…Huh?!
Renge was still seated at the table with Dad! Wh-Who’s behind me then?!
I turned around and saw a black-haired man who looked (and clearly sounded) a lot like Renge standing there. Well…he was probably a man, anyway. But his shoulder-length hair made him look quite androgynous. And he was tall. Really tall!
His right sidelock reached down to his waist. But his hair was cut short in the back. He was dressed simply in a white shirt and black pants.
He looked like a normal guy. But…something about him felt so…foreign and fearless. Hearing the meat sizzle and realizing it was done, I instinctively put out the fire and turned back to face him.
“Wh-Who are you?” I asked.
I’d never seen this guy before…and Dad and Renge didn’t seem to notice he was here. He just looked at me with a soft smile. But then I noticed the pattern on his forehead. It looks a lot like Renge’s… Wait a minute…!
“A-Are you—” I stammered in shock, “Air?!”
“Correct,” he said, smiling at me gently. “I’m glad to see you’re not completely incompetent. Good. Very good. Of course, you wouldn’t be. Since you hold part of my power.”
His smile was nice. But I still swallowed the lump in my throat. I was scared. Not in any rational way, either. I could just instinctively…feel that I was looking at something far greater than me. Someone I couldn’t oppose.
“C-Can I help you…?” I stuttered, not knowing what else to say. “A-Are you here to ask me to give the Stella back…?”
Is he upset I didn’t come to thank him for his power? Because I would’ve, if I’d known where he was! Should I have asked Renge, then? Would he have told me?
“Hmmm…no?” Air replied, clearly a little bemused by my question. “I don’t have any business in particular. There are…difficult conditions one must meet to bear the Stella’s power. If you were capable of containing it within your mortal body, then it’s yours to keep. Since it’s the power of a god, someone with no divine blood holding it would be dangerous.”
“Yes, Renge did mention that…” I remembered. “I can only contain the Stella because I’m a Spherit Folk.”
And since I was the last remaining Spherit Folk in the world, only I could contain the Stella. That’s why I stayed in Fort Deshmel. A monster-attracting barrier had been set here, so they’d be drawn to me, and my power would purify their Camilla. But this process was starting to wind down.
Of course, Camilla can accumulate from even the smallest things. But Renge had predicted that, if we solved the world’s religion problem, the amount of Camilla produced would be cut in half and I’d be able to safely return to Rofola. That’s why I’d taken over this role…with the expectation of being able to go home eventually.
“Ummm,” I asked. “If you have no business with me, then, erm…”
Why did Air come here, then? Wait, could it be…?!
“Are you here to help us resolve our problem with human religion?!” I asked excitedly.
“No,” he said simply. “That’s not why.”
“It— It’s not?!”
“I don’t like humans,” Air said flatly. “If they want to drive themselves to ruin, I don’t particularly care.”
“Seriously…?”
“Humans aren’t my creation in the first place. They sprang into existence on their own. But since they’re already here, I’m not going to do anything about that. As a god, I’ll provide all life with a place to live. So me summoning you from another world was…me offering salvation, to put it in your terms.”
I gasped. That’s the reason I was reborn here…! Then my suspicions were right… Air was the one who brought me here!!!
My head was spinning with a thousand thoughts. But all I could say softly was just “But…why? Why me?”
“Because your soul was similar to Akari’s. And yes, humanity’s whole situation here is mainly this world’s problem. But the border between here and your world was growing weaker. Because of that, your soul escaped your world’s cycle of transmigration.”
“The cycle of…transmigration?” I repeated.
“Yes… You probably didn’t realize it. But you spent thousands of years in human time drifting between worlds,” he said plainly. “Normally, that kind of exile’s reserved for those who committed a great many sins.”
“What…? I, uhh, I…”
Did… Was I that much of a sinner in my past life?!
I felt all the blood drain from my face and went cold down to my fingertips. Looking back on it, maybe hating my father and dying ahead of my mother count as sins…
“Oh no,” Air said, detecting my discomfort. “Your past life wasn’t nearly so sinful. Those exiled to the interstice normally have to have killed thousands or be hated by tens of thousands for hurting their country. It’s a heavy punishment given only to the most accursed and accused. But no, in your case, it was an accident.”
“An accident…?” I gaped.
“I picked up your soul,” he went on, “because I could tell it was pure. Not completely spotless, of course, since all humans commit at least some sin in their lives. But you clearly weren’t meant for damnation. A sinner’s soul couldn’t be as beautiful as yours.”
“S-So you…you saved me from there, Air…?” I ventured.
“Yes. I have no love for humans. But seeing a soul being treated unfairly does not sit well with me. Even if it is a human soul.”
He really hates humans, doesn’t he? But why? Still, I’m in no position to complain. Air’s personality being what it is saved my soul…literally.
“Thank you for saving me,” I said, bowing reflexively.
“No need for thanks,” Air said simply as I straightened back up. “You only need to live your life properly. After all, you’re not human anymore. But a demi-human.”
“So, um,” I began hesitantly, “did you…intentionally make me a Spherit Folk rather than a human again…?”
“Who’s to say?” Air mused idly. “But you’re still half human. It just so happened the Spherit Folk princess became pregnant at the same time I saved you. It really was just a coincidence…”
The Spherit Folk princess… So my mother really was the Spherit Folk king’s daughter. A princess. I heard about that before. But this definitively confirms it!
“By the way,” Air said suddenly, “aren’t you going to finish cooking? I’d love to try some of your world’s cooking.”
“Ahh!” I cried, blushing with happiness. “You can tell it’s from my world?!”
“To an extent. I’ll admit part of the reason that I called you to this world was because I was hoping you could introduce some of your world’s cuisine here. Doing this has become something of a trend among us Planetary Gods lately.”
“I-It has…?”
Apparently, these gods have some network or community of sorts. I suddenly recalled seeing things like that in the manga and anime of my past life. Maybe those were really all based on true stories…?
I guess it’s not that strange. I mean, I got reincarnated…
“But some gods can be pretty vicious…” Air went on.
“Vicious? How?”
“Well,” he said simply, “you have gods of various forms and natures. But lately, us Planetary Gods have had a tendency to make blunders involving beings from other worlds and getting them killed.”
“Huh…? Ummm, not that I know all the details,” I said quickly, “but isn’t that incredibly irresponsible?”
Air nodded. “It very much is. To a God like me, who takes pride in properly managing his planet, it’s outrageous.”
I guess there’s all sorts of gods out there… I thought, then suddenly realized I now had four waiting on dinner instead of three, so I soaked breadcrumbs in a mixture of milk and eggs and then put the finished steak clumps in the mix. Mixing them will prevent all the ingredients from falling apart during cooking, and it will also keep the meat from hardening. But it’d come out bland as is, so I added salt and pepper for flavor.
“Oh, erm, Air,” I asked, feeling a bit silly as I did so. “Can you drink alcohol?”
“I have an immunity to toxins, so I should be fine, yes,” he said nonchalantly.
“Are you going to use alcohol?”
“Yes. After I apply oil to the frying pan, I’ll pour in red wine to give it more of a fragrance.”
“You mentioned frying it on a weak fire?”
“Yes! You fry it slowly over a weak fire. Some of the meat’s juices will leak out, yes. But if you fry it over a strong flame, it’ll make the patties crack and fall out of shape. Frying them on a small fire should avoid that.”
“Hmmm,” Air said, intrigued.