Chapter 2

Chapter 2

A Visitor in the Snow

The night city spread outside the office window, where street lights flickered like fireflies, dimming into the night .

And in this office, accompanying the rows of desks with computers lined on top, was a lone occupant .

Perhaps, it would be much more respectful to refer to this person in the past tense . As it stood, while working overtime all alone since last night, only moments ago, Nagajiro Satou had passed away .

Since the medium-build corpse lay with its face on the desk, it seemed only like a person who was worn out . His hair was unkempt, as if he never had the time to get a haircut and when it grew too long, he simply cut it using shears, creating pockets that shone like theater spotlights . On the computer screen, half-done presentation materials were displayed .

And behind that body, stood Nagajiro .

It eluded him, his comprehension of the situation . He knew that he was certainly standing, yet the one with his face on the desk was also him .

“……Is this one of those out-of-body experience things? Wait, no, am I dead?”

“Indeed you are . ”

There came a voice so deep, it shook him .

He quickly realized there was someone standing right beside him .

With a height of over six and a half feet, it was an old man with a very muscular build . He wore a toga, clothing reminiscent of Ancient Rome, and bore a beard with the texture of rough rope . He was something that could only be described as The God .

Even if he looked exactly like the sculpture of a certain deity, the magnitude of his majestic existence thinned because of the late-night office backdrop .

Really, he feels like a god only when his arrogant figure is sitting on the throne at the back of a certain pure white temple, Nagajiro thought .

“This is illegal trespassing, right… What’s our security even doing?”

“Ho? I sense you are not surprised . A promising man, you are . ”

The maybe-god took a sharp glance at Nagajiro and chuckled .

“Who the hell are you? Are you, uh, god?”

“Indeed I am . Not of Earth, but I am a god of a different world, quite close to Earth . ”

Ah, the maybe-god promoted himself to a self-proclaimed god .

“Your life has already ended . However, if you so wish, I can reincarnate you in my world, giving you a second chance at life . ”

“I see . So what’s in it for me, and what’s in it for you?”

Even if he’s a god, there’s no way he’d do something so big for free, Nagajiro thought .

Even more so if this self-proclaimed god isn’t lying . He’s not related to the people of Earth anything and owes them nothing .

Yet as if the self-proclaimed god had known Nagajiro would make this assumption, he nodded before answering,

“I seek strength . I seek the soul of a hero willing to fight against the forces of darkness . A soul that is summoned from Earth can also become the vessel of a powerful Divine Protection, and it also becomes a force to be reckoned with . I promise you that you shall be blessed with the Divine Protection of the gods and earn the honor of a warrior . ”

“So do I get like a cheat ability, or something like that?”

“First, I shall bless you with the Divine Protect of ‘Heavenly Luck’ . Till the time comes to take up arms, you may enjoy a life of peace . And after, I shall bless you with as many Divine Protections as the situation calls for . Blessed by a god, life as a hero who transcends human wisdom awaits you . You shall become mankind’s hope, and gain both wealth and honor in immense magnitude . ”

“I see . ”

Not a bad deal . Not bad at all, Nagajiro thought .

Nagajiro was never lucky in this life and felt quite embarrassed about it . Thus, if a god were to bless him with luck, then maybe, he would not meet a death as pathetic as one from overworking in his office in the dead of night .

And if all went well, he could get some cheat-level Divine Protections and live life as a hero . The thought of fighting dried his throat, sending chills down his spine, but if god himself were to give him his blessings, he could manage . Plus, he could always run away from the stupid hard fights .

What would happen if I refuse? Go to the heaven of a faith I don’t have? Or would I just reincarnate into this ghastly world again? Or would I just, vanish…?

Anyway, I don’t really have any regrets with my life here .

“I’m taking this deal then . ”

The moment he answered, his vision was shrouded by bright light .

“What part of this is heavenly luck… . !”

Perhaps due to the return of these memories, the existence it inhabited felt both the pain of endless torture as René and the death from overwork as Nagajiro as if they happened moments ago .

The young girl’s voice hurled screams of abuse at the god who had reincarnated Nagajiro… Or perhaps it was more René?

Although, even if it was after the fact, she quickly realized first how strange it was to even have a voice . After all, she had died some time ago, her head had already rolled quite the distance away from her body .

The second thing she realized was that time around her had stopped .

Whether time had stopped in its truest sense, she could never discern, but that was the only way she could put it . The world was silent, the people stiff in uncomfortable positions, the falling snow stuck mid-air, and even the children who were jumping up remained fastened to their place .

――Wh-what is this…?

As she wondered what in the world was happening, a voice called out to her .

“A good day to you, Miss Reincarnator . ”

Someone was suddenly there, right beside René .

It was the alluring voice of a woman . She sat near the edge of the scaffold, facing away, as she glanced back to look at René’s head .

Her braided hair ran jet-black, she wore black-rimmed glasses, a black suit, a tight black skirt and black tights, and even her high heels were pitch black . She seemed to be completely out-of-character for this world, a businesswoman clad in black from head to toe .

In stark contrast, her skin was paler than a drowned corpse’s, and her pupils were so black, they seemed to be a pair of black holes, never allowing light to escape .

Although their looks were completely different, René’ remembered this manner of entrance quite well .

“You, are you an acquaintance of that god or something?”

“I may indeed be a god, but I am an evil one . Pleased to make your acquaintance . ”

“…huh?”

René’s jaws dropped .

Even if she were a child, she was taught the various legends of the land by the Church . That a long time ago, nothing existed but a single being floating in space by the name of ‘The Ethereal One’ .

He(and at the same time, she) birthed the concept of antithesis and all distinctions that came with it; heaven and earth, hot and cold, life and death .

And finally, ‘The Ethereal One’ birthed the two pillars; The Great God, and the Evil God .

The Great God(who apparently shouldn’t be named as such unless permitted) created humanoid beings such as man, elves and dwarves, and further created birds, animals, fish, plants, and everything living in this world .

However the Evil God was not good with that . In order to threaten the world, the Evil God twisted some of the beings created by the Great God into Demons, the dead into pawns in the form of Undead, and came to fight with plague and calamity .

And so, somewhere in this world, the Great God and the Evil God are still fighting… .

And this career woman claimed herself to be the Evil God in the flesh . As in, the ultimate enemy of all that is living, the Evil God .

“The Evil God…? Are you why all of this happened to me!?”

“Aah! Tis be indeed a pleasure to have all forms of vility be blamed on my existence, but only at times such as these is it an obstacle!”

As her intestines boiled with rage, René could only but point a finger at this self-proclaimed Evil God as the mastermind behind her downfall .

However, the Evil God only expressed her grief at the heavens when met with René’s death glare .

“Well, leaving such things aside, honestly, I cannot interfere with lives to this degree . My powers are limited to granting Divine Protections or future visions, or causing a natural calamity here and there . Just like that fermented bag of shit .

I can call the Demon King’s Army into action by showing them future visions, but I cannot give detailed instructions, nor do they have enough power to cause anything like this as of now .

As such, none of what has befallen you was within my knowledge . So please, let us retain our composure so we may properly converse . ”

The self-proclaimed Evil God quickly summed up her circumstances .

At the very least, her tone reflected none of what her insidious existence entailed, as it managed to make René understand well that this ‘Evil God’ simply wanted to talk, without becoming the least bit angry .

“Umm… Miss Evil God? H-how may I be of service…?”

For the time being, she accepted that the woman in front of her was the Evil God .

While her outfit did little to match her title, René had to accept that her current situation could only be created by a force that was beyond man . After all, René found no difficulty in making her complaints known, even if her head had rolled quite the distance away from her body .

“My purpose of coming here to visit you today, is to scout you . ” she said, all the while wearing the smile of a saleswoman, a hint to how this matter is nothing simple .

For now, René summed up the events leading to her reincarnation(all the while indulging in the surrealness of being only a talking head on the scaffold floor) and once she finished, the Evil God shrugged as if to say, ‘It couldn’t be helped’ .

“Ah, that ‘heavenly luck’, huh…

It just makes hitting the jackpot with lottery easier, or if you’re about to be run over by a carriage, it magically makes a steep turn . It is a Divine Protection that has no more power than that of your average charm .

If there is a crowd of people coming to kill you with all of their might, it’s effect becomes negligible . ”

“W-what the hell’s up with thatー!”

“Nevertheless, it does increase one’s chances of survival . To distribute it to all pawns for the sake of preserving their lives at such a low cost, it is truly cost-efficient . ”

There was something unnatural mixed in with the Evil God’s monologue .

“…costs?”

“I believe it would be better if I start from there, no? Naturally as I am the Evil God, I shall teach you of the abyss of the legends . ”

At some point, the Evil God had pulled out a pointing stick seen often in classrooms, and René realized she wanted one too .

Her black suit made her look like a career woman, but with only a single prop in her hand, she felt like a teacher .

“I presume you already know of how the Great God and I are locked in perpetual combat, yes?”

However, as it stands, as a world created by the Ethereal One, it is balanced by the continued existence of two opposite forces . If the Demons gain too many victories, the kin of man increase in strength… Like the two sides of a scale with weights constantly being swapped out, this seesaw game will continue until one side quickly deals the finishing blow at a great momentum .

If I am to go into the specifics, the further the Kin of Man are cornered, the more ‘Cheats’ the Great God will grant them . If he went on about how ‘I shall bless you with cheat abilities depending on the circumstances’, or something, he was talking about this . Once he got hold of a Reincarnator, he likely would have waited till the conditions were right, so he could grant them a cheat-like Divine Protection .

Currently, the Kin of Man are doing well, so the Great God cannot grant them any cheats . ”

“They’re… they’re doing well? With this? With things like this happening!?” René cried out .

Anger, fear and disgust welled up inside her, and even more surprising were the amount of hot tears that slid down her face . Even if her head had already been parted from her body, she felt her grudge crawl under her skin, gnawing away .

To think that these people, who spat curses at each other, then put on public shows of execution as entertainment… She could not fathom how a world such as this was doing well .

Watching René’s state, the Evil God narrowed her black hole eyes .

“It simply means the Kin of Man have enough room to be clawing at each other’s throats . ”

“No, that’s not…”

René was dumbstruck . If so, to god, these terrible events were not something he could ‘do nothing about’, but simply that he ‘does not want to even do anything’ about them? That even at this moment, was god watching over them as they fought like he were their owner, ‘My, my, the humans are doing so well, aren’t they . ’ with great pleasure?

If he could provide divinations, then why not simply mediate these conflicts? If he could create natural disasters, then why not raise them as outrage towards these inhuman acts? If the god did indeed have any intention of it, then René herself would not have had to go suffer through so much .

――Mankind ought to clean up after their own mistakes, that they ought to learn from the mistakes of their past as the corpses pile into a mountain… . Is this the intended message? Cut the shit . If there’s someone as Omnipotent as a god in a world, they should be actively guiding mankind, as it would prevent many sacrifices .

Even if it were in a fit of anger, René cursed at the god .

In the first place, Nagajiro was invited by that god himself to be reincarnated . But even then, the god left him with a half-assed cheat ability, with no intention of following up on it after . René had every right to be angry . She was tricked by being given only half of what was promised .

The Evil God stood up, walked over to René’s head and sat down in front of it .

Her footsteps left no mark on the light layer of snow that looked like icing of a cake on the scaffold floor, as if her entire existence was phantom-like .

“…now then, I mentioned about scouting you awhile before, so I believe we have reached a conclusion regarding our business? In fact, as the Kin of Man are currently superior in power, I am able to grant a cheat-level Divine Protection .

I wish for you to become my pawn and destroy this world .

Just now, two of the Demon King Army’s Commanders have fallen in battle… So I have quite the good Divine Protection at hand . ”

Her tone made her seem like some sketchy salesman trying to force just as sketchy a product onto a person .

“Do you not detest him? The god who only kept half his word and reincarnated you in this form?”

There’s no way I don’t .

Nagajiro might have been in the wrong, as he had not stopped the god and asked for a more detailed explanation, but to begin with, the explanation that god had given him was dishonest to the utmost degree .

“Do you not detest them? The people who pushed you to your death for their own convenience?”

There’s no way I don’t!

They sat so far away from René and plotted, and when their plots bore fruit, it robbed her of what little happiness she had, robbed her of her mother, and finally, after tormenting her to their fill, robbed her of her life .

The people who made a show of my suffering, of my humiliation, they can all go to hell!

“If you wish for vengeance, I shall bless you with a special Divine Protection . ”

The Evil God smiled as if René’s wrath and grudge were blessings to her .

She smiled like a mother looking at her child with loving eyes . Even though she was an Evil God .

“I know, I know I’m getting what I’m wishing for, but… Why? Why me?” René carefully asked .

She was just deceived by god . If she was deceived by the Evil God too, she would no longer have a face to show .

“Let me think for a moment . Well, I could always go to Earth to scout for souls, but it’s quite frankly a bit of a pain, and after all, I am an Evil God . I’m quite the nasty individual .

To have one of his pawns turn on him for revenge, makes me feel the pleasure of life…” The Evil God sighed, her breath laced with ecstacy .

“Okay, I see how it is…”

In other words, these kinds of people could also be deities .

“Moreover, you are the kind of Reincarnator who has enough reason to fight against the Kin of Man…

You also landed points in my book for being a girl . Quite frankly, I am sick of having my camp be full of rough and tough monsters of all disgusting shapes and forms, so I’ve been looking for a pretty flower like you . ”

I’m actually an old dude on the inside, are you really okay with that?

René thought about mentioning this, but kept quiet .

I’ll really be in trouble if the Evil God changes her mind .

“Well, what kind of cheats are we talking about here, specifically?”

“Hmm… In short, I will revive you as the strongest undead, but explaining all of your powers in words would be quite difficult . Once you inhabit that body, I’m sure everything will become quite clear to you…

Ah! How about we settle on having a trial period for you, Earth-style? After a 30 day trial period, if you come to dislike your Divine Protection, you may return it to me by midnight of the 30th day . When that happens, you will stop being undead and return to peaceful slumper . There is quite the cost present in collecting these kinds of cheats, but I am offering it to you, free of cost . ”

“As long as that cheat ability doesn’t include me getting brainwashed, I’m fine with those terms . ”

“Brainwashing? Please banish the thought… From this point onward, you have the freedom of choice . How about it?”

“Of course I’ll take it . ”

Even if she still bore many doubts, she decided not to care, and took a leap of faith .

No death was more painful than dying with the flames of hatred that scorched one’s own skin .

“I’ll do anything, as long as I can get my revenge…!”

“As you wish . With this, our negotiations have concluded . ”

There were no contracts to sign, no fingerprints to give, no stamps to seal .

From the Evil God’s fingertips slipped out shadow colored dark red light, which consumed all of René’s head and body .

“Gh-ghaaah!!”

Her heart pulsed, searing her body with heat .

It was difficult to express how she had a heartbeat, seeing as her head was parted from her body, and she was long dead .

And yet René felt it as if it were her own heart beating . As if her heart pumped magma through her veins .

“I assure you that you will come to grasp how your powers work by yourself, but, I hope you will become accustomed to them as you bathe yourself in a waterfall of human blood . ”

She did behave as a proper Evil God, but René did not intend to condemn her for it .

She felt she had a greater capacity for evil than before, as the thought of killing humans bothered her not even in the slightest .

This would be her vengeance, thoroughly and mercilessly enacted .

“Ah, yes, I shall warn you about this once . In theory, you will certainly grow to become much stronger than the Demon King himself, but please take care and avoid fighting strong opponents right away .

I pray for your success in battle . ”

Once she finished everything she wanted to say, the Evil God disappeared, leaving not a single trace of her existence .

And so, time resumed .

René could hear again . She listened to the many cheers that celebrated her death .

Indeed… She was supposed to be dead for a while now, yet she could see, she could hear .

René had heard of it once . The reason others like her, those born with silver hair and silver eyes, were treated as cursed children in Ciel-Terra .

Barely had 100 years passed since Ciel-Terra rose as a nation, the Royal Diviner had oracled a future .

‘With eyes and hair of silver, the cursed one will end the country . ’

René’s supposed corpse twitched .

The shackles that bound her to the scaffold burst open, fragments of iron scattering into the air .

Translator: Fried Hedgehog

Eyy, sup . Hedge here . Hope your day’s going good .

This chapter was pretty interesting to do . Going back a step, getting the basic worldbuilding done, then finally coming full circle to the end of that synopsis that brought all of us here . I think it’s going to be René’s first time killing people next chapter, though I’m not sure .

In other news, Suzume-sensei picked Zeus to be the Great God . Zeus of all things . Great . Props to them . Also I’m pretty sure they’d want Saori Hayami to be the Evil God’s VA . She talks like that lmao .

Alright, that’s enough ranting for this TL note . As always, remember to point out typos, mistakes, grammar fixes, etc . , if and when you find any . Till next week . Or maybe the comments section . Heh .