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I briefly closed my eyes against the blinding light, and when I opened them, I found myself standing alone in a pure white space devoid of anything. I looked around, but there was no one in sight.

‘Did I do something before the Demon God died?’

Could this be heaven?! Wow, I managed to reincarnate without getting hit by a crazy truck! If I’m going to reincarnate in a modern fantasy world, I should publish a book titled “Introduction to Reincarnation.”

As I was contemplating whether to do a joyful twerking dance…

[Welcome!]

Suddenly, someone shouted from behind me.

“Ugh, damn it. That scared me.”

Honestly, I was a bit surprised. When I turned around, there was a girl with long, pure white hair and yellow eyes.

[How rude! That’s harsh! You shouldn’t react as if you’ve seen a ghost!]

‘…Goddess?’

But something about the tone of her claiming to be a goddess felt off. She looked just like a girl draped in a piece of white cloth.

She was short enough that I had to look down, while she had to raise her head to meet my gaze.

The Demon God had a majestic presence from both speech and appearance, but the Goddess felt just like a human Yui to me.

“So you’re a goddess?”

[And I’m also an author!]

So she wrote the story, and the one the Demon God wanted to kill so badly is standing right in front of me?

“Is that so… am I dead? Alright! I’m ready! Let’s go to the isekai reincarnation!”

[What are you talking about…?]

“Aren’t you here to reincarnate me since I died?”

[You aren’t dead yet…?]

Ah, damn, that’s disappointing.

“Then why am I here?”

[Aah~ that’s because! I have something to tell you!]

Is that really all you’re going to say after kidnapping me?

Suddenly reminded of her being an author, I delivered a hard slap to the Goddess’s head.

[Ugh?! Why, why are you hitting me?!]

“Because you kept acting all arrogant with your skill explanations.”

[That, that wasn’t me!]

“Oh, what does it matter? You should’ve made a better story if you had complaints!”

[Ugh…! I’m a goddess! You should show me more respect!]

She’s down on her knees, begging for respect. Is this what a… goddess is?

“Are you really a goddess?”

[Absolutely!]

The Goddess raised both arms as if showing off.

“Idiot?”

[Th-That’s blasphemy!?]

“Is your name Aqua by any chance?”

[I don’t have a name!]

She denies it, but if you ask me, she is an idiot. There’s no other term that fits otherwise.

But what did she even call me for, waiting until everything was over to summon me…?

‘This feels way too annoying.’

“Alright. Let’s kill you.”

I pulled out my sword from the inventory. I thought I wouldn’t be able to use skills here, but I could.

[W-Wait a moment!]

She seemed to have something to say, but I swiftly swung my sword, and the Goddess rolled away to avoid it.

The person who had acted all noble moments ago now rolled on the ground in a ridiculous manner.

Hey, you’re a goddess, right? What kind of goddess avoids attacks like that?

“Stop dodging. It’s getting annoying.”

[If I don’t dodge, h-hey…! I-I’m going to d-die?!]

“I’m swinging to make you die.”

[P-Please stop!]

Ugh, this annoying little creature. How does she dodge so well? What about her even remotely screams ‘goddess’ to me?

“Shut up and let me level up.”

The experience points and skills from the Demon God were delicious. Just imagining how tasty the Goddess’s experience points and skills would be made my mouth water.

[I-I’m a goddess!?]

“Yeah. I know you’re an idiot.”

[I’m really a goddess! One that humans worship! How can you call me an idiot!?]

Seriously, how many people in that world actually worship their gods? Adventurers generally don’t believe in gods. Why? Because when you risk your life on the battlefield every day, you inevitably see the harsh reality.

Do those impoverished people in the back alleys believe in gods? In fear of dying, struggling with hunger, do they pray every day, “Oh God, grant us just enough food to survive the day…”?

Instead, they’re probably cursing the gods while lamenting their wretched lives.

And nobles? They’re already satisfied with their lives; why would they need to believe in gods? They can live lavishly with their upside-down crosses while the gods just watch idly, unable to interfere.

Besides, isn’t there a lack of holy kingdoms in a fantasy world? Do you realize what that means? It means your god doesn’t have many worshippers. What kind of god is that? Just an idiot.

“The world runs fine without you, so can you just die and leave behind your skills?”

[W-Wait! Please listen to me!]

Why should I listen when I can’t benefit from it?

At that moment, my sword was just about to strike the Goddess’s neck.

[I-I’ll grant you one wish if you hear me out!]

My movements froze at her mention of a wish.

“A wish?”

[Yes, yes! It’s a reward for defeating the Demon God!]

If she had that kind of offer, she should have mentioned it sooner. I almost would have killed her without getting a wish. I gestured for her to go on, and the Goddess cleared her throat, trying to regain some dignity.

[First, thank you for defeating the Demon God. I didn’t have much hope at first… Huh!?]

As soon as the Goddess began to speak, I swung my sword and interrupted her.

[Why are you suddenly doing this?!]

“Three-line summary.”

Her words were too long. No matter how many wishes she offered, there’s a limit, right? If she doesn’t skip a few lines, my blade might accidentally sever her neck.

[Uhh… Wait a moment; let me think…!]

How should I summarize this? The Goddess racked her brain for a while. Seeing her struggle so much, it seemed like there was a lot to condense; if I had listened attentively, it could’ve taken ages.

[Hmm. Alright. I’m ready!]

She once again cleared her throat dramatically. Even if she does that, she just looks juvenile. Isn’t there a point where you can skip it?

[First, thank you for defeating the Demon God! I called many people to summon before, but they all failed! Besides, turning back time is impossible now, so I had given up, and never expected it to turn out like this!]

A rapid-fire rant. Honestly, I didn’t catch a single word. Whatever she said was irrelevant to me, and I let it flow out of one ear.

“Is that all you have to say?”

[Huh… Huh… Yes…]

“Then it’s my turn, right?”

[Yes! You can ask for anything!]

“Then for my first wish, increase it to a hundred wishes.”

[Not that kind of wish…]

So that sort of trick won’t work, huh? Nowadays, wishes all have hooks. Why are there so many restrictions?

But I predicted this wouldn’t work out, and my real wish was something else altogether.

“Then reincarnate me into a modern fantasy world.”

[That’s impossible…]

“Why?”

[That’s decided by the god of that world, not me.]

“Then reincarnate me into another world.”

[The answer is the same as before…]

Man, can’t do this, can’t do that. What can you even do? Can’t you die and just leave behind some experience points?

I wondered if she could read my eyes; the Goddess quickly started explaining herself.

[Other than that, I can do anything else!]

“Hmm. In that case…”

I made my wish to the Goddess.

[You really want that…?]

“Yeah.”

If I can’t go to another world, then I guess I should live here, and aside from what I just said, there’s really nothing else to wish for.

[If that’s your wish… I understand.]

The Goddess closed her eyes, and at that moment, pure white light swirled around her body. It looked like she was granting my wish.

‘I’ve never wished for anything so grand before?’

I didn’t need her grand display while fulfilling a wish. Looking at her, I repeatedly reminded myself that she really was an idiot.

Soon, light began to swirl around my own body as well.

*

When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the place just before I got dragged away.

To see if I’d truly returned, I looked around, and three people were staring at me with astonished faces.

“What happened…?”

“I just met a self-proclaimed goddess.”

“Yeah…?”

“And while I was at it, I slapped her.”

“Excuse me…?”

Surprisingly, that was it. I met the goddess, slapped her, and returned with a wish. I had said a lot of nonsense, but when it comes down to it, that’s all there was.

“Oh!”

“Why, what is it…?”

“I forgot to kill the goddess.”

“Excuse me…?”

I got distracted by her sparkling appearance while she was granting my wish. Is this the trick those magicians use? Damn! I got fooled like a muggle!

Sigh, what can I do? It’s too late now.

“By the way, how long have I been gone?”

“You’ve only been gone for about a minute, Luke-dono.”

While I had felt like an hour had slipped by with the goddess, it seemed that time flowed differently here.

“Are you okay, Luke?”

I stared intently at Yui, who was looking worried about me. No matter how I looked at it, she resembled that idiot from earlier.

As I stared at her with hazy eyes, Yui flinched and trembled slightly.

“Wh-Why are you looking at me like that…?”

“Yui, you absolutely cannot become like that.”

“Yes…?”

If she becomes like that goddess, I might feel compelled to kill her.

“Now it’s really all over, right?”

“Yeah. We’ve dealt with the Demon God and seen the goddess, so it’s really all over.”

If it wasn’t truly over, there should be some interference from an external god. Honestly, considering we just defeated the Demon God, I thought that should be the end of the content, but maybe outside interference wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

Hey goddess, are you not adding a DLC?

“So now we’re going back… I want to rest a bit.”

We were too seasoned to be exhausted from just a day’s work.

Everything we did—dealing with Arthur, coming to the Demon Realm, and hunting the Demon God—all happened in just a single day. How could we not be worn out?

Plus, including Riche, the three of us had received so much information in such a short time that it seemed to be giving us headaches. They all expressed their fatigue through their drooping shoulders.

‘Tsk tsk. That’s why it’s so annoying to try and listen to the Demon God’s backstory.’

They shouldn’t have looked to understand every detail of others’ plights.

“But how do we go back?”

“Oh.”

“Wait, you don’t seriously not know how to return, do you?”

“Hehe.”

“”…””

I completely forgot about that, didn’t I?

*

Fortunately, after some twists and turns, we managed to return. I had jumped into the Demon Realm without a thought, but when it came to returning, I couldn’t remember anything.

But thankfully, that goddess had some sense, as she had created a portal for us to return. Thanks to that, we could safely return to the Empire.

“By the way, Luke. What did you talk about with the goddess?”

“Um… just some random stuff. Thanking me for defeating the Demon God and asking me not to hit her. Oh right, she said she’d grant me a wish as a reward for killing the Demon God, so I asked for a wish.”

Ears perked up. Luna and Riche, who hadn’t been paying attention, also became interested when they heard the word wish. After all, the word “wish” has a way of luring people in.

“What wish did you make?”

“Ahhh… it wasn’t anything special.”

It really wasn’t anything special. There was something that had been bothering me for a while, and I asked her to change it.

“I asked her to change my adventure alias.”

S-Rank Adventurer Luke.

Old Alias – Madman.

Current Alias – The Strongest Man on Earth (Goddess Approved).

 

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