Chapter 232
Chapter: 232
Well, I guess there’s no need to explain in detail what happened next.
We punished the gods involved in this affair, and while we were at it, dealt with most of the other gods as planned. The gods necessary for the world took an oath not to cause any trouble and temporarily ceased their activities.
In the end, we successfully cleared out most of the troublesome gods from the Divine Hall.
Instead…
“Many gods are unable to issue divine oracles, and chaos is brewing in various temples. At least the pilgrims of the Temple of Life are diligently working to sort things out, but…”
A girl, who looked just like me but had no horns and white hair, spoke in a calm voice.
She was the result of upgrading the automated prayer processing system that managed the countless prayers of many humans, just like Hades in the Underworld, born as a fragment of the Goddess of Life.
The difference from Hades? Well, I suppose it’s that she has a proper physical form. I only handed her a vessel made of magical power.
Hmm… I wonder if Hades would prefer to have such a free form? I’ll ask later.
“The more diligently the pilgrims work, the more faith in the Goddess of Life increases, and the number of people praying also rises. In the end, that means my workload increases.”
“Sorry about that.”
“No need to apologize. This is all something the great and supreme Goddess of Life calmly thought through. Surely, the benevolent goddess who watches over all life didn’t just recklessly smash the gods and declare ‘I’m the best!’ while conquering the Divine Hall, right?”
“Though I did have a sudden outburst, it wasn’t without any thought, you know? And you’re a bit too harsh with your words, I’d say?”
“True. As I’m a fragment, I wonder if it’s because I’m becoming more like the original. If there’s a problem with me, wouldn’t it be quicker to blame the original?”
The white girl calmly made a sharp retort. I sighed at her.
Seriously… When I created her, she was supposed to just be a machine that listens to prayers, and now look what happened.
Of course, I admit my sudden outburst was a bit much!
“If you have the time to have such sudden outbursts, could you please give me a name? I still don’t have a proper name, after all. Not just this monotonous title of ‘automated prayer processing system.’”
“Uh, sorry. I’ve been busy thinking about other things…”
Thanks to the upgrade like Hades, the prayer processing performance improved, which is good, but I guess the issue is that her ego has strengthened too much.
Well, I can’t keep calling her an automated prayer processing system forever. A name… Hmm. I need to come up with a good one.
“Hmm… Asherah… Asherat? What do you think of Asherat?”
“Asherat… That’s not bad. I gladly accept that name. From now on, please call me Asherat instead of that robotic title.”
Asherat bowed her head respectfully like that. Nice. It seems she liked the name more than I expected, as her lips curled up slightly.
Since her duties as the Goddess of Life are about to increase even more, I can’t let there be any problems with this child. Of course not.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
And so, several decades passed.
I know it seems like it passed too quickly, but what can I do? With so many tasks pouring in, time just got wiped away.
Still, I’ve managed to adequately resolve the chaos arising from the absence of various gods.
Plus, the new recruits were working hard as well.
“Here. These are the documents that only need final confirmation. Please check and sign.”
Winged goddesses… Well, they’re barely even goddesses anymore since their faith has dwindled so much, were bustling around here and there.
“You’ve worked hard, Freya.”
“Oh, it’s nothing. If I can survive with this work, I can work as much as needed.”
The blonde goddess, Freya, smiled awkwardly.
Freya and the Valkyries, who had hidden themselves at the moment of the fall of the Aesir gods, were now working for the Goddess of Life.
She threw away the name Valkyrie and now took on the new title of Angel.
“Now, you’re not even trying to resist. It’s so nice that you obey so well.”
“Well, I’m sorry about that. The Valkyries were a bit sensitive after witnessing the fall of our family, the Aesir gods.”
There was a bit of rebellion, but now it’s all been resolved.
After sealing away the most rebellious Valkyrie and dropping her to the ground, they started behaving well.
What was her name again? Was it Brunhilde? The name of the sealed Valkyrie?
Thanks to that, the rest of the Valkyries became obedient like well-trained puppies and began to fly around helping the Goddess of Life.
“I’m really glad you’re here. Especially, the task of granting blessings to newborns, I couldn’t check it all by myself.”
With the increasing faith in the Goddess of Life, many began to demand blessings for the newborn children.
In the past, they only prayed to the gods they believed in… But now it all got directed towards me. I mean, because of that, the Temple of Life has grown tremendously to the point where it’s now called the Church of Life.
I thought it was a bit excessive, but… what can you do? They want it that way. Especially the dragons at the upper echelon of the Church of Life… They compiled everything I said, did, and thought into a book.
I can’t believe how much they packaged it all; it’s practically a scripture. A scripture.
“The Goddess of Life can bestow blessings upon as many newborn babies as she wants, right?”
“Well… it used to be like that, but now it’s a bit difficult.”
At Zeus’ last moments, he cursed me, saying, “The Goddess of Life shall no longer set foot in the world of the living.”
Because of that curse, whenever I try to go to the human world to fulfill my duties as the Goddess of Life… it’s like I’m sent straight back. Or perhaps it’s that I get deflected? There seems to be an invisible wall blocking my path.
Well, this only limits me when I try to do my job as the Goddess of Life. If I go around disguised or act as the Dragon Priestess or for other divine purposes, there’s no problem.
Honestly, it’s a curse that I could easily break, comparable to a single strand of hair… but using that curse as an excuse has helped me cut down on trips to the human domain.
Plus, since I can’t go to the human world, I brought Freya and the Valkyries here, tidied them up a bit, and transformed them into Angels to handle all the tasks in the human world.
Thanks to that, Asherat was quite satisfied as the burden about human affairs was greatly reduced.
“Well, we can’t miss out on this opportunity either. It’s tough to have so much work, but at least we can work without worrying about the eyes around us.”
I nodded at Freya’s words. The former Valkyries – now Angels – were no longer stealing souls secretly; instead, they were receiving pure souls from the Cloud Whale and placing them into newly born lives.
They bless the newborn babies and check if they have any memories from their past lives. If everything is fine, they leave a tiny fingerprint as a mark.
Thanks to that, occurrences of babies being born with memories from their past lives have nearly disappeared.
Indeed, if there’s a lot of work, increasing the number of workers is the best solution.
“Hey, stop chatting and focus on work.”
“Yessir!”
At Asherat’s words, Freya energetically replied and hurried off to her duties.
“Please, Goddess, focus on your work too.”
“Oh, come on! My tasks aren’t that important; I could leave them to you if necessary. You’ve managed just fine when I’ve stepped away for other things.”
“That’s the very problem! Why should I be doing what the Goddess should be doing? Because of that, I’ve amassed quite a bit of faith as well!”
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it? Isn’t it time for you to start being independent?”
“If I become independent, all the work I do will end up falling to the Goddess of Life, you know?”
“Yep, that’s right! Too bad! I can’t let you go!”
“I never even planned to leave! Ugh.”
I smiled slightly at Asherat as she sighed.
“You should occasionally take a break too. How about bringing Hades from the Underworld to rest? He is my fragment, so in a way, you’d be like siblings.”
“What would happen to all the work piling up while I relax?”
“Well, I’d put in the effort. Even when there was no one here, I worked as the Goddess of Life, you know?”
“Back then, there were far fewer lives compared to now. It’s on a whole different scale.”
Well, that’s true.
With hundreds and thousands of gods who used to intervene directly in the human world gone, and the dozens of survivors confined to the Divine Hall, along with the 12 Guardian Deities and their captain, Sirius, now prepared, no more gods exist to disturb the human world.
The people wandering the land have begun to prosper significantly.
I almost think that maybe the gods were there to suppress the overflow of life in the living world? It certainly feels like that as life has started to proliferate immensely.
