At that point in the telling,
a few of the younger girls shrank in against their companions, fear flickering in their eyes.
"Then... why go to a scary place like that at all?"
A girl with blunt-cut bangs worked up the courage to ask. "If nobody went into the Dungeon, then nobody would get hurt, right?"
"Because it pays," Haimer said, giving them an answer rooted in cold reality.
"In Orario, when you kill a monster in the Dungeon, it doesn't leave a corpse behind. It crumbles into a heap of black ash, and all that's left is a single thing called a 'Magic Stone,' along with whatever hide and claws it had on it."
"Those Magic Stones are the energy that keeps that world running."
"Every lamp, every heater, every magic item is driven by Magic Stone power."
"And the pelts and materials the monsters drop are what weapons and armor are made from."
"Adventurers hunt monsters, gather all of it, and trade it to the Guild for coin."
"The deeper the floor, the purer the Magic Stones its monsters drop, and the more they fetch. There are men who got rich overnight off a single Magic Stone from a deep-level Floor Boss — rich enough to buy up a whole street's worth of property."
Haimer looked at the half-understanding faces ringed around him in the firelight.
"So for money, for fame, for the chance to get stronger, countless adventurers pick up their blades and walk into that Dungeon every single day."
"And it isn't only the monsters that might come crawling out of the walls that they have to guard against."
Haimer paused.
"They have to guard against the people beside them, too."
"Down in that dark labyrinth, adventurers scheme against each other constantly — to snatch a high-value prize, to keep a rare material for themselves. It happens everywhere you look."
"So it's a world that recognizes one thing only: strength."
By the time Haimer's account ran out,
the girls, who had brightened at the mere sound of the name Orario, had gone quiet.
They had lived through the cruelty of the last era — humans driving them out, cursing them, hunting them down.
It had made them grow up early, and they understood now that this new world was no utopia after all.
"And it isn't only the Dungeon."
Apparently deciding the fire still wasn't hot enough, Haimer went ahead and aired the Lower World's more ridiculous business as well.
"Even we gods, the ones who came down to the Lower World, are a source of trouble now and then."
"Are there many gods from the Heavens in that world?" Kayo lifted her head, doubt filling her eyes.
As far as she understood it, gods could do anything at all.
"There are. A great many."
Haimer nodded.
"But once a god descends, there's one iron rule: the use of Divine Power is absolutely forbidden."
"Which means that with our Divine Power sealed, even a god falls ill, takes wounds, and dies, exactly like an ordinary person."
"Down there, we're no different from mortals."
"The trouble is, some gods were bored for far too long up in the Heavens. Once they reach the Lower World, all they want is a spectacle and a bit of fun."
"They form Familias, set their own children fighting each other for every reason under the sun, and start large-scale War Games."
"Some will stoop to any low trick to steal away an adventurer with promising talent — allying with other factions, stirring up riots."
"Years ago, one god's absurd passing whim was enough to throw the entire city into chaos."
"In a single day, several gods were put in real danger and sent back to the Heavens, leaving behind a crowd of Familia children with no one to shelter them, at the mercy of anyone who cared to bully them."
Haimer sat cross-legged on the block of stone, firelight catching in his black eyes.
The long lecture came to its end.
Across the open ground of Eden, nothing was left but the crackle and pop of the bonfire.
A few minutes earlier, the girls had assumed that a world with no Gastrea and no adults who hated them simply had to be a carefree paradise.
But now.
Now that they'd heard about the Dungeon's monsters and the murderous scramble for profit, about gods so absurd they couldn't even keep themselves safe—
—it sounded like a place more tangled and more dangerous than the world they already knew.
The mood among the girls swung hard the other way.
"Then, Kami-sama..."
"If you can't even use your Divine Power in that world..."
"Doesn't that mean you're... in danger every single day?"
Kayo shuffled two steps closer and reached out, her small, slightly cold hand closing on the hem of his clothes.
The girls around them caught on one after another and crowded carefully in.
"That's right! Kami-sama can't use his Divine Power — what happens if he runs into one of those huge monsters?"
"If you're no different from a normal person, what if you meet one of those black-hearted adventurers? What if they hurt you for money?"
"Kami-sama, don't go back to that Orario place, all right? Stay here with us!"
The girls pressed in around him from every side, all talking over one another.
A few of the smallest had already gone red around the eyes, small hands fisted in his sleeve and the leg of his trousers, plainly prepared not to let go until he agreed.
In their simple reckoning:
Haimer had lost the power that could summon those dark red Divine Eyes to blot out the sky, and had become an ordinary person who could be hurt, just like them.
And in a city dangerous enough to send even gods packing back to the Heavens, this gentle-tempered Kami-sama of theirs was surely the weaker party.
Feeling that taut little tug on his sleeve,
Haimer looked down from his stone at Kayo's fist knotted in his hem, then at the ring of girls around him on the verge of tears.
Looking into all those anxious eyes,
Haimer let out a wry laugh.
What was he supposed to do with this?
Why was it that everyone who met him for the first time decided he was some fragile thing in need of special protection?
There was no helping it.
Still.
Once he had pushed all that down, Haimer made no attempt to explain how well he could actually fight.
Bragging about combat prowess to a pack of girls barely into their teens hardly counted as dignified.
"Everyone, take it easy."
Haimer lowered his hand, his voice gentle.
He turned his palm over and folded Kayo's small fist, still clutching his hem, softly inside it.
The warmth of his palm passed into her.
Kayo's shoulders slowly came down.
"Kami-sama..." Kayo sniffled, her gaze still fixed on him and refusing to move.
Just then.
At the edge of the crowd, a blonde girl in twin tails stood up.
She wore a black-and-white checked shirt several sizes too big for her.
—Yuzuki Katagiri, bearer of the "Spider Factor."
—Ranked 1,850th on the old era's IP list.
Yuzuki Katagiri.
Her golden hair streamed in the night wind.
Her eyes were bright as glass.
"Hold on! Did everybody forget what Kami-sama said before he left?"
Hands on her hips, Yuzuki Katagiri called out to the companions around her.
The girls turned to look at her.
"Before he left?" Kayo cast back quickly through her memory.
Yuzuki Katagiri took a deep breath, cleared her throat, and began to recite in a loud voice, imitating the solemn, ethereal cadence Haimer had used that night.
"In a few days, I will return."
"When I do, I will open the gate to a new world."
"Every child among you may draw lots for passage to my world."
She swung her arms as she recited.
"There, there is no discrimination, and no persecution."
"Only sunlight and glory."
"I, Haimer, swear it in the name of a god."
Yuzuki Katagiri gave that last word every ounce of weight she had.
When she finished, her big amber eyes went straight to Haimer.
Every girl there was remembering that night now.
That golden light had come down on them at the depth of their despair, cleansed the seeds of mutation out of their bodies, and left behind a divine promise powerful enough to change their fates.
The air stayed quiet for a few seconds.
"Kami-sama."
Yuzuki Katagiri lowered her hands and took a step forward.
"You just told us all those things about Orario."
"So this Dungeon city called Orario — that's the new world you meant, isn't it?"
"And you came back this time to take us there?"
The moment the question was out,
every eye swung back to Haimer's face.
Only this time there was less worry in them and more hunger to know the unknown.
Haimer met those hundreds of stares.
and nodded without the slightest hesitation.
"That's right."
He gave them a straight answer.
"I crossed back over this time to make good on that promise."
A stir ran around the bonfire.
Haimer shifted where he sat and went on.
"I've told you about the dangers of the Dungeon, about the fighting over Magic Stones, about the ridiculous things certain gods get up to."
"All of that is a true face of that world."
"However."
Haimer paused.
"If I mean to take you there, then naturally it has something all its own."
The girls held their breath and strained to listen.
"It is a world where the gods live among you."
Haimer tilted his head back and painted them the splendor of the Lower World.
"There, though we gods may not use Divine Power, we are granted one special right."
"In that world alone, a god may choose the children of the Lower World they favor and form a [Familia] of their own."
"And any child a god chooses is given a [God's Grace] that belongs to them alone."
Haimer lowered his head and looked at Kayo.
"Grace? What's that?" Kayo asked quietly.
"A key that breaks past the limits of a mortal body," Haimer answered.
"It's the proof of the bond between a god and a child they favor. All it takes is a little Divine Blood, and sacred script carved into your back."
"Once the connection is complete,"
"a god can see your potential clearly, and read your Strength, Endurance, Agility and Magic."
"Then, as you go out to face the monsters of the Dungeon and challenge stronger and stronger enemies,"
"that god will stand alongside all the gods of Orario and bear witness to your growth."
There was something rousing in his voice now.
"When you defeat a mighty foe, when you do something even a god would find unbelievable,"
"you achieve an 'Exploit' that makes every god turn and look."
"And on the strength of those 'Exploits,'"
"you can climb the levels one step at a time — Lv.1 to Lv.2, and higher still."
"Every promotion is a leap in the very order of your existence. You'll gain far more powerful skills, and learn magic straight out of legend."
Haimer's words carried out across the night sky.
The girls listened, rapt.
For children who had carried the shackle of the Gastrea virus since birth, who had survived the slums on nothing but their own abilities and hard-won fighting skill,
a path to power with clear, marked steps was something they had never so much as heard of.
"Hey, wait."
Yuzuki Katagiri raised a hand.
She cocked her head, golden twin tails spilling over her shoulders.
"Kami-sama, this [God's Grace] thing you're talking about."
Yuzuki Katagiri blinked.
"Kill monsters, earn experience, achieve some kind of Exploit, then level up and get skills..."
She rubbed her chin.
"So it's exactly the same as those video games my idiot brother used to hide under the covers playing?"
The comparison landed.
Several of the older girls lit up with sudden understanding.
"Oh! It does sound like an RPG!"
"And killing monsters drops stuff you can sell!"
Haimer looked at this pack of girls and their delightfully strange reasoning.
A laugh escaped him.
"Not bad. That's a very apt comparison."
He nodded, confirming her verdict.
"It really is a game."
"A grand game played together by the gods and the children the gods have chosen."
"The gods watch their own children write their heroic sagas in blood and sweat."
After Yuzuki Katagiri's little lecture on game theory,
all that bloody butchery down in the Dungeon lost a great deal of its terror in the children's minds.
In its place: an eager itch to try.
Kayo sat beside the stone, thinking it over.
She raised her head.
"Kami-sama."
Kayo's voice was clear and level.
"So Enju, and Little Hiruko, and the others."
"When they went to that world with you, does that mean you chose them? That they're playing that game too?"
At the mention of Aihara Enju and Kohina Hiruko,
quite a few girls pricked up their ears.
One of those two was a fiery-tempered rabbit-model Initiator; the other, a mantis-model Initiator who killed without blinking.
As Cursed Children chosen and taken away by a god, both of them were well known in their circles.
Haimer's eyes softened with fond amusement at the question.
"They did. They joined my [Haimer Familia]."
Haimer said.
"So how are they doing?" Kayo pressed.
"Wonderfully."
Haimer was not stingy with his praise.
"Their talent is extraordinary."
"Under the eyes of the gods, they and the other girls of the Familia have together broken the fastest leveling record in that world's entire history."
His tone stayed even.
"Not long ago, they were promoted to Lv.3 adventurers."
"And in front of the whole city, they knocked down the Second String of one of Orario's strongest factions."
"Lv.3!"
"They broke a record!"
"That's incredible..."
Gasps went up around the crowd.
None of them had any concrete idea how strong a Lv.3 actually was.
But words like "broke a record" and "knocked down the strongest faction" were more than enough to set the girls' blood racing.
Yuzuki Katagiri was so excited she jumped clear off the ground.
She marched straight up in front of Haimer.
and pointed at the tip of her own nose.
"Kami-sama! If they're all having that much fun—"
Her twin tails swung back and forth.
"—then can I go too?"
"Take me along! I promise I won't embarrass you!"
Yuzuki Katagiri sold herself for all she was worth.
Looking at how impatient she was, Haimer laughed softly.
"Well, now..."
He deliberately drew the syllable out.
His gaze swept the circle around him.
"That will have to be settled by the lots, of course."
"Lots?"
"That's right."
Haimer's expression turned serious.
"My new base is finished, but there's a limit to how many it can hold in the beginning."
"And more importantly."
He looked at these children who had been through so much.
"Orario is, in the end, a world where you never stop fighting."
"I expect some of you are already sick to death of killing, and want nothing but a plain, quiet life."
"And some of you may still have someone here you want to protect."
At that, several of the smaller girls lowered their heads, thinking of the old human grandmother in this ruined city who had shown them kindness now and then.
"I won't force any of you to pick up a weapon again."
Haimer's voice was gentle.
"So the chance to go there will be decided by lots, drawn among the children who want to go."
"Entirely voluntary — and after that, it comes down to each of your luck."
He said it openly and plainly.
No grand promises, no pressure of any kind.
It left the girls feeling remarkably steady.
"Lots, huh..." Yuzuki Katagiri muttered.
She had never had much faith in her own luck. Back when her brother played gacha games, eight out of every ten pulls she made for him turned out badly.
It got to the point where he decided she was a walking jinx and kept well away from her whenever he rolled.
"If you want to go,"
Haimer said, the corner of his mouth lifting at her tangled expression,
"then let me wish you luck in advance."
With that,
Haimer raised a hand, smiling, palm down.
meaning, out of habit, to ruffle this lively girl's hair and give her a little encouragement.
Except.
His hand had barely come to rest in the air
when Yuzuki Katagiri's cheeks went faintly pink.
He had assumed she was simply shy.
Instead, flustered as she was, Yuzuki Katagiri rose onto her toes and pushed half a step forward,
fitting the top of her golden head into his palm all by herself.
She even rubbed her crown against it, like a small cat.
"If it's a blessing from Kami-sama's own hand,"
"then I'm sure I'll draw the golden lot this time!"
Yuzuki Katagiri clenched her fists, psyching herself up.
Feeling the soft fuzz against his palm, Haimer laughed helplessly.
and gave her twin tails a couple of light rubs while he was at it.
This girl had a first-rate talent for climbing any pole she was handed.
Seeing Yuzuki Katagiri come away with a prize,
the rest of the girls were not about to stand for it.
"I want a blessing too!"
"Kami-sama, me next!"
The crowd broke into noise again.
And then.
A voice thin as a mosquito's drifted out of the shadows in front of Haimer.
"Um... Kami-sama..."
The voice was so small the crackling firewood nearly swallowed it whole.
Haimer turned toward it.
And saw:
a little girl with short silver hair, hiding behind a taller companion.
She wore an oversized black witch's hat.
The brim was pulled down low.
Just visible beneath it, a pair of fuzzy black cat ears.
—Midori Fuse, "cat-model Gastrea virus."
A child with a cat factor, cat ears, and a timid, withdrawn nature.
Midori Fuse had both hands clutching the hem of the girl in front of her.
She gathered up every scrap of courage she had ever owned,
and edged half of herself out from behind her companion, bit by bit.
Her mismatched eyes were full of unease and dread.
"A-after the lots are drawn..."
Midori Fuse stammered.
"When the chosen ones go away with you..."
"Will Kami-sama still..."
"Will you still come back to see us?"
The moment the words were out, her eyes went red, fat tears swelling in them, as if the question had taken everything she had.
She ducked her head at once, not daring to look him in the eye.
That question landed hard.
The noise across the clearing cut off all at once.
The girls who knew they weren't strong fighters, or who still wanted to stay here, gripped the hems of their clothes tight.
What they feared most
was that this god who had brought them salvation would take away the best of them and then abandon this wasteland,
dropping the rest of them back into that isolated abyss with no one to turn to.
Haimer looked at Midori Fuse's small trembling shoulders.
Somewhere soft in him, a string was plucked.
He stood.
His body cast a broad shadow through the firelight.
Haimer walked over to stand in front of Midori Fuse.
and went down on one knee.
bringing his eyes level with the timid little cat girl's.
Midori Fuse was so frightened she stopped breathing, both fuzzy ears flattening under the hat.
Haimer reached out.
His hand came down with the utmost gentleness on the wide brim of her witch's hat.
Through the hat, he ruffled her head lightly.
"Of course I'll come back."
Haimer's voice was low.
He gave Midori Fuse a smiling nod.
Then.
He turned his head and raised his voice, so that every child there could hear him.
"I told you before."
"The Gastrea virus in this world has already been purified by me. Those monsters are your guardians now."
"This place is your Eden."
Haimer's gaze traveled over the whole gathering.
"Whether you go to Orario and take up a sword, or choose to stay here and live a quiet life,"
"every one of you is still a child that I, Haimer, hold dear."
"If I were to abandon you simply for making the choice your own heart told you to make,"
Haimer laughed softly.
"then I'd hardly be much of a parent, would I?"
That promise ran through them like warm water, melting the last of the ice inside the girls.
The tension finally left Midori Fuse's small face. She lifted a hand and scrubbed hard at the corners of her eyes with the back of it.
"Mm!"
Midori Fuse nodded hard, her tears breaking at last into a smile that showed two little fangs.
"All right — we'll talk about the lots later." Haimer glanced up at the sky.
Night had already fallen.
"Tonight, I'll stay right here and keep all of you company."
Haimer walked back to the bonfire and sat down.
"If there's anything on your mind you want to say. Or—"
He snapped his fingers, and a small golden flame sprang up on his fingertip, swaying in the wind.
"—if there's a wish you want to make."
"Chocolate cake, a soft blanket—"
"—ask me for it."
"Even if what you want is to go up into the sky."
Haimer looked at the children, every eye shining.
"Tonight, I'll use my Divine Power and make every last one of them come true."
At those words, the whole of Eden erupted in cheers.
The girls let go of their reserve.
They lined up, chattering, and put their small, modest, entirely real wishes to this generous Kami-sama.
Haimer sat straight-backed on his stone.
He turned no one away.
He lifted both hands, and each current of Divine Power traced a shape into the air.
Delicate pastries, brand-new clothes, soft plush toys.
They appeared out of nothing and dropped into the girls' hands.
That warm little wish-granting assembly
went on deep into the night.
Until at last the final girl, hugging a teddy bear, slumped against a friend's shoulder and fell fast asleep beside the fire.
The clearing in Eden went quiet again.
Only the faint singing of insects remained.
Haimer rose and looked at these children who had refused to go back to their quarters, curling up under blankets to stay beside him instead.
Once he was sure he hadn't missed a single one,
Haimer slowly raised his right hand.
Five fingers spread.
A low hum—
A vast, boundless surge of Divine Power
burst outward in an instant from where he stood, racing in every direction, swelling at a geometric rate!
It crossed oceans!
It crossed mountain ranges!
In a heartbeat it covered the whole of World G-404!
In Asia, still deep in night, and in the Americas, where it was broad day,
every single "Cursed Child" in World G-404 who carried the Gastrea virus factor in her body
saw, with perfect clarity, the figure she knew best!
The children who had heard him out and already made up their minds,
who chose to go to the new world, willing to grip a sword hilt for the sake of growing stronger,
turned their will into points of light and sent an answer back to Haimer along the connection of Divine Power.
Haimer closed his eyes.
Divine Power turned.
In front of each of the children who had answered,
a faintly glowing phantom lot-tube condensed out of empty air.
"Draw your lots."
"My children."
His will settled over them.
And so.
In every corner of that world,
small hands — some grimy, some scrubbed clean — reached carefully into the phantom tubes.
and drew out the lot that belonged to them.
Meanwhile.
In the American ruins, buried beneath collapsing buildings,
it was just past dawn.
High on an exposed girder,
a blonde girl in pajamas sat alone at the edge, dozens of stories above the ground.
—Tina Sprout.
—Bearer of the "Owl Factor."
Personal IP rank: 98.
If one measured combat strength in units of a baseline Rentaro Satomi, Tina came out to roughly two hundred and nineteen baseline Rentaro Satomis.
Thanks to that Owl Factor, Tina was a night owl through and through.
By day she was always heavy-lidded and short on energy.
Tina had just finished an enormous yawn where she sat on the steel beam.
Two slender legs dangled over the drop, feet swinging back and forth in a drowsy rhythm.
All around her, dead silence.
Ever since the Gastrea of this world had turned docile and the adults who used to send her out to assassinate people had vanished,
Tina had sat up here by herself.
No missions.
No partner.
Nothing but endless loneliness.
And just as she was settling in to catch up on her sleep—
"Make your choice, my child."
____
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