Everyone went quiet once they heard the abrupt voice of a child. It was the voice of the person behind sending the class back to the Earth. The first to interrupt the silence and speak was Tenjouin.
âM-MetronâŚâ
He uttered that name with his eyes open wide. Itâs confirmed that he is the culprits behind this. I also confirmed another thing after hearing Tenjouin uttering that name. That is, the one behind this voice is not Metron. I realized it the moment I heard his voice. Even Lina realized the same thing and silently nodded back to me when I looked at her.
âWho are you?â
âHuh?â
âYouâre not Metron.â
Tenjouin revealed a baffled face when he heard me stating that fact.
âWhat does that mean? He is not Metron?â
âI have already met Metron many times, so I can tell that itâs not him. This guy is not Metron.â
All the class members seemed stunned by hearing that the person behind the voice was not Metron and that Iâve already met a god. The fake Metron stayed quiet since the first time I spoke before speaking again and denying my remark.
â⌠What are you talking about? I am the same Metron who sent you all to that another world.â
So now he is feigning ignorance. The culprit doesnât want to admit that he was fake, but this time Lina entered the conversation.
âI am an angel who serves Metron-sama. I assume that you are a God of another world. Please stop what you are doing! If you keep acting selfishly like this, you will receive a severe punishment from the Divine God!â
Despite getting warned by her, the fake Metron still insisted on the fact that he wasnât fake.
âH-Hmph! Who cares! I am the real Metron so that doesnât apply to me!â
Judging that it would be lame to admit it at this point, he kept on persistently acting like the real Metron. A few signs of impatience reverberated from his voice before he cleared his throat by coughing and took back his calm.
âAnyway, I wasnât expecting you to lose even after I gave you that sword. I canât tell if the heroes are just too weak or if the opponent is strong. In either case, Iâm disappointed.â
Tenjouin directed an irritated glare to the sky when he heard the fake Metronâs haughty words. We canât see his face, but we know that he is annoying. I replied to his arrogant remark in a cool tone.
âThen what now? Arenât you going to give up already?â
âOf course I wonât. I wouldnât have come talk to you if I were to give up â I shall take you on personally.â
Both Lina and I couldnât stop a nervous expression from reaching our faces when we heard his confident declaration. By taking me on, he means that he will personally come here, to Earth. There is a rule among Gods prohibiting them from interfering with worlds, though it often gets violated by many of them.
So this God is intending to break that rule as well. Tenjouin and the class members who donât know about this rule looked astonished to hear that he will be coming here. Despite his childish voice, the enemy is still a God and his powers are not to be underestimated. They shouldnât get deceived by him. Lina asked him to change his mind in a slightly flustering voice tone.
âDid you forget the rules? If you do that, your sin will become serious afterward.â
âOf course I know that and I wouldnât act so carelessly and get punished at the end either.â
âThen what are you planning to do then?â
If he werenât intending to get punished later, then what is he going to do?
The fake Metron returned a childish giggle when I asked him.
âYou will find out soon enough.â
Saying that, he started contemplated his plan. I donât have any clue about what he will be doing, but Iâm sure that it wonât be something good for me. I took my defensive stance the moment I sensed that he started making a move.
âWell then ââ
â Stop right theeeeeeeeeeeere!!!
For some reason, I heard another voice resounding in my head right before the fake Metron was going to execute his plan.
âA-ah? Metron? What are you doing hereâŚâ
âI came back here because I had an unexplainable bad feeling, and it turned out hitting the mark. No, it exploded the mark!! Just what are you doing to my world for Heavenâs sake!â
The fake Metron who sounded provoking just now lost all his dignity when the voice of the true Metron came out.
The real Metron is back?
Lina and I kept listening to Metron and his fake counterpartâs conversation with dumbfounded expressions.
âWait, stop shaking me back and forth! Calm down first, please. Just listen to me!â
âWhy do you have to make me go through this all the time!? I canât even slack off from work like this!!â
Metron vented his exhaustion and piled up stress on the culprit who was trying to calm him down fruitlessly.
âIn the first place, what did I do, huh!? I only acted in at the first time!! Yet, look at you!! Look at what youâre doing to me â!!â
âStop shaking me first! What if you clicked on some dangerous button⌠Ah!!â
The culprit desperately warned Metron to stop acting out of anger, though it was already late since I heard him exclaiming at the end. The next moment, a giant magic formation appeared above all of our heads.
âFgya!!â
âOuch!!â
The magic formation didnât show a sign of function after it appeared until the figure of two persons fell from within it. The first one is the real Metron. The second one was â
âYou are, Korola-sama!â
Lina who saw the face of the second God muttered his name and looked as if she grasped the entire situation.
âLina, you know who this person?â
âThis is Korola-sama. TheăGod of Affectionăand Metron-samaâs friend.â
So, he is the
ăGod of Affectionă
, huhâŚ
It was a nice and promising title. I moved back my gaze and looked at Metronâs friend, Korola. He had green hair and eyes and a very young appearance just like that of Metron. It was pretty hard to tell if Korola were a male or a female, but judging from his voice, I assumed that he is a male.
âOuacchâŚâ
âHm? Is thisâŚâ
Metron and Korola stood up from their crash while both groaning from the pain. Metron could tell where he was at first until he pointed at me while screaming the moment he noticed my presence.
âUwaa!!! Itâs him!!â
âWhat do you mean by âitâs him!â?â
He looked at me with eyes as if he saw a monster. As I complained to Metron for his rude attitude towards me, Lina was muttering to herself âI see, so thatâs how it isâ while seeming to have understood everything.
âSo, it was Korola-sama.â
âWhat did you find out, Lina?â
âAs I just told you, Korola-sama is theăGod of Affectionă. Exactly as his name proves, he is a kind God of friendship who takes great care of his friends. Itâs just thatâŚâ
Lina hesitated on whether to continue her words or not.
âJust that?â
âSometimes his love for his friends crosses the limits, driving him to go a bit too far.â
I think there is a limit on how someone could go a bit too far, but anyway, that explains all that happened. In other words, this guy tried to kill me for Metronâs sake.
How annoyingâŚ
As I was coming to an understanding of the situation, Korola who just stood up glanced at his surroundings.
âDonât tell me⌠Did we fall into your world!?â
He then eventually started flustering as he realized where he fell.
âThis is bad! We need to go back before we get punished!â
âYouâre going to get punished by me first!!â
Metron replied to Korola with a shout before he started pressing him to answer his questions.
âRather, what are you doing to my world!? I may end up getting punished too you know!â
Korola looked at the enraged Metron with a confused face before he answered in an upset voice.
âYou told me to do it!â
âHuh? I did?â
âYes, you did! I remember you crying that time and saying I wish someone would do something about it, Iâm tired.'â
âI wasnât crying, I was just complaining! And I didnât ask you to do anything!â
âI did it for your sake!â
âI didnât ask you to!â
They both continued quarreling and fussing in front of us. Their voice was gradually getting louder as they were both getting upset. To summarize their conversation, Korola misunderstood Metronâs complaints as a plea and used Tenjouin and his classmates to attack me, the victim of all of this. I dropped my shoulder once I got a full grasp of what happened.
Metron and Korola continued their ineffective dispute. All I could see before my eyes were two children quarreling for a troublesome reason. At this rate, they will never stop. I interrupted the both of them after letting out a sigh.
âYou guys need to calm down firsâââ
âYouâre always like this Korola! You never listen to me!!â
âCalm down alreaâââââââ
âI was just acting nicely because youâre my friend!!â
ââŚâ
BAM!!
âOuach!â
âAy!â
Guessing that they will keep ignoring me as they heat up even more, I decided to use my fist to stop them. The conversation halted after a dull sound came from both of their heads.
âListen to me!â
âOuch!? What is this! It hurts!! I feel like I already got hit like this!! It hurts more this time!!â
âMy skull probably cracked from this hitâŚâ
Metron started screaming from the pain while Korola crouched while holding his head. Korola didnât like how he got punched in the head unreasonably like that and looked at me while complaining.
âHey! How dare you hit a child on his head! Child abuser!!â
âLina, how old is this guy?â
âHe is the same age as Metron-sama.â
Liar!
Knowing that Korola was lying at me, I chopped his head with my hand. Feeling the intense pain from that chop, he groaned loudly and held his head while crouching again.
âI got hit again!â â Korola
âI got a deja vu feeling again!â â Metron
âDonât you have something more important to do now?â â Yato
âHuh? What do you mean?â â Korola
âHow about you apologize to these people first?â â Yato
First, he needs to apologize to the class before sending them back to their world. I told Korola to apologize to the class while pointing at Tenjouin who seemed to have frozen in his place for a while now, unable to follow with the flow of events. Letâs make Metron apologize to him even if itâs just for their sake.
âHuh, even me?â
âOf course.â
I nodded to Metronâs confused question. If he didnât slack off his job in the first place, nothing of this would have happened. He is guilty just as much as Korola. Surely, there was no way he would obediently agree with me. He revealed a displeased face and refused to apologize.
âHuuuh!? Iâm totally unrelated to this!â
âYouâre the origin of this mess. If you escape now, I promise to erase all your saved game date next time.â
âThatâs too cruel! You Ogre! You demon!!â
âWant a head-chop too?â
I lifted my hand to Metron who didnât want to stop insulting me, but Lina asked for some time and timidly approached him.
âMetron-sama, I have a message from Rene-san.â
âEh? Rene-chan?â
Lina nodded to him and quietly whispered the message into his ear. Metronâs face gradually turned pale as he listened to the message until his body started trembling with fear.
âIs, that trueâŚ?â
âYes. Therefore, I advocate you to return as soon as possible.â
The next instant, Metron sprinted to Korola who was crouching and holding his head and urged him to bow down.
âKorola, letâs bow down!â
âEh? Why so suddenly?â
âJust hurry up and bow down before it gets too late!â
Korola noticed that Metron was acting weird, but his dignity as a God didnât allow him to bow down.
âWhy should Gods like us bow down so easily?! More importantly, Metron, we can defeat this Yato if we combine our powers! Letâs fight him together!â
âThis is not the time for your nonsense!!â
Apparently, Korola still didnât give up on defeating me as he suggested to combine his powers with Metron who immediately refused.
âPlease! If we donât make it quick, my things will disappear!! If we escape like this, my other things will end up disappearing!! So letâs apologize and return!! Please!! If youâre truly my best friend, then do as I tell you now!!â
âB-Best friendâŚâ
Korola reacted happily to the word âbest friend.â
âMetron and I are best friendsâŚâ
âYes! Iâm serious! Weâre best friends! So please, help me out here by bowing down and apologizing.â
Contrary to Metron who seemed to have reached the end of his wits for some unknown reason, Korola was immersing in the reverberation of the word âbest friendâ by muttering it repeatedly.
Whatâs up with his reactionâŚ?
I wonder if itâs fine for theăGod of Affectionăto be deceived this readily by the word âbest friend.â
âVery well. I canât turn down the request of my best friend.â
The next moment, Korola willingly accepted to apologize.
Are you fine with this, God of AffectionâŚ
I couldnât tell if the reason he got deceived so conveniently was because he loved his friend or because he just doesnât have many friends in the first place. In either case, Metron and Korola turned to Tenjouin and his classmates and placed their knees on the ground.
ââWe are very sorry!!ââ
With totally synchronized tones, both of them apologized as they glued their foreheads on the ground. It was a perfect prostration from them. As for Tenjouinâs reactionâŚ
â⌠Eh? What is this supposed to mean?â
They were all confused. Since they never met a God before, they couldnât even distinguish Metron from Korola. Well, it canât be helped. I will just explain to them the rest later. Anyway, there was one thing that the class understood from all of this.
âIs Kamiya stronger than Gods?â
One of them uttered that question and the rest agreed with it as they all directed their gazes at me. Some of them even took a step back as they were frightened.
Câmon, really? Youâre scared of me that much?
All that I did was making Metron and Korola apologize to you them. I heard Lina telling me that she canât blame them for that reaction, driving me to feel a little shocked.
Letâs explain to them whatâs going on laterâŚ
That was the only conclusion I ended up reaching while restraining the perplexed feeling in my chest.