Ismail had indeed made an enormous contribution to this world, but that did not mean the world would never put him to the test.
He had already gained far too much in life from the World Lord's favor. So even if Oaisis himself had no such intention, the consciousness formed by the world's deepest laws—the underlying logic that even its World Lord had to obey—was still balancing out those benefits in its own way.
Whether in a fantasy world or a magicless world, no god, however powerful, could escape the judgment and balancing that the world imposed on his actions.
That included Toril's Ao... All he could ever control was the broad direction of events and matters involving the gods. As for everything else... Just like Edna Mystra, whom the Undead had brought out, the world itself always had a little surprise in store for him.
The world had indeed fairly rewarded Ismail with merit, but whether that merit could sustain his dominance, or even keep his path smooth after he reached the Upper Realm, depended on his own conduct.
And all the setbacks he was encountering now, whether overt or hidden, might have something to do with his having sheltered Gaia's avatar to some extent.
Even if he had not known, what excuse did he have for not knowing what the people around him were doing?
Especially since that lady might have borrowed his influence for many of those things... Ruth and the other subordinates under her control, for example. Hadn't she been able to take them away precisely because of Ismail?
Could the Damboro Royal Family's present fate... also have something to do with the former king having sheltered both Lucia and her mother?
It was not as though Ismail had never made mistakes before. But the extraordinary