Year 1 since I fell into Log.
For the time being, I focused on teaching Lucy basic knowledge.
How to speak, how to write, how to distinguish what could be eaten from what could not, and so on.
Lucy merely lacked knowledge; her level of intelligence had been set equal to that of an ordinary adult.
Thanks to that, she was able to absorb everything I taught her as it was.
In the process, watching her porcelain-doll-like face gradually take on all kinds of expressions was quite beautiful.
***
Year 2 since I fell into Log.
The day of the first harvest from the food production building, the “Vegetable Garden,” where I had sown seeds last year, was approaching.
At last, we would be able to have proper meals instead of scraping by on hunting and gathering.
All races in Log had to secure food through hunting and gathering, but humans alone were the exception.
It was thanks to the Vegetable Garden granted by the effect of the resource faction, “Agriculture.”
Of course, its efficiency was not especially good, but since it still brought benefits, there was no reason not to use it.
***
Year 3 since I fell into Log.
Lucy began to offer worship at the shrine every evening.
The object of that worship was, of course, me.
It seemed she had taken the knowledge she had learned from me about worshiping gods and applied it as it was.
It was primitive worship, with clumsy prayers and crude offerings.
But the sincerity and faith contained within it were real, so I could not possibly ignore it.
With no other choice, I endured my embarrassment and went along with Lucy’s worship.
***
Year 4 since I fell into Log.
As our food supply gradually began to stabilize, I started to feel the need to gather resources.
My goal was enough resources to build the “Training Hall,” a building that created combat units.
Because of that, from then on, I hunted while also securing resources.
Thanks to divine power, I could easily move any amount of wood and stone.
The warehouse at the main base gradually began to grow well-stocked.
***
Year 5 since I fell into Log.
At last, I presented Lucy with a choice.
“Enough divine power has gathered.”
“……”
“As I told you before, I will make you the partner you desire.”
When I had taught Lucy simple knowledge about gender and marriage, I had made her one promise.
It was the promise that once enough divine power had gathered to create a new human, I would make her the partner she desired.
It was a gift for her, my first creation and the first human.
Lucy did not answer right away and lowered her head.
But unlike on the first day, I did not listen to Lucy’s inner thoughts.
It was partly the result of the training I had done over the past five years, and partly my own courtesy in order to regard Lucy as a person in her own right.
Because of that, I could not help but be shocked by what she said when she lifted her head again.
“I want to become your partner, my lord.”
“……?!”
……Truly, it was something I had never imagined at all.
According to Omniscience, unless deliberately altered, the genetic information of humans created through divine power was formed according to the average.
The problem was that Lucy was the very first human ever molded into this world.
Therefore, aside from the appearance I had altered, Lucy’s body was in a state that had copied my genetic information exactly.
In effect, she was no different from a clone with her gender reversed, or an alter ego.
Because of that, until now I had thought of Lucy as something like a younger sister or a daughter.
But it seemed Lucy had not.
Because when I was so startled by Lucy’s answer that I reflexively read her inner thoughts, this was the state they were in.
‘What if he rejects me?’
‘My lord.’
‘I like you.’
‘Why isn’t he saying anything?’
‘Does he dislike me?’
‘No way.’
‘I love you.’
‘He must know everything I’m thinking, too.’
‘I’m embarrassed.’
‘Please answer me.’
“You are…… serious.”
Lucy answered my muttered words, spoken in utter shock.
“Yes.”
“May I ask what part of me you like?”
Lucy grew slightly embarrassed at my question, then spoke.
“You brought me into this world, and you taught me so that I could know many different things. You also taught me to distinguish what is dangerous from what is not, and every task that was dangerous but had to be done, you took on yourself. According to what you taught me, the relationship between creator and creation is originally much like the relationship between master and slave. Especially during war. But you instead served me as though I were the master. And more than anything.”
Lucy stopped speaking there for a moment, caught her breath, and continued.
“You taught me how to love the world.”
“……”
“Everything I received from you was made entirely of love, so how could the world I see through those gifts not be beautiful? And how could I not love you, who gave them to me?”
Those words were Lucy’s praise for me, and also her confession.
They told me all too clearly what I meant to Lucy.
And more than anything, they made me look back on what Lucy had meant to me.
Yes, at first, she had certainly been nothing more than a piece on a game board.
But even with a tool, if you spent years together with it, affection was bound to form.
And if it was a person—more than that, a member of the opposite sex whose appearance I myself had set according to my own tastes—then there was nothing more to say.
Before I knew it, Lucy had become something like a pillar of support for me.
In a world where I never knew when or who might come rushing to kill me, she was the one ally I could trust.
The existence of an ally I had made with my own hands, who relied on me because of that, and whom I could also rely on, was that alluring.
‘That was why I tried all the harder to keep my distance.’
Because I had made her myself, I was the being who understood Lucy best.
It would have been easy to manipulate such a being according to my will.
Especially since the current me was an existence akin to a god.
But how was that different from brainwashing or gaslighting?
No matter how she had been born from my hands, Lucy was a person in her own right.
A being with the free will to think for herself and choose something.
That was why, until now, I had put a great deal of effort into protecting Lucy’s free will.
Not reading Lucy’s inner thoughts with Omniscience was one part of that.
‘But what she chose with that free will was me……’
In that case, perhaps there was no longer any need to hold back.
Of course, I did not mean that I would no longer treat Lucy as a person.
I only meant that perhaps it would be all right to reveal a little of the feelings I had suppressed until now.
“……Know this one thing.”
And so I decided to accept Lucy’s confession.
“I made you and taught you many things, but the truth is, none of those things are truly mine. They are things I, too, learned from the world I was in before I came to this one.”
Before that, it was only proper to reveal one of my greatest secrets.
“I was, like you—no. I was an even more incapable being than you. The civilization of the world I came from was far more advanced than this place, which has only just begun, so all difficult and arduous tasks were entrusted to tools made by someone else.”
One fact I must never forget.
I had not originally been a god.
I was a powerless dead man, dragged here for reasons unknown and made to play the part of a god.
“I am such a lacking being. Even so…… can you love me?”
After knowing all of this, could you still regard me as a god?
“Of course.”
And Lucy nodded without even a moment’s hesitation.
“Why?”
“The reason I like you is not because of your abilities, but because I fell for your character.”
I stared blankly at Lucy as she smiled at me along with those words.
Lucy clasped both my hands and took one more step toward me.
“From my point of view, it’s actually a relief. I was worried that you might be too lofty a being and would not look back at someone as insignificant as me.”
“There is no way I would do that. You are my first creation.”
“Yes, I know.”
Still holding my hands, Lucy brought them together as if in prayer.
Then, pressing her forehead to our joined hands, Lucy continued.
“Even so, no one knows the future. So I had no choice but to feel a faint unease……”
“……”
“Now, even that has completely disappeared.”
Lucy lifted her head and once again smiled brightly as she confessed to me.
“I love you, Huma.”
“……”
“Please accept me as your family.”
I.
The moment I saw that smile, I could no longer hold myself back.
With a rush!
My body moved on its own, driven by emotions that filled me as if my chest would burst.
I embraced Lucy as though I would never let her go again, and kissed her fervently.
Lucy was startled by my sudden action, but soon kissed me back even more actively than I kissed her.
The kiss that lasted an instant yet felt like eternity finally ended, and our lips parted.
Resolving to be with her for the rest of my life, I spoke the words that would take her as my lifelong companion.
“I love you too, Lucy. Become my family.”
Lucy smiled radiantly and kissed me once more.
Holding her in my arms, I swore.
For the rest of my life, no matter what happened, I would protect her.
I would raise this race through the children born between her and me.
And by doing so, I would never regard my children as mere mortals or pieces on a game board.