman isn’t well, and you have your hands full caring for him. It would be the truth.” “I won’t do that.” “Why not?” “Because I don’t want him to know my weakness. I want neither sympathy nor pity from a mere human.” “Understood.” Although he nodded outwardly, Chaos couldn’t resist a small sigh and a grim smile to himself. So that was how it was. That was how much Fay was weighing on her mind. “All right, let’s talk contingencies. Suppose, just on the off-chance, that Leoleshea does figure out who the four of you really are. Even then, there’s no need for you to leave this place. Your coach will go and meet with Fay.” “…If you’d be so kind,” Heleneia said slowly. “This is the whole reason I am your coach. I’ll do my duty.” Heleneia gave him a slight bow, the half-god lowering her head to the full human. Chaos turned and left the library.