"Oh?"
Haimer stepped across the threshold, his gaze landing on the petite figure kneeling within the column of sunlight.
Seeing her posture, which clearly indicated she had been waiting for some time, a trace of appreciation flashed through Haimer's eyes.
"It seems you knew I was coming?"
Haimer did not beat around the bush, walking straight toward the center of the gymnasium.
"Yes, Lord God."
Inaba Tsukuyo bowed slightly, performing a standard ancient etiquette.
The moment these words came out... Amou Kirukiru, following behind Haimer, raised her eyebrows slightly upon hearing this address. Meanwhile, Onigawara Rin and Mozunono, who had chased after them panting for breath, froze at the doorway.
"Lord God?"
Onigawara Rin and Mozunono held onto the door frame, their faces filled with disbelief.
"You know who I am?"
Haimer naturally ignored the commotion behind him, looking at Inaba Tsukuyo with interest.
"No, Tsukuyo does not know your name."
Inaba Tsukuyo shook her head.
"However, Tsukuyo can hear."
"Hear?"
"Yes."
Inaba Tsukuyo pointed to her own ears.
"From the moment you descended, the sounds of the entire academy changed. The wind no longer flows, the birds no longer chirp, and even the dust in the air is trembling. That is the instinctual submission of all living things when facing an absolute superior."
"Moreover... I also heard you defeat the Empress first, and then use Student Mozunono's telescopic baton to shatter Onigawara Rin's mask. I heard all of these things clearly."
As Inaba Tsukuyo recounted the details of the battle that had just occurred in the school building one by one, Amou Kirukiru stood aside watching coldly. Her brows furrowed slightly, clearly feeling quite disdainful of this eavesdropping method.
However, deep within Amou Kirukiru's pitch-black eyes, a greater gravity was revealed. After all, this was the gymnasium of the Old School Building. The straight-line distance to the school building where the conflict occurred was at least several hundred meters.
Separating them were layers of walls, trees, and the never-ending noise of people in the academy. In such an environment, not only to hear but to accurately reconstruct every frame of the battle, down to the material of the weapon and the location of the strikes without a single error...
This feeling of being peeped at from the dark, where one's every move was heard clearly by the other party while knowing nothing about them, was undoubtedly a terrible experience for Amou Kirukiru, who was used to controlling everything.
That rabbit's ears are as annoyingly sensitive as ever.
...
"Wonderful."
Haimer stopped five steps away from Inaba Tsukuyo. He clapped his hands gently, not sparing his praise in the slightest, the look of appreciation in his eyes becoming even richer.
"To be able to reconstruct the battle situation purely through hearing at such a distance... This hearing ability is incredibly rare, even in a place like Orario where monsters run rampant."
Haimer's tone carried undisguised admiration. After all, for a God, the value of mortals was never singular. The strength of power or the amount of magic were merely vulgar links in the evaluation system.
This unique way of perceiving the world—the keenness to extract key information from thousands of noises—possessed a value far exceeding simple destructive power. It could even be said that this talent was simply tailor-made for that Dungeon filled with mist, traps, and sudden crises.
"Lord God overpraises."
Inaba Tsukuyo lowered her head slightly. Her long silver-white hair slid down her cheeks, covering a small part of her face.
"This is merely a bit of petty cleverness I was forced to develop because I lost my sight and could only linger in the darkness. If I receive Lord God's praise because of such trivial tricks... then I am overwhelmed with trepidation."
"However, I have a question. Lord God specially came to such a remote place... Was it for me?"
Inaba Tsukuyo paused, her red eyes, devoid of focus, seeming to flash with a trace of confusion. This was exactly what puzzled her the most. After all, why would a God possessing such mighty power, who could even subdue that proud Empress, specially come to find a disabled person like her who had nothing but swordsmanship?
Facing the girl's question, Haimer's answer was as decisive as ever.
"Correct."
"I came precisely for you, Miss Inaba Tsukuyo. It is precisely because I need your sword. Or, to be more accurate... I need you to become my family."
"Family?"
Family. This word rippled through the air.
This direct strike... Even though Inaba Tsukuyo tried her best to maintain her calm demeanor, ripples inevitably rose in her heart. A touch of faint crimson quickly climbed up her exquisite, porcelain-doll-like cheeks.
After all, no matter how mature she acted usually, or how much she seemed like an expert detached from the world... Ultimately, she was still just a teenage girl.
Facing such a straightforward, sincere, and even uniquely affectionate statement from a God, that shyness peculiar to young girls inevitably leaked out from that grandmaster-like facade.
"Family... is it?"
Inaba Tsukuyo repeated the word in a low voice. Although somewhat embarrassed, she could clearly feel the God's gaze falling upon her, blazing and sincere. For Inaba Tsukuyo, who was used to being either revered or alienated by others, this kind of look was exceptionally unfamiliar.
"Since Lord God is so frank... Then there is no need for me to strike a pose anymore."
"It is just... I am still a little curious. Lord God went to such great lengths to descend to this world... What exactly is that world you speak of like?"
Inaba Tsukuyo raised her head, regaining her voice. Although she could not see, those red pupils still accurately locked onto Haimer.
This question... It wasn't just Inaba Tsukuyo who wanted to know. It was also what the others were most curious about in their hearts. Even Amou Kirukiru, who had been standing behind with a frown, and Onigawara Rin and Mozunono, who hadn't yet recovered from the shock, pricked up their ears.
"That world..."
"If you want to understand that world, I think first I must educate you on what is the greatest poison for Gods who possess infinite lifespans."
"For Gods possessing infinite lifespans, 'immutability' is the greatest poison."
"The Gods have already spent hundreds of millions of years in the Heavens. Day after day, year after year. With the passage of time, life in the Heavens became more and more like a long, suffocating torture for the Gods with eternal life."
"So much so that in order to escape this dullness of the Heavens, which was enough to drive one's consciousness mad, some Gods chose to commit suicide to find amusement. After all, for us, death is nothing but a slumber lasting ten thousand years."
"However... as time went on, some Gods began to go mad, choosing to persecute other Gods into temporary annihilation as a luxurious form of entertainment."
"Although the vast majority of Gods do not advocate such entertainment, this is enough to prove that the Gods of the Heavens already have an unbeatable enemy."
Hearing this, not only Inaba Tsukuyo, but even Amou Kirukiru, Onigawara Rin, and the others behind revealed expressions of astonishment.
Gods... also get bored? Even bored enough to kill each other? This statement, which completely overturned their cognition, had a huge impact.
However, Haimer ignored their shock and continued speaking:
"Therefore, we made a decision. In order to seek the thrill of the unknown, and to fill the eternal void, we allowed Gods to leave the lifeless Heavens and descend to the Lower World. Which is the world I have been talking about."
"We established rules: Gods are forbidden from using Divine Power in the Lower World and must live like mortals. We can even be intoxicated by wine brewed by mortals."
"Then, we bestow upon the chosen children of the Lower World a gift named 'Grace.' We let them become our respective Familia, possessing the key to unlock the shackles of their potential."
"To explore the source of the vicious monsters scattered across the entire continent—the bottomless Dungeon filled with indescribable monsters."
"Through fighting monsters, obtaining Magic Stones, and stripping materials... exchanging them for wealth, fame, and the growth of one's own strength."
"As for us, we sit in the audience seats, witnessing with our naked eyes the epics of friendship, courage, growth, betrayal, and love and hate performed by the children we have chosen."
"Perhaps you are curious why noble Gods would be obsessed with such mortal games? The reason here is simple. It is precisely because of the uncertainty possessed by life."
"In the Heavens, everything is known, omniscient. It is like a movie that has been spoiled ten thousand times—dull and tedious."
"But in the Lower World... At the beginning of evolution, life was a miracle born to resist entropy—the ultimate law of the universe."
____
New Story: Danmachi: But I am a God, time to make a family!
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