【 】

“…Nothing to do.”

A mutter left my mouth.

But it couldn’t be helped. There really was nothing to do.

The money I got from the me that I left in the Temple was quite a sum. Enough to live
on for a while yet. Because of that, there was no need to work.

Unlike when I was a dungeon master, there was nobody aiming for my life either.

The peaceful life that I wished for was… Although there were the occasional
disturbances, it was mostly a peaceful everyday for me.

It was basically everything I had wished for, so I do think it was being extravagant to
complain about it now, but I really, really had nothing to do.

Because I was just so free, I even tried things I would normally never even consider
doing.

“I know. I’ll write an autobiography.”

Later, when I calmed down a little, I realised that I should have thought about it a little
more carefully.

Far from being thrown into a world with only the clothes on my back, I was abandoned
in a forest with not even a shred of fabric on me. Then I joined a guild, became a
dungeon master, became a god, got into an argument with the God of Light and God of
Darkness, and finally, after all that, went back to being a human. Thinking about it, you
could say that my life was the perfect illustration of ‘filled with ups and downs’…
Or so I’d like to say, but considering my age, it feels a little early to be reflecting over
my life like this. On the other hand, just this year alone was eventful enough to last me
a lifetime.

“………”

Thinking about it now, a lot of the events were actually headache inducing──or rather,
pretty much everything that happened was headache inducing──but considering how
colorful (or perhaps intense) all my experiences were, I’d say that at least my
autobiography won’t be lacking in content.

Thinking that, I went to find the stationery that I used the time I was writing the
scriptures, but when I did, I suddenly realised that I had overlooked a grave problem.

“What am I going to do about the enchantment curse?”

Last time, I wrote up some scriptures about living a virtuous lifestyle, but it ended up
turning into a cursed book that was classified worldwide as belonging to the most
terrifying class of dangerous items.

It happened because of the divine enchantment skill that I was given when I came to
this world. An annoying skill that allowed me to instantly enchant something with the
divine protection of an evil god, but that would also activate on its own after about an
hour of contact.

If the target was a living being, then they would need to accept the divine protection,
but if it was inanimate like a stationery set, then it would activate by itself.

Even a book of morals turned into a cursed scripture, so I couldn’t even imagine what
my autobiography might turn into. I couldn’t imagine it, but I could say with certainty
that it would be nothing good.

Learning from my previous mistakes, this time I was careful not to activate the
enchantment.

“…This is hard.”

I decided to avoid contact with the paper and write with my pen hand held up in the
air, but it turned out to be quite hard.
Normally I would write with my left hand holding the paper down, and with the pinkie
of my right hand on the sheet, so writing like this ended up harder than expected. If
you don’t believe me, just try it.

My hand wouldn’t stop shaking, and my handwriting turned into squiggles.

But it was obvious that giving up would be the same as screaming “Second cursed
book, here we come!” so I continued writing as I corrected things over and over again.

“The heck are you doing?”

Leonora happened to wander in. She made an astounded look as she saw me seriously
battling with the paper with my shaky hands, but I decided not to mind it.

Admittedly, I want to ask myself the same question, but it feels like I’d lose somehow
if I gave up at this point, so I’ve decided not to look back.

“A new game?”

No, Lili, I’m writing very seriously here. It might look like some punishment game to
an outsider, but I need to ignore that.

“Please don’t push yourself, Anri-sama.”

Tena’s kindness filled my heart so much that my vision blurred, and I couldn’t see the
paper anymore.

With everybody’s warm (and somewhat stuffy) encouragement, I somehow managed

to finish my autobiography.

Its title was──

This was a short, short story to commemorate the publication of Evil God Average.

Today, on the 7th of September, 2015, the first volume was published by Takarajimasha.

It is thanks to all my readers, and I am grateful.

If you see it in the store, please pick up a copy.

– Kitaseno Yunaki

Incidentally, Anri-san was desperately writing with trembling hands, but she honestly
could have just taken a break every hour, and the curse wouldn’t have activated.

– Kitaseno Yunaki
“…………”

The Anri that was a divine being, squinted her eyes slightly in the faith that flows from
all over.

Faith is like nutrition for the divine beings and if it is satiated, a feeling close to the
feeling in humans of having a full stomach can be obtained.

Conversely, if one is lacking in faith, they will suffer severe hunger and because so,
even if they eat and eat, they only will taste the suffering of hell.

Originally, faith held by Anri, who had the authority of “fear”, was in great quantity but
recently it was spurred to flow further.

The reason is the autobiography written by Anri the human.

The autobiography that she wrote was disseminated through the Pope, through which
Anri became widely known, so the amount of faith which flowed increased.

“─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ♪”

People will be happy if they have a full stomach. It was the same for the gods, who
were not human beings.

Anri, who usually walked in the corridor of the shrine so that she could dance with a
feeling of floating, discovered that there was a shadow ahead.

“Is that you Anri?

…? It seems that you are in a good mood. “

That shadow was Imperial Death, a steward for Anri at the evil temple.

Originally, he was the boss of the 30th rank of the underground dungeon, but because
he had no intruders that could reach there and because there was no other person
that could do the housekeeping at the current evil god temple, ruling out a possible
emergency need, he decided to serve by Anri.

He extended the eternal Emperor courtesies, but he noticed that Anri ‘s atmosphere
was different from usual and has questioned.

When Anri nodded, she explained why her own mood was good.

“Faith has increased, thanks to the book written by the human me”

“Ha, that is wonderful.

I congratulate you from the bottom of my heart. “

“Thank you”

For Imperial Death who had absolute loyalty and faith in Anri, Anri’s joy was his own
pleasure.

Imperial Death did not have facial expressions, but from a red glint in his eyes,
heartfelt joy was communicated. Anri caught this expressed thanks.

When Anri separated from Imperial Death, she returned to her room as usual, walking
with a dance

“Hmm…”

While watching the retreating Anri, the immortal butler began thinking about
something.

“Fuu…”

Anri, who had come down to her room, threw a satisfying sigh, throwing herself onto
the jet-black canopy bed.

She was lying on her side for a while, when before long, she extended her hand to the
side of the pillow, picked up a book that was there, gazing at it.
That was aforementioned autobiography, which the human Anri had written.

It is the autobiography published by the Pope, but the human Anri also gave one
sample to the divine Anri, so she cherished it carefully.

Anri of Humanity and Anri of the Divinity were the same person if you trace back.

In other words, this autobiography was both the autobiography of the human Anri and
at the same time, it was the autobiography in respect of the divine Anri.

As Anri was filled with a pleasant feeling of satiety, she opened her autobiography
while lying on her back and she looked back on her memories.

Book “Evil God Average” was a short memo of memorial days.

The book “God of Average” released on September 7, the other day, but I received a
message saying that I could mass print.

Thank you also for the ongoing support of everyone.

I’m really thankful to you.

It would be greatly appreciated if, for those who have not read this yet, you hand this on.

“Evil God Average” special page

Christmas, a festival for the christians on the previous world.

What was supposed to be a day to celebrate the birth of Christ, became a day where
one would be more excited to receive presents from Santa Claus.

Well, it was more or less fine till that point.

The problem is how such a dignified ceremony day became a day which endorsed
illicit sexual relationships.

It is beyond my knowledge how it became like that but, when thought about Christmas
here, the public image was about two lovers spending a passionate night together.

And at the same time, as that mood filled the whole city, for people who are not in such
a relationship end up feeling embarrassed.

For example, if someone doesn’t have a lover but has a good group of friends, they
could throw a party and live the day to its fullest but for someone like me who falls at
the middle category, that is a dream within a dream.

Pretending not to see the dazzling lights decorated all around the city, I miserably
return home hurriedly–that was Christmas for me.

Although, that is only applicable for the previous world.

In the world I am at now, Christianity itself does not exist so there is no way Christmas
would.

And as such, I could say this as a light joke to vent up my anger for the previous world
while having dinner.

“For this world, I shall ban Christmas.”

——At that very moment, the air froze.

“?”

I ended up tilting my head a bit as a result.

I surely thought I would be asked ‘What even is Christmas?’.

But among all of them, Sofia and Amber were clearly angry as they stood up.

“You have quite the guts…”

“Yeah, she sure does…”

The two gods glared at me, releasing a dreadful amount of magic.

“Banning my birthday festival!”

“Banning my birthday festival!”

Ah, they overlapped. I could hear a snapping noise.

After listening to each others words, they stopped glaring at me and started glaring at
each other.

“……What did you say just now?”

“……Whaddya say right now?”

With eerie voices, the two gods ask each other.

The feeling of tension accelerated at a high rate and exploded before long.

“I just said Christmas was my birthday festival.”

“Stop kidding around, it is my birthday festival.”

“It is my birthday festival, don’t come crashing in!”

“You’re the shameless one! Stay out of this!”

“What did you say?!”

“Huhh?!”

The argument kept heating up.

They still had not raised their hands but it was only a matter of time.

But for now, being relieved that the spearhead had turned away from me, I asked the
others to try and understand the cause of the problem.

“What exactly is Christmas?”

“?”

“Umm…”

“It’s the Dark God’s birthday.”

“Eh?”

Lily tilted her head in confusion but it looks like opinions differed between Tena and
Leonora. To Leonora’s answer, Tena was clearly surprised.

“Is the Christmas Tena knows different?”

“Yes, it is the birthday of Holy God Sophia.”

Tena is now an apostle but if I consider that she was a human before, it seems like
among the humans, Christmas is known as Sophia’s birthday and among the demons
it is Amber’s birthday.

However, do the births of the gods even matter?

Sophia and Amber are gods born from the separation of the Creation God.

In that sense, it isn’t that strange that they both have the same birthday.

But even if we say that is the case for argument’s sake, why is their birthday called
‘Christmas’?”

I couldn’t think up of anything so I decided to directly ask the two.

“Is Christmas the day on which you two separated from the Creation God?”

“No, that is not quite right.”

“Rather, I don’t even remember the date.”

It seems like I was wrong.

I don’t know what’s what anymore.

“If so, then why is it your birthday?”

“Because the people who came from your world say it is the day god was born.”

I could guess the rest after hearing Amber’s answer.

I heard from Leonora before that there were people from my previous world who were
summoned here as heroes. They are what you call summoned heroes.

The moment these summoned heroes are brought to this world, they are given some
sort of a strong ability which they use to conduct themselves as heroes.

And that is probably also the ‘Hero’ which come up in stories.

Given their position, they must have surely been popular to the opposite sex. And so,
to have an event to make out, they spread ‘Christmas’ in this world…

U N F O R G I V A B L E!!

And as such, Sophia and Amber being the gods of this world for humans and demons
respectively, it became known as their birthday.

But, if that’s the case, then I am worried about the actual event details.

Is it the same as my previous world, an event for the lovers?

I had a bad hunch about it so I tried asking them.

“What do you do on Christmas?”

“It’s a day where the males give the females presents. A characteristic clothing of red
and white with short bottoms called… what was it again? ‘Mini-skirt-santa-claus’?”

“Yes, and if she accepts and wears it, they become lovers.”

What should I do? It has turned into a far more weirder day.

There are portions remaining like Santa Claus and presents but I kinda get a different
‘feel’ from the ‘short skirts’ and ‘changing clothes to become lovers’.

Looks like the past heroes mixed their desires to various different customs. I do not
know if it was intentional or it became like this as a result. 9 times of ten, I think it is
the former.

Or rather, where did Sophia and Amber’s birthday celebration go? Are these two okay
with that?

But still, what do I do about this?

I half-jokingly banned Christmas earlier but now I think I should return it to its
original state. Mainly because of my mental stability.

——–Alright, I have decided.

I can only exercise my influence in this country but, I feel like I should at least make
this place celebrate Christmas properly.

Now that it’s decided, I need to decide what to instruct the Pope.

Firstly, for the name, I shall go with the Birth of the God. I want to avoid agitating
Sophia and Amber for no reason and also I don’t think anyone would understand if I
said prophet or messiah or the sort.

Secondly, I think I will keep the present part of it. It in itself isn’t bad and after all, when
you say Christmas, you think of presents.

Thirdly, I will completely remove the Santa Claus part. It kinda feels wrong to not have
it but I really want to remove the ‘mini-skirt-santa’ the previous heroes spread.

Lastly, and this is the most important part, on the very day, everyone will gather and
celebrate grandly. No lovey-dovey nights for lovers or lonely nights for loners. It is by
no means because of my convenience.

For this country, Christmas will be a day where everyone gathers up and celebrates
the birth of god while giving each other presents. I decided on it just now.

At the center of the reception hall of the Evil God’s banquet, a cauldron was placed on
top of a bonfire.

From the cauldron, a light pinkish smoke went up which uplifted the peoples mood.

In this space, where people from all over the country gathered up, a weird feeling filled
the air.

It was like a scene readapted from a long time ago.

To get straight to the point, it was Sabbath once again.

And like the Pope had raised his hand and declared before,

“Well then, we will now begin the ceremony of sacrifice to celebrate Anri-sama’s
birth!”

—–How did it turn out like this?

(4th Commemoration Chapter)

“Well then, now we shall start the sacrificial ceremony to celebrate the new year!”

“Enough of that already.”

“Happy new year.”

“Happy new year, Anri-sama.”

“…Happy new year.”

“Happy new year.”

I exchanged greetings with Tena, Lily and Leonara in the dining hall.

This would be my first time experiencing a new year in this world.

“By the way, what do you guys do to celebrate the new year in this world?”

“Hmmm… Well, to start with, we all have osechi together.” (*food served during the
New Year’s Holidays)

“Osechi? You have those here?”

Suddenly hearing such a nostalgic word from Tena, I kinda got my hopes up.

The food I normally have are good but I do occasionally want to have some Japanese
food.
I want to have a boiled taro.

“Yes, I have them prepared properly. Wait just a bit.”

“I will help.”

“Thank you, Lily.”

After Tena went down to the kitchen together with Lily, they soon came back with a
few layered boxes.

They put those on the table, opened the lids and lined them up, side by side.

“Please dig in.”

Inside the box, there were salmons, steaks and many other colorful food, all packed.

Yep, it is great. It is great but… It is quite different from the osechi I know.

Isn’t this just packing what was called ‘western food’ in the previous world into a box?

“Osechi is something the hero of the past had come up with for esteemed new year
food.”

“Ah, so that’s why…”

The ‘achievements’ of past summoned heroes just like the time with christmas.

They probably weren’t able to explain much more than packing in good food into a
multi-tier box.

If they went to all that trouble then they could have introduced Japanese food too…

Well, the food is actually quite good so I guess it is okay.

“Let’s dig in.”

Yep, these are delicious.

“What other things do you do?”

“Hmmm…”

“Otoshidama. You give special money to the children for the new year.” (New year’s
gift)

Ah, they also have the custom of otoshidama.

I stopped eating and was about to take out some silver coins from the item box to hand
over to Tena and Lily but then,

“By the way, the custom is to drop it in front of their eyes, not hand it over directly.”

The hero who spread these customs, exactly what kind of person were they…?

Well, I guess it is fine. I don’t feel like going too deep with it so I just gave it to them
like the custom.

“Thank you for everything.”

“Ah, thank you very much!”

“Thank you!”

I went over in front of them and dropped the coins in front of their eyes.

The coins fell down due to gravity and landed on their hands.

“What about me?”

“Leonara, you’re not a child anymore.”

Leaving that aside, I looked sideways to face Sophia and Amber. The two were
peacefully celebrating the new year, not joining in on the conversation.

The two were already drinking by the time I woke up.

“Drinking from the morning?”

These hopeless humans… Ah, they are not actually humans.

“It’s okay, it’s the new year after all.”

“There’s a custom of offering sake to the gods in the new year. So it’s our duty as gods
to drink these sake.”

Surely, these are sake offered to the gods but to me, it just looks like they are using it
as an excuse to drink.

Well, I guess I will put that aside for now.

“—su”

“?”

“What is this hand?”

Of course, it is for otoshidama.

“Otoshidama.”

Please.

I should have the right to receive some from these two veterans since I am just a
beginner.

“You fool, why do we have to give you otoshidama?”

“Seriously.”

“I really don’t think you will be doing something bad by showing your good sides as
senpais to your cute kouhai.”

“Say those things with a little bit more cuteness!”

Ouch– my hand was slapped from above.

“In the first place, the Gods don’t really have any money to begin with.”

“Yea, it’s only you. Who is a God and is diligently earning money.”
Certainly, pure-borns like them would not need any money. They won’t have a problem
without the necessities of life and they don’t also need to go shopping. It is only natural
for them to not have any as they don’t require any.

In short, they are penniless.

“Poor guys.”

“That kinda makes me angry though, oi.”

Well, it doesn’t really matter. I wasn’t really expecting anything from them in the first
place so I had nothing to lose.

I will just leave these drunkards alone.

I gave up trying to get otoshidama from them and returned to Tena and the others.

“What else do you do?”

“Umm, new year’s card?

You report your recent condition to someone far way.

I also just wrote a report to the demon territory a while ago.”

Is that really a new year card?

I kinda feel the nuance to be different…

“Why send something like that at this timing?”

“No, well, I don’t quite know why but it has been like this since long ago.

Only once a year does not feel enough so I do send some periodically though.

Not ‘Sending reports of the new year’ but rather ‘Sending reports on the new year.’, eh?

This, is it not just that the hero who brought the custom of the new year was feeling it
was bothersome to write reports so they struggled to make it only once a year?
Well, at the very least, I do not have anyone to write reports to so I guess I will leave it
as it is.

“And there’s also the first shrine visit of year.

It doesn’t have to be today but it seems like they call the first visit of the year to the
church that.”

First shrine visit, eh… Come to think of it, I also went to the shrine on new year’s day
and drew a fortune slip.

The result of the slip is a secret.

But, even if you talk of visiting a shrine —–

“This is the shrine.”

Since I am the God.

Who will I go to?

“Ahaha. Ri-right.”

When I said that, it looked like Tena also realized it and gave a bitter smile.

But, in the next moment, she wore a serious face and started whispering something
into Lily’s ear.

“???”

When I was wondering what they might be talking about, both of them joined their
hands before their chests.

…Wait, am I being prayed to now?

What do I do? I kinda feel really embarassed.

Incidentally, Leonara had gone to Amber’s place to pray.

To not let them know of my embarrassment, I patted their heads.

“I will be counting on you guys this year too.”

“Yes!”

“Yes!”

By the way, if there is the concept of first visit, is it really okay for us 3 Gods to be here?
“……………”

On the 30th layer of the ‘Evil God’s Holy Castle’ dungeon, was a being silently lost in
thought.

His name is Imperial Death. He was summoned forth by the Evil God Anri, given her
divine protection and was entrusted with the protection of the area as he was the
strongest undead.

That power, which cannot even be compared to that of a normal monster, is said to
even reach the domain of the dark and light Gods. Far excelling the strongest class of
people in this world, the hero and the demon lord, the only ones who are above him
are the three Gods who manage the world.

The cause of worry for someone with such immense strength lied in what his master,
the one to whom he pledged loyalty, had said the other day.

‘My followers have increased because of that book I wrote.’

His master, the Evil God Anri, had spoken of it happily.

I see, I can understand that these followers mean a lot to them, the Gods.

Her being happy because of it also makes me happy.

However, at the same time, he also thought.

Now, having known that, is it really okay for him to not do anything?

“……………”

The moment he had asked himself such a question, he probably realized the answer
within him.

Of course, there is no way that was good.

If there is even the slightest thing he can do for his master, he should do it with
complete devotion.

And if that is the case, then there is only one thing to do.

Fortunately, he had also heard that the book had contained only a portion of his
master’s exploits as a human. There are still many, many more large parts which have
not been yet told. If he wrote all of those down, her followers would increase even
more.

And that, would lead to even greater happiness for his master.

And as such…

“I shall write the continuation.”

And this is how, the thirtieth layer guardian-cum-butler, Imperial Death had set out on
a new job, that of a writer.

First, Imperial Death decided to finish the preparation for the writing.

On the enormous table located in front of the throne, he had prepared the tools needed
for writing: pen and paper, along with the book his master had wrote as a reference
book.

At first, he decided to read that book and understand its contents and plan how to go
about writing. He thought the readers might get an uncomfortable feeling if the
contents are too different from each other so he decided to match as much as he could.

Silently reading through the book, he had finished it in three hours.

“Fumu, I understand.”

Not only did he grasp the contents of the book, but he also understood the writing
style and got straight to work.

For a being like him, who has been existing for a very long time–piling up experience,
writing a book was an easy task.
Having the whole plot arranged in his head, he built up the chapters and had
completed a rough composition in a very short period of time.

As he planned to leave the drawings and designs to the ones specialized in them, he
devoted himself to constructing the sentences.

Imperial Death, being an undead, didn’t have the concept of exhaustion and could
work for hours and hours at a steady pace. He did not need to sleep or eat.

Of course, he could not afford to neglect his job as a butler so only stopping his hand
during those times, he assigned himself to writing during all the other time he had.
And thus, owing to that, he was able to proceed with speed a few times greater than
the normal human.

Having finished writing the book using all his free time, Imperial Death reread it three
times to correct any misspelling. Then, he nodded in satisfaction.

“Hmm, with this, there’s no doubt I can make Anri-sama satisfied.”

However, after thinking through all that, he again began to ponder again.

“Fumu…”

It would be really simple to show this completed book to the Evil God, Anri-sama.
However, wouldn’t she be surprised and even happier if he had published and
produced results?

Publishing the book secretly and spreading it, he would present his master with
followers… Now isn’t that a very clever thing to do?

“Now that that is decided…”

Another being, who had also pledged loyalty to Evil God Anri… He shall contact the
Pope and make the arrangements for the publication. Determined, Imperial Death
stood up from the throne and went outside the dungeon.
 j

“Oh my! That is a wonderful thought!”

“Fumu, if so, then can I have your assistance?”

“By all means!”

He secretly travelled to the Pope’s room and proposed his idea.

His outer appearance was all skeletal. It would not be strange if one were to faint when
someone like that visited but the Pope showed no signs of discomfort.

The Pope does not need to close the doors to his quarters for the Evil God’s followers
but even still, he had nerves of steel.

“Concerning the pictures and design, I know someone who knows how to go about
doing sacred books so leave it to me.

I also have a route I can use for distribution so you can also leave that to me.”

“That is excellent.”

“Ah, yes. I just thought of something good. Since we are going to all the trouble, how
about we give the sacred books as a set?”

“Fumu, that might be good.”

And this is how the second book extolling the Evil God Anri had been released to the
world.
【 】
This is a story that takes place while the Black Rose Mansion was still being built.

One day, the Pope called me out to the side of the Evil God Temple.

In other words… where a certain massive statue was being built. A massive statue that
boasted the same five-story height as the temple, and that happened to look just like
me.

Right now it was being completely covered in cloth so you couldn’t see inside, but once
you removed the cloth, there’s a good chance its dignity could even be seen from town.

…This guy just stirs up trouble.

“Well then, Anri-sama. Please have a look at the completed statue,” said the Pope in
gorgeous priests clothes, as he gripped the corner of the cloth with one hand.

The reason I was called out here today was because he wanted me to be the first to
see it finished.

To be honest, I get the feeling that it should be the divine “me” that was called out here,
but I guess I’m here as the representative since it would be insane to call out a god.

Really, I wanted to run, but since I owed him a favour for helping me with the house, I
really couldn’t refuse. That’s why, unwilling though I was, I forced myself to come.

“Now then, I shall unveil the cloth! This is the moment that the world will fall on its
knees to the glory of our god’s divine form!”

Nobody is kneeling to anything.

I couldn’t help but comment in my mind, but the Pope proudly unveiled it all the same.
The white cloth fluttered in the air and exposed the giant statue to the light of day.
On a pedestal of about a metre tall stood a collossal bronze figure.

The form of the deity worshipped in this nation――in other words, me――stood as a
massive bronze statue, reproduced so faithfully that an observer could see glimpses
of the obsession that went into its creation.

The figure was wearing the same black death rose dress that I was still wearing, and
it was so realistic to behold that it seemed like not even a crease had been overlooked.

…And it was extremely embarrassing. Thank goodness I wore a mask.

“How is it, Anri-sama?”

I found the Pope staring my way with sparkling eyes.

I know that he really wants to know. After all, he’s the one who came up with the thing.
But his enthusiasm is really troubling.

I could feel my face cramping up, but at the very least I couldn’t find fault with the
statue itself.

It was actually so flawless that I found myself wishing he would direct his talents
somewhere less useless.

What’s worse was that he was managing the country properly, so it made it all the
harder to complain about this.

But well, since it really was well done, I decided to give him a reply… or so I was
thinking, when I suddenly noticed one problem.

“? Anri-sama? Is something the matter?”

“There’s something I wanna check.”

“?”

The Pope stared at me in confusion, but I ignored him and approached the statue.

What I wanted to check was none other than the dress that this statue, this Evil God
Statue, was wearing. Ah, but I don’t mean that the dress itself looked wrong.
The problem went the other way.

I was worried because it was so similar to my real one.

The black death rose dress that I was wearing was sleeveless and jet black, with a rose
pattern at its breast.

It was originally a normal dress, but my divine protection dyed it black.

Naturally its defensive power and resistances increased by shocking amounts too, but
there was one last thing that changed about it.

What was dangerous about it, was the design.

There was a pretty deep slit cut into the skirt portion of the dress, and you could see
my legs peeping through it. If I wasn’t careful, you’d get a shot of my panties too.

And because of that same divine protection, even my underwear had changed to
something dangerous.

So dangerous that parts underwear were made to cover were laid bare instead.
Definitely not something I could ever let people see.

And so, you can see what I was worried about.

The dress was perfectly replicated, and the slit was alive and well.

Since it’s a statue I’m not really sure if it counts as showing skin, but the point was that
you could definitely see its legs.

Well, that much could still be considered tame.

I mean, it’s not as tame as I’d like, but let’s leave that for now.

The real problem was what lay above it.

It can’t be that he actually replicated even my underwear, right? If he did, the problem
would change to how on earth he saw it, but anyway, the point is, looking at the way
the statue was made, you would expect the underwear to be done too.
Feeling equal parts anxiety and curiosity, I walked up to its feet and looked right up.

Looking up at it like this really drove in how huge it was.

Because of how big just everything about it was, you could even climb in through the
slit.

Uh, no? I won’t though.

Only, even if you didn’t climb in, as long as you stood right next to it, it was a simply
matter to peer in.

…Uwah.

What filled my vision as I looked upwards was a completely realistic upskirt. And
although they were different to what I had on, the panties were still incredibly risque.

What on earth was he thinking when he decided to have the Evil God Statue wear
these? I honestly wanted to question “Why! Why! Why!” at him for an hour.

But well, it was obvious that whatever answer he gave would just confuse me more,
so I decided I didn’t want to ask after all.

But wow, there weren’t any people here right now, so it was all well and good, but did
this mean heaps of people were going to see this?

That was a bit of a… or rather, a huge embarrassment.

I mean, it was just a statue so it wasn’t like they were actually looking up my skirt.

I knew that.

I knew that, but it was just so realistic that it felt like my upskirt was being displayed
to the world.

“Is there anything wrong with it?”

“……”

I couldn’t help but stare when he asked me that again.

But as usual, he showed no signs of flinching from my mystic eyes. Not only that, he
didn’t even seem to question my resentful gaze, and simply tilted his head in
confusion.

Damned pervert.

But well, even if I call him that, he didn’t see me as a woman at all.

It’s kinda rough to say this about myself, but I already knew that I had turned into a
being way beyond that to him.

You could say that the way he saw me was as safe as things got.

But that just made it completely puzzling that he would choose such a thing. It was a
bit scary to ask, but I couldn’t help myself.

“Why, did you choose this kind of underwear?”

“Huh? Underwear… you ask?”

I asked him without beating around the bush, and after giving me a blank look, he
replied,

“Naturally I could not ask you to model for it yourself, Anri-sama…”

Well yeah. Modelling is a pain, and even if I did do it, there’s no way I’d let you peek up
my skirt.

“And so because it could not be helped, I consulted your esteemed friend, Leonora-
sama, on what kind of design would be best.”

LEONORAAAAAAAAAAAAA!?

What on earth have you done.

No, I mean, it’s true that my underwear is outrageous, and she knows that too. So well,
maybe you could say that she was already picking a modest design for me, but to begin
with it’s not like I wear these types of things because I want to, and she should know
that too!
Could it be that this is revenge because I forgot to dispel the cursed Tena doll…?

Ah, I mean, well, I do feel sorry about that, but…

“Is there some problem about the design of the underwear?”

“…It’s embarrassing to have people see.”

“Hah…”

I meant to object, but considering his half-hearted reply, I wasn’t sure if I got the point
across.

“It is my humble opinion that there is nothing to be embarrassed about at all, but may
I ask what the problem is?”

Considering his serious expression, apparently he wasn’t kidding.

I guess he really didn’t see me as a woman.

But if I didn’t make myself extremely clear, statue or not, there was a good chance that
I was going to suffer the torture of having a giant upskirt view of me displayed to the
masses.

But it was already completed, so it would probably be difficult to close up the slit, or
build a more modest statue.

So at the very least, I wanted to avoid people peeking in from up close.

“I don’t want people too close to it.”

“!? I see. You certainly are an esteemed personage. It would not do to have people come
too close.”

That wasn’t exactly what I meant, but well, good enough.

“Build a fence around the thing, and please don’t let people near its feet.”

“I understand. I shall immediately set out to do so.”

“Please.”

With that, the Pope bowed reverently to me, before hurriedly running off somewhere.

Anyway, with a fence in place, at least they wouldn’t be looking straight up at it. I guess
that’s good enough.

But hm, since I may as well, perhaps I should make sure he builds it right.
-clang clang clang-

The sound of nails being hammered, rang out through the vicinity.

Horizontal poles were being affixed atop stakes that stood at even intervals.

It was the fence being built around the Evil God Statue.

“Heeey! Bring that stake to your right a bit more.”

“Here?”

“That’s left.”

“So you mean your right!?”

I’m watching over the construction of the fence from where I’m sitting at the feet of
the Evil God Statue.

I just thought that I should make sure everything goes right.

At first I was sitting on the pedestal it stood on, but it was a little bit too high for my
feet to reach the ground, so I moved here instead.

Sitting on its toes brings me to just the right height for my feet to touch the pedestal.

To be honest, I think I should be helping out with something, but I would just be
underestimating it and getting in the way. Not only that, the Pope told me to just sit
and watch too, so that’s why I’m contenting myself to observation.

Yup. Observation.

I’m definitely not just spacing out, okay?

Although I’m really just sitting here, not even saying anything.

Anyway, with this fence in place, at least people won’t be able to look up its skirt. Since
that’s the case, I’ll just bear with people praying to it.

To be honest, it’s still really embarrassing, which is why I didn’t want it built in the
first place, but there’s not much I can do about it now short of destroying it.

“Phew. I guess we’re about ninety percent done?”

“Sounds about right. Just a little more to go.”

“Alright. Let’s finish the last bit in one go.”

“Yeah.”

But man. What great weather.

The sunlight is warm. There’s a gentle breeze. It’s just all so nice that I’m getting kinda
sleep-… Whoa, not good, not good. I almost dozed off.

Even if I’m not doing anything, it’d still be rude to sleep in front of people labouring
away.

But telling me not to take an afternoon nap on such a nice day feels basically like
torture.

Listening to the rhythmic hammering made me sleepy again.

And a voice began to whisper in my head that nobody would know even if I slept with
this mask on.

A vicious battle between willpower and sleepiness unfolded in my mind.

[Evil God Statue has been granted divine protection.]

!?

The sudden voice caused me to awaken with a start.

…Oh crap… I’ve really done it now…

Because of the time that passed as I slept, apparently I went and invoked my divine
enchantment skill.

When I looked up, I found a dark cloud enveloping the giant statue.

I decided to evacuate from my position before the darkness reached its feet too.

“? Oi, what the heck is…?”

“Mn? Wha-, oi, oi.”

“There’s something black around the statue of Anri-sama…”

“What the heck is…?”

Perhaps they noticed something was wrong because the labourers all stopped their
work to look up.

And while all of them gazed at the statue, the shadow began to fade away.

And when it vanished, what remained was the same Evil God Statue as before. The
only difference was that it was now jet black.

And also, looking carefully, there was now an “S” shape carved into its forehead, just
like on Tena’s head.

But well, there didn’t seem to be anything too different?

No, no, I can’t let my guard down.

Considering my past experiences with this skill, it wouldn’t be strange even if it had
some new effect of spreading miasma, or scaring people witless just by looking at it.

After I came to that conclusion, I turned to look at the workers.

But although they were all standing still, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with
them.
Was it just a needless worry?… Just as I breathed a sigh of relief, my vision suddenly
went dark.

“……?”

But when I looked more carefully, the area a bit further away was sunny as usual.

“……???”

Wondering what was up, I looked up again to find a giant clump of metal slowly…
SWINGING TOWARDS ME!? UWAH!?

Diving to the side in panic, I managed to escape the clump by a hair’s breadth.

No sooner had I done so, that metal lump… or rather, the Evil God Statue’s right foot,
came rumbling down on the pedestal. It happened so violently that cracks ran through
it like a spiderweb.

Oh crap, oh crap. I almost got turned into a pancake.

But the situation didn’t end there.

This time it was the left leg that rose up, and stepped down onto the ground itself. The
whole thing was so heavy that even the metal pedestal was cracked, so this time the
foot sank into the ground and caused a tremor to spread beneath our feet.

“……You’re kidding.”

With my butt still on the pedestal, I looked up in a daze at the giant me statue and
finally understood what was going on.

That massive Evil God Statue (E.G.S.) had started to walk.

The situation had far exceeded just a statue that caused fear or miasma. What was
happening was just way too insane.

But unfortunately it didn’t stop at just two steps, and continued walking ahead.

“R-, RUN FOR IT!”

“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?”

“JUST RUN! YOU’LL GET SQUASHED!”

“UWAAHHHHHHHH!?”

I’m not sure if they understood what was happening, but the frozen workers all
dashed away madly.

Only a few seconds later, one corner of the fence had been crushed flat by the E.G.S…

Having said that though, it didn’t seem to be doing it on purpose, and all this was
probably just a result of it trying to move forward.

The reason I almost got crushed earlier was probably just because I was standing on
the pedestal.

As for how on earth it was moving, I still had no idea. The only visible change was its
colour, so it shouldn’t have had any joints.

But that wasn’t even my biggest concern.

The biggest concern was obviously that a massive statue the height of a five story
temple was walking about.

And walking without stopping at all.

At this rate, this thing was going to walk right out of the country. And I couldn’t even
imagine much trouble I’d be in if that happened.

But I didn’t have any way to stop it either.

“OOH!? Anri-sama! Where are you going!?”

Nowhere, okay?

To begin with, that’s not even me.

I wanted to hit this idiot Pope over the head after he started screaming nonsense at
the statue, but I endured the urge and walked up to him to tug at his sleeve.
“Anri-sama?”

He turned around and then tilted his head in confusion.

But this wasn’t the time to nitpick at details.

I cut straight to the point.

“Please have somebody chase after that statue.”

“Understood.”

In order to form a plan to stop it later, I need to know where it’s going, and what it’s
going to do.

If we lose track of where it is, it’s going to become far harder to deal with it.

Although the Pope had been excited by the moving E.G.S., my serious tone caused him
to gasp and change his attitude.

It seems that he understood that I was panicked.

And in order to determine its destination, he quickly had the people around prepare
to chase after it.

“I have sent a number of people to chase after the Divine Statue, so I expect a report
will come to us shortly. Please stay in the Temple, Anri-sama.”

“Thanks.”

But although I thanked him, I continued to stare anxiously at the E.G.S., which had now
gotten so far away that only the head remained visible.

What’s going to happen…

And although I wanted to hold my head in terror at how dark my future was looking,
all I could do was continue to watch as it left.
Three days had passed since the Evil God Statue had begun its rampage.

In that time a great many nations had fallen into pandemonium about it. After all, the
thing was the size of the damned temple, and it was running about doing whatever it
liked.

If you think about it from the perspective of civilians without context, it’s little wonder
they’d be frightened out of their minds.

Actually I’m pretty sure you’d be frightened even with the context.

[It just trampled down the castle ramparts in a kingdom to the east!]

The Pope was coordinating in the third floor of the Evil God Temple, receiving
information from countless subordinates.

Sitting in the same room, each time a bit of info came in I shrank further into my seat.

In the centre of the large room was a fittingly large table. On top of it was a map of the
world, centred on the Thearchy. We actually were kind of in the centre of the world
though.

Various notes about the movements of the Evil God Statue were filled in on top of it.
According to the information, the Statue was heading north-east from our country.

As for the report I heard earlier, thankfully it had just grazed the castle. The only
serious damage was to the ramparts.

I let out a sigh of relief for the lack of casualties.

[It just passed through the mountains to the north!]

Apparently it had changed directions, and had made some sort of arc, mowing down
all of the mountain towns in its wake, but again there weren’t casualties. I wasn’t sure
if I was supposed to feel thankful or not. At the very least though, I was feeling relieved
that it was moving away from population centres.

It wasn’t clear if the lack of casualties was intentional on its part or if it was simply all
a big coincidence, but what was clear was that we had to stop it before anything
serious did happen.

[The Holy Statue is moving towards the Demon Territory!]

…Oh boy.

If you ignored the size, the statue was the spitting image of me. Meaning that if you
knew who I was, and then you saw that damned statue, even an idiot would realise
that I was somehow involved.

And the Demon Territory had plenty of people who knew me. If they were to see the
statue…

Then, just as I expected, a black light suddenly flashed before my eyes, with a visual in
the middle.

Somebody had contacted me through a communications magic channel.

Expecting what was to come next, I immediately clamped my hands on both my ears.

“Anri-sama?”

Tena and the other people in the room looked at me in confusion. Privately, I thought
that if they had the time to look at me then it would be better spent blocking their ears
as well.

[OOOOOOOOOOOOIIIIIIIIIIIII!]

roared the voice from the transmission.

A number of people crouched down with their ears covered as the voice seemed to
shake the room. Thankfully I had the sense to minimise the damage.

The blurry visual began to come into focus. Sitting there was just who I expected. A
friend who had once lived in this country with us, and was now living in the Demon
Territory, Leonora.

Who would have thought we’d be seeing each other so soon after she left.

[I bet that statue was your doing, wasn’t it! What the hell are you even doing!?]

It couldn’t be helped that she realised. She had already known we were building a
bronze statue, and that one in her country right now was obviously a statue of me, so.

And well, the one who enchanted the statue was obviously me too, so she had pretty
much nailed it.

Still, I didn’t want her to think this was a weird plot or anything.

“Yes, I am the cause, but I didn’t mean it. Nobody could have seen this coming,” I made
sure to emphasise, and then looked her straight in the eyes.

It felt like it had been a while since we had last looked at each other like this. It was
only possible this time because my eyes didn’t have an affect on her through the
screen.

We continued to stare at each other for a while, but she seemed to believe me after a
while. She knew the kind of person I was, after all, and that it wasn’t my intention.

Having said that though, not being my intention meant that it wasn’t moving according
to my intentions.

Asking me to stop it was pointless.

Leonora let out a sigh as she considered the trouble her future held.

“How bad is it over there?”

[Thankfully, no damage to the castle and towns. It trampled some nests which sent
monsters beyond their habitats, but things calmed down. The problem is…]

Problem?

I unconsciously held my breath as I waited for her to continue.

[With a statue of that size loitering around, it’s sure to catch attention. My entire
country has been sent into a panic.]

I’m really sorry about that.

[They came to wake me just as I was going to bed. Since then I’ve been putting out
fires all over.]

Looking carefully, she had bags under her eyes.

If they had gone to get her just as she was about to head to sleep, then she hadn’t slept
at all.

I was sorry about that.

Worse yet, I had actually been sleeping just fine these days, reasoning to myself that I
needed to be at my best to respond to emergencies.

[Well? Are you going to tell me how this happened?]

I began to tell her about the events leading up to it.

The Evil God Statue had just been completed, and the Pope showed it to me.

I realised that if you looked up from the foot of the statue, something family-unfriendly
could be seen, which is why I panicked and quickly ordered them to build a fence at
the base.

Since I was the one who ordered this, I decided to sit around and supervise, which is
when I accidentally blessed it with divine protection. And that’s when it began to walk.

As I was telling the story, I had this odd feeling that Leonora was completely
unimpressed with me, but surely it was just my imagination.

Looking back after recounting it, I once again reaffirmed that there was absolutely no
way I could have seen this coming. Nobody could have.

“Nobody could have seen this coming.”

[Just… what… part!]

She got mad at me.

[All well and good if you just want to build a fence, but how exactly was enchanting a
giant statue completely unavoidable!]

My excuse didn’t work on Leonora. She knew me too well.

In my defence though, the sunlight was just so nice and warm, so in a sense falling
asleep there was unavoidable.

I actually blamed the sun for all this.

[You’re thinking something stupid again.]

Awfully sharp for the meathead of our group.

“What are you talking about? Also if you know which way it’s heading, tell me.”

Maybe the change in topic wasn’t as natural as it could have been, but I honestly did
need to know.

Where the Evil God Statue was heading next was a very serious concern.

I guess she agreed because her expression turned serious.

[The Statue was coming in from our north-east. It changed directions to cut right
through the middle of our territory. We haven’t received news on its latest location,
but I suspect that it’s a little north of the Demon Territory’s centre. If I’m right, then
by this time tomorrow it will have reached the Human Territories. Actually, it’ll
probably be back in your Thearchy.]

So basically it’s been cutting an oval in an anti-clockwise direction in the northern part
of the continent.

I was a little amazed at how fast it was going, but then I remembered how big it was.
At that size, it could have been dawdling and it still would have been fast. It had really
long legs.

In any case, if it was really coming back here then that would be my chance. I had to
think of a way to stop it.
[Hanging up for now, if that’s all.]

I guess that was all she wanted to talk about.

Leonora scolded me but she also gave me valuable information.

“Yeah, got it. Thanks for contacting me. I’d appreciate it if you passed along any new
info. I’ll do the same.”

[Got it.]

With that, she cut the line.

Now then, it was time to sort out what I knew.

And then, just as I was about to stand up to update the map, everything turned dark.

A moment later my vision came back, and I found myself in a completely different
room.

This room was smaller than the previous one, but the ceiling was higher as well.

More importantly, there were three desks in front of me, reminding me uncomfortably
of a courtroom.

I was standing on a dais right in the middle.

Sitting at each of the three desks was a different person; to my right was a blonde
woman in full-plate armour, to my left was a red-cloaked man with long green hair,
and to the front of me was a black-haired girl wearing a dress with the same black rose
motif as mine.

Thanks to the heights of the desks, I ended up looking up at them.

Surrounded by the three of them looking down at me, I have to admit, it was not a
place I’d like to be.

“………”
“………”

“………”

“………”

The four of us maintained a tense silence as we stared.

After a while, it was the girl who spoke first.

“We now begin the internal investigation.”

The hearing.

It is where the beings in the organization, who do injustice or commit big crimes, are
called and interrogated.

There, the person concerned is questioned and is judged, considering everything.

However, it is of significance only inside the organization and to the beings within the
organization and can be said to be unrelated to others.

And related to that, at best, I am only enlisted on the adventurer’s guild in this world
and am unrelated to all the other organizations. Thus, there is no reason for me to
undergo a hearing—

—But, I understood the moment I got here that the fact was that such a sensible
objection was meaningless over here.

In front, on the right, sat the Light God, the blonde-haired woman, Sophia. And on the
left, sat the Dark God, the long, light-green-haired man, Amber. And in the center, sat
a young lady, the Evil God Anri… they are the three Gods who manage this world.

Now that I think about it, in this world, maybe I would be the first one to experience
being questioned by myself.

The girl sitting in the middle — the one appearing to be the person in charge based by
her position — is the ‘Me’ I parted with the other day.

I never thought we would be reunited in this manner.

The invitation was a bit too forceful but, this place was probably the Evil God palace’s
4th or 5h layer.

It is a room I have no memory of so I assume they had it built quite recently.

The subject which I would probably be questioned about, judging from the timing, can
only be one thing.

it is definitely about the Evil God Statue roaming around.

Well, even though I separated, the other party is me and I do know the remaining two.

They probably won’t do anything too harsh.

While I was having such naive thoughts in the back of my mind, the ‘me’ in front of me
said in cold voice,

“Seiza.” (Seiza: The traditional way of sitting in Japan.)

“Eh?”

Being unable to comprehend the meaning of the words spoken to me, I ended up
tilting my head a bit in confusion.

The divine ‘me’ kept glaring at me with disgusted eyes and said, once again,

“……Seiza.”

“………”

“……Seiza.”

Feeling that the conversation would lead nowhere if I did not, and a part of me being
somewhat overwhelmed, I sat down in seiza having no other choice.

The wooden platform hurt my legs.

Even still, I wonder why one just has to sit in seiza during the hearing.

To begin with, if the matter is from the present or past, they, the Gods, can use their
power to look for information regarding it, so there should be no need to formally
question me like this.

Therefore, having thought all that, I wondered, once again, why I was called here and
realized that the situation was moving forward as if they were going to start lecturing
me. The thought made me drip cold sweat.

“I am sure you are aware of why you are called, correct?”

“Seriously, making us do all the bothersome stuff.”

Sophia and Amber started talking at once, not trying to conceal their irritation at all.

Facing them, I nodded, and said,

“I am aware. It is about the Evil God Statue, right?”

“Yes, exactly.”

“The demons are filing a lot of complaints as well, you see.”

“Why did you do something like that?”

For a moment there, I had thought ‘It would be fine if you just check with Information
Inspection but I soon realized.

The information they could catch from the inspection is most likely only the fact that
I had bestowed my divine protection on the statue and not the intention or thought
process behind it.

If that’s the case, then I shall explain to their heart’s content.

And, I want them to understand that it was not on purpose.

And so, I started narrating the whole sequence of events which led to how I granted
my divine protection to it, just like I had done to Leonara.

After going through all the details in general, Sophia and Amber were at their wit’s
end.

“My head hurts.”

“Mine too.”
It is amazing that the Gods have started to feel headaches too. It won’t be an
exaggeration to say that it is a major achievement.

On the other hand, the ‘me’ had agreed and was nodding.

“You can’t help afternoon naps, after all.”

“—-There’s no way it is like that!”

“—-Don’t kid around!”

“Oohh?”

I had also agreed completely but it looked like the other two did not.

“Well, let’s leave it at this for now.”

“Right. I have quite a lot of things I still want to say but the containment of the situation
comes first.”

“……Hoh.”

Sophia and Amber let it go for now, which clearly made ‘me’ make an expression of
relief.

I wondered if they were meant the roaming Evil God Statue by the situation.

If they, the Gods, were to do something about the situation then it would come under
control quite easily.

“You’re making a face as if you’re unrelated but you will be the one doing it.”

“Ha?”

In reaction to Amber’s words towards me, which I could not comprehend, I ended up
leaking a stupid voice.

“It is your failure so it is only natural for you to clean up the mess.”

“That might be true but…”

It is true that I was the one who ended up messing up.

“But, aren’t your respective races filing complaints?”

Just like Amber had said that the demons are filing complaints, I am sure the humans
are also probably doing that same. Surely they won’t ignore that.

“Well, yes. And so, we will lend you some personnel.”

“Right. I should also arrange for that.”

Well, it sure feels like they really do not plan on interfering directly themselves.

They will lend me some help but it seems like I will have to do something about the
core of the problem.

I guess they don’t really have to go so far for situations like this.

“That reminds me, I wanted to ask something…”

“?”

“Nn?”

“What is it?”

After having finished the hearing, we changed places and had idle talk, encircling a
table while having tea.

Amongst that, I remembered that I had something I wanted to ask them.

“This might be a bit late but, do you guys know anything about the mark on Tena’s
forehead?”

As I was asking, I drew the symbol with my finger on the table.

It was like an ‘S’ but horizontal.

“Ah, the kin mark.”

“Kin mark?”

Feeling not used to the words coming out from Amber’s mouth, I asked another
question.

“Just like normal letters, they are given to the ones in a kin. The shape differs as the
protection of the masters differ.”

Sophia explained it but I still did not quite understand properly.

If that’s the case then it would not be weird of Imperial Death to have a symbol too but
I do not recall him having one.

As I asked them that, they agreed and said,

“I did say it is a symbol given to a kin but not all the members are given one.”

“Mostly the ones who are the first member or the ones who have a strong bond.

If I were to explain it briefly, I’d say it is something like a chief or head of the kin.”

I see, so Tena is one of my head retainers then.

In terms of strength, Imperial Death is overwhelmingly higher but in terms of

closeness, I guess it would not be weird for Tena to be the head.

But, if that’s the case then I wonder why it is also attached to the Evil God Statue.

“The same mark was on the Evil God Statue, though…”

“What?!”

“What did you say?!”

“Oho?”

Sophia and Amber reacted quite fervently to what I said but it looked like the divine
me wasn’t really interested.
“That thing– so it was your retainer.”

“It isn’t even a living thing so how is it a retainer in the first place?”

That, I do not know. I can’t do anything about something which has already happened.

“From what you just said earlier, isn’t it something which only gets attached to one
person?”

“Is it because you separated from me?”

“Probably. As she went from being a God to a human, maybe it got reset?”

Certainly, if there was something happening which winds back race, it would not be
odd for the ‘First retainer’ to be winded back too.

If that is so, then that Evil God Statue is the current ‘me’s first retainer.

“Well, if that is so, then you should be the one to do something about it even more.”

“That’s right. If it’s your retainer, you should take the responsibility.”

“…I understand.”

The conversation ended sort of in my defeat but it is true that I do have faults so I can’t
really say anything.

After having conversed about that, I suddenly realized and muttered,

“Status.”

<Status>
Name: Anri
Race: Human Race
Sex: Female
Age: 18
Job: Mage
Level: 1
Title: Evil Person of Fearful Trembling, Dungeon Master, Weirdo
Mana: 3031504
Skills:
– Evil God Aura (Lv.5)
– Mystic Eyes of Wicked Authority (Lv.5)
– Divine Enchantment (Lv.7)
– Abnormal Status Resistance (Lv.6)
– Darkness Magic (Lv.6)
– Item Box (Lv.4)
– Dungeon Create (Lv.7)
Equipment:
– Fan of Calamity
– Dress of the Black Death Rose
– Babydoll of Depravity
– Scanties of the Succubus
– Pumps of Darkness
Kin:
– Evil God Statue of Fearful Trembling [NEW]
– Tena

Ah, as I thought.

Evil God Statue has been added as a kin.

I had predicted this from the conversation we just had but this just supports that.

I further concentrated on the Kin: – Evil God Statue of Fearful Trembling.

Evil God Statue of Fearful Trembling

An enormous statue which imitates the Evil God Anri’s appearance.

As it was made so delicately and elaborately, a soul formed in it and it started moving.

It does not have any unique abilities but has the enormous body and the absurd strength
which comes along with it. Furthermore, it possesses intellect which would seem very
unlikely, judging from its non-living structure.

Once the Evil God Statue is activated, it can not be stopped by the hands of men and can
lead to a national crisis.

In Tena’s case, her status was displayed but as the Evil God Statue is not a living thing,
the explanation note was displayed instead.

However, what I wanted to know was if it had any special skills or abilities, so knowing
this much would be enough.

I do feel that ‘As it was made so delicately and elaborately, a soul formed in it and it
started moving.’ is just too vague but, nobody really cares at this point.

Being a little dumbfounded myself, I excused myself from the three Gods’ tea party.
Having come out of the Hearing alive, I let my legs carry me back to the third level of
the temple, to the meeting room I had been in until my impromptu summoning.

Just as I had though, that room had been created as the fourth level to the Evil God
temple. I should make it as soon as I went down the stairs.

I wasn’t sure what kind of method had been used to transport me to that room in the
first place, but it wasn’t hard to assume that I had been subject to some form of
authority.

Still, it must have seemed to the people there as if I had been erased from existence. It
must have seemed the same way to Tena. Once I came back, they were sure to be
surprised…

“Anri-sama?! Thank goodness, you’re alright… You disappeared into thin air and left
me wondering why you’d left…”

Once I had shown myself, Tena came and engulfed me in her embrace with wet eyes.

I made her worry, did I? Sorry…

It was their fault, all of it.

“Sorry, I just got a call from up top.”

“Up… top…?”

My finger pointed upward to consolidate my answer, and Tena’s eyes followed the
indicated path, tilting her head to the side once her eyes rested on the ceiling.

“They’re lending out a few heads to stop the Idols. We can start planning our
countermeasures when we’re all gathered.”
“Um, alright. I understand.”

Tena really didn’t seem as if she did, but she had accepted my explanation nonetheless.

“Also, just what kind of people will be coming?”

“Well, that’s…”

Now that I thought of it, I never asked. I had no idea. Not even how many would come.

Both Sophia and Anbar had gone to people over, so it was safe to assume that two
newcomers would arrive, at the very least. Was that all of them, though?

I couldn’t afford to bide my time, either. Just when would they get here?

I greatly doubted that they had much time to spare themselves, so I’d like to have
thought that they wouldn’t be that late.

“Excuse me…”

While I was immersed in my own thoughts, a somewhat reserved voice called out to
me. I turned to the source, and was met with the sight of a young girl with light purple
hair.

It was Orlain, that carpenter’s apprentice…

“That’s no it! I’m not an apprentice carpenter! I’m a hero, alright?! I’m the Hero of the
Holy Bow, Orlain!”

Damn it. I’d thought out loud.

Orlain showed her resentment to being called an apprentice by raising her voice and
letting her face go red.

Still, since she didn’t have the proof of her position as a hero – the Holy Bow – on her
person, coupled with the fact that I had seen her practice the art of carpentry, I didn’t
think that my initial impression was too far off the mark.

Then again, I was the one who had the Holy Bow…
All that aside, the heroes – Orlain included – were supposedly assisting in the
construction of my mansion. But why was she here? Depending on the situation, I may
have to cut her pay…

“Why are you here, then? Playing hooky?”

Orlain shook her head at my inquiry.

“Nothing like that. The Holy Goddess told me to come here.”

Sophia told her to come here? Then that meant…

“You really are playing hooky, aren’t you?”

“Why’s that the first thing you come up with?!”

Well… I was her employer, after all. If some other person – well, divine creature, but I
digress – had given her reason to abandon her post, then what else could it be?

But I supposed that the girl, hero of justice that she was, could do little to go against
Sophia’s command. Timing and all considered, she was in all likelihood one of the new
members of the Evil God Countermeasure team that had just come in conversation.
There was little reason to hold it against her, then.

Her reactions were hilarious, though. Just a but more teasing would be fine…

“You’ve gone and accepted the orders of someone not your employer. You left your
position; that’s just skipping out on work. It doesn’t matter if the Goddess of Light
herself ordered you to do that.”

“Eh? Well, that’s…”

“I could have called for you and given the Holy Bow back, but if you left your work on
the side of the road, then…”

“T-That’s not fair…!”

Orlain went pale at my words. Thinking that she may never get the bow back, the girl
did her best to find a justification, already half panicked.
“P-Please, give me a second! I’ll get back to work! So please, give back the Holy…”

She waved about in a panic, flipping herself around and trying to depart.

I was taken aback a little, admittedly. I may have laid it on a little too much. She’d really
leave if I didn’t pull myself together.

“Wai –”

“I’ll be right back – BUGYAH?!!!”

Not even perceiving my flustered voice, Orlain broke out into a run and headed
outside, but never made it. An encampment created from magic emerged in the sky
above her and something fell down, almost flattening her in the process.

“W-What was that?! What just happened?!”

What had crushed Orlain with their rear wasn’t a thing, but a person. Her voice and
features seemed rather familiar, too… It was Leonora, who had gone her separate ways
in demon realms not too long ago.

As if chasing her, the cursed Tena doll jumped onto her head.

While she had gone her ways a while ago, we had still been communication quite
recently. It really didn’t amount to much of tearful reunion.

“Anri…? Why are you in the Demon Realms…?”

Leonora had asked me directly, her eyes finally reaching me as they searched their
surroundings. It didn’t look as if she realised that she was in the Holy Lands.

“Short time no see, Leonora. And you’re not in the Demon Realms anymore; this is a
temple in the Holy Lands.”

“Huh?”

Her mind was still on its way to catch up with what I had told her, and her mouth was
wide open.

“Well, for now…”

“For now…?”

I pointed my finger below her as she tilted her head and repeated my words.

“Don’t you think you should move? For her sake?”

“Huh? What the…?!”

Finally noticing that she had crushed Orlain – whose eyes were still spinning – beneath
her, she grew flustered and stood, immediately rushing to bring her back to health.

“That was awful…”

Only a few minutes later, Orlain had somehow managed to come back to us thanks to
Leonora’s efforts. Sure, she was still clutching her hips and crying, but she had
recovered. Mostly.

“Yeah, um… Sorry about that.”

“Huh? Oh, no, it’s not your fault…”

Leonora tried to apologise by bowing her head, but Orlain stopped her short. True,
Leonora had been dropped off here against her own will, so she really didn’t hold any
of the blame.

Whoever dropped her in the first place was at fault, clearly. And there was more of a
good chance of it being Anbar.

In other words, just as Sophia had sent Orlain, Anbar had sent Leonora.

It was a pretty lazy method of sending someone over, though…

But if I were to be honest, I’d have to admit that I was grateful that they had decide to
send them along. It was much easier to handle someone with a more familiar
disposition.

“Leonora, do you know what’s going on?”

“No, I was dropped here without warning… I can’t tell left from right.”

They didn’t even bother to explain. Ever heard of intentional negligence?

Expecting an explanation from the slothful Anbar might have been too much to ask.

With no other options, I opted to explain it all myself. It was a good thing that Leonora
was already aware of the details concerning the Evil God Idols, that didn’t put too
much of a demand on detail.

I explained that we had been tasked by the Three Gods to stop, that they had sent their
chosen for this task, and that she herself was one of those people.

“I see. Then there’s no reason why I shouldn’t help, even less so if the Dark Goddess
has ordered me to. Although… I do wish she would have given me a warning, at the
very least…”

“So that’s what’s going on, huh…”

While Leonora gave a consenting nod, Orlain, who had been listening to our
conversation at her side, nodded as well. Did she even get an explanation from Sophia?

“Did the Goddes of Light fill you in?”

“Huh? Oh, no. The Holy Goddess only told me to come here, and that I was supposed
to ask how things would go on from there…”

Et tu?

In any case, if Leonora and Orlain were chosen sent along, then we’d have to make do
with them to capture the Evil God Idols. Once again, I turned to them and spoke up.

“I know that the road may be tough, but please, lend me your stre –”

“Anri-sama!”

Another voice from beside me cuts my own short. I turned to be greeted with the sight
of a certain blonde youth, the Jolly Pope himself.

“What?”
“Just as Anri-sama has ordered, I shall assist Anri-sama from here on out!”

“…?”

What was he going on about?

“Please, command me as you see fit.”

Well, I couldn’t say I knew what he was on about, but as long as he was willing to help…

“Tena.”

“Yes, Anri-sama?”

“Make us some tea, please.”

“Right away.”
“Alright then, let’s get this counterplan meeting started.”

“Right, got it.”

“Okay.”

“You can count on me.”

“Um… Should I really be here?”

Once I’d made my proclamation, each and every one of the counterplan members
responded with a varied volley of answers. And since it was absolutely no
exaggeration to call Tena the voice of reason for this place, yes. She really had to be
here.

“But before we can begin…”

“…?”

“Let’s start by introducing ourselves.”

Since the members that had come to gather here were mostly made up of individuals
that weren’t all too familiar with one another, I really wanted to start it all off by having
each of them have a solid grasp of the others’ profiles.

“We’ll take turns, clockwise. Each of you can tell us their name and position, then you
can tell the others which weapons or skills you specialise in.”

Having said my part, I turned the purple-haired girl sitting to my left at the round
table. I stared at her for a bit.

“O-Oh, do I start?! Well, um… My name’s Orlaine. The Holy Goddess gave me the Holy
Bow, and I’ve been a Hero ever since. I’ve been directly ordered by the Holy Goddess
to cooperate with you all. I’m pretty skilled at marksmanship, and I can use Light
Magic.”

“Currently, she’s without her bow. She’s working as a carpenter’s apprentice and is
considering a change in occupation.”

With the apparent lack of information, I simply felt the need to add something from
the sidelines.

“No I’m not! I’d never change jobs! And that reminds me, would you please give me
back my bow?! For this plan, at least?! I can’t really fight without it, you know…”

She had a point. With her bow gone, it would be a stretch to say that she was even at
half her full battle potential. I take the Holy Bow out of the item box. That was when
Orlaine’s line of sight became completely glued to my hands.

When I passed the Holy Bow from my right to my left some times over to verify my
suspicion, I could see Orlaine’s gaze following it intently, moving as it did.

It was a little fun to watch.

“You’re sure you won’t just run away when I give it back?”

“O-Of course I won’t! Anyone who’d call themselves a Hero would never toss a promise
aside once they’ve made it!”

“But you did think about running away just a little bit, right?”

“Just a little bit – No, no that’s not true! I never thought that, ever! Please stop
confusing me!”

Well, the construction work for this mansion wasn’t really a piece of cake. If she
had wanted to run away, then I really wouldn’t have blamed her for it. Well, whichever
the case, the worth her battle skills could bring to the table were a matter of course. I
thought it best to give her back her bow, at least for now.

“Here you go.”

“Aaah, thank you so much!”

The second I held the Holy Bow out to her, she practically snatched it out of my hands
and hugged it close, seeming almost adamant to never let go of it again. It was like
looking at some beast that was hell-bent on protecting its child.

Looking at her like this made the prospect of taking the thing back once the matter
had been settled seem all the more heart-breaking…

Once I’d spent enough time looking over her with warmth creeping into my eyes, I let
my gaze fly to the next person in line.

“I’m next, am I? My name is Leonora Romaliel. I’m the daughter of his Majesty, the
current Demon Lord. I was sent here by the will of the Dark Goddess. I’m skilled at
hand-to-hand combat, as well as Fire Magic and Dark Magic.”

“She’s always holding her favourite doll close, and that earned her the nickname ‘Doll
Princess’.”

I had no doubts that there were at least a few people curious about the doll on her lap,
so I thought I’d be nice enough to add a little to her introduction.

“It’s not my favourite, and I’m most certainly not keeping it close by choice! Which
reminds me… Get it away from me already!”

While I wasn’t sure I could say the same for the ‘divine me’, there was little I myself
could do about it.

“Hold on, are you Mr. Eligore’s daughter?”

Having found a point of interest in her introduction, Orlaine came at her with her own
questions.

“Hm? Yes, that I am… I see. If I recall, you were one of the members that accompanied
either his Majesty or Lenarve when they took up the challenge of capturing a
dungeon.”

“Oh yes, they helped me out a lot back then. Is Mr. Eligore doing alright?”

If my memory wasn’t too far off, Orlaine joined Leonora’s father during the Three Gods
War and helped him take on dungeons for the sake of conquest. While most
circumstances would paint Heroes and Demon Lords as sworn enemies with no love
lost between them, I’d heard that the cultural integration with demons had already
spread plenty of roots. In conclusion, there hadn’t been much animosity, if any at all.

But all those nuances aside, she should probably have been a little more careful with
the way she looked at a certain part of Leonora’s body like a foe of her father’s would.
There was a huge dissonance between this and whatever constituted a calm meeting.

I should have mentioned that Orlaine’s body type was on the slender side. That put
her in the same boat I was in.

“Honestly, he’s doing so well it’s worrying. He just keeps complaining that he never
managed to conquer that dungeon. He’s even entertained the idea of deferring his
position to me just so that he can try to challenge it again. I’m doing my best to rein
him in.”

“A… Ahaha…”

Uncle, I really didn’t expect you to be this much of a sore loser.

Still, Leonora’s presence among us meant that there wasn’t anyone left to keep him in
check. If she didn’t hurry on back, then it might just have been possible that his
abdication of the throne to her would become certain the minuted she got back home.

I briefly played with the idea of telling Leonora just what her absence entailed, but the
realised that the conquest of the Evil God Idol was much more pressing and needed
our full attention. So I just deliberately swallowed what I had to say, deciding to keep
quiet.

My eyes wandered to the third person in line. The blonde young man clad in he most
luxurious priestly robes responded to my gaze with an understanding nod mingled
with great reverence.

“My name is Harvin, devout servant of the Divine Lady Anri. I am most humbled to
carry the role of Pope to these, the religious lands of Lady Anri the Divine. By her will,
I have been instructed to join you in the fray of battle. I specialise in any form of close
combat that involves staves. Wile I am incapable of using sorcery, I have received Lady
Anri’s divine protection. There is nothing for me to fear.”

Once he had said his piece – amazingly in just a single breath – he decided to affix his
gaze to me. For what reason, I couldn’t say. His eyes glittered and glowed, almost as if
he had high expectations for me.

It could just be that he was expecting me to add something to his introduction, just
like I’d done with Orlaine and Leonora.

Well… Just what should I say…?

“He’s a little reckless sometimes, so be careful.”

Just as I was about to question myself whether this was really enough, the Jolly Pope
gave a happy nod in my direction.

Seriously? He was fine with that?

“U-Um… Mr. Harvin? Did you just say you were the Pope…?”

Having heard his entire introduction, Orlaine couldn’t help but pull a totally
nonplussed expression as she timidly attempted to prod further.

Wait, how’d it go again?

Orlaine had been pushed around a lot by the Jolly Pope… Pardon, I meant to say that
she’d been assigned a carpentry job for the sake of supervision. Did she really have
any questions left to ask him?

“Oh, that’s right. I never did tell you, did I? Indeed, I am none other than the Pope of
the Holy Lands of the Divine Lady, Anri.”

So you never even told them, huh?

Orlaine’s features went beyond stiff. Well, she had just found out that the man she had
been talking to with the utmost casualty was actually the head of state. Surprise was
unavoidable. And besides, it wasn’t exactly easy to grasp that the head of state himself
would be working on the construction of a single mansion. Being left completely in
the dark until someone decided to shed some light was, again, entirely warranted.

While I did feel a twinge of sympathy for her plight, I thought it would be much better
for everyone of them to work out the issues between them on their own terms and
decided not to interfere.
“A-And… This Lady Anri you keep talking about…?”

Orlaine threw yet another question the Pope’s way, her eyes flitting to me every now
and again.

Since she hadn’t been properly clued in just yet, it wasn’t unthinkable for her to
misconstrue what he had said. All the more so when I considered that any kind of
explanation had been cut short when they’d been requested to make this building. It
wouldn’t have been easy to imagine that the deity with the title of an Evil God and I
were, while one and the same, entirely different entities.

Since he had the habit of addressing me the same way he would address my more
divine counterpart, I had to admit that even I tended to become confused.

Well, there was nothing else we could do. It was better for me to follow that up.

“It might be a little hard to understand, since the two of us have the same name… But
he just means that he received the orders of the deity that’s worshipped here.”

“Oh, so that’s what he meant…”

Since she’d taken it well enough, I decided to move on. The fourth member in line is,
of course, the blonde young girl that was my own attendant.

“Oh, right. I’m Tena. I’m Lady Anri’s attendant. I don’t have much experience in
fighting, but Leonora was kind enough to teach me some Dark Magic.”

“She’s been showing signs of changing ‘cliques’.”

“Pardon?”

Despite my supplementation, Tena cocked her head to the side, not even close to
catching on to what I meant. Orlaine, on the other hand, seemed to do just that when
she realised just where I was looking. She proceeded to look at Tena’s bust with
disbelief.

With her astoundingly rapid growth, a sort of backlash from the time her growth had
been halted when she had been an Apostle, it now appeared that she was well on her
way to catching up with Orlaine, despite the latter technically being a few years her
senior.
Well, there was no catching up. Tena most definitely had the bigger chest. She was
nowhere near the same level as Leonora’s own ‘monstrous’ class of endowment, but
the fact that she had much room for development was a threat in and of itself.

What about me, I hear you ask? Don’t bother asking.

“U-Um…?”

“Wha–?! S-Sorry! Nothing, it’s nothing!”

Tena, who may or may not have picked up on the red-hot glare directed her way, spoke
up with a lost tone that was enough to snap Orlaine back to her senses, whereupon
she profusely apologised.

It really seemed that the poor girl had some deep-rooted complexes.

“And finally, there’s me. The chairman to this countermeasure meeting. My name is
Anri. I’m not much good at direct combat either, but I do know how to use Dark Magic.”

Well, the issue wasn’t really that I had no skill in battle. I just never really had the
chance to garner any experience in battle just yet.

“What about your occupation?”

Hmph. Of course they’d zoom in on that one. Even though I’d gone out of my way to
omit it by not saying anything. But now that they had asked, I really wasn’t sure how
to respond. After all, I didn’t really have any sort of official occupation, and whatever
social status I did have was fuzzy at best.

There was no way around it. It was best to answer truthfully.

“…I’m don’t have one.”

The stares of those around me grew warm with pity.

 j

Well, with all the introductions out of the way, it was about time for us to start the
meeting.

On top of the round table we all surrounded, I unfurled a map. On that map was a red
line that sketched out the route the Evil God Idol would take. The line itself stretched
all the way from the central Holy Lands to the far reaches of the continent’s Northwest,
its path forming an ellipse.

“Currently, the Idol is in the Demon Territories. It should head back here from there,
and it’s more than likely that it’ll arrive by tomorrow.”

Paying close attention to my words, the Pope fished a doll about the size of a human
palm from his chest pocket and placed it were the Evil God Idol was thought to be.

…The thought then crossed my mind that I needed to have a word with him later.

For one thing, I needed to ask him just why he’d taken the time to prepare a doll
modelled after me. While I was at it, I’d probably ask just why he could take it out of
his pocket like it was no big deal. I probably had enough questions on my mind to
pester him for the better part of an hour.

“Tomorrow’s our chance. The day it returns. I want to stop the Idol at all costs.”

“Excuse me, may I?”

Leonora was the one who asked for the right to speak, her hand raised slightly.

“What is it, Leonora?”

“Well, on the subject of holding it back… Just how do we plan to do that? Can I just
assume that we’re going to destroy it?”

“That’s…”

“I object! Destroying an Idol of Lady Anri is nothing short of unspeakable!”

Just as I was about to give Leonora her answer, a voice emanating from her left cut me
short.
“We really aren’t in a position to say that, are we?!”

“But, you see…”

A verbal assault broke out between Leonora as she pressed the matter of its
destruction and the Pope, who was vehemently opposed to the idea.

Orlaine’s opinion on the matter appeared to be more in line with Leonora’s, while Tena
just looked as if she was caught in the middle of it all.

That was when I couldn’t shake the feeling that the percentage of muscle-heads in our
group might have been a bit overwhelming.

Leonora was, well, a given. And from what little I’d seen of Orlaine’s mannerisms
during the recent dungeon conquest, she seemed to be the same type. While I wasn’t
all too sure if it was right to consider the Pope’s behaviour to just as meat-headed, he
certainly didn’t seem to bother with more than superficial planning.

Oh no, only Tena was reliable in that regard.

“What about you, Anri?!”

“What do you think, Lady Anri?!”

I really wished they wouldn’t approach me in stereo like that. But anyways, my opinion
on everything was…

“This plan should prioritise capture.”

“Hmph…”

“Oh! Everything I’ expect of you and more, Lady Anri!”

Leonora’s expression was dissatisfied, while the Pope’s was all smiles and sunshine.

“But why? Please don’t tell me that you’re just against destroying the thing.”

“No, that’s not it. There’s a much more simple reason.”

“What kind of… Simple reason?”

Tena was the one to raise the question, her head titled to the side. I gave her a nod and
responded.

“Well, just how were you planning on destroying it?”

With a clump of metal that massive, I strongly doubted that mere mortal hands would
be enough to destroy it. Had it been a simple bronze statue, then there wouldn’t be an
issue. But the fact of the matter was that it had been altered, transfigured into an
unknown metal through the blessings it received.

While there was no certain way of determining its defensive capability, it was logical
enough to assume that it wouldn’t, at the very least, be more brittle than it used to be.

My piece presented, Leonora and Orlaine let out simultaneous groans upon
understanding what I wanted to say.

“Well… I know, why don’t we just borrow that Black Dragon again? The dungeon
boss?”

She had a point. Throwing something huge at a huge enemy wasn’t a bad train of
thought. Unfortunately, it went without saying that it was impossible.

“Rejected. It might have enough power to shatter it to pieces, but just how much land
around them do you think would be burned away?”

Vuni might have been able to use his breath attack from a high altitude and completely
overwhelm the competition, but it was certain that their surroundings would take
immense damage. If we were to consider that the Idol would have endurance as
massive as its size would allow it to, just how much damage was needed was even
harder to picture.

“You have a point there…”

“But won’t that mean that capturing it might be just as difficult?”

I couldn’t help but feel weak, hearing that. It was a strong argument. Capturing an Evil
God Idol that was already hard enough to destroy was a challenge in a league of its
own.

“Capture… Do you mean as in… catching it in a huge pit of sorts?”

Seated beside me, Tena offered her own suggestion. A pit, huh? It was a simple plan,
certainly, but it just might have been the most appropriate.

“As long as we’re running out of time to prepare, there really isn’t much else we can
do.”

“The only problem is if we can even make that sort of hole by tomorrow…”

“Oh, you can just leave that to me. If I assign a troop of followers to the task, I’m sure
they’ll make it in time.”

With the pressing issue of time on our minds, being just a tad forceful by sending out
waves and waves of people might be the only solution. Adding that to our train of
thought, the Pope’s plan of mobilising the followers was our optimal answer to the
issue.

“Please do that. One more thing. If that plan does fail, then we’ll just resort to full-on
destruction.”

“Didn’t we just say how that’d be difficult?”

That much was true, we had just discussed that. But it was always best to have the
second best plan as a backup in case the first went awry, wasn’t it?

“Destroying it completely might be out of the question. But if we can manage to, say,
hurt its legs and slow its movements, we might lessen the damage.”

“I see. That makes sense.”

“Hm, that settles that. So we’re agreed?”

Taking in what I had to say, Leonora turned the Pope, who had until recently been so
strongly against the destruction of the Idol.

“Urgh… If Lady Anri says so, then I suppose we don’t have a choice.”

While my suggestion was little more than a supplementary plan, a backup in case the
first failed, even he had to concede, albeit with a hint of reluctance.

“Alright then. Everyone, make your preparations.”

“Of course.”

“I understand.”

“Just leave it to me.”

“Of course, Lady Anri.”

“Here it comes! The Idol’s coming!”

I raised my head at Tena’s voice. She was right; the shape of the titanic Idol I’d seen
not too long ago was clearly visible. The way it gradually grew in size made it just as
clear that it was drawing closer.

“Everything going smoothly over there?”

My question was directed at Leonora, who was stationed right beside me, indulging in
the view of the Idol just as I was.

The countermeasure we chose to adopt – namely digging a giant hole for it to fall into
– was meant to be a means of driving it into a corner, but the truth of the matter was
likely not quite up to par. After all our target, despite its mobility, wasn’t a simple living
creature – it was an Idol. If we couldn’t even compare this to shooing some beast until
it was cornered and ensnared, we certainly couldn’t say that we were hooking
ourselves into it and spurring it on.

To boil it all down, we were just digging a hole where the Evil God Idol’s route would
move through and waiting for it to draw closer. Naturally, should the Idol decide to
veer off course, then we would have dug the entire pit for no good reason and that
would be the end of that. That made its trajectory all the more vital.

Leonora took some time to mull the situation over, but was eventually able to muster
her confidence. She gave me a nod.

“Yes, it’s going well. If things go on like this, it should definitely pass through the trap
we’ve set.”

That was good to hear. If I’d heard that the thing had gone off course, my mental state
would’ve been drenched with icy sweat.

“I see. Could you do me a favour and tell him that?

“Oh, sure. Got it!”

I asked Orlaine, who was standing right next to me, to go and take up contact with the
Pope, who was still in the middle of taking command, directing the progress of the
trap’s construction. She nodded and ran for the area on the opposing side of the
approaching Idol, to the area where the pit was being dug.

“By the way, Lady Anri… May I ask a question?”

“What is it?”

Tena decided to question me while I was still looking at Orlaine’s retreating figure.

“Let’s say that the Idol does fall into the hole. What do we do then?”

Come to think of it, while we’d already made the decision of capturing it by having it
fall into that pit, we’d left just about every other aspect vague and fuzzy.

Before we could even go further, we had to ask ourselves whether having it fall in
would even constitute as a capture. There was no point if it crawled out of there when
it did fall in.

First of all, no matter how many believers and followers were dispatched to dig the
hole, there was a certain limit to how much could be done overnight. In any case, it
was unlikely they could dig one of a size that would allow the Idol to just slip in
without issue. It could gulp it up to its thighs at best.

If we didn’t have anyone who could utilise Earth Magic, then it was unlikely we could
even get that far.

Using my own body as a reference, it was clear to me that any obstruction that reached
up to my own things wouldn’t be overcome unless I raised my legs by a good portion
or tried to use my arms to lift myself out. Since the Idol only seemed to ever move
forward, I could imagine it being unable to proceed once it was buried up to its thighs.

But I still couldn’t count that as an absolute. It was just as possible that the Idol would,
upon coming into contact with the pit, would just continue moving forward and
destroy it all in the process.

“For now, we’ll just bury it until it can’t get out.”

That was why we had to have it fill up the hole in a way that would prevent it from
escaping. That much should be enough to keep it from moving.

But, since the Idol’s outer appearance was almost a carbon copy of my own, just the
thought of that imagery was enough to make me feel off.

“Right. What do we do after that?”

“I haven’t given it that much thought, but how about stopping it by looking into the
mechanism behind the way it moves…?”

Just what kind of principles did that Idol use to move? The way that clump of metal
could walk forward without any real joints was a mystery beyond me. If we could just
understand that much, we might become able to put a stop to it without too much of
a fuss.

If I was going to be honest, I didn’t have high hopes for that.

“What if we can’t look into it?”

“I think the only thing we can do then is to destroy it.”

My reply to Leonora’s query is immediate. If we were really unable to figure out how
to stop it, then that would be our only option.

“Lady Anri…”

I wondered if the worry etched into Tena’s face was because the Idol looked just like I
did.

To tell the truth, the cold-blooded destruction of something that shared my looks
certainly couldn’t be described as a pleasant notion, but there was little I could do
about that at this point. And besides, I hadn’t put in all that much empathy for the
thing. I’d live.

“Well, you’re not wrong. That really is our only option. That Pope might have a few
things to say about it, though.”

“Then I just have to convince him.”

“Please do that. Also… this place isn’t safe anymore.”

While we’d been busy with our conversation, the Idol had closed a huge gap between
us. It was in a position close enough to make its entire being visible.

Since it was quite likely that we’d all be crushed under its feet, we decided to retreat.

We had to hide close to the hole if we wanted to be sure that the Idol would fall inside.
And in case it didn’t fall in, then we had to make preparations for battle. We’d gone far
out of our way to prepare an ace, but I really didn’t want to use it if we didn’t have to.

Casting one final glance toward the direction of the Idol as it continued to draw closer,
I could see that it was surveying its surroundings while walking at its leisure.

“What?”

Just then, I felt a draft of unease wash over me.

“Lady Anri?”

“Hey, what’s the matter? We have to get going now or we won’t make it.”

“Uh, right.”

Urged on by both Tena and Leonora, I followed after them as we all retreated to the
back, my unease refusing to let up.

The hole we’d prepared was, admittedly, a bit shoddy. Then again, digging a hole that
enormous in a single night and as quickly as possible didn’t offer much leeway. The
followers hadn’t just been up working all night, they had spent the entire night on
heavy work well removed from any city. Having come this far in spite of all that, I was
nothing but thankful to the entire body of believers present.

The top of the pit was covered by countless chopped down trees that had been laid on
their side, and it was incredibly easy to deduce that they were covering an entire pit
with just a single look.

Well, that wasn’t quite true. Anyone the size of the Idol would easily notice, but anyone
the size of a regular human being wouldn’t see much more than trees acting as bridges
over a large ditch.

To be blunt, this trap would only ever fool an enormous Idol that just moved forward
like some sort of automaton.

“Do you think this’ll work?”

Hidden in a thicket close to the pit and waiting for the Idol to fall inside, Orlaine turned
to me and posed a question. There probably wasn’t much sense in hiding from a non-
living entity like the Idol, but it might have been more of a matter of the mood.

“I’ll certainly be anxious if it doesn’t…”

Like I’d mentioned earlier, this trap really fool anyone apart from that Idol with its
robotic movement. To put a different spin on the subject, it would fall for the trap
because it was little more than a mechanically moving Idol.

It would be fine. It had to be.

The issue now was that no matter what, I just couldn’t shake the unease that had come
over me earlier.

“Here it comes.”

Leonora’s voice invited me to look toward the hole, and there I could see the Idol
drawing much, much closer. It would only take a few more steps for it to be in a
position where it could fall down the hole. The Idol approached slowly, while… looking
around…?!

It was looking around?! Even though it wasn’t supposed to have any will of its own?!

Now that I thought about it, it had been moving in a way that suggested it was taking
in its surroundings earlier. That was why I’d become so nervous, so uneasy.

The first time I’d ever seen it, it hadn’t even seemed to be aware of its surroundings
and had been content to just walk forward. Perhaps it had been in some half-lucid
state due to the rather recent blessing it had received, or maybe it had gained
sentience later on while it was walking about.
That reminded me; there had been an interesting titbit of information included in the
description I’d seen in the Idol’s status.

“While it appears to have no life, it possesses an unimaginable well of intellect.”

While I hadn’t paid much attention to that little aspect in favour of others, the word
‘intellect’ had definitely been there in writing.

That wasn’t good. If we assumed that the Idol was capable of rational thought, then
everything was going to fall into disarray.

“Lady Anri! The Idol, it’s…”

Almost as if it was deliberately trying to cement my fears, the very Idol we’d assumed
would just move forward and fall into the hole stopped right in front of the pit and
observed it, taking a good look at the trap we’d set for it. From where it stood, it was
more than obvious that it was being vigilant and weary, that it had indeed noticed the
hole.

We had failed.

And to top it all off, Tena’s earlier cry called attention to the way its head moved with
a metallic screech to fixate on us.

Its eyes shouldn’t have been functional, and neither should its ears have been. Just
what kind of mechanism was this thing operating under? Well, we certainly didn’t
have the spare time to try and puzzle out the secret behind that.

Our first plan, our plan to have it fall into a hole could no longer be executed.

“Forget the first plan, we’re moving on to the second.”

“Right.”

“Understood.”

“It can’t be helped.”

Upon my declaration, Leonora, Orlaine, and the Pope darted out of the thickets and
moved toward the Idol. Our second plan… the plan to destroy the Evil God Idol was
about to be put into action.

Of course, having them fight on their own while I stood as a spectator on the sidelines
just wouldn’t do. Although I did have to admit that I personally leaned toward that
idea.

However, unlike the others that were fighters by nature, Tena and I really didn’t have
much in the way of battle experience. Charging in to face the Idol with the meagre
experience we had was just unfair for everyone, and I’d like if if others could grasp
that.

“Tena.”

“R-Right away! I understand!”

Seeing how nervous Tena was, I was half-tempted to say something to her. But,
honestly, I was rather nervous myself. All things considered I was, after all, far less
experienced than she was overall. But now that we were pressed with our backs
against a wall, telling her that wouldn’t do much good.

That in mind, we raced toward the hidden ace we’d prepared.

Some distance behind the thicket we’d been hiding in, a large, pitch black armour
kneeled on the ground. That was the floor boss of the twelfth level of the dungeon
aptly named the Evil God’s Sanctuary, the Anryl Armour. One of two, in fact.

That’s right. Enshrined in front of us were two sets of armour, both black as night. Both
were forged of orichalcum that had been blessed with divine protection that made
them both an incredibly powerful pair of jet black living armour. There was one
difference that set the two apart: one had been modelled for male use, while the other
was an armour designed for females.

The former was the aforementioned floor boss, and the latter was something that had
been prepared only recently.

The Anryl Armour was a type of armour that could move out of its own accord; it was
a monster that would seek out any invaders and eliminate them. However, it also
allowed a passenger to board it and pilot it from the inside.

Regardless of that, it couldn’t be controlled by any average Joe. The only individuals
qualified to be passengers were those that were, in some manner, connected to the
Evil God. The only ones in this world capable of meeting those qualifications were, I
believed, Tena, Myself, Imperial Death, and my divine counterpart.

Considering its relations, the Idol that was right in our field of vision was another
possible contender, although I very much doubted that it could even enter the armour
by virtue of its gigantic frame. That would make it the exception.

When Orlaine and the others had gone to conquer the dungeon, Tena had even been
instructed to wear the armour to cover them. When that had happened, the results
she had reaped were enough to – temporarily – force the incredibly immature dream
party of the Demon King, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, and the hero into a bit of a
dilemma.

Also, just by allowing us to cover more ground without having to expose our
defenceless bodies, even people who had next to no natural fighting prowess – such
as Tena and I – could majorly soften the blows of any opposing forces. Conversely, it
might have just made things harder for those people that did engage in battle on a day-
to-day basis. Who knew.

“Let’s go.”

“Right!”

Tena saw that she boarded the male armour – now named Anryl Armour Mark I – as
she had already made use of it in the past, while I made sure to slip into the Anryl
Armour Mark II.
By the time the two Anril Armours Tena and I had boarded reached the place, the
fighting hadn’t yet begun and both parties were just glaring at each other.

No, after a good look, I understood it was just Leonara and Orlaine who were glaring.
I couldn’t quite understand the Evil God statue’s expression and the Pope was facing
the other way.

“Sorry for the wait. How is the situation?”

I asked Leonara, while I was still on Anril Armor 2. It is different from a robot so I have
to use magic to talk.

“You came at last. It’s just as it looks. It won’t come challenging so we were waiting for
you people to come.”

Leonara answered, while staying cautious of the Evil God statue.

Their battle formation consisted of the Pope being at the front line with a spear,
Leonara behind him barehanded and Orlaine at the back with the holy bow. Even
though Leonara was barehanded, she was in the middle because she could use magic.

As one would expect, the doll occupying her hand was a hindrance so I put it into the
item box for the time being. Although I do think it is only a matter of time till it slips
out.

And beside them, two Anril Armors took stance. I was on the left and Tena was on the
right.

The Anril Armor sure is huge when compared to humans or demons but the Evil God
statue was even larger. Anril Armor’s height was at best upto the Evil God statue’s
knees, so we were having to look up.

“I don’t think we will be able to finish it off but let’s focus our attacks on the legs to
weaken its movement.”

“Ah, got it.”

“Leave it to us!”

“Yes, Anri-sama.”

“……”

Hm?

There was no response from the Pope, who was at the front line. That’s rare. I wonder
if he couldn’t hear because he was concentrating too much on the statue.

And so when I look towards him, I find him trembling for some reason.

He didn’t really look like it but was he perhaps afraid of the battle? If so then I feel
sorry for dragging him into all this.

“I-I will…”

Seeing his usual happy go lucky mood disappear and him trying to say something even
while trembling, the feeling of guilt inside me kept growing. He doesn’t look like he
will able to fight at all. If he goes into battle like this, he will either be injured right
away or even die.

Fortunately, the Evil God statue still hadn’t moved. It would be better to remove him
from battle now.

And just when I tried talking to him about it, he looked greatly perplexed.

“As I thought, I can’t do it! I can’t possibly attack Anri-sama!”

“……”

“……”

“……”
“……”

“……”

I was an idiot for worrying. I felt like even the heartless Evil God statue looked
dumbfounded.

Either way, it doesn’t seem like he will be of any use.

Giving up hope on him, I extended Anril Armor’s hand and grabbed his back.

“? Anri-sama?”

In response to his dubious expression, I just briefly said.

“Off you go.”

“Howaaaaaaaaa—?!!”

He went flying towards the bush where we were hiding a while ago, producing a
doppler effect of sound as he exited the battle.

“Oi oi.”

“Y-you’re quite rash.”

“He can’t fight, so he will only be a hindrance.”

And in reality, he would just get hurt if he stayed here without fighting.

Or rather, in his case, worst case scenario, he might even assist the Evil God statue.

Well, of course he probably wouldn’t do that as long as I am here but it’s scary how I
can’t be completely sure.

“W-well, let’s switch gears and attack!”

Perhaps it reacted to Leonara’s voice, or the Pope flying back, I can’t be certain of what
but, the Evil God statue, which was still up till now, started closing in with his hands
in front.
“Look out!”

We instantly went into attack stance as Orlaine warned.

I controlled the right arm of the Anril Armor and Tena controlled the left. We matched
the big shields on each hand and stopped the Evil God statue’s hand.

Along with the high-pitched noise which came with the two metals colliding, we felt
the terrifyingly huge pressure on the Anril Armor’s shield. As expected from its size,
its weights force was also dreadful.

“A-Anri-sama!”

“Endure it!”

I replied briefly.

And in reality, if this went on, it was only a matter of time till we get crushed but I am
sure the other two will make their move now.

“Yes!”

As if to answer to my hopes, several light arrows came flying from behind. Orlaine was
supporting us from behind.

All the arrows hit the statue on the head. But it doesn’t seem like it dealt any damage.

“It doesn’t work, eh…”

Seems like her arrows aren’t enough to pierce the Evil God statue’s defense.

If it was a living creature, we would have the option of aiming for the eyes but since it
is completely made of metal, that was also not possible.

But, this is fine.

Although it did little damage, it was able to divert the statue’s attention elsewhere
making other parts defenseless. I also felt the pressure on the shield decreasing and,
above all, it didn’t notice her stepping into range.
“Eat this!”

Leonara striked the Evil God statue with all her strength and dark magic on her fists.
It made a resounding chime noise and the statue lost balance for a moment and
stumbled a few steps back.

“Ouch!’

Having landed a direct hit on the statue, Leonara’s face distorted and she grasped her
hand. Seems like she hurt her hand in the process.

Well, I guess that would happen when you punch someone all metal.

It looks Leonara’s attack didn’t deal much damage but judging from how it broke the
statue’s stance, it surely didn’t deal no damage at all.

“Sorry, I probably won’t be able to use it that much.”

“Don’t overexert yourself, Leonara-san.”

Much? She shouldn’t be fighting with bare hands anymore. Just as Tena said, she
shouldn’t overexert herself.

But if we do that, our method of attack… Or so while I was thinking, I realized the
existence of a certain thing.

Right, if that is…

And so, I immediately thought of bringing out the item box.

My item box is my own shadow, so while I was wondering where it would appear in
this case, it came out of the Anril Armor’s shadow. Very convenient.

I caught the thing which popped out from the shadow with two fingers of the Anril
Armor and threw it to Leonara.

“Leonara, take this.”

“?! Th-this, father’s?!”

Leonara beautifully caught the thing with both hands and wore a surprised
expression.

That’s right. The thing I brought out was the demon sword her father, the demon lord,
had used when conquering the dungeon.

I don’t know to what extent the fist warrior Leonara can use it but I hear this sword is
passed down from demon lord to demon lord. Surely Leonara has the aptitude to use
it as she will be the next demon lord.

Having received the sword, Leonara took her stance, gripping the sword with both her
hands. That form was so gallant that she seemed like a knight.

“Feel like you can do it?”

“…Leave it to me.”

I smiled at her reliable words and faced the Evil God statue once again with the Anril
Armor.

Leonara’s attacks, now with the magic sword, were much stronger than when she was
bare-handed and was now definitely causing damage to the statue. Tena and I also
switched from defense to offense when we could. All four of us were concentrating
our attacks on its feet.

Our battle formation was appropriate and our tactics were also working.

But in spite of that, defeat was surely crawling on to us.

“Haa… haaa…”

“It… it still doesn’t fall?”

Our cause of defeat was that we misjudged the statue’s resistance.

Of course, we could tell that it was very tough from its appearance and from the
materials used to make it and, for that reason, we weren’t even trying to destroy it
from the start. We thought it would at least be possible to make it immobile.
But it was way tougher than we had thought. On top of that toughness, because the
statue didn’t wear out, its movements barely changed from the beginning.

On the other hand, it wasn’t the same for us.

Tena and I were riding the Anril Armour so we were still better off. We hadn’t even
exhausted our mana yet.

But Leonara and Orlaine were exhausted.

Leonara, who was swinging a greatsword at the front line, was visibly tired. On top of
using a weapon she wasn’t used to, she wasn’t even allowed to show the slightest of
negligence. She was standing with willpower alone at this point.

Orlaine was also intensely exhausted.

The cause was her weapon. As her holy bow only needed light mana as arrows to
shoot, she could keep firing without worrying about her ammo.

However, obviously, each arrow would drain her mana. And as she was barraging the
statue with arrows, her mana was drained real quick. As she had fought as the hero
before as well, she was more than able to pace herself through a battle but since the
opponent now was stronger than we had expected, she had to go all out from the start.

“Ah…”

It looked like the fatigue had finally got Leonara — she tripped over and lost her
balance. She barely stopped herself from falling by thrusting the demon sword into
the ground but under these circumstances, something like that would be fatal.

“Ah-ah, no—”

“Leonara!”

“Leonara-san!”

“Run!”

Either the Evil God statue was waiting for her to be exhausted or it was just pure
coincidence, but it extended its arms and grabbed Leonara.
The statue itself was huge so its hands were also huge. Leonara was completely unable
to move, with only her head visible above the hand.

All four of us would not be able to block the statue’s next attack.

……

……

……

……

…But, nothing happened.

When I looked towards the statue, I found it gripping Leonara and then slowly
loosening up again. Even then, it didn’t feel like it was trying to crush her because she
was fine. The statue’s actions felt as if it was trying to get a feel of touch.

Being unable to do anything about it, we just held our breath and watched. Without
paying us any heed, the statue went on to poke Leonara on her chest with its right
hand.

“Ah-wai–what are you doing?! Hey! St-stop! Stop itt!!”

In reaction to this absolutely unexpected action, Leonara kept shouting as her face
turned red. Of course, it didn’t comply to her requests.

Nevertheless, why is the statue sexually harassing Leonara like that?

I don’t think the statue has such desires and even if it did, I would like it to stop doing
it with that appearance.

After doing that for a while, the statue now tried to touch its own chest. But naturally,
it wouldn’t shake.

No, wait. It’s metal so of course it wouldn’t shake, no matter who the model of the
statue is. It’s definitely not my fault.

Also, considering just bust size, as the statue was enourmous, its bust size was also
more than Leonaras.

However, it looks like that such a consolation didn’t reach the statue as it threw
Leonara and fell to its knees with both hands on the ground.

I do kinda understand why it would feel depressed but this is our chance. As fighting
any longer would just end in our defeat, we should take this chance to escape. I caught
Leonara and picked up the demon sword from the ground and instructed Tena to get
Orlaine.

“Retreat. Tena, grab Orlaine and let’s run.”

“Y-yes! Got it!”

And like this, first contact with the Evil God statue closed its curtains with us
retreating.
A day has passed since we retreated from the fight with the Evil God statue. There are
many things that need to be done, such as revising the plan but for now…

“Punishment time.”

“Aahhhhh, I am sorryyy!”

I was punishing the pope as he lost his will to fight right in front of the enemy, but it
didn’t feel like it was working. I tried sitting on top of him while making him sit in
‘seiza’ position.

By the way, Tena and I had retreated with Leonara and Orlaine with us but we had
completely forgotten about him.

I had finally realized when he reached and thought to myself that I had done it this
time but it was too late.

Well, fortunately enough, the person concerned doesn’t seem to be that affected after
being left behind but it does feel a little awkward. And as such, I couldn’t really
strongly blame him for losing his will to fight at the beginning.

Well, even then, when he blurts out something like he couldn’t attack the statue
because it looked like me, I couldn’t help but blush a little and couldn’t question him
further.

“Stop messing around and let’s begin the meeting already.”

Leonara told me with astounded eyes while I was sitting on the pope. It’s not like I am
fooling around…

Well, it doesn’t seem like the punishment is working and I can’t be doing this forever
either so I stood up and sat down on the chair.
“Done with your punishment.”

“B-but…”

Why do you sound sad?

“Just hurry up and sit properly.”

As I urged him, he disappointedly sat down on the chair.

“First, let’s start by reflecting on how we could have done better.”

“Right.”

“Evaluation, eh?”

“Ummm…”

“What should we reflect on?”

You should reflect on everything.

Well, leaving the pope aside for the time being, we should be reflecting most on the
fact that we couldn’t comprehend beforehand that the Evil God statue has intellect.
Due to that, the pithole plan went to waste.

“Never thought the Evil God would be that smart.”

“Certainly. I had completely thought it was something like a golem but it seems like I
was too naive.”

“Intellect… it also seemed like it had feelings too.”

“Sure did. It kinda got depressed at the end there too…”

Remembering from Tena’s words, I unconsciously ended up turning towards Leonara,

who was the cause of it. Leonara, who was sitting to my left, was also looking at the
weapon with shining eyes, as it made even the Evil God depressed.
“W-what?!

“Certainly, that is–”

“A deadly weapon.”

“A-ahaha.”

Unlike Leonara and me, who were glaring at each other, Tena just wore a bitter smile.

“Also, another point is that it was way tougher than we imagined.”

That was completely unexpected. Even if we were to battle, I had thought we could at
least render it unable walk but we weren’t able to do anything, even with the 4 of us.

Although the pope wasn’t in battle the whole time, I doubt it would have made a
difference even if he was.

“Seriously. I didn’t think it would be that tough.” Leonara said, rubbing her hands.

The injuries she had received on her fist during the fight with the statue had already
been healed by magic, but she could still remember the pain she had felt then.

“It also took my all just to divert its attention.”

“That can’t be helped.”

Orlaine was self-deprecating but Tena consoled her. And in fact, her diversions really
helped so I also agree with Tena.

“I guess it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it’s befitting of a God’s statue. Amazing,

as expected of Anri-sama.”

This person is really happy for some reason. Is it okay if I smacked him?

No, he might just like it so I guess I shall not.

“But the problem of deciding what we should do now. To be honest, I think it will
always end like this if we challenged it at this rate.”
“That is… true. At the very least, we can’t hope to win without increasing our fighting
strength.”

It is certainly as the two had stated but I don’t think it would do any good if we were
to add half-hearted strength. For example, even if the knights squad were here, I can’t
imagine an outcome other than them getting annihilated in a moment.

Just like we borrowed the anril armour, we could borrow the Beni or Imperial Death.
However, if we were to do that, we couldn’t avoid damage to the surroundings. It is a
different case inside a dungeon, but we can’t really have a monster fight on the surface.

We are blocked in every direction.

“We don’t have any means to defeat it, eh?”

“This is troubling.”

“What shall we do?”

“Hmmm.”

It seems Leonara and the others couldn’t come up with a good plan either. They were
all sighing. Except the pope, who said this is troubling but doesn’t look the slightest
bit troubled.

“For the time being, just tell me about the statue’s actions after that.”

“Understood.”

It wouldn’t do us any good if we just keep on worrying like this so I decided to organize
the information of what the statue did after the fight that day.

After bowing respectfully, the pope started explaining by drawing symbols on the map
on top of the round table.

“The pitfall trap we used is here. After that, the statue started moving towards the
east.”

East… that’s the humans’ area.

“However, it seems that it’s progress is slow. Compared to the time it first started
walking towards the east from this country, its speed is about one-third now.”

He said while drawing up the path the statue followed.

That is true, in contrast with its movement before, its speed is exceptionally slow now
and it somewhat feels like it is going left and right for no reason.

“Is it because of the damage from the last battle?” Leonara asked.

If it is due to the damage we inflicted on its leg during that fight, then, even though we
fled, we achieved something. It would even be worthwhile for her to have fought to
the point of damaging her hands.

However, such hopes were cut off.

“No, as the speed it’s going at itself hasn’t changed, that probably isn’t the case.”

“If the speed hasn’t decreased, how is its progress slow?”

“That is… because it is sometimes lying around, sometimes going offroad after being
distracted… the time it’s spending walking itself has decreased.”

I see, if that’s the case, then it explains how the progression speed is slow even though
its walking speed hasn’t decreased. In short, it has started procrastinating.

“It somehow feels like its actions have become very human-like compared to what we
heard at first.”

That is true. Compared to before, when it kept progressing without paying heed to its
surroundings, its actions now have turned very human-like.

“Rather than human-like…”

“Tena?” I asked as Tena looked like she had realized something. I have no idea where
we might find a breakthrough so I just want more info now.

“No, just that, it is more like Anri-sama now.”

Whaaaat?!
To think Tena thought of me like that…

That is upsetting. I am not that lazy… or so I would like to speak out but as Tena and
the others know I had stayed indoors for close to a year, I shouldn’t try to refute
carelessly. I might bring unnecessary trouble to myself that way.

“…I see, it does seem exactly like her.”

“…A-ahaha.”

For some reason, Leonara looked at me with scornful eyes. Tena gave a strained laugh,
hearing her mutter.

“I see!”

And here, for some reason, Orlaine was really accepting the fact while looking at my
breasts. I can mostly guess what she is thinking but let me just say this.

I don’t want to hear that from you.

“Hmm, Anri-sama’s statue and Anri-sama… there might be some kind of a connection.”

Connection, eh?

Although I don’t really want to admit, I couldn’t help but think that the evil god statue’s
actions were being influenced by me. It looks exactly like me and since I had also
bestowed my divine protection upon it so… ah.

“What is it? Did you realize something?”

“Wait a bit.”

Leonara came asking me but I need to sort things out in my head first. It seemed as if
they were able to guess, as they were silently waiting for me to speak up.

I remembered this one thing from the word- ‘connection’. The retainer symbol which
came up on the statue’s forehead. Could it be that that’s affecting it in some way?

“Tena.”
“Y-yes?”

I told Tena about my speculations and asked her if she knew something about the
symbol.

“Umm, I can’t really say anything clearly but… I think I know what you mean.”

Either way, it seems like we do have a connection through the symbol somehow. If so,
then the fact that the statue’s actions are now becoming really close to mine must also
be its effect.

Although it seems like the statue is being far more influenced by it than Tena, it is also
true that the statue doesn’t have a ‘self’, while Tena does. In fact, it would be weird if
there was no difference in the influence.

As I explain my deduction to them, Leonara and the others nodded solemnly.

“I see, it certainly seems plausible.”

“Right. It would be difficult to get positive proof, though.”

“So this symbol had such an effect, huh?”

“Hmm, hmm, I wonder if it’s like this…”

For the time being, there’s definitely no point in drawing the same shape on your
forehead so you can stop, pope.

“Well, if that is actually the case, will it be a breakthrough or something?”

“Wouldn’t it be easier to come up with counter measures if we can understand its

action pattern?”

“But, even if you say action pattern, that’s not its fighting action pattern. Even if that
statue is lazy like Anri-sama, will that be of any use while fighting it?”

Wait, I feel like I was criticized quite casually just now.

“That is true, it might not be that helpful in fights.”

“Ah, but…”

“Tena, did you get something?”

“If there was something Anri-sama likes, we might be able to lead the statue with it?”

“That’s it!”

Eh?

Leonara shouted the moment she heard Tena speak. I wonder if they thought up of a
good plan or something.

“We will bait it with Anri’s favourite things.”

“Trap, eh. Again a pitfall… No, we have already tried it once so it might be able to
escape it.”

“Yeah. There’s no way it will get caught in that obvious pitfall. We need a pitfall with
more stealth and ability to seal off that statue.”

“If we were to seal it, it would be best to use a sealing barrier. It falls in the light magic
territory so I will try asking the holy goddess through the holy bow.”

“Counting on you.”

The talk kept progressing between Orlaine and Leonara but Tena, the pope and I were
left behind.

“I understand why you plan on chasing it to the sealing barrier but what do you plan
on using to bait it?”

As I asked, Leonara answered full of confidence.

However, I was kinda worried about the plan. Will that thing really be able to draw the
statue in?

“Will that thing really work?”

“It will be fine, it will definitely work.”

I would feel kinda complicated even if it did, though.

“…I understand, thank you very much!”

Orlaine said while talking to someone with the holy bow. She probably received
revelation from Sofia.

“Did you understand anything?”

“Yes. She gave me a sealing magic which would even work on that statue. However, if
we are expecting to seal it completely, it would be better to gather the holy sword and
the holy spear, as well.”

If Sofia said it would work then it probably will. She is the light god, for what it’s worth.

“All the holy weapons are here so that’s fine.”

“Alright, then that’s fine for the trap. All that’s left is the thing to draw the statue in.”

“I shall take care of that. It would be quite difficult to replicate it materialistically, but
I think I can do it if it’s just the outward appearance.”

“That will be enough. Then I will leave that to you.”

And like this, the second plan against the evil god statue had begun.

…It doesn’t really matter but it seems like Leonara completely took hold of the
operation, even though I was the leader.
I have heard people say money isn’t everything or that there are things money can’t
buy. I don’t really have any objections regarding that matter.

There are many things money can’t buy-like the bond with a special person, good
health, life, etc. I think there is no lie in that.

However, I also think this at the same time.

That that’s not everything and even if there are things money can’t buy, money is
definitely important.

You can’t buy lives with money but you would end up starving to death if you can’t buy
food to eat.

You can’t buy good health but you do need money to live a healthy life.

You can’t buy a connection with your special someone but you might end up
separating because of a loan or something.

Even if there are things other than money which are important, that doesn’t mean one
shouldn’t value money.

Yes, it’s just that I properly understand the value of money. There are times when I feel
like Sofia, Amber, Leonara and the others think I am a miser or something but I firmly
object to that.

It’s not like I have fun saving money or anything and I actually do use it properly when
I need to.

Obviously, I do think it is better to have more than less but I am sure there are others
who also think so.

I took away money and weapons from adventurers who dropped out of the dungeon?
—It wouldn’t be weird if they had lost their lives in other dungeons so this is a small
price to pay, it wouldn’t even be an exaggeration to say that this is even being generous.

I took entry fee from dungeon challengers?

—Compared to the nobles and royalties who take fine for every little thing, what is
wrong with me taking a little fine from people entering my territory?

I endorsed a business to take money from adventurers who visit the country?

—It’s the country’s strategy to acquire foreign currency.

In my opinion, Leonara and the others are off the point when the matter is related to
money. Even still, I guess that isn’t anything surprising either. Sofia and Amber are
Gods so they don’t really carry money neither do they use them. Leonara is a royalty
so she probably never felt a shortage of money.

I don’t really know much about Orlaine but it seems like the Pope is a noble by origin
too. Lily and Tena might be the only ones who agree with me.

Either way, I know the value of money like anyone else and don’t think there is any
need to be ashamed of it.

And so…

It’s not really my fault that the Evil God statue is happily being lured in by gold coins
and I want to express my dissatisfaction towards Leonara and the others looking at
me dumbfoundedly now.

“This is that thing?”

“These are the gold coins we will offer to the Evil God statue.”

The Pope handed out the gold coins. But the size of those coins were greatly different
from normal ones. They were as big as my waist. Of course, they were specially made
just for this operation.

Counterfeit money?
No, while I don’t really know properly about the rules of this world, people probably
won’t mistake seeing a coin sized this differently so these cannot be called counterfeit
money.

It was too big to carry with one hand so I took them with both my hands but it was
still profoundly heavy.

“Heavy.”

“No, rather it’s light. It wouldn’t be this light if it was made completely with gold.”

I guess that’s true.

Just as Leonara said, it’s not like these special coins were all made with gold. If we
tried doing that, we would fall short on gold no matter how much we had. The shape
was made with iron and gold was wrapped around it. Gilding, in short.

We had them made in a hurry and as this world’s techniques aren’t that developed,
there are some crude edges to it which can’t be helped. And besides, it looks crude
because of how big it is but if it were of the normal size, it probably wouldn’t look as
bad. Also, considering the Evil God statue, I think there’s no need to worry about it.

However, in the first place…

“You really think we can lure that statue with this?”

Leonara’s idea was to lure the statue into the sealing magic circle with these specially-
made coins.

We decided on making the sealing place be the pedestal the statue was originally on
as it was just of the perfect size and the magic would work better with it.

However, as the pedestal was close to the city, we would have the residents evacuate
while executing the plan.

As the statue was loitering around the human territory near the city, we put the coins
at regular intervals leading to the pedestal and waited.

But this all depended on the statue taking an interest in the coins. If it were to ignore
the coins, the plan would be foiled and even if it did take an interest, the plan would
also fail if it notices the trap.

To be honest, I can’t understand Leonara’s confidence in this plan.

“If that statue’s movement pattern is based on you then it will go according to plan.”

“Why?”

“Why? Well, if there were gold coins lying on the ground, you would definitely pick
them up, right?”

That’s rude.

Even if it’s me, I wouldn’t go picking up coins which are on the ground…

“That…”

“You can’t deny it, can you?”

I guess… I can not deny it completely. I would probably pick it up out of interest.

…No, no, wait. I was about to get coaxed up by Leonara there. That should be true for
everyone. Anyone would pick up coins if they were on the ground.

“I can’t completely deny it but anyone would pick it up.”

“Is that so? Well, even if it is, there should be no problem. Either way, if you were to
pick it up, the statue would too.”

I feel like I am being deceived somehow.

“Anyhow, we can’t go back now. Let’s believe it is going to work and get on with it.”

“…Got it.”

That is true, now that we’ve come this far, there’s no point in complaining. It’s not like
there are better plans anyway.

The Pope, Leonara and I were in charge of setting up the coins. Orlaine was preparing
the sealing magic circle and Tena was helping her.
Even still, these coins are heavy. We have divided the work between the three of us but
it’s still heavy labour.

“Heavy.”

“Don’t complain, hurry. We have to set it up before the statue gets here.”

“I know.”

I kept setting them up while complaining. And, after setting them all up, I realized
something.

Couldn’t I have just carried them with the item box instead of my hands?

……

…I will pretend I didn’t notice.

“Anri-san!”

“Anri-sama.”

“Mm?”

I looked towards the source of the voice to find Orlaine and Tena running towards me.
Looks like they are done with the sealing circle.

“Are you done with your part?”

“Yes, the magic circle is ready.”

“We are ready to go anytime.”

“Alright, our preparation is perfect.”

Just as Leonara said, our preparations are complete with this. All that’s left is to wait
for the statue’s arrival.
We decided to take a short breather till the statue came.

“So, how does the sealing in the sealing magic work exactly?”

Although we had heard about the sealing magic, as no one among us knew about the
details of the magic except Orlaine, I decided to ask her about it.

When I imagine something being sealed, I normally think of it being trapped in a stone
monument or being petrified.

“Ah, yes. It would be fine if you were to imagine something like a light barrier taking
away energy from everything evil. If all goes well, it will turn back into a bronze statue
like before.”

Orlaine told us about the details of the sealing magic she heard from Sofia.

A barrier which takes away energy, eh? Scary stuff.

…Mm? Barrier?

As I was bothered by that word, I tried recalling events from over a year ago.

If I remember correctly, it was the day after I had come to this world, when I went to
the Riemer city’s church to get them to remove the curse of the robe and the dagger. I
remember destroying the invisible barrier after poking it a bit.

If that thing covering the church was some sort of barrier, then wouldn’t I also fall in
the ‘evil’ category this light barrier seals?… No, there’s no doubt I would.

Alright, I should be careful not to enter the magic circle.

Although I didn’t plan on entering in the first place.

“Tena, don’t enter the magic circle, alright?”

“Eh? Ah, yes. Got it.”

I would obviously fall into the category of evil being the Evil God so my retainers
should also fall into the same category. It would be better not to go near it.
 j

“There it is, just as expected.”

Leonara informed us, while we were taking a break after finishing the preparations.
As we looked towards that way, the Evil God statue could be seen.

This would be our third meeting. And hopefully our last as well.

“Let’s hide.”

“Got it.”

As we already know that the Evil God statue has intelligence, if it sees us, it might
realize that there’s a trap and not get close. And as such, the five of us hid ourselves
behind a grove of trees nearby and observed the situation.

The statue was staggering. It somehow feels unreliable–vastly different from its
machine-like movements before.

I wonder if I look like that while walking…

It slowly came close and noticed the extra large coin and stiffened.

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

As we were observing, holding our breath, the statue looked around restlessly.

? What is it doing?

After surveying its surroundings, the statue slowly went close to the coin and… quickly
picked it up.
It looked like the statue had a guilty conscience.

“Anri, you…”

“It’s not me.”

Leonara’s scornful eyes hurt.

“It picking the coins up is according to the plan but the way it did it…”

“Like I said, that’s not me.”

Even though we only got to know each other recently, I feel like Orlaine’s impression
of me decreased quite a bit.

“Anri-sama…”

“Please listen to me.”

To think even Tena would think like that.

“If you wish for gold coins, I could prepare them as much as you like.”

“That is…”

That is a very attractive suggestion but I feel like I will fail as a person if I do that so I
held myself back tearfully. Not to mention that I am quite failing as a person already.

As we were doing that skit, the statue noticed the next coin and wearily went towards
it and picked it up. And after having moved that far, it noticed the next one and went
on progressing.

And like that, it slowly kept moving towards the pedestal. Although it was wary of its
surroundings at first, halfway through, it just kept picking up the coins without paying
any heed to the surrounding.

“Ah, this is bad. If it keeps going forward like this, we won’t be able to activate the
sealing magic. We have to arrive there before it.”

“That’s right, let’s hurry.”

It seems like the sealing magic doesn’t activate automatically and Orlaine needs to do
it when the target is in the circle. As such, we needed to be there before the statue
reached.

After all the trouble we went through to get it to the circle, it would be meaningless if
it were to run away before we even activate the magic.

Although the statue doesn’t seem to be moving that fast at first glance, it actually was
advancing quite fast because of its size.

“Let’s run!” Leonara urged.

We started to run towards the pedestal. It might be a bit late to think this but wouldn’t
it have been better to standby somewhere closer to the pedestal? If we had, we
wouldn’t have had to panic like this.

Don’t make a hikikomori run like this.

“It seems like we might somehow make it there before the statue.”

“It would be troubling otherwise.”

Fortunately, the coins weren’t set up as a straight line to the pedestal. It felt like we
would reach there first as the statue was taking a detour to collect the coins.

“Alright, we made it!”

“Quick, get to your positions!”

On the pedestal the statue was standing on yesterday, a magic circle was drawn. The
holy sword, spear and arrow was put in such a way that they made an equilateral
triangle. As the holy weapons were glowing brightly after receiving the divine
protection of the light God Sofia, it looked like the perfect catalyst for the magic.

Leonara, Pope and Orlaine picked up a weapon each and took on the responsibility to
seal it while Tena and I got on the Anril armour to stop the statue from leaving the
circle.

However, there was a fear of the statue running away if it saw us so we decided to stay
hidden until it came on top of the circle to pick up the last coin.
And so, just as we hid ourselves, the Evil God statue appeared with a mountain of extra
large gold coins.
The Evil God Statue carried a pile of the large golden coins tightly with her left arm
against her, and continued to walk towards the magical circle of sealing, all the while
picking up more of the large golden coins.

The five of us were waiting at separate positions in order to surround the Evil God
Statue as soon as it entered the magical circle.

I myself was in the Anryl Armour Mark II, further off in the direction that the Evil God
Statue was headed. I lowered my head as I hid in the shadows of a house on the right
side.

…Five coins left.

Just on the other side of the magic circle, I could see that Tena was riding the Anryl
Armour Mark I and waiting just like me. As I was not looking at her in the flesh, I could
not make out her facial expressions, but I am sure she was holding her breath with
nervousness.

…Four coins left.

From the left side of where I was looking, Leonora held her holy sword while she
stayed hidden. Now that I think of it, there was an irony that Leonora, who was the
Demon Lord’s daughter and future Demon Lord, was using such a holy weapon that
was originally supposed to be used against Demon Lords.

…Three coins left.

Far to the left, Pope was standing with the holy lance in hand. Wait, why is she standing
so confidently!? You have to hide.

I hurriedly gave the signal to hide with my hands, and she reluctantly did so.

…Two coins left.

To my right, past the direction that the Evil God Statue was headed, was Orlaine, who
had perhaps the most important task for this operation. She carried her holy bow with
her as she hid under cover.

She was the only one within our group who could use light magic, and it was also she
who had been given seal magic from Sofia. So of course, she would be responsible for
operating the sealing magic.

…One coin left.

The Evil God Statue had now collected all of the extra large golden coins that had been
set around the outer rim of the magical circle, and now she began to climb back to the
pedestal she had been standing on. The last remaining coin was of course, in the center
of the magical circle.

I was worried that she would recognize it as a trap as soon as she saw the magical
circle, but perhaps because her vision was blurred by the gold coins, or she plainly did
not under understand what it was, the Evil God Statue did not show any signs of being
cautious. She continued on to the last large golden coin.

As soon as the Evil God Statue picked up the last golden coin, we would be able to
surround her, Orlaine would activate the sealing magic and this whole thing would be
settled. However, the timing was very important for this.

If we jump out too early, the Evil God Statue would notice the change before she
reached the center of the magical circle, and there was a risk that she would run away.
But if our timing was too slow, there was a risk that she would step out of the magic
circle before the sealing magic could activate.

It was decided that I would be responsible for determining this incredibly important
timing. I raised the right arm of the Anryl Armour and waited for that moment.

The Evil God Statue was walking towards the center of the magical circle… Still too
early.

It was almost in the center… Just a little more.

Just as she began to reach out her hand to pick up the last large golden coin… Now!

As I swung the right hand of the Anryl Armour downwards, Orlaine, Leonora, and Pope
all jumped out of their hiding places. They all stood at their designated positions
around the magical circle and raised their holy weapons high above their heads.

At the same time, I and Tena also ran as close as we could towards the magical circle,
we stood ready in order to deal with whatever action the Evil God Statue decided to
take.

“……?”

It was as if the Evil God Statue who had been distracted by the golden coins, finally
realized that something was amiss as we reached the spot. There was an expression
of confusion as she looked around at us as we surrounded her. However, it seemed
that she had not yet realized it was a trap, she made no indications that she was
attempting to leave the spot.

Which was just perfect for us.

I pointed the face of the Anryl Armour that I was controlling towards Orlaine, she
nodded and stood ready.

“Here I go!”

Orlaine began to chant, the magical circle that had been drawn on the pedestal began
to emit a bright light, a semi-transparent wall of light then appeared as if tracing the
lines of the magical circle.

Only the Evil God Statue was within that wall of light. Orlaine, Leonora, and Pope stood
just outside of the circle, the Anryl Armours that I and Tena were controlling were
outside of the wall.

“……!?”

The Evil God Statue had still not comprehended what was happening. I could not read
her expression as she was a statue, but I could still sense a feeling of surprise in her.

If at that moment, the Evil God Statue had quickly grasped the situation and gone
toward Orlaine who was the key to the sealing magic, -or to be precise, the holy
weapons that she wielded- she could have disposed of the weapon and might have
been able to run away from here.
However, she could not react to it.

Afterall, even if my patterns of movement are influencing it, it had only just recently
gained a will of its own, it still greatly lacked the ability to make decisions in
unpredictable situations.

And that slowness to react would prove to be fatal.

The seal magic robbed the Evil God Statue of energy, making her movements sluggish.

Due to her slowness to react, the Evil God Statue now lost her ability to move and
could no longer escape. It was as if some kind of pressure was being forced onto her,
and I could see that she was desperately fighting it even as she nearly fell to the
ground.

In a way, it was impressive that in spite of all that, she was still tightly holding onto the
gathered golden coins without dropping any.

But there was still no room us to relax, as the ones using the sealing magic.

“Ah, it’s heavy.”

“This will take its toll.”

“Gg… uh…”

The power of the Evil God Statue was immense, an invisible tug of war was being
waged between her and the sealing magic. The situation was so dangerous, that even
a little slip could cause the spell to be broken.

The three of them were being affected by the Evil God Statues retaliations as they
raised their holy weapons, but they desperately bore the pressure. Orlaine, as the
caster had an especially heavy burden, greasy sweat dripped down as she growled and
attempted to maintain the spell.
 j

The invisible battle continued for quite some time, but finally, the scales began to tip
in our favor.

Perhaps it was because the Evil God Statue could bear it no more, but the large gold
coins that she had so preciously clung onto until now began to slip and fall as she
thrashed about as if in pain.

“We can do it, just a little bit more!”

“Yes, yes!”

Orlaine replied to Leonora’s encouragement as sweat dripped down her face.

“I’m so sorry, Anri…”

On the other hand, Pope was looking at the pained Evil God Statue and crying
sorrowfully. It seemed like she alone wasn’t struggling as much.

Also, that thing is not me.

The Evil God Statue had had her movements slowed down greatly, but she had still
been trying to escape from the magical circle. Now it seemed like she could no longer
even stand, both of her knees dropped to the floor of the pedestal and she stopped
moving.

If she did try to escape from the circle, it would have been in the direction that I was
waiting, where I had set the Anryl Armour in order to intercept her, but it looks like I
wouldn’t have to worry about that anymore.

The now motionless Evil God Statue was sitting down right in front of me. Now and
again she would move as if struggling, but those movements became smaller and
smaller.

It was like seeing her in her death throes.

Before I knew it, I was completely absorbed by the sight of the Evil God Statue that I
was viewing through the Anryl Armour I was controlling.
How she struggled to somehow remove herself from the sudden disaster that befell
her, but not being able to and weakening. It would be a lie if I said that I felt nothing.

Should we really continue to have her sealed…

Thinking back, it was not as if the Evil God Statue had had any ill intentions.

She may have caused chaos to rain down on the surrounding countries, but that was
the results, not her intentions. It was my mistake that granted her divine protection,
implanted her with a will. She had just wandered around, not being able to understand
her surroundings. Even the last time when we set the pitfall and attacked her, all she
did was to sporadically fight back.

“…Ah.”

As if realizing that I was looking at her, the fallen Evil God Statue began to stare right
back at me.

It was like she was asking me for help or maybe saying her farewells.

“…!”

There was something rising up within me that would not allow me to stay still any
longer, and I got out of the Anryl Armour that I was in.

“Anri, what are you!?”

I understood it in my head.

The Evil God Statue had already brought chaos to the humans and mazoku, her
existence and potential danger were already recognized far and wide.

Helping her now would only mean that I would be carrying an extra burden, if things
went wrong I might even end up hurting the Thearchy. No, I would definitely be
hurting it.

Sealing it away right now would be the smart decision. I know that very well.

Even so, I could no longer believe that sealing the Evil God Statue like this was the
right decision.
I impulsively reached out my hand towards the wall of light between me and the Evil
God Statue that was created by the sealing magic. Of course, as the magic was meant
to seal away evil, this was an incredibly dangerous action. If I made a mistake, I could
end up being sealed away myself.

But, somehow my instincts were telling me that this seal magic was not that
dangerous. Even being this close, I do not feel afraid. It may be stronger than the
barrier that was cast around the church in Riemel, but it was still not something strong
enough to seal me.

And as if to confirm this feeling, the surface of the wall of light that my fingers touched
began to crack. While I felt power try to push me back in retaliation, it too, was not
particularly strong.

I determined that the magic in front of me was not something that I needed to be
cautious of, and I boldly swung my right hand in a cutting motion.

In an instant, cracks began to spread all over the wall of light, and after a short time
lag, it burst like a balloon.

The scattered light fell down like sparks, dancing before they disappeared. Like
countless fireflies flying, it was a fantastical sight to see.

At the same time that the wall of light went away, the glowing magical circle that had
been on the pedestal also disappeared.

And then I directly faced the Evil God Statue that sat crumbled and frozen on the
pedestal where the magic circle had been.

“Anri!?”

“Get away from there!”

“Hurry up and run!”

As the sealing magic was gone, there was nothing between me and the Evil God Statue.
On top of that, since I was no longer inside of the Anryl Armour, I was completely
exposed. If the Evil God Statue wanted to, she could easily crush me.

Perhaps they understood this too because Tena raised her voice like a scream, but I
calmed her with a raise of my hand. This Evil God Statue in front of me would not harm
me, I don’t know why, but I believed it.

I took one step forward and looked up at the Evil God Statue. Even though she was in
a sitting position, her face still reached high above me.

As we stared at one another, I began to talk in order to persuade her.

“If you can understand what I am saying, raise your right hand.”

That had been a gamble. If the Evil God Statue did not understand me, then there
would be nothing that I could do.

However, I had a certain conviction that I would be understood. As I and the statue
faced each other like this, I was once again hit with the feeling that there was a special
connection between us. This was likely related to the bloodkin symbol that was on the
statue’s forehead.

Even if it could not understand the words themselves, as long as there was a
connection through the bloodkin symbol on her forehead, then my will should reach
her.

That is what I thought when I said the words, and the Evil God Statue now raised her
right hand in reply.

“Wha!?”

“It, it understood!?”

Leonora and the others had expressions of shock.

In truth, none of our interactions up until this point had indicated that we would be
able to have a mutual understanding, so their shock was to be expected. Even I
wouldn’t have believed that it was possible if I didn’t know that my own patterns of
movement were being reflected.

“If you will promise, upon hearing what I say, that you will not cause any
inconveniences to the people around you, we will not hurt you any further. Raise your
right hand if you understand.”
The Evil God Statue looked at me without moving for a short moment, eventually, it
raised its right hand.

“…”

Leonora and the others had stopped talking, they held their breaths and watched as I
negotiated with the Evil God Statue.

“You will not hurt anyone other than in self-defense.”

The Evil God Statue raised its hand without hesitation. It seemed that it was an easily
accepted condition.

“You will stay in a designated area, you will not leave it without permission.”

This time it did not react quickly, but after a while, it slowly raised its hand. The
reaction made it obvious that it had reluctantly accepted this condition; it may be
necessary to follow up on this later.

“You will obey me when I give an order.”

The hand immediately went up. The third condition was accepted without issues.

“Lastly, you will be careful to not allow others to look under your skirt.”

The hand remained down. But it did not seem as if it was unacceptable, but that its
meaning was unclear. Her head tilted to the side.

“Hide it.”

I said as I held down the skirt of my own dress. Finally, it understood my meaning and
the right hand came up.

Thankfully, this could now wrap up in a peaceful manner.

I let out a sigh of relief as if being freed of a heavy burden.

And right then something started to poke my shoulder.

I turned around to see what it was.

And there behind me was… Leonora and Orlaine, standing with the biggest smiles on
their faces. But what was scary was that their eyes were not smiling at all. And maybe
it was just me, but it seemed like veins were popping out on their foreheads.

And then, still smiling, the two let out a single word.

“‘Seiza.’”
“In the first place, you are always way too reckless in your actions. Can’t you put
yourself in our shoes, even a little!”

“We put so much effort into activating that sealing magic, and you just had to go and
waste it all!?”

“What were you going to do if that statue went berserk!?”

“About that, I do understand that it would be preferable if you can solve this without
sealing her, but what about all our hard work?”

I was forced to sit in a seiza position on top of the pedestal that the Evil God Statue
was on, as Leonora and Orlaine both lectured me from both sides at the same time.

I admit it, I was in the wrong in this case. It might have been because of the bloodkin
symbol, but there was a part of me that was acting rather impulsively.

One mistake could have lead to a complete disaster, and so I couldn’t quite blame these
girls for seeing it as a betrayal. They had worked with me in order to deal with the Evil
God Statue.

And so I understood why they were angry.

I could… but I wished that they would at spare me this double lecture. I am not a saint.
I cannot distinguish between the two voices when they talk to me at the same time.

“Are you listening, Anri!”

“Are you listening to me, Anri!”

“I’m listening.”

I was listening. It reached my ears anyway. But even so, I would prefer it if they’d talk
one at a time.

By the way, the ones lecturing me were only Leonora and Orlaine. As for what the
other two were doing, both Tena and Pope were with me, sitting in the seiza position
at my side.

There was no actual need for them to sit with me, but Pope had said:

“I will not allow Anri to take this penance alone!”

And he then began to sit next to me. Tena, who had overheard this said:

“In that case, I will sit in seiza as well.”

And so all three of us were now sitting.

This was the second time that those two had to sit in seiza, and they seemed in a lot of
pain from being unaccustomed to it. Along those lines, my own feet were starting to
feel the pain as well.

Behind us was the Evil God Statue that was being discussed, I have no idea what she
was thinking, but she was sitting in seiza too, as if copying us. She was a person(?) who
was concerned in this after all, so perhaps it was the proper thing. But seeing the giant
Evil God Statue sitting down like this; she started to look a little cute to me.

But since she was modeled after me, saying that comes off as a little self-
congratulatory.

“…”

“…”

“Hm?”

I had a strong feeling of eyes on me, so I looked away from the Evil God Statue who I
had been staring at and saw Leonora and Orlaine silently staring at me, their smiles
were 20% bigger than the ones that they previously had.

Oh, dear. They realized that I had been looking at someone else. Both of them
continued their bright smiles, all the while exuding an air of intense anger.
If I may make an excuse, those two were refusing to look directly into my eyes in order
to avoid the influence of the evil eye, and so I ended up looking at other things.

“It seems that she is not yet repentant enough.”

“Indeed. What shall we do?”

As this disturbing conversation took place in front of me, I timidly raised my hand
without thinking and tried to interrupt them.

“Any room for excuses…?”

“No.”

“None.”

They cut me off with a word.

On top of that, Leonora’s left hand and Orlaine’s right hand stretched out and each
grabbed my cheeks and started to pinch and pull.

“Ou, ouuouu!”

Ouch, ouch!

I’m against this violence!

“Please don’t be so cruel to Anri…”

“You shut up.”

“Uh, don’t you think that’s enough…”

“Tena, you be quite as well, you hear?”

Pope and Tena who were also sitting with me, tried to remonstrate with them, but the
two angry girls did not listen.

“Now you won’t be able to look anywhere else. And now, let us start this again.”
“It can’t be helped. It is your fault for looking at other things and not listening.”

And so the nightmare began.

For two hours after that, the two devils continued to lecture me, all the while pinching
my cheeks. On top of that, if I tried to look away even a little, they would pull my cheeks
hard.

“Well, perhaps we’ll leave it at that.”

“Indeed. My hands have grown tired, and my throat is dry from the continuous
talking.”

“…”

I knew that opening my mouth again would only be the cause for yet another round of
abuse, so I stayed still and waited for the storm to pass.

My cheeks, which had been pinched for so long were finally released. I massaged them
with my hands.

Ouch.

I couldn’t see as I didn’t have a mirror, but I was sure that they were about as red as
they could possibly be.

As a bonus, my legs were completely numb aside form a tingling sensation. Any quick
movements now would have grave consequences, so I have to move slowly and allow
the blood to circulate…

Cheeks aside, both Tena and Pope were in a similar state to me with regards to their
legs.

“So, what are you actually planning to do with this statue?”

Leonora asked me as I moved my legs and tried to get rid of the numbness.

“First, I think I will give her a name.”

“Huh? A name?”

I had called her an Evil God Statue all this time, but as she had a will, I didn’t think that
such a way of referring to her was still appropriate. And I didn’t want to refer to her
as ‘that’ either.

“What name will you give her?”

Hmmm. It was an idea that had just come to me, so I didn’t have any good names yet.

But at that moment, the Anryl Armour that I had been in appeared in my vision.

This was it.

I stood up, ignoring the numbness in my feet and said to the Evil God Statue, who was
even now, still sitting in seiza.

“From now on, your name is Anryl Keeper. The Guardian of the Theocracy, Anryl
Keeper. What do you think?”

Hm? The reaction wasn’t great. Not only the Evil God Statue’s but Tena and the others
as well.

Maybe it was because, in spite of saying that I didn’t want to refer to her as if she were
an object, I gave her a name that sounded more like a job title. But a name like
Josephine or Charlotte for an Evil God Statue that looked like her, well, I felt that that
would be awkward as well, I thought this was a nice compromise.

But everyone should relax. I have an idea.

“Aki for short.”

I took the first characters from each word, ‘A’nryl ‘K’eeper and connected them to
make Aki. Perhaps it sounds cheap, but now no one could say anything about objects
or job titles.

She seemed to be satisfied this time, and the Evil God Statue -now Aki, raised her right
hand. It appeared like she was fond of the name.

“Aki then. I think that it is a good name, but what do you mean by Guardian of the
Theocracy?”

Pope asked, appearing to still be fighting the numbness in his legs.

“I will have her remain and stand here, in times of need she can be part of my defense
force.”

Though I said defense force, a statue of this size who was mobile was likely to prevent
anyone from attacking by just standing there. So she might actually have more of an
effect as a deterrent.

This country, as it is now, has almost nothing that could be considered as a fighting
force. It’s made me quite wary of the possibility of an attack, so I would be quite
relieved if Aki took this responsibility.

“I see, that’s a great idea. That would help us a lot as well. If you require it, we will allot
some of the defense budgets to this purpose.”

“Dispatching fees can be discussed at a later date.”

“Understood.”

As they would be dispatching one my own, it was only proper that I would receive the
dispatching fee. And if necessary, I could use some of it to pay her a salary.

But it was likely that Aki would not require food or anything that involved money, so
she wouldn’t need to be paid anything.

However, she was no ordinary bronze statue, as she had a will. It would be necessary
to lay out some labor conditions. Even if she wouldn’t be paid, I think I could allow her
rests and vacations at least.

Though, after seeing her so happily collect those giant gold coins, there was a risk that
she might start asking for money. I’d have to negotiate when the time came.

Right then Tena, who had finally recovered from her numbed feet, raised her hand and
asked:

“Um, Anri?”
“What?”

“Uh, it’s about Aki… if you had her stand here, wouldn’t we start receiving complaints
from other countries?”

“Well…”

In truth, it was something that I had considered but had pushed to the back of my
mind.

Aki had walked around in a wide area that included the domains of humans and
mazoku, destroying buildings and wreaking havoc. Even if you ignored that, she had
still unmistakably created chaos among the other countries. Saying that I will keep her
installed here in the Theocracy was likely to be met with complaints. The only saving
grace was that she hadn’t hurt any people yet.

However, as I’ve already resolved to help her, there was nothing to do but for me to
take responsibility, apologize and make reparations until they were accepted.

…What little amount of money I have will inevitably disappear.

I looked at Leonora as if to check her mood.

“Our country has no intention of asking for reparations. While chaos may have been
caused, no actual harm was done.”

Thank god, for now at least there would be no trouble with the mazoku. Now I could
concentrate on dealing with the humans.

I went over to Pope and made a single order.

“I need you to send a message to all of the countries. Tell them about the current
situation, and that I am thinking about keeping Aki… as a Guardian Anryl Keeper for
the Theocracy. Also that I am willing to make amends through financial means.”

“Understood. I will do it immediately.”

Pope also seemed to have recovered from his numbed legs, as he got up, bowed and
left in the direction of the Evil God Temple.
“Are you sure about that?”

“About the money?”

“Yeah, reparations between countries. Though you may have amassed some money
the other day, I think the price may be too steep to pay by yourself.”

“That may be true, but I have to settle this.”

Yes, in order for Aki to be able to be able to stay here, I had to settle this once and for
all. I would have to accept a certain degree of monetary compensation.

…it may be a lot more than I expect, but it’s my responsibility as I made her my kin. I
can’t escape this, even if it means living in debt.
Some time had passed since we’d all found our admittedly grim resolve, and the Pope
summoned us to his office where we reconvened. Apart from the Pope and myself,
Tena, Lily, and Leonora were all present and accounted for.

Orlaine, on the other hand, I’d sent back to deal with the construction work; her role
in Aki’s counter-plan had already been fulfilled. I couldn’t even bring myself to part
her from the Holy Bow again.

While I’d assumed that Leonora would leave too and that she would be on her way
home, she had decided to stay with us and return once the dust had settled down
completely.

“Did the nations respond?”

“They did. The distance did result in a few gaps here and there, but I can safely say
that the nations most likely to answer have responded. For the most part, at least.”

“What do you mean by ‘most likely’?”

Were there even nations that wouldn’t respond?

“Luxiria serves, as you well know, the headquarters for the Faith of Holy Light. It and
whatever countries fall under its influence have seen fit to turn us away at the door, or
so it would seem. Rather arrogant, if I do say so myself, to reject Lady Anri…”

That made sense. The birthplace of the Holy Light Faith – considering the presence of
the Origin Faction that had been established in the Foltera Kingdom, I thought it would
be best to refer to its actual place of origin as its birthplace – was unwilling to accept
the mere existence of the Holy Lands. That could only mean that they were just as
unwilling to listen to anything they had to say.

“Let’s leave it at that, then.”

“As you command.”

While I doubted that we could paint this situation as a necessarily beneficial one, it
stood itself to reason that an alliance with those lands would be challenging. Then
again, we might just as well take solace in the fact that they had sent no direct
objection.

“Well, what about the others?”

We’d stated that financial support would be given as a sign of good faith, so it was safe
to assume that at least several demands addressing the quantity of wealth had piled
up. I wondered just how much they’d ask for. My tension only increased, and a few
drops of cold sweat ran down my back.

The Pope simply lifted a large sack he’d had lying at his side, hoisting it onto his desk.
The bulging bag gave off the sound of metal hitting metal. It was clearly stuffed with
large amounts of money.

I opened the sack, peering in and confirming my suspicions. It was packed full of
golden coins.

“…?”

Why all this cash? Was it supposed to be some sort of personal budget? I just didn’t
understand why he’d gone out of his way to show us all of this. What, was he bragging
now?

“The other nations sent this along with their replies. What you see here is just a
fraction.”

…?! Wait, so they weren’t sending us invoices? They were sending us money? How’d
that even happen?!

Wait. Maybe this was supposed to be some sort of donation meant for a suffering
country. There was no way the other nations hadn’t had their own fair share of
damage, but here they were, sending their support. They weren’t even demanding that
they be compensated for the damage done against them. There really was some good
left in this world, wasn’t there?

“The responses themselves are, of course, varied. But they all seem to make the same
point.”

“And that would be?”

“How do I put this… Well, if I were to give a brief summary… it would be something
along the lines of, ‘Here’s the money you wanted, please don’t hurt us.’ Something like
that.”

“Huh?”

Whatever words might have left my gaping mouth were immediately blocked. I just
didn’t get it.

So, simply put, this money was supposed to act as some sort of payment for their own
safety. Who was the idiot who thought this might have been donation money again?

That still didn’t explain what they meant when they said ‘wanted’. Really, the whole
situation would imply that we’d extorted money out of them somehow.

“Oh, do you think they might’ve misinterpreted what you said about ‘being willing to
offer payment as a sign of good faith’ as ‘pay us to show your good faith’? Maybe they
even thought that Aki parading around from nation to nation was some sort of
demonstration. Something to coax money of of them, you know.”

How would that even happen, ever?!

Well, if Leonora’s guess turned out to be on the mark – although it was fair to assume
it was, given all the money in plain sight – then not only would it seem as if we’d sent
out a huge statue to destroy the other nations, but that we’d even added a nice little
cherry on top by actually threatening to raid them if they didn’t pay up. They’d think
we were the masterminds behind some evil political power move or something.

I was fully prepared to pay for whatever damages caused and apologise, no duplicity
intended. Treating us like this was a bit much, wasn’t it?

“What do you suggest we do now?”

The Pope’s question forced me to weigh our options for a bit.

There were to things we could do. We could either send all this money back and try
our hand at apologising again, or we could leave the whole misunderstanding up in
the air and just take the gold.

Anyone would tell you that the right thing to do would be the former, but if we
considered the image we already had, it wasn’t too difficult to assume that it would
sink even further if we did. If we managed to screw ourselves over, they might have
just thought that we were asking for even more money. There was the legitimate
threat of them getting desperate and revolting against us.

The second option was the only one that seemed reasonable. As long as I didn’t send
Aki out past the Holy Land borders, we should be able to find a way to resolve this. I
couldn’t say that it felt good to be so stigmatised, but our hands were tied. We were
already nose-deep in muck anyway.

“Respond to them. Tell them we received it with no issue.”

Right. That should have been the best way of keeping ourselves free from any more
fuss. I had definitely, in no way, shape or form, been completely blinded by the sheer
heaps of money.

For the time, we decided to pour the money we’d received into our national treasury,
then decided to take a small cut to pay for the results of Aki being dispatched.

When I woke, I found myself standing in the same room where I’d taken part in the
Three Gods’ Hearing not days ago. Mirroring the events prior, I was on a pedestal that
had been erected in the middle of the room. In front of me were Sophia, Anbar, and my
divine counterpart, all of them seated at a table.

“The report discussion meeting is now in session.”

My godly self was the one to declare so.

But if you asked me, hearing any report from me was a little…

“I guess you can put it that way if you want. But we all pretty much know what’s going
on, so…”

“True. I should admit that I’ve seen the situation unfold with my own eyes.”
There you had it. These deities were perfectly capable of gathering intel on their own;
it was exactly what made them able to know what was going on in the mundane world.
There really wasn’t much sense in reporting on something they already knew.

Still, that hadn’t stopped this from being the second time they’d brought me here.
Were they going to give me an earful about how I’d just used Aki as a sort of guardian
deity for the Holy Lands without defeating and sealing her properly? They certainly
didn’t look like they were about too. The mood didn’t feel particularly strict.

“Hey, no worries. We didn’t call you over here just so we could point fingers.”

“While we did instruct you to deal with the giant idol that was wreaking havoc across
both demon and human territory, we never said that you had to defeat it, or even seal
it. As long as it was kept from needlessly loitering about neighbouring lands, we would
have deemed it a splendid resolution.”

“Good work.”

With the Three Gods giving me their approval, I sighed and finally managed to calm
down. Admittedly, I’d have been a little worried if they’d told me to destroy it or seal
it. But of course, they didn’t just stop there.

“But here’s the thing. That idol… What was it called again? The Anryl Keeper? Anyway,
we need to make sure it doesn’t give us a repeat of what happened.”

“That would be why we called you here. We have to be sure.”

They had a point. If I didn’t actually defeat it or seal it away, then it would only be
natural that they demand it never goes on a rampage again. That shouldn’t be an issue.
I already planned to keep a sharp eye on Aki, to make sure that she didn’t leave the
country and start giving other nations trouble. No argument there.

But I had absolutely no idea how I’d go about giving proof.

“So how do I prove it won’t?”

There really wasn’t that much I could guarantee. I could only offer verbal
acquiescence, and that was something I could only keep under the pretence that Aki
would continue listening to what I had to say. There really wasn’t much to confirm that
she would.
“Well, guess all we can do is trust in you and hope that statue hangs on to what you
tell it. As long as it has the mark of a follower, it should be fine. At least, if things don’t
get too out of hand.”

“Should you swear to continue observing it, then I will place my faith in you. Our own
Anri will act as a guardian.”

“Sure.”

Sophie shifted her jaw in my divine counterpart’s direction, who was still sitting at the
middle of the table. Satisfied with what Sophia had said, she nodded.

It looked like she was willing to clean up after me. I couldn’t have been more grateful.

“Got it. I’ll keep an eye out and make sure she doesn’t cause trouble for other nations.
Is that alright?”

“Sure, I guess.”

“It is. I won’t argue.”

“And that settles it.”

My relief until now had been the result of a muddled sort of joy, but now I could feel
purely relieved knowing that everything had turned out for the best.

Several days later, I decided to go out for a stroll and take the time to look over Aki’s
movements, walking until I reached a spot closer to the temple.

The fortification had been rebuilt after the prolonged misfortune that had befallen it,
and countless faithful had come to gather in front. Adults at their peak were present,
as were both the young and the elderly. Both men and women had come. They all
prayed with great zeal. For a moment, I thought that I might have come to the wrong
place.

I let myself blend into the crowd and looked up. Finally, I was able to make out the
shape of a statue that had eased itself into a position with its rear against the ground
and its legs angled backwards but not supporting her from below, instead girlishly set
at its sides. As it turned out, she had assumed this position when she had been asked
to hide her underwear from view.

On a side-note: while she did seem to be upright at noon, there was a rumour floating
about that she would lie down on her side when night fell. I couldn’t say for sure if that
was the case, considering that I had yet to bear witness to that sort of thing.

I waved at her softly, making sure that no one around me would notice. She waved
back, apparently aware of my presence.

The praying faithful were not at all taken back by Aki’s sudden movement. Quite on
the contrary, they seemed absolutely excited to have seen it happen. They had already
come to terms with the fact that an idol like her was capable of autonomous
movement. The people of this country were, generally speaking, a bit on the bolder
side of the fence.

Happy to see that Aki was doing well for herself, I went back the way I came, walking
beneath the clear skies.

For the record, I did my best to ignore all the offering boxes that had been built around
the area.

And there you go, the story (?) of a daily lifestyle. The third volume’s still being edited for
publishing, and should be released by the twenty-fifth of May. Who knows, maybe it won’t
take long for it to be available in stores.

Even taking the editing into account, volume three should have more renewed text in it
than volumes one and two did. (About a third would be my guess. Maybe half if we
include all the revisions to the perspectives.)

I’m sure that the people more familiar with the web-novel can still enjoy it a lot, so please,
don’t be afraid to take a look.

I’m also starting a new series to commemorate the third volume being sold, “All-or-
Nothing Pile Bunker♂”.

It’s the story of a young man who gets his hands on a cutting edge armament. It’s a
fantasy-comedy. I’ll be updating it every single day until the stock runs out.
【 】
Time to celebrate! Still pitching our protagonist!

There’s a new serialisation that’s going to have an entirely different, title, protagonist,
and general perspective; “Evil God at Random – A Fairly Average Evil God Girl and a
Summoned Hero”. It’s going to go public by the twenty-fourth of October.

Also, I know I just went on about still pitching for the protagonist, but this version’s going
to have a few revisions to Anri’s main character status.

I’ll use this opportunity for another announcement. I’ve been told that, since it’s been
over a year since the initial publication of Volume One, it’s a-okay to post the store-
limited short stories. Which I’m about to do.

I found myself face-to-face with great misfortune. It wouldn’t have been far-fetched to
denote it as a tragedy, either.

“My stomach… It’s… Just Squishy… Uh-oh.”

I attempted to assuage my worries by giving my gut a light pinch, only to realise, and
with utter horror and despair, that it was all too easy for me to grab a whole chunk
between my fingers. If I had to find some sort of comparison that might adequately
describe the way I felt, it would probably be something along the lines of realising that
you were out of toilet paper while you were on the can.

The assumption I’d had, namely that I wouldn’t lead any sort of luxurious lifestyle
when I came to this world, had led to my own negligence. The general lack of physical
activity on my part had been my downfall.

I couldn’t even recall any event in recent memory where I’d become that active.
Actually, that might have been an understatement. I’ve barely even stepped outside
the dungeon, not since Tena had come here.

If I took all of that into account, it certainly wasn’t difficult to imagine why I’d gotten
fat – pardon, I misspoke. I’d just put on a teeny-tiny bit of weight, that was all.
Regardless, now that I’d finally taken notice, I really had no excuse. I had to take some
counter-measures. I still considered myself a fine young maiden at heart, even if that
wasn’t always apparent.

“Maybe I should just start wearing loose robes. Maybe no one’ll notice…”

Temptation whispered sweet words into my head, but I did my best to ignore it. This
really wasn’t a matter of being noticed or not; this was a matter of pride. A maiden’s
pride.

“Exercise is such a bore, though…”

True, that much I agreed with – no, stop. That was close. I couldn’t give in to the
temptation. I steeled my resolve, my mind completely set on seeing this through to the
end.

There were two specific ways, I thought, which would help me pull through this new
dieting plan.

The reason people got fat in the first place – sorry, misspoke again. The reason people
put on a little weight could be traced back to the idea that some people took in more
calories than they could burn off. Whatever remained in excess would turn into these
sorry clumps of flesh that would stick to your body. Following that strain of logic,
dieting could be divided into two rather broad definitions. One could either focus on
burning away more calories, or one could try and tone down their calorie intake.

“Exercise is a definite no-go.”

It only took me two seconds to give up on the former. I’d never been the type of person
who moved around much. It didn’t really matter how desperate I was to shave off the
extra weight; forcing myself to dive into the deep end and start exercising on the spot
was practically impossible. There was also another much more fundamental factor
that played into all of this: spending all of my time holed up in a dungeon put a bit of
a hamper on any exercise plans.

I could therefore assume that the whole exercise idea had to be rejected. It definitely
wasn’t just because of how mind-numbingly tedious the whole process was, no sir.
That was something I would stand by to my dying breath.

Well then, what about my second option?

As far as I was concerned, the idea of whittling down on the calories in my meals was
much more doable, at least when compared to the alternative. I wasn’t planning to
overstep the limits of what I could handle, of course. It wasn’t like I was about to start
fasting or restricting how much I should eat, not at all. I planned on changing my menu
to something more veggie-inclusive, and possibly eating fewer carbohydrates.

Yep, that sounded just good enough to work.

“Lady Anri! Food’s ready!”

“I’ll be there in a minute.”

I’d been thinking well into dinnertime, it seemed. Tena was already calling for me. I
washed my hands in the bathroom, then headed for the dining hall. Dinner had already
been laid out on the table.

“…?!”

I was petrified when I saw what was on the day’s menu. Tena had always shown a sort
of knack for home cooking, and most of her dishes were rather simple. You know, stew
and the sort. However, for whatever reason, she’d decided to break the norm today
and placed – enshrined, rather – an extremely well-proportioned steak on the centre
of the table.

Why now? Why, of all times, did she have to pick today to make a whole steak…?

My face almost twitched, but I held myself back and asked Tena about this new ordeal.

“Is it just me, or does the food look a little more high-end than it usually does?”

“It does! It’s just that you’ve been so down lately, Lady Anri. I thought this might cheer
you up, so I went ahead and made something just for you, extra-meaty! It took a lot of
work.”

Well, she was definitely just being considerate, and that made me happy. Really, it did.
But now I couldn’t keep myself from imaging something adorably evil about Tena, as
happy as she appeared when I went to pat her on the head.

The dish in front of me, the very thing that was sure to only add to my overly plump
problems almost made me sweat rivers.

“Um… Is there something wrong?”

Tena couldn’t help but deliver her question with a rather nervous undertone when she
saw how stiff I looked, and how I didn’t even let my hand wander near the food. I could
already see it in my head, clear as day. I could already see myself gaining weight from
this dish alone. This wasn’t easy for me, but I had to put my foot down and –

“Uh… Am I just being a bother…?”

“No, I was just a little surprised. Didn’t think we’d get to eat something like this. Down
the hatch.”

I couldn’t do it. Not with Tena looking up at me like that, not with her eyes tearing up.
Telling her that I was on a diet and that I wouldn’t eat this seemed nothing short of
needless cruelty. Besides, telling Tena that I was going on a diet sort of felt as if I was
already admitting to the world that I’d put on just the tiniest bit of weight. I wanted to
avoid that. I wanted to be a bit more nonchalant about the whole thing.

Alright then, I could always start my diet tomorrow. It was just one day off, after all. It
wouldn’t change much. Starting tomorrow, I just had to take things more seriously.

You know what, what ended up happening with me and the meat could just stay
between us, couldn’t it? But there’s probably just one more thing I had to mention…
Tena may or may not have thought that the whole thing made me really happy, so she’d
come up with the idea to make steak our go-to main dish. It was a big miscalculation
on my part, I had to admit.

Please, just… Just give me a break…

 j

I’d been stuck in plenty of binds even since I was chucked into this world. That didn’t
mean that I hadn’t made any pleasant experiences, obviously. Among those pleasant
experiences was the noticeable lack of that fiendish device that sunk women
throughout the world into the deepest throes of despair. Yes indeed, the accursed
device we knew as ‘scales’ didn’t even exist in this universe. And, in my humble
opinion, any person who had the sheer gall to ask me what bathroom scales even were
should fall prey to their reviled machinations.

Anyway. Without bathroom scales, I had no way of measuring the minute fluctuations
in weight I might have gone through. Even if I did gain a little weight, I had nothing
beyond the scope of my own erroneous calculations to make use of. Which was why I
really shouldn’t dwell on the issue.

Plump and round… No. I couldn’t do it. It still gnawed at me.

The very next day, I finally swallowed my shame and asked Tena to stick to meals that
would benefit my diet. And so began my dietary struggle.

And there you have it, that ends the first of several special side-stories released with the
publicised version of Volume One. I should mention that I wrote four different types of
short stories. (It’s the first time I write them out here, though).

The publication of Evil God At Random is about four weeks away, so one short story every
week seems sort of fitting. Yeah, I think that’s the pacing I’ll stick to when I upload these.
Author’s Pre-Chapter Note:

This is the second chapter of special chapters in “Evil God Average” published book
volume 1.

By chronological order, this should happen between chapter 9-10 of the first volume.

Although Tena has become used to living together with Anri, but the beginning of that
livelihood wasn’t entirely smooth. The cause being: the living circumstances that Anri
prepared in the dungeon was, by this world’s standard or so to speak, it was extremely
absurd.

To begin with, if it’s a person possessing common sense, they would think that the
residence is quite weird in many aspects that it is a dungeon. For argument’s sake, if
there are people leading a life in a residence like that, they would be magicians close to
hermits who immersed themselves in a research away from the human habitation, or
simply people who had to lead a life running away from any kind of circumstances.

For Tena, just about everything was her first time, and she kept having various questions
or even fright.

First, what she questioned in the beginning was about the abnormality of the bright
dungeon in each and every room inside, despite it being deep in the underground.

Since it was almost as bright as it was normally outside, so obviously she couldn’t
refrain from wondering about it. When Tena looked around her surroundings and
gazed at the light source, there was a small sun floating around.

“Uhm, why would there be a sun inside the dungeon?”

“If there is no sun here, then our life rhythm would crumble. Also, if we don’t have
sunlight, we can’t grow the crops.”

The problem wasn’t that. What Tena wanted to hear wasn’t the purpose of it, but how
could such a thing be done?

But then again, since Anri created the dungeon using her “dungeon create” skill, she
implemented her other world’s knowledge combined with her idea. So, even if she was
asked the real question, even Anri who prepared it herself wouldn’t be able to answer.

However, Tena was curious about something else from Anri’s answer, so she was more
preoccupied with that compared to the false sun.

“Eh? Crops, you said?”

When you heard it from Anri’s words, it was as if it was possible to raise crops inside
the dungeon. Dungeon and crops, it was difficult to guess their conection. Therefore,
Tena raised her question.

Anri who heard that, decided to lead Tena into an indoor vegetable garden.

It was a rather large room. Particularly, if we were to compare it with the small house
in the village where Tena was raised, that room could fit several houses.

The room was divided into several divisions in which fruits and vegetables were
planted.

“I, inside a dungeon, there is a field…”

“I think we can harvest them soon.”

To cultivate a field indoor in a world that doesn’t have a plastic greenhouse, it was
certainly an unimaginable thing for Tena who took care of the fields in her village, and
her body hardened in surprise. However, since it was not a surprising idea for Anri,
she didn’t notice that.

Nevertheless, even if Anri did plant the fruits and vegetables herself, the divisions of
the indoor vegetable garden was within the feature of the Dungeon Create.

It was a feature that existed from the beginning of this world, but there was simply no
one able to do that.

After that, the two of them headed towards the nearest kitchen from the indoor
vegetable garden. So that the harvested vegetables could be cooked immediately, the
kitchen was adjoined with the indoor vegetable garden.

“W, what an amazing kitchen!”

“Is that so? You can use it as you like.”

From Tena’s point of view, the facilities prepared here could be considered as a royal
palace’s kitchen—Tena has never seen a royal palace’s kitchen, so it was just
something inside her imagination—but, from Anri’s point of view, if she were to
compare it to the modern era’s system kitchen, it was such an unfavorable
comparison, so she couldn’t understand what was amazing from it.

Although her head understood how big the civilization gap between the two worlds
is, she wasn’t really able to experience it personally.

Afterwards, Anri showed Tena the bathroom.

When they opened the door, the bathtub had already been filled with hot water.

“The bath is over there, and it will always be filled.”

“I, it will always be filled…?”

To begin with, it was irrational for a personal residence to have its own bathroom in
this world.

Especially for people like Tena who originated from a village in the countryside,
basically, you would use the water from the well, river, or the fountain to cleanse
yourself, so it wasn’t unusual for her to have never seen a bathroom before. In
actuality, it was Tena’s first time seeing a bathroom.

Even for someone like her, if she were to compare the bathroom before her own eyes
to the bathrooms she had heard before, she could comprehend that this bathroom was
out of the standard.

After she finished showing the bathroom, Anri showed the warehouse to Tena.

“Uhm, it seems like there is no food supply at all inside the warehouse.”

“It’s because I put them inside item boxes so they won’t get damaged, and they can get
taken out later on.”

“I, item boxes?!”

By the way, since “Item Box” skill is not an unique skill, it doesn’t mean that only Anri
can use it in this world. However, it is indeed included in the rare category of skills.

After feeling that not only the residence, but the master of this residence was out of
the standard, Tena smiled stiffly.

Astonishment is the kind of feeling that exhausts your physical strength and mental
strength considerably.

By the time the introductory trip around the residence ended, Tena who was surprised
by everything she saw, became completely exhausted due to her fatigue.

“Are you okay?”

“I, I’m fine! I will definitely get used to it!”

In other words, she wasn’t fine at the present time.

Tena replied to Anri who asked her a question out of her concern, that there shouldn’t
be any worry at all for the future prospects.

Anri also saw Tena’s reaction during when she introduced her around, so she noticed
the big gap between her and Tena’s standard of living environment. However, she
couldn’t do anything even when she noticed that. She completely rejected the option
of dropping the living standard level so it would match Tena’s standard.

“You might not be used to it in the beginning, so feel free to ask me if there’s something
you don’t understand.”

“U, understood!”

Furthermore, as Tena grew accustomed to her living environment to some extent, she
couldn’t comprehend whether it was because of the high level of humans’ adaptation
ability or if it was because she just gave up.
(Chapter Three of the special series, published exclusively for the printed edition of Evil
God Average Volume One. Takes place during the seventeenth chapter of the first
volume.)

Leonora had just decided to lecture Anri and Tena about the intricacies of Dark Magic.

The girl stood atop a makeshift platform, her white lab gown fluttering behind her as
she turned to face her two students. She’d even equipped herself with a teacher’s cane,
although she abstained from wearing glasses for the added touch.

“So, you want to learn about Dark Magic, do you? Well… Before we can begin, there’s
something I should ask. Can you two even use magic?”

Both Anri and Tena shook their heads in response. The two of them shared a more
humble beginning as ordinary, everyday folk; magic might as well have been alien to
them.

“I see. Well then, I suppose it’s best we start with the basics of magic. Allow me to
explain just how magic is actually utilised.”

Leonora moved to a large sheet of paper that had been stuck to the wall, writing down
two separate terms.

“There are, to put it simply, two requirements for making use of magic: Mana and
Imagination.”

“What about Skills?”

She met Anri’s question with a nod and a hum.

A certain subset of those that roamed the world were blessed with what they called
‘Skills’, and skills based around sorcery were well documented. Anri, already familiar
with that concept, had asked if those skills weren’t another prerequisite for the use of
magic.
“If we ignore any of the more unique cases that allow someone to wield sorceries
known to have a naturally limited set of users, as is the case with Light and Dark magic,
then Skills really aren’t a necessity. Fire and Water Magic, for example, can be used
naturally without the need for one.”

While it was known that Light and Dark Sorceries were limited to Humans and
Demonkind respectively, there was nevertheless a handful of individuals that were
either born with the capacity to invoke magic not available to their kind, or came to
acquire them owing to unique circumstances. Those people were, without exception,
gifted with a skill that pertained to these otherwise restricted feats.

Both Anri and Tena were prime examples of such people.

“Do skills for Fire and Water Magic even exist?”

“Oh, they do. Either can be used without the need for a skill, but those that do have
them have a much easier time casting whatever type their skill leans towards. They
also tend to be much more effective.”

“Right.”

Anri appeared satisfied with the answer.

“Still, they don’t come without their cons. For those that have a magic-type skill, using
other types of magic becomes much more taxing. It’s not that they can’t be used, they
just become harder to use. That’s why it’s so common for most of these skill holders
to focus their efforts on what their Skill allows. And since you two have a Dark Magic
skill, it’s better for you to turn that into your speciality.”

If, for the sake of argument, someone were to have a Skill pertaining to Fire Magic,
then both their manipulation of mana and the maintenance of an image relating to
that type of magic would be much more convenient thanks to the support provided by
said skill. However, their natural predisposition to Fire Magic would affect their
manipulation and whatever mental image they could conjure, which also meant that
the same processes would become much more inhibited when using Water Magic.

“Um… I’ve got a question too, if you don’t mind.”

“Go ahead.”
Tena had spoken this time, her hand raised timidly.

“Don’t you need something like a spell or a chant when you want to use magic?”

“Many make spells and incantations out to be a necessity, that much is true. The truth
of the matter, however, is that they’re not completely mandatory. They’re more of a
rite that makes magic easier to use. With enough mana and a clear enough mental
image, it’s entirely possible to abridge them or leave them out in their entirety.”

“Oh, I see. I get it now.”

Having talked for long enough, Leonora cleared her throat and brought them all back
on track.

“Alright then, let’s move on to something more practical. We’ll start with mana
manipulation. Both of you, spread your legs to shoulder length, put your right hands
in front of you and turn your palms upwards.”

“Sure.”

“Understood.”

Anri and Tena settled into their new position, just as Leonora had instructed them to.

“Now, curl your fingers a little and focus on the centre of your palms. Try to imagine
the energy rushing around you slowly moving there.”

Graced with the view of two driven newcomers so intent on learning to manipulate
their mana, Leonora simply crossed her arms and closed her eyes, seemingly
reminiscing about the good old days.

“It’s entirely possible that you won’t be able to imagine the flow around you, at least
not on your first try. It’s just something you need to do over and over again until you
get it right. Everyone moves at their own pace, but it still takes at least hours to―”

“Done.”

“I did it too.”

“No, no, that’s way too damn quick!”

Leonora, faced with the sight of the two mastering the skill with ease, could do very
little but play the straight man.

“W-Well, no matter… That’s what it feels like when you focus your mana. You can use
that to create just the right quantity and density of mana, get the right image in your
head, and then chant. Like I said, the better you get, the closer you are to not needing
chants at all. Well, we’ve come this far. We might as well try out some beginner-level
spells.”

Seeing them both master what had taken her hours and hours in a matter of minutes
had been a great shock for Leonora, that much was true. She still looked past her own
feelings on the matter and decided to move on to the next step, teaching the other two
the incantation to a spell that would allow them to spew an orb of Dark Magic.

“Now that you’re done gathering mana in your palms, face them towards the wall and
imagine a ball or darkness. Just hold on to that picture in your heads and chant the
spell I just taught you. It’s a little challenging until you get used to it, especially since
the incantation tends to distract you from the image. But if you keep practising over
and over again, you should be able to get it right.”

It barely took a moment for two large orbs of darkness to spawn on their palms, each
bigger than a person’s head might be. They shot from their hands, charging into the
wall and leaving behind a large, gaping hole.

“Huh, it worked.”

“It worked for me too.”

“Oh come on, that’s still too quick!”

That made the second time Leonora was forced into the straight man role. It was bad
enough for her that they’d taken an inordinately small amount of time to cast the spell,
but the fact that the impact was so much more powerful that it should have been made
it even worse. She was already sweating waterfalls, at least on the inside. To add insult
to injury, the Dark Magic Skill they both possessed was clearly the main culprit behind
their almost leisurely use of magic.

“W-Well… How about this spell?”

“Done and done.”

And that was when Leonora fell far enough to dish out much more complex spells, just
to see if they could handle it. They also mastered those without breaking a sweat.

“Okay, how about this one?!”

“Would you look at that, it’s done too.”

It didn’t take long for her to to find herself bearing witness to every single Dark Magic
spell she’d ever learned, her spirit being beaten black and blue in the process. Finally,
she moved in with her last resort.

“B-But this one’s gotta be impossible, right?! I’m begging you, say it is!”

“Well, looks like I can use that too.”

“Me too, but I can’t say I’m handling it all too well…”

She attempted to teach them Dark Magic of the highest calibre, spells so difficult even
she had yet to learn them. Those, she found, were cast so easily their expressions
barely even twitched. And although it was rather obvious that Tena had only just
barely been able to cast them, splitting hairs really wasn’t enough to console her.

Three hours went by and Leonora was, for one, utterly depressed. For another, her
pride had been smashed to bits.
(The long-awaited continuation, “Evil God At Random – The Average Evil God and the
Summoning Hero” – it’s finally been launched; the webnovel title, protagonists, and even
the point of view’s been entirely revised. With any luck, you can find it in stores starting
tomorrow, maybe even today. I do hope you’ll treat me well.)

“…I’m bored.”

Those were the words so unwittingly sighed by the very same being that sat upon the
throne of the tenth floor of the dungeon known as the Evil God Holy Ground. Though
he spoke the same tongue as humans, he was far from it.

No, the thing garbed in blue robes, the same creature whose head was adorned with a
crown bore a much stronger resemblance to a skeleton. He was the one and only Boss
of the Tenth Floor, summoned by none other than Anri herself: The No-Life King.

The reason for his despondence wasn’t too difficult to comprehend. It was quite
simple, in fact; humans just refused to reach his floor. He’d had nothing but time on
his hands for ages.

Anri had given him the task of guarding the tenth floor, and he was in no way
dissatisfied with his mission. But presently, with nary a single intruder reaching his
floor, there hadn’t been even one chance for him to shine. He was an undead, and
therefore completely removed from the fatigue that accompanied the physical form.
This, however, did little to stop the unending boredom that assailed him.

“Oh, if only there were something that might alleviate me of this tedium…”

His eyes searched the room as he spoke, but apart from him and the throne he was
sitting on, there was no one else. He could look as much as he wished to, but there was
nothing that may have distracted him from his ennui.

“Hm. If only I had a board, then at least I could– oh?”

While the No-Life King preoccupied himself with the memories of the fondness for
board games he’d had in life, an idea tickled his brain. Not that he actually had a brain
per se, but you get the idea.

“I… am a King. I am king of the undead, one who governs a fair number of retainers.”

The No-Life King slowly rose from his throne, lifted his hand towards the great room
that expanded before him, and spoke solemnly.

“Come forth, my Underlings.”

Dozens of undead creatures appeared before him, all heeding his summons. Skeletons,
Zombies, Wraiths, Dullahans… The list went on for a quite a bit. The No-Life King let a
keen gaze wander over them, then nodded to himself, satisfied. Then he gave the order.

“Divide yourselves into two factions and hold your stations.”

The undead obeyed his command, separating left and right, one side facing the other.
They had made sure that the number of each undead type was split evenly among the
two groups. If one had the means of turning the room into a square and subdividing
said square further, they would have noticed that it it was strongly reminiscent of a
classic board used for games.

“Alright then, let us begin. Whoever moves first is white.”

Strike that. That’s exactly what it was meant to be.

“That did nothing.”

Once some time had passed, the No-Life King let out another sigh. He had already
commanded his retainers to take their leave. While he’d separated them and used
them as different pieces, trying his hand at quite the mockery of an actual board game,
it became evident almost immediately that he had no opponent to face off against and
that he would therefore only fall into even greater boredom.

He had even matched their movements to those of actual game pieces, letting them
attack each other without restraint. They were undead, after all, and would recover
from whatever injuries they had if given time.
“Well, what to do next?”

His most recent attempt at entertainment had relied on having his retainers move
about in accordance with his orders, a simple task given their rather feeble minds. As
it turned out, however, it merely meant he would be controlling both sides equally. A
downright mess, that. Moving both sides of his own accord turned the whole thing
into a limited one-player game, and that was just no fun.

He had therefore chosen something that might amuse him regardless of involvement.
Music was something meant to be enjoyed for the sounds it produced. Whether he was
or wasn’t the one playing would surely do little to curb his enjoyment.

That said, he had no instruments. Which, of course, meant he couldn’t perform.

With few options available, he decided to make do and play a tune using the bones of
his underlings, occasionally asking them to scream so that he could conduct his music.
Needless to say, the result barely outreached the musical limitations that came with
the dissonant shrieks.

“That’s enough of that!”

Completely unable to produce anything remotely resembling enjoyable music, the No-
Life King, irritated, ordered his retainers to retreat.

This made the third time the No-Life King had risen from his throne, raised his hand
towards the vastness of his room, and solemnly spoken.

“Come forth, my Underlings.”

The undead obeyed his commands, once against appearing before him. And although
he was all too ready to consider it a fancy flight of his imagination, he could have sworn
that his retainers, despite their lacking intelligence, appeared somewhat miffed at the
idea of being here.

“This time, we shall attempt to dance.”

There had been no instruments, and so his attempt at music had ended poorly.
Dancing, on the other hand, had no need for tools. By that logic, he was sure to
experience some measure of enjoyment.

“…”

“Whatever’s the matter? Show me how you dance.”

While his retainers didn’t immediately jump into action, the No-Life King’s urging
eventually impelled them to do so. When they did dance, they seemed almost
reluctant.

“…”

It was only when they had begun to dance that the No-Life King came to realise his
blunder.

Without music playing in the background, dancing just didn’t look like it was supposed
to. And while he was sure that a more nimble, flexible dancer would have caught his
attention well enough, his own undead were woefully untrained in the art of dancing.
In fact, they only seemed capable of cluttering about as they shook their arms, moving
from one side to the other and then turning around and repeating the process.

It looked more like a bizarre ritual than anything else.

“…You’re all excused.”

The No-Life King spent the time that followed by calling for his underlings and trying
to use them to stave off his boredom in many, many ways. Finally…

“Come forth, my underlings.”

…not one of them showed themselves. Apparently, they’d all decided to go on strike.

(And there you have it, that was the fourth chapter of the special series released with the
Volume One printed releases. This is also the final special chapter for Volume One.)