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“How could I ever hurt the kids I’ve known since they were little?” the evil god bluntly replied.

It seemed genuine.

“Don’t lump me together with those two guys in the first place. Samaeyl might lead the demons, but she’d kill any human without a second thought unless it was someone she’d acknowledged. And Surtr is a battle-crazed maniac. Without any mercy or such.”
“…I understand, so Samaeyl is the leader type and Surtr the fighter type. What about you?”
“I’m a free spirit.”

Indeed, this seemed to fit him to a tee. Like how he frequently changed the subject mid-conversation to what interested him.

“But you must’ve done something bad for them to seal you away on Earth.”
“Yes, back in the past, I didn’t care about anyone but a select few, just like Samaeyl. I did just as many bad things as them, stuff worthy of an evil god. Though I’m still the one who killed the least people, you see?”

Well, with her special skill, Samaeyl probably had the highest body count.

“Why are you so open with all that?”
“I’ve been here since the start of the Edo period¹. Since then, all~ I’ve done is observe Japan. There were many wars… but it has been peaceful for several decades now. Being in the midst of this peace… it caused my disposition to turn peaceful, too.”

Come to think of it, this man (?) had watched Japan for more than 400 years. An unimaginably vast difference of time separated us. Well, if we became immortal by drinking Amritas in Anazumu, then we could experience this, too.

“Seriously?”
“Cross my heart. Well, to begin with you’ve crushed Samaeyl and Surtr… mainly Ayumu, I guess. It doesn’t feel like I stand a chance against you. At all.”

He wasn’t wrong. If both of them were to attack us at the same time now, I was confident we’d manage.

“Can’t evil gods use magic on this side? That way, you could take us out while we’re weak.”
“Hm~, that’s another thing… Even if it was a situation where I’d be forced to do that, I wouldn’t want to. Using our abilities here is incredibly difficult, so even if I tried to conquer the world with this limited power… the military strength of a single country on earth would be overwhelmingly higher.”

Huh, so evil gods do have limitations, after all? Though the fact that he compares things on a national level is kinda scary.

“You’re not lying?”
“I’m not. Kanata, please believe me on this as an old acquaintance, even if I can’t prove it.”

That might have been a cool line, but it didn’t work with that clown make-up… it just looked silly. Anyway, I could probably leave things to Kanata here.

“I can’t honestly say that I trust you, but… you’ve been acting clearly differently from other evil gods so far. Let’s head home for today, Shiva. Is everyone alright with that?”

I nodded.
Sakura did the same. Mika looked at what I did and then nodded too, while Shuu looked at Kanata silently without giving any reply. Rir kept staring at Shiva with wide eyes.

“It looks like this works… That said, what will happen to Mr. Mitsuo if you keep possessing him? He has his own life…”
“Oh, that’s true. I snuck out without telling the other troupe members.”
“What do we do? Can you go back into the varja?”
“By myself? If I go in there willingly, I can take over anyone I’ve previously possessed anytime I want. Are you sure we should do that?”
“It works for today. Could you return to the circus and go back into the vajra temporarily?”

“…Alright.” Shiva turned around. “The time will likely come when all of you properly seal me, but when that happens… could you modify the vajra so I can watch what happens outside and talk to people? Anyway, I’ll be off.”

With those words, he dissolved into darkness. Well, he was simply walking away, but his jacket made it look that way.

“…Didn’t expect things to turn out like this,” Shuu muttered.
“Even I genuinely didn’t anticipate this,” Kanata replied. “At worst, I thought of us talking our way out of it if he turned out aggressive. There was no reason for that.”
“B-But is that truly fine? What do you think, Big Sis?”
“Me? Well, probably? He doesn’t feel like an enemy.”

Was this what Mika’s intuition, which accurately predicted that we’d met the man in the black hood this week, told her? Then it was likely fine.

“Have we really been standin’ for a full 40 minutes in this chill?”
“Are you cold, Shuu? Do you want me to hug you? Though my body temperature isn’t high either…”
“Nah, I ain’t cold, let’s just hold hands. It’s a bit hard to walk while huggin’… Anyway, we’ll be headin’ home.”

They took each other’s hands. Rir looked quite happy.

“Alright, good night to you, then.”
“Woof, good night.”
“Good night, you guys.”

The two of them left.

The remaining four of us decided to make our ways to our respective homes, too. It somehow felt like we’d gotten rid of a burden. Tomorrow, we’d go normally to school again.

Still, dealing with evil gods was always a hassle and it would likely only get worse from now on, though that couldn’t be helped. At least he wasn’t overtly hostile, which made it a million times better.

TL notes:
This chapter marks the end of volume 20. As I mentioned before, it was nice to see the author properly build up to a reveal that, at least partly, took me by surprise. We also got someone not clearly friend or foe here, different from the characters so far who’ve been closer to black and white. It gave me hope for genuine improvement in the writing.

Sadly, there’s a “but”. While volume 21 isn’t quite as long as volume 18 (with 56 instead of 65 chapters), the chapter titles don’t promise a much more exciting experience. 12 of those chapters are various dates, and by now we know the author generally doesn’t offer anything new in those. Another 10+ are likely in the same vein, though that’s just judging by titles.

17 chapters are about Shuu’s final part of the Judo tournament. I’m not sure what the author wrote to spend this many chapters on it, but at this point I’d say the chances of it being riveting fight descriptions are miniscule.

There are a grand total of 6 chapters in the next volume that personally interest me. 6 out of 56. A huge part of this translation was because of my personal interest in the story and conviction that it was a worthwhile read. I don’t think I can say this anymore at this point.

Therefore, as much as it pains me, I will put this on hiatus for now. I will read ahead in the story to judge if latter volumes will make up for it and start the translation again if they do. If anyone wants to pick this up meanwhile, feel free. I would prefer someone genuinely interested in the story doing the translation, rather than me more out of perceived obligation than personal motivation.

1. Around 1600 AD in the western calendar.

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