Chapter: 145
No, why are you talking about being Gaia’s partner or whatever? You were just calling me an old lady and making fun of me! Why are you suddenly saying I’m your partner??
Is it possible that it’s some kind of grandma preference?! Grandma?! Grandmaaa??
That kind of thing shouldn’t exist!
Ah, wait. Now that I think about it, there were quite a few of those in Greek mythology. In Greek and Roman mythology, Gaia married her son Uranus and gave birth to Cronos. She even married Poseidon, who is both her grandson and son. And she had kids with Zeus too. Not that she was a god or anything, but…
Incest between siblings or between mother and child is bad enough, but now marrying your grandma? Terrifying Greek mythology! I’m glad there’s nothing like that in this world.
Ahem. Let’s get my thoughts back on track.
I sighed softly while looking at Baal, who seemed completely clueless about what he just said.
This guy claims he wants to become the king of the gods, but why is he starting a fight when he should be persuading the other gods? Especially with those kids who easily get agitated if I’m involved.
Thanks to that, the kids are frozen stiff. Even Shamash, who was somewhat friendly with Baal.
“Ga…ia?”
It was Shamash’s confused comment that broke the icy tension.
“What’s Gaia?”
“Maybe it’s one of the newly born gods?”
“Hmmm….”
The kids didn’t seem to comprehend Baal’s words at all.
Ah, that’s right! The name Gaia was given by Baal himself, so the kids have no clue what it means!
Great! If I just let this slide, we can somehow get through it!
Just when I thought that, Baal opened his mouth.
“Gaia is none other than—”
“Since this guy is the god of the sky, he probably named the vast land of this world Gaia. I think he wants to give birth to a new goddess of the earth…”
I quickly cut off Baal’s speech, trying to prevent a disaster.
“No, that’s not it!”
“Come to think of it, there was no proper name for the enormous continent in this world. Why not use the name Pangaea, which means ‘all land,’ since that fits the image of the sky and earth meeting?”
I hurriedly interrupted Baal again, and to my relief, my flimsy excuse seemed to work as the kids didn’t object.
Phew! I thought I was done for, but it looks like we’re okay for now.
“But if it’s the goddess of the earth, isn’t there already one here?”
Ifrit said with a playful smirk, glancing at Sagarmatha.
“I don’t like that brat.”
“Tough luck! Brat! The highest mountain doesn’t like you!”
“Well, the partner I want isn’t—”
“Alright, that’s enough. I have a lot to discuss, we can’t waste time on chit-chat.”
I tilted Baal’s head back to cut him off once more. If he starts claiming that Gaia is my title right now, the whole situation would go haywire, and my grand plan to make him the king of the gods would crash and burn instantly.
I absolutely have to steer this situation forward!
“Anyway, I want to make this guy the king of the gods. I’m curious to hear your thoughts on that.”
“Hmmm… Do you need our opinion? Or are you hoping we’ll help this guy out?”
Calmly responding to Shamash’s question, I said,
“I’m not asking for your support. I just want you to evaluate whether this guy is fit to be the king of the gods.”
If I were to just snatch any newly born god and declare them king, these kids would probably respect my opinion.
But I can’t go about it that way.
The title of king of the gods is too weighty to be decided casually.
A king chosen so carelessly will definitely lead to issues later on.
It would be more appropriate to persuade these kids to accept the king of the gods.
“An evaluation?”
“Right. If you all evaluate and acknowledge him, then he could be considered a worthy king of the gods.”
My children, born from the phenomena of nature.
Kids who existed as gods even before the other new gods appeared.
To put it simply, they can be called the first generation of gods.
They possess overwhelming power compared to other gods and can freely manipulate the phenomena of nature.
If these kiddos give their acknowledgment, the approval of other gods will inevitably follow.
“Hmmm…an evaluation… but we don’t know that much about that kid.”
Sylphid said, her face slightly pouty.
“I’ve had some interactions with him, so I can speak about him to a degree, but if you’re asking if he deserves the title of king of the gods…hmmm, I’m not really sure.”
“Yeah, I don’t know either.”
The expressions of Shamash and Sagarmatha told me that asking for an evaluation when they know nothing at all was probably a bit premature.
“Then, how about we do this?”
In that moment, Thetis voiced up.
“We don’t know that kid, but Mom wants to make him the king of the gods, right?”
“Exactly.”
“Then why don’t we give him a test to see if we can recognize him?”
A test?
“Well, more like a trial, actually. If he solves the trial well, it would feel like acknowledging him.”
Hmmm… What? Is it something like Hercules’ trials?
“Actually, that might make things easier.”
“Well, to become the king of the gods, he should be able to solve any problem!”
The other kids began agreeing with Thetis’s proposal. It does seem like a better way to move forward rather than just demanding acknowledgment out of the blue.
Maybe I was too hasty in pushing this ahead. Hmm.
It was probably because Baal started talking about Gaia as his partner and totally threw me off my game.
“So, what happens next?”
Baal, who had been glued to my side, asked in a tiny voice.
“These kids are going to give you a test, and if you solve it, they’re going to acknowledge you.”
“A test? Ugh, sounds annoying…”
“Still, if you solve it, you can be the king of the gods. Isn’t it worth a shot?”
Baal thought for a moment then gave a small nod.
“Okay, I’ll give it a go.”
Awesome! Baal’s at least a little willing now, and it’s all up to the kids to decide what kind of test to give him.
“Then let’s wrap it up for now. We need to think a bit more about the tests.”
“I agree.”
“It’s been a while since we were all together, and I want some of Mom’s delicious food!”
“I’m craving some fresh, crunchy vegetables.”
“Wait, is it okay for a god of plants to eat vegetables…?”
“The elves have been eating too much meat, so I’m a bit tired of it. We need to fix their picky eating habits…”
Delicious food, huh? Come to think of it, the kids who lost their dragon forms have hardly gathered like this before.
“Okay! Since it’s been a while, I’ll whip up something proper.”
I’ll serve them various dishes they can’t experience in this world!
Of course, in hopes they’ll look after Baal, who wants to be the king of the gods!
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Days later, after treating the kids and Baal to a hearty meal,
the kids came to me, each having prepared a test of their own.
For some reason, they all looked overly confident, as if competing over who could make the more difficult test.
Hmmm…not good. If the tests are too hard, Baal is definitely going to throw in the towel.
“Oh! Mom has to set a test too!”
“What? Me too?”
“Yes! We all agreed it wouldn’t be fair if only we set the tests!”
What? I haven’t prepared anything at all! Asking me to set a test all of a sudden? That’s way too abrupt!
“Of course, we figured you hadn’t prepared anything, so we brainstormed and came up with our own tests!”
At Shamash’s words, the others nodded in agreement. Don’t spring this on me!
“The test in Mom’s name should be fitting for the Goddess of Life!”
Hmmm, this is giving me a bad feeling.
“It’s the Trial of No Kill! While passing the other tests, no lives can be harmed!”
No kill…? The Trial of No Kill? Ugh, my head…
Wait, more importantly—if there’s a test from the kids that requires killing anything, isn’t that contradictory? Is it okay to even create such tests?
“Oh, of course, we carefully selected the tests to match that. We didn’t include any that require killing anything.”
“Well, if that’s the case, then it should be okay… Hmm…”
No, no.
If we don’t set conditions on lives that can’t be harmed, just stepping on a bug on my walk could get someone disqualified.
We need to change that.
“Let’s set conditions on what lives can’t be killed.”
“Conditions?”
I nodded slightly and replied:
“Let’s limit it to humans and other subraces. Killing animals and monsters is fine.”
“What about beastmen? They’re half human, half animal.”
“Beastmen are considered subraces too.”
That’s discrimination against beastmen, Sylphid.
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