Chapter 26 – Manual Book?

Everyone’s mood is getting better.

That’s good.

Now, all we need to do is to work together to figure out how to keep this world from breaking.

「Hnn?」

I saw a light gathering in the corner of the garden.

That’s….

「It looks like Goddess Aion has arrived.」

She came not too long after I asked Rope to send her a message.

As I was about to walk toward Goddess Aion, something flew by me.

「Fluffy?」

I followed what Fluffy threw with my eyes and saw that it was a mass of water flying at high speed towards Goddess Aion.

「Areh?」

What is it doing?

As I tried to speak out to Fluffy to stop it, I saw a fireball and a block of ice following the mass of water.

The next moment, I saw Goddess Aion being attacked by water, fire and ice.

「…………」

「Eh? Hey, what the? What?」

The attack continued amidst Goddess Aion’s cry.

As expected of a goddess.

All attacks are either nullified or evaded.

However, attacks are still ongoing.

Suddenly, lightning struck, earth stuck out from the ground, and flames struck at her escape route.

What an amazing coordinated attack!

No no no no no!

I can’t just sit back and watch!

「Ah! Wait! Everyone, stop!」

The attacks stop as I shout.

Perhaps they thought that Goddess Aion knew what was going on and left it alone or something.

Just like what God Deme did.

However, even though I have only known her for a few months, I know that Goddess Aion is not the type who’ll do something like that.

For a moment, I also thought that she might have left it alone.

However, thinking about it calmly, that didn’t seem right.

That’s why I wanted to speak with her first.

If the dragons’ fears are right, do it to your heart’s content.

「What’s happening? Why did they attack me?」

A battered Goddess Aion comes to me.

「Ah……hello.」

Goddess Aion was stunned with my greeting.

I’m sorry.

I didn’t know what to say.

Are you okay? Why do I have to ask that if she is obviously battered?

「What do you mean hello?…..why was I attacked?」

Goddess Aion looks at me curiously.

「They think you knew that this world was on the verge of breaking and you didn’t inform anyone.」

「Oh, so that’s why……hnn? On the verge of breaking? What do you mean? Haven’t you solved the troublesome things left by the apprentices?」

I’m not sure what to say with this reaction.

It’s possible that she’s lying.

I stare at Goddess Aion.

「Seriously?…..what happened?」

I could feel that Goddess Aion is using her divine power.

It seems like she’s investigating.

「You really didn’t know?」

Flying Lizard asked and Goddess Aion nodded.

「What do you mean by this world is on the verge of breaking? I did a quick search and couldn’t find anything.」

Eh?

You didn’t find anything?

「Rope, are you still there?」

「Yes, I’m here.」

Rope answers in voice.

「Why can’t Goddess Aion sense it?」

「She only examined the surface. What’s broken is the core of the world.」

That means it’s worse than the surface being broken.

「The….core?」

The words that Rope said made Goddess Aion look pale.

Given her reaction, it seems to be very bad.

「It looks like Goddess Aion didn’t know about it.」

Koa concluded.

If she knew, she deserves an acting award.

Or rather, why is she still stunned?

「Godded Aion!」

「……..」

「Godd—」

「Ouch!」

Goddess Aion, who was headbutted by Light Blue, pressed down her head.

The bonk was too loud.

Even so, it’s amazing that she wasn’t blown away even though she was headbutted by a dragon.

Goddess Aion is strong as expected.

Well, she still seems to be hurt.

「You should have hit lighter, Light Blue.」

「Akira, that’s the wrong way of scolding! You should have said don’t do it!」

Ah, right.

「So…..want to sit down?」

I had come out to the middle of the square to stop the dragons from attacking.

I’d rather sit down and have a long talk than continue standing here.

This would be a long one.

When I looked at the wood deck, the one eyes were already preparing tea and sweets.

It seemed that Boss-san and the others were already having snacks.

I wondered what happened to the tense atmosphere earlier. They are so relaxed.

Well, that’s better than panicking.

「Ah, my head and arms are tingling.」

「Arms?」

Goddess Aion held her left arm and let out a sigh.

Was she hit by the dragons earlier?

But there’s no visible damage so it should be fine.

 

We enjoyed the tea and sweets prepared by the one eyes.

The sweets taste better than usual today.

I must be tired.

「Goddess Aion, do you know what to do when the core of the world is broken?」

Goddess Aion showed agony in my question.

I guess she doesn’t.

Not even one?

Do we have to dogeza or something first?

Which is it?

「If the core of the world is the problem, the problem is related to the fruit of the world.」

The fruit that makes the world is the problem?

That means it’s pretty important.

「So?」

「…..I’ll have to look at the manual book to find out.」

「「「…….Eh?」」」

Flying Lizard, Koa, and my voice combined.

My companions around us who were listening to the conversation were also looking at Goddess Aion with a doubtful look on their faces.

Manual book?

There’s a manual book for the fruit of the world?

Seriously?

「I don’t know how long ago it was but a long long long time ago, the fruits of the world were made. The god who made them no longer exists. It seems like worlds were created frequently in the past but only a few new worlds have been created in the last few billions of years. I know that a world is created by pouring divine power into the fruit of the world but I don’t remember how to deal with the problems.」

「Is that why you have a manual book?」

Well, if you don’t use it, you’ll forget it eventually.

More so when it comes to “billions” of years.

「When someone tried to make a world using the fruit of the world thousands of years ago, the manual book is……..Well, yeah. There was a problem with that world. It was a world that should nurture life but life was not taking root and none of the gods could deal with it. Therefore, the gods cooperated with the god of time to make a record and put it together in a manual book.」

……the gods have it tough too.

「Can’t they just store the knowledge like the dragons?」

As I recall, Flying Lizard said that a word would trigger their stored knowledge.

They also said that they usually recall it at unexpected times so it makes them feel sick.

「The amount of knowledge embedded in these divine beasts is enormous but it’s enough for one world only. We managed several to dozens of worlds. Every time the number of world increases, that amount of knowledge would increase so it’s impossible to embed it.」

You mean there is too much knowledge to embed?

Well, I guess so.

「I wish I could remember….we’ve lived too long and I only have a little bit of memory….about it.」

Well, I’m not even sure if I can remember anything about something that happened a few billions of years ago.

「Sorry, I’ll have to go back and see if there’s a solution in the manual.」

Can you even find the manual…..that’s something you made some time ago, right?

「Do you have any idea where that manual book is?」

「Eh?」

Goddess Aion looks confused.

「You can find the manual immediately, right?」

「Yeah, it should be on the bookshelf at…..」

She’s not looking straight at me.

It looks like it will take time before she finds it.

Let’s just say that they store one book per year, how many books do they have?

「Are there a lot of books?」

Koa asked in dismay.

「Yeah, there are a lot of books that contain the yearly administrative records for each world, incident records for each world, and various manuals.」

Are there so many manual books?

「Is there anyone who manages them?」

Goddess Aion shakes her head.

「I’ll look for it with my subordinates so please wait for me. I’ll do my best to find it…..」

「……good luck.」

I don’t know if we can expect anything.

The possibility that the manual contains countermeasures is also uncertain.

She said「Gods will go together to find the manual.」but I’m not sure if they’ll even find it.

I guess we need to figure out countermeasures on our own.