The Truth Of The World

Above my head was a blue sky without a single cloud.

In contrast, beneath my feet, white clouds spread to the ends of the earth like a plain.

I should have been laughing while embracing Liricia near the Royal Capital.

But after being enveloped in light, the scenery suddenly changed, so I grew serious and looked around.

“Where is this?”

“Eh—this is the Heaven Realm, Master!”

Liricia looked around and raised a voice of surprise.

At her words, my heart skipped a beat.

“So that means, because I defeated the Great Demon King, Liricia returned to heaven?”

“I wonder? They said God was absent, though…”

“Where is the place where God used to be?”

“This way.”

Liricia took my hand and led me as we walked across the white cloud ground.

After walking through the empty, peopleless Heaven Realm for about half an hour,

an artificial structure came into view ahead.

It was a solemn temple with thick white pillars.

However, there were no walls or ceiling, and the blue sky was visible beyond the pillars.

When we reached the temple, we climbed the broad staircase in front of the entrance and went inside.

The inside of the temple was simply a space divided by pillars.

At the very back of the hall was a familiar white sphere about one meter in diameter.

No matter how I looked at it, it was Kou, the Dungeon Core.

When we approached, bluish-white light ran across the surface of the sphere, and she raised a joyful voice.

“Yaaay, Master, you did it! I finally cleared it! I am a World Core! I became the administrator of the world!”

“That’s good.”

“Aaah! It really took so long! After clearing countless trash games, I finally became a safe and secure existence!”

“Come to think of it, you said you started with a board game and had been playing all sorts of games.”

“Yes! My joy is beyond immeasurable!”

Kou flashed brightly while shedding tears of joy on the surface of her sphere.

Liricia asked after thinking for a moment.

“Does that mean Master will become the next god?”

“Yes, yes! In this Heaven Realm, Master and Liricia-san can live forever while lovingly flirting with each other as you look down on the lower world!”

“Flirting—what are you saying, Kou-chan!”

“Flirting together is also fate from previous lives.”

“It is far more than just a little fate!”

Liricia grew angry with her cute face bright red.

With a wry smile, I stroked her silver hair as if to soothe her.

“But for you, Liricia, this is like coming home, right? It feels a little lonely, but it’s a wonderful place.”

“Yes, that is true… Somehow, it feels nostalgic…”

“Somehow? Didn’t you run around above these clouds since you were a child?”

At my question, Liricia placed a finger on her chin and thought with a hum.

“My childhood… I cannot remember it.”

“I see… So the effects from when you fell to earth are still there…”

I said that with a grimace.

Even though it happened before I met her, it pained me to think that Liricia had suffered after having her memories erased.

However, Kou said in an offhand tone.

“That ain’t it.”

“It isn’t? What do you mean?”

“There’s no way Liricia-san had a childhood. She doesn’t have a lifespan either.”

“—Why can you say that so definitively?”

When I asked while glaring, Kou answered easily.

“Because Liricia-san is an angel. She is a monster created by a Dungeon Core consuming cores, an adult from the moment she was born.”

“Eh!?” “What did you say!?”

“To be precise, she is an angel created by the previous World Core.”

“—The other angel, Sophia, too?”

“That’s right.”

At Kou’s words, Liricia and I were stunned.

—No, Kou had indeed said it before. That if she became an angel-type dungeon, she could use cores to create angels.

Also, when they drank alcohol that worked on dungeon-born monsters, Liricia, Sophia, and Rāna all lost their minds.

So Liricia was also a dungeon-born monster!

Liricia grabbed my arm and looked up at me. Her drooping eyes were so moist that she looked ready to cry.

I shook my head and gently held Liricia in my arms.

“In that case, I should thank the previous World Core. It created such a cute wife for me.”

“Ma-Master…”

Liricia smiled with tears in her eyes and clung to me desperately.

I gently stroked her silver hair. I wanted her to feel at least a little less uneasy.

While holding Liricia’s soft body in my arms, I asked Kou.

“Is there anything else you should tell us? I’ve had enough surprises for today.”

“Nothing in particular.”

“I see… I’ll confirm just in case, but even if I became god, I don’t have to stay in the Heaven Realm watching over people forever, right? I can live in the mansion as usual, can’t I?”

“Of course. If helping people is the will of god, then not helping people is also the will of god. Well, just like I managed the mansion, I will manage the world too, so even if Master does nothing, no problem.”

“So that’s how it works… Which means the world had been managed until now by excellent Dungeon Cores becoming World Cores. That’s another surprising truth.”

“That’s right. I already told you before that this world is a giant dungeon.”

“Huh? —No, no, I never heard that! This world is a dungeon!?”

“Yes. In order from the upper layers, it consists of six giant layers: Heaven Realm, Fantasy Realm, Star Dragon Realm, Mortal Realm, Demon Realm, and Purgatory Realm.”

“What!?”

“No, I did not know that!”

Liricia and I raised voices of shock.

Kou made the surface of her sphere glow as if puzzled.

“I told you when we went to the Demon Realm and Star Dragon Realm.”

“I never heard anything like tha—ah!”

Kou had indeed said it.

When going to the Demon Realm, she said it was simple work, like opening a hole in the floor and making stairs.

When going to the Star Dragon Realm, she said it was simple work, like opening a hole in the ceiling and installing stairs.

And when going to the Yamata Kingdom in the Mortal Realm, she said it was difficult because she had to break through several walls and pass a corridor through.

—So it was because this world was a giant dungeon!

I felt like I understood why all other worlds had dungeons, and why the next god was chosen through Dungeon World Wars.

It was because this world and the other worlds were all dungeons.

I let out a long sigh.

“So everything is a dungeon.”

“Yes! Whether to be satisfied as things are, or to make things even more comfortable, depends on Master’s feelings.”

“My feelings, huh… Oh right, there’s one thing I’d like you to do.”

“What is it?”

“The current monster rank system is based only on strength, right? In addition to that, can you make something like a monster usefulness ranking?”

“Oho? What would the evaluation criteria be?”

“Intelligence and craftsman skills. You could call them special skills too.”

“So a strong but ordinary goblin and a weak but good-at-cooking goblin would be like combat power D and usefulness E, versus combat power E and usefulness C?”

“Something like that! The Demon King’s reason for wanting to conquer the world was that he wanted to destroy the old monster ranking system.”

“Roger. I will write the program and change everything at once.”

“I’m counting on you.”

One of the things I had been worried about seemed like it could be resolved, so my shoulders felt a little lighter.

I was also glad that I did not seem to have any duty to do something as god.

In my arms, Liricia smiled softly.

“What is it, Liricia?”

“The very first thing you did after becoming god was not for yourself or for people, but for monsters. That is just like you, Master.”

Liricia hugged me with a happy smile.

For some reason, she felt very dear to me, and I gently held her.

—Then.

The sword hanging at my waist—the Demon God Sword Ruin Greed—began rattling.

As if appealing for something.

“Ah, I forgot.”

“What is it, Master?”

I drew the sword. It was a jet-black single-edged sword.

As if it had something to say, the blade flashed sharply.

I thought for a moment while looking at the black blade.

The Demon God Magnaurus had the worst personality and a foul mouth.

It also seemed his behavior had been bad in the past.

Normally, freeing Magnaurus would be unthinkable.

However—for me, if Magnaurus had not been there, I would not have met Mithra, the World Core, and I could not have returned to this world.

He had helped me one-sidedly. I had not suffered anything terrible.

I even thought a little that perhaps after bathing in my enormous Holy Wave, the root of Magnaurus’s personality had changed in a better direction.

But I lacked common sense. I might have been misunderstanding.

Besides, at first, he had tried to abandon me and run away.

So I asked Liricia, who was smarter than me. After telling her everything that had happened with Magnaurus.

“—And that is why this Demon Sword Ruin Greed is the form of the Demon God Magnaurus, sealed into a sword by the previous god.”

“I see… In exchange for his help, you promised to free him.”

“I also promised to make him god.”

“Eeh!? Master, are you handing over the position of god!?”

“No, I won’t make him the god of this world.”

“What do you mean?”

Liricia tilted her head in puzzlement.

I looked at Kou and asked.

“Kou, you became a World Core, right?”

“I did.”

“Then, just like Mithra, the World Core in the rift between dimensions, you can connect to another world, right?”

“Hmm. I can connect a door to Mithra-san’s place.”

“Then he can become Mithra’s partner. We defeated Skels, the Great Demon King, who had been her partner, so she should be free.”

“My! You certainly did not lie! Whether she likes it is another matter, though!”

Liricia covered her mouth and was shocked.

The sword in my hand rattled violently.

Was he happy?

“For now, Kou. Release Magnaurus’s seal.”

“Okay. Divine Seal Release.”

Smoke puffed up from the sword.