And The God (2)

The Rebound legion that visited the Garden of Gods was spending time with each of their assigned gods.

There were representatives acting as usual, but there were also representatives who were quite bewildered by completely different reactions.

Soria never wanted to enter the Garden of Gods. She did not want to face her assigned god, who leered over her body like a lecherous, filthy thing.

But to live as a representative, one needed power.

Fortunately, gods had the duty to grant at least minimal power, so Soria closed her eyes and sought the Garden of Gods, and thereafter she always kept her eyes shut.

Ahead of her fourth visit to the Garden of Gods since arriving in Exorsus, she took a deep breath and entered the garden.

“Oh, you’ve come.”

At the moment she entered, the voice of her assigned god, the mid-tier fire god Incensus, reached her, and Soria shuddered as if insects crawled all over her skin.

“…Yeah.”

“Th-this is something I’ve specially prepared this time. So…”

“…What? What are you up to now?”

Still with her eyes closed, Soria took a step back at Incensus’s words and bristled with hostility.

Incensus’s face contorted like a crushed cola can at Soria’s behavior. He was already annoyed to have to be nice to a mere human, and this woman wouldn’t cooperate…

“There is no Medical Arts at all! From now on, I will actively help you!”

“……”

At that moment, the words Kim Han had said when she joined a new legion just a couple of months ago came to mind.

“Ah, by the way, if your assigned god is uncooperative, it will probably be resolved when you enter the Battlefield of the Gods in your fourth year. They change noticeably and will disgorge the power they’ve held back.”

Was that so?

She didn’t know what influence Kim Han had used. But one thing was clear: beyond her closed eyes, a powerful presence was restless and eager.

Once the situation was sorted in her mind, a smile spread across Soria’s lips. There was no reason she should be content with receiving only the withheld power.

Four years and eleven days after entering the Battlefield of the Gods, the eyes Soria always kept closed opened.

Her irises, mysteriously glowing teal, stared straight at the flustered Incensus.

Seeing those mystically glowing teal eyes and her beautiful smile, Incensus, despite being a fire god, seemed to feel a chill.

The half-orc Ostum, a true strongman and the kind of man he wanted to emulate, decided to finish his visit to the Garden of Gods quickly and wait outside for the legion commander Kim Han, as ordered.

Upon entering, he found the mid-tier god of hunting and hunting Venor waiting for him, wearing a garment made of leaves instead of normal clothes.

Venor greeted Ostum with arms wide and a full smile.

Perhaps displeased by his assigned god’s smile, Ostum’s reply was brusque to the extreme.

“Are you crazy? Why are you grinning like an idiot, you moron.”

“…Ostum, Ostum, you foolish Ostum. Have you forgotten that I take care of your tribe?”

Even when Venor invoked the tribe he claimed to protect like a trump card, Ostum’s indifferent expression did not change.

The reason was that Ostum was about to meet Kim Han, whom he respected.

“Tribe? There’s only three left, what tribe are you talking about! Do you know the time flow is different between the Battlefield of the Gods and where you lived? If I bluntly say they died natural deaths, what are you going to do? And they’re not even your kin, right? Are you a patsy?”

“You idiot, is your brain full of roots now? You heard our commander’s words and still pull this crap. Kin? Ha! Only three left. Two of those bastards killed my father and my sister. I’d be happy to kill them all. Even if you don’t, when I go back I’ll kill them. So just give me what’s due and let’s be done.”

Taken aback by Ostum’s blunt words, Venor lost the chance to retort.

And unbeknownst to Ostum, while he was having a serious talk with Kim Han, Venor had an intense conversation with Aitas as well—filled with curses, threats, and murderous intent!

So Venor did not know what his representative Ostum had discussed with Kim Han. That unnerved Venor and marked the beginning of his nightmare.

“K-Kim Han… Mr.?”

“Yes. Enough—just give me what’s owed!”

“Wait! What did Mr. Kim Han say?”

“What? You don’t know? What kind of god is this. What god doesn’t even know what his representatives are doing? But fine. I have no business talking to you.”

Ostum was a half-orc, but not stupid.

Blessed with innate strength, endurance, and an affinity for force, he had been dominant in his tribe, but the real reason he rose was his intelligence, which set him apart from other half-orcs.

Judging by Venor’s actions, it seemed his assigned god was uneasy about the representative and legion commander Kim Han.

“Commander Kim Han said that if you visit the Garden of Gods today you’ll receive power. Sufficiently astounding power, he said. So hurry up and give it. I’ll report to Kim Han after I receive it.”

At Ostum’s calm words, Venor began to sweat cold. ‘Sufficiently astounding’—what kind of subjective range was that!

That day Venor had to take out the preserved soul-plate and grant additional power.

The twin gods Geminus and Geminus.

Among them, the elder sister Geminus was Apher’s assigned god. These twin gods had the same names, the same appearance, and equally infuriating personalities.

“Come in.”

A tone of kindness she’d never heard before. His arms were wide open—definitely different from before.

Not only that—rather than scolding the unresponsive Apher, he kept checking on her anxiously.

“Is something uncomfortable?”

“No.”

As Geminus’s attitude changed, so did Apher.

Apher glared at Geminus, who kept trying to read her mood, with a consistently cold stare.

“Geminus, I’ll ask just one thing.”

“…Hm? Of course, ask.”

Perhaps pleased Apher finally responded, Geminus again spread his arms in a ‘I am magnanimous’ pose and gladly allowed the question.

But his face automatically contorted at Apher’s following question.

“The representative Ribor, who I know as my sibling— is he really my sibling?”

In truth, Apher was no fool. In fact, she was quite intelligent.

Unlike other noble parents, Apher’s parents had educated her almost as well as the men—grateful, enlightened people.

But even those parents always paid more attention to her twin brother Ribor, and, unlike their attitude toward him, they sometimes showed disappointment in Apher’s lack of talent for swordsmanship.

That wasn’t to say Apher had a knack for magic either. Still, she lived happily with her slightly resentful younger brother and their parents.

Until her brother assaulted the noble’s daughter from the neighboring territory.

A few days before the incident, Ribor became a completely different person.

He began speaking rudely to their parents and frequently struck servants in the castle.

What had been dismissed as adolescence escalated when, at a territory-hosted party, he raped a noble’s daughter from another territory, and the matter grew into a territorial war.

And against everyone’s expectations, their territory lost.

The night she was taken prisoner, Geminus came to her and told her to become a representative.

Apher naturally refused. Thus began her ordeal. Each time she suffered, Geminus urged her to become a representative. She refused to the end.

Even while treated like a castle slave, she had one reason for refusing to be a representative.

She had no confidence in surviving the Battlefield of the Gods, and there was someone she had to remain for and one day meet again: her brother Ribor, whom she had smuggled out immediately after the territorial defeat.

However, she became a representative with only eleven days left in the Battlefield of the Gods—after hearing that Ribor had become a representative.

“W-what are you saying?!”

“Kim Han told me to be sure and ask. Please answer by divine truth. Is the representative participating in this Battlefield of the Gods truly my real brother Ribor?”

“……”

Geminus did not answer.

If she, as a god, were merely joking it would be one thing, but a god cannot lie through divine truth.

“Mr. Kim Han said, Geminus, that if you do not answer, his hypothesis should be considered true. I think so too. He wasn’t my brother after all. Then what happened to my real brother, the true Ribor?”

“……”

Again, Geminus did not answer. A single tear rolled down Apher’s cheek.

“Give me… the power I should receive, the power I didn’t receive before! The soul-plate to increase my divine power, please.”

Apher, repeating each phrase like a vow, was certainly not the same as before.

Geminus involuntarily took a step back at her spirit and vigor.

Apher emerged from the Garden of Gods exuding the bearing of a warrior.

Ribor went to the Garden of Gods as soon as his fourth year began.

He had not a single coin; Apher, who always believed him to be her brother, had managed the finances.

He needed at least enough money to eat and sleep.

“Geminus!”

The Geminus who served Apher shared the same name. While Apher’s god was a goddess, Ribor’s assigned god Geminus was the male twin—that was the only difference.

These two were the twin gods, Geminus.

“You filthy worm!”

“…Lady G-Geminus?”

Ribor stammered in shock and stepped back.

“Didn’t I tell you to join Mr. Kim Han’s legion without fail, you stupid bastard!”

“W-well… that Kim Han fellow…”

“Shut that mouth! How dare you, worthless scum, approach Kim Han with your pathetic guts? Didn’t I clearly say you should keep your head down?!”

Ribor couldn’t continue under the force radiating from Geminus.

“You fucking idiot! Do you think you entered the Battlefield of the Gods as a representative because you’re great? I told you many times it’s because of Apher, chosen to control Apher! You useless piece of trash!!”

“…I’m sorry.”

“Get out!!”

“W-well…”

“Didn’t you hear me say get out? Or are you defying my order?”

Faced with Geminus’s final murderous aura, Ribor hastily left the Garden of Gods.

From behind him came Geminus’s muttering: ‘The day Aetas finds out…’

Sitting on the central fountain in the plaza, Ribor calmly assessed his situation.

He fully accepted that his position was nothing more than a tool to control the outstanding priestess Apher and a representative who loved her brother dearly.

But it was far too late.

Rising from the fountain, Ribor stared north for a long moment, then trudged eastward.

Naruan listened closely to Mors’s conversation. To Naruan, Mors was the most trustworthy being after Kim Han.

But Mors said she would tell an entertaining tale like a bard’s song instead of explaining what representatives needed to know.

“Naruan, today I’ll tell you about a very famous play from the world Kim Han lived in. Listen closely.”

“Yes!”

Mors puffed out her chest, patted Naruan’s head as the gnome eagerly nodded, and began the tale.

It was a story of a man and a woman from feuding families who fall in love.

With the help of a priest, they secretly wed, but the bloodshed between the houses continued.

The man was exiled, and the woman, before marrying another man, took a potion given by the priest and fell into a deathlike sleep.

“Romeo, hearing that Juliet is dead, runs to her and, believing her truly dead, poisons himself. Juliet, waking from her deathlike state, follows Romeo and stabs herself in the heart to die with him.”

“Wow!!”

When the Romeo and Juliet tale ended, Naruan’s eyes filled with tears in admiration. His gaze turned dreamy—perhaps he was already imagining himself as Juliet.

“Did you enjoy it, Naruan?”

“Yes!”

Patting Naruan’s smiling head, Mors continued.

“Do you know what the important lesson of this story is, our Naruan?”

“Um… I don’t know.”

“Hoho, it’s okay. The lesson is that beautiful love means ‘dying together.’”

“Dying? Really?”

“Yes~! Truly. Lovers meeting death together—how romantic is that? Besides, you and Kim Han have the Immortality I gave you, don’t you? If you die together and are reborn together, your bond will only deepen.”

“W-wow!!”

The conversation between Mors, seriously spouting what Kim Han would have ridiculed as nonsense, and Naruan, listening even more earnestly, continued for quite some time.