"I'll have to find those two myself."
As a god.
This was the decisiveness required of a patron god determined to lead his familia to the pinnacle of Orario.
In this fiercely competitive world, falling behind once meant falling behind at every turn.
Since the system had given him an opportunity, he had to act like lightning and secure the strongest prospects.
High potential meant more than their current strength. It also meant the possibility they carried within them-the ability to break the shackles of fate.
"System."
Haimo rose and straightened a nonexistent collar. Though he still wore that plain hemp outfit, his bearing now made him seem clad in divine armor, standing above the clouds.
"Lock onto world coordinates S-14."
"Open the teleportation passage."
"Destination: Aichi Kyosei Academy."
[Command confirmed.] [World coordinates locked... S-14, Aichi Kyosei Academy.] [Host's divine power detected to be sealed. Cross-world teleportation will consume the system's reserve energy...] [Teleportation ready.] [Countdown: 3, 2, 1...]
As the system's cold countdown ended.
The previously tranquil space inside the Haimo Temple suddenly rippled violently.
An azure portal appeared out of thin air and swallowed Haimo's figure in an instant.
The next second.
Deathly silence returned to the temple. Only the recruitment sign that had fallen to the floor remained, lying alone in the dust.
World S-14.
Aichi Kyosei Academy.
It was afternoon.
Sunlight filtered through lush foliage, scattering patches of light across the school buildings' walls.
This academy had a peculiar atmosphere.
The girls wore neat uniforms, yet all carried weapons of various kinds at their waists or on their backs.
As for the boys...
Most kept their heads down, their faces covered in ridiculous heavy makeup, timidly avoiding the girls' gazes like a flock of frightened quails.
This was the academy's unique correctional policy.
However.
In one corner of the campus, within a special area known as the "headmaster's office"-or rather, the domain of an even higher authority.
The air was especially tense.
A figure stood quietly before an enormous floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at the students scurrying below like ants.
She was a tall girl with long black hair.
Her eyes were sharp as blades, filled with an arrogance that held no one in any regard.
Sasamori Aya.
The empress of Kyōsei Academy was experiencing an unprecedented sense of boredom.
Yes.
Boredom.
When someone stood at the pinnacle and looked around, only to discover that no one remained worthy of facing them in battle, the loneliness of those lofty heights would gnaw at their soul.
The Five Swords?
They were merely a little stronger than the rest.
Ruling over this tiny cage still left one nothing more than a frog at the bottom of a well.
Human desire knew no bounds.
Once the need for survival was met.
Once the summit of power was reached.
The longing for greater heights, rooted deep in humanity's genes, would grow wild like weeds.
She yearned for an opponent.
She yearned for someone strong enough to make her blood boil and her heart race, someone who could even let her taste the fear she had not felt in so long.
Only on the brink of death would life shine at its brightest.
That was why some people were always eager to push their limits, eager to scale peaks that seemed insurmountable.
Because atop those sheer cliffs lay sights the mediocre could never experience.
"How boring."
Just as Sasamori Aya was immersed in the emptiness of having no worthy opponent.
Something suddenly changed.
Without any warning.
A massive rent suddenly opened in the previously cloudless sky.
There were no gathering storm clouds, nor any flashes of lightning.
It was as though someone had taken invisible scissors and forcibly cut a slit into the curtain called the sky.
Azure radiance poured from the fissure, instantly enveloping the entire academy.
The light was not dazzling, yet it carried a majesty that made it impossible to look directly at.
As though some higher-dimensional being were gazing through that fissure at this insignificant world.
The commotion in the academy stopped instantly.
Whether they were armed girls brandishing bamboo swords as they scolded boys, boys trembling in corners, or teachers preparing lessons in their offices.
Everyone instinctively raised their heads and stared blankly at the phenomenon in the sky.
At the very center of that radiance.
A figure slowly emerged.
Chapter 5: The Empress-Ryukyu Kobujutsu: Uechi-Ryū
Black hair, black eyes, and plain clothes.
Yet the aura emanating from his very bones, one that placed him above all living beings, made everyone feel an urge to prostrate themselves in worship the moment they saw him.
He was Haimo.
With his divine power unrestricted.
Haimo hovered in midair in defiance of the laws of physics, descending step by step as though treading invisible stairs.
His feet touched nothing solid.
Yet the air beneath him seemed paved with invisible jade steps.
With every step he took.
A ripple visible to the naked eye spread through the void.
It was not magic, but a phenomenon caused by pure divine power pressing against the physical laws of this fragile world.
The clamor below had long since vanished.
Both the girls wielding bamboo swords and the boys whose faces were covered in powder stood like puppets frozen in place, able only to tilt their heads back and watch that figure descend from the heavens, step by step.
At last, Haimo stopped in midair roughly ten meters outside the headmaster's floor-to-ceiling window.
His gaze passed through the specially made bulletproof glass and settled unobstructed on the black-haired girl.
Their eyes met across the distance.
Haimo slowly spoke.
His voice was not loud, yet it reached the ears of everyone present with perfect clarity, like a great bell tolling directly in the depths of their souls.
"Do you want to understand the meaning of life?"
"Do you want to experience what it truly means to be alive?"
These classic lines had echoed through countless planes of this universe.
Now, spoken by a true god, they were no longer simple questions, but words that struck straight at the soul.
As soon as he spoke.
The girl behind the window lifted the corners of her lips slightly.
There was no fear.
No panic.
In those black eyes that had only ever shown arrogance and boredom, a flame called fervor finally ignited.
"Interesting."
Sasamori Aya murmured softly.
Facing that suffocating divine might, she lifted her head and revealed an excited smile.
"If you really can let me experience what it truly means to be alive, anything is fine."
As soon as Sasamori Aya finished speaking.
Haimo's figure abruptly vanished.
There was no afterimage, no rush of air.
It was as though that frame of the scene had simply been cut away.
The next instant.
Haimo stood before Sasamori Aya, less than half a meter separating them.
Close enough for each to clearly see their own reflection in the other's pupils.
At the same time.
Haimo also sensed the stirring deep within Sasamori Aya's heart that his arrival had caused.
"I sense in your heart a desire to challenge me?"
"Do you want to?"
"To challenge a god with a mortal body..."
"Such ambition is indeed rare in that world."
Haimo was not offended by Sasamori Zan Zan's fighting spirit. On the contrary, he admired it greatly.
After all.
In Orario, which of those Level 6 or even Level 7 adventurers standing at the pinnacle did not harbor fierce ambitions?
Some had even truly earned the right to touch the realm of the gods.
"I do."
"In that case."