Chapter 21
Chapter 21
Chapter 21
When a person is overwhelmed by emotions, their thoughts are limited. No matter how powerful you are.
The Anje in front of me stares at me with a reverent expression on her face, not thinking for a moment that Im acting.
But I think I would have believed it if I were her.
The divinity I emanate would be believable even if I were an incarnation.
Its just a glow.
And from Anzes point of view, I have no divinity, so it wouldnt be felt at all.
Under the circumstances, its more normal for her to think that the goddess has descended on me after all.
[Anje, Id love to have a long conversation with you, but we dont have time].
Oh, no, Goddess.
Anze blushed and flailed her arms in a panic.
[Im sorry, but Ill cut to the chase: the Great Catastrophe for humanity will come soon].
W-when is it coming?
Her face grew serious at the sound of my voice.
[I dont know exactly when because of the inference of evil, but its something you wont be able to get through without the man in front of you. So Im asking you, if he ever comes to ask you for ]]
Ill help him.
Before I could finish, Anje nodded.
Okay. So I got one useful ally.
Now that Ive got that confirmation, I need to time my parting shot. Theres no point in dragging this out.
I begin to slowly reduce the effect of quality adjustment again.
Seeing the divinity diminishing from my body, Anje addresses me in a trembling voice.
G-Goddess?
[Im sorry, theres not much time left to descend].
Goddess. Well meet again, wont we?
I nod in response to the tearful question.
[Dont worry, we wont be separated forever; surely well be reunited once youve overcome the catastrophe].
Okay. I understand. Ill be sure to support him. And well be together.
[Yes, thank you.]
Before she was done, I quickly removed the effect quality adjustment completely.
That way, there would be no aftertaste.
Just like that, the bright glowing divinity was gone from my body. I let out a ragged breath, as if hyperventilating.
Gasp! Whoo!
Are you okay?
Ah.. yes.
I nodded at her question. Anje used her Superior Divine Recovery on me with an apologetic face.
My body glowed and warmed as a brilliant light enveloped me.
Im sorry, I-I misunderstood, and I overused my power, didnt I?
I didnt bother to answer the question. At my silence, she takes it as an affirmation, and continues.
The Goddess told me that you are the only one who can help us through this catastrophe . I dont know how far I can help you, but I will support you as much as I can.
Okay. But can you stop healing me?
Honestly, theres no point in getting a Superior Heal when I didnt really need it and Ive put in zero effort. Its a waste of divinity.
To put it bluntly, its just warmth.
And its Anze, not me, whos exerting herself. Shes the one who needs to rest.
But how much divinity does she really have in her body?
I could tell that she used it overwhelmingly just by looking at the divine power she emitted earlier. But shes still using the highest level of divine restoration that even a priest cant use on me with a face that says she doesnt care.
What a monster.
Hearing my words, she saw my calm breathing and nodded, finally stopping the divine restoration.
By the way, how did you come to be here?
Ah T-that, well. The Goddess told me to help Kane-sama.
She blushed at my question, flailing her arms around nervously.
Shes ashamed of herself for saying it.
Judging by the way shes talking, shes not lying. That said, Constellation knew that speaking like that would make her try to kill me.
Well, given her personality, thats pretty obvious.
Anze realizes shes done something shameful and lowers her head.
Its okay, we all make mistakes, its more important that we fix them, so theres nothing to be ashamed of.
Yes.
I said in a soothing voice, and she nodded as she replied in a weak voice.
She stares at me, her face slowly turning red. Not only that, but her breathing is strangely ragged.
What is it? Why is she looking at me like that?
I cant quite describe her expression, but its like a beautiful girl falling in love at first sight.
Its as if the object of her affection has been transferred from the constellation to me.
Did I say something stupid?
For some reason, an eerie sensation ran down my spine and spread throughout my body.
No. No, it cant be.
And just like that, I was in denial. Constellation sent me a message.
[Goddess of Destiny says that Anja has switched her target to you].
.. F*ck.
In order to get my original objective, a hidden item, I walked to a fountain with crystal clear water.
Anje follows behind without saying a word, looking at me with eyes like theyre dripping with honey.
We gazed at the statue of a beautiful goddess nearby that could only be called beautiful.
After seeing them in the game, it was like seeing the Statue of Liberty in real life.
They look pretty as statues, but I wonder what it would be like to see them in real life.
It wouldnt be bad to be killed by such a pretty goddess at the end of the game.
Bad ending standards, of course.
And while we stood there admiring the statue.
[Goddess of Destiny asks you whos the prettiest?].
Whos the prettiest?
In order to get my original objective, a hidden item, I walked to a fountain with crystal clear water.
Anje follows behind without saying a word, looking at me with eyes like theyre dripping with honey.
We gazed at the statue of a beautiful goddess nearby that could only be called beautiful.
After seeing them in the game, it was like seeing the Statue of Liberty in real life.
They look pretty as statues, but I wonder what it would be like to see them in real life.
It wouldnt be bad to be killed by such a pretty goddess at the end of the game.
Bad ending standards, of course.
And while we stood there admiring the statue.
[Goddess of Destiny asks you whos the prettiest?].
Whos the prettiest?
Honestly, it is right there.
Im not saying theyre not beautiful. All of them are.
But.
You cant tell whos prettier by looking at the statue.
I mean, theyre all beautiful, but who is who?
The constellations on the continents are as follows.
Goddess who sees destiny, Goddess who enjoys fun, Goddess who likes to fight, Goddess of dimensions, Goddess who shares happiness.
The problem is that you cant tell them apart from the statues in front of you.
All of them look alike, to be honest.
Normally, I wouldnt have responded to her question, but quite frankly, I was a bit annoyed with her for putting me through this trouble, so I turned my head towards the statue that didnt look like her as much as possible.
[.. Goddess of Destiny says, it seems you have eyes to judge].
She said, but it was a beat too late.
I see, that statue is not her.
I cant see how shes reacting now, but Im guessing.
Im sure shes puffing up her face in frustration, chewing on a nearby handkerchief.
The thought of it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
I pulled out the five holy potions from the subspace ring Id taken back from Thomas.
Kane-Sama?
Ah. Just watch. The Goddess has given me an oracle.
I ignored the reaction of the Anje and the constellations, and sprinkled one of the holy water on the statue.
Flash
The statue briefly emanated a tiny bit of divinity.
I sprinkled the four bottles of holy water, one for each of the remaining statues.
Just like that, all the tiny little divine beings rose to the top of the statue.
[What?! How do you know this?!]
Look at them all freaking out.
I continued to ignore the messages from the constellation, and turned my head towards the divinities that were beginning to coalesce into one.
Its kind of creepy.
I shouldnt say this about a sacred scene, but it felt like something out of a cartoon.
Contrary to my impression, Anje, who was next to me, opened her eyes wide and stared at the divinity rising in the air.
Soon after, when the divinity was fully gathered, a small cross necklace appeared, and then the necklace immediately dropped.
I caught it in my hand before it hit the ground.
A beautiful golden necklace with a sacred symbol no doubt about it. The hidden item, the Holy Cross, which I finally obtained after all my pretenses, is just what I was looking for.
This item was originally created by the games creators for beginner players, so its not a must-have for the main character.
By the way, Kim Soo-yong didnt get it either.
If you think about it, it makes sense. In the first place, the hidden item event has nothing to do with the original story.
So it makes sense that Kim Soo-yong doesnt get the hidden item because hes following the original story.
Or is it because Constellation came to me?
The only people who know about this hidden item in the first place are the players who know the game.
So it could be that he didnt get it because Constellation came to me.
No, I dont think so.
Sure. Its my imagination. Im sure it is.
Meanwhile.
Constellation frowns and chews on her handkerchief in frustration.
How the hell does he know that?!
The Holy Cross that Kane has just acquired is an artifact that was created as a prank by her.
But even if it was a prank, it was made by her. The Constellation.
As such, its more powerful than most artifacts.
But thats not the problem.
Its undeniably a good item, but the question is, how the hell does Kane know the dark history of the Constellations?
The truth is, they built it with the idea that all of humanity would be dependent on them.
At the time, it felt natural, but now that I think about it, its kind of embarrassing.
Every time I look at the item, it reminds me of that time, so the Constellations worked together to seal it away.
The only people who know the location of that item are the Three Constellations.
No way He doesnt know all the locations of our black history, does he?
Other than that, I can count the number of artifacts Ive made for fun on two hands. If he knows all of our black history locations
No. He cant.
Aside from that, how did he get Anje back to normal like that?
To put it mildly, Anjes mind is a bit unstable. Even when she descended as an incarnation, she wasnt in control.
I dont know what kind of trickery he pulled, but. She was simply traumatized, and there was nothing even a transcendent could do about it.
But Kane managed to pull it off, and in an unexpected way.
Now that I think about it, Im kind of pissed.
To be honest, the way he survived her was groundbreaking. Firstly, I dont know how he did it, but he exuded an outwardly plausible divinity.
Then there was the way he acted as if he was a transcendent, as if she herself was descending.
It is no exaggeration to say that it is a perfect performance for mortals.
And yet, when asked who was the prettiest, the statue he chose was another goddess!
Huh? I was so forgiving!
Honestly, if it had been any other goddess who had seen Kane pretending to descend, she would have descended into the real world and been punched in the face, or exposed the truth to Anje.
How dare he? Even though, I let him off the hook!
Ive been ignored a lot, but Ive messaged him every day, and weve been together, and he picked the goddess of happiness, the one I hate the most.
It p*ss*s me off. I dont know why. But I feel angry for the first time in a long time.
-Crunch!
The handkerchief ripped as Constellation clenched her teeth even harder.
She stares at Kanes screen with cold eyes, though her smile grows as she realizes how pleased he is to have gained access to the black history of her.
[Goddess of Destiny says, Congratulation, youve made it!]
Okay, lets send it like this, maybe itll get some attention?
She sent the message with both cheeks puffed out.