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“End of the world, waking up, Finis thought idly. By my sense of time, it felt like several thousand years. I could’ve gone for a few billion, honestly.”
“Fini, you’re not a hibernating bear, you know?”
“I think it’s a good look. What do you think?”
“Well, you’re cute, Fini. Good for you.”
“Indeed.”

When I opened my eyes and commented on the nearly collapsing world before me, Fumitsuki delivered a perfectly timed retort. Lullus showed no particular reaction, but Viatrix, who was with us, burst out laughing. Apparently, she got the joke.

I should have been enjoying a long vacation by going along with Viatrix’s plan, so the fact that I’d woken up like this meant something had clearly changed. If nothing had happened, I should’ve been able to sleep for a billion years. So whatever moved, it must have moved fast.

And the fact that Viatrix was still here suggested her plan hadn’t gone quite as intended.

“For now, Lullus, may I ask what happened?”
“I don’t know all the details myself, but… Master Finis, are you aware that you were asleep, or rather sealed?”
“Viatrix captured the World Eater, used the stored energy to restore the world, and my long vacation began, right?”
“I have thoughts about how you phrased that, but yes. The World Eater has already been released and went off to another world, saying she was hungry.”
“Did she say anything else?”
“She said, ‘Mother sleeps too much.’”
“It seems I’ll need to talk with the World Eater again.”

I was pretty sure I told her not to call me “Mother.” Well, that was at least several thousand years ago. Maybe she had forgotten. Or maybe the hunger had made her blurt it out.

“Putting the World Eater aside, do you know what’s going on up there, in the divine realm?”
“It seems the God of Chaos and the god who created this world condemned the god who created Viatrix, and it was decided that they would take responsibility.”
“Ah… so the blame went that way after all.”

I glanced toward Viatrix. She exhaled softly. I couldn’t tell what emotion lay behind it, but things might not be unfolding the way she hoped. Her wish was probably to be held responsible for all of this and erased as a result. Still, from my perspective, it was probably better that she wasn’t punished right now.

There was a chance she wouldn’t even be allowed to disappear. After all, she was an extremely rare existence. From this world’s gods’ point of view, at least. And there were more than a few gods who had taken an interest in her.

“Viatrix’s disposition hasn’t been decided yet. The divine realm is in too much turmoil, so it’s been postponed.”
“And what caused me to wake up earlier than planned?”
“It seems many gods were unhappy with you being unable to act for so long, Master Finis. They had the World Eater consume parts of the world to accelerate its collapse.”

They really didn’t need to rush things that much. Well, I more or less understood the situation now. I figured I’d talk to Viatrix, so I walked over to her. She looked at me with a puzzled expression.

“Is something wrong?”
“Are you going to be a maid again?” She asked.
“I won’t. Doing that with my current position would draw too much attention.”
“That would be troublesome. This time, I’d be higher-ranked than the king, wouldn’t I?”
“You’re famous enough to be considered a great historical figure. It’s also been announced that you’re still alive, so in terms of status, you could even be called the highest-ranking being in the world.”

After all, she was the one who brought the world back from the brink of collapse to full stability. That went beyond being a savior of the nation, one could say every being in this world ought to revere her. Though, of course, that restored world was now being pushed toward collapse once more, thanks to the gods’ whims.

“In any case, thank you for your hard work.”
“If only that were the end of it.”
“I don’t know how you’ll be treated, but I think your cycle of reincarnation will end. There’s no way things can continue as they have until now.”
“…So I’ll finally be able to disappear.”

Her polite tone crumbled as Viatrix murmured the words, filled with long-held emotion. I neither affirmed nor denied it. But I did envy her. I wanted to disappear too.

“For you, Viatrix… would you be satisfied if you could simply vanish?”
“I won’t ask for more at this point.”

Her tone returned to normal as she shook her head.

“But if I were given the chance, I would like to voice at least one complaint.”
“Well… I think landing a single punch would be acceptable.”

I almost asked whether she ever thought about revenge, but stopped. It felt too much like a question once asked of me, during my time as Toriyama. Instead, I turned to Fumitsuki.

“By the way, I’m awake now, but there’s still some time before the world collapses, right?”
“You’d know better than me, Fini, but… don’t tell me—”
“I’m going back to sleep. Wake me if something happens.”
“I knew it.”

I’d said everything I needed to say, so I decided to take a second nap. Opportunities for a proper second sleep didn’t come around very often, after all, so I was looking forward to it. Estimating I could sleep for about a hundred years, I closed my eyes.