“What else was I supposed to do?” yelled the girl, her fists clenched tightly at her sides. “You can take the high road and preach all you want, but in the end, all that matters to humans for their first impression are looks. When a cute guy puts his arm around a lady’s shoulder, it rarely becomes a problem, but if some creepy otaku did that, it’s suddenly sexual harassment and indecent assault and police sirens are going off all over the place. Isn’t that how reality works, huh?”
“It is, but— Ugh, forget it! More importantly, what about the blessing? Weren’t you going to give me something?!” Something told Renya it was a very bad idea to let the girl continue her rant, so he quickly cut her off. It proved effective, as the girl relaxed and clapped her hands together.
“Oh, right. First, allow me to grant you your first blessing: Wakasa.”
“…You mean the place with the nuclear generators?”
“…Not that Wakasa. You’re heading to an alternate world, for God’s sake. What’s the point in gifting you a chunk of Japan?”
Despite his generous lead-in, the girl barely made an effort at a witty comeback. He was actually hoping for her to play the straight man for once, considering she had been spewing no small amount of bile at people for the past while, but his attempt did not pay off. His offer to trade roles was met with much indifference.
“I meant the other Wakasa, the Japanese word for youth! I’m saying I’ll take your decrepit 94-year-old body and use my power to dial it back to a perky eighteen.”
“Isn’t the 94-year-old body better for me? That way, I’ll die almost immediately and get sent back here for reincarnation.” From Renya’s perspective, he had nothing to do there once he dropped off the Resources, so he had no reason to live a long life. While the idea was indeed impressively efficient, the sheer jaded nature of it left the girl speechless, her mouth hanging open in shock.
“It’s not like I have anything to do there, right?” he said.
“W-Well, I guess that’s true… But we’re talking an alternate world here! Swords and shields! Robes and wizard hats! A world filled with riches and adventure! You can probably have your own harem there if you try hard enough! What’s with the degenerate attitude, you old fart?”
“Well, attitudes aside, I am old…”
He was, after all, 94 years old. Upon being reminded of this fact, the girl found herself at a loss for words.
“Huh? Oh, uh… Hm…” She rapidly stroked the window she just opened with her fingers, her face a mask of deep thought. The semi-transparent nature of the window made it hard to read, and Renya could not make out its contents from where he stood. After poking at the display for a little while, the girl seemed to find what she was looking for. Her expression lit up and she turned toward him.
“Renya, here’s something you might want to know. That world actually has many delicious foods that didn’t exist in your original world.”
“Oh?” Renya soon caught on to the girl’s intention. Presumably, she was trying to dig out some information that would motivate him, or at least make him want to stay alive. Despite remembering little of his previous life, the words “delicious foods” had an irresistible pull. He figured he was probably a foodie in his previous life.
“Of course, while there are things that are both cheap and tasty, there are also wonderful delicacies that’ll cost you an arm and a leg. Tasting all of them will require a large amount of money. Making a large amount of money is impossible for a 94-year-old geezer,” proclaimed the girl with her hands folded firmly into fists.
“Fair point. I’ll take you up on it. Going in a young body is fine, then. Now, how about you tell me the honest reason? Hiding things from me won’t do you any favors.”
“After I attach the Resources to your soul, it’ll probably take a few decades for them to disperse. I can’t just drop you there and be done with it. Dead bodies don’t disperse Resources. That’s why I’d really appreciate it if you lived for as long as possible. That’s the whole of it, honest. God’s honor.”
At Renya’s urging, the girl parted with the truth surprisingly quickly. Apparently, she really did realize that it did no good to hide things from him.
“This isn’t much of a blessing, then, is it? More like a necessary protocol.”
“Hnnngh… Normally, as soon as I tell them they get to be young again, they’re all, like, ‘Omigosh thank you my lord’ and stuff, and then I have them dancing in the palm of my hand…” The girl, with the most innocent downcast gaze and watery eyes, muttered some terribly wicked words.
“If you’re going to call it a blessing, give me a real gift. Stuff to keep me alive and disperse Resources are more like necessary expenses, right?”
“Hmph, what kind of blessing do you want, then?” asked the girl, completely abandoning the effort of thinking and throwing the question to Renya instead. “Let’s just say my blessing will be ‘The right to be granted that which you, Renya, deem necessary.’”
“Money.”
His sudden reply startled the girl and she drew back in shock.
“Also, an impenetrable home base that’s guaranteed to be safe and unbelievably overpowered fighting skills.”
“Please, no… Think about the balance… oh, the poor balance. It’d be so broken, the world would probably collapse from that first.”
The girl managed to chain her startled lurch into a full prostration. It was honestly an impressive sequence. She then proceeded to rub her forehead against the ground. The display was so pitiful that even Renya felt guilty.
“They would have been nice to have, but I guess I can’t expect that much.”
“It’s not impossible for me to make you a ludicrously large mountain of rare metals, but it’d cause a breakdown of the global currency system. I can give you enough power to flatten a country on your own, but nothing good can come of that. The impenetrable home base, I can also make, but the secondary activities that are possible upon settling down there…”
“Okay, I get it. It was just a thought, so you can get up already,” said Renya to the girl who had nearly curled up into a ball. He supposed she felt ashamed at being made to eat her words so soon. “Well, since I get to be young again, it’d be nice to stay healthy.”