Chapter 32

A while later, when they were alone together, Aoi became even more chatty. Now and then, after a cup of the flower-scented tea, she would gesture her way through an explanation of what had transpired in her life since her arrival on Earth. She was apparently a sixteen-year-old girl who attended a Tokyo high school. While she and her friends were having lunch on the rooftop of their school, she was suddenly whisked away here.

“Since I can’t swim, I somehow drowned and fainted… After that, someone found me washed away on the riverbank and brought me to Am Yisu, saying I would be safe here.”

After listening to Aoi’s clumsy explanation, Yuichiro expressed his concern.

“Excuse me, but can I ask you one question?”

“Sure, yes!”

“It is obvious that the rebel army hid themselves in Am Yisu. Do you know this?”

“Yes, of course. Erm, they looked like they were in some kind of trouble, so I told them they could hide here…”

Yuichiro was unable to sigh as a result of Aoi’s seemingly innocuous but disastrous actions. He sat there, a hand on his forehead, as his head throbbed with pain.

Seeing Yuichiro’s reaction, Aoi asked in a panic, “Erm, was it no good after all? I thought I could help everyone…”

[In other words, did you lend a helping hand without realizing they were rebels?]

The shallowness of it all made him dizzy, but he figured he should not question a high school girl who had to make such a life-altering choice without fully understanding the repercussions.

Yuichiro then asked, “Have you had anyone explain to you about this world?” Aoi straightened her lips.

“Wait a minute… I am pretty sure they told me.”

“What do you mean?”

“That I am a goddess who was called into this world to help the ‘rightful king’ win and then…” Aoi explained as her cheeks flushed slightly. She clenched her fists, lowered them to her knees, and muttered something under her breath.

When Yuichiro saw this, he lightly scoffed.

“What, Did you hear something about getting pregnant with the king’s child?”

“Hmm, yes,” Aoi replied in a shy, tiny voice. “But if it means saving the people of this world, I will do it!” I will give it my all!”

In an instant, Yuichiro’s face contorted as he recognized the naivete that underpinned her empty words. Was she even considering the meaning of the words “I will do my best?” Did not she know that she was going to have to bear a child while also possibly leading herself to carnage by taking part in this war?

“Doing your best, huh?” Yuichiro said bitterly, to which Aoi responded with equal fervor, “Yes!”

She continued, “I’m not sure how to say this, but… in the previous world, I didn’t stand out at all. To be honest, I was like an invisible person who no one noticed whether or not I was present. But in this world, there are things I can do. It makes me very happy to know that I can help someone. That is why I-I want to do whatever I can in this world.”

Simultaneously, Yuichiro’s heart grew colder as he listened to Aoi’s upbeat proclamation.

A girl who tries to fulfill her role as the goddess for the sake of others, or a man who calls himself a goddess and kills people for money.

Unquestionably, one did not have to think much further to decide which of the two would be a better goddess.

After a brief pause, Aio continued her words with caution, “That… I have heard from Temeraire-san that because I was not there, the people had mistaken a man as the goddess, and he even did all kinds of things for me… That is Yuichiro-ojisan, right? ”

The word ‘mistaken’ instantly made him feel betrayed by Temeraire. Furthermore, by the time he realized it was Temeraire who said it, a heavy weight had settled in the pit of his stomach.

“…Yes, that’s right,” Yuichiro said, his voice strained. He felt ashamed of himself for being easily upset by the words of the girl, who could have been his dead daughter’s age.

Aoi, on the other hand, wore a worried expression and bowed her head slightly. “Because of me, I’m sorry for causing trouble for you, Yuichiro-ojisan.”

“Forget it. I didn’t do much either.”

[That’s right, I didn’t do much.]

Besides, he was killing strangers as usual, and being embraced by two men was no big deal to him. Yuichiro was confident that he could put the whole thing behind him once he returned to his own world. After all, he’d been living like this all his life—forgetting and giving up.

Aoi, who had been staring at Yuichiro’s quiet reaction, suddenly remembered and clapped her hands.

“Ah! If you don’t mind, should we ask the god to return ojisan to our original world?”

Yuichiro was awakened by the rattling sound of a chair being shaken. He could see Aoi’s eyes widen as she stood up from her chair with vigor. Yuichiro, hands still on the table, gave her a thoughtful glance.

“Can I go back to our original world?”

“Hmm, yes. Maybe if I ask God…”

“What is this God?” Yuichiro asked, his voice caught in his throat as he tried to stifle his surprise.

Aoi continued with a pause in her voice, “Well, I see that God hadn’t met you yet. When I was thrown into this world, I talked with God in a dream-like place.”

Again, Yuichiro’s blood boiled at the thought; if this were true, then it was a huge mistake that he had been called to this world; after all, he had never even met this God.

“He’s an old man with a pure white beard that looks like something out of a fantasy manga and still pops up now and then, so perhaps if I ask him for you, it’ll be all right. Yuichiro-ojisan wants to go back to his world, right?”

After being directly asked by Aoi, Yuichiro couldn’t nod in agreement. In truth, he didn’t know what to do. Perhaps, he should leave the goddess’s role to Aoi and disappear from this world. Although the girl was unreliable in managing military warfare, Goat and the other platoon commanders should still follow her lead. Noah would be happier taking Aoi as his wife than grudgingly embracing an old man like himself. Temeraire too, rather than serving such a violent man, serving Aoi would probably make him happier as well.

Yuichiro had no regrets about this world from the beginning, so there were no more reasons for him to stay; however, he could not move his lips.

The man’s name, “…Temeraire,” slid out of his stiff lips like a cry for help, and Yuichiro felt utterly miserable about himself.

“Do you mean Temeraire-san?” Aoi asked, tilting her head.

“Temeraire, can you call him for me?”

In response to Yuichiro’s wavering tone, Aoi’s eyebrows drooped awkwardly, “That’s… Temeraire-san said he didn’t want to see Yuichiro-ojisan anymore. ”

Yuichiro’s heart felt like it had been stabbed, and he staggered backward, gasping for air as if someone had just strangled him. Immediately upon realizing his pain, he felt an overwhelming desire to cry.

Despite the fact that he had dismissed Temeraire and Noah’s feelings so many times in the past, now that Temeraire had given up on him, it was too much for him to be hurt. He had no right to be hurt. He should not be sad.

Yuichiro’s lips moved dully as he tried to answer, “I see.”

However before he could get his words out, he heard a young man’s voice.

“Lies.”

Initially, he didn’t know where the voice was coming from.

“You’re a liar. Temeraire would never say something like that.”

The young but dignified voice rang out once more. The voice was familiar to Yuichiro.

“Noah?” Yuichiro called out, looking around at the air. Aoi, on the contrary, panicked and rose from her chair.

“Noah you say? You mean the king?” Aoi frantically scanned around. Her voice cracked.

“I, I am not lying.”

“That’s a lie too. You’ve been lying the whole time.”

“Why? What do you mean I’m lying?” Aoi’s eyes brimmed with tears.

Nonetheless, Noah responded crudely, without even a shred of sympathy for the girl’s sorrowful appearance.

“You are no goddess.”

At that time, Yuichiro finally realized. Noah’s voice was coming from the gold bracelet on his left wrist, specifically from the white pearl inlaid in the center of it. Noah had given him the gold bracelet as a gift the other day, telling him not to lose it because it was very important. Afterward, Noah’s voice, full of conviction, continued echoing from within the pearl.

“Yuichiro is the only goddess of this world.”

Yuichiro could immediately hear sounds similar to wind rushing into an empty cave. He then noticed Aoi’s eyes were wide open and her throat grumbled.

“No, I am the goddess. That’s what everyone says.” She retorted in a whining-like tone. However, her voice sounded somewhat hollow.

“Wrong. It’s not you.”

“That’s not possible! Because, isn’t it strange that an ojisan like him is a goddess? Everyone who accepts him is also crazy. I’m sure, everyone—everyone will think that I’m more suitable to be a goddess than ojisan.”

Aoi’s words, possibly as a result of her shock, are currently brimming over with her innermost, previously unspoken emotions. In spite of this, Yuichiro acknowledged that there was some truth to what she had said. Being a goddess as a middle-aged man was, indeed, a bit out of the ordinary. When Yuichiro realized this, he found it difficult to breathe. A few seconds later, he heard Noah’s annoying voice come from deep within the pearl.

“What do you mean by everyone? Yuichiro has already been recognized as a goddess by the people.”

“Since there were no other goddesses at the time, so it couldn’t be helped. The people of this country would undoubtedly prefer a female goddess. When the king meets me, he will undoubtedly… undoubtedly say that I am a better choice.”

Contrary to her bold statement, her voice however, didn’t sound convincing. In reality, she wanted to believe this as a fact which made her tone sounded like she was clinging to her own words. A while later, Aoi wore a small smile. It was a disdainful smile with a hint of flirtatiousness that didn’t suit the bright girl. Soon after, a sharp, thunder-like voice roared from within the pearl.

“Don’t decide my feelings on your own! I have already chosen Yuichiro! I will never recognize anyone other than Yuichiro as the goddess!”

Noah’s cry made Yuichiro involuntarily look down at his left wrist. With these words, he felt his frozen heart soften, unraveling the knots within his heart.

Aoi stepped back. Her lips trembled as she struggled to move. She then said, “It’s not right. It’s definitely not right. Because we’ll have to make a baby. And, since you’re both men, having a baby with ojisan is a bit…” Aoi’s body was trembling. Then, she popped her eyes wide open, looking straight at Yuichiro. Her eyes filled with fear, as if she were looking at a weird monster.

“Yuichiro-ojisan, you have never wanted to be a goddess, do you? You want to return to your original world, right?”

Yuichiro was temporarily rendered speechless in response to Aoi’s prayerful question, “Please tell me you are right.” He did not want to be a goddess. He thought it would be terrible to be involved in a war in which he was outnumbered, and he thought it would be repulsive to be embraced by a man. So why couldn’t he simply say that he wanted to go home without hesitation?

Yuichiro then looked at his left wrist, wondering why he needed to see Noah’s face right now.

“Hey, Noah… is it okay with you even if it’s me?”

[It doesn’t have to be me. It shouldn’t be me. Why am I asking such a contradictory question?]

A clear voice later echoed from the pearl, “I want Yuichiro. If it’s not Yuichiro, then it’s no good.”

In an instant, Yuichiro’s heart shook at Noah’s unwavering response. He was not sure if he was happy or sad, but his heart was pounding wildly, and he clutched his chest with his left hand.

Aoi, however stared at him dumbfoundedly. Staring back at her, Yuichiro muttered quietly, “Sorry to say this, but I’m not going back now. I still have things to do in this world.” While he said this, Yuichiro actually had no idea what he was planning, whether it was killing, crowning Noah king, or having a child. He had no answers for these questions inside his head.

Translator’s Notes

Okay. This Aoi gurl is a b**ch. Enough said. Her personality flips so quickly though. 😬😬😬

Does anybody wanna guess what’ll happen to Yuichiro next chapter? I can tell you, that it won’t be pretty… 🥲

p/s: If you like this chapter and want to read ahead, consider supporting me on Ko-fi!