Looking toward the voice I heard, I saw one tall man with long white hair flowing down, and behind him a man with fluffy-looking pink hair. Behind the pink-haired man’s back, I could see what appeared to be wings. He seemed to be an angel.
“Wow…… Ir, aren’t these kids actually from the divine realm? How can their faces look like this?”
The angel who had only been peeking his face out from behind the one presumed to be the god of the past leaned his upper body more to the side. Accordingly, his large white wings also moved together. As if they weren’t even heavy, the pink-haired angel opened his mouth slightly and let out an exclamation of admiration.
“Nael.”
“I just said it once because only gods and angels from the divine realm have crazy good looks.”
“Haa…… I’ve told you how many times to refrain from using slang as much as possible, but you don’t listen.”
The white-haired god called Ir pressed his forehead. His expression said a sigh naturally came out, but his emerald eyes contained affection. Though he was treating him like a troublemaker, I could tell he cherished him considerably.
From the context, since they appeared here, they must be gods, but I asked to be certain.
“Are you a god?”
“I haven’t introduced myself yet. I’m the god currently in charge of this world. Gods don’t originally tell their true names, so call me god like other people do.”
Even to the question of whether he was a god, he answered calmly without being displeased. The god who had been in charge of this world in the past had an extreme personality difference from the god currently in charge.
But didn’t they call each other Ir and Nael? Then those names must be pseudonyms, I thought. Or perhaps pet names. Since I could just distinguish them as angel and god, it didn’t matter much, so I stuck the matter of names in a corner somewhere. I decided to ask what I was most curious about.
“Yes. Would it be okay if I asked just one question?”
“Yes, yes! I’ll answer everything for you~!”
The pink-haired angel who had been behind the god came out to the side, fully revealing himself, and raised his hand high. His eyes sparkled excessively like a dog that had been starved for days discovering dog treats. I didn’t know why he was so excited. For some reason, he seemed unreliable.
When I looked at the god, he nodded his head as if to say do as you please. Was he always so lively and cheerful? This side had already given up, it seemed.
“I was curious about the reason you suddenly gave a Divine Oracle.”
What reason would a god have to help a human they’d never seen before? I thought it might be simple whimsy. Or perhaps they were benevolent enough to look down upon pitiful humans with compassion. In any case, it meant they had no reason to cooperate with us.
We receive the god’s blessing and protection, but gods and angels have nothing to gain from us. I’d been thinking about this little by little since hearing the story from young Deadrian, but I couldn’t come up with an answer.
“Ah~ that? It’s nothing much, your story was just a bit interesting.”
“……Story?”
Ruvlian, who had been quietly observing the god and angel until now, murmured softly with a puzzled tone. I too waited for the words to follow, staring at the pink-haired angel at words I couldn’t understand.
“It’s divine realm business so I can’t tell you in detail, but we know all of your past, present, and future. So we also knew you were coming to the past to meet the god. So all your timelines were interesting and fun, so I begged Ir. To give you both blessing and protection!”
The pink-haired angel smiled brightly. Looking at that angel, I definitely felt he was different from humans. How could he speak as if my past was entertainment? Most of my childhood memories were not good for me. It was when I had acted disgracefully, desperately trying to gain even a handful of my family’s affection.
The pink-haired angel moved his steps and arrived right in front of me. Then he peeked around and approached close enough to fill my entire vision with himself before asking.
“Do you have anything else you’re curious about?”
“……Can you cast it right now?”
“The blessing and protection? Of course~!”
I don’t know where he got it from, but the pink-haired angel who had stepped back slightly folded his arms and then stretched them out fully while scattering pink petals. Even though he stepped back, the distance was still close, so the petals touched my face before falling. It was the first time I’d been smacked in the cheek with flower petals.
“Nael. Why are you giving permission on your own? I hope you’ll keep in mind that blessings and protection are cast by me, not you.”
The god with an exasperated face raised his hand flat and lightly tapped the pink-haired angel’s crown. The force was so weak that expressions like hit or struck didn’t suit it. Soon the god who withdrew his hand pointed with his finger at young Ruvlian sleeping in my arms.
“That child will receive it. Lay him here.”
The “here” the god mentioned was on top of the circle where the god and angel had appeared. I followed the god’s words and laid the child on the circle. The child was still sleeping soundly.
Though I’d brought him with his own consent, I felt strange as if I’d become some kind of kidnapper. Ruvlian had said that when he woke up, everything was finished. By that time, we would have already left this world, so I couldn’t fathom what feelings the child would feel when he woke up alone in the forest.
“I’ll finish this quickly.”
As if snatching something, the god’s hand drew smooth, elegant lines as it swept through the air. Then when he clapped his hands together, my vision turned pure white as if a flashbang had exploded. At the same time, centered on where the child was, strong arms pulled my waist and embraced me amid the rushing wind and fierce energy. Gradually my muffled ears and vision returned, and what I saw was young Ruvlian sleeping the same as before.
The god bent his knees slightly and lowered his upper body to place his hand on young Ruvlian’s forehead. In an instant, some kind of writing was engraved on the child’s forehead along with a sparkling light, then quickly disappeared.
“It ended well, so you can return now.”
Contrary to the satisfied voice, it was an indifferent attitude that said the business was finished. Since we were the same, we were going to quietly leave after taking the child back to the forest. But suddenly the pink-haired angel flapped his wings and interrupted.
“Ta-da! We’ll also provide world transfer service!”
“……Nael.”
The god pressed his temples firmly with his index finger while squinting his eyes shut. It was plain to see he had a headache. It was the first time I’d seen a superior who looked like they should carry stomach medicine with them.
“Stop being unreasonable. You know that because they crossed worlds of their own will, we need the consent of the higher-ups to transfer them to another world.”
“Of course I know. And I can’t not know that the head of the higher-ups excluding the Supreme God is Ir. They said to abuse your power with transgression at least once!”
It was as bright and cheerful as Alli. By the way, was that god the head of the higher-ups that the god always cursed? I left Ruvlian, who was rubbing his cheek against my head, alone out of habit and watched to see how the god would answer the pink-haired angel.
“Who dared to say such a thing……”
“The Supreme God!”
“……”
“The Supreme God said so, didn’t they?”
The pink-haired angel poked the god with both index fingers repeatedly. It was an action that meant aren’t you going to answer? The god opened his mouth with a face that really didn’t want to.
“……What the Supreme God says is always right. I asked who said it because it was too justified.”
Anyone watching would think he was swallowing poison. I watched the god and angel getting sorted out, then spoke to Ruvlian.
“It seems the god will take us, but before that let’s take young Ruvlian home first.”
“Good. By the time he wakes up we won’t be there, so will you leave a note, Sihyeon?”
“It seems you received a note?”
“Yes, but I won’t tell you what the contents were.”
The weight disappeared as if he’d removed his face from my head. Soon Ruvlian released one of the arms wrapped around my waist and handed me a pen and paper.
As I tried to write the note, I recalled when I returned home after finishing the Demon King subjugation. At that time, I agonized for longer than now. But still, what I wrote was just the single phrase “I’m going back.” I had a premonition that now wouldn’t be much different.
So I decided to just write whatever came to mind. After escaping from Ruvlian, I went down one step of the stairs and sat. Then I moved the hand holding the pen. Though it wasn’t many characters, it was more than those four characters “I’m going back.”
“Are you done writing? Give me the note you wrote.”
“Here.”
Ruvlian, who received the note I’d folded twice, headed toward the child. Then he put the note in the sleeping child’s pocket and cast teleportation magic. Since he’d grown up there from childhood, he seemed to know the forest coordinates precisely.
“If you’re both done, come here!”
It was then. A lively voice pierced directly into my ear. The pink-haired angel was jumping, excited enough to make the onomatopoeia “hop hop” seem fitting.
When I approached that way, there was an entrance that could only be called a portal. Only near the portal did an abnormally formless energy flow. It was a feeling like this is what it’s like when space and space are divided.
“You have to enter one at a time. First, Ruvlian Celton enters~!”
“I want to go together though? Anyway, Sihyeon and I have the same destination, don’t we?”
A gentle voice softly wrapped around my ears. At the hand that lightly landed on my shoulder, when I looked back, Ruvlian was tilting his head.
“It’s the rule, so no. Now now, Ruvlian forced entry!”
Befitting the word forced, with one hand gesture Ruvlian couldn’t even resist and entered the portal as if pushed by something. The pink-haired angel looked at me and smiled even more radiantly.
“It was fun. Thank you.”
Goodbye.
When my back was pushed by the formless energy and I entered the portal, what I saw was that lip shape. For some reason I couldn’t understand, that greeting only felt ominous. Sure enough, Ruvlian wasn’t in the place I was transported to.
There was only Scalane kidnapping a child who seemed unable to even babble yet.
_oOo_
“Did we really have to send them separately?”
“It’s more fun this way! Besides, if they don’t go separately they’ll go to the same place, and if that happens the future will change, so this is right.”
To the question from the god Freyr, the god Nathaniel who had been in angel form answered. Freyr was convinced. For a better future, hardships and adversity were inevitable.
“Ah, Freyr.”
“Nathaniel. Why are you calling me?”
“Actually, what I said earlier about the Supreme God saying that was a lie!”
However, he didn’t know those hardships and adversity would come to him. Freyr clutched his head, blaming himself for being deceived. It seemed he should pray that the Supreme God would pass a lenient judgment.
