Published: August 15, 2025
Some time had passed since Ryoma left the village of Shikum. In the divine realm, nine gods had gathered together. Eight of them sat in a circle, while the remaining one—Seerelipta—was seated on a stone chair in the center, restrained by faintly glowing chains.
“…Hey, seriously, being surrounded like this, I have no intention of escaping, so could you please take these off? Also, this chair is hard and uncomfortable,” Seerelipta complained.
“Endure it! Do you even understand what you’ve done!?” one of the gods snapped.
“I know I broke the rules, but honestly, this is pointless. Even though two are missing, with eight gods here, you should be able to keep someone like me under control no matter what.”
“That’s true.”
“But that doesn’t mean we can loosen your restraints.”
The war goddess Kiriluel agreed with the complaint’s dismissal, but Fernoberia, the goddess of magic and knowledge, cut through the tension with a sharp remark.
“By the way, where are Meltrise and Mano Airoa? Haven’t they arrived yet?”
“Hmm... I did call out to them, but it seems they’re not coming.”
“Mano Airoa is so temperamental...”
“And Meltrise has been sleeping the whole time.”
“Waiting any longer is pointless. Let’s just get started,” Tekun said.
Gain, the god of creation, glanced at each of them.
“Ideally, everyone should be present, but let’s begin. As you all know, the agenda today is to decide the punishment for Seerelipta, who interfered with the soul of the transferee Ryoma. For the record, Wilieris and Glimp witnessed the act, and Seerelipta himself admits it. Is that correct?”
“Absolutely,” came the unanimous replies.
“Right. As you know, tampering with a living being’s soul is nearly taboo even for us gods. Since this was violated, we cannot simply let it go unpunished. However, the degree of punishment remains open for discussion.
Does anyone have any opinions or wish to defend Seerelipta?”
Kiriluel was the first to speak up.
“I have things to say, but first, I want to hear from him directly. Why did you do it? It’s abnormal for Seerelipta to come out by himself or interact with humans in the first place.”
Seerelipta drew a displeased look toward Kiriluel before answering.
“Reasons, huh? Well, you all met Ryoma, right? I was just curious. I got involved with his soul to examine him. I heard there were some abnormalities.
Also, I’m usually not too interested in transferees, but if you say that, Fernoberia isn’t any different. It’s not really a strange thing, is it?”
“I won’t deny that about myself. But isn’t meddling with the soul a bit too much?”
“At first, I only intended to talk and read his mind a little. Honestly, I misjudged things. So I do admit I was wrong and am quite sincerely remorseful.”
“That doesn’t really show... What do you mean by ‘misjudged’?”
“I’ve told Wilieris several times already, in many ways. Initially, as I said, I planned only questions and mind-reading. To do that, I slightly made his emotions easier to read. But there was unexpected resistance, or rather, it was almost completely nullified.
Because of that, he realized I was manipulating his mind and became wary. He’s not even aware of what happened himself, so I had no choice but to directly investigate his soul.”
The gods responded by holding their heads or smirking wryly, sharing a general feeling of exasperation. Seerelipta’s methods were hardly commendable.
However,
“Resistance and nullification of divine power. Can you just leave a human soul capable of that unexamined?”
This statement caused a slight hesitation among the gods.
It was unprecedented for a human soul to resist or negate divine power.
“The transferee’s soul from Earth showed some abnormalities, especially Ryoma’s. Though I’ve heard about it... nullifying divine power is too dangerous to ignore, don’t you think?”
“Hmm. In the worst case, it might possess power that threatens us. So you forced the investigation, is that it?”