In a little under a second, Kaori had finished thinking and had formed a reasonable reply. “You did mention a god who’s mistakes I would need to clean up but I don’t recall you giving me his name yet.” Seeing that she had a lull in the conversation she took the initiative to get more detailed information on certain subjects that needed clarification, in her opinion. “You also have yet to mention how I would be performing the duties of a deity aside from the mention of a source of power. I have no idea what kind of power that might be nor do I have any way of knowing how to control it. Those are things that I would consider to be vital information.”
Descartes sat back with a wry smile, which displayed his slightly disconcerting array of teeth. “Ah, I see you were keeping up with the conversation, good! As to your questions, in order, the answers are; Yajū god of the hunt, you will manage a pantheon or multiple pantheons that will oversee the development of the inhabitants of your world, and lastly, the power we wield comes from the faith of the mortals on our various worlds.”
“In that respect, the deities who forgo a pantheon are far more powerful personally than those with a pantheon. However, the toll that micromanaging all the daily affairs of an entire world or worlds takes is quite staggering. Most deities fare better with a pantheon under them or around them so that they don’t get burned out. It helps to have others that you can depend on, I just wish I had a few more.” With that last statement, he gave her a pointed look. Kaori could tell that it was time to decide.
After having that much explained to her Kaori knew that she didn’t have much of a choice but she still didn’t know what the alternative was. “Suppose I said no, what would happen to me from here? Would I be going to heaven or hell, or is there perhaps something else in store for souls? I am a spirit, right, that’s what you meant when you said I had died of exhaustion?”
Descartes almost flinched when she made mention of not taking the offer but he held his composure. He could still justify taking this time to conduct the interview if she said yes but it would all have been a waste if she refused. He was half tempted to tell her that she would be eternally condemned but he was too honest for that. “Since you fall under the purview of the Christian church in Japan, you would be going to heaven. If you were, however, asking what fate awaits each soul, it depends on their belief. Those from each religion would follow the practices of that faith. So, is that a refusal of my offer?”
Kaori considered the two alternatives. On the one hand, she could go to heaven and would be at peace, she would have no more worries and would finally get all the rest she wanted. On the other hand, she could take Descartes’s offer and become a goddess. That would mean a lot of work but he did say there were rewards. For just a moment she was about to refuse his offer but then she caught a glimpse of the troubled expression he was trying to hide. She could tell that he truly needed her help and she wasn’t the type of person to abandon someone who needed help that much.
Kaori squared her shoulders and looked Descartes right in the eyes. “I accept your offer. I will take the position of the goddess and fix the world you need help with. I would be honored to work for you, I will be in your care.”
As Kaori finished her acceptance speech, she gave a slight bow and Descartes couldn’t help letting out a sigh of relief. “Excellent, I will expect great things from you! If you could just sign here, I will get you set up and then I can go back to fixing the mountain of things stacked against me. At least now there will be one less thing I have to worry about!” With that, he placed a sheet of paper in front of her and there was suddenly a quill pen in her hand and a thick book on her lap.
The moment she finished signing her name on the piece of paper Descartes sent her to the world that he had been having problems with. He wasn’t happy about having to send her on her way so abruptly but he couldn’t put the rest of his duties off any longer. Already he could feel the insistent anger of his many subordinates who he had to put off for this interview burning their way through to him. The lot of them were always so impatient and needy, it was just so much trouble.
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Even though he wasn’t at all happy about having to cut the interview short he still spared a moment to send a few words of advice along to the arc-Niel who he hoped would bail him out of some of his own troubles one day. “When you are ready to pause time just press the pause button on the front of the manual. The resume button is at the rear of the manual on the inside of the cover. If you have any questions consult the manual and if it doesn’t cover it just do whatever you want, you are a goddess now, after all! For anything relating to the current condition of the planet and its inhabitants, I have included a file on its progress or lack thereof. For anything not in the file ask Yajū god of the hunt, he may be able to give you an answer but he’s a very odd one. Also, you might want to watch his hands. They have a tendance to end up places they shouldn’t around women. I hope you fare well in your endeavors and don’t forget to send progress reports at least every century.”
As Descartes was sending the last of his message, he pondered the odd circumstances that might have led to Kaori becoming available to him. Normally, if someone is a follower of a god then their souls are automatically sent to whatever final destination that deity has specified. In the case of Ms. Fujiwara, she was a follower of one of the oldest and most powerful of all the gods yet somehow, she had ended up here. Descartes Malefecto decided to be thankful to the mysterious old one. Certainly, this was one of his many machinations. He doubted he would ever be in a position to talk to the old deity about it but he could at least be grateful for the gift. But he didn’t have long to contemplate this fortuitous turn of events as the first in a long line of minor deities came knocking on his door. Well, that was a nice diversion, He thought as he called for his underling to enter.
The moment she finished signing her name on the piece of paper Kaori was suddenly standing in the top of a tree. In front of her, a little lower in the tree was some kind of creature. It had dark gray fur from head to toe and claws at the ends of those. She could hear it’s hoarse breathing as it crouched watching something further down in the tree. She only had a moment to glimpse the creature, however, because her innate sense of danger kicked in due to being in the top of a tree and she began to lose her balance.
Kaori was certain that she was about to fall from the tree but the falling part never came. As she opened her eyes, she was still in the top of the same tree but she wasn’t touching any part of the tree. She looked down and realized the truth, she was squatting down on thin air. Truthfully, it didn’t feel all that thin, more like solid flooring.
Kaori took a moment to compose herself and carefully stood up. That went well so she decided to test it out a bit. She carefully inched her foot forward through the empty air but she couldn’t find a soft or empty spot. It was as if she were standing on a solid sheet of glass. Unsure of the dynamics of this precarious state of being she slowly turned toward the center of the treetop and reached out. The tree was also solid.
She decided to try stepping on the limb of the tree and she was a little shocked when it worked. She then eased her other foot along looking for the edge of the invisible glass she was standing on but couldn’t find it. As she was about to back her foot up and try to stand on the air fully, she thought of another idea. She decided to put her other foot on the tree branch right behind the first and it descended to the branch without a problem. As she looked, she realized this was an area where she had been standing on air before.
I wonder if that’s how it works, she thought as she looked around. Deciding to try out her luck she carefully reached out a foot to the open air beside the branch, a good fifteen centimeters below where she had been standing on air before. Exactly where she hoped to feel the solid ground, it was there. She carefully leaned her weight onto that foot and picked up the other, nothing.
As a further test, she slowly walked a couple of steps out into the open air and couldn’t fall. A light jump then a couple more proved that the air was as solid as concrete. She breathed a silent sigh of relief. At least now she knew how that part worked. At that point, she heard a chuckle from the creature below her standing in the tree. She looked a bit closer at it from her new vantage point.
The creature’s front was now in profile and she could make out a couple of things about it. The creature was humanoid but it wasn’t a human. It had a dog or wolf’s muzzle mixed in with its facial features. It had hands but they had claws on them. It also had a long, unkempt beard that, thankfully, hung well past its unclothed crotch. When she was looking closer at it, she caught a glimpse of movement a bit further down the tree and what she saw there surprised her even more.