It was a common mistake.
The so-called [theoretical strongest] that the gods talked about.
The difference between the mindset of a researcher who worked purely by logic and the perspective of an active field operative.
Even the wisest among them seemed unable to fully bridge that gap.
"-I have to run around, so this size gets in the way of mobility."
"-The power isn't bad, but I lose too much."
"-I only have one arm to begin with, so this size is a bit much, isn't it?"
"-Not being able to fire repeatedly is a problem too. One of the biggest strengths of my magic is rapid casting."
My questions, each one hitting bone, quite literally broke the bones of our sage.
I felt bad for having to say such harsh things, but when lives were on the line, I couldn't just pretend something was fine out of pity.
"Ah, by the way, can't anyone other than me use this?"
"...No, that's not the case."
Fortunately, others could use it too, so it wasn't completely useless.
Of course, I wouldn't be using it.
"-Kah?!"
"Sorry. But it can't be helped."
It was honestly a piece that didn't suit my combat style at all.
Still, the item itself was good, so if I handed it to the right backline fighter, it would be useful.
Good for you, Fels. It wasn't a waste of money after all.
That was weeks ago, when I saw Fels collapse in a textbook-perfect OTL pose.
After that, Lord Ouranos contacted me to say Fels had shut himself in his room and refused to come out, and last week I offered my belated apology.
So what was I doing now?
"I am! Ganesha!"
"Confirmed. Next person, please!"
I was helping the Ganesha Familia by working as a gatekeeper.
"Boy! It's been a while!"
"Yes, Lord Ganesha. Thank you for last time."
"Indeed! I am Ganesha!"
This god hadn't changed either. Or should I say, he was as unchanged as ever?
He was the first god I had relied on after falling into this timeline. If not for him, I would have been unable to earn money right away and would have ended up starving.
And what would have happened then? Hunger would have led to more hunger, and then the country would have collapsed, and society would have collapsed. Lord Ganesha had practically saved society that day.
"Mm! I am Ganesha!"
"...I'm losing my mind."
The junior I had seen back then let out a small groan. His ears were red from the embarrassment of seeing the head god in such an undignified state.
Was this what the gods called shame play? I had no idea what was shameful about it, but I was very glad it wasn't my problem.
"Still, there are a lot of people."
"Mm! Even Ganesha is surprised by this number!"
"...There was a big incident before."
A big incident, huh... Well, there had been a big incident, all right.
Not one, but two.
"One of them is obviously the Behemoth subjugation..."
The wish of humanity. The Three Great Quests.
The Behemoth, the king of the earth, was one pillar of that.
At last, the monster that had slaughtered countless people while spewing all manner of deadly poison had been put down for good.
Humanity's counterattack. The conquest of the world.
Many hoped this momentum would continue, that all monsters would be swept away and humanity's ancient wish, carried from the distant past, would finally be fulfilled.
That was why people were heading to Orario. To cheer on the adventurers opening a new era. Or to watch them.
"The problem is that isn't all."
In the original history, that would have been the end of it. But I could tell this situation wasn't going to follow history so neatly.
Not only because of the faint pain running through my body, but because anyone could see it from the long lines stretching out before me.
"Cute rabbit♂-chan, won't you do it with me?"
"This is impossible, a one-eyed, one-armed, hundred-shot, red-eyed otokonoko? I'm losing my mind, I'm losing my mind, I'm losing my mind, I'm losing my mind, I'm losing my mind, I'm losing my mind, I'm losing my mind, I'm losing my mind, aaaaaaaah!!!"
"So hot... the Lower World is amazingyyyy!!"
Terrifying. If hell existed, wasn't this it?
"I knew I wasn't getting into heaven."
I had already prepared myself for hell the moment I survived while leaving my comrades behind, but the actual hell I saw was about 2.5 times more horrifying than I expected.
Hah, I should have lived a little kinder. They say regret always comes too late, and that really was true.
"...Are you all right?"
"Yes... well..."
Honestly, I wasn't all right, but what was the point of saying so? No god was lying down and throwing a tantrum, and it was tolerable enough.
The long line. One side was human, the other side gods.
If the humans had come here because of the Behemoth, the gods had come because of the black sky incident.
The power of a god manifested in the mortal world. Fearing that their own amusement might suddenly come to an end because of that rule-breaking power, the gods gathered in Orario, the source of the incident.
...The fact that they'd all converged right on the Harvest Festival was probably no coincidence. I could tell they were determined to enjoy themselves to the fullest before leaving.
Well, there was nothing wrong with enjoying a festival. But thinking about the gods' reckless personalities, I could already tell the festival security was going to have a rough time for a while.
Should I tell Lord Ouranos to quietly slip them some bonus pay? He'd probably handle it himself anyway.
The reason I was stuck doing this here was exactly that. Lord Ouranos said that since outside traffic had suddenly increased, they needed someone to sort things out.
Someone to sort things out. In other words, an overwhelming strongman. Just as Lord Ouranos said, once I unleashed one big blast, both humans and gods politely lined up and waited their turn.
As expected, having power was important.
"Excuse me."
"Ah."
I had been spacing out too much.
To think I'd be zoning out in front of gods. I really had become irreverent.
"My apologies. Please write your name here and sign-"
As I was about to say please,
"......Huh?"
The moment I saw the god in front of me, I lost my words.
"Potato boy~ Potato boy~ Potato boy~ Since it's three times, give me three~"
"What kind of song is that, Ais..."
The Harvest Festival was being held on a massive scale, a grand event meant to wash away the hardships of the past and prepare for new trials ahead.
Not only the people who had always lived here, but even those who had come from outside were being swallowed by the festival's heat, laughing, shouting, and drinking in endless repetition.
The Loki Familia was no different. Gareth had started drinking from morning, and Finn had decided to ignore his piled-up work for today and enjoy the festival.
Many of the members were enjoying it in their own ways, and Ais and Riveria were no exception.
The two of them were walking through the streets.
Ais was planning to clear every limited-edition potato snack released for the festival, while Riveria watched her with a warm smile.
That cold, wounded girl was smiling in a way that suited her age. Seeing the sight she had always wished for, Riveria felt tears threatening to spill despite herself.
"Truly, I can't thank him enough, no matter how many times I try."
Not as the elven princess, but as a guardian of a child. She silently sent her gratitude to the rabbit who had embraced the child's wounds and helped heal them.
"Riveria! Over there, over there!"
"R-right... I know, so don't run."
Watching Ais smile brightly as she ran toward a new potato snack, Riveria let out a soft chuckle.
She was a little worried that Ais had been fixated on potato snacks throughout the entire festival... but well, just for today, it was fine.
She knew she was soft, but she couldn't win against the child's smile.
"This one's mint chocolate flavor. I wonder what it tastes like."
"Hmm..."
It was just fried potatoes, so how many flavors could there even be? By now, she had already seen more kinds of potato snacks than she could count on both hands.
It felt like she had seen every potato snack she would ever see in her life. And yet there were still more... Judging by her expression, this one must be a dud.
"Riveria... do you want this?"
"No."
"Boo..."
Even though she groaned and ate everything, it looked almost like a kind of madness, but Riveria knew that was actually her own sense of responsibility.
She had changed so much. The old Ais would have...
"She'd probably be in the Dungeon today too."
The ones from Rivira Village all came up to Orario for the Harvest Festival, but that girl would have gone into the Dungeon as if she knew nothing about it.
It really was a relief. That she had changed this much for the better.
It was something she could never thank him enough for.
"Munch, munch... next is......huh?"
Thud—while walking, Ais dropped her potato snack.
She couldn't have thrown it away on purpose because it tasted bad... right? She wasn't that calculating.
More than that, looking at her trembling hand and wavering eyes, it didn't seem like an act at all.
"Ais...?"
Ais froze as if turned to stone, staring at one spot.
Following her gaze, Riveria saw...
"...You're not very gentlemanly, are you? Hmm?"
The white rabbit she had just been thinking about, and the goddess with blue hair that held the moonlight, walking hand in hand.
Twitch. Riveria's eyes narrowed slightly.
"...Hm."
Far away, Arphia was looking down at a white woman and a black-haired man walking hand in hand.
From the top floor of Babel, it was a distance that should have made it impossible to see them properly, let alone distinguish them, but to Arphia their expressions were as clear as if they were right in front of her.
The woman smiling happily, the man grinning foolishly.
At the sight, the witch's mood turned slightly unpleasant.
"Meteria..."
The name she murmured softly was that of her beloved younger sister.
Arphia beat at her own chest, tormented by a feeling she wanted to stop but could not, and yet could not bring herself to abandon.
The Harvest Festival. A celebration of the year's harvest and, at the same time, a victory feast commemorating the subjugation of the Behemoth.
But there were those who, as if none of that mattered, had lost themselves in their own little world.
Lovers, couples, and whatever else they were called—those people shut their eyes and ears and believed that only each other existed in the world.
This was a festival to celebrate and bless themselves, not the harvest or the subjugation, and they were busy, so to speak, flirting without a care for anyone around them.
The sort of human Arphia hated most: the kind whose facial muscles seemed to have melted away, leaving them able to do nothing but grin foolishly.
And the fact that one of them was her most beloved little sister only made Arphia's feelings more complicated.
"That worthless bastard."
Grinding her teeth, Arphia still couldn't do anything. She wanted to kill that maggot right this instant, but that piece of trash was the man her sister cherished.
She desperately wanted to crush that insect, but if she did, it would leave a deep wound in her sister's heart.
"...But."
And yet, even so.
The reason Arphia was glaring at them with fire in her eyes was this.
"During festivals... lovers' relationships advance."
Today was the Harvest Festival, the greatest festival in the Lower World.
On such an auspicious day, it was a historically proven fact that lovers created a different kind of celebration.
If she looked away even for a moment, she had no idea what they might do. If that bastard so much as laid a finger on Meteria...
"I'll kill him."
Not only that waste of space, but the entire garbage heap known as Zeus Familia, she would wipe them all out.
Of course, that would have been impossible for her original self. But now, it might be possible.
Yes, now that the rabbit had kindled her flames, she had no weakness.
"Rabbit..."
Remembering the warmth she embraced every night as she slept, the witch let her grim expression loosen for a moment.
That thing she had clung to obsessively, afraid her only lifeline would disappear, had now become so familiar that she could hardly sleep without it.
The warmth was nice, and so was the feeling of being held. The hair was top quality, and even the scent of his body smelled like flowers of some kind.
A top-class hugging pillow. At first she had resisted fiercely, but now that she had come to accept it, she felt a strange satisfaction at having tamed that picky rabbit.
Come to think of it, what was he doing now? She had heard he was working as a gatekeeper...
"Honestly, using someone like that as a gatekeeper."
No matter how she thought about it, it was a waste of manpower. They should have assigned him to some ordinary job instead.
Arphia felt pity for the rabbit who couldn't even enjoy the one festival held each year.
Arphia herself didn't enjoy festivals, but she knew how much other people liked them.
Her sister had been the same, so that rabbit probably was too.
"Should I send someone over?"
If she sent a substitute, the rabbit could enjoy the festival too. Half the day had already passed, but the festival would continue until night.
Of course, she would have to be on guard for what happened that night. In other words, it didn't matter for now.
"Where is that guy?"
Since Arphia stood at the highest point in Orario, she only had to turn her head a little to see wherever she wanted.
Her gaze fell on Orario's main gate. And what she saw there was...
The rabbit, blushing in front of a goddess.
"...Hah?"
It felt as if the rabbit she had been taming had been snatched away by someone else in an instant.
Crack—and before long, a thick vein bulged on Arphia's forehead.