26: Asking God 1

Early morning. Even though it’s still dark, Kuuga, who woke up, immediately started running to continue from yesterday.

The island that Kuuga had decided to take a rest on was the largest island he’d been so far and it took about an hour to reach the next island.

After about 3 hours of running, Kuuga was on the biggest island ever. He thought it’s probably the largest island he saw from the ground.

There was a straight road with trees growing on both sides after the bridge of light. This also had the impression that someone’s hand had been added.

After walking for a while, the trees on either side stopped, and his field of view suddenly expanded.

[T-this is… cute.]

A large garden spread out in the open space, and a very beautiful Western-style building with white walls and red rood was built behind it. Kuuga, who imagined something like a temple because it’s where God lived, felt it’s different from what he thought.

Then, a chair and a white garden table were placed in the garden, and a blonde girl, who seemed to be enjoying teatime, came into view.

The long, flowing blond hair, the clear sky blue eyes, and a well-ordered face felt sacred. A beautiful teenage girl in a white fluffy dress looked good in a lovely mansion and a fairytale-like garden.

It seemed that the girl was aware of Kuuga’s existence from the beginning, so when she put her cup on the table and looked at Kuuga――she sighed as if amazed.

“…geez, I thought I could earn 50 days.”

[Eh?]

“Well nevermind, you coming is unavoidable. Welcome. You have something to ask, right?”

Then the girl snapped her fingers. At that moment, a chair appeared facing the girl. At the same time, a teacup also appeared on the table.

He understood that she intended to make him sit there to have tea while talking, but Kuuga, with the body of a beast, felt annoyed.

[Are you harassing me?]

As he muttered so, the girl immediately laughed as she realized what Kuuga thought.

“I can’t help it. It’s just for now, isn’t it?”

[Eh?]

He heard that snap of her fingers again. At that moment, Kuuga’s body was wrapped in light. Surprised, Kuuga looked down at his body and twisted around, but he didn’t feel any particular damage, and rather felt like he’s gradually warming up. He enjoyed that feeling with his eyes closed.

Perhaps about 10 seconds passed when the light converged, and the warm feeling disappeared. Upon feeling it, Kuuga opened his eyes, and an unexpected thing moved into his view, so he looked down and glanced at it.

A familiar, nostalgic human hand.

“This is…”

The words he muttered unexpectedly reached his ears, and he was relieved it’s his nostalgic voice and familiar human words.

He dumbfoundedly raised the hand on the ground in front of his eyes, gazed at his dirty palm, then wiped it off and touched his face.

His face, which he felt from his palm, was not covered with fur and had human-like unevenness. When he moved his hand to his head and touched his hair this time, he was surprised at finding something unexpected, making him shocked. In response, the thing he touched also moved in jerks.

“…the ears are not human…”

Yes, it’s the now-familiar fur-covered triangular animal ears. He had an unpleasant feeling and put his hand behind him. As expected, there was also a tail.

While feeling it was absurd, he’s mostly encouraged by the fact that he had human vocal cords and could speak words, so Kuuga slowly stood up on two legs.

As he moved, the white clothes on him fluttered and flapped.

In his previous world, he had a well-organized face and had many fans at school. He had a tall body that just reached 180 cm that was not muscular but firm in its own way. Kuuga remembered his current body as the one he’d lived in the previous world. Except that his dark brown hair had turned black like his form as a Divine Beast and the tip of his hair was white. Moreover, there’s the seal mark on his forehead along with the animal ears and tail. This was what Kuuga looked like today.

“With this, you can sit down.”

“A-ahh…”

Kuuga, who was impressed by the fact that he’s able to return to his human appearance, quickly calmed down at the girl’s call and sat down in the chair. Reaching into the steaming teacup, he passed the hot tea to his throat and exhaled the gorgeous scent, rejoicing at the nostalgic taste.

“Have you calmed down? Then, if you have any questions, please ask. I’ll tell you if I can answer.”

“…I want to ask…”

There were so many things he wanted to ask, so Kuuga pondered for a few seconds without immediately speaking.

“Are you… really God?”

He thought that it’s useless to ask anything else without confirming this first, and as if she noticed, the girl lifted her eyebrows and smiled.

“Come to think of it, I didn’t say that. It’s okay to think that I’m God. I’m called Merdechalan. To be precise, I’m the one who manages this world.”

“Manage?”

“Yes, that’s right. We manage the power that supports this world, the physical world, and such things. God is enough for those who live in this world.”

“…that means that if you don’t live in this world, you’re not God?”

“That’s right. You already know that there’s more than one world. There are people in each world who manage it, and there are higher-ranking people who put it all together. To be exact, those people are the Gods. We have only been entrusted with the management.”

“…do you mean this is just working for you?”

“It doesn’t matter if you think so. Well, I’m the only one who interferes with this world so you don’t need to know in detail.”

“I see…”

Kuuga thought about his next question, even though he’s a bit disappointed as this was not quite what he was expecting.

“…why did I come to this world, and why did I become the Divine Beast?”

That’s what Kuuga was most concerned about. Perhaps Merdechalan was anticipating this question, but she showed a little worried gesture after making a face that said, “as expected, you’d go for that.”

“I can tell you, but it won’t be much fun for you. Can’t you live without knowing it? Do you still want to know?”

“If it’s about me, I want to know what it is.”

“…then, I’ll tell you.”

After staring at Kuuga’s expression, Merdechalan exhaled a bit, drank a sip of tea, then started talking.

“There is a manager like me in the world you were born in.”

“Are you colleagues?”

“…you can say so. Then the administrator… said you have too much.”

“…what do you mean too much?”

He didn’t remember doing anything to the administrator in his previous world. In the first place, that was only natural since he didn’t know about their existence.

Merdechalan nodded a bit to Kuuga, who was angry at not understanding what she just said.

“Right. I wonder if you can understand reincarnation.”

“Reincarnation means rebirth, right…?”

“That’s fine. While souls repeatedly live and die, some souls would exist and disappear for several reasons. Contrary to that, there are also newly born souls… you are a newly born soul.”

“…haa.”

“There was something wrong with your new birth and your soul gained a special power. You already know what it is, right?”

It’s the power to discern people. Kuuga, who knew that better than anyone, immediately nodded.

By the way, the power of Kuuga didn’t apply on Merdechalan, even if she wasn’t a real God. It’s strange because when he tried to look at her face with the intention of discerning her, it looked blurred or has mosaic. If he didn’t pay attention to it, he could only see her pretty appearance of being a beautiful girl.

“Your power is a little too strong. In particular, that world is very delicate or rather, complex… and your influence slightly distorts that world.”

“…distort?”

“You don’t need to know much about that. You probably won’t understand. However, please understand that the administrator cannot ignore the distortion.”

He couldn’t fully understand it, but he realized that his power was not a good influence on that world.

“But the administrator couldn’t interfere in that world. There were various restrictions and it’s troublesome…”

“…I see.”

“The quickest method was to make you disappear, but we can’t do that unless you’ve committed a deadly sin to the world. You used that power only for your peace and for your friends, but it was still troublesome.”

It was awkward being told that him not doing any evil was troublesome, so Kuuga groaned a little in a complicated mood. He sipped some tea to calm himself.