I couldn’t find a good timing to tell her.
Confirming that the black dragon had disappeared, I turned around to see Lina standing, in a daze.
“He-y! Are you okay?”
I waved my hand at the dumbfounded Lina.
Coming back to her senses, Lina moved her eyes to the place where the dragon had been while blinking in surprise.
“W-What was that just now?”
I casually replied to Lina who had asked me in amazement. “I just exterminated him like I usually do.”
“What do you mean by ‘just’?! Don’t speak as if it was something normal!!”
Because I was getting a harsh retort from Lina, I tried to calm her down.
“Can’t you do the same too? It would be easy if you use that void magic.”
“I can’t!! I’d have already disappeared myself before using it!!”
Shouting at me, Lina finally ran out of breath, calmed down and said with a shocked expression, “Listen here, void magic is not omnipotent. It takes a little bit of time to be able to erase something. For the black dragon, it would take a few minutes at least before I could erase him, and that would be enough time for me to be easily murdered by him. If we add up my current condition to all of that, the possibility of me winning is nearly zero.”
Is that so? I really thought she could defeat him in an instant.
“And how about those feather things that fall from the sky?”
“A black dragon is not weak to the point of falling for that skill. He would probably use his breath to burn them all.”
Hearing her explanation, a realized something odd.
“Eh? Those feathers could be burned?”
“Of course they could. They only make the things I recognize as enemy disappear, as long as you don’t touch them, they are no different from normal feathers.”
Are you serious? So there wasn’t any need for me to use my erasure skill at them? That means that I chose the most magic-consuming way to deal with the problem. I wonder why I didn’t think about it.
Regretting my own failure, Lina changed the topic. “Well, in any case, you really did save me. I’m very thankful for that, thank you.”
She bowed down to me. I scratched my head, thinking about how I should react.
I’m kinda bad at this kind of formal stuff…
“Just raise your head for now. I told you this before, but I moved on my own. There’s no need for you to thank me.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that you saved my life. At least let me express my gratitude.”
This girl is serious with everything.
I had a trouble figuring out how to answer Lina, who was still bowing down.
“I get it. I accept your thanks, so raise your head. I’m not good with this kind of talk.”
“Fufu, that’s so like you.”
Seeing my nervous expression, Lina raised her head, smiling.
Starting to estimate our current situation after feeling relieved, Lina gradually turned gloomy again.
“So I really was cast away…” Lina muttered with a faint voice, gazing at the remains of the battle against the dragon. She wasn’t depressed like the first time, but she still had those lingering feelings towards Metron.
With a sorrowful face, Lina placed her hand on her chest.
“… this may take some time, but could you hear me out?”
“Okay. we’ve got plenty of time here anyway.”
I sat down on the ground.
Following me, Lina sat down as well and kept looking at me in the eyes, not speaking for a while.
“Aren’t you taking this a bit too lightly here?”
“You think so? I think I’m normal.”
Lina agreed to me with an, “I see…” and started talking.
“… it was my only yearning.”
“Yearning?”
Nodding to my question, she resumed speaking.
“In the heavens where I live, gods are a sacred existence. Every angel there respected them and considered serving them to provide the utmost happiness and honor.” Lina continued speaking with an indifferent face.
It seemed like place totally controlled by the gods to me.
“Of course, I am no different when it comes to respecting gods. My parents raised me to be that way and I was already yearning to become their servant before I realized it. That’s why I pursued knowledge, defeated monsters and increased my level. I upgraded my void-magic skill to the highest possible level and changed the way I was speaking in order to look stronger. And in the end, I was finally able to serve a god.”
“You can’t serve a god that easily?” I immediately let out a question I had in mind.
“One needs to undergo trials if they want to serve a god; very harsh and severe trials. Leaving aside their personal strength, they need to show that they’re able to achieve any task given to them by taking cleaning tests, office work tests, processing trials and even participating in the royal battle to get their power measured. Yeah, The last one was tough.”
What kinda trial is that? It goes over the level of severe.
I was impressed that Lina had done something like that.
I was honestly amazed by what she had done
“What would happen if someone couldn’t serve a god?”
“Nothing in particular. They can always try another time if they fail while taking a different job meanwhile.”
“Different job?”
“Ah, things like opening a store or making a project. It’s not that much different from what you earthlings do.”
Is that so?
I was thinking of the heaven as a place above the clouds with fountains everywhere and all. Turns out it’s as realistic as earth.
My childhood was gone now…
Doesn’t that mean that Lina was taking something more like an employment test?
Uwa… that’s just too realistic for a place called “heaven.”
Shocked by the unexpectedly realistic circumstance of the sky, I noticed Lina recalling something with a nostalgic expression.
“At that time, everyday was very fulfilling. I would feel delighted from serving a god while working myself to the bone day after day…”
However, she slowly changed back to her dispirited mood.
“Everything is gone now that I was abandoned and locked up by Metron-sama in this world.”
Lina sank into silence making the mood feel stiff.
She cast her eyes down. I hesitated to ask something for a moment, but did in the end. “Are you still loyal to him even now?”
“I don’t know. But what’s for sure is that my faith in him had considerably decreased. I might even revolt against him if I make it out of here.”
It was clear that she was speaking out of her will this time.
Finished telling her story, Lina raised both of her hands and laid on her back.
“That’s it, I’m done talking. Are you satisfied now?”
Listening to her until the end, I placed my hands on the ground behind my back to sustain my body, relaxed, closed my eyes for a few moments then said.
“I didn’t get what you meant. Especially the part about where you wanted to serve a god. If I was in your place, I’d rather live my life free.”
“Free, huh…”
“Yeah, there’s plenty of other things you can do instead of spending your life serving someone. Like going to a different world.”
“What if I find something to do in another world?”
“Leave the heavens and live there.”
Hearing my obvious reply, Lina fixed her gaze on me.
“That’s going a bit overboard. I’ve never heard of someone leaving the heavens to live somewhere else.”
“But it’s still possible as an option.”
“That’s true, but…”
“It’s fine as long as you’re aware of it as an option. Let’s leave that problem for later.”
Convinced by my statements, Lina let out a faint sigh.
“Talking with you like this makes me feel stupid because of what I did earlier.”
“That’s because you’re overthinking things. Stop thinking about the past and concentrate on your current state.”
“My current state…”
“Yeah…”
As if she thought about something from what I told her and stood up.
“First, I will start by making a base.”
“… what?”
Still sitting on the ground, I raised my head to look at Lina.
What was this girl saying all of a sudden?
“After that, I will make various rooms and use magic to make water. I still don’t know what I should do about food, but I’ll leave that problem for later. First is making a base.”
“Eh? Ah, wait…”
“It’s difficult to build one, so I guess digging a hole would be the best choice. It could be dark inside, but I’m going to have to bear with that much.”
“No, just wait…”
“After I make my base, I will start searching for a way to go back to our worlds. I doubt there will be a way to do so, but I should at least try.”
“Wait a second!”
Ignored by Lina for the third time, I gripped both of her shoulders and screamed.
“Hm? What is it?”
“What do you mean by what is it? What are you talking about?”
“I was speaking about what I will be doing from now on… ha?! Don’t tell me, you…!!”
Apparently misunderstanding something, Lina’s face turned completely red as she averted her eyes.
“I’m sorry, but please wait some time before doing that. I’m still mentally unprepared, not to mention that we’re still not that close in the first place.”
“Um, just what are you talking about? You don’t need to do all of that, you know.”
Hearing what I said, Lina changed her blushing expression to that of bewilderment.
“What do you mean by that? We can’t go back you know.”
“Yes we can.”
“… eh?
Realizing that I was talking seriously, Lina couldn’t hide her confusion.
We can go back easily just by using 【Time-space teleportation magic】.
It’s originally a skill made to teleport in time and space. If this was a different world, then there was no reason that we wouldn’t be able to teleport back. Well, the only few flaws it got is its tremendous consumption of magic and the fact it takes time to activate it.
When I explained all of that to Lina, she started trembling again.
“Te-…”
“Te?”
“Tell me that first!!!” She yelled at me with a voice that echoed around the empty space.
——————————————————————————————————-
We teleported back to the mountain where we had fought. It was still nighttime and the cold wind pierced my body.
Next to me, Lina stood casting her eyes down in embarrassment. She couldn’t look at me after all what she said earlier.
It wasn’t my fault, you know…
“How could I make such an error…”
“Well, don’t let it get you down. Cheer up.”
“Shut up! It’s your fault in the first place…!” Lina tried yelling, but once she faced me, her face turned even redder and she turned away again.
She can’t even talk to me directly now…
“Well then I’m going back home now.”
Walking three steps ahead, I stopped and turned around to tell her something I forgot.
“Make sure you show up at school tomorrow. Everyone there is waiting for you to come back.”
“I-I get it!! Just go already!!”
Replying with “Okay, okay,” to Lina, who was still yelling at me, I resumed walking down the mountain.
I went back running since I had run out of magic.
Thanks to my skills, I was able to leave Lina’s field of vision in no time. When she made sure I had left, she muttered in a relieved tone. “Thank you for saving me, Kamiya Yato.”
Those gratitude words reverberated around the place and disappeared, not showing their true meaning.
That was the first time Lina spoke in an innocent voice.
——————————————————————————————————-
Bonus
Work.
“It is the dream of every angel to serve a god.”
“Serving a god is a pretty popular work there, huh.”
“Yeah, that’s not the only reason it’s popular.”
“Is there another reason?”
“The salary is ridiculously high.”
“That’s a realistic reason indeed…”
“It’s work, after all.”
