Chapter 15 | The Assassin Meets the One Who Started It All
I was dreaming.
I was awake, but I knew I was dreaming.
It had been fourteen years since I had last seen this place, formed of scenery that could not exist in reality. It was the white room the goddess had called me to when I died.
“Congraaaaaatulations! You’ve racked up enough achievement points to grant me more resources to interfere with fate. You won’t want to miss the next episode of the goddess’s wonderful benevolence!”
Naturally, the owner of the realm, the goddess, was here.
“You haven’t changed in fourteen years,” I remarked.
“Actually, you’re the one who hasn’t changed. This personality and way of speech were both calculated just for you. You’re the only one who gets the privilege of seeing me like this, tee-hee.”
It sounded like she’d chosen this personality because it was the best way to communicate with me.
I considered why she would have chosen this temperament for me. This was just a guess, but she might have been acting blatantly suspicious so that I could discern her true motives. Being able to easily understand what she wanted put me at ease.
“More resources to interfere with fate… I see. My encounters with Dia, Tarte, and Maha were way too much of a coincidence. I had been searching for useful allies, but finding one person after another who fit my criteria was odd. Are you saying you’re able to manipulate events like you did in introducing me to those three?”
“Ah, you picked up on that? That’s right. I’m so good at influencing the threads of fate that I could do it in my sleep. Those three have helped you a lot, haven’t they? They’ve even serviced you…in bed. You’re a real lady-killer!”
“…I don’t feel great knowing you’re responsible for my relationships with them.”
“Oh, you have the wrong idea there. It takes an insane amount of resources to exercise control over someone’s feelings or actions. Frankly speaking, it would be like nailing jelly to a tree. All I did was change the course of destiny ever so slightly to set you up with the personnel you desired. Arranging the meeting is all I can do, and I have no knowledge of what will happen afterward. You should be proud. You are the reason for violating those three the way you have. Oh no, are you going to assault me next?!”
That was a major relief. I would have felt empty inside if their feelings had been manipulated by the goddess.
“Okay… That’s good.”
“By the way, today was the day of Maha’s death on the original timeline. I’m happy for you. You avoided all of their deaths.”
“Are you implying that they all should have died by now?”
“That’s right. Let’s see, where did I put the Akashic records…? Ah, here they are.”
The goddess made a show of producing a very thick book from nothing. Akashic Records was written in plain font on the cover.
“According to the original flow of things, Tarte was the first to die. She was abandoned on a snowy mountain so her village would have fewer mouths to feed, and she perished from the cold and starvation while on her way to Tuatha Dé. Dia was next. Viekone was defeated in the war, and she was purchased by a perverted noble who took an interest in her superior magic ability. He wanted to sire an heir with her, but… Oh, that’s disgusting. Humans are so stupid. How could he expect her to have children after doing that to her? She was disposed of after being thoroughly broken. Whew, the poor girl.”
It wasn’t hard to imagine that happening to those two if I hadn’t existed.
“Maha’s the last. She was cute, so the villainous director of the orphanage sold her off to a pedophile noble. But you know how tough she is. She won his good graces and became his mistress. She had him wrapped around her finger. Then, just as she was about to open her own store with his backing, a great evil befell her! Crazed with jealousy, the pedophile’s wife arranged for Maha to be kidnapped by burglars and…nope. Not reading that. That would destroy my pristine image. She was going to die today.”
“You can’t have picked three people who would have died if they hadn’t met me by coincidence.”
There had to be some reason for that. There was clearly meaning behind everything the goddess did.
“You’re right. Certain factors make meddling with destiny more difficult. These include an individual’s ability and wit and the influence they will have on the future. The greater the person, the more challenging they are to tamper with. However, children who die young have little impact on fate. That means while those three are skilled, their destinies are easy to alter. Talk about getting bang for your buck.”
“You’re talking like you think of us as pieces on a chess board.”
“Of course I do. To be fair, I’m less than a piece myself—a simple prop. As I told you, there is very little I can do.”
Her limitations were apparent. All she had done over the last fourteen years was introduce me to three girls who should have met their ends.
“That can’t be what you called me here to talk about… I have some things I want to ask you. There is too much I don’t know about this world. If you really want me to save it, give me information.”
I had felt that way ever since meeting Mina, the snake demon. I was way too ignorant of this world. There was no way I could win the game without knowing the rules.
“Oh, come on, that’s just mean. You’re saying that to hurt me. It would take a ton of resources to teach it all. I wouldn’t be able to do anything else.”
“But it was okay for you to talk my ears off about the girls?”
“Yes, that was no problem. I mean, surely you had already reasoned all that out yourself. That’s why it didn’t cost anything!”
The goddess’s eyes bored right through me, as emotionless as the prop she asserted she was.
She was right. I had conjectured that the goddess had arranged our meetings and that they would have died if we hadn’t met.
“Then stop wasting time and tell me what you can. Surely it costs something to call me here. If you’re some kind of mechanism, you would never have done that without a reason.”
“Ding, ding, ding! Correct! Your achievements have convinced the top brass that the world can be saved, and they have decided to provide some much-needed help. They increased my budget, which I will use to grant you a reward in the near future. That was why I called you here.”
“…You can’t tell me what it is because that will take resources. So you called me here because this boon is something I would’ve missed unless you told me about it.”
The goddess beamed. Evidently, I was right. It must have been a rather large reward if she wanted to make sure I got it.
“Okay. I’ll keep an eye out… I want to save this world, too.”
I loved everything I had gained while living as Lugh Tuatha Dé from the bottom of my heart. I had so many important people in my life, including my parents, who had raised me so adoringly, and Dia, Tarte, and Maha, who had all grown to love me. I didn’t want to lose them.
“Then I wish you good luck. You are our only hope left.”
“…That sounds like important information. You’d better not have wasted resources saying that.”
The goddess had just implied that there had been other people sent to this world besides me, and that they had died. I wondered if she had lied to me at the time of my reincarnation about me being the only reincarnated soul or if I had simply been the first.
“It’s fine. I knew you had already picked up on that. Those idiots all stood out because they wanted to cheat their way through life and show everyone else how overpowered they were because of their knowledge from their previous world. But that only succeeded in painting targets on their backs for other humans to kill them. Oh, what a waste they were. At least they died, so their souls could come back to me. Still, I always thought it was best to diversify your investment instead of putting all your eggs in one basket.”
Just as she said, I did know of some people who seemed like they may have been reincarnated like me. Each of them had a habit of standing out, and Natural You’s information network had found them easily. I had even met some of them directly to ask for their cooperation, but curiously, every one of them rejected me, wishing to work alone.
I was also aware that they had perished. All of the people the goddess reincarnated were highly capable and talented. But human limitations held them back, meaning they could die from the slightest moment of carelessness.
“Okay, we’ve reached the end of the dream. Make sure to give that adorable Maha a nice morning after. Okay, that marks the end of the goddess’s divine message! I’m pooped. I’m done with work for the day, so I think I’m gonna head for the spa, then wind down with a television drama and a drink.”
The white room began to distort.
Just what was the goddess’s reward? I needed to investigate. I couldn’t risk missing it.
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