In the beginning, there was no one else but him. He stood alone and was whole, so he could endure eternity alone. However, being able to do something didn’t mean he had to do it. Just as he needed nothing else to be himself, he thought he didn’t need to be alone either.
To become two, he had to be split, so he chose to be cleaved. He forged parts of himself into a greatsword and used it to cut himself. The lower part of the long, straight sword sank and became the earth, while the upper part rose and became the sky.
Marking the birth of heaven and earth, people named the moment of that first strike the Sun of Sword.
✦ ✦ ✦
Sylvia, formerly known as Lady Goldencup of Sormwin Academy, was now serving the Death King Clan as the chief steward and a gardener to the Garden of Withered Flowers. Today, she was sleeping late again.
“Hhhaaa… Hmm… Did you see that… Patriarch—no, Kim Gong-Ja… This is… my true power…”
It was probably because she was having a happy dream. Now, even her family name became blurry in her head. Was it Evanail or Evinail? Dreams were the only escape this world offered her, but this bizarre, nightmarish world made by the cruel demon god who had ruined her life didn’t let her enjoy such a sweet dream.
“Lady Sylvia.”
The voice that woke Sylvia from her deep sleep belonged to a gentle-looking woman. She had once been the Immortal Dragon Emperor, the Goddess of Protection, the Aegim Empire’s Holy Protector Sword, and Shiny. Her name was Hwia and her loooooong work experience spanned across many unrelated fields.
She was still doing many unrelated works. Estelle—the enemy who hated the nation she had founded and once ended her world—often drank tea with her. Hwia also played the very classic Smash Brothers with Kim Yul, her former partner who had lived a life that could be titled I, Bullied At School, Was Transmigrated To a Different World And Now Live The Life Of A God Slayer With The Overpowered Skill Of Abandoning My Memories.
In any case, as usual, she was doing many unrelated works. One of those tasks was waking Sylvia, who often overslept.
Hwia gently shook Sylvia. “Lady Sylvia, it’s time to get up.”
“Mmm...”
“Lady Sylvia.”
“Five more minutes...” Sylvia said, holding her goblin doll pillow tightly. “Just five more minutes. Please, just five more minutes. Keep your mouth shut and wait for me..."
Not being prone to anger was one of Hwia’s strengths. She waited in silence for five minutes before saying, “Lady Sylvia, five minutes have passed.”
“You waited five minutes… Excellent… If you can wait five minutes, you can wait ten. I believe in you and your willpower to wait…”
Persuasion through logic was also one of Hwia’s strengths. She waited another ten minutes before speaking again.
“Lady Sylvia, ten minutes have passed.”
“Nya…”
“You should wake up soon.”
“Why…?” Sylvia asked in a drowsy voice.
“You should work.”
“What if… I don’t want to work?” Sylvia raised a hand, her face still buried in her pillow. “Think about it… Goddess of Protection… Hwia… Baldy—whatever. Think…”
“It’s not Baldy, it’s Shiny.”
“They both shine, you shiny baldie. Anyway, think about it. If I don’t want to work… If I have that strong will… What will you do? Will you force me to work?” Sylvia raised one finger and swayed it side to side. “No, no, no… You would not do that. You would not do that. You would not… Baldy…”
“I’m not bald.”
“Hwia, you’ll just let me sleep… and you’ll readily… do the work I should do."
“Hmm… Why is that?” Hwia asked.
Perhaps calmly answering other people’s bullshit was also one of Hwia’s strengths? No, that was probably a flaw. Either way, Sylvia looked at her with dreamy eyes, still half-asleep.
Sylvia answered, “Because you are a goddess… Lady Goddess… Please help me. You already look like Verdandi, so freaking act like her, please… That was Sylvia speaking… Goodbye.”
“Lady Sylvia...”
Sylvia said nothing more. The hand she had raised dropped limply; she returned to dreamland after making a goddess—not even human—wait for fifteen minutes. Despite this, Hwia didn’t get angry. That was certainly her strength.
The reason she didn’t get upset was that she didn’t need to feel upset. Like Sylvia said, Hwia was a goddess, and many others would get angry on her behalf. In fact, there were so many that several resided within Hwia herself.
“I entrust this to you, Sister,” Hwia said.
“Yes. I will handle it, Sister.”
Hwia’s hair and wings darkened.
[The Goddess of Protection has transformed into her alter form: Sympathy.]
[Adjusting the Goddess of Protection’s Constellation level.]
[The Goddess of Protection’s Skill Set has changed.]
Hwia’s comfortable dress shrank down to a plain priestess robe. Her nails, once as white as platinum, turned pitch black. A black angel descended. While Hwia resembled someone who could face a copyright lawsuit from a certain animation studio, Sympathy—one of her sword egos—resembled Advisor River Eternal so much that she would sue Sympathy for copyright infringement.
“Woundless Pain.”
As could be noticed from the way they talked, their personalities seemed similar.
“Gyaaaah!” Sylvia jumped like a cat that had run into a cucumber. Sympathy’s ability to grant woundless pain had jolted her awake. “Ah, what is this? This is abuse!”
“Are you awake now?” Sympathy asked.
“Awake? I feel like you dragged me out of my sleep so far away that I’ll never fall back asleep again. What was that now, really? Can’t you cherish me a little more and be gentle with me?”
“Do you want one more shot of it?”
“I’ll go and take a shower.”
Sylvia immediately went to the bathroom. A short while later, she exited her room, looking refreshed. Hwia was back, preparing her meal.
Sylvia mixed her egg with her rice vigorously while angrily saying, “You know what? Your tendency to let others get their hands dirty on your behalf is what drove the Aegim Empire to do those things to the clan advisor. Reflect on it."
Hwia looked gloomy and lowered her head. “Ah, I see. I guess those things could be related…”
Her mouth agape, Sylvia tapped her spoon loudly against the bowl. “Wait, what? You were sealed by the guy you summoned, so how is that related?”
“But…”
“But what? Stop blaming yourself. I said that just because I was annoyed. You’re a goddess. Why are you so naive?”
Sylvia ate her egg rice and then drank her scorched rice tea[1], finishing her meal quickly.
As Sylvia stood up and stretched, Hwia waited silently beside her, still looking gloomy. Sylvia clicked her tongue as she put on her gardener uniform. “Come to think of it, who were you fighting?”
“Pardon?”
“Kim Yul or Kim Yulmu-Tea, was it? You must have had a reason to summon him. You two fought this enemy for a long time, even after summoning him. What was the reason? I’m curious.”
“Ah.”
Because Sylvia slept in so often, Kim Gong-Ja’s orphanage director moved the assembly time to night. Estelle had gotten furious for causing such trouble to the clan elder, and Kim Yul had stood silent beside Sylvia, pressuring her with his presence alone. Sylvia, showing the ironclad resolve that didn’t yield to an unlawful exercise of power, had endured it.
There was still a lot of time left before the assembly. Sylvia carried the garden trowel, and Hwia balanced a water bucket brimming with sunset light on her head as they walked toward the garden.