“No way, you couldn’t win a single round! Are you sure you’re not cheating?”
“Hey, it’s not cheating if you just can’t do it.”
The Goddess, angry, was pounding her fists down on the bed. Watching her grit her teeth and try to win midway, I almost considered letting her win on purpose.
‘But if I’m going to let her win, I have to hit at least one shot.’
Whether the ball was cursed or her hands had been hexed, every shot just crashed into the walls instead of landing properly.
“It’s cheating! This is totally cheating!”
“Gah, should I do something else?”
“No! I’m not playing anymore!”
Pouting like a child, she dove into the blankets. It was almost pitiful seeing her act like that.
“I get you’re struggling, but not being able to roll a single ball? That’s a bit much, don’t you think?”
“Shut up! It’s because the room is slanted!”
“If you’re serious, that’s kind of embarrassing.”
“Ugh!”
Thud, thud, thud!
The Goddess was kicking the blankets wildly. Despite having lived for ages, both the Goddess of Time and the Goddess of Death had a childish side in their actions.
“I’m not exercising!”
“……”
“Gah!”
(She’s not doing it!)
Burying her face deep into the pillow, the Goddess shouted. If she hated it that much, I wasn’t going to force her to do it, anyway. Just when I thought to let her sleep, the Goddess suddenly popped her head up and headed for the bedside table.
Sitting on the bed, the Goddess of Death began setting up a game with a wooden board and a small box.
“Chess?”
“Yep, let’s play chess!”
What popped out of the box were chess pieces, and the wooden board was definitely a chessboard. She knows how to play chess?
“I figured it’s similar to how we three gods strategize over the continent, so I learned it.”
“Honestly, I can’t tell if you guys are gods or just slackers.”
“……Can’t deny there’s a resemblance.”
Tap, tap, tap.
The Goddess of Death was setting up the chess pieces.
“You know how to play, right?”
“I can only play. I don’t have a talent for games like chess.”
“That’s enough.”
She started humming a tune, seeming cheerful at the thought of playing chess.
*
The heated discussion in Elize’s storage and research room faded away. The women moved to another room, sipping the warm tea handed to them by Bertia while glancing at the Goddess of Time.
“Um, what about my tea?”
Feeling parched, the Goddess of Time subtly asked, and Bertia smiled while replying.
“I only serve the guests.”
“……”
That’s really unfair.
If I had the power, I’d totally make them all pay for this. The Goddess, who had never felt this miserable in her long life, pouted her lips.
“Stop stalling and just say it.”
Pushed by Sen’s glare, the Goddess reluctantly straightened her back and opened her mouth.
“I’ll explain from the beginning. One day, the Goddess of Death contacted me from the Divine Realm.”
At the mention of a name no one wanted to hear, the mood turned sour in an instant. The air in the room grew heavy.
Wearing a puffy dress, the Goddess nervously rubbed her neck and continued.
“Usually, I’d hang up right away. But, surprisingly, there was a guy with the Goddess of Death. You probably guessed it— it was Daniel McLean.”
She kept silent about the image of Daniel being hugged by the Goddess of Death. Even though their time together had been brief, she could sense that discussing such matters was off-limits.
“Daniel must be suffering under the Goddess of Death. So, to save him, we need the shard of Daniel that Eris holds.”
Eris was tightly holding onto a small crystal, as if it were precious. I wondered why Daniel’s age was set at ten in the Spirit Realm, and that crystal seemed like the reason.
“Normally, bringing the dead back to life is impossible. But since Eris has the crystal, it’s doable. That’s proof that Daniel hasn’t fully crossed over to the Spirit Realm.”
You could say Daniel’s essence was split in half.
Most of him was in the Spirit Realm, but since Daniel still exists on the continent, it was possible to pull the other part up here.
“And one more thing. We need someone to open the passage to the Spirit Realm.”
Mentioning the need for a passage to bring back Daniel McLean, everyone thought of one person.
“We need to find Lin, the earliest apocalypse. If there’s anyone who was connected to the Goddess of Death, it’d be her.”
With the Goddess of Time done explaining the current situation, they understood the key concepts and main goals. The details could be unraveled gradually.
But something more important loomed.
Eris brushed her hair behind her ear, then asked.
“But why are you, the Goddess of Time, helping us?”
All eyes turned back to the Goddess. Under the pressure, she stammered out a response.
“Uh, um! I guess you could say it’s a gift for Daniel, who beat me!”
“A gift?”
“Yes! Exactly! Seeing how desperately Daniel McLean fought, it’s my duty as the loser!”
It wasn’t the kind of answer anyone was particularly satisfied with.
It wasn’t even a convincing reason. But the Goddess of Time found herself without any other acceptable response at the moment.
If she admitted that she just wanted to see Daniel McLean again and have a conversation, she couldn’t predict how these women would react.
She didn’t want to find herself mingling with a prideful pack of lionesses, nor did she want to plant the seeds of competition. The thought of it was terrifying.
“Let’s just move on. I’m not curious about what that woman is thinking anyway. She’s lost all her power, right?”
May, emphasizing priorities, said.
No matter what schemes the Goddess of Time might have, the priority was saving Daniel.
Everyone agreed, so they shifted the topic to Lin. Naturally, Elize raised her hand.
“First, I have something to say about Lin.”
Taking a deep, calming breath, she spoke as if feeling a headache coming on.
“Everyone knows Lin is wanted, right?”
She was the woman who had caused the world to be destroyed not once, but twice. In the zero iteration, she wore a helmet, but in the second iteration, her face was revealed. Almost no one in the continent was unaware of Lin.
Given how her destructive methods were identical, people easily recognized that the figure from the zero iteration and the second were the same.
Since it couldn’t merely be brushed off as a dream, the kingdom had issued a wanted notice, but Lin had already escaped before that.
That was three years ago now.
May scratched her head in frustration.
“Why was there even a wanted notice? It happened in a dream, so it shouldn’t even count as a crime, right?”
Though things had happened, they had essentially vanished into thin air.
In reality, the current Lin hadn’t inflicted any damage on the continent, so why go as far as to issue a wanted notice?
While several people agreed with May, Elize simply cleared her throat and replied, her hands sweeping across the teacup.
“You can’t overlook it that easily. Everyone in the continent experienced their death. Though they could justify Ares’ case as merely dying from a meteorite, Lin’s is not something to take lightly.”
Though it had not yet materialized, it was still something that could become a reality, and that made people uneasy, causing the kingdom to need to alleviate such fears.
The wanted notice for Lin was not just limited to the Kingdom of Frisia; it had also been placed on other races like Beastmen and Dragonkin.
“Even now, there are people thinking Lin might reappear and cry out about destroying the continent.”
Adriana responded to Elize’s lament with a chuckle.
“Apparently, the opposite is true too. Some say if you serve Lin, she might spare you, so they’re willing to serve her. Plus, she’s half-good looking, so…”
“Crazy people.”
May immediately let out a curse.
Did they really think Lin, who hated being treated that way, would be okay with it?
As the topic began to stray, Elize coughed lightly, reclaiming her lead.
“Well, what I want to say is this: there’s a group searching for Lin aside from the royal family.”
“Someone aside from the royal family?”
Sen asked with a look of surprise. Elize’s face darkened with worry.
“A group that’s fanatically obsessed with the annihilation of the continent.”
*
“Whew.”
Ares Helias, donned in armor, let out a deep sigh. The sun god’s symbol on his armor always made him feel uncomfortably poked in the chest.
With the seventh expedition just around the corner, his body felt even heavier.
Having graduated from Aios Academy, Ares had immediately become a Paladin of Batian Cathedral. Naturally, it was expected since he already held the title of Honorary Paladin.
Of course, he no longer carried that sun god symbol.
However, the pure swordsmanship he possessed made him quite sought after at Batian Cathedral, allowing for an easy recruitment process.
‘A paladin who doesn’t believe in gods.’
How could he possibly trust the gods?
He could only harbor hatred for the wretched beings who tried to bring destruction upon the continent through their very existence. Yet, he had no choice.
To marry Arni, the daughter of the famous Duratan family known for their swordsmanship, he had to become a Paladin.
Thanks to that, he had married Arni and had a daughter, providing him both honor and wealth, fulfilling two aspects all at once.
Though Ares was on the smooth path of life, a part of him could only feel uneasy.
He hadn’t participated in all the expeditions, but the goal of the seventh was always the same— to kill his childhood friend and first love.
He hadn’t found out where Lin was hiding yet, which was a relief, but if she were to be discovered, he would be forced into a fight.
‘I doubt I’d even win to begin with.’
In pure swordsmanship, Ares might hold an advantage, but Lin was no mere swordsman— she was a mage.
Honestly, his gut told him to run the moment he spotted her.
Just then, there was a knock from outside.
Ares responded, and slowly entering the room was a statue from the cathedral.
It was Saint Lucia.
