“Oh?”
Heimer stepped over the threshold, his gaze landing on the petite figure kneeling within the pillar of light.
Seeing her posture, which clearly showed she had been waiting for quite some time, a trace of appreciation flashed through his eyes.
“It seems you knew I was coming?”
Heimer did not beat around the bush and walked straight toward the center of the gymnasium.
“Yes, Lord God.”
Inaba Tsukuyo bowed slightly and performed a proper ancient courtesy.
The moment those words came out, Amou Kirukiru, who stood behind Heimer, raised her brow slightly.
Onigawara Rin and Mozunono Nono, who had chased after them while panting heavily, froze at the doorway.
“Lord God?”
Onigawara and Nono held onto the doorframe, their faces filled with disbelief.
“You know who I am?”
Heimer naturally ignored the commotion behind him and looked at Inaba Tsukuyo with great interest.
“No. Tsukuyo does not know your divine name.”
Inaba Tsukuyo shook her head.
“However, Tsukuyo can hear it.”
“Hear it?”
“Yes.”
Inaba Tsukuyo pointed to her ears.
“From the moment you descended, every sound in the academy changed.”
“The wind stopped flowing, the birds stopped singing, and even the dust in the air trembled.”
“That is the instinctive submission of all things when facing an absolute superior being.”
“Moreover…”
“I also heard you defeat the Empress first, then use Mozunono-san’s baton to shatter Onigawara-san’s mask.”
“I heard all of it clearly.”
As Inaba Tsukuyo calmly recounted the details of the battle that had just occurred in the school building, Amou stood to the side and watched coldly.
Her brows were slightly furrowed, clearly disdainful of this kind of eavesdropping method.
However, deep within Amou’s black eyes, there was also a heavier solemnity.
After all, this was the gymnasium of the old school building.
The distance from here to the school building where the conflict had just taken place was at least several hundred meters in a straight line.
Between the two places were layers of walls, trees, and the never-ending noise of the academy.
In such an environment, she had not only heard them, but had also accurately reconstructed every frame of the battle.
Even the material of the weapon and the exact point of impact were described without the slightest error.
That feeling of being watched from the shadows, of having every movement heard clearly by the other party while knowing nothing about them in return, was extremely unpleasant.
For Amou, who was used to controlling everything, this was undoubtedly a terrible experience.
This rabbit’s ears were as annoyingly sharp as ever.
…
“Wonderful.”
Heimer stopped five steps away from Inaba Tsukuyo.
He lightly clapped his hands.
He did not hold back his praise at all, and the appreciation in his eyes only deepened.
“To be able to reconstruct the battle situation purely through hearing from such a distance…”
“Even in a place like Orario, where monsters run rampant, hearing like yours would be incredibly rare.”
There was undisguised admiration in Heimer’s tone.
After all, to a god, the value of mortals was never singular.
Strength, weakness, abundance of magic power—those were merely the vulgar parts of an evaluation system.
This unique way of perceiving the world…
This sharpness that could extract key information from countless layers of noise…
Its value far surpassed simple destructive power.
One could even say that this talent was practically tailor-made for that Dungeon, a place filled with fog, traps, and sudden crises.
“You praise me too highly, Lord God.”
Inaba Tsukuyo lowered her head slightly.
Her silver-white hair slid along her cheeks, covering a small part of her face.
“This is merely a bit of petty cleverness forced upon this one after losing the light and surviving in darkness.”
“If such a minor trick has earned Lord God’s praise…”
“Then this one is truly overwhelmed.”
“However, this one has a question.”
“The reason Lord God specifically came to such a remote place…”
“Was it for this one?”
Inaba Tsukuyo paused, and a trace of confusion seemed to pass through her unfocused red eyes.
This was exactly what puzzled her most.
After all, a god possessing such mighty power, one who could even subdue that arrogant Empress, had come here specifically to find her.
Why would such an existence seek out someone incomplete like her, someone who had nothing but swordsmanship?
Faced with the girl’s question, Heimer’s answer was as decisive as always.
“Correct.”
“I came precisely for you, Inaba Tsukuyo.”
“Because I need your sword.”
“Or to be more accurate…”
“I need you to become my family.”
“Family?”
Family.
The word rippled through the air.
That direct strike made Inaba Tsukuyo’s heart ripple ever so slightly, even though she desperately tried to maintain her calm and unshaken appearance.
A faint blush quickly climbed onto her delicate, porcelain-doll-like cheeks.
After all, no matter how mature she usually acted, no matter how much she seemed like a detached master beyond worldly affairs…
In the end, she was still only a teenage girl.
Faced with such a direct, sincere, and even uniquely affectionate statement from a god, the shyness unique to a young girl inevitably leaked through that grandmaster-like composure.
“Family…?”
Inaba Tsukuyo softly repeated the word.
Although she felt a little embarrassed, she could clearly sense that the god’s gaze was resting on her.
It was warm and sincere.
For Inaba Tsukuyo, who was used to being feared or kept at a distance by others, such a gaze felt especially unfamiliar.
“Since Lord God is so sincere…”
“Then this one need not continue pretending.”
“However…”
“There is still one thing I am curious about.”
“Lord God went through great effort to descend into this world…”
“What kind of place is that world you speak of?”
Inaba Tsukuyo raised her head and found her voice again.
Although she could not see, those red eyes still locked accurately onto Heimer.
This question was not only something Inaba Tsukuyo wanted to know.
It was also what everyone else was most curious about.
Even Amou Kirukiru, who had been standing in the back with furrowed brows, and Onigawara Rin and Mozunono Nono, who had not yet recovered from the shock, began listening closely.
“That world…”
“If I want you to understand that world first…”
“Then I think I should begin by explaining something.”
“For gods who possess infinite lifespans, what is the greatest poison?”
“For gods with infinite lifespans, stagnation is the greatest poison.”
“The gods have already spent hundreds of millions of years in heaven.”
“Day after day, year after year.”
“As time passed, life in heaven became more and more like a long, suffocating torment for gods with eternal lives.”
“To the point that, in order to escape the mind-breaking boredom of heaven, some gods chose to seek amusement through suicide.”
“After all, to us, death is nothing more than a sleep lasting ten thousand years.”
“However…”
“As time passed, some gods began to go mad and chose to persecute other gods, forcing them into temporary annihilation as a form of luxurious entertainment.”
“Although the vast majority of gods do not approve of this method of amusement…”
“This was enough to prove that the gods of heaven had encountered an enemy they could not defeat.”
Hearing this, not only Inaba Tsukuyo, but even Amou Kirukiru, Onigawara Rin, and the others behind her showed stunned expressions.
Gods…
could become bored too?
Even bored enough to kill one another?
This statement, which completely overturned their understanding, struck them with tremendous force.
However, Heimer paid no attention to their shock and continued speaking.
“Therefore, we made a decision.”
“In order to seek the stimulation of the unknown and fill the eternal emptiness…”
“Gods were allowed to leave the lifeless heavens and descend to the Lower World.”
“That is the world I have been speaking of.”
“We established rules.”
“In the Lower World, gods are forbidden from using divine power and must live like mortals.”
“We can even be made drunk by wine brewed by human hands.”
“Then…”
“We grant chosen children of the Lower World a gift known as Falna.”
“We make them members of our respective Familias and give them the key to unlock the shackles of their potential.”
“They explore the bottomless Dungeon, the source of vicious monsters scattered across the entire continent, a place filled with countless indescribable creatures.”
“They fight monsters, obtain magic stones, and carve off materials.”
“They exchange those things for wealth, fame, and the growth of their own strength.”
“As for us…”
“We sit in the audience seats and use our own eyes to witness the epics created by the children we have chosen.”
“Epics of friendship, courage, growth, betrayal, love, and hatred.”
“Perhaps you are wondering why noble gods would become obsessed with this kind of mortal game.”
“The reason is very simple.”
“It is precisely because life possesses uncertainty.”
In heaven, everything is known.
Everything is understood.
It is like a movie that has been spoiled ten thousand times, dull and tasteless.
But in the Lower World…
At the very beginning of evolution…
Life was a miracle born to resist entropy, the ultimate law of the universe.