Chapter 123
We came out of the shower and fell asleep together in bed.
Holding Karen's hand, exchanging affectionate touches, whispering embarrassing words and giggling.
...When I came to, it was morning.
A pleasant fatigue that felt like it would dissipate at the slightest movement enveloped my body.
Perhaps because of the intense lovemaking we'd shared in the shower yesterday, Karen was sleeping like a baby in my arms.
Today was the day we'd agreed to split up and investigate the village freely.
We had been recovering and destroying 「Red Soul Stones」 on sight, but that was because it hadn't been confirmed that those were all the soul stones.
However, while we had succeeded in annihilating the bandit group, we hadn't found any meaningful clues worth pursuing.
Therefore, I wasn't taking this matter as seriously as Stia was.
My urgent orders had ended the day I returned after annihilating the bandit group.
So for the first time in a while, I called my fucktoy over and had my fill of her.
Because Karen's lewd body always gave me that satisfying sense of fullness, I was able to sleep pleasantly.
How should I use the remaining time today?
Since I had played with Stia during the day and Karen at night yesterday, I thought it'd be fun to follow Diana around, annoy her until her stress peaked, and then have plenty of reward sex with her.
But before that.
I recalled something I absolutely had to do.
This was something extremely important to me.
Who was the god that had called 「Park Seoyeon」 to this world?
That is, the identity of the third god who had newly intervened.
As far as I knew, there was only one person I could discuss that with.
Cunt slave Bella.
Former 4th-rank Goddess Velleira.
She would probably know something.
Having taken comfort in Stia and Karen's bodies, and having now come to accept Seoyeon's existence, this was the perfect time to visit Bella.
I took out the giant eight-colored clam from my inventory.
When I placed the clam on the floor, Karen got up with a sleepy face.
"Oppa...? Where are you going?"
"I'm going to Clam Castle.
I have business with Bella."
"Okay, come back safe."
I manipulated the eight-colored clam's menu and moved alone.
Believing that, as usual, Bella would be sitting proudly on the throne in the central hall.
The moment I entered Clam Castle, I couldn't believe my eyes.
Because in a place I'd thought was naturally indoors, I saw wide-open sky.
No, that wasn't the important part. The castle was smashed to pieces.
It was in a miserable state, like fish bones picked disgustingly clean.
What on earth had happened?
I couldn't help but worry about what had happened to Bella and Elin.
Had I been too late?
I saw something flying past quickly in the sky.
It wasn't a bird. It was definitely human-shaped.
I called the wind spirit and flew with a spatial leap.
Creating a landing point on the high floors of the castle that were still barely maintaining their framework, I closed the distance in an instant.
To confirm what was flying around.
"Why don't you stop wasting time and come down already. You ruined my nest, so you should be prepared, right?"
Vivid red hair and a white slit dress.
The goddess floating in the sky with elegant bearing, Velleira.
She was so sharp and fierce that not a trace could be found of the submissive female who'd obeyed me as a 「cunt slave」.
"A nest? It's because you have such weird hobbies that the other gods hate you, Velleira."
Who was her opponent?
Since she was confronting Bella, it was probably an equivalent being—a god.
I hid my body behind a fragment jutting out to a suitable height and peered out carefully.
Unexpectedly, the opponent was also a young woman.
But unlike Bella, she didn't have the appearance worthy of being called a 「goddess」.
Though I could tell at a glance that she was pretty, her appearance was as if she had borrowed some characteristics from the demons we knew.
She was short and rather busty.
Her moderately tanned brown skin and red eyes matched well.
Short purple hair that suited her youthful-looking face, and thick horns curving forward.
Those horns looked like goat horns.
There was a problem with calling a short, brown-skinned girl with big tits a demon, but if you looked at just the horns, she definitely gave an ominous impression.
Weren't horns the symbol of demons or something?
I didn't even know if demons existed in the first place, but I knew who was responsible for causing this situation.
"Hm? Who's there!"
Had I been found?
I locked eyes with the big-titted horned girl.
Damn. How much better would it be if she looked like an easy-to-read monster? As if drawn to her arousing appearance, my feet wouldn't move.
No, before that, I didn't know whether I should run or fight—what the right choice was.
It was then.
"Kuh...!"
Huh...?
The big-breasted girl made an awkward expression as she looked at me, then hunched her body.
Perhaps thinking the opponent's reaction was strange, Bella furrowed her brow and raised her guard.
"So you were here. I see."
Spitting out those meaningful words, the horn-boob girl tried to retreat.
It was similar to when Bella disappeared. This time, I clearly saw a small spatial crack forming near the horn-boob girl.
Snap!
I immediately flicked my fingers and cast hypnosis on her.
"Stop moving."
The horn-boob girl tried to flee but got caught in my hypnosis, her movements sealed.
"Where do you think you're going?"
You spout annoying words and try to run away, only to show up later and piss me off?
Did you think I'd sit still and watch such cheap tricks?
"Horned girl. Come before me. Now."
"......."
Just like the Pied Piper of Hamelin kidnapping children with his pipe.
The horned girl, who had been flying leisurely through the air, landed obediently before me in a trance.
Looking at her like this, she was so short she wouldn't be much different from Elin.
With horns at just the right height, they were like handlebars.
While I was admiring my easily obtained trophy, Bella moved to my side.
I didn't cast hypnosis on Bella because I had a lot to ask her.
Besides, it wouldn't work on Bella anyway.
"Who is this horned bitch?"
I grabbed and shook the horns on the horned girl's head as I spoke.
"5th-rank god.
Goddess of Envy, Epe."
"The 「Goddess of Envy」?"
So she really was a goddess.
Did these horns symbolize the twisted emotion called envy?
I grabbed and shook them, and they weren't decorations. They seemed to be growing out of her actual head.
"......."
Bella watched with an exasperated expression as I grabbed the Goddess of Envy's horns with one hand and shook them like toys.
"To make a goddess like this in an instant... I knew about it, but seeing it directly gives me chills."
"She looked like she'd run away and cause annoying trouble. So I shot her down immediately."
Now I could make her Cunt Slave No. 2, or hang her on the wall without any problem.
When I met pretty women, I'd usually agonize until pleasant thoughts came to mind, but I had no such leisure when dealing with a goddess.
I cast it on her first and see.
At least this horned goddess didn't know about hypnosis and didn't know how to split her avatar to respond like Bella, so she fell to me immediately.
"Now explain. What happened?
Why is the castle in this shape? No, first of all... is Elin safe?"
"She's safe. I wanted to evacuate her to a safe place, but I didn't have the time. So I told her to go hide in the forest."
"The reason the castle is destroyed?"
"It's because Epe kept running around. But I also deliberately destroyed it spectacularly."
"Why?"
"Because I wanted to draw attention.
Since I didn't know the opponent's intentions, I thought protecting Master's woman was the highest priority.
I did it so attention wouldn't be focused on Elin."
"......."
"The castle will recover over time anyway.
It'll take quite a while at this level, but there's no real problem."
Even if it recovered, had she destroyed the castle she cherished with her own hands just to protect the woman I brought?
I couldn't blame Bella for this.
Rather, it was something to praise.
"Thank you, Bella."
"Hmph."
Bella shrugged her shoulders and smiled softly.
"Did you say this horned goddess is Epe, the Goddess of Envy? Why did she come here?"
"I don't know either. She kept wandering around as if she had some purpose, no... as if she was looking for something."
"Has another god invaded this world before?"
"Never. There's nothing here that would interest other gods.
If there were something..."
Bella stared fixedly at me.
Yeah. I figured as much.
This horned goddess knew me. She had come here looking for me.
"What will you do, Master?"
"Naturally, I have to ask a question she can't refuse."
I faced the horned goddess head-on.
Suddenly I've been interrogating people a lot lately.
But it's not difficult. Because I have no need to threaten or entice when interrogating someone.
Only the truth comes out of their mouths.
However, some skill in handling it is needed.
First of all, if I set the scope wide by saying something like "Tell me everything you know" right now, I'd be up all night listening to what the horned girl has to say.
It's better to narrow the scope to the information I want and make her talk about that.
"Answer my questions without falsehood, without distortion."
"...I understand."
Because it would be tiring to wake her up and proceed, I began the interrogation while she was in a trance.
"Who are you?"
It was the most basic question.
"The Goddess of Jealousy. Fifth-rank god, Epe."
"Epe. Why did you come to the Eight-Colored Clam Castle?"
"To confirm whether you were here."
So she really did come after me.
But before I met Bella, I’d never had any contact with a goddess, had I?
"Why did you come looking for me?"
"To kill you."
A goddess had come to kill me.
First Park Seoyeon, and now this woman too. What the hell is going on?
Honestly, I could understand any woman coming to kill me, but had I ever earned the grudge of another goddess?
Wait…… Park Seoyeon?
"Did you, by any chance, send Park Seoyeon to the world I’m in?"
"Yes."
I found the culprit.
Rage surged up inside me, and I clenched my teeth.
Don’t get swept up in emotion. I can get angry after I figure out why this goddess did it.
I took a deep breath.
"Master."
"Hm?"
"Sorry to interrupt. But what are you talking about?"
"I haven’t told you yet, have I.
Actually, that’s why I came today. There was interference from another god in the world I’m in.
The one who came as that god’s agent was someone named 「Park Seoyeon」, someone I knew in the modern world."
"Someone you knew?"
"……The woman who killed me."
"You mean she took a woman who held a grudge against Master as her agent and sent her to the world Master transferred to?"
"From the circumstances, it seems that way."
I didn’t know why this horned goddess had done it.
But one thing was certain: Park Seoyeon’s existence was my shame, and my reverse scale.
If it was touched, I had no confidence I could maintain my composure.
I barely managed to hold on to the thread of reason.
It’s fine.
At the very least, things hadn’t gone according to this horned goddess’s plan.
If I went through it one by one, first, Seoyeon had appeared before me absurdly powerful, but she hadn’t killed me.
No, she’d had no intention of killing me.
Even a goddess couldn’t have known what a crazy person was thinking.
Seoyeon, who had killed me in the modern world and learned that it had been a failure, had wanted to meet me, but she hadn’t come looking for me to kill me again.
If anything, that meeting had been like running into each other by coincidence before the inevitable, destined encounter arrived.
Though Seoyeon had liked it, calling it fate.
Second was the fact that this goddess had fallen perfectly under my hypnosis.
Whatever she had been plotting, I would make her spill everything and get to the truth at once.
"Did you try to use Park Seoyeon to kill me?"
"Yes."
……This fucking bitch.
Hoo…….
I had prepared myself, but hearing it directly, I couldn’t stay calm.
"And you came to the Eight-Colored Clam Castle to confirm whether Park Seoyeon had succeeded in killing me?"
Putting the sequence together, that was how it worked out.
"That’s right."
Before moving on to the next question, a minor doubt came to mind.
"You could have just come to the world I’m in from the start. Why did you attack this place?"
"That’s…… because that world’s god might notice."
I see.
At present, there were three gods who had sent agents to another world.
Bella, Epe, and a god whose identity I did not know.
That god had sent a hero to the world and was likely in the middle of working to save it.
Had they not been involved in this matter at all? I still didn’t know that.
"……I’m impressed you found out I was coming and going from the Eight-Colored Clam Castle."
It was closer to a muttered question than an actual one, but Bella answered it in her place.
"It’s just that almost no gods do it deliberately.
Gods can cross dimensions and interfere with creations.
Still, this makes me rather angry. The world I’m in was easy to look down on. Is that it?"
"What do you think, Bella?
At the very least, do you think the god of the world I’m in is of a higher rank than you?"
"……It’s frustrating, but yes.
I think they’re at least a third-rank god. Because a world is a god’s jurisdiction, and at the same time, something like a gift.
The lower a god’s rank, the more likely they are to be saddled with a world that has little chance of salvation."
I see.
In other words, the world with the hero did need salvation, but it wasn’t as hopeless as other worlds.
Since it was relatively peaceful, there was a high possibility that a high-ranking god was in charge of it.
Neither Bella nor Epe wanted to be noticed by that god.
That seemed to be the common understanding up to this point.
Now it was time to move on to the most important question.
"Why did you try to kill me?"
"That’s……."
At that point, an answer I had never imagined came out.