Chapter 7

“I was forced to come to this incomprehensible world… On top of that, I’m supposed to lead an army that is clearly outnumbered in order to win this war. I’m a man, but you want me to have a child? Stop adding salt to other people’s wounds.” Yuichiro clenched his teeth as he spoke. Meanwhile, in the air, Izrael’s tail wriggled in pain.

Yuichiro had a feeling the man disliked Izrael from the start. Temeraire seemed to despise Izrael.

Noah’s slightly trembling hands suddenly grabbed Yuichiro’s arm. “Let him go.”

“Why? You don’t want to be a king either.”

“I don’t want to be king, but…”

“Then why should I stop? If I agree, it means that I’ll accept you becoming king, and you had to have a baby with me. Can you do it?”

He peered into Noah’s face as if to taunt him. Immediately, Noah’s lips trembled gingerly. His face was laced with hesitation and dismay. Looking at his face, Yuichiro laughed and shouted, “If you can’t do it, then shut up and watch him get killed!”

Immediately after he said that Noah hollered, “Iz is my friend!”

With that Noah opened his mouth wide and bit Yuichiro’s arm vigorously. The pain of his teeth biting into flesh through his cloth quickly relaxed his grip on Izrael’s body. Even though Izrael had fallen to the floor, Noah was still biting Yuichiro’s arm. “Let go.”

Noah’s canine teeth tore open the skin where they had sunk in, causing blood slowly seeped out onto the cloth. Yuichiro repeated, his eyes unnerved by the red blood spreading on the white cloth. “Let go.”

Noah’s lips loosened as if he had finally awoken when Yuichiro said it again. After a slight wave from Yuichiro’s arm, Noah slumped to the floor. His mouth was stained with the dregs of Yuichiro’s blood.

Goat whistled a small tune. “I’ve never seen a goddess trying to kill a jewel on our first meeting. And, the first goddess to be bitten by a king, in return,” he joked.

Yuichiro felt strangely relaxed when he heard him laughing without any reservations. He rolled up his sleeves to examine the bite mark left by Noah. The wound did not appear to be deep in comparison to the amount of blood. Temeraire gently placed a white cloth over the wound as he examined the small teeth marks. “I”ll bandage it up later,” Temeraire said.

“I don’t mind.”

“—No, please let me.”

Yuichiro sighed at his stubborn attitude, which would not allow him to refuse. Meanwhile, Izrael, who had come to, was coughing on the floor. He stumbled, “Oh… It’s my first time to be strangled by a goddess.” He was saying the same thing as Goat. “The seventh goddess is a bit of a tomboy,” Izrael said softly, staring at Yuichiro as if he had forgotten he had almost been killed earlier.

“Does ”tomboy” enough to describe what I just did?”

“Yuichiro, you can kill me if you want to. But then you’ll never go back to the world you came from.” His tone was not threatening, but rather straightforward.

“Is there any way to go back?” Yuichiro asked, his gaze fixed on Izrael.

“If you still want to return, you must first fulfill your role as a goddess.”

The goddess’s role would be the two things he just mentioned, “victory” and “conception.” It was so unnerving that Yuichiro became nauseous. Yuichiro then muttered as if snarling while swallowing the unpleasant saliva, “I’m not going to be , am I?”

“Urashima Tarō?”

“I meant that after decades in this world, there’s no place for me when I go back to my original world afterward.” Considering the circumstances when he jumped over, he was probably labeled as missing in action while in the battlefield.

Izrael, on the other hand, waved his short arm from side to side. “I don’t think so, he said. “This world’s time axis differs from your world’s. Ten years in this world is only one year in the other. If you want, I can create a new for you.

“Identity?”

“In your world, it’s called family register right?” Izrael cocked his chin to the right. “Preparing a new family register, I understand this need quite a bit. Rather, I know it very well.”

“You know a lot about my world.”

“I don’t. But, sometimes God speaks to me.”

At the mention of ‘God’, Yuichiro frowned. [Goddesses, treasured pearl, and God… What’s with the religious beliefs in this world?].

“Is there a God in this world?”

“It is my responsibility to convey God’s words to the people. Yuichiro was also chosen as a Goddess by God.”

If there was a God, Yuichiro would have hit him as hard as he could, but he was already tired of cursing his unfortunate situation. He had no choice but to flee or accept his fate because he couldn’t fix his situation. Right now, his escape route had already been obstructed.

“Even if I acted as the Goddess as you wished, I would gain no merit.”

“Merit?”

“I’m saying it’s boring if you return to your original world and you’re broke.” Yuichiro yanked the necklace around Goat’s neck with his fingertips. “Woah,” Goat exclaimed in surprise. The sound of stones rubbing against each other overlapped in time with his voice.

“I’m a mercenary. If you want me to fight, you’ll have to pay me.” Yuichiro stroked the stones at the end of the necklace with his fingertips, saying, “This should do it.”

Izrael stared at Yuichiro in wonderment. “Is that so? It’s just a stone.”

“In my world, this is worth money. If I win this battle, you can pay me with it.”

“Oh! You’re playing Goddess in exchange for money?!” Noah exclaimed in exasperation. “It’s a lot better than a kid running around saying he doesn’t want to be king,” Yuichiro said indifferently, seeing Noah’s rage.

Noah clenched his fists in response to Yuichiro’s cold words. “What do we do?” Yuichiro looked at Noah, who was on the verge of crying.

Temeraire gave a small nod, and Goat seemed to be holding back his laughter, as usual, probably trying hard not to laugh at the ridiculous goddess. Izrael huffed and muttered quietly, “You’re so badass and cool.”

[Does that mean he agrees?]

After a while, Izrael crept up to Yuichiro’s feet and gently wrapped himself around his calves. Yuichiro’s skin trembled slightly as if he had a premonition of a strange fate that was about to befall him.

“You’re the best goddess of all!”

Yuichiro unintentionally laughed at Izrael’s ecstatic voice. Other than a smile, he didn’t know what else to say.

Translator’s Notes

LOL. Yuichiro straight-up asks for money. I guess once a mercenary. always a mercenary. On another note, this is the first time I’ve heard of Urashima Taro… but I think we don’t have to worry about our MC ending up like Taro here, so there’s the hope of him going back to earth. As for Noah, I’m surprised that he acted brave for once, altho it cost our MC’s arm 😂😅. Lastly, we’re nearing the end of this Arc! Never thought I would get this far since this novel’s a bit hard to translate with my subpar translation skills…