episode_0122

First impressions are not really important. I don’t intend to continue my relationship with Stella in the future, and I just hope that this will be our first and last meeting.

What is important is solving the problem. I needed to know what Wayne meant to this woman who seemed to have a screw missing. Of course, there was one more priority issue before that.

“…First of all, since there is nowhere to focus your eyes, it might be a good idea to put something on. Please. Please.”

“You will see all the strange people.”

“Are you just calling me strange? Just ask anyone in the world! Am I the weird one or are you the weird one!”

Of course, people from that world mean people from Earth. People in this world worship Stella, so they should be able to catch a living person.

“Isn’t it normal to argue about someone else’s clothes when you are naked yourself?”

“Yes? What did you just say… Wow!”

At Stella’s words, I hurriedly lowered my head. As she said, I too was completely naked.

“No, now I’m just taking off someone else’s clothes!”

I hastily covered the important parts. Stella pursed her lips and said.

“If anyone hears it, they will think I took it off. To begin with, this is not the same material world as the place you lived in…”

So what that meant was that this place was not a real space. They say it’s a kind of virtual reality, but who knows? Even Akasha, who used the memory corridor or something, didn’t take my clothes off.

“Anything is fine, so let’s start by giving each other something to cover up with.”

“Is it okay if I do this?”

When Stella snapped her fingers, a section of space separated like a curtain and fell, forming a white cloth that wrapped around Stella’s body. I wondered if this could be called clothing as it was exposed from the armpits to the waist and down to the hip line, but it was still better than not wearing anything at all.

Only after Stella and I, who had suddenly dressed up as ancient Greeks, caused such a fuss, were we able to get to the main topic.

“So, you came here to talk about Wayne, right? I roughly heard the story from Prinia’s messenger.”

“Umm….”

But there was still one thing that bothered me,

“The reason why I still consider Wayne a hero is actually not a big deal.”

I don’t know why I keep speaking informally from earlier. When we first met, mutual respect was polite, but I was thinking about moving on, wondering if the gods here didn’t have such a concept, but then I remembered that Prinia had treated me with respect from the beginning.

An eye for an eye. This includes:

“I’m glad it’s nothing special.”

I also spoke naturally. It was a rebellious act of conversion that she thought was somewhat irritating, but Stella didn’t really care.

“It’s very trivial. It’s just because I don’t want to lose.”

“……Yes?”

It’s been a while since we last spoke, but the polite word came out again. I mean, it was that absurd.

“No matter what, since I am a body that receives faith, I cannot have what I put on it taken away by a mere creature.”

“Ah…ha.”

understood. It didn’t mean that I understood her intentions, it just meant that I understood that the girl in front of me was a pure brat. It seemed like there was no need to treat them like the gods of justice I knew, as I first thought.

“Then it’s not a big deal so you’re not really worried about it, right?”

Anyway, what was important now was whether Stella was angry because of Arjen’s oath. If she doesn’t have any feelings, there is no problem with Wayne continuing to be a warrior like this.

“If I really didn’t care, I wouldn’t have needed to meet you. I kept quiet because directly interfering with the lower world would be dishonest, but I’m just glad that someone involved came to visit me in person.”

Well, it looks like Stella’s pride was quite expensive.

“I won’t say much. Please tell me that I hope to get Wayne back as soon as possible. Unless you want to see meteorites falling on rares all the time.”

Just a moment ago, he said that interfering in the lower world with his own words was unseemly, and then he made a truly absurd threat.

“Now, now… I think we need to have an in-depth conversation instead of like this. Let’s think about it calmly.”

The moment he breaks his oath, Wayne’s life will begin to flow again. If that happens, she will live and die the lifespan of a human she was originally scheduled to live. In the process, growing old and weak was also an inevitable fate.

“Let’s think about the definition of a warrior. A hero is like the ultimate weapon to protect humanity from threats that cannot be resisted, right? But humans have a short lifespan. That’s it? As time goes by, we age and become weaker.”

“That’s right. That is how I created it.”

“In that case, wouldn’t it be better to maintain the covenant with Arjen so that he can demonstrate his prime power for a long time?”

It was a pretty good offer. Even if Stella did not show a sane and reasonable side in strange corners.

“That’s nonsense. Since everything has an end, the process is brilliant and important. The lifespan of a human being, according to me, is around 100 years. That’s because they thought it was the most dense and rewarding time of their lives. Have you ever thought about the position of that fragile life that has to carry the heavy burden of being a warrior for a thousand or ten thousand years?”

“Uh….”

“Death is not a curse to be postponed or avoided. It is a blessing that gives value to life and provides freedom from suffering. It seems like you need to think deeply about who is truly bothering Wayne right now.”

Every word hits the nail on the head, leaving you speechless. It seemed difficult to persuade Stella with logic.

“Okay, okay. all good. It’s all good, but there’s no need to think more deeply about that.”

“What does it mean?”

“No. That fragile life said that it didn’t have the slightest desire to die yet. He also said he wanted to live as long as possible.”

This is my opinion that I heard directly from the person and there is absolutely no room for distortion.

“Uh…?”

Stella looked embarrassed for the first time. Looking at that, I felt good because I felt like I had successfully tricked him.

“If you really think about the position of that delicate life, isn’t it right to take the heavy burden off your shoulders first? Something like making a warrior retire.”

If we just hire a new hero, everything will be resolved. In fact, Wayne is still a warrior for the same reason as a bandit who doesn’t want to give up his beloved child to a creature, so the part he just said about ‘consider Wayne’s position’ was completely countered.

“…As I said before, having something taken away by a creature from the underworld is very unfortunate…”

“Hey, the shape has already been lost enough, right?”

If you’re going to show your God-like side, either show it properly, or admit that you’re narrow-minded and get out of the way. If I had only done one of the two, there would have been no way for me, but as I tried to vaguely take care of both, it became impossible.

“Ugh… Anyway, I can’t let Wayne go. What should I do?”

Asking me such a question was essentially saying that he was willing to follow my words to some extent. I found the most reasonable point and made a suggestion.

“Let’s do it like this. Let’s keep Wayne as a hero and keep Argen’s oath. Instead, if Wayne decides that he wants to stop living, we should both respect his wishes.”

In fact, it was a plausible retelling of the status quo. Sure enough, Stella also noticed this and scolded me.

“What is that? In the end, nothing changes.”

“But that’s what I was aiming for.”

“I really need meteorites instead of rain to come to my senses.”

“It is an unspoken rule among the gods not to interfere in the affairs of the underworld? If you break that, I think it will look really bad.”

“Hmph! Aren’t you already looking at me the same way? There is no need to build up your pride in front of someone like that.”

Uh… this is a picture that goes differently than I expected. Fortunately, Stella showed signs of reaching an agreement by adding conditions first.

“If you accept my proposal, you should also accept maintaining the status quo positively. Then, since I wasn’t unilaterally taken away, I can save my face.”

Even though it was far from respectable to talk about saving one’s face, I nodded without hesitation. Even if it were a suggestion, how annoying would it be?

“The territory you restored has a high potential for conflict. Do you know? If we make a mistake, the growth of humanity, which has already shrunk, could slow down even further.”

“Uh… I still need to resolve that too.”

“Here is my suggestion. So that you can become the owner of that land and rule it yourself.”

“…What?”

“Of course, it goes without saying that the resulting resources will be used for human prosperity.”

Suddenly, I started taking pictures of territory.