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*(Huh?)*

My bride.
……
……
…Oh no. My brain cannot keep up.
Using “washi” ¹for her first-person pronoun is fine, I suppose, but when you think that the speaker is an angel-like, beautiful little girl, the sense of dissonance is overwhelming—but let that pass for now. The problem is “bride”?
An elementary-school-aged girl saying “my bride”—how does that make any sense?!

More importantly!

Who is she talking about?!
I have a really bad feeling about this, but if it’s someone I was with yesterday—

I sent a glance toward Aaron… He had the eyes of a fish that had been dead for about three days.

The flower-crowned goddess declared loudly:

“My bride’s name is Isaac.”

I knew it…!

Isaac Jurnova, genius scholar, sixty years old, male, officially recognized as a “bride” by a elementary-school-aged goddess.
No, that’s ridiculous.
So *this* is what he meant when he said he doesn’t really understand gods’ jokes.

Ekaterina desperately steadied herself, feeling as though she were about to tilt forty-five degrees sideways.
Pull yourself together. You’re here today as Onii-sama’s proxy. You must not do anything that would disgrace him! For the honor of a brocon!
She straightened her back firmly, gathered herself, and smiled.

“Yes. Isaac is my great-uncle. Yesterday, I accompanied him into the mountains.”
“Indeed. I sensed my bride’s magic, so I thought to follow it here, but he left at once.”

……

So when Aaron had seemed oddly hurried on the way back from the old mine, was it because he had noticed—or rather, anticipated—this?
Did Aaron know about the goddess? Was he a romantic rival over my great-uncle?
…To love so deeply that you would contend with a god…
Aaron’s love is so deep it has become a swamp.
I should work harder at being a brother-loving sister too. I’m not sure why, but I should.

“My bride is beautiful, is he not? One rarely finds a soul as beautiful as his.”

Ah… I can kind of understand that. My great-uncle’s soul must be clear and pure.

“And since you are his kin, your soul is unusual as well. Quite beautiful.”

Ah, now it’s come around to me.

“T-to receive such words from a beautiful goddess like yourself is a great honor.”
“Am I beautiful?”

The goddess puffed out her childish chest proudly, and a vividly colored lily popped into bloom on the flower crown adorning her hair.
The flowers on the crown were not picked and woven together—they seemed to be living.

“I do not intend to take you as my wife, so be at ease. Humans take only one partner, do they not? I do show consideration for human customs.”

I cannot keep up with the things to retort to.

“However, it is questionable that you did not know Isaac had already been given in marriage. I informed your predecessor and received him properly.”

Grandfather!!
What exactly happened back then?!
Ah… now I realize. My great-uncle is unmarried, but with our match-making-enthusiast grandfather, he surely would have found a fine bride for his cute little brother. The fact that he did not must mean he had agreed to marry my great-uncle off to the goddess…
My great-uncle himself thought it was just a joke, though.

No, in any case, he’s not a “bride”! At least make him a “groom”!
I want to correct this, but is it safe to?
And even if I do correct it, how much difference would that make? The person involved himself doesn’t seem to understand it, and yet the gods have certified him as a spouse…

Just as Ekaterina was about to open her mouth timidly, the god of the old mine laughed softly.

“There is no helping it if she did not know. Now that she has been told, it is enough.”
“If the ancient god says so, then I will say no more.”

Fortunately—or unfortunately—the chance to correct it drifted away downstream. Farewell.

Pulling herself together, Ekaterina returned to the order of the worship ceremony. It was almost over.
Then a low voice spoke.

“I will tell you one thing.”

The flame-wolf god said bluntly:

“My mountain will erupt soon. Prepare yourselves.”

……

(KYAAAAAHHHH!!!!)

This… this way of dropping a bombshell right before the end.
It’s exactly like back in my previous life as an office drone, when you’re about to wrap up for the day and then an emergency problem comes in at the last second. I hate that pattern so much!

Swallowing her inner scream, Ekaterina bowed deeply to the wolf god.

“Thank you for conveying such a grave matter to us. Thanks to you, many of our people will be saved.”
“I do not care what happens to humans.”

The flame-wolf god snorted and turned away.
Classic tsundere god behavior.

.

In her previous life, this would have meant guaranteed overtime, but gods apparently do not work overtime. After that, nothing else happened, and the ceremony came to an end.

After seeing the three gods return to their statues as light with the deepest bows, the humans immediately put their heads together for a strategy meeting.
A young priest who had dashed out of the inner sanctum the moment the gods departed returned carrying maps and past records of divine oracles. Excellent work.

Apparently, divine warnings of eruptions from the mountain gods had occurred before, and the priests were abuzz with excitement. This is it! That sort of feeling. Dealing with such oracles was one of the roles of the mountain temple.

“They said ‘soon,’ but judging from past cases, it will not be today or tomorrow. There have been examples where an eruption occurred nearly a hundred years after the oracle, so please be at ease for now.”

Hearing that first made Ekaterina relax a little.

“To the mountain gods, even a hundred years is but an instant. That said, there have also been cases of eruptions occurring within a few months, so we should not delay.”

Ugh. Since it’s a divine message, couldn’t they be more precise? she thought—but perhaps even gods cannot say something like “on this date, at this hour.”
Maybe for them it’s like when humans feel a sneeze coming on but it doesn’t quite happen yet, though it probably will eventually. Sorry for the crude analogy.

In her previous life, volcano prediction involved estimating eruption cycles from documents, installing seismographs on mountains with high risk to detect volcanic tremors, measuring geomagnetism, and so on. Compared to that, receiving pinpoint warnings with no human effort at all was extremely cost-effective. Yes, very appreciated.

“As head of forest agriculture, I believe I must at least observe that god’s mountain with my own eyes, even from afar. We must estimate the damage to forests and farmland should it erupt, and identify nearby villages to arrange evacuation sites.”

Forli was right. To predict damage from the mountain’s shape and terrain, maps alone were insufficient. It was dangerous, but they had to inspect the site. Truly a wildlife-field-first kind of man.

“You are quite right. And if we go there, perhaps we can estimate the timing of the eruption from smoke from the crater or surrounding earthquakes.”

If volcanic tremors or smoke were intense, the eruption would be near. Interviewing nearby villagers could reveal recent changes.

“Do the priests possess knowledge of eruption precursors? Could some of you accompany Sir Forli to the mountain and determine whether the eruption is near?”
“Yes. Accumulating knowledge of volcanoes is our duty. We will dispatch those who are most knowledgeable.”
“Please do. And one more thing—could you research past damage from eruptions of that mountain in the records?”
“We will begin investigating immediately.”

A veteran priest thumped his chest confidently.

Unlike her previous life, however, they could not reach records instantly with a single search. They would have to comb through documents by hand. Oh, how she wished for a database.

“As for evacuation sites, there are still buildings at the old mine that once served as miners’ lodgings. Since iron ore is no longer extracted, only some of those buildings are used now. They are probably quite run-down, but we should check their condition.”
“What a fine suggestion, Lord Aaron. If the eruption is in a few months, we must begin preparing evacuation sites at once.”

It felt like they were acting on their own initiative, but this was an emergency. Her brother would surely not object.

“I must inform my brother. Would it be fastest for me to return and speak to him directly? Or should we have a knight ride ahead to deliver the news?”
“Even if we send word a little sooner, His Grace would find it difficult to decide on measures with so little information. It would be best for you to explain the details yourself.”
“If that is your judgment, Sir Forli, then we shall do so.”

At that, the chief priest of the mountain temple bowed to Ekaterina.

“To see such a young lady respond so calmly to a sudden crisis… and you even know about eruption signs such as smoke and earthquakes. I am deeply impressed by your wisdom.”

Ah, no—my old office-drone crisis-management mode just kicked in.
But I suppose volcanic tremors are specialized knowledge in this world. Saying it so casually might have been a mistake. Still, it’s an emergency.

“I am the one impressed by all of you. The mountain temple does not merely revere the gods—it also works to save the people of this world.”
“You are too kind. Duke Vasily the Wise decreed that it was not enough merely to receive oracles; thus he defined the role of the mountain temple.”

As expected of the efficiency-minded Duke Vasily—even religious institutions must work hard.
In her previous life, people were sensitive about separation of church and state, but in Jurnova, politics incorporated religion into governance. Since the gods truly descended at the mountain temple, religious officials had little opportunity to exploit religion for personal gain.
The Sun Temple in the imperial capital, on the other hand, probably had high priests doing as they pleased, since gods rarely descended there.

“As you said, thanks to this oracle, many villages will be saved. Such revelations are only granted when the worshipper is one who pleases the gods’ hearts. The descent of three gods at once shows how favored you are. Please come again.”
“I am no such person… It is only because my brother’s governance accords with the gods’ will.”

Still, next time, she wanted to visit the mountain temple more leisurely. She wanted to examine the statues closely and learn what kinds of gods governed which mountains.
Now then, she had to hurry back, with the coachman and horses working hard.

Onii-sama! Just as I promised in my dream, I’m coming back quickly!
There is, however, a slightly urgent report to make!