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Act 1-21.1 : Every Side’s Consideration(Epilogue)
Rena had now returned to Elios’ Heavenly Palace and was on her way back to her own palace.
「That was close huh, Rena.」
Just as she arrived at the palace’s gate, a voice called out to her. Rena paused and looked back at the direction of the voice. There stood a male God. Once she saw who had spoken, Rena immediately frowned.
The man who stood before her was the God of Song and Arts, Alphos.
Rena was always quite reluctant to admit it, but no matter how much she wanted to deny it, this God was still her older twin brother.
「Do you have any business with me, Alphos?」
Rena asked for Alphos’s reason behind his visit with a pout on her face; she really didn’t want to converse with him. She simply hated that elder brother of hers. Despite bearing a striking resemblance to each other, Rena knew that their personalities were different by leaps and bounds, almost clashing like mortal enemies.
「I heard the Dark Knight is aiming for your life, Rena.」
「And from where did you hear that?」
Rena asked, displeased, her irritability increasing yet again.
「Well, the thing is, the Dark Knight just caused a little bit of a problem.」
「Ah, I might have an idea of what you’re talking about.」
Alphos shook his head as if to tell her that things weren’t as simple as she presumed.
「Just a moment ago, he nearly annihilated the entire Holy Knight Order.」
「Pardon?」
Rena couldn’t hide her surprise upon hearing the news.
The Holy Knight Order was a group of hand picked elites comprised of angels and heroes of the human race. They were the strongest Knight Order in this world, the cream of the crop who served directly under Oudith, the God of Light.
The only one who could rival them was the Dark Knight Order, its soldiers all serving under Modes. That’s why Rena couldn’t hide her shock upon hearing that the very same Holy Knight Order was almost annihilated by a single person.
「Since the air space around Elios is under their jurisdiction, it’s only natural for them to patrol around the sky of the Holy Republic of Lenaria. However this time they encountered the Dark Knight, passing by that area using flight magic.」
It was understandable that they stopped him, those Holy Knights wouldn’t allow anyone to fly in Elios’s air space without a permit, which is why they would always patrol this space 24/7. It was therefore normal for them to try arresting him, who was clearly flying there without a permit.
「As a result, the Holy Knights were brought close to annihilation in their attempt to arrest the Dark Knight. Well, I expected that he could do this much since he was the one who defeated the hero, who also almost brought the Dark Knight Order to the brink of annihilation as well.」
Alphos uttered those piercing words nonchalantly.
Listening to her brother’s summary of the events, Rena started to recall the short conversation she shared with the Dark Knight. She couldn’t help but remember his striking appearance: his fearless demeanor with a hint of gloom in it, his night colored hair, and his impressive almond shaped eyes tinted with a bit of immaturity. Though his features were more subdued compared to flashy men like Alphos and Reiji, upon a closer look, she could clearly see that he was no less handsome than them.
「Woopsie, you seem to be glad, Rena.」
Alphos called out to his sister, who was standing there in a daze, a slight smile almost threatening to show.
「Eh?! What?」
Noticing her blunder, Rena quickly pressed her fingers on top of her lips, covering the crack in her demeanor.
「So, what will Oudith-sama do now?」
「Nothing. He doesn’t want to antagonize Modes.」
Rena instantly frowned at his response.
The king of the Gods of Light, Oudith, had always wished for peace with the Gods of Darkness. If it weren’t for Rena’s enmity with Modes, he would’ve never even started a battle with them. Of course this matter had always annoyed Rena, so the current situation was not the least bit amusing to her.
In the first place, the Gods of Light were split into two factions: one that wanted to live in peace with the Gods of Darkness, and another that wanted to antagonize them. Sadly for Odith, the majority of the Gods of Light lay in the antagonizing faction, Rena being among those members. It could be said that she was one of its main supporters.
「The Gods of Darkness… are really dangerous, especially right now; and Modes is the most dangerous one of all. He’s the God of Destruction’s inheritor, the one who had once tried to destroy the world.」
「I agree with you Rena, but don’t you think the same could be said about those people from the Spirit World? They’re as dangerous as the God of Destruction and your hated Modes, they could even be considered to be more threatening. It’s for this reason that Oudith-sama decided to make a pact with Modes.」
「What kind of pact is it?」
「Both sides mustn’t summon another person from the Spirit World ever again. That should be enough to tell you that the Dark Knight and Hero are a more dangerous threat to Oudith-sama compared to Modes. They single handedly annihilated both Gods’ greatest Knight Orders after all.」
「I see…」
The Gods of Light’s council had decided to ban the summoning of other people from the Spirit World after witnessing their immense power that rivaled their strongest soldiers. However, this decision had definitely made the Gods of Light’s side the one in a disadvantage since there was no law stopping Modes from summoning others from the Spirit World on the Gods of Darkness’s side.
「Also, Oudith-sama wants you to restrain those warriors from the Spirit World who are already here, you’re the one who summoned them after all, Rena.」
That order poked at Rena’s sore spot.
At first, it had seemed like a simple matter. She would’ve sent those chess pieces back to the Spirit World after they had defeated Modes. But, her plan was foiled at the very last step by the sudden appearance of the Dark Knight—he had destroyed the summoning assistant devices needed for that imaginary process.
Both the prohibition of the summoning ritual and the creation of summoning assistant devices were decided just the other day.
The hero and his companions would be monitored from now on.
「Wait a minute, I’m not the one who summoned the Dark Knight!」
Rena couldn’t do anything to the Dark Knight who was summoned by Modes.
「That’s true, but Modes said that the Dark Knight’s actions will heavily depend on the hero and his party’s movements. In short, they are your responsibility, Rena.」
The demand was only natural since the hero was the biggest threat to Modes as opposed to Oudith.
「I only came here today to tell you about the council’s decision, Rena. You must be careful to prevent the hero’s actions from negatively affecting us.」
Hearing his retorts, Rena was at a complete loss for words. She had to both control the hero and his party’s popularity from rising and prevent them from subjugating Modes? The demands were too outrageous. However, she knew that she had no other choice since letting them do as they please would make her lose her standing as one of the Gods of Light.
「I understand. I’ll do something about it. You may leave now, you’ve said all that was needed to be said after all.」
Rena’s voice was now extremely irritated as she spoke to her brother.
「Sorry, I want to confirm another matter before leaving.」
「What is it now?!」
Rena asked with a glare. However, her enraged glare did not affect her elder brother in the slightest, her threat could not even make him flinch.
「When will you marry, Rena?」
「Haah? What are you talking about? Is that another message from Oudith too?」
「Nope, just an older brother worrying about his single little sister.」
Rena grumbled as she thought to herself- “It’s none of your business”.
「I’ll think about this matter if I ever find a suitable man. I’m different from you, Alphos.」
Rena flatly replied as she threw a disgusted gaze at her elder brother.
As the most handsome man in the world, Alphos was a natural playboy, the number of his wives now reaching over two thousand—Rena never wanted to act as frivolously as her older brother.
「Does that apply to your Hero-kun too?」
「Haah? You mean, Reiji? Why did you suddenly mention him?」
Rena wondered why he would suddenly mention Reiji, it was so unlike him.
「Well, that hero of yours has become the latest hot topic amongst the goddesses of Elios you see. He’s handsome, and extremely powerful too. That’s why I can’t help but worry about it.」
Alphos glanced at his sister after uttering those words, trying to gauge her reaction. She was now even more surprised upon hearing his remark.
（I never expected Reiji to become such a hot topic in the place.）
True enough, Reiji was handsome and powerful. He was so powerful that there was barely anyone in Elios who could beat him. It was for that very reason that he became so popular amongst the Light Goddesses. This situation gave Rena a dull headache, making her massage her temple
「Reiji isn’t suited for me. I did tell you before that I’ll send him back to the Spirit World once he accomplishes his duty, right?」
Reiji was nothing more than a tool for Rena.
Moreover, Rena pretty much hated Reiji due to his similar personality with Alphos. He had made a move on many women after coming to this world. At this point, he was literally the second Alphos.
She had also noticed that there were a number of Valkyrie warriors among those women, which was why she stopped bringing Valkyrie warriors with her to the Holy Republic of Lenaria.
（As if I’m going to let him woo my precious subordinates.）
Reiji was in fact a pain in the a*s for Rena.
「I see, so it’s not him too, huh. As expected of you, the aloof heavenly maiden who can never be touched by anyone…」
Alphos happily laughed at the results of his inquiries.
「Eh…」
Rena didn’t understand why her brother was smiling.
「Well, that’s all this hated older brother of yours wants to ask. Now I’ll excuse myself, see you again, Rena.」
Rena glared at his retreating figure.
（Good grief, it’s not like a man who’s befitting of me doesn’t exist.）
Rena was well aware of her supreme beauty. There were an infinite number of men who had tried to court her; however, none of them were suitable, they couldn’t possibly measure up to her. Even if all the men in the world professed their love to her, she wouldn’t even spare one of them a glance. For her, all men were just tools.
Rena then tried to recall the men who had tried to court her up until now. However, she couldn’t remember any of them. Since there were too many to count, she had simply scrapped them from her memories.
Yet when she thought about those men, for some inexplicable reason, the face of a certain man appeared.
Rena was bewildered.
（Why did his face suddenly appear in my mind?）
◆
The hero and his companions were currently gathered together in the conference room.
「Sorry, Chiyuki-san.」
Shirone apologized to Chiyuki for her previous recklessness.
「We were really worried, Shirone-san. I mean, you almost lost your life after all.」
Chiyuki scolded Shirone.
In the first place, to her, Shirone’s life was far more important than Rena’s. She was really angry when recalling the fact that Shirone had almost died just to save Rena.
After witnessing Shirone dashing out of the room alone, Chiyuki had hurriedly chased after her. If it weren’t for the fact that they were blocked by the Spartois along the way, they would’ve arrived earlier and helped her.
It had taken them quite a while to annihilate those Spartois since Reiji wasn’t in any condition to fight. Moreover, Kaya couldn’t go with them since she was protecting the inebriated Kyouka. The loss of their main vanguard prolonged the time needed for Chiyuki and the others to defeat the Spartois. In addition, Chiyuki and Rino couldn’t use any large scale magic since they were inside a building.
""
The scene that they witnessed upon arriving at their destination was disturbing: they had found a crying Shirone, the Dark Knight standing in front of her.
Of course, this scene had made them quite anxious, they were afraid that they wouldn’t be able to save Shirone. However, unexpectedly, the Dark knight had simply sheathed his sword and left, turning his back to them.
It was a fact that Shirone had been completely overwhelmed by the Dark Knight’s swordsmanship. If the Dark Knight had felt like it, killing Shirone would have been as easy as flicking a finger. Just thinking of such a possibility was enough to send chills down Chiyuki’s spine.
「I think you’re scolding her hard enough already, Chiyuki. In this case, I’m the one in the wrong. My incompetence ended up endangering both Shirone’s and Rena’s lives. Sorry, Shirone.」
Reiji apologized to Shirone. He couldn’t forgive his impotence which had almost killed Rena and Shirone… especially Rena.
The first time he saw Rena, Reiji felt like his whole body was jolted awake by a thunderbolt. He had never seen a woman as beautiful as her. None of the women he had met before could rival Rena’s beauty.
Di*ckhead was convinced that the reason he came to this world was to meet Rena. That’s why he couldn’t help but feel vexed by the fact that his impotence had almost caused her to lose her life.
「It’s okay Reiji-kun, don’t blame yourself. You’re making Sahoko worry.」
Shirone looked at Sahoko as she spoke. Sahoko was looking at Reiji with distressed eyes. It was only natural since Reiji had yet to fully recover.
「Sorry Sahoko. I made you worry.」
「Uhm… It’s okay, as long as you’re safe, Rei-kun.」
Sahoko looked like she wanted to say something else in the beginning, but she ended up keeping the words to herself. She was Reiji’s childhood friend, making her well aware of his obstinate personality.
「Well, everyone is okay in the end.」
「It’s as Nao-chan said. The Dark Knight didn’t feel like killing anyone tonight.」
「Indeed, but still…」
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Note : In case You haven’t heard this, I caught fever and have to take a rest next week, I’ve got enough of my wife mixing sleeping drug in my tea.