Lady Gnome’s very presence seemed to fill the space with an earthy smell, which reminded me a little of some kind of forest, or perhaps a grassy plain.

I decided to give my irrelevant thoughts no attention and smiled a polite smile at Lady Gnome. “Why, if it isn’t Lady Gnome,” I said, also ignoring her lack of respect for the concept of privacy.

“Gnome,” Lady Entropy said. “What, do you need?” she asked, her gaze directed downward straight at Lady Gnome’s face. Even compared to Lady Entropy, Lady Gnome was child-sized, after all, and the throne wasn’t particularly low, either.

“It’s the Heroes!” A mixture of despair and self-pity struck Lady Gnome’s face. Seeking for a way to make her plea more attractive, she grabbed one of my hands with both of her own. “They’re bullying my Goblins! And- And my High Goblins, too! If they go a bit further, they’ll reach the village!”

I shook off her hands.

“Please, please wait a moment, miss, miss Goddess of Earth,” Evyna said, a doubtful look on her face. “Aren’t Goblins, and, uhm, their evolutions, generally, uh, cursed by, well, you?”

Lady Gnome blinked in surprise at Evyna. “Well, of course. What’re you talking about? They’re my Goblins, of course I’d curse them.” A beat late, she seemed to realise she had no idea who she was talking to. “Wait, Lady Entropy, Lord Astaroth, who’s this?”

As Evyna was still in quite the mental state, I decided to answer in her place. “This is Evyna,” I said, “my newest… subordinate. You can probably treat her the same way you do most of my army.”

I turned to Evyna and cleared my throat. “As for your question, it is certainly true that Goblinoids, as a whole, are cursed by Lady Gnome. The problem here is the meaning of the word ‘curse’.”

“The, the meaning…?”

I nodded. “You know that monsters and non-monster life have different origins, yes?”

She nodded in response. “Monsters are… uh, magic, and the rest is, uhm, from nature, right?”

“Indeed. This difference gives rise to a difference in terms for the exact same act. Given that knowledge and the statement ‘a blessing is a goddess infusing a mortal with her power’, what conclusion does that lead us to draw?”

She looked at me with a particularly dumb expression on her face. After a number of seconds, it faded and made place for an expression of comprehension. “A monster’s, uh, magical ‘core’, maybe?”

I grinned and narrowed my eyes. “Exactly. On top of having a soul, monsters have a magical ‘core’ of sorts—and if blessed by a goddess, there’s a chance the monster will be… overwritten, so to speak. Of course, this chance is larger the bigger the power gap. Thus, the term ‘curse’.”

From the corner of my eye, I could see Lady Gnome was getting impatient, so I decided to involve her in the conversation.

“Being such, not many of the goddesses curse monsters with any regularity—in truth, Lady Gnome is the only one who does such.”

With undeserved pride, Lady Gnome puffed up her chest and placed her hands on her hips. “Ha-ha! I’m amazing, aren’t I?”

Under her breath, Evyna said something along the lines of ‘not a compliment’. Then she continued at a normal volume. “Then, is there no, uhm, risk to the, uh, monsters when you do it, miss, miss Goddess of Earth?”

“Of course not! My control is great, so there’s nothing to worry about!”

Lady Entropy leaned back into her throne as a sort of response. “That’s just because you, of all the goddesses, have the least, power.” Her cold tone of voice and blank face, rather than detract from the statement, almost seemed to add to its severity. Lady Entropy seemed not the least bit concerned about this.

In what was half an attempt to prevent escalation and half an attempt to hurry Lady Gnome along, I decided I’d take the lead. “The Heroes are advancing towards the Goblins, are they? Do you believe this to be under Lady Luciel’s orders?”

“Of course it is!” Lady Gnome’s cute, childish face distorted into a frown. “She’s, she’s, she’s… uh… plotting something! Like the perfect way to bully me, or something!” Filled with apparent frustration, she jumped and stomped as though throwing a tantrum, which was followed by a brief look of surprise.

I thought I could almost make out a light mocking in Lady Entropy’s blank eyes. “You can’t cause tremors, in here,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m too powerful. But, I don’t think bullying is Luciel’s goal. She wants to get rid of me… So perhaps, she’s attacking all four of you.”

“All four of the elemental goddesses, is it…?” I asked, nodding to myself. I decided to pay no attention to the verbal wall Lady Entropy had placed between herself and Lady Gnome and the others.

She nodded. “To steal their power… and thus become more powerful. Or maybe, to take away the power of my potential allies… something like that.”

Once more, I nodded to myself. “In other words, she wants to take away their Aspects first, and then perhaps keep them in place as middle-managers… But as far as I know, Lady Luciel is the only goddess—other than you, of course—who’s bestowed her Aspects upon mortals.”

Lady Gnome jumped forward and grabbed onto my shoulders the moment I finished my sentence. “That faker’s lent out her Aspects? Really?” she asked, raising her voice. Since she wasn’t supported by anything, she soon fell back down and let go.

I contemplated pushing her away to create some distance, but decided against it. “Indeed,” I said, nodding my head. “She’s called the receivers the Seven Saints. Incidentally, we have slain one. Her Aspect now dwells in me.”

A smirk of self-satisfaction took over Lady Gnome’s mouth. “So that’s why you smell a bit like a god now! I thought it was just Lady Entropy’s smell, but it’s your own! So, which is it, which is it?” Her eyes sparkled in expectation, as though a child’s.

Are you a dog?—I held back that retort and put on a polite smile. “The former Aspect of Heavenly Protection, now just the Aspect of Protection.”

“I see, I see.” She nodded to herself. With her question answered, she immediately switched topics. “But, if she’s given away her Aspects, then now’s the best time to take them all! Ah, but before that, help protect my Goblins!”

“Wait, let us go back a moment,” I said, shaking my head. “Is it even feasible for Lady Luciel to steal any Aspects? She’s not the type to give them to any regular Hero, and she’d be hard-pressed to find an excuse to steal power from a goddess who has duties of her own.”

Lady Entropy tilted her head in silent contemplation—an action which prompted me to stroke her head. “Then perhaps, her goal isn’t just the Aspects, but the goddesses’ elements, themselves?”

“Is such a thing even possible?”

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“Theoretically. Of course, the system will, reject it. But it’ll still work.”

Lady Gnome’s response to Lady Entropy’s words was, like many of the things she had said, rather loud in volume. “We can’t let that faker get any stronger! Lady Entropy, Lord Astaroth, you have to help me!”

Evyna had remained quiet for quite a while by now—understandable, given she was by far the weakest person present, both in ability and in social status. But it appeared she had finally gathered the courage required to speak in a situation like this.

“Uhm, miss, miss Goddess of Earth?” she said.

Lady Gnome turned her innocent, childish gaze in Evyna’s direction with a “Hm?”

“Ah, it’s just, uh… Earlier, too, you called Lady Luciel a, uh, ‘faker’... What does that, well, mean?”

With obvious surprise in her eyes, Lady Gnome blinked. “Huh? You don’t know? I’m calling her faker because ----, of course.”

My face froze up in mild surprise at the fact that Lady Gnome’s words cut out in the middle of her sentence, as though someone had turned down the volume. Her mouth had still moved, so I knew she hadn’t stopped talking, but since I had not trained myself in lipreading, I could not even begin to theorise as to what she had said.

Lady Entropy shook her head. “The system won’t let you say that, Gnome,” she said. Just these words revealed to me the situation.

“In other words,” I said, “the very same system that announces accomplishments and skills inhibits the spread of certain information, no?”

“Mhm. It protects the balance, of the world. If the truth got out, there would be much chaos and panic… something like that. It’s not like there’s a problem if the balance shifted slowly, but if it happened too fast…”

I shook my head. “You need not say any more than that, Lady Entropy. I have properly comprehended your words.”

She nodded. “That’s good. As always, you comprehend these big, important things, rather fast… Maybe your soul is just, suited to being a leader?”

Evyna nodded fervently in agreement. “Well, mister Astaroth, you were a, uh, Marshal, after all, right?”

I focused my gaze on her. After a moment of silence, I jerked my chin to get her to continue.

“After a while of staying here, uh, I remembered about a person called ‘Arthur’. It was a while ago, but… that was, uhm, you, right?”

I chuckled. I had no doubt in my mind that my rare feeling of nostalgia was tangible to everyone present. “Indeed, once… That must be over ten years ago, now. But I do not recall meeting you when I was a Hero. My memory is quite good…”

“Of course not! You were like, uhm, how do I, uh, put this… Like, like an idol, or s, something! Rumoured to be, uh, the candidate for one of the Saints’, uhm, successors, I think… Anyway, a really important person, and, uh, really close to the Seven S, Saints! Someone like me couldn't…”

She trailed off, and Lady Entropy decided to use that chance to interrogate me. “Close to the Seven Saints?” she asked, staring straight into my eyes.

This, in turn, caused Evyna to shift her gaze between me and Lady Entropy several times in rapid succession in a blind panic.

“Please rest assured, Lady Entropy,” I said. The only reason I’d managed to keep a straight face was the skill [Pokerface]—if not for that, surely my face would have cramped up. “At that time, I was merely high-school age… That is, I had not yet developed an interest in that sort of thing, so any feelings were purely platonic.” Although the first part was a lie—even I wasn’t that much of a latebloomer—the second part was most certainly true.

She turned her head away. “It’s fine? Your past is none of my business.” If she expressed her emotions in her face, surely she would have pouted.

“If you say so, Lady Entropy,” I said, with a tone that could only be described as ‘resigned’. I shook my head and turned back to Lady Gnome. “So, these Heroes, and this Goblin village—where are they?”

“I think the humans called it the Great Borm Forest… It’s the forest with a whole bunch of my adorable monsters in it!” Lady Gnome squealed in delight as she thought of the Goblins’ so-called cuteness.

I didn’t recognise the name, but it appeared Evyna did. “Ah, if I recall, the Great Borm Forest should be, uh, between the Holy Astal Kingdom and Eskaria…”

I nodded. “In other words, it is to the east.”

“Should we help her? What do you think, Astaroth?” Lady Entropy still refused to look in my direction, though she stealthily pushed her head into my hand.

Of course, there was no way I wouldn’t notice something that cute.

“We should not pass up any chance we get to weaken Lady Luciel, Lady Entropy. Furthermore, we cannot very well let her take Lady Gnome’s power, can we? I do not believe this leaves us with much of a choice.”

“Mh. I suppose that’s true. Then…” She stood up and shook off my hand, then placed one of her own in front of her chest. “Rejoice, Goddess of Earth, Gnome! Goddess of Darkness, Entropy, has decided to grant your request!”

«Goddess of Darkness, Entropy has accepted Goddes of Earth, Gnome’s request for assistance.»

«You have been nominated by Goddess of Darkness, Entropy to fulfil Goddess of Earth, Gnome’s request for assistance. You may not refuse.»

«You have been granted permission to be accompanied by as many followers as you please to fulfil Goddess of Earth, Gnome’s request.»

«The rewards of Goddess of Earth, Gnome’s request will be decided later.»

“Yay! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Lady Gnome twirled in place several times before jumping through the crack she’d entered through, and the crack itself fell to the ground.

Lady Entropy turned to Evyna. “It won’t take long in here, but outside, it’ll take at least six more hours… so, sleep.”

Evyna promptly collapsed. After a moment, she started leaking peaceful sleeper’s breaths.

After a few minutes of silence, Lady Entropy turned to me and buried her face in my chest, almost like a small animal seeking shelter.

“What appears to be the matter, Lady Entropy?” I asked, letting a bit of concern ooze into my voice. “Could it be you are still jealous…?”

She shook her head in response and squeezed a response out of her throat, even quieter than usual.

“Those theatrics were… embarrassing…”