Chapter 17 – Happily Ever After

Yuder and Cordelia headed for the temple where the young god, Athalia, resided.

Despite being the chief god of Pleiades, her existence had not been widely known, but that was no longer the case.

She was now one of the three gods worshiped by the Cordelia Church.

Cordelia, the Goddess of Love, Beauty, the Sun, and Magic.

Jino, the God of the Moon and the Black Beast.

And Athalia, the young god who painted the world.

As an aside, the established lore was that Yuder was a subordinate of Jino, the God of the Moon, sent to the mortal plane under orders to look after Cordelia, the avatar of the Goddess.

And Jino, the God of the Moon, was the partner of Cordelia, the Goddess of the Sun.

“But Yuder, is it really okay for the scripture to change so often?”

“We’re still in the early stages of development, so it’s fine.”

“True… It’s basically a scripture published like a monthly magazine. They even put out pictorials.”

In any case, as one of the gods worshiped by the Cordelia Church, Athalia lived in a rather large temple, cared for by several priests.

“Athalia-nim! Athalia-nim!”

Cordelia leaped through space, entering the audience chamber—the room where she could meet Athalia—and called out loudly. Before long, a small girl, Athalia, emerged from the darkness.

“Cordel… lia?”

Her voice was half-asleep, and she was rubbing her eyes. It was clear she had just woken up.

Normally, Cordelia would have apologized and promised to return later, but not this time.

She didn’t have the luxury.

“We need to go to Earth. The defensive barrier you mentioned before, there’s no problem with it, right?”

“Huh? Earth?”

As Athalia blinked in surprise, Yuder’s fingers danced rapidly in the air.

With each tap, a golden line spread through the empty space. Soon, Yuder nodded and said, “No problems. It’s operating normally.”

The defensive barrier.

It was a defense system created to prevent a situation like the Outer God War from happening again.

It was impossible to erect a barrier that could completely block an external invasion like the one the Outer Gods had mounted.

To be more precise, the installation itself was possible, but maintaining the barrier year-round was not.

However, temporary operation was entirely feasible.

It was a grand barrier magic designed to protect Pleiades when it was left empty, for those times when Yuder and Cordelia unavoidably had to be away.

And that wasn’t all.

The defensive barrier had one more core function.

“The recall device should also activate without issue.”

A recall device that could summon Yuder and Cordelia back to Pleiades from anywhere, at any time.

Yuder was the one who had planned and designed the defensive barrier in the first place.

That was why he could assess the situation even faster than Athalia, the barrier’s administrator.

“Wh-what’s going on all of a sudden? Did something happen on Earth?” Athalia asked with a flustered expression. Cordelia bit her lip once before answering with a serious face.

“We don’t know the specifics. But it’s clearly an emergency.”

“…I understand. I will activate the defensive barrier.”

Instead of saying anything more, Athalia sat upon the chief god’s throne and activated her divine power.

“Alright, let’s head out immediately. You have the avatars ready, right?”

“Yep, I do.”

Not only were the avatars prepared for their trip to Earth, but she also had a complete set of recreational avatars, including a female Yuder, a male Cordelia, and even a Kid Yuder.

“Wait, Kid Yuder?”

“This isn’t the time to get hung up on that!”

“Ah, no. You’re right. We’ll deal with that later.”

Creating avatars was something of a hobby for Cordelia, after all.

Shaking his head to clear his momentary confusion, Yuder turned his back to Cordelia and lowered his stance.

“Cordelia, let’s go.”

“Okay!”

With Cordelia on his back again, Yuder used Space Leap magic to move outside the temple.

And about twenty minutes later…

Yuder and Cordelia began their inter-world travel to Earth.

“Natasha!”

The moment she stepped out of the spatial gate, Cordelia shouted.

They were indoors, not on the roof of the PC bang.

It was Natasha’s apartment, a place they had visited once before.

Cordelia, having rushed out of the gate, whipped her head around searching for Natasha and found her soon enough.

“Oh, you’re here?”

On the living room sofa.

A platinum-blonde beauty, dressed in a flimsy negligee and panties, sat with her legs propped up on the sofa, drinking beer and smoking an e-cigarette.

Her jade-like skin was flushed red, a sign she had already had quite a bit to drink.

No, one didn’t even need to look at her skin; the empty cans scattered on the table in front of the sofa told the whole story.

A quick count revealed well over thirty of them.

“No way, did you drink all this by yourself?”

“Nope, not alone. I was drinking with Hye-eun.”

“Hye-eun? With Hye-eun-unni?”

“Yeah, she’s probably passed out in the master bedroom. She threw up in the bathroom earlier and collapsed, so I moved her.”

Her amused laugh was that of a person who was clearly drunk. Cordelia scurried over to the master bedroom.

Kim Hye-eun, in a T-shirt and panties, was spread-eagled on the bed.

“Ugh, the smell! Just how much did you guys drink?!”

The room reeked of alcohol, as if she had spilled it on her clothes while drinking.

Cordelia quickly used purification magic to clear the air in the room and then turned on the air purifier.

“I should wash Unni, too.”

She levitated Hye-eun with telekinesis, removed her clothes, and used cleaning magic.

Normally, anyone would have woken up from that, but Kim Hye-eun slept soundly through having her clothes removed and her body washed.

At the same time, Yuder stood in the living room, looking at Natasha with a worried expression.

“It’s not… a huge deal, is it?”

“Heehee, who knows? More importantly, sit here. Let’s have a drink together for old times’ sake. Hmm?”

Yuder’s brow furrowed again at the sight of Natasha suggestively patting the spot next to her.

Could this woman have gotten drunk and accidentally broken the rod?

Or maybe she just called us on a drunken whim.

But either way, this was Natasha.

Yuder nodded and sat down next to her, picking up a still-cold can of beer.

“So, what’s really going on?”

“Hmm… who knows? Let’s just drink for now.”

At Natasha’s cheerful toast, Yuder lightly clinked their cans and took a sip of beer.

It was at that moment.

“Haa, why does someone who can’t even hold their liquor drink so much…”

Cordelia, who had emerged from the master bedroom muttering to herself, suddenly crossed her arms and her eyes sharpened.

“Hmph.”

There on the sofa sat Yuder and a half-naked Natasha, side by side.

As Cordelia narrowed her eyes again, Yuder flinched. Natasha, on the other hand, seemed thrilled and clung to Yuder, her voice turning sticky.

“Something like this is nothing between us, you know?”

“Oh? And what kind of relationship do you two have?”

When Cordelia asked in an icy tone, Yuder quickly stood up and approached her.

“Hey, what’s with you? She’s just teasing!”

“Yeah, I know. I’m just seizing the opportunity.”

“Huh?”

As Yuder’s eyes went wide, Cordelia giggled and pinched his cheek.

The student had surpassed the master. As they say, you become like those you associate with.

In certain areas, Cordelia’s heart had already become as black as Yuder’s.

She pinched Yuder’s still-dazed cheek one more time before going over and taking a seat next to Natasha.

“Anyway, Natasha, why did you really call us? What’s going on?”

At Cordelia’s question, Natasha let out a long sigh, then pulled a white envelope from the drawer next to the sofa and held it out.

“Here.”

“What’s this?”

“You’ll know when you open it.”

At Natasha’s forlorn expression, Cordelia hesitantly glanced around before opening the envelope. Her eyes widened in shock.

“A wedding invitation?”

It was exactly that. A wedding invitation.

And on it were the names Kang Jin-ho and Hong Yu-hee.

“The two of them are getting married.”

Natasha said, exhaling a puff of smoke. Cordelia’s jaw dropped.

“A wedding is a momentous occasion.”

I’ll give you that.

Yeah, I’ll admit it.

It’s definitely something worth breaking the black rod over.

Besides, it was only a week away.

It was absolutely an urgent matter.

“I wonder if Yu-hee has found a dress yet?”

Logically, she must have.

But Cordelia still pictured Yu-hee in her mind, pondering and pondering.

“Would a fairy dress be a bit much? What about an angel’s gown?”

Come to think of it, wasn’t Yu-hee already an angel in the Cordelia lineage?

“Should I prepare a tiara, too? How about bringing some angels from the heavenly realm? They can be bridesmaids and sing the congratulatory song. Yes, yes, that sounds great!”

It wasn’t like the angels were there for her to use, but Cordelia’s brain was already in full festival mode.

No, though Yuder and Natasha couldn’t see it, a lively meeting was already underway in Cordelia’s mental guild house, with various Cordelias actively voicing their opinions.

“Guild Master! Let’s have the wedding outdoors!”

“What if it rains?”

“We can just manipulate the weather! Control Weather magic exists for times like this!”

“True, we can just manipulate it, can’t we?”

“Instead of angels, how about we hire singers for the congratulatory song?”

“Singers? I don’t know any singers.”

“But we have money.”

“That’s also true.”

They had come empty-handed, but she could just have the angels bring some gold and jewels when she summoned them.

“Wait, hold on. Are you guys seriously suggesting we summon real angels?”

The common-sense Cordelia, who had been sitting in a corner, asked with a flustered face. All the other Cordelias looked at her as if she’d asked the most obvious question in the world. The common-sense Cordelia laughed awkwardly and said, “Sh-should we call Raguel, too?”

“Nah, Raguel is a bit much.”

“An archangel is overkill. Let’s just summon some from below the rank of Power Angel.”

“We can just open the Gate of Heaven, right?”

The meeting, befitting of the Cordelias, felt like it was spiraling off into space, but not wanting to be kicked out of the guild house, the common-sense Cordelia nodded enthusiastically.

And in reality.

After briefly checking on the state of Cordelia, who had entered her own fever time, Yuder turned to the pouting and grumbling Natasha.

“But isn’t this a bit sudden?”

It wouldn’t have been strange for them to get married at any time, but they were still young—or more accurately, Hong Yu-hee was still too young.

Of course, we’re even younger.

Hong Yu-hee was now twenty-two, making her older than the twenty-one-year-old Yuder and Cordelia, but there was a cultural difference between Korea and Pleiades.

By Korean standards, twenty-two was certainly a very early age to get married.

At Yuder’s question, Natasha pouted again, then cracked open a new can of beer and said, “A reason came up that made it necessary.”

“A reason it was necessary?”

“Yep. A reason they had to.”

A reason why the still-young Hong Yu-hee had to get married.

“Wait, don’t tell me?”

It was at that very moment.

Ding-dong—

The clear, bright sound of the doorbell cut through their conversation.

---

Translated By: Meher (RaidenTL)

Please do consider subscribing to my Patreon or donate to my Ko-fi if you like this work or to get early access to chapters