Dreams are a reconstruction of data from the unconscious.

So, it’s not strange that the fragmented information I’ve read from the goddess appears in the form of dreams. It happens quite often.

As if a vague unease, unformed in contour, also manifests in the form of prophetic dreams.

Bits of meaningless information, one by one, appeared before my eyes, borrowing the ambiguity of dreams. A mannequin-like figure, whose face and gender are indiscernible, gazes up at the sky, conversing with someone.

Perhaps they’re just talking to themselves.

I became an observer, standing a step removed, watching this scene. The face was pixelated, unreadable, but I could tell the atmosphere was very serious.

Looking at the setting sun, that someone passionately expounds.

The content of the conversation is uncertain. Talk of how delicious the roll cake was, how much they hate mosquitoes, or suggestions to go to the beach this summer. It’s all talk that doesn’t fit the situation.

Because it’s a dream, the parts I don’t know seem to be filled in with my own thoughts. So, I let it pass. The part the dream wants to show isn’t something like that.

I waited patiently.

From noble mtl dot come

It felt like I waited for three days, or perhaps just a moment. Maybe that moment felt so tedious it seemed like three days. Being a dream, I couldn’t grasp the flow of time.

Then, suddenly, a striking sentence emerged. Finally.

“The king must, by duty, be castrated of emotions.”

I’ve never thought this before, so this must be information gleaned from a goddess.

Quite a radical claim.

Someone says that those who aspire to stand atop the heads of people must possess an unrusting iron heart. This doesn’t mean just being unfeeling.

It means not being swayed by emotions, to remain unchanging forever.

How many kings have plunged the world into chaos with momentary emotions and irrational decisions? The wrong decisions may be made by a king, but the consequences are shared by all under heaven.

Wars and blood, flowing sorrow and anger, all these tragedies sparked by the trivial emotions of just one person—how meaningless and poignant.

Even more so for a king.

And what of the King of Kings, the deity who oversees heaven and earth?

“Thus, the being who reigns over all must be a god of mechanical gears, if only to prevent malfunctions due to emotions.”

With someone’s resolve, the short dream ended.

—

Most things had been neatly resolved.

The boy had rescued his sister. And he received a bag of silver coins, enough to live happily ever after, as long as no unfortunate accidents befell them.

We achieved our original goal. All those who debated whether to save the queen or not were rooted out, and all the “Queen’s Information” detected within the domain was retrieved.

“It seems we’re a bit short on the amount.”

“Of course, it’s short because it was burned by the divine power beam.”

Evil God-chan frowned skeptically at the liquid collected in the glass flask, but if it hadn’t disintegrated even after being hit by the goddess beam, it would have been not a succubus queen but a succubus god.

The pillar of dense divine power that fell on Elmest’s domain became quite an issue. We were summoned to the lord’s castle to explain the circumstances.

In the lord’s office, buried under a mountain of paperwork, was a middle-aged man, the temporary administrator dispatched to Elmest. He looked as if he had two holes punched in his stomach.

“What, what happened…?”

“That’s the thing.”

I spun a tale about how, in the midst of battling a dark sorcerer, it seemed the goddess took pity on us and provided artillery support…

I couldn’t tell the truth.

Of course, there was a desire to keep secrets, but the feeling that they wouldn’t believe me even if I told them was slightly stronger. Laid out in full, it becomes a strange story.

The truth is, there’s something odd in my head, and it’s hostile to the goddess. I managed to extract a bit of this unwelcome guest and put it into a hologram with physical force, creating a separate entity. And when I abandoned it…

As a result, a fallen priest who worships the succubus queen while believing in the goddess ended up consuming that creature’s information. And then, the goddess fired a divine beam…

It’s unbelievable, and not something I can speak of lightly.

I decided to send a separate incident report to Irid. I’ll omit ‘that’ part of the story, but I felt I needed to include the information obtained from the goddess.

Speaking of the goddess, my left arm has suffered a serious injury. It’s only natural, considering I had plunged it entirely into a beam of light. Now it’s wrapped in bandages and set in a cast.

I’m grateful I can hypnotize myself to reduce the pain; otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep at night. It still throbs and hurts.

I naturally tried to summon a priest for healing. The goddess’s order in Elmest’s domain was in ruins, so it wasn’t easy to find someone, but I managed to meet a priestess at an orphanage on the outskirts.

“Divine power won’t enter. How strange…?”

“Oh dear.”

It seems the “Divine Punishment” also included an effect that blocked divine power. After all, without such a function, I could have sustained myself in that pillar of light with self-healing, couldn’t I?

So now I’m left unable to use my left arm until it heals naturally. It’s not like I need to perform rituals like other magicians, so it hasn’t affected my combat abilities.

But it did cause a problem…

Yuna was extremely angry. It wasn’t just a simple sulk.

There was no expression on her enraged face. Like a doll that had lost its emotions, she was calm.

Yet, overlaid with this was a completely different image. Another Yuna, sending me resentful glares with eyes ablaze. The two images spoke as one.

Both Yunas usually spoke and acted identically, indistinguishable from each other. Like two sheets of paper perfectly aligned. There was no need to differentiate.

But both last time and this time. When Yuna was emotionally hurt, they became distinctly separate. One sad, one angry, two people.

Yuna oscillated between the two states, then the angry one spoke up. Sparks flew from her eyes, and the surroundings flickered with sharp colors.

“Why did you do it? I told you it was dangerous.”

I spoke cautiously.

“That’s because I was greedy. I thought this opportunity might accelerate the removal of ‘that thing.’ And indeed, I did obtain significant information…”

“You said you would trust me. You know I’m moving for your sake. Yet, you still took the risk… You might have died. You tried to act on your own.”

“……”

It was but a moment for me, but I had my calculations. The likelihood of dying entangled in the goddess’s beam was exceedingly low, I thought. But.

If I had slipped and fallen into the beam, or if the goddess had increased the output and range of the beam to finish things off, it wouldn’t have ended just like this.

Yuna seemed shocked that I had taken a risk at all.

She would have pushed the Bennet party into the abyss, but she tried to protect me at all costs. The reason she’s breaking all the rules to stay by my side must be for me.

Is that why my grand sorceress feels even more resentful?

She spoke with her large eyes cast slightly downward. The surroundings took on a gloomy hue, a color of deep melancholy.

“Did you lose faith in me because I failed to extract ‘that thing’ from you, ruining the session?”

“…That’s not it, Tower Master.”

“Then why did you go to such lengths to get the information?”

“It was for us.”

I wanted to escape from our only trouble. I acknowledged my malignancy, but that didn’t mean I was okay with being swallowed by ‘that thing.’

I didn’t want to see Yuna with evil eyes.

But it seems my efforts made her feel inadequate. If she had done well from the start, there would have been no reason for me to take risks… That’s what she seems to think.

“I should have done better.”

Yuna tried. She actually helped. She wasn’t perfect, but who in this world is? And to demand perfection from someone who has shown kindness and assistance? That would be despicable.

I shouldn’t let her, who acted for me, belittle herself. So.

I tried to say something to Yuna, but—

“…I need to be alone for a bit, sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you.”

“Wait, Tower Master…!”

Swoosh.

Before I could grasp Yuna’s hand, she scattered like a butterfly. My hand flailed through the air. That Cthulhu session… was she still worried about it?

What to do.

Pingballez, who had been listening to our conversation with crossed arms, quietly said,

“One can afford to lose an arm for a cause. I think so too. But… it hurts to see you get hurt.”

“…Did I do something wrong?”

“No, profit is separate from feelings. You did well to obtain valuable information. However, we must compensate for the thrill we felt. Maybe show some charm.”

“I won’t do that for you, Pingballez. You have a history of getting stuck with the queen alone, so it’s one-on-one for you.”

I responded with a joke, but I wasn’t in a good mood. It seemed like I had a lot to say to Yuna, yet so little. I didn’t know what to say.

Why does my mind, which works so well when deceiving others, fail me now?

…

Another reason to meet the love expert Bennet has just arisen.

—

My love life is one thing, work is another.

Gathering information at the cost of an arm, it’s time to sort it all out and tie up loose ends. I clambered up the outer wall of the inn.

It’s not that I’m suddenly turning to thievery. It’s because Akushin-chan was up on the roof of the inn. She had a habit of climbing high places, as if she were a cat.

Just like the time she lay on a tree branch.

Using magic like glue to climb, I could see Akushin-chan’s back. She sat like a frog, gazing up at the sky. I flicked my finger once, signaling her to look this way.

Without surprise or turning back, Akushin-chan spoke.

“Did you come to be graded?”

“Yes, to see if my speculation about the Goddess is correct…”

“If you’re wrong, I’ll laugh at you plenty. Then I might as well call you ‘Foolish Mima’.”

Teasing…

Then, it’s time for Goddess analysis.

What is the Goddess?

She is the idol of the Goddess religion spread across the continent, the source of a mighty power known as divine force. I don’t know the doctrine in detail, but I understand it’s not particularly violent or radical.

She’s on very bad terms with ‘that thing,’ opposing it enough to invest excessive firepower to erase its traces.

A mighty being worthy of the name of a god.

On the other hand, the Goddess is peculiar. She doesn’t distinguish between good and evil, bestows divine force even on the righteous, yet she has given the “Divine Punishment” to the high priest, and in Tara’s case, she stripped away the divine force all too easily.

This is the point. There’s a very important clue here.

The high priest, who was evil and apostate, could use the divine force.

Why then was Tara, of good character, deprived of it?

Tara’s divine force malfunctioned after she began to doubt the Goddess. The deeper the doubt, the less the supply, until it finally reached zero.

I thought there must be a grand and special reason. After all, it’s a god with such power, a great being looking down from the heavens.

But what if it’s the opposite, too simple?

Just purely. She cut off the supply because she didn’t believe in herself. Without considering what was done with the received divine force, what kind of actions were taken, she turned it off as if flipping a switch.

Indifferently.

The reason she shot the “Divine Punishment” at the high priest wasn’t to put an end to his arrogance and debauchery with a stern judgment… but recognition. If it was because she recognized the data of ‘that thing’ on the blacklist.

Then, the Goddess doesn’t seem like a person at all.

She just acts if the conditions are met. This may seem foolish at a glance, but sometimes it appears unwaveringly solid. I know what to call this.

Algorithm.

“The Goddess is an algorithm, a system. Not a thinking and judging person, but a collection of countless manuals. Its execution is mechanical, without sentiment.”

“That’s correct, Mima.”

World Stabilization Agency, the Goddess.

Beneath the skin of the Goddess, worshipped by many, lies a heart filled with gears, clicking indifferently.

The evil deity chuckled.

“And then…?”

“…”

And then.

Yes, we must take a step further from here.

So far, there’s no problem.

Whether the god is a philanderer like Zeus, or someone’s densely written and intricate law, it’s fine. Even better if the Goddess is like a mechanical device.

If there’s a manual to follow to the letter. If it’s about granting and retracting divine power based on conditions. Then I can certainly make use of the Goddess.

Just repeat the experiments to find the conditional statements. Then create the environment according to those conditions. It might not be possible to control her perfectly. But it should be feasible to use her as a tool.

However, the reason my lips hardly curve up at such good news…

[Damage to the World Stabilization Agency: 24%…]

Is the fact that this massive machine is now complaining of a malfunction.

And then.

“It seems there are those who are using the Goddess, roughly enough to damage the system. Right?”

“Hahahaha! Yes, they should have been the ‘Hero’ born long ago… Not holding this ridiculous preliminary contest!”

The fact that someone, who thought just like me, must have existed in this long, long history.

—

Deep within the Order.

In the sacred hall where the light of the Goddess pours in ceaselessly, so opulent it’s almost sacrilegious.

Like ants swarming over a candy dropped on the street.

The old cardinals, clinging around the young Pope, whisper incessantly, forgetting their dignity.

“Your Holiness, we are on the verge of the ritual for selecting the Hero. Many will come to this Trumpet Hall. Among them, there will be cowards with malicious intent.”

“Your Holiness, we need ‘Discipline’. May the Goddess oversee this Trumpet Hall and prevent the cowards from acting rashly.”

“Your Holiness, please make an appeal to the Goddess…”

Unable to withstand the pressure, the young Pope touched the relic that could communicate directly with the Goddess. The Goddess is merciful, and if her proxy speaks sincerely, she will heed the request.

A red warning flashes.

[Warning: The proposed rule conflicts with the existing 247 rules. Do you wish to proceed?]

But the meaning of that divine word, the six-year-old Pope could not comprehend.

“I implore you, goddess, in this trumpet hall──”

In the end, a new “Rule” was woven into existence…