Chapter 481

The skills learned from human books are indeed useful!

This is the ultimate path! I'm about to fall in love with Shirou!

Ereshkigal wore a slightly indifferent expression, but inwardly he was overjoyed and his heart was pounding.

"Ahem! How long are you planning to stare at me like that? How rude of you, Shirou."

"Ereshkigal said shyly."

Shirou quickly shifted his gaze away from the goddess's beautiful legs.

"Oh, I'm so sorry."

Ereshkigal snorted, "It's not that I can't understand your feelings."

"I don't think you can understand the complicated feelings I'm having right now, "Shirou thought to himself.

"How... how is it?"

"What do you mean, how about it?"

Don't you have anything you want to say to me?

Ereshkigal stared expectantly at Shirou, pressing him for an answer, while winking adorably in a suggestive way.

"For example, what about saying things like, 'Ereshkigal is so cute! My wife! My one and only!'...?"

"..."

After a moment's hesitation, Shirou decided to reveal his true feelings to her.

"Ereshkigal."

"Hmm... Ugh, who are you calling Ereshkigal?!"

The goddess of the Underworld suppressed her secret joy and panic, held her breath, and listened intently—

You look a lot like one of my classmates.

"Why?"

Ereshkigal's eyes widened, and he stammered, "What... what is this?"

There's no need to use these pickup lines now, and I'm not happy about it at all... just a little bit.

Hmm, I feel like the reaction is a bit subtle... Why is that? Shouldn't there be a stronger reaction?

Even if you say that, I still...

The goddess of the Underworld frowned, observing the boy's reaction.

That's a bit strange.

Shirou wasn't joking or teasing him, nor did he seem to be lying.

Ereshkigal murmured, "Wait, could it be... that the body I'm inhabiting..."

Shirou nodded.

He now finally understood where the sense of intimacy he felt from the goddess Ereshkigal came from.

"Hmm, although it sounds unbelievable, but... the body you're currently inhabiting seems to be my classmate."

"W-What! How could this happen!?"

The blonde beauty grabbed her hair, looking completely bewildered.

"The girl I possessed was actually Shirou's classmate—"

Doesn't this completely eliminate any romantic element, leaving no possibility of love at first sight?

The goddess Ereshkigal buried her head in her hands, knelt on the ground, and wept.

Shirou thought to himself, "I feel like I've done something really wrong."

Should I not have told her the truth?

"Waaah!"

Ereshkigal rose from the ground again.

As expected of a goddess who can synchronize with Rin Tohsaka, she recovers so quickly.

"Okay, enough joking around."

"I wasn't joking just now," Shirou said.

"Gurgle...!"

The Queen of the Underworld's face turned pale and then red, as if she had suffered a severe blow.

"Well... farewell then, Shirou."

"Is Ereshkigal really not planning to go to the ground?"

After Shirou asked this question, he was met with the goddess's alluring smile.

"You seem to have misunderstood something, Amamiya- san."

Wow, even their tone has changed!

Don't let the demonic power (Rin Tohsaka) corrupt you, my goddess!

Ereshkigal pressed his hand to his beautifully shaped breasts and began to speak.

Let me reintroduce myself to you, human.

I am the administrator of death, the mistress of the Underworld, the one who tramples the sacred peaks, Ereshkigal— "

Shirou: "I've already heard about that..."

Ereshkigal: "I am the enemy of you humans, a pillar of the Three Goddess Alliance."

Shirou: "...?"

"So, do you finally realize that you've been used?"

Ereshkigal said with a serious expression:

"This is a declaration of war. Please deliver it to Golden Flash in Uruk for me!"

My goal is to exterminate every single human being of this era, including you, and imprison them all in the Underworld, making them my property!

This is my choice—the choice of the goddess Ereshkigal, the first decision I've made based on my own will.

"... Ereshkigal."

Just as Shirou was about to say something more, in the next instant, his body lost weight and he was sent flying into the sky.

A minute later, Ereshkigal began to regret it.

Perhaps I shouldn't have been so forceful when sending Shirou away... What if he dislikes me now?

No, no, no, Shirou is such a nice person, there's no way he could dislike me, right?

But what if...?

The mere thought of even the slightest possibility made the goddess feel a tightness in her chest.

"Well..."

Ereshkigal sighed.

Shirou left the Underworld.

Perhaps it was just psychological, but the surroundings seemed to quiet down.

Ereshkigal returned to being alone.

I feel a little like crying.

The two and a half months I spent with him still feel like a beautiful dream when I think back on it.

After having such a beautiful and warm dream, can I still accept the darkness with the same ignorance as before?

Without a doubt, those will be even more unbearable and agonizing years than before.

But she had to endure it.

This isn't a question of whether it's possible, it's a must--

As the mistress of the Underworld, one must endure loneliness and adapt to the cold.

To humans, this is the afterlife, a place where nothing exists, but to the goddess, it is her living kingdom.

When the divinity known as "Ereshkigal" awakened, the world it was destined to go to was already set in motion.

The underground kingdom, a wilderness where the souls of the dead are frozen.

A world bordering the abyss, where all life has ended.

There is no sun or stars, no wind, no water or flowers, only the ruler of the cold Land of the Dead.

This was the only task and duty she was given.

When Ereshkigal first descended into the Underworld, he dreamed of transforming Underworld into a great nation.

Clearing wasteland, building houses, leveling hills, and improving the land.

A thousand years later, the goddess finally realized that her dream was unattainable.

Her strength alone could not possibly warm this cold world.

The Anunnaki gods had long since lost their divinity.

The seven judges have all become clay tablets that can only read the law and make automatic judgments.

Without her orders, the Seven Gates of the Underworld remained completely silent.

The entire world's management system has practically collapsed, yet souls continue to pour in.

Ereshkigal was so busy making gun slings for the new recruits that he had no time for anything else.

Even the construction of her own temple has been delayed for thousands of years, and staying at the Hill of Spear Cages has become a habit.

But the goddess did not give up or succumb to despair.

After all, the world has only just begun, and the number of humans on Earth will continue to increase!

The goddess thought: Fortunately, books are the only thing I can access even in the Underworld.

I can only focus on studying now; I have no time to rest.

Crops that can grow even without sun and water, animals that can thrive even without grass to eat.

This is the final resting place for all living things.

The last world the soul can see.

Such important land was entrusted to him.

"A mere thousand years, one... it's not hard at all."

"Keep a close watch on me. Even if it takes a thousand years, no, even if it takes ten thousand years, I will not give up."

"Although it's not as beautiful as the surface of the earth..."

No, it is precisely because this place lacks the brilliance of celestial stars that we must build it into a beautiful nation more stable and equal than any other country.

"I am the Earth Goddess, awakened and desired by people for this reason; the order of the Underworld is the meaning of my existence."

The goddess once made a vow to herself.

Result--

She was unable to fulfill her wish until the end of the Age of Gods.

With a slight regret, the goddess Ereshkigal returned to the Inner Sea of the Planet.

She thought her story had come to an end, but due to the instability of space and time, the goddess returned to Mesopotamia in a new body.

The regrets I couldn't fulfill in my past life...