So I’m a Fish, So What?

“A blazing new morning, it is.”

Listlessly raising my eyes to peek at the ever burning outside world, I monotonically comment.

A tasteless comment, but a useful one nonetheless.

Checking the outside world and dropping a comment– any comment has been a habit of mine for the last few centuries.

In the morning, afternoon, evening, midnight, and whenever I feel like it, I always take the time to peek from the closest window and let out whatever words come to mind.

Keeping a routine can go a really long way in keeping your sanity when you’re stuck in literal hell for all eternity.

It’d be much better If that routine can be adjusted on a regular basis.

That occasional color and flair you add to your life has greater ability to persevere you self than any repetitive routine could ever have.

Emotion and sanity erosion is a very common issue when it comes to long lifespan species all around the universe.

Especially for those mortals who were able to increase their life level and step into the ranks of the divine through sheer luck.

Their body, soul, and consciousness just aren’t wired for that sort of life.

Long slumbers are a common coping method, but I personally see it as more of a temporary escape rather than an actual solution.

In my opinion– and experience, repeatedly witnessing the world around suddenly changing isn’t a good thing at all.

If anything, it accelerates the erosion of your emotions since you’re almost always out of sync with reality.

Many of those who have relied on it excessively have completely lost their emotions and turned into what could only be called a living machine.

In other words, you will always face what you have to face eventually— running away does nothing but delay the inevitable.

So it’s best if you stop wasting your time and effort in that unproductive way, and instead search or develop ways to make sure you will always be you at the end of the storm.

For me personally, I have had the time and freedom to devise a number of ways to cope over the course of my long life.

A position of power does come with its perks, you know.

Master D’s personal maid and assistant positions might be extremely troublesome and tiresome most of the time, but I can’t deny it being one of loftiest status you could ever hope to achieve in the entire universe.

A literal above all and below only one status.

What others strive to achieve in a lifetime becomes just another of your basic privileges.

For example, while those little guys slave away to atone for their sins and whatnot, I can follow in Master D’s footsteps and skip work all day everyday.

Not that I’m showing off or anything, I just wanna give a real life example to make the picture clearer and easier to imagine.

Frankly, my time is better invested in something that is of actual value.

Perhaps seeking an interesting activity to liven up my day— something to help preserve my girly heart, if you understand what I mean, fufu~

I do try to keep those escapades of mine a secret though, even if I recognize that my actions are clear to all those involved.

It’s really just a symbolic effort by now, but it is of the utmost importance to protect my strict and rigorous image in front of my subordinates at least.

I would like to say it also helps solidify my authority over my master, but everyone knows said authority has dwindled a lot over the centuries.

By now, my words and actions hold a negligible weight in her eyes.

Clicking my tongue, I lazily scan through the last document in my hands.

There was nothing worthy of note inside, so I casually signed my name at its bottom and lightly stuffed the document into the file cabinet by my side.

I honestly can’t be bothered to do paperwork anymore.

On that note, why the heck is paperwork even a thing in the almighty underworld?

More specifically, why the fuck am I the one doing it when I’m the actually the underworld’s strongest ‘combatant’? 

And I’ve been stuck here with this responsibility for over a millennium, no less.

We’re seriously lacking in manpower over here.

In my opinion, It’s a freaking miracle that the cycle of reincarnation somehow hasn’t failed and caused the destruction of this universe up until now.

But I’m more concerned about the reason why I’m the one that’s doing the CEO of Hell’s work right now.

……Ah, I remember why.

I lost a bet with the most powerful being the universe.

Well, Master D definitely cheated, but there’s really nothing I can do about it, you know.

For clarification, I didn’t actually catch her in the middle of the act red-handed, but it’s one of those things where the concept of evidence in itself is redundant.

Just like water flows in the direction of gravity, and the smaller celestial objects revolve around the bigger ones.

None of these statements require evidence or proof since they are facts etched into the very fabric of reality.

In the same way, Master D cheating isn’t a random assumption, it’s a given fact.

Unfortunately, despite my lifespan being incredibly long, my age is but a mere fraction of hers.

Getting passively tossed around by doesn’t feel as humiliating as it did before.

Rather, it’s the exact opposite.

Not to mention ‘beating’ Master D, just holding your ground against her is a deed to be etched in legends.

Some may have the naïve thought of confronting her head on, but that in itself is nothing more than a delusion of a madman.

Master D’s subordinates may not be the strongest in the universe, but her own strength undoubtedly represents the peak of what is there to offer.

Thankfully, such an almighty being disdains to break her own words.

Which means there’s actually a way you could ‘beat her’— outsmarting her in a game of words.

There’s only one little issue standing between you and this legendary victory however.

You must be special enough to attract her attention in the first place, and then your actions must be crazy enough to attract her interest

Otherwise provoking her will only lead to your existence getting promptly deleted, and she will just go about her day without a care.

She takes pride in being the evilest goddess out there, after all.

Chuckling at that thought, I lightly snap my fingers, causing the scene around me to change.

More accurately, I teleported myself to another place without leaving any lasting damage on the fabric of space.

Took me a long time to practice this one till perfection, you know.

Of course, I’m gonna boast about it.

It’s still the same old office setup, but this office appears to have been abandoned for a very long time.

Dust and cobwebs covered the entire office to the point where you couldn’t see anything through the windows nor move a single step without having a bunch of spiderwebs getting stuck in your hair.

Just looking at the state of this place sent waves of irritation through my body.

Damn hell critters.

With a huff of irritation from, the dust and cobwebs suddenly vanish as if they were never there in the first place.

The place was literally left sparkling.

On another note, using everyday gestures to activate preset conjuring constructions is pretty cool, isn’t it?

Imagine your opponent stopping to set up their conjuring construction in the middle of a fight, but you just raise an eyebrow and teleport right beside them.

That’s a scar that even time can’t heal, fufufu~

Nodding in satisfaction, I made my way behind the main desk.

As if responding to my presence, the main drawer automatically swung open, revealing a bunch of dozen objects inside.

Some were pitch black, a few others were pure white, and most of them were of a gray-ish color in between black and white, but they all were in the shape of a sphere with an unusually smooth surface.

Around the sphere, five small circular imprints were visible in a pattern that seemed to be random.

However, that can’t be the case, can it?

Grabbing one of the gray bricks with one hand, I expertly aligned my fingers with the imprints.

As soon as all the fingers were in their correct place, the sphere began absorbing my divine power.

I didn’t try to obstruct the process in any way, and instead watched as the sphere’s gray color ever so slowly faded into the familiar white.

Divine batteries, that’s what these ‘spheres’ are called.

Each one of those is specially made an attuned for the purpose of storing my own divine power for usage at a later date.

It allows for many new methods of utilizing the gods’ divine energy, whether it’s directly with superb external energy manipulation or indirectly through reabsorption and normal release.

As for why I personally use such a toy despite having more than sufficient storages of divine power myself, that would be because it boosts my stealth ability to a much higher level.

The difference between a firefly at midnight and at noon is obvious to all.

In simple terms, I reduce the energy in my body until it matches that of my surroundings so as to ‘blend in’, if you understand what I’m saying.

Nevertheless, that doesn’t leave me completely powerless, as I can use the pre-stored divine power whenever I desire.

Also, I always have a smaller, fully charged battery implanted somewhere in my body in case of an emergency.

I only go through this tedious process when I am outside the underworld’s territory though.

Hiding my strength here would only serve to complicate my interactions with the odd folks living here.

Hell’s denizens aren’t really the type to maintain a polite attitude, if you know what I mean.

And inviting trouble for no reason at all isn’t something I’d ever wanna do.

As the battery in my palm turned radiant white indicating a complete charge, I grabbed nine more full batteries and stored them into my private storage dimension.

Then I snapped my fingers for the third time today, teleporting myself far away from the underworld and to a certain blue-green planet.

---

Located right at the center of the universe’s third divine war’s ancient battlefield, a tiny, habitable planet somehow came into being.

And against all the odds, life was conceived on it.

Sentient, sapient life no less.

Nature always finds a way, huh?

Its inhabitants call it Earth.

Earth of the Milky Way Galaxy.

This entire galaxy cluster that the Milky Way is a part of was previously deemed uninhabitable, and frankly too dangerous to approach due to the frankly ridiculous amounts of divine aura remnants drifting through it.

A whiff of this stuff is enough to collapse a mortal’s soul or corrupt a weaker god’s soul till nothing but a mindless, angry husk remains.

It exists as a direct result of the thousands of god corpses left to forever drift in space after the conclusion of the third divine war between the Titans and the True Dragons.

By all means, it should be impossible for any sort of mortal life to survive within a couple thousand light years’ distance of that place, let alone directly at its center.

Yet defying all odds, a branch of the human race, along with a large number of animal species somehow came to be there.

Compared to their other counterparts scattered all over the universe, the living beings on this planet are very special.

The effects of the dead gods’ divine powers on them were drastic, to say the least,

It caused them to mutate into something unprecedented– something miraculous!

With the constant divinity impacting their bodies and souls, the potential of the most mediocre race in the universe and the most ordinary of animal species climbed to a previously thought to be impossible peak.

As long as the pieces of the puzzle fall into the right places, even a measly insect from there can eventually achieve godhood.

However, life never gives away freebies.

If you gain something, you must lose something else in exchange..

Everything has a price, as they say.

For Earth –and that entire galaxy –, they gained a miraculous evolution, but they completely lost access to MA energy in exchange.

Earth’s vitality is entirely maintained through and only through the divine energy seeping through the fabric of existence.

It might not seem like that much of a problem since the planet is operating normally, but it’s actually a disaster capable of causing mass extinction of a species..

On the hierarchy of energy and the ladder of civilization, MA energy occupies the penultimate step– right below divine power.

All civilizations must eventually convert their energy source to MA energy if they wanna continue advancing and evolving.

It wouldn’t be an understatement if I said MA energy is the one and only key that unlocks the final barrier between a mere planetary civilization and an intergalactic one.

Without switching to MA energy, a race can’t evolve gods of their own.

And without gods of their own, they can’t manipulate divine energy.

There’s no replacement for MA energy and it’s impossible for a mortal to manipulate divine energy.

So it’s a dead end.

Reaching a dead end in terms of advancement and evolution basically means certain doom.

Well, there’s a way to forcibly break the wall and crawl through the hole— serving under a foreign god.

But why would a foreign god offer their help for free?

Gods are, in essence, the epitome of selfishness.

The concept of good and evil doesn’t apply to them– neither do any mortal concepts and prejudices do for that matter.

Prideful creatures whose only purpose in life is to give life to their own whims.

So most likely, any foreign aid would cost mortals their and their descendants’ freedom for ages and ages to come.

It’s unfortunate, but that's pretty much the only way they have to ‘repair’ their ladder of civilization.

Well, there’s always an abysmal chance a creature from there could escape this galactical war tomb through sheer dumb luck.

I wouldn’t place my hopes on something like that though.

As I mentally flipped through the info I have on Earth, the red hellish world around me was replaced by a bright one with a bit of a yellowish hue.

It appears I have safely made it to my destination– Earth.

No spatial barriers to impede my steps, no hidden traps exploding in my face, and most importantly, no mind bending dimensional monsters mistaking me for today’s lunch.

For real though, interdimensional travel is too dangerous without the correct skillset or high enough combat power.

Letting my perception spread all over the planet, I immediately began filtering through the massive amounts of information flowing into my brain every moment.

It took me less than a second to find a few pieces of information I deemed useful.

Teleporting to a relatively large island country called Japan, I limited my perception to that of a city’s radius at most and began my long search for my master.

Yes, you heard that right.

My esteemed master, D, in the flesh is currently residing on this tiny remote planet.

More accurately, she's been hiding here for the last few decades, and I only detected her aura around here very recently.

I’ve gotta give it to her though, this place is perfect as a secret hideout.

I mean, even my own childish side is reacting, let alone Master D’s.

A few hours of careful screening later, I discovered an inconspicuous perception-blocking barrier cleverly hidden in one of this country’s many cities.

Limiting my perception to that city only, an interesting piece of information caught my attention.

Apparently, an unexplained terrorist bombing led to the death of a group of human students in a nearby school a few months ago.

When I checked said school through my perception however, I detected faint fluctuations in the fabric of space.

It definitely wasn’t some ordinary terrorist bombing, this was an attack sent through dimensions.

One that was cast by an amateur at best– I came to this conclusion after tracing back the source to some other planet far away.

Only amateurs don’t clean up their traces.

It actually came from that planet, huh? Now this is interesting.

Veeerrrry interesting.

Well, if the one squatting inside that perception-blocking barrier isn’t my master, then I may as well work overtime for a few extra millennia.

….I should really stop setting up such flags casually.

With nothing to lose and everything to gain, I swiftly changed directions and made my way to the barrier.

Five minutes later, I crossed through the barrier without any issue,

I didn’t let down my guard just yet however, as I quickly stopped in place and covered myself with a bunch of defensive barriers while tightly clutching a divine battery in my hand.

I waited in place for five whole minutes before an involuntary sigh of relief escaped my mouth.

A perception-blocking barrier only. Temporarily safe.

Inside the barrier was a two story family house not much unlike those outside it.

The house was surrounded by a garden of flowers, which was surrounded by a pitch black fence that had a lantern sticking out of it every few meters.

What’s peculiar however, is the strong aura of the underworld covering the entire place.

Taking a closer look, I discovered that all of those flowers are in fact spider lilies— and none of which are red.

Spider lilies of all colors other than red are native only to the underworld and are forbidden to leave there, so whoever brought those must have a very close connection with the underworld’s top brass.

Another oddity that caught my attention was the blue fire dancing in those lanterns.

Frostfire.

Another specialty of the underworld.

Well, if this isn’t an indicator of how special the owner of this not so humble house is, then I don’t know what is.

As I stood in front of the front door, I hesitated whether I should knock or not.

This whole situation is pretty awkward in the first place.

Throwing that thought out of my head, I simply placed my hand on the doorknob and pushed the already unlocked door open.

“I’m here.” I announced aloud, as if returning to my own house.

I got no verbal response, but I could feel the only presence in the house sending a cordial greeting through telepathy.

Returning the greeting, I took a moment to scan the first floor of the house with my eyes, only to find it in a complete and utter mess.

Instant noodle cups, chips bags, aluminum soda cans, and all kinds of empty snack packets were scattered all over the living room floor.

The kitchen’s situation was even worse.

The sink was filled with dirty dishes and dozens of unfinished meals covered every inch of the counter top.

I have no doubt that if those weren’t preserved with conjuring, this place would have smelled much worse than it does right now.

Just how long has it been since this place was cleaned?!

—No, just how lazy can a person get?

She can clean this place with a thought, yet she chose to endure it for a reason I cannot begin to fathom.

Sigh…. What a troublesome master.

My maid spirit simply didn’t allow this scene to remain as it is, so I took it upon myself to clean the entire place.

In just an hour, this garbage dump disguised as a cozy house was transformed into a five– no, into a six-star resort villa.

All due to the amazing yours truly, the super head maid of the underworld, Meido!

Thank you for the praise, everyone!

I know I deserve it for putting up with this lazy ass master of mine.

Going up the stairs, a few locked doors entered my sight.

But what jumped to me is the ajar door at the end of the hallway from which a ray of light escaped

To be precise, the room had a whole set of lights inside, each with a different color, and they were alternating every now and then.

Gently pushing the door open, my eyes fell on the slim figure huddled on a chair right in the middle of the room.

Pitch black hair, pitch black eyes with red and gold streaking through it, and a face with otherworldly beauty.

A fitting description would be ‘perfect’— if it wasn’t for the deadpan expression on her face.

That pretty much ruined it all, as instead of turning out to be the perfect cold beauty, the girl gave out an inorganic eeriness.

A shame, really.

But I guess it can’t be helped.

Master D was never able to experience emotions nor enjoy life like everyone else.

As far as I know, she came into this world without any sort of emotion or desire of her own— like some sort of computer program that only worked according to a specific pre-set list of procedures.

But nothing stays the same, that’s just how life works.

Although she hasn’t been able to develop a complete emotional system, she has already broken through the protocol-like restrictions imposed on her.

Expressing sincere regrets in my heart, I slowly moved behind my master.

I made sure not to make any noise so as not to disrupt my master’s attention from whatever she’s doing at the moment.

This continued on for hours on end.

I stood behind her silently, only moving around to replenish her stock of food whenever it’s finished or pour her a drink whenever she’s thirsty.

Master D didn’t show much reaction— and why would she?

That’s how we always got along since the day I became her personal maid.

We’ve developed our tacit understanding to the point where we can understand what the other needs just by seeing the movement of their eyes or detecting a minor change in their breathing rhythm.

Out of curiosity, I raised my eyes to peek at the retro computer screen she has been staring at for who knows how long.

It was split into two halves, each showing a scene of its own.

The one on the left showed a scene of a relatively large spider swinging around in an underground cave filled with magma and seemingly fighting what seems to be…. a fire dragon?

Either that fire dragon is still a juvenile that is yet to attain godhood or it’s merely a fake wearing the shell of a dragon.

I personally lean towards the latter assumption, since even a juvenile dragon isn’t something a tiny little spider can fight back and forth with.

The other window —which most of my master’s attention was obviously on— showed three humans, two little girls and a grown up woman, walking through a forest in the morning.

Master D must have devised some super complicated space conjuring for this because the moment my eyes landed on one of the scenes, it felt as if I was actually there.

To invent a whole new conjuring spell just for the trivial purpose of peeking….. Master D is truly a scary woman.

Throwing that thought out of my head, I roughly evaluated their strengths— an unconscious habit I picked up during my days as a battle thirsty warrior.

The strongest was the little girl who seemed to be the leader amongst the trio— her strength surpassed the others combined.

Second place belonged to the adult woman amongst the trio, whose strength has roughly reached a tenth of a demi-god’s.

Third place went to the oddly cute spider who’s doing her best to avoid getting her butt set on fire while dodging a gatling barrage of fireballs coming her way from every direction.

And as you might expect, the last place belonged to the other seemingly emotionless little girl amongst the trio.

A few cute girls going on a romantic adventure and a thrilling monster battle occurring in a place unknown to man.

Both scenes are fairly commonplace as far as ancient magecraft worlds go.

What wasn’t normal however, was the aura emanating from the spider and the stronger girl.

As far as strange existences go, a spider whose soul is 99% similar to Master D easily tops the list.

But even that is considered normal compared to the other one.

Master D could’ve taken a miniscule piece of her soul and implanted it in an insect or something along those lines– unexpected, but possible nonetheless.

A juvenile Outer in a human form demonstrating human intelligence and emotion however, is the last thing I expected to see– not just today, but in my entire life.

This could either be a great disaster in the making or a great opportunity– most likely the former as is everything with Outers.

I have a feeling my curiosity just got me involved in an incredibly troublesome situation…

“You… This?” Resigning myself to my fate, I asked aloud, pointing to the Outer disguised as a harmless human girl.

“Fascinating, isn’t it?” Master D replied, her face still expressionless, yet the joy in her voice betrayed her true feelings.

“I mean, it’s interesting, I’ll give it that. But how is this even possible?” I voiced my doubts, my eyes drifting to the seated figure of my master.

“Hey, Meido. What is a ‘friend’ and how do you deal with them?”

As if she didn’t hear me, Master D completely ignored the question and got lost in her own world.

She does tend to do that a lot, doesn’t she?

More importantly, what kind of question is that?

It caught me by complete surprise.

Master D, the evilest goddess, the Goddess of the End, and the Goddess of Death, asking about a topic like ‘friends’ isn’t just strange, it’s completely out of this world!

If I hadn’t seen a universal invader and destroyer acting like an ordinary human a few moments ago, it would’ve probably taken me much more time to recover.

“....My memories are blurred, but I do remember once having some I could call a friend.” I started, a look of reminisce decorating my face as an old, dusty memory box creaked open in my head.

I remembered the time when I was but a human girl struggling to survive in this cruel, unfair world.

I remembered the figure of my only friend, who also occupied the position of my sister and only life partner.

Anna…

It has truly been a while since I took the time to reminisce about the past, but there’s no way I would ever forget about her.

“If our frame is that of mortals, then a friend is a person is quite broad. From a person is involved in pretty much all aspects of your life to a one who merely shares the same interests with you.”

Skipping any unnecessary details, I spoke my genuine understanding of what a friend is to short lived species.

“For gods however, it’s much more complicated, yet incredibly simple at the same time. I believe a friend is someone you can trust you back to without any caution.”

“Then are you considered my friend, Meido?” Master D asked, her eyes momentarily meeting mine.

“While our daily interactions imply that we are friends, that isn’t really the case unfortunately.” I shook my head sadly. “I’m your maid, assistant, and direct subordinate first and foremost, which means I’m essentially in a lower position than yours. Friends are equal in position however.”

A friend is a one you can trust you back to without any qualms about their true intentions and aspirations.

An ally is a person you can temporarily trust your back to since your interests happen to align for the moment.

A follower or a subordinate is a person whose own interests and ambitions aren’t taken into consideration at all when your own ambitions are on the other side of the scale.

Those three, along with their opposites –nemesis, foe, higher-up– , are the six types of connections a god can be on one of their ends.

Still, that conclusion is based on my personal experience only, so others might disagree.

“I see.” Master D said, realization evident in her voice. “So that’s why she decided to find someone else to name her, huh?” She murmured in a low voice.

She?

It seems like Master D had a once in a lifetime encounter while I was away, eh?

I’m really glad I didn’t miss this episode entirely– at least I caught up to the second half, fufufu~

Ahhh, I’m so proud!

“As for how to deal with friends… There isn’t really a set way to do it. It’s fine as long as you don’t go trampling their boundaries, I guess?” I added with a hint of uncertainty to my voice.

Even if I have lived countless years and went through numerous experiences after becoming a god, I never really had anything to do with such… touchy subjects.

In fact, whenever I look back on my memories, the deepest ones are usually related to my fist making hard contact with flesh or my fingers tightly holding a pen and signing my name on some paper whose source I don’t care to know.

Come to think of it, my life is fairly monotonous, huh?

I should really leave the underworld and travel around more often.

Maybe this planet’s literature could give me a hint or two about how I could liven up my mundane life?

I mean, Master D seems to be very invested in it herself, which is very rare.

But it appears I’ve digressed.

Letting my thoughts return to their intended tracks, I quietly watched over Master D as she tried to make sense of my words in her own way.

Her expression remained unchanged, but her occasional murmurs and unfocused eyes revealed her inner drama.

“So? Mind if you tell me about that?” I spoke up, pointing to the Outer girl on the screen.

“Hmmm?” She hummed distractedly. “Hear me out for a bit.”

Once again, Master D completely ignored my question and went off on a long rant of her own.

I didn’t really care though.

Instead, I patiently and silently stood behind her, intently listening to everything she said.

My familiarity with her made me understand what a large part of her actions represent.

This method of forceful changing the subject means one of two things.

Either it’s just that she doesn’t want to answer, and that means you should just stop trying.

Or it means that the answer will be introduced through her next words or actions.

Master D isn’t really one for tact, you see, so you need to be very patient and calm when dealing with her.

Her long rant was basically a summary of her time on Earth.

There wasn’t much detail included until the timeline came to about 17 Earth years ago.

It was at that time that she first discovered the presence of the Outer anomaly.

More accurately, it was at this time that this Outer was born into our universe.

Apparently, and in a way that completely defies logic, this Outer was born to two ordinary human parents from this planet through a very normal childbirth process and lived her next few years as an ordinary human.

—Well, as ordinary as could be anyways.

I honestly find that very hard to believe considering the Outers’ tendency to proliferate and multiply through their mind corruption ability.

But Master D isn’t one for lies or exaggeration, so I chose to temporarily believe her words until proven otherwise.

For the next 15 years, nothing of interest happened.

Master D just wandered around Earth, sparing a glance or two towards the Outer whenever she felt like it.

It was only when the Outer reached her 16th year of age did she finally decide to make contact with her.

First, she modified the consciousness of literally the entire universe –except for the girl herself– to make it believe a teenage girl with the name of Hiiro Wakaba existed.

She even went as far as to register that name in the underworld’s reincarnation cycle.

Her commitment for such a trivial matter is honestly respectable.

Then she went through the regular human procedures and enrolled in the final institute of education juvenile humans on this planet are required to attend.

There, she met the Outer girl and became ‘friends’ with her….?

Hearing her description of that incident, my views on my master subtly changed.

It felt as if I was seeing her from a whole new perspective.

Uhh, are you sure you really considered her a friend and not some kind of cute pet?

The way you treated her is totally the same way you would when trying to tame a vigilant animal, you know?

First, try to eliminate their irrational fear of you by showing a friendly appearance.

Then you need to let them slowly get used to your presence and integrate into their life.

And before you know it, your presence is but a normal part of their everyday life and your absence becomes abnormal instead.

What made the whole situation all the more bizarre is how casual Master D was about it.

I mean, the ease with which she achieved her goal makes me suspect that this isn’t her first time pulling off such a stunt….

So… is she a habitual offender or does she just have a natural talent for dealing with otherworldly beings?

I’m gonna assume it’s the latter for the sake of maintaining Master D’s tall image in my heart.

The detail which Master D used to describe her daily life showed just how irrelevant her decades of life on Earth were compared to just this single year.

With doubt about her true intentions in mind, I simply listened on with a gentle smile and a serene heart.

—That is until she mentioned that a bunch of tiny little insects had the audacity to launch an attack on Master D.

If it wasn’t for the sudden strengthening of the barrier around the house, the sheer fury radiating through my uncontrolled aura would’ve been enough to render this entire island dead immediately.

Not even a piece of grass would’ve survived.

“Chill.”

However, I swiftly regained control the moment I heard this unserious order.

The only difference being the gentle smiling expression on my face being replaced with freezing coldness.

“Who was it?” I asked, my words laced with all the malice and hostility I could muster.

And for someone who’s home is actual hell, that hostility is by no means ordinary.

“A few chess pieces who had the illusion they could jump outside the board and beat the players.” Master D chuckled playfully.

“Oh.”

That’s fine then.

Since they’re chess pieces, that means Master D has already accounted for their moves.

If so, then it’s not my place to cleanse them— at least before her leisure time is over.

“They did cause unaccounted for damage, but it also gave me a chance to add a few more interesting pawns to the board, heh.”

Pawns, huh?

As her words registered in my head, and the pieces of the puzzles fit in together, my eyes widened in shock.

The spider with Master D’s soul, the Outer girl walking the forest, the closed reincarnation cycle on that planet… everything clicked together.

“You didn’t!” I exclaimed, my calm and collected look all but gone.

“Oh, you bet I did.” She chuckled.

“Do you know just how serious the trouble we could get in if someone found out about this?” I asked even though I already knew the answer.

If she didn’t know, then how would I know in the first place?

“Well well, calm down a bit.” She patted my shoulders nonchalantly. “This one isn’t like the others, you see. This one’s special– very special.” She emphasized.

“How so, pray tell?” I cut her off with a deadpan.

“Just watch her for a bit and you’ll understand.” She shrugged, too lazy to elaborate.

“Oh, how I really wish you went over the limit in using power when you pulled off this stunt.” I sighed, frustrated.

Then I could’ve just taken her back back to the underworld by force and steered away from all of the trouble racing my way.

What a troublesome master, indeed.

“So I snatched that Outer’s soul along with the other humans who were in that class and then stuffed them into the closed reincarnation cycle of that planet.” She continued, ignoring my irritated expression.

“Making your little game more interesting while evading our sight in the underworld, huh? Two birds with one stone.” I commented, my eyes narrowing.

“Cough– When her soul was in my hands, I….”

She proceeded to describe her discoveries when inspecting the girl’s soul and the girl’s time after she reincarnated her into an aquatic critter.

All seemed fine and dandy, but I could feel the subtle changes Master D’s mentality underwent the deeper we dove into the story.

The relationship between them went through a few phases.

From that of a possessive child and its toy, to acquaintances who deal with each other every once in a while, to friends who share most of their day together, and finally, back to acquaintances again.

As for that last regression, it’s all Master D’s fault in my opinion.

Judging by her description of that Outer girl, she’s as –if not more– possessive as Master D.

But the way they act and express themselves is different.

Master D is like a childish, possessive girl who wants everything for herself and only herself regardless of how she achieves that.

She tries to share sometimes, but she always ends up hurting those who actually accept that seemingly friendly offer.

That Outer girl is more of a director who likes to arrange a general script and expects everyone to act it out while her own participation is negligible.

Yet if she doesn’t get her way, then she just tears off the script, gets rid of those who hinder her, coerces those whom she doesn’t yet want to abandon, and writes a brand new script.

Both are very selfish and twisted in their own way, but the Outer girl’s methods are much more gentle and lenient than Master D.

However, as I said, she’s the kind of person who’s most likely to go berserk in the case of unseen circumstances.

….But Master D’s existence in itself represents unforeseen circumstances.

It’s honestly a miracle those two aren’t in a completely hostile relationship by now.

Even more wondrous, they somehow developed their own kind of friendship– even if it’s a very strange one.

However, and I don’t know how to tell her this in a euphemistic way, Master D basically trampled that Outer girl’s only personal bottom line.

Yet she somehow expects the relation between them to remain unchanged.

Thrusting her directly into new dangerous territory without any prior warning was already more than enough.

There are many other things Master D did without the girl’s knowledge that are also considered as dancing around the line, but all of that is minor when compared to her latest escapade.

Causing the Outer girl to go berserk, almost causing the death of one of her people… Now that’s a very big problem.

The fact that they are somehow still in contact is confusing to me.

Is there something that Master D hid from me while speaking or is my impression of the Outer girl flawed?

“It’s subtle, but I feel like she has been alienating me the last few times we spoke. Why is that?” Master D expressed her incomprehension with an uncertain voice.

Her question came as a pleasant surprise.

For the first time in who knows how many millions of years, Master D is seemingly expressing care about someone other than herself.

My feelings right now are probably something akin to maternal love and pride, though that is blasphemous to master.

But it can’t be helped, you know.

Although she doesn’t realize yet, her asking this question is a sign that she cares about someone.

This is a first.

More importantly, this is what Master D has been anticipating for a very long time.

“Isn’t it obvious? You’ve stepped over her line and almost caused an irreversible tragedy. Of course, she would be angry—” I smiled softly.

Referencing her story, I began slowly filtering the unimportant details and thoroughly analyzing the details out loud.

After that, I sharply pointed out her errors one by one while proposing solutions.

I never mentioned a word about apologizing throughout my speech.

Knowing my master, she really isn’t the material for genuine apologies and promises of making up.

And judging by the girl’s actions, it seems like she isn’t the type of person that can bluntly state what’s on her mind.

This is a huge hurdle for Master D to overcome, as while she’s very good at detecting and toying with emotions, she’s really bad at catering to other’s needs.

She never had to in the past, so it's only expected.

I'm definitely not gonna admit this to her face, but watching her wobbling around and going through the blind process of trial and error is incredibly amusing to watch.

However, I believe that if that girl is successfully able to ascend to our ranks and join up with Master D in the underworld, life as I know it will change.

To the better, I hope.

All of this is brand new territory– to all of us.

But I believe it will be a great journey of growth in which those two dazed souls finally emerge from their muddled life and actually find a goal to work for.

And as always, I will be there, watching over my master from the shadows and assisting her whenever and wherever she needs.

Well, unless she missteps and gives me a chance to take her back to the underworld.

All of that work isn’t gonna do itself, you know?

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