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 I’m 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.
It’s just a glow.
And from Anze’s point of view, I have no divinity, so it wouldn’t be felt at all.
Under the circumstances, it’s more normal for her to think that the goddess has descended on me after all.
[Anje, I’d love to have a long conversation with you, but we don’t have time].
“Oh, no, Goddess.”
Anze blushed and flailed her arms in a panic.
[I’m sorry, but I’ll 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 don’t know exactly when because of the inference of evil, but it’s something you won’t be able to get through without the man in front of you. So I’m asking you, if he ever comes to ask you for ]]
“I’ll help him.”
Before I could finish, Anje nodded.
Okay. So I got one useful ally.
Now that I’ve got that confirmation, I need to time my parting shot. There’s 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?”
[I’m sorry, there’s not much time left to descend].
“Goddess. We’ll meet again, won’t we?”
I nod in response to the tearful question.
[Don’t worry, we won’t be separated forever; surely we’ll be reunited once you’ve overcome the catastrophe].
“Okay. I understand. I’ll be sure to support him. And we’ll 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.
“I’m sorry, I-I misunderstood, and I overused my power, didn’t I?”
“—— ”
I didn’t 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 don’t 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, there’s no point in getting a Superior Heal when I didn’t really need it and I’ve put in zero effort. It’s a waste of divinity.
To put it bluntly, it’s just warmth.
And it’s Anze, not me, who’s exerting herself. She’s 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 she’s still using the highest level of divine restoration that even a priest can’t use on me with a face that says she doesn’t 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.
She’s ashamed of herself for saying it.
Judging by the way she’s talking, she’s not lying. That said, Constellation knew that speaking like that would make her try to kill me.
Well, given her personality, that’s pretty obvious.
Anze realizes she’s done something shameful and lowers her head.
“It’s okay, we all make mistakes, it’s more important that we fix them, so there’s 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 can’t quite describe her expression, but it’s like a beautiful girl falling in love at first sight.
It’s 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 can’t 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 they’re 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 wouldn’t 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 who’s the prettiest?].
Who’s 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 they’re 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 wouldn’t 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 who’s the prettiest?].
Who’s the prettiest?
Honestly, it is right there.
I’m not saying they’re not beautiful. All of them are.
But.
You can’t tell who’s prettier by looking at the statue.
I mean, they’re 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 can’t tell them apart from the statues in front of you.
All of them look alike, to be honest.
Normally, I wouldn’t 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 didn’t 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 can’t see how she’s reacting now, but I’m guessing.
I’m sure she’s 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 I’d 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.
It’s kind of creepy.
I shouldn’t 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 game’s creators for beginner players, so it’s not a must-have for the main character.
By the way, …… Kim Soo-yong didn’t 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 doesn’t get the hidden item because he’s 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 didn’t get it because Constellation came to me.
No, I don’t think so.
Sure. It’s my imagination. I’m 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, it’s more powerful than most artifacts.
But that’s not the problem.
It’s 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, it’s 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 doesn’t know all the locations of our black history, does he?
Other than that, I can count the number of artifacts I’ve made for fun on two hands. If he knows all of our black history locations…
No. He can’t.
Aside from that, how did he get Anje back to normal like that?
To put it mildly, Anje’s mind is a bit unstable. Even when she descended as an incarnation, she wasn’t in control.
I don’t 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, I’m kind of pissed.
To be honest, the way he survived her was groundbreaking. Firstly, I don’t 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!
I’ve been ignored a lot, but I’ve messaged him every day, and we’ve been together, and he picked the goddess of happiness, the one I hate the most.
It p*ss*s me off. I don’t 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 Kane’s 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, you’ve made it!]
Okay, let’s send it like this, maybe it’ll get some attention?
She sent the message with both cheeks puffed out.