"Quite Cute."

"She's quite cute."

"You're from a different world?"

The sudden revelation caused Shien, who was about to drink his tea, to freeze, his face filled with astonishment.

Seeing his reaction, the Goddess couldn't help but smile.

"You heard me correctly?" the Goddess chuckled. "There are many other worlds besides this Omnipotens. The world you inhabited in your past life is just one of them. The only commonality is that all your worlds are ordinary, with no gods, no demons, and no special powers. Therefore, they are absolutely independent existences. Even we gods cannot interfere, and can only summon those with Heroic traits within the bounds of 'Reason.' That's the limit."

This was truly unexpected.

However, upon reflection, it made sense.

If gods could easily summon people from other worlds, they wouldn't have needed to create the various races to fight the demons in the first place. They could have just summoned reinforcements from other worlds, right?

Although, even in other worlds, people with the potential to become Heroes were rare. Not everyone could awaken their Sacred Sword and Unique Skill. But in this regard, people from this world were in the same situation.

They wouldn't have a Sacred Sword, and not everyone could possess a Unique Skill. Most people in this world had to train diligently from scratch, gradually leveling up and learning skills to make a name for themselves.

Therefore, in terms of manpower alone, people from any world were the same.

If the gods could summon people from other worlds to this one, most of them would likely have to train from zero without any advantages, just like the people in this world. Only a small portion would awaken their own Unique Skills, and it was uncertain whether these Unique Skills would be useful in combat.

Only those with the potential to become Heroes could awaken powerful Unique Skills and possess their own Sacred Sword.

Therefore, what the gods truly needed, and could only summon, were Heroes.

It was just that the number of people with the potential to become Heroes seemed truly scarce.

Throughout history, fewer than ten Heroes had been summoned to this world, and each Hero came from a different world. This indicated that at most, only one person from a world could become a Hero, and many worlds might not even have a single suitable candidate.

"Moreover, Heroes vary in strength," the Goddess said. "In the past, the Sacred Swords and Unique Skills awakened by Heroes were all different."

As a result, some Heroes would naturally awaken exceptionally powerful Sacred Swords and Unique Skills, while others would be relatively weaker.

This inevitably led to a problem.

That is...

"Even Heroes aren't guaranteed to defeat the Demon Lord."

At this point, the Goddess's gaze seemed a bit dim, even disappointed.

Seeing this, Shien understood.

I suppose none of the Heroes summoned in the past were able to defeat the Demon Lord?

Otherwise, if the Demon Lord had already been defeated, there would be no need to summon Shien.

It was precisely because the Demon Lord was still at large that the gods had to continue summoning Heroes.

From this, one could see how powerful the Demon Lord was, as even past Heroes had failed to defeat him.

Then, what about himself?

Could he defeat the Demon Lord?

As Shien pondered this, the Goddess's gaze fell upon him.

She was staring intently at Shien.

"I have a feeling you'll be the Hero with the highest chance of achieving this goal so far," the Goddess said as if to herself. "After all, both your Sacred Sword and Unique Skill are, in my opinion, beyond anything the previous Heroes possessed."

Shien wasn't sure how to react to her words.

Logically, he should be happy to receive such praise.

But unfortunately...

"You can't seem to be happy, can you?" the Goddess said with a wry smile. "In your world, novels and myths are full of protagonists who are born with the strongest talents. There are also tropes like 'underdogs' and 'mediocre talents,' with all sorts of situations possible for the protagonist. Even if I say you're the most promising Hero of all time, you'd probably just find it strange, wouldn't you?"

Hearing this, Shien's mouth twitched.

Could this Goddess really read people's minds?

After all, she's a god, so having abilities like mind-reading is normal, right?

Let's try something.

With that thought, Shien began to conjure some inappropriate images in his mind.

"!"

At that moment, the Goddess's smiling expression suddenly froze. A blush couldn't help but appear on her beautiful face.

"Y-You! What on earth are you thinking!?"

The Goddess slammed her hand on the table and exclaimed angrily, startling Shien.

"You really can read minds!?"

Startled, Shien stood up.

"I never said I couldn't, did I?"

A slight blush still lingered on the Goddess's face.

It seemed this Goddess was surprisingly pure-hearted.

As Shien thought this in his mind, a gaze filled with killing intent was cast upon him, making him tremble all over. He quickly focused his eyes on his nose and his nose on his heart, clearing his mind of all distracting thoughts and ceasing his idle musings.

"Hmph!" The Goddess snorted coldly, stood up, and said, "Let's stop here for today. I'll send you back!"

Without giving Shien time to react, the Goddess waved her hand, causing the world to distort once more.

"Wait!" Shien quickly called out, "You still haven't told me your name!"

This was something Shien had wanted to know for a while.

Up until now, Shien had only known her as the Goddess. Now that he also knew that there wasn't just one god in this world, but rather a whole divine race, Shien naturally wanted to know her name.

Then...

"Just call me Nien."

After speaking, the Goddess, who called herself Nien, snapped her fingers, causing Shien and the distorting world around him to disappear from the divine temple.

In the inn room, Shien opened his eyes and found himself lying back in bed as if he had never left.

"I'm back already?"

Shien was a little uncertain, even suspecting if he had just been dreaming.

However, the lingering aroma of delicious black tea in his mouth told Shien that everything that had just happened was definitely not a dream.

"I knew I shouldn't have acted so shamelessly. It would have been so much better to ask more questions."

After all, Shien still had many things he didn't understand.

But...

"To be fair, the Goddess looked quite cute when she got shy."

Shien grinned slyly.

The night passed just like that.

Thanks to "Just Like Sunshine D" for the red envelope! The first Grand Patron is born!

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