On a Godless Planet:Volume3B Chapter 32
Chapter 32: Riddle Wired 02[edit]
–Pride is not an excuse
It is the true reason.
●
“Reward.”
Raidou knew what that sudden word from Demeter meant.
…Here it comes.
He had to hand it to her.
She might keep her thoughts to herself when losing, but she was an open book when going in for the win. That made her a pain to deal with, but it wasn’t so bad if you understood her. And then one of the Shinto gods raised her hand.
It was Tenma, who was munching on a rice cracker.
“We can’t grant you any new rights. The initial group – that is, the Norse gods and the monotheistic god – will gain certain rights during and after the terraforming, but if you want the same, you will need to speak with my superior.”
“We won’t grant us any rights as a reward? You mean we’ll be working for free? Then why even bother helping you?”
The yakuza harvest god sighed.
“With those terms, not helping you is the best option. We wait for the work to overwhelm you to the point the Shinto terraforming effort collapses. Then we renegotiate.”
●
“That’s real crafty, Demeter-kun! You’re going to take all the best parts for yourself, aren’t you!?”
“Isn’t she pushing the others to refuse as well?”
“She is. But this is probably a screening.”
“What kind of screening?”
Hatoko smiled a little.
“The negotiation has begun. A few cards have been played already and the greatest conclusion has been stated, right?”
“Right. What they see here might differ depending on what information they’ve gathered and how well they know the terraforming group. Demeter-kun needs to find out where they all stand as soon as possible.”
“You mean…Demeter is in the weakest negotiating position?”
“Scarecrow, as a scarecrow who acts as a ‘territorial gatekeeper’, you take malice and aggressiveness far too seriously. Try looking at this like a game.”
●
Demeter’s idea was to “cut them apart”.
…Some of them “more or less” see this as one big group.
Those unofficial connections could be terrible things. Casual connections would draw in people from other groups as well.
You couldn’t afford to suddenly realize you had been providing a service for nothing in return. Demeter first turned a warning gaze toward one group in particular.
“Hey, Mesopotamians. Why are you part of the Shinto terraforming?”
●
So that’s what this is about, thought Kidou.
“The circumstances just kind of turned out that way.”
“Explain.”
Bil raised his hand. And…
“It was a complex mixture of factors.”
“Yeah. A whole lot went into it.”
“Correct. That said, enough time has passed to view some of it more objectively. So I can say that our part in the Shinto terraforming is due to…”
He said it.
“The circumstances and Karamucho.”
●
Athena lost her chance to take issue with his answer.
“Karamucho? I thought it was just going to be a simple repeat gag where he says it was the circumstances again.”
“Why were you ready and waiting for that response?”
“Spending time with my aunt trains you for these things.”
But her instincts hadn’t been wrong – she just hadn’t expected the Karamucho part.
“Mesopotamians, if you can only cite the circumstances, should I assume that there is no political reason for it?”
“That is correct.”
“Then why are you doing it?”
“Because the human’s intervention allowed Ki and me to get through a recreation of the myth where I lose Enkidu. The human died in the process, so this doubles as atonement to the lifespan goddess he worships. As long as the two of us continue to be, we cannot escape our obligation to the human and his god.”
●
“It’s been a while since I’ve heard Bilgamesh say so much at once.”
“Sorry.”
“Oh! Nice one, Apology Man! A speech followed by an apology! It’s all in perfect balance!”
“Hey, don’t encourage him. He’ll start apologizing repeatedly.”
“I forget, how do you get the Balance to appear?”
“It appears on Floor 33 if you repeatedly draw the sword and put it away quickly, so I guess it fits with the theme of repeating things.”
“That’s a bit of a stretch, isn’t it?”
●
“Anyway.” Demeter tilted her head. “That explains the Mesopotamian demigods. They have essentially made themselves servants of the human and lifespan goddess.”
“Eh!? Wait! Don’t say that! Bilgamesh-san and Kidou-san are on such a different level from me I wouldn’t even dare suggest that! They’re so much more powerful I’d be blasted into oblivion if I so much as speak to them! Completely obliterated! I mean, they even have a video game about them!”
“I don’t think the game is quite the same thing.”
“Yeah, the game character is technically named after the earth goddess Ki, not Enkidu.”
“What are you talking about!?”
Whatever. I can ignore that. But…
“What was that about Karamucho!? You expect me to believe a god is siding with Shinto for something like that!?”
●
“Huhh!? Are you stupid!? Karamucho is the greatest treasure of Japan, the farthest east of Far Eastern Oriental culture! The holy company Koikeya goes to the trouble of creating it from nothing but ordinary ingredients!”
“Where did all that come from?”
“She’s invented a lot in her head.”
“I am truly sorry…”
“Yeah, we should apologize for this.”
●
“Don’t join the terraforming for some potato snacks!”
She had to get that out. But Eshtar’s case was a little different.
“Also, you’re supposed to be an inspector. You’re half the reason we were sent in as the new inspectors, you know?”
“Wait!? Since when am I an inspector!?”
The demigods grabbed Eshtar by the shoulders and dragged her to the back of the living room. After some discussion in the corner, the potato-motivated god returned. And she pointed at Demeter.
“I’m an inspector! Of course I know that, idiot! That means you lose your rights as inspectors and, um…”
“You’re still the inspector.”
“Yeah, that! Well!? Surprised!?”
“I brought it up to you!!”
“This is one of the worst negotiations I’ve ever seen.”
●
“Well, do you see now?”
Demeter looked to the others.
“The Norse gods and the monotheistic god are assisting with the Shinto terraforming because that was their job to begin with and they are already being granted rights for it. Plus the Mesopotamians are joining in out of obligation and to fulfill her role as an inspector.”
But…
“What about the rest of you? If you do choose to assist, you will receive no rights. And you can’t agree to something like that without receiving at least as much as the Norse gods and monotheistic god, can you?”
“Um.”
“What, Mr. V?”
“I’ve joined the Shinto side too, but you seem to have skipped right past me.”
●
“Why are you siding with them!?”
“Huh!? Why am I being yelled at for this?”
“Taking it out on him that you forgot about him? Impressive.”
“Mr. V! You need to vomit to distract her!”
“Now that is an unpleasant authority.”
“I think there was an enemy like that in Ghouls ‘n Ghosts.”
●
Mr. V had already decided on his stance for this issue.
“I will be siding with the human because of the Salacia incident. Think of it as a form of obligation.”
“Ehh!? Stop being a creep by making this about me and just say it’s what you want to do! Are you sure you can handle this!?”
A Revelation Board popped up to deliver that message before vanishing.
Eventually everyone took a breath and…
“I think you might need to communicate with your wife more.”
“No, no, no, no! Everything is fine there! Don’t worry about it!”
“It’s true Salacia is just like that, but you do need to sometimes focus on your own needs, Mr. V.”
“I-I don’t want to hear that from you!”
“K-Kido-san did that by joining my Sumeragi-kun fanclub!”
“I feel like that’s only digging the hole deeper.”
“What do you have to say about about Mr. V’s decision, Demeter?”
“Nothing really…”
“Ahh! Now she acts like she doesn’t care!”
●
“That means Mr. V has taken the Shinto side by his own choice and by process of elimination.”
“This is more awkward than I was expecting!”
“It’s like when you’re splitting into groups in elementary school!”
“Did that ever happen to you?”
“Yeah! Whenever it was time to split up, I would shout ‘join my group if you love big boobs!’ and no one would join my group, but the others would all be telling people to join their group if you like lions or sharks or whatever, so really they’re all hypocrites!”
“Isn’t asking for a love of big boobs the same as excluding all the girls in your class?”
“Don’t be silly! I just know Shifu-senpai there loves Raidou-senpai’s big boobs!”
“Not how I expected to be drawn into this…”
“Well, do you or don’t you?”
“Well, I do need someone with enough width to hold me.”
“Hi, I’m width.”
“Oh, are we doing that joke again?”
<Does the ape have any decent stories about his past?>
“You created those memories!!”
●
“Anyway,” began Demeter.
“Egyptians – and Busty Bangs over there – you would end up working for free, so I wouldn’t go along with this if I were you. Keep in mind that Shinto is fairly low ranking in the virtual manifestation world.”
“So why are they doing a terraforming?”
“I heard it’s basically a test for terraforming with a human.”
<Correct. The latest time period for recreating a human was the 90s because that is the last time the gods had any real presence. And looking at what part of the world was especially active back then – not to mention the Divine States-World Correspondence – Japan would be the best location, so my logic told me to recommend Shinto for the role.>
“I bet the DC only agreed because they wanted to know what effect the presence of a human would have.”
She could say one thing for sure.
“Unless the DC are even stupider than I thought, they probably expect the Shinto terraforming to fail.”
●
The Shinto terraforming was expected to fail.
Bilgamesh was familiar with something related to that.
“That was why Eshtar was sent here as an inspector.”
“The DC wanted to use the stalling or failure of the Shinto terraforming as an excuse to confiscate the human and continue on their own.”
“Wait, what!? That’s evil!”
“That was youuuuu!!”
“Huh!? But this is the first I’m hearing of it! All I did was pretend to read the inspector contract, sign it, and then travel here!”
“Eshtar’s real reason for coming here was to investigate our disappearance. But I do have one question. If the Shinto terraforming had failed and the human was confiscated to redo the terraforming, would it still have been done in 90s Japan?”
“Sumeragi-kun’s big boobs worship would have led him to me regardless, so as long as he is the human they are using, I think he would have ended up in Japan with Shinto.”
“R-really?”
<Listen, Anne. While the things they say often sound crazy, the problem is that they are telling the truth.>
“Hey, stop whispering things in her ear!”
But someone else did respond.
“I sent the DC the data I used to create Izumi, so they might erase him and create a new human. But…”
But…
“If that ever happens, I will declare a one-goddess war on them.”
●
“Um, yes! And I will join forces with Kido-san and cause them all to shrivel into husks, so watch out!”
“We’re warriors, so I guess we could join you.”
“It’s been a loooong time since I’ve punished any paaaagans.”
“None of that is funny when all of you say it…”
“So all of those plans are based on the assumption that Shinto will fail?”
“Right. And if that does happen, we too will side with the human.”
“Even if the DC agreed to retract Enkidu’s death?”
“Her death has already been retracted. It’s too late to play that card.”
“Hey! Wait! Don’t I get a say!?”
“You’re always yelling at people for no good reason, so you don’t get to complain here.”
“Is she that dangerous?”
“It’s okay when I do it! The rest of you need to do it without involving me!”
“Hey, think about it. If the DC creates their own human, they’ll create a new divine world, which won’t be 90s Japan. It’ll probably be a time period and location that better fits the DC’s mythologies.”
“Yeah, probably. If we gained the rights to it, the divine world would be in what’s now known as the Middle East. I don’t know what time period, though.”
The Shinto knowledge god raised her hand.
“Does Koikeya exist in the Middle East?”
“Eh!? Of course it does! It’s a holy company!”
<In the 90s, Koikeya had not yet moved overseas. They start with Taiwan in 2006.>
●
“I’ve been on Shinto’s side from the day I was born! And that means I’m on the human’s side!”
“So now she’s surpassing time and space.”
“I am greatly sorry…”
●
…They’re completely split.
Between the human’s side and the other side.
Demeter had caused this. She had used the issue of rights as a hook to point out the ones who were getting involved without any rights.
…It sounds like the Mesopotamians are fine with the lack of rights.
Then there was TJ’s Egyptian gods. They, the Olympus gods, and the Irish god had not yet given their position.
It was a pain, but TJ decided she had to ask about it.
I’m being pushed this way by Demeter, she noted.
“How will we be rewarded?”
●
“Demeter is good at this.”
“I think I followed that. She used the concept or rights to split them into two groups, didn’t she? And now…”
“And now what?”
“Well,” replied Scarecrow. “TJ just asked about their reward. But that question originally came from Demeter.”
“Precisely. This means one of the groups – the one not sided with the human – shares the same problem: will they receive any kind of rights?”
“What do you think Demeter is trying to accomplish here?”
“Hm? You mean she isn’t trying to extract rights from Shinto?”
“Oh? Demeter-kun would run circles around you. …At this point, everything is riding on TJ-kun’s perception and decision. As the head of the manga club, her drawing skills should have given her a keen eye, so I have high hopes.”
And…
“Most likely, the biggest winner will be the god that description applies to the least.”
●
TJ watched and listened. After asking her question, she saw the Shinto underclassman munch on a rice cracker and then speak.
“Shinto cannot provide any rights or reward. At the very least, we are unable to agree to that without any word from our superiors. And even if our superiors agreed to it…”
“The DC would never let it happen.”
“That’s right.”
Demeter was correct.
“If Shinto could provide a reward rivaling that given to the mythologies participating from the beginning, this terraforming would turn into something of a rights rush.”
What would that lead to?
“If that happened, the Shinto terraforming would succeed, I suppose. So the DC has banned Shinto from providing rights. Simple enough.”
“But in that case, they can give work but not provide rights.”
Which would mean…
“Protecting a front line base for free is not really something I can agree to.”
●
TJ thought.
…I guess it’s best to decline.
Life in this divine world was nice enough already. The social structure was far more advanced than her time and they could live there just fine.
So there was no need to go out of their way to take it further.
She could sit back and watch her underclassmen in this divine world. She also thought it was best if Egypt stayed out of all the annoying politics related to the DC.
…Politics really are a pain in the ass.
She came from Hermopolis, which claimed to be politically neutral, but she had gotten caught up in plenty of nonsense even back in her time.
As the Egyptian dynasty’s royal family grew, it led to internal conflict and the gods were always dragged into it as a way for the humans to demonstrate their own power.
Why were humans so competitive?
…I could have sworn I put Set in charge of that stuff and declared it to be “evil”.
But the next thing she knew, the humans were siding with evil and finding all sorts of excuses for doing evil themselves.
This incident was related to a human too.
There weren’t enough of them for competition and internal conflict, but it still seemed like the presence of a human always led to trouble. She didn’t dislike Sumeragi-shi as a person, but she was thinking about keeping her distance to avoid being caught up in this kind of trouble.
“And if there are no rights for us to receive…”
She noticed something just as the words left her mouth.
A gaze.
●
It was a simple gaze.
Looking to the Egyptian couple, who were at a lower rank than her, TJ saw Seito-san staring at Beisu-shi.
“–––––”
She was only looking at him, but something about it was different from usual.
…Yeah.
That is the right way to look at him now that he’s lost his power for some reason, she thought.
●
…Seito-san should be more open about how she feels.
That couple hadn’t seemed too friendly of late.
But it all began with the husband losing his power.
When TJ had suggested that was rough on Seito-san, Beisu-shi had said…
“I just can’t seem to stop trying to look good. …But I’ll have more opportunities after the break, so it should happen then.”
They had about two weeks until the break ended.
During that time, this was TJ’s first time seeing this kind of look.
Maybe she was wrong about this due to her outside perspective, but that was fine. So she made up her mind.
“Okay. I’ve reached a decision,” she said. “Free is fine. We should be able to find a way to benefit from it. …So we’ll help you, human faction.”
●
“Oh!? What the hades!? You won’t be paid and you can’t defy the DC, so why wouldn’t you back out of this deal!? Why would you choose the path that makes you look good but damages you in the long run!?”
TJ sighed at the shouted response.
“Sorry, but I’m the kind of person who likes to join a party as long as there’s something I can get out of it.”
“TJ, do you mean…?”
“I’m with you, Beisu-shi. This’ll help you and your wife get along, won’t it?”
TJ noticed a head cocked in confusion over this. She looked up to see it was Senpai-shi.
“U-umm?”
“Sup. Egypt is here to help.”
“Oh, thank you very much. But…why?”
“Well, we’ve got a number of reasons, but my personal reason is to help the Beisu couple mend their relationship.”
“I’m not sure I follow…”
“Yeah, I can’t really get into the details while preserving Beisu-shi’s pride, but it’s possible his problem could clear up on its own when the second term starts. But remember at the end of the meeting of the gods?” she asked. “When I asked Balancer to turn back the date, Beisu-shi didn’t say a word about having his problem extended like that. What kind of creator god would I be if I didn’t reward him for that kindness?”
●
“TJ…”
“Anyway,” said TJ, with a dismissive hand wave.
“You’’re going to have to work for free now, so feel free to resent me.”
“It might not work out that way, actually.”
“Huh? …I thought we weren’t getting any rights?”
“And you aren’t. But…”
Someone reacted before she could continue: Demeter. After a long sigh…
“You know…”
“How about you actually do what I want for once, dammit!?”
●
“Huh? What is going on here?”
My question caused a change in Kuwajiri-san’s expression.
“Demeter knows about our conversation with the idiot, doesn’t she?”
“What!? Did I say something?”
“Really, I’m responsible for this. I reported it to my own superiors, but from now on, I will try to make sure at least the Bil/Ki group and Kido-senpai know too.”
“Um, know what?”
“Remember when Raidou-senpai and Shifu-senpai fought the Bil/Ki group inside that spell field? That was when I told Sumeragi, Senpai, and the others something at the Bikkuri Donkey in Sunakawa.”
A breath.
“Sumeragi said humanity would be lonely after the terraforming ended so he wanted them to hang out with us.”
●
What political meaning did that line have?
“That would mean that gods humanity had accepted as friends would be allowed to live on this planet after it was terraformed.”
So…
“So even mythologies that hadn’t been officially granted territory like Norse could have territory on this planet?”
“It wouldn’t guarantee it, but his statement carried the possibility. The human hinted at the possibility of ceding territory on the terraformed planet. Furthermore…”
One other thing had caught her attention.
“There was the conversation between Sumeragi and Senpai-san in the stone hut.”
“…Ah!”
Something must have occurred to her.
“That idiot promised Senpai-san that they would go to earth after the terraforming was complete.”
“Wow, so everyone heard all that!”
You’re only just now figuring that out? thought Kuwajiri, but the human’s words were what mattered.
“There are still several planets without a completed terraforming.”
But…
“If using a human works well here, a human will likely be involved on the other planets too. And if Sumeragi is chosen for that role…”
“Could that…happen?”
“It could. There is effectively just the one base material used to create a human. With Balancer’s help, we could effectively create another Izumi.”
“Multiplying Sumeragis, huh?”
“No comment.”
“I don’t like that phrasing, but I also cannot agree to it. They would be duplicating my child for profit.”
“In that case,” said Bilgamesh.
“They could send the experienced human to another planet. Just like the Norse gods and the monotheistic god are assisting this planet’s terraforming.”
“If that happened, then the mythologies working with the human would be ceded territory there – no matter what the DC might say. Demeter knew about the conversation at Sunakawa, didn’t she? A lot of low-level Olympus gods live in that area for construction and stuff, so it wouldn’t surprise me if one overheard it.”
“I was careless. I really should have noticed. But…it isn’t my fault that the conversation in the stone hut leaked.”
“I know it’s coming, so I’ll say up front that it wasn’t me either!”
●
“Who could possibly have leaked that information, Kubiko-kun!? If we ever find out, we will have to throw the book at them! That information was so very important!”
“Can you please keep your mouth shut!?”
●
Demeter clicked her tongue.
“Damn. One of our gods sent the information my way when I was with the DC. It didn’t seem so important when we were dealing with the Salacia incident and I figured the DC could get involved and put a stop to it if the human began offering to cede territory.”
“But I am with him and I will not let you have your way.”
“Exactly. That required a change of plans, which was honestly more convenient for me. With Echidna as the human’s mother and the lifespan goddess there too, the DC can’t touch the human so easily. And who is part of the DC and can also negotiate with Echidna? Me. So the plan was to wait for the human to seek help, surreptitiously maneuver myself into position as his friend…and get part of this planet ceded to Olympus.”
“Um? But didn’t you just turn down assisting the human?”
“I did,” nodded Demeter.
“By leading by example, I could get the Egyptians and Busty Bangs over there to back out without looking into it much. I have Athena with me, so while I had backed out, I could get Athena to do it.”
Then what would have happened?
“With those other mythologies out of the deal, the remaining mythologies would be ceded more land each.”
“I would’ve fallen for that if not for the Beisu couple.”
“Aunt…since when can you play mind games!? I’m shocked! And I thought you were just high on drugs!”
“Pour on the praise. It’s important to hide your talents.”
“But,” she added.
“My plan didn’t work! But whatever! Athena, Poseidon, and I will all be helping!”
| Back to Chapter 31 | Return to Main Page | Forward to Chapter 33 |
