“A fallen god, huh? And just when you thought things couldn’t get any messier.”
Gathered under a gazebo in the courtyard, I told the other gods what God Almighty had explained to me, and they all frowned and groaned to themselves.
It was a really crazy sight when I thought about it. Seven gods—the goddess of love, the goddess of swords, the god of agriculture, the goddess of hunting, the god of music, the goddess of alcohol, and the god of combat—had all gathered. Grandma Tokie was absent from this meeting.
Technically, I was a god too, but I really didn’t feel like one—or at least, I didn’t feel like I could walk up to someone and proudly declare that I was a god. Would I start to feel like it in one or two thousand years like God Almighty had said?
“Is it that bad?”
“Kinda, yeah. This isn’t like the case with the servile god; this used to be an actual god’s power. Let your guard down and you’ll get your feet swept out from right under you,” Karina responded with a begrudging smile. Not that I was ever intending to let my guard down in the first place, of course.
“Most of us lesser gods rule over some concept, y’know,” Karen began to explain with a sigh. “For example, I rule over love, Moroha over swordsmanship, Karina over hunting. Because we specialize in those areas, those characteristics are inevitably reflected in our divinity, y’know.”
“The fallen god’s old realm was erosion,” Karina picked back up. “As the name suggests, they had the power to invade and eat away at things. It crawls in and slowly eats away at its surroundings, eventually leading the whole area to decay. It’s a pain, honestly.”
It sounded a little like a cancerous cell. Identify it too late, and there was no way to deal with it. It was all about early detection, early treatment.
“Oooh, so the erosion god shplit himself up and ran awaaay, hic! What a wittle bad boy he ish. Oh, but I guesh he doeshn’t have a mind anymore...” Suika began laughing away to herself, speech slightly slurred.
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Hey, you drunk goddess. Where’d you bring that wine bottle from, eh? You didn’t go steal it from the kitchen’s wine cellar again, did you? You know I’m the one Crea will shout at later?
From how she was speaking, was Suika personally acquainted with the erosion god?
“Did you two know each other?” I asked.
“Hm? Jusht a little. He was sooooooooo annoying, hic!”
Certainly didn’t sound like the nicest guy in the world, though given he’d become a fallen god, that wasn’t much of a surprise.
“What kind of crime did he even commit that got him stripped of his rank?”
“Same as the servile god. He tried ta interfere with the surface realm. It was fer a different world than this one, though,” Uncle Kousuke explained between sips of green tea. By that, he meant using divinity to greatly affect the surface, right?
“The world ended up so messed up that the god of destruction had no choice but ta completely wipe it. Many species were goin’ extinct at an unnatural rate, and when we looked into it, it turned out to be the work of the god of erosion. Turned out he had descended to the surface by himself,” he continued.
“Ahhh, that’s bad. He was never getting away with that, riiight?” Suika chuckled away.
I doubt it was very funny to the people whose world got destroyed.
Still, did that mean if they hadn’t looked into it, the god of destruction would’ve exterminated the world and essentially covered up evidence of the god of erosion’s involvement without their knowing?
“Naturally, there was no room to argue for extenuating circumstances, so the guy had his divine status revoked, and he was branded a fallen god. The moment it was decided he would be sent to Cocytus, he went berserk and tried to escape. The god of destruction was present and got rid of him with one strike. Well, I guess he didn’t entirely get rid of him, but you get the idea,” Moroha explained.
It was crazy to think that the god of destruction could eliminate any one of us so easily...
“That is his job. He has the power to destroy any god other than God Almighty. If he really wanted to, he could get rid of all of us in one fell swoop. Though he’d need a justified reason to do so, of course.”
That meant any one of us could be killed if a reason existed. He seemed to be quite extreme from what I’d heard—he wasn’t destroying worlds as he felt like it, was he?
Oh, wait...
“Uh, so, I was actually asked to become the next god of destruction...”
“HUH?!”
Every god present couldn’t hide their surprise. I was pretty sure I heard Sousuke’s voice as well. He was able to speak this whole time?
“Touya as the next god of destruction... Maybe that’d work.”
“Mmm, as his big sister, I say no. I don’t want a violent little brother.”
“I think he’s got the talent for it, though.”
“True. He doesn’t generally like using his abilities, but when he does, he doesn’t hold back.”
“Nyah hah hah, Touya being the destruction god would be shoooooo fun, hic!”
“A destructive power is still one’s own power. We’ll need to make sure ya get in the trainin’ so you can control it, lad.”
Hang on, I’m not actually going to take the job. And Sousuke, quit playing such violent music.
“This aside, make sure you watch out for the fallen god’s power. As the name implies, by the time you start to notice it, it can already be too late, and that would be the worst.”
“I’ll try my best to not let that happen...”
“Even though the kids are going to have to be the ones to deal the killing blow on the fallen and wicked gods, you guys can still support them so long as you don’t use your divinity, y’know?”
With or without Karen’s urging, I fully intended to do just that. In that case, though, couldn’t Moroha and Uncle Takeru help out as well?
“If we dare fight with the wicked devout, they won’t stand a chance whether we use our divinity or not. If we aren’t careful, the fight will be over in a single shot—and that will undoubtedly be considered as us violating the rules.”
“Sorry, man. Adults shouldn’t get involved in a child’s fight. We don’t mind helping take out the rabble, however.”
Ugh, why are the broken characters so useless?!
I had to admit that I doubted the other gods would approve of them beating up the wicked devout first before having us deal the finishing blow. Someone would definitely find some reason or another to put in a complaint.
Nothing was ever easy with these guys, huh? But in all fairness, we were very much in a situation where we were having a blind eye turned to gods getting involved with an issue that should be solved by the surface humans so long as no one used their divinity.
“Plus, this is your job as this world’s caretaker. We can help a little, but if you leave all the work to us, you’ll come across as an incompetent god. Don’t run from trials that will only make you stronger, lad.”
“Ngh...”
Uncle Takeru with the blunt, honest truth... I forgot that this counted as my work as a god.
Isn’t this a bit much for a new employee’s— I mean, new god’s first task?
Not that complaining was going to get me out of it, of course.
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“All right, let’s leave it here for today.”
“Yes, sir...” I whined, spreading out on the ground of the training area after getting thorough training from Uncle Takeru and Moroha.
“Ow... [Refresh]...”
Upon casting the spell, the fatigue left my body, and the pain gradually lessened. When it came to training, muscle tissue grew thicker and stronger through its repeated breakdown and recovery, but if you healed it with magic, you didn’t receive those benefits. My training right now was more to help me acquire skills, so it wasn’t a big deal if I didn’t acquire muscle in the process. Plus, I could deal with that using strengthening magic anyway.
But now that I’d achieved divine status, would my body even grow anymore? I remembered the kids saying I looked a little different in the future, so maybe it would. If I recalled correctly, a human body hit its peak growth between twenty and twenty-five years of age, but I wasn’t human anymore, so did my body even follow that rule?
“Why is a Sovereign doing such things?”
“Hm?”
I heard a familiar voice speak to me in an unfamiliar tone, and I lifted my head to look around for the source. Standing at the edge of the training field was Leylle.
No... This isn’t Leylle. Judging from how they spoke and that poker face of theirs, it has to be Halle.
“Dunno if it’s the answer you want, but I’m just doing it to get stronger.”
“But you’re the Sovereign, are you not? What strength is required of you? Should you have a notably skilled general under your command, there should be no need for that.”
“There’s some things I can’t leave to other people.”
I levered my upper body up and looked toward Leylle—no, Halle. She...no, he was looking at me as if he didn’t like my answer.
“Were the Sovereign all-powerful, the people under their rule would be content. However, when that Sovereign must one day inevitably leave their position, there will be none who can sufficiently take their place. And as a result, the world will fall into endless strife and turmoil. Should the Sovereign not ensure they leave things in the capable hands of the competent?”
“Are you referring to what happened with Melle?” I asked. I saw Halle hesitate. Spot on, then.
Sure, that was one way of dealing with it. I was frequently told by Kousaka to stop taking care of everything myself.
“...My sister was a brilliant Sovereign. Nothing ever went wrong when the citizens followed her command. It is for that reason that they sought the same thing from me. However, the moment they realized I could not fulfill what they wished of me, they all began doing as they pleased. Phrasia fell into constant strife and turmoil. I was unable to become her replacement,” Halle said, his voice fading into a self-deprecating mutter.
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