Ch.334334. A Good Day

The curtain fell on the story.

Everything had ended, and everyone had fulfilled their roles.

The continent was saved, the protagonist died, and the souls went to sleep.

Now I could only quietly step back and look forward to seeing how the story I didn’t know would unfold.

[How are you? Are you okay?]

I couldn’t give a particularly good answer to Stella’s concerned question.

“It’s difficult.”

The new artificial body I received after attending Erika and Per’s ceremony last time.

Since I could no longer walk around in the artificial body with Deus’s form, what I ended up with was similar to the one I used when traveling before.

Thanks to that, I could live as my true self, Shinwoo Kim, but the problem was durability.

“I don’t think it will last long.”

It’s not like all my power was suddenly taken away just because the story ended.

The artificial body still couldn’t withstand the vast amount of mana and would likely break soon.

In fact, Deus’s artificial body that I first used had already shattered, unable to hold up.

“Maybe I should just remain as a soul if it’s going to be like this.”

As I frowned in dissatisfaction, Stella shook her head.

[You need an artificial body, even if it’s forced. If you remain as a soul like me and senior, you’ll eventually reach a point where you won’t feel any different from being dead.]

“……”

[Remember that you’re not dead. And you need to keep showing that clearly.]

“Yeah, you’re right.”

If I were to wander around as a soul, I would essentially be no different from the souls that died and couldn’t rest.

Though we might seem similar, we are fundamentally different, and because the continent still acknowledges that I’m not dead, souls don’t explosively burst out from Deus’s corpse.

“It’s ambiguous, isn’t it?”

When I spoke with a bitter smile, Stella didn’t deny it.

[But you’re the one who managed to hit that ambiguous middle ground perfectly. It’s something to be proud of.]

“Well, if you put it that way.”

As I thanked her without saying much, Stella stared at me intently, then rose on her tiptoes and suddenly kissed me.

Smooch.

A brief but deep resonance.

Impressive for a Saintess, but clumsy for a great demon.

When I looked down at Stella with surprised eyes, she smiled brightly and answered.

[I know you’re more obedient in this state. How cute.]

“…I’m not sure I notice that difference.”

[It definitely feels different. You’ve become softer? S-S-Shinwoo feels gentler when you’re like this, senior said so too.]

“You’re embarrassed to say my name after kissing me?”

I couldn’t help but laugh as Stella’s face turned bright red. She might not be wrong.

Perhaps I had naturally become softer in my behavior after breaking away from the stiff aristocratic speech pattern I used as Deus.

Or maybe it was from the sense of liberation that everything was over.

[Just as I became free from my role as a Saintess, you might have become free from your role as Deus. Don’t resist the change.]

Stella smiled brightly despite her embarrassment. I nodded slightly at her advice.

“Certainly.”

The Stella I first met at the Ellia Convent and the Stella now had changed in many ways.

“It might be strange for me to say this, but you look happy.”

[Oh my.]

Stella covered her mouth and smiled broadly. She seemed pleased by my observation, and I found that expression truly lovable.

After a brief moment of warmth,

the issue of the artificial body remained a concern.

‘The answer might not be far away.’

[What’s wrong?]

When I stared at Stella, she tilted her head again. I was about to say it was nothing when—

[Come out quickly! Someone hit this thing!]

A childlike scream came from outside. Both of us looked toward the door, but Stella passed the task to me, saying she would tidy up the house interior.

Stepping outside, I found the Dark Spiritmaster and Findenai bickering in the small garden.

The important thing was the small animal between them.

It looked like a puppy.

The Dark Spiritmaster had insisted on keeping a pet, so Findenai said she would get one from somewhere, and it seemed that this was that pet.

As I came out, the Dark Spiritmaster immediately gestured frantically.

[Look at this! This! How are we supposed to raise this?!]

“Why? It’s cute, isn’t it? Right?”

Only when Findenai held it out toward me did I realize it wasn’t a puppy.

“A wolf?”

“Yeah, I picked it up.”

“…You want to keep a wolf at home? We already have one.”

“Haha.”

Findenai laughed dryly and glared at me sharply.

“Want me to bite you?”

She bared her sharp teeth. I thought it was a nickname she liked, but maybe not?

[Where did you find such a thing?!]

“I brought it as it was crossing the Norsweden mountains.”

When I answered on Findenai’s behalf, she looked at me incredulously and raised her middle finger.

“There’s nothing you won’t say in front of your wife, huh?”

“……”

[Ah, really! Stop twisting words like that!]

The Dark Spiritmaster was screaming so much beside us that my ears started to hurt.

Even though I felt no pain in this artificial body, it seemed the Black Mage’s power was real.

“Its mother was dead. But it was still suckling, so I brought it. All its siblings were dead too.”

A rather formulaic but detailed story. However, it was surprisingly effective.

[…Why didn’t you say that from the beginning?]

The Dark Spiritmaster snatched the wolf cub.

She had become so good at materializing that it was hard to simply call her a soul anymore.

[Bbobsil! From now on, you’re Bbobsil! I’ll make you happy!]

“Tsk, I didn’t expect her to name it something like that.”

Findenai scratched the back of her head, not having known the Dark Spiritmaster’s sense of naming, but the Dark Spiritmaster was already looking around the yard with Bbobsil.

Then her gaze naturally turned to the house we had come to live in.

It wasn’t particularly spacious.

If we only counted the number of people living there, it was just Findenai and me.

The Dark Spiritmaster and Stella weren’t counted because they were dead, though they would probably get angry if I said that.

Anyway.

Since it was newly built, it was sturdy and clean in appearance.

It might seem random, but Findenai’s junkyard had built it as a congratulatory gift.

Why a junkyard built it?

Because this was the territory of the Republic of Clark.

And it was a very sparsely populated place.

The place where Findenai had swept away the Golden Flower manufacturers on my orders last time.

In other words, it was a remote location carefully chosen by drug dealers, and after clearing them out, we decided to use it.

Right now, neither Findenai nor I felt comfortable being in Norsweden.

We might move our residence there later when some time had passed.

“Daddy.”

Findenai nudged my side with her elbow. There was a playful smile on her lips.

“…Don’t call me that.”

I tried to resist, but it was useless.

“Then what should I call you? Husband? Honey? Isn’t it time to graduate from ‘master’?”

“Sigh.”

After sighing and thinking for a moment, I said:

“Findenai, my body is an artificial one right now.”

“I know that?”

“The artificial body itself isn’t sturdy, so I can’t make vigorous movements. So… that kind of activity is difficult. And we can’t have children either.”

“……”

Findenai’s expression gradually hardened as I expressed this so bluntly, perhaps for the first time.

But this was the truth, so it couldn’t be helped.

“Besides… doing it with me now would just be, well……”

Words that were difficult to express lingered in my mouth. Doing it with me now would essentially be no different from masturbating with a tool.

Findenai, who seemed to understand what I was saying to some extent, slowly crossed her arms.

She looked at me with a nonchalant expression and answered:

“That’s really fucking disappointing.”

“……”

“But do you remember what I said last time? The reason I made such aggressive advances toward you.”

Of course.

There was no way I wouldn’t remember her words.

“Because I wasn’t expressing myself verbally, you wanted to know through actions instead.”

Findenai nodded slightly, her cheeks already turning red.

She was feeling embarrassed as she recalled that moment.

And her.

I carefully took her in my arms. I’m sorry that this body can’t feel warmth.

It’s sad that I can’t feel any sensation when I hold her.

“I love you.”

I whispered calmly as I held her, and Findenai also carefully embraced me so as not to break my artificial body.

“This sucks. I really feel like an ordinary woman now.”

“…Do you dislike it?”

“H-hehe.”

Still in my arms, she let out a hollow laugh and answered.

“I fucking love it.”

I tried to let go, but Findenai clung to me persistently, so it took some time.

Since Stella would have difficulty cleaning the house interior alone, Findenai, who used to be a maid, went inside.

I turned away from the mansion and headed outside for a moment.

Because I knew uninvited guests had arrived.

It wasn’t just one person.

They had brought quite a crowd, though it would be difficult to call them people.

“What should I call you?”

As I calmly asked them, a familiar face stepped forward.

Bellas, the god of festivals and joy.

“Hey, long time no see.”

Bellas greeted me frivolously, raising his hand. The other gods around him clicked their tongues or watched me cautiously, but I didn’t react much.

Because I knew why they had come.

“Have you come to kill me?”

Perhaps because I went straight to the point.

The gods’ bodies flinched and immediately tensed up. Some were about to take combat stances, but.

Since I showed little reaction, they were only confused.

“Are you confident?”

A white-light goddess holding scales and a sword asked. She seemed to be the goddess of justice whom Lucia served.

“I think I could kill all of you and go back to make dinner for the kids.”

It wasn’t bravado or a warning.

I was simply stating facts, and my even tone added credibility.

After all, I was the one who had crushed Raizer, the strongest among the gods.

Of course, I had received help from souls then, but now I was incomparably stronger than before.

The moment I was released from the constraint of this artificial body, I could unleash the power I had been suppressing.

The gods seemed to know this, as they remained tense and didn’t move carelessly.

“The reason we came… is because we’re worried.”

Eventually, Yustia lowered her stance a bit and spoke. As I heard her words, the atmosphere among the surrounding gods felt somewhat different.

“The final fate of the continent has come to an end. We can now say we are free.”

“……”

“But your continued existence is a great concern to us.”

I wasn’t unaware of the reason.

“Because the souls haven’t been annihilated, and the boundary between life and death hasn’t collapsed.”

“That’s right.”

A mandatory prerequisite quest before seeing the game’s ending.

The story of Dante and Luanes.

There, the player could choose only two options:

Either the boundary between life and death collapses and the continent perishes, or Luanes annihilates all souls.

But since souls still remained, events couldn’t flow in the direction that fate had intended.

That’s why they were worried. Afraid their freedom might be suppressed.

“Fate, you know.”

After thinking for a moment, I opened my mouth to them.

“It’s not something as grand as you think. It just moved to bring the story to an end.”

“……”

“I don’t care what you think, and I’m not particularly interested in how you interpret it. But the story has clearly ended, and I’m carrying the parts that weren’t properly concluded.”

As my own atonement for having enjoyed their story at my leisure.

“You’ve probably been waiting for this moment for hundreds or thousands of years. I know that you too are victims who were swept along by the flow of the story.”

Though called gods, they are not omnipotent.

In fact, they were beings who existed only to complete the story.

A little more special than humans, a little more versatile, and a little more knowledgeable.

Just that much.

Though we were often hostile to each other, their ultimate goal was to conclude the story of fate they had been burdened with since birth.

And to gain freedom.

In fact, I think they might have been the ones who hated the concept of fate the most.

“You should go now. Your roles are over.”

Originally, there was no scenario in Retry where gods intervened.

They were, strictly speaking, staff who didn’t appear on stage, but because things got complicated due to me, they had to take such an active role.

I slowly turned my body and headed back to the house. I sensed a presence behind me.

When I glanced back, the gods had apparently reached their own conclusions and were bowing their heads toward me.

Now I could clearly understand why they had come to me.

‘They wanted confirmation.’

Is it really over?

Are we free from everything?

Has the moment we’ve been waiting for countless years finally arrived?

In essence, I had given them the answer they most wanted.

“Hey!”

At that moment, Bellas hurriedly chased after me from behind. He waved his hand, smiling brightly as if he had something to say.

“I’m a god who knows how to say thanks, you know.”

Bellas approached, shrugging his shoulders. Looking at him, I hesitated for a moment.

Bellas could potentially be the ally I needed most right now.

“You don’t have a physical body, right?”

“Hm? That’s right. We call ourselves mental entities.”

I reached out and touched him.

Warm heat spread through my hand.

At the same time, Bellas stepped back.

“What?! What are you doing?! I like women!”

“…Later.”

His statement and the warmth I felt in my hand confirmed it. He was indeed the helper I needed most right now.

“Drop by when you have time.”

“……”

“Or I’ll come find you.”

Faced with this stern warning and threat, Bellas looked flustered but agreed for now.

I had already arrived at the front yard of the house.

The Dark Spiritmaster was playing with Bbobsil, and Stella was cleaning up the mess that Findenai had made while claiming to clean.

“Whatever it is. I’m grateful for your sacrifice, Shinwoo Kim.”

Bellas, looking at the front yard, expressed gratitude with complex emotions.

“Personally, I didn’t want the boundary between life and death to collapse. Because even if we found freedom, the world would be destroyed.”

“If you’re going to talk nonsense, just leave.”

At my words, Bellas scratched the back of his head, looked around nervously, and then departed.

The surroundings became empty again.

I pondered the words he had just spoken.

Sacrifice, huh.

“I wonder.”

Should I use such a melodramatic word as sacrifice?

“Master! No, that’s not it. Fuck, honey! Come help with this! This isn’t a Saintess! She’s a seductress!”

[Findenai! Take it easy! Me and senior don’t need a bedroom, I told you!]

“That’s just an excuse to sleep together! How dare you try to take over the couple’s bedroom!”

[I want to build a house for Bbobsil too!]

“Then you sleep with it!”

[Let’s make a deal—senior sleeps outside. Just accept me.]

It might be a bit noisy, but.

I thought it would be difficult to apply the word “sacrifice” to me.

Because I liked this scene too much.

A smile formed on my face.

Not a sacrifice.

It was a journey.

And after going around and around, I finally found a place to stay.

“Well.”

It was a good day.