“Continuing on... As per your request, you will receive the ability to understand, read, and write in any language; the power to create any medicine with the exact effect you imagine it to have, in any container you are thinking of; and finally, an Item Box spell that connects to an interdimensional storage with unlimited space, where time doesn’t pass inside of it, you can access at anytime, anywhere, and it cannot be used by anyone else but you. I don’t really understand what this Item Box is, but I’ll make it so it reflects whatever you imagine it to be, so be sure to keep a clear image of it in your head and how it functions. Now, is there anything wrong with what I just said?”
Yup, that’s all perfect. Now, for the finishing touches...
“No, there’s nothing wrong with that. To finish, I have a few questions, and one more request to make. Is that all right?”
“Of course, feel free to ask me anything.”
The goddess had a look on her face that showed how relieved she was this would finally be over soon. All right, guess I’ll ask her.
“The first thing I’d like to ask about is the religious situation in this world. There’s nothing scarier than religion, after all. What are they like here?”
“Ah, that’s an easy one. Almost all the religions of this world believe I’m the one and only God, and they worship me. How they pronounce and write my name varies slightly depending on the sect and the region, but they’re all referring to me. The doctrines and laws of each also differ to a certain extent, but since they all split off from the same thing, there isn’t much difference between them fundamentally. They admonish any type of discrimination against a person’s race or status, so I would say they’re relatively moderate religions. I would assume demons and such would be their enemies, but since they don’t actually exist, there aren’t any problems there.”
Hmm... So there was only one religion, huh. I didn’t know if that wasn’t a problem, or a really big one.
“Then would it be bad if someone formed a new religion, or if the current one were to die out?”
“No, I wouldn’t really mind. It’s not like I’m actually a god, after all. I’m just part of a long-lived and ancient species. Since I end up driving humans away, due to my adjustments to the world and getting rid of distortions, it’s more convenient for them to think of me as a divine being, so I won’t really deny it. However, I’ll also sometimes send out ‘divine revelations’ to save them from great disasters and the like. My existence and the role I play have nothing to do with faith, but I’m fine with playing the part of a fictional goddess if it means imparting beneficial teachings that support the lives of the people. While there aren’t any significant problems regarding the doctrine of the religion, there hasn’t been anything to oppose it all this time, and corrupt priests are beginning to spread like wildfire. There wouldn’t be any problems if the religion were to disappear, really. After all, it’s been fifty years since the last time I sent a revelation to this world, though sometimes you’ll find people claiming to be the ‘new oracle,’ but that’s nothing more than an egregious lie.
“...Now I’m starting to get mad. Maybe I’ll send down some divine punishment for the first time in a few hundred years...”
Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down! If you’re going to do that, do it later, and somewhere far away from me!
“Th-Then on to my next question... Would it be bad to do anything that would influence the world on a large scale? Like, for example, if I were to spread techniques or ways of thinking from back on Earth.”
“Hm? No, I wouldn’t mind that at all, really. My job is to keep the space-time continuum stable, so I don’t really plan on doing anything with this world’s civilization. If it seemed like a lot of living creatures were going to die for no reason, though, then I might try to lend them a hand. Sometimes I try helping out a particular organism just to kill time, but I never thought once about trying to influence the culture of this world to go in any specific direction. On that point, the supervisor for your world really is amazing, given how he puts so much love and affection into the work he does for life on Earth...”
If you think that, then you should do it too. That way you could have something in common with God to talk about... Oh, hey, maybe I should just tell her that.
“Then why don’t you try putting in some more work as well?”
“Oh, no, you have no idea how much of a pain that is. If you don’t have enough affection and patience for living things and leave it only halfway done, it turns into a real mess. I made a little mistake doing just that in the past, so I haven’t been trying my hand at it lately...”
“But if the God of my world were to see his junior working hard doing the same work he was, don’t you think he’d be happy about that? Since you finally managed to make a connection with him now, you could go ask him for advice when you’re in trouble or if you messed up on something. It’d be something in common you could both talk about.”
“Th-That’s it, that’s it! Oh, why didn’t I figure that out sooner! I’m such an idiot... I’ll start preparing to maintain the world again right away!”
Good, just try your best not to mess anything up, okay? You’re not going to mess up on purpose just so you can come back to me for more advice, right? I mean, you are the person in charge of this world, after all.
“All right, I’ve got one last question then. You don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to, it’s just something I’m asking out of curiosity. Both you and the God in charge of Earth both, um... How do I put it... You both talk like humans, even though I think you’re both higher life-forms that far surpass the likes of us humans. Despite that, the feelings you have for God are something on the same level as humans, and that feels really strange to me... I’m sorry if I made you feel bad, you really don’t have to answer. I just wanted to ask at least once.”
It took some courage to ask that question, and there really wasn’t any merit in asking it, but I was just so curious I couldn’t help myself. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be satisfied with why God treated me the way he did, and I wouldn’t truly be able to relax and enjoy my life. This also had something to do with whether or not I would make my final request.
“I see... Well, of course you’d be curious about that. Then I’ll explain this as simply as I can. If you don’t understand or aren’t satisfied with something, please think of it as ‘that’s just how it is.’”
Looks like she was going to tell me after all. The expression on her face seemed like it just got way more serious too... I was getting a powerful sense of intelligence from her eyes that I didn’t feel before.