I heard the roar of a furious Asherat from afar!
Asherat attacked you!
Ack! This really hurts!
I’m dead…
Fortunately, the same thing didn’t happen. Somehow, I managed to appease Asherat’s wrath through various means.
By the way, the detailed process of calming Asherat, who had become as ferocious as a slug somewhere, is omitted.
Well, it wasn’t exactly worth talking about, so I didn’t feel the need to share.
All I did was… give Asherat a bit of an extended vacation.
As a result, I had to cover all the responsibilities Asherat had, but if I could soothe Asherat’s anger for this much, it’s a bargain.
Honestly, if I really wanted to, I could have just ignored it and moved on, but… I’m a bit worried about the aftermath!
No matter how much Asherat is a fragment created from me, it still has its own self. I created it, but isn’t it right to respect Asherat’s self at least a bit?
And… if Asherat gets pissed off and decides to strike or do something like sabotage, all the consequences would fall squarely on me.
So it’s better to just give a decent vacation and smooth things over.
“Thanks to that, I’m stuck working like this.”
“This is entirely Tia’s fault.”
“Yes. It’s Master’s fault.”
While I was diligently working in Asherat’s absence, Sia and Arthur came and started poking me.
They don’t even realize that saying such things is completely provoking me…
The difference between someone who usually works hard and someone who hardly works at all suddenly working diligently is like night and day!
Hmm. Does this mean I’m confessing that I’ve hardly worked until now?
But really! I truly worked hard back in the day! Before I completed Asherat as a fragment, I had to handle everything by myself!!! I really, really worked hard!!! I didn’t even have anyone to help me, it was mostly just me!!!
Now that I can offload some of the work onto Asherat and have other gods around, I have a bit of leeway! If someone said to go back to how it was before, I’d scream! There’s no way I’m going back! That thought would just slip out.
Repeating something I’ve done once is incredibly boring and tedious. I don’t want to do it twice.
“Don’t disturb my work and get out of here. What’s so fun about watching me work?”
“Surprisingly fun? It’s fascinating to see Tia working so seriously, and your hands move so quickly it’s like you have dozens of them!”
“Personally, I like how you listen to believers’ prayers and respond with a kind expression.”
No, what is this fool even watching?! It’s so embarrassing!!
“Yep! The way your faint maternal instinct mixes with kindness and a bit of mischief on your face! I quite like it!”
“Get out right now!!!”
Finally, after yelling, I managed to chase the two who were disturbing my work.
Honestly… I want to work a bit, but they’re causing a ruckus! It’s like a total interrupt!
Phew. Let’s get back to work. I need to fill in the gaps left by Asherat.
And… it’s not that I don’t want to work; if I set my mind to it, I can do even better than Asherat! I won’t let that fragment overshadow the actual me!!!
So, I began to pour all my efforts into my duties as the Goddess of Life.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Filling in for Asherat wasn’t as difficult as I thought. I just had to unleash my abilities to the max.
The problem was….
“There’s no end to this work.”
It’s like the work is multiplying!
I’m not joking; it really was multiplying.
There are countless lives in this world, and among them, how many have the intelligence to pray to a god?
How many of them would pray to the Goddess of Life?
Those in pain from sickness or wounds would pray to alleviate their suffering, those wishing for children would pray for new life, and those facing death would hope for a favorable outcome in the Underworld’s trials.
Furthermore, they pray for crops to grow well, for livestock to be healthy and have strong offspring, for plenty of fish to be caught, for plagues to subside, for small trees to flourish… and let’s not forget the elves! Go pray to Yggdrasil!!!! Not to me!!!
Anyway, the number of people praying to me was truly huge.
Truly. Seriously, way too many.
I mean, the scope of life is just too broad! Isn’t this a bit extreme?! There are times when it’s completely unnecessary to pray to me! Just because I’m the Supreme God doesn’t mean it has to be me!!!
This is… too much… really too much… It’s really excessive that people can’t decide who to pray to and end up coming to me.
Especially those pesky dwarves! They think crafting is like breathing life into their creations and pray to me!!! I’ll listen, sure!!! I’ll grant a blessing that marginally improves luck and skill!!! But that’s strictly something they should pray to Vulcan for!!!
In any case, this can’t go on. If it continues like this, I might become a machine that just answers prayers or something.
I might be able to endure it, but Asherat won’t! It’s going to run out of processing power!!!
If Asherat couldn’t handle it, I’d have to step in!!! This needs to change!!!
“So I made it! The Automatic Prayer Sorting Device!”
“Eh?”
After enjoying a long vacation for decades, Asherat encountered the device I created… a machine? Something divinely made? Anyway, for now, let’s stick to calling it a machine.
“This device analyzes the prayers sent to me and connects them to the appropriate deity.”
“Appropriate deity? That’s a rather vague term.”
“But there’s really no better way to say it.”
It’s an AI created after spending decades processing prayers, learning which deity is suitable for which prayer… should I call it divine intelligence since a god made it? Anyway!
This thoroughly trained AI analyzes prayers and processes them automatically! It’s essentially like a phone switchboard operator.
Of course, it doesn’t have any abilities beyond sorting prayers. It just sorts them day after day. It doesn’t even have a proper self constructed!
Looking at Asherat, having no self isn’t such a bad thing. Yep. No annoying tasks to handle!
“With this device, prayers won’t just link to the Goddess of Life haphazardly!”
“That would be quite handy.”
“Right? If the number of unnecessary prayers decreases, it’ll be a huge help. The number of prayers I have to handle will probably be halved!”
Furthermore, prayers from couples wishing for kids would automatically go to the Cloud Whale… or rather, Sandalphon… Hmm. That name just doesn’t roll off my tongue. I keep calling it Cloud Whale.
Anyway, prayers from couples wanting children will automatically be directed to Sandalphon.
Prayers from those fearing the Underworld’s trials will be directed to Hades.
Even prayers that come to me will be redirected to the more suitable deities when applicable.
This way, the prayers coming my way will only be… those from people suffering from injuries or illnesses.
Hmm. It truly is best to rely on subcontracting when tackling work! If there’s too much to handle, dividing it is the answer!
“Well… since it’s created by the Goddess, it shouldn’t have any problems, but we’ll need to try it out to be certain.”
“I guarantee you. It worked perfectly during testing.”
When operating normally, it was said that about 40% of the prayers directed to me would diminish! Just that alone was refreshing!
Of course, there’s no way testing environments will entirely match real-world conditions. But after repeated tests, I felt I had managed to stabilize it to a degree.
If problems arise after this, then I’d really be at a loss.
And… if this still isn’t enough, I’ve thought about alternative methods too.
“What could be the reason for sending prayers to me, the Goddess of Life?
It’s pain! Pain from sickness and injuries! Let’s take care of those!!
If I manage to resolve those issues, the necessity for prayers to the gods would shrink!
I was thinking of actively using the priests and pilgrims of the Church of Life to heal others.
Of course, it would increase their burden, so I was considering it a last resort.
But now that I’ve completed the automatic prayer sorting device, there’s no need to go that far!
“So, I’ll use it for a while and evaluate how it goes. I can’t relax until I confirm it’s functioning correctly.”
“Okay. I understand. If I could, I’d want to take a vacation for hundreds of years… but I’m not the Goddess of Life. I can’t afford to rest for that long. I suppose I’ll have to get back to work.”
“Throwing shade at me, huh?”
“Well, it was the truth. Which god sleeps for 300 years because they’re sleepy?”
“What can you do about feeling tired?”
While I can tolerate many things, the feeling of sleepiness is hard to ignore. If I don’t get quality sleep, it feels like something is groaning in my head.
I can hold out if I force myself… but I also get a sense that I shouldn’t do that.
Because of this, I make sure I take care of my sleep.
Oh, and it’s best not to mention that if I really wanted to, I could sleep forever. Yup.
Thus, Asherat, who returned after enjoying a vacation for decades, began to process prayers using the automatic prayer sorting device.
Thanks to the reduced volume of prayers, or perhaps due to having enjoyed watching human lives over the decades, her face was brighter than before she went on vacation.
Great! Now I can play without doing any work again!!
