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The Carbuncles—I also knew of that monster. It was a Mythical Beast the size of a cat and looked like a hamster. It was still counted among Dragon species, for some reason, and had a gem on its forehead.

It was a kind of a Dragon Ball which was used as a material in various magic items. This gem was highly valuable unlike how weak it was. For that reason, people mercilessly hunted them on sight, and the kingdoms often safeguarded them.

Naturally, they were targets of protection in Raum, too.

“So you’re aiming for it?”
“Of course not. I came to protect it instead. I actually have some connections to the Dragons, you see.”
“Really?”
“There’s a Dragon among my dependents. It’s a real cutie too, you know? You wanna see? You wanna? You want, don’t you?¹”
“Shaddap!”

I pushed aside the obstinate goddess and went to buy milk too. After getting ignored by me, she crouched down and started writing characters on the floor with her finger.

“You don’t have to be so harsh. Even I have a family member or two that I wanna boast about.”
“Enough about that! So you were saying you wanted to protect that Carbuncle?”
“Oh no, that’s just an additional goal. The main goal was the bath. This body is quite prone to breaking. It doesn’t break, though.”
“Which one is it?”
“I mean I can die fast but come back to life just as fast.”

So she’s an immortal? As expected of a goddess, treating such an ability as nothing.

“In a way, you also have inherited my constitution.”
“Am I an immortal too?”
“Not that… I mean that your recovery speed is higher than normal. Also, your magic accumulates fast, you are weak and powerless. Just like me.”
“Heh…”

I even inherited her bad parts.

“Wait, I inherited them?”
“Yes. Oh, have I not mentioned it before? You are part of my lineage.”
“Say what?”
“You could say you are quite a distant descendant. So I’ve been looking after you in various ways.”

I was a descendant of a god? Is that why she lent me a hand during the reincarnation? Even lending a weapon to my comrade and teaching her how to use her Gift?

“Then maybe you could’ve lent a hand during the Evil Dragon extermination too…”
“I had other things to take care of then. And if I dispatched my dependents, the entire northern area might have turned into scorched lands.”
“Then what about the time with the Evil God?”
“Back then they had been hidden very well. Even I would have trouble noticing them.”
“If you call yourself a god, at least notice that much.”
“Just because I am a god doesn’t mean I can do everything. My specialty lies in Item Making and subversive activities. Intelligence gathering isn’t one of them.”
“Is that so?”

As she said, the titles differed from god to god. The areas they governed differed, like the War God Alec and Wind God Hastarl.

“Speaking of which, what kind of God are you?”
“I’m the God of Destruction Yuuri.²”
“So you are the Evil God!?”
“How rude!”

God of Destruction Yuuri. Just as her title implied,³ she was a god who had once destroyed and broken the Commandments—In other worlds, the World Tree that was the source of the World Tree Religion.

The legends say that she did that to stop the Demon Lord that sought immortality, but that conduct still turned her into an enemy of the world’s largest religion. For that reason, The World Tree believers recognize her as the Evil God. Even Maria loathed and called her a detestable God.

But since her blood now flowed in my veins, didn’t that mean that it was the same for either Maria or Lyell? Or did she mean me from my previous life? Either way, it was quite an ironic story.

“By your descendant, did you mean the current or the previous me?”
“Both. Though the blood has weakened quite a bit already.”
“Well damn, here comes another secret I can’t reveal.”
“People wouldn’t be happy, eh? Ahaha.”
“That’s no laughing matter.”

Maria had good manners, but if she ever found out that I had the Evil God’s blood in me… Well, she probably wouldn’t give me a death penalty, but I can’t imagine what face she would make.

“No, wait. What are the chances that both me of the previous life and the current me have your blood?”
“It’s not that low, you know? How many years do you think has passed since? My blood has spread in all corners of the world.”
“What are you, an epidemic?”
“You’re still being rude.”

According to the legends, it’s been around a millennium since the God of Destruction has been active on the land. Since then, the civilization had progressed, regressed, and came to a standstill. It wasn’t weird that the bloodline of that time had spread everywhere now.

Either way, I more or less understood why she was attached to me. Someone of her lineage had been rounded up for the Evil Dragon extermination and actually accomplished the feat, so she was giving him some preferential treatment.

“Well, I am grateful that you reincarnated me.”
“You can praise me more, okay? Okay?”
“Maybe if you didn’t act like that!”

I threw the empty bottle inside my exclusive recycling box and headed back to the hot spring. I was able to find out that her presence here wasn’t related to me, so there was a point in our conversation. If I leave her alone these next two days of our stay here, I can probably avoid getting into something troublesome.

“Ah, right. Hold on for a minute.”
“What is it now?”

Being called, I turned back towards the goddess. She stood there with several arrows in her hand. While naked. Just get dressed already.

“Give these to that girl. They are steel arrows. Those with twists have higher piercing power, so use them carefully.”
“I mean, she can’t even pull it yet.”

I still couldn’t cast strong enough support magic on her to draw that bow, so it was nothing but a burden now. She seemed to have realized it and pulled out a small bracelet from somewhere. It was a bangle type one with delicate carvings on it.

“Okay. That’s where this comes to play. It has a strengthening spell on it. The effect is about three minutes. The keyword is, “Megingjord”.”
“Megingjord… What does that mean?”
“It’s a word from another language, it is the name of a belt that bestowed the user with terrific power.”
“Sounds quite on point.”

As a test, I put it on my arm and called the keyword.

“Megingjord—!”

With my call, the power overflowed and filled my upper half. My strengthening couldn’t even compare to its power. This overflowing power… Wasn’t this also a Divine Item?

“Ah-ah.”
“This is amazing… How much does it amplify?”

I could even lift the locker room bench with one hand. With my frail body.

“It can easily amplify tenfold. But the recoil is quite big… So you should probably cancel it soon, you know?”
“Eh?”

I immediately canceled it just as she told me. Next moment my entire body started convulsing like it had cramps all over. Of course, pain was there to accompany it too.

“F-Fugyaaaaaaaaaa!?”
“You can’t create something from nothing. Same goes for power. In other words—you are technically taking the power as a loan. The pain you are feeling is the recoil from that.”
“Say that… Earlieeeeeer!”

I screamed while writhing in pain on the floor.

“Well, if your body improves, so will the recoil, and the duration will also shorten. Until then, please use it as an emergency tool.”
“Ngaaaaaaa…”

Ultimately, I continued rolling on the floor for the next ten minutes until the recoil wore off.

1. TLN: Reference to the author’s other work Hanryuu Shoujo no Dorei Life (Half-Dragon Girl’s Slave Life)
2. TLN: Hakaishin Yuuri. The main character of the author’s other work, Hakai Me no Yuuri (Yuuri of the Destructive Eyes).
3. TLN: By kanji definition, “Hakai” (破戒 not 破壊) doesn’t mean “Destruction” but “Going against all laws/commandments”. But for simplicity and contextual reasons, I’ll be sticking to the established terms.