3rd Year (2)

Aetas was busily dressing herself up. She was putting effort into adorning herself in a way she’d never tried since ascending to godhood.

And she felt that the representative had entered the Garden of Gods. If the representative had come, then she must have come too, right?

She sent an incarnation to the representative and headed toward where Ludicer was. Aetas resolved as she went: today she’d try to look a little more elegant.

“Mr. Kim Han… sigh…”

Ludicer suddenly called my name and sighed.

“Why are you like this all of a sudden…?”

“Seven gods besides Aetas wish to meet Mr. Kim Han.”

“Again? Why are they all gathering like that? This time I only need to see Genesis…? Seven? So… eight including Aetas?”

“Yes.”

When he said eight including Aetas, who came to mind were the newly joined ones.

“Alright, let’s see…”

“Yes…”

Ludicer and I sighed at the same time and agreed. It was like looking into a mirror.

Then eight shadows rose up as if springing out.

“You’ve come… no, rather, have you arrived?”

“…Oh. Kim Han, what’s with you?”

“Indeed.”

“Why are you using honorifics all of a sudden?”

“I’m scared.”

“That’s enough, human. Do it as you normally would.”

But these humans—no, gods—act up even when you politely use honorifics…

I bit my molars together, endured it, and continued speaking.

“Enough… Are these the gods in charge of the Rebound legion members?”

“…That’s right?”

Ignoring Mors’s still-sour face, I approached the three lesser gods and greeted them fairly politely.

“I’m Kim Han, commander of the Rebound legion. You’ll give our members your full support from now on, right?”

“…Huh?”

“When did I?”

“No?”

When I glared at Aetas as if to ask what was going on, Aetas glared at the three gods again.

Startled by Aetas’s powerful glare, the three baffled lower gods jumped.

“Lady Aetas, even so…”

The one who’d apparently tossed aside his upper garment complained to Aetas in his own bulky way.

That madman—does he still not know how terrible Aetas’s temperament is? Even someone like me who only heard about it understands.

“Hey, come here. Read what’s written on the divine-word contract you signed.”

He gritted his teeth and growled like a ventriloquist, but strangely I could understand every word.

“‘Help the representatives and Kim Han more actively than at any other time participated in Battlefield of the Gods’? Th-this is fraud!”

At the three gods’ outburst, the faces of the other gods, including Aetas, twisted. Especially Genesis and Aetas were radiating lethal killing intent.

Why wouldn’t they be? They’d brought them before me thinking they’d handled things well, only to have them run amok and disgrace them…

“Gods really can’t read the room, can they?”

“Do you actually want to be annihilated?”

“If you want that, go ahead. A god annihilated during Battlefield of the Gods…”

“That’ll go down in history. What idiots.”

The three gods could barely make a sound in front of the four goddesses casually threatening annihilation.

They were trying to hide their anger and express displeasure subtly, but they were the ones being idiots.

It wasn’t just the divine-word contract.

Most magical contracts in Battlefield of the Gods shouldn’t be signed lightly. If you make a mistake, you could be bound by divine power or divine words and forced into a slave-like life.

It’s not without reason that the divine-word contracts have never been used and only gathered dust.

Once the situation was roughly sorted, I clapped my hands to gather the gods’ attention.

“Now then, I trust you’ll do well, so you may leave.”

“Grr!”

That macho guy who’d taken off his jacket earlier ground his teeth and glared at me.

When I stared back and gestured with my chin, he finally exploded, shouting “You bastard!” and wagging his finger.

“Hey, you son of a bitch who can’t even afford clothes. You think you’re easy because I spoke politely? Do you not get why the other high gods are cooperating with me this much? No wonder you’d sign and then cry fraud. Hey, don’t take being slapped elsewhere out on me. I want to kill you. Being a god doesn’t mean you live forever; you’re not unkillable.”

At the blunt, cutting words, the three gods gaped and then looked bewildered.

Then Aetas and the other six expressed common sentiments and shattered the three gods’ morale.

“As I thought! Kim Han.”

“That human’s mouth is really…”

“Even gods would die if you could just cut their heads off. Technically it’d be annihilation, though.”

“And Mr. Kim Han is someone who can cut necks (as future events will show…).”

“Human bastard, really… I’m angry even though these words aren’t aimed at me but I’m just listening…”

“You’re right.”

Perhaps more stunned by the gods’ remarks they thought would support them, the three gods looked dazed as they alternated gazes between me and the six gods.

They then took in, piece by piece, what the gods had said and looked at me as if I were a monster.

“Where do you get off, just—bam! Ah… no. ahem. Now then, please go. Take good care of our legion members.”

He spat out a crude remark, straightened his face, bowed politely, and sent the three gods away.

The three bewildered lower gods wore dazed expressions until they disappeared.

“They’re gone? They’re gone, right? They are. Ugh, I thought I’d get goosebumps to death.”

“They’re gone. But why did you use honorifics earlier all of a sudden?”

Aetas, like me, made a motion of sweeping his arm and asked.

“Ah, that? I saw before that Ister tried to make a deal to have you sign after they’d signed the divine-word contract, right? In human terms it’s like a rank gap between duke and marquess. So after the incident was resolved I reflected a bit. At least in front of lower gods you meet for the first time, you should use honorifics to save face for you.”

“Hmm…?”

“Hmm….”

“Of course….”

“So did Ister really decide to pick a fight with us?”

“Ah, no! Nothing like that! Absolutely not!”

That Genesis woman is definitely nasty. She even confirmed with a coup de grâce.

“Well, we’ll get to know that later in our own way. Anyway, glad to see you all. We see each other often so we’ll get attached. Aetas! You look different today—you’re dressed up nicely.”

“R-right?”

Surely she isn’t embarrassed, right? She isn’t.

“Yes. And I’m glad to see you all… Genesis! I’m especially pleased to see you. I’ll show you just how pleased I am!”

I approached Genesis, who had her head bowed to the ground, and laid a hand on her shoulder.

“Now, Genesis. I’ve expressed my welcome, so shall we move on?”

“Huh? Wh-what…?”

Isn’t this why it’s said that the one who gets hit sleeps easily while the hitter can’t stretch out his legs?

A god, one of the highest among them, was flustered in front of me. My muscles moved against my will and a smile formed at my mouth.

“Ah! Enough. Isn’t this too much, humanly—no, godly? Huh? Our high god sisters?”

My luck stat flew away. Of course it’s steadily accumulating even now, but the fact that it flew away remains.

And that nightmare. Ah… thinking about it makes me mad again.

“I’ve developed the talent ‘Insight’ and have been thinking deeply, so I try very hard to show respect to our high gods whenever possible. How hard do I try? I just try really hard. But… is it okay to treat me like this? Sisters, you don’t like me, do you?”

The goddesses were rendered mute as if they’d eaten honey; Genesis in particular kept her head bowed and couldn’t look up.

“…I’m sorry.”

After a brief silence, Genesis’s apologetic voice spread across the quiet garden. I nodded at her apology and continued.

“You should be sorry. Yes, I’ll accept your apology.”

“Really! You mean it…?”

“Yes. So hand it over.”

“…Huh?”

“Aetas, didn’t you tell her? Don’t just say thanks—give something when you thank someone. That’s manners, didn’t I say? If even a ‘thank you’ is like this, then what about an apology? Huh?”

The five gods looked stunned at my words.

But this time I wasn’t joking. The moment I realized my lost luck stat, I vowed I’d strip Genesis and the other three gods of everything.

“Hurry.”

“Ugh… What do you wish for?”

Genesis asked as if giving up.

“Well, what can you give? For reference, I lost 145 of my luck stat that day saving the ‘Dark Mae Young-ryeong.’ Ludicer, explain.”

All the gods except Ludicer looked quite surprised, as if she already knew about the luck stat.

Aetas in particular grabbed Ludicer and asked several times if it was true.

When Ludicer confirmed it was true, Aetas glared at Genesis as if about to devour her, and the other gods looked at me with a pitying air.

It’s true I lost 145 luck. I regained about 110 luck later, but it’s still true that 145 I originally possessed went missing.

“Sigh… I can’t give something of that value. The ‘Setting’ wouldn’t allow it in the first place. But that doesn’t mean I’ll just let it go. So…”

Summarized, Genesis’s following explanation was like this.

Just as demon gods arrange things for their representative, Heavenly Gods and demon gods—and most gods who have some power—have one or more fate-dungeon sites prepared for their representatives.

In Violentia’s case it’s a bit extreme, but less so than that; there are scattered places where you can obtain not insignificant treasures or abilities.

She said they’d give me not only Genesis’s but also the dungeons prepared by Aetas, Mors, and Spatium.

“So you’re saying that will make up for it? I know a lot of ruins too, you know?”

“It’s different from ruins! This is completely different. Even ten ruins together aren’t worth one of ours, you see?”

Aetas stepped up to support Genesis, and the other gods nodded in strong agreement.

“What a hassle…”

“Ah, no, it’s not a hassle at all. You just take the divine items we give you into them and pull the stuff out!”

This time Mors stepped forward to emphasize how easy it would be, and that the dungeons conveniently happened to be nearby.

After a long moment of thought, the four gods couldn’t hide their anxious looks.

I clenched my lips to suppress a smile trying to slip out, making my face even more creased.

Perhaps that made Genesis more uneasy. She was even biting her nails.

“The stat I lost is luck…”

“Luck and fortune—no, ensure luck equipment and fortune are prepared to be given at the next Garden of Gods visit!”

Even Spatium, who’d been watching the situation coolly, stepped forward to offer luck equipment and the fortune.

“…Hmm. You can only find them after the training period ends, though.”

“Th-that’s true! But they’re definitely good…”

Genesis looked downcast.

I glanced at Ludicer and she gave a slight nod.

Well, I’ll let this debt slide for now. It’s not that I’m satisfied. I’m accepting roughly and making a ‘debt’ to be collected later.

“Alright. It seems like a big loss, but I’ll endure it for now.”

“Really? Thank you!”

Genesis rushed at me and hugged me. I, who had been sitting on a chair near the tea table in the garden, ended up buried in her chest.

Her chest was so large I couldn’t tell whether it was a chest or two faces pressing against me.

“Okay. Step back a bit.”

“Hehe. Okay.”

Just before I started having breathing trouble, I tapped Genesis’s side like a boxer trapped in an armbar to signal surrender and make her let go.

“By the way, Genesis, what rewards are in your dungeon?”

“Ah…! Eggs, eggs!”

What the—bitch?!

Violentia, with the look of someone who’d lost their joy in life, recalled visiting the Garden of Gods a few days earlier.

“Ohohohohoho. Well done, well done. Here, take this. It’s a gift.”

Violentia flinched at the sudden approach and shoulder-patting from the demon god Serpens.

“Um, um… Lady Serpens?”

“Ohohohoho. You’ve been having the most satisfying training period ever. Especially your reinterpretation of the Amor woman’s idol was truly… ohohohohoho.”

“Ah, ho, hohoho. I… but…”

Violentia cautiously opened her mouth to the praising Serpens.

“W-well… since I’m the woman who entered the Amor place, there should certainly be more of that crystal.”

“Ah, that? It’s fine.”

Surprised that Serpens so coolly said it was fine, Violentia asked loudly.

“Really?!”

“Of course. I’ve thought it over: you’d get some publicity, maybe even be mocked by the representatives throughout Battlefield of the Gods, and at worst known across the continent. Compared to what the Amor woman suffered, it’s no big loss for me.”

“…Huh?”

Time passed without her noticing, and when she came to her senses she found herself already outside the Garden of Gods.

“Ah… no. Even if the continent doesn’t know, if ‘he’ finds out…”

As Violentia tore at her hair with both hands, her mind was filled with the memory of the charming-voiced(?) man who’d consistently supported her magic.