Published: September 9, 2025
This is a special year-end and New Year’s edition.
Correction of typos on 2017/12/11
“Happy New Year!”
“Satou! Ah, happy New Year!”
Arisa responded to my surprise New Year’s greeting with a startled yet cheerful reply.
I had taken advantage of the time difference between the Royal Capital and the Village of Boruenan to come all the way to Boruenan to offer New Year’s greetings.
I had prepared the pretext of testing the new unique skill “Unit Deployment,” but since everyone had been partying and attending after-parties late into the night, they were all fast asleep.
Today, Arisa looks cuter than usual.
No, maybe I should say she looks beautiful because she’s dressed as a shrine maiden, a Miko.
“I like your usual clothes too, but that shrine maiden outfit is wonderful as well.”
“Ah, thank you――”
Her voice trailed off shyly and became almost inaudible, but seeing Arisa blush made it worth it.
“Aren’t you wearing the little girl illusion today?”
“Ah, that! N-no, it’s not that! That’s――”
While teasing Arisa, Lua, also dressed in shrine maiden attire, appeared.
“Oh, Mr. Satou. Are you sure it’s alright to leave the Shiga Kingdom unattended already?”
“Yes, thanks to you all, it’s fine.”
I had already informed them about the high-rank demons and the partially summoned demon god that had attacked the Shiga Kingdom via the “telephony (world phone)” magic earlier.
“It’s nearly time for the ritual, so let’s head to the World Tree.”
“Satou, you’re coming too, right?”
“Yes, of course. I’ll be observing.”
That was precisely why I had come.
I had heard that a New Year’s dedicatory dance would be performed in the World Tree’s observation room at sunrise, so I had prepared various things.
A shrine-like altar was set up in the observation room, and more than a hundred shrine maidens and male shrine priests—kannagi—led by Arisa were making preparations.
Once everyone was in position, the lights dimmed, and silence enveloped the room.
As sunlight began to faintly appear beyond the horizon, the soft sounds of a flute and an organ started to play.
The occasional tinkling was probably from the kagura bells held by the shrine maidens and kannagi.
When the morning sun shone into the observation room, Arisa, who had been waiting with her face lowered, began the dignified kagura dance with a resolute expression.
One after another, the surrounding shrine maidens danced, and the kannagi's music filled the altar with a solemn atmosphere.
Their movements were as precise as if programmed.
Yet, it didn’t feel mechanical. Considering the elves’ lifespan, this dance must have been repeated for hundreds or thousands of years, so it probably flows naturally like breathing.
This dedicatory dance lasted about thirty minutes, and I recorded the entire performance perfectly with video and audio.
I’ll show it to Mia and the others later.
As I was watching the serious Arisa, she seemed to notice me and came over with Lua.
“Satou.”
“Good work, Arisa. That was a very beautiful dance.”
I handed her a fluffy towel.
While gazing at her sweat-dappled profile, I asked a question that had been on my mind.
“Arisa, I forgot to ask—whose god is this dedicatory dance for?”
“It’s for the dragon god.”
—The dragon god Aconcagua?
“E-elfs worship a dragon god?”
If that’s the case, I need to confess that I killed the festival god...
“No, that’s not right. Actually, the elves worship only the creator god who gave birth to us and the Seven Pillars of Gods.”
Oh, a boss-like name just came out of Arisa’s mouth.
“I’ve never heard of the creator god before—”
“That’s understandable. The Seven Pillars of Gods left the World Tree and this world long ago; the creator god is from a distant, distant world.”
Lua answered my question.
Come to think of it, something like that was written in the mythology picture book I saw before.
“Do you have no contact with them?”
“Yes. It’s been about a hundred million years since coming to this world, but we’ve never received any oracle from the creator god. Many gods have left, and that one is quite laissez-faire.”