The feeling of being watched from the shadows, of having her every move heard clearly while knowing nothing about the other person...
For Sasamori Aya, who was accustomed to controlling everything, it was an utterly miserable experience.
That rabbit's ears were still as annoyingly sharp as ever.
"Impressive."
Haimo stopped five paces away from Tsukuyo Inaba.
He gave a light round of applause.
He was generous with his praise, and the admiration in his eyes only deepened.
"To reconstruct a battle from so far away through hearing alone..."
"Even in Orario, where monsters abound, hearing like yours would be exceptionally rare."
Haimo made no attempt to hide the appreciation in his voice.
After all, to a god...
A mortal's worth was never measured by a single quality.
Physical strength and magical power were merely the more mundane parts of that assessment.
Such a unique way of perceiving the world...
Such keen senses, capable of extracting crucial information from countless distracting noises...
Their value far exceeded simple destructive power.
One could even say...
This gift was practically tailor-made for the Dungeon, with all its uncertainty, traps, and sudden dangers.
"You flatter me, my lord."
Tsukuyo Inaba lowered her head slightly.
Her long, silvery-white hair slipped down along her cheeks, concealing part of her face.
"Having lost my sight, I could only struggle on in darkness. This is merely a little ingenuity I was forced to develop."
"To receive your praise for such paltry tricks..."
"I hardly feel worthy."
"However, there is something I would like to ask."
"For you to come all the way to such a secluded place..."
"Could it be that you came for me?"
Tsukuyo Inaba paused, a flicker of confusion seeming to cross her unfocused red eyes.
This was precisely what puzzled her most.
After all, a god with such tremendous power, one who could even win over that haughty empress...
Why would he go out of his way to seek out someone with a disability, someone who had nothing but her swordsmanship?
Faced with the girl's question, Haimo answered as decisively as ever.
"That's right."
"I came here for you, Miss Tsukuyo Inaba."
"Because I need your sword."
"Or, to be more precise..."
"I need you to become part of my family."
"Family?"
Family.
The word rippled through the air.
At such a direct approach...
Even though Tsukuyo Inaba did her utmost to maintain her serene composure, she could not stop little ripples from stirring in her heart.
A faint blush quickly spread across her delicate, porcelain-doll cheeks.
After all, no matter how mature she normally acted, no matter how much she resembled a sage detached from worldly affairs...
In the end...
She was still...
Just a teenage girl.
Faced with a god's words, so direct and sincere that they almost sounded like a declaration of special affection...
Her girlish shyness inevitably slipped through that masterly facade.
"Family, you say?"
Tsukuyo Inaba repeated the word softly.
Though she felt somewhat embarrassed...
She could clearly sense the god's gaze resting on her, fervent and sincere.
For Tsukuyo Inaba, who was accustomed to being feared or kept at a distance, such a gaze was utterly unfamiliar.
"Since you have been so frank, my lord..."
"There is no need for me to keep up appearances."
"It's just..."
"There is still something I am curious about."
"You went to such lengths to descend into this world, my lord..."
"What exactly is that other world you spoke of like?"
Tsukuyo Inaba lifted her head, finding her voice again. Though she could not see, her red eyes still fixed unerringly on Haimo.
That question...
Was not something only Tsukuyo Inaba wanted answered.
It was also what everyone else was most curious about.
Even Sasamori Aya, who had been standing behind them with a deep frown, and Onigawara Rin and Mozunoya, who had yet to recover from the blow, pricked up their ears.
"That world, huh..."
"If I want to help you understand that world..."
"I think the first thing..."
"Is to explain to you what, for gods with infinite lifespans..."
"Constitutes the deadliest poison."
"For gods with infinite lifespans, the deadliest poison is a world that never changes."
"The gods have already spent hundreds of millions of years in Heaven."
"Day after day, year after year."
"As time passed..."
"For gods with eternal lives, life in Heaven became more and more like an agonizingly long, suffocating ordeal."
"So much so that, to escape boredom capable of driving a mind insane, some gods chose to kill themselves for entertainment."
"After all, for us, death is merely a sleep lasting ten thousand years."
"However..."
"As time went on, some gods began losing their minds. They chose to torment other gods into temporary oblivion as an extravagant form of entertainment."
"Although the vast majority of gods did not approve of such entertainment..."
"It was enough to prove that the gods in Heaven had encountered an enemy they could not defeat."
At that...
It was not just Tsukuyo Inaba.
Even Sasamori Aya, Onigawara Rin, and the others behind them looked stunned.
Gods... could get bored too?
Bored enough to kill one another?
The idea completely overturned their understanding, leaving them deeply shaken.
However...
Haimo paid no heed to their shock and continued.
"So, we made a decision."
"To seek the thrill of the unknown, to fill that eternal emptiness..."
"We would allow gods to leave lifeless Heaven and descend to the lower world."
"That is the world I have been talking about."
"We established rules: gods were forbidden to use divine power in the lower world and had to live like mortals."
"We could even get drunk on wine brewed by mortals."
"Then..."
"We would bestow a gift called falna upon children we chose in the lower world."
"They would become members of our respective familias, receiving the key to unlock their potential."
"And explore the source of the vicious monsters scattered across the continent-the bottomless Dungeon, filled with untold monsters."
"By fighting monsters, obtaining magic stones, and harvesting materials..."
"They could gain wealth, fame, and greater strength."
"As for us..."
"We would sit in the audience, witnessing with our own eyes the epics our chosen children played out-stories of friendship, courage, growth, betrayal, love, and hate."
"Perhaps you wonder why exalted gods would become enthralled by such mortal games?"
"The reason is simple."
"It is precisely because of life's uncertainty."
In Heaven, everything was known; everything was understood.
Like a film spoiled ten thousand times over, it was dull and tedious.
But in the lower world...
From the dawn of evolution...
Life was a miracle born to resist entropy-the ultimate law of the universe.
Chapter 10: The Five Heavenly Swords-Kikakujō Mary and Hanabishi Warabi
Mortal lives might be as fleeting as the morning dew.
But...
Precisely because their lives were so brief, they could blaze within that limited time with a brilliance that made even gods take notice.
Even the weakest ant...
Could swing a sword in a desperate struggle for survival, and that strike would still be filled with unpredictable possibilities.
That was why...
When a mortal, whether to protect their companions or out of pure ambition, surpassed their limits and accomplished a feat even the gods had never foreseen...