After the battle with Nephilim ended and they returned to the hotel, the conversation with God-sama began. That was when Mary raised a question.
「Um, I’m having trouble understanding all this… Are you really a god?」
Mary asked with a skeptical look.
「Yeah… I could show you some strange powers if you want. But you don’t remember anything from your birth until the fire, right?」
「How do you know about that…?」
「That memory was created after I placed you into the vessel I made」
「So… the reason there were no records of Mary’s birth or identity was…」
「You didn’t originally exist. You were a being created after the fact」
「I see… So I was just a person who had nothing…」
「That’s my fault. I’m really sorry」
God-sama bowed his head.
「It was unexpected for me too. I didn’t think the influence of the Evil God’s soul would linger this much」
「Exactly, God-sama! It’s that Evil God part! I get that she was someone from another world, but why is she here in this world too!?」
「About that… I’ll need to explain how this world works first. It’ll take a bit of time, and it would be bad if someone overheard. I’ll call you all again once everyone’s asleep. For now, go have dinner」
With that, God-sama vanished.
「Mary, are you okay?」
Yuuki spoke to Mary, who had been in a daze since earlier.
「Ah… Yuuki-san… What should I do? I really was nothing, wasn’t I…」
「Well… yeah, that was true. But now you have a lot, don’t you? I’m glad I met you, and I’m sure Hikari, Haruka, Touka, Tomoe-chan… even my dad and mom feel the same. Right, Hikari?」
「Yeah. At the very least, Yuuki and I care more about who you are now and your future, not your past. You’re our friend, after all」
「Hikari-san…」
「For now, let’s eat something. Then we’ll talk to God-sama again. And if something’s not right, I’ll punch him. Not sure if I can, but still」
Yuuki puffed out his chest, and Mary burst into laughter.
「Haha! Really, Yuuki-san, when did you become so violent?」
「Kyaa! Yuuki’s turning into a beast! Let’s run, Mary!」
「Yes!」
「Wait!? That’s not what I meant!!」
And with that, the two ran off, laughing playfully.
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
After dinner, the three of them had a minor scuffle over sleeping arrangements, but let’s skip over that…
「Ah, you made it! Over here, over here!」
When they entered the usual divine space, today it had been transformed into a tea party setting.
「Is this okay? Doesn’t it use up your power too?」
「No worries! Lately, my powers have been slowly coming back」
「I’m glad to hear that」
「Anyway, have a seat! There are sweets too!」
「Thank you! Wow! These are the limited-edition treats from ○○do!」
「I’m so glad you like them… it was totally worth going to buy them!」
「You went out to buy them yourself?」
「Yup! That’s actually one of the main reasons I even made a vessel」
「Wasteful spending…」
「A-anyway! Back to what we were talking about!」
「Yes, yes…」
「First, I should explain what I am. I oversee nine worlds, including this one. It’s a lot, so right now I mainly manage just four of them. The remaining five I leave to natural progression. Of the four I focus on, two have had their civilizations and humanity wiped out, so I’m in the middle of reconstructing them」
Wait, this just jumped to a massive scale…
「So yeah, in this world, my existence isn’t really recognized. Maybe just you and a tiny handful of others know I’m here. But even those who recognize me don’t remember anything about this place. I built the rules that way」
「But Hikari and I remember being here, don’t we?」
「Yeah… I clearly remember visiting before too」
「Well, that’s because you’re special. Anyway, back on topic. Running these worlds requires resources. And those resources are what you’d call souls」
「So… what does that have to do with the Evil God’s soul?」
「I’ll explain that now. To increase that resource, souls have to live fulfilling lives. But negative elements inevitably arise, because, well, people are people」
「If those negative elements get mixed in during reincarnation, they can cause serious harm to the next life. Basically, all the bad from a lifetime just gets inherited as-is. So I remove as much of that as possible. If I don’t, the resource pool never grows」
「Then I take thousands of years’ worth of that negativity and condense it into a single entity. That’s what an Evil God really is. Normally, they work for me, purifying that negativity. But… something went wrong」
「You mean… they broke away from your control and ended up in another world?」
「Exactly. To be precise, it was one of my colleagues, another god managing a different world, who started a war. My boss stepped in later to mediate, but it was already too late. Two of the four worlds I’d nurtured were destroyed. And just before I was stripped of my authority, I poured all the built-up negativity from my world into that Evil God」
「Of course, that made the power impossible to contain. To stop the world from falling apart, I summoned you, Yuuki, from another world. I gave you power, united other powers around you, entrusted you with a divine relic, and had you defeat her」
「But… God-sama? Why was Yuuki chosen for that?」
「Hmm… should I really say this…? Well, it won’t have any direct consequences, so I guess it’s okay…」
「Wait, so it’s that big of a deal!?」
「It’ll be fine! Actually… I’m a descendant of you and Hikari-chan’s child!」
The air froze in an instant.
「「「…………Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?!?!!?!?!?」」」
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