I Reincarnated as the Villain in an Eroge, But Before I Realized, I Became a Capture Target
Translator: Reo and Hushush
Editor: PalenMisha
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 81 (Part 1)
Had the goddess not been standing in the line of fire and had Luca not been by my side, I might have trembled and cried in fear. The overwhelmingly large wolf, with its glaring eyes and sharp fangs that seemed ready to bite, was terrifying.
Of course, the goddess was also strong enough to kill me in the blink of an eye, but I wasn’t afraid of her. Perhaps because of the affection I could feel from her.
Soleil stomped his paw and a burst of light shot out.
BANG!!
Though I could hear the sound of two things clashing, the shockwave of the attack was too bright and I couldn’t tell what had happened. I could, however, feel the presence of not just light mana, but dark mana as well, meaning the goddess blocked his attack with her magic.
After a few seconds, I managed to lift my head up and saw Lune, her palm facing Soleil.
Soleil, whose attack had been deflected, let out a low growl and began absorbing the purifying essence that hung above his head. Finally. With this, his anger would quiet down somewhat and he’d hopefully start to recognize Lune, the goddess he loved.
In a whirlpool of power, the amount of purifying essence quickly decreased. But even with half of it gone, his threatening pose did not go away and Lune prepared herself for a fight.
More essence was absorbed and the air between the two still prickled, almost painfully, with bloodlust. Still, bit by bit, it felt like the intimidation Soleil was projecting was starting to fade.
Standing inside Lune’s barrier, I could do nothing but watch and make sure that all the purifying essence we had gathered had been completely absorbed by him.
And?
『………………Lune?』A voice rang out, calling the goddess’s name.
Was that the voice of Soleil? It was full of gravitas, befitting a god.
Luca and I exchanged a look then turned our gazes back to the two gods. Soleil had brought his snout closer to Lune. Convinced that she was indeed his beloved, his killing intent faded and so did Lune’s.
『Soleil, you… I will never forgive you.』
Huh…?
『W-why!?』
The flustered Soleil began to glow and changed into human form. He tried to reach his hand out towards Lune. He was a blond ikemen, a fact that I was already aware of, but when Lune slapped his hand away, he let out an audible gasp of shock. A pitiful ikemen, I guess? But perhaps because he was now facing Lune, all the fear he had projected before had gone away.
『First of all, destroy this. We will talk after.』
Full of anger, Lune dragged the Lumiere that was floating nearby in front of Soleil. He took three or four steps back, perhaps because something ominous was suddenly thrust in his face.
『Y-yes. I understand.』
Though still flustered, Soleil agreed and covered the floating Lumiere with his hand. Light came from his palm and the amount of mana rapidly swelled. That light enveloped the Lumiere and then, with a loud crack, it began to break, crumbling away until no trace of it was left.
Amazing. It was something so dangerous that Lune had said you’d go mad and die just by touching it and yet the god of the light attribute could so easily destroy it.
『Look, it’s gone. Will you forgive me now?』
But no matter how amazing, he was the same unfortunate ikemen as before.
He didn’t even ask why she was angry, so I don’t think she’d forgive him with this. Of course, Lune was of the same mind.
『There’s no way I will forgive you. One puny attack by the humans made you so enraged you decided to destroy the whole country. Am I so weak in your eyes that I’d be defeated by something like that?』
『N-no! Wrong! That’s… yeah, I couldn’t forgive those who tried to kill you! How dare they try to kill my partner while living under my domain!』
『The negative emotions of humans are something pleasant for someone like me with the dark attribute. It was impossible for those weak beings to kill me, so you could have just left them alone to feel the despair of the disparity between us.』
As expected of the dark attribute goddess – she was both kind and harsh.
Luca and Nina also told me I was harsh, but it wasn’t to this extent…. Probably.
『In the first place, I told you I didn’t really care about it, but you wouldn’t listen. If you truly loved me you’d put me first no matter what. But you ignored me again and again. It seems you’ve come to hate me.』
『Never! I love you!』
『Says someone who was so consumed by anger he seriously tried to kill me. I don’t believe you.』
『That, that was… um…』
『Furthermore, because of you, who continued to rampage even after I sealed you, I had to spend a thousand years in the depths of the earth. I was incredibly bored when I wasn’t able to observe the weak ones. There’s no way I could forgive you.』
『Ah, um, uu…』Soleil was at a loss for words in the face of her argument.
“Seems she’s got him under her thumb.”1
“Fu, fufu. Seems that way.”
Luca and I have talked about this before, but who knew the power dynamic really did skew that way. Well, that just goes to show how much Soleil loved her.
And perhaps because that very same goddess had whipped her head away from him, Soleil groaned, looking like he was about to cry. Truly an unfortunate ikemen.
However, it wasn’t like he was actually shedding any tears, and after letting out a big sigh, as if to calm himself down, he looked back up at Lune.
『…It’s true that I ignored your feelings, but it’s precisely because I love you that I couldn’t bear the thought of you being surrounded by humans who were trying to kill you. Humans are beings with developing brains who constantly evolve. Had they attacked you head-on, that wouldn’t have been a problem, but had they taken a different approach, could you truly say for sure that you would have been safe?』
Now that he said it, that might be true. They might have served her a lethal dose of poison or created a nuclear weapon like in my previous life. I’m just an average person so the most I can do is tinker with magic tools, but geniuses are capable of making the impossible possible through trial and error. When you think about it, being surrounded by humans like that was truly dangerous.
Anyway, I don’t think he’s wrong. Even now, after Soleil had been sealed for a thousand years, the people are still taught that this was his domain. That perception would have been even stronger a thousand years ago when God was much closer to the people.
Soleil and Lune had been affectionate with each other since long ago, and in the past, they were worshipped as a pair. I don’t really know how that belief got twisted, but at some point, the people of the kingdom came to regard Lune as an evil being. Though their lives barely spanned a hundred years, they dared to make light of the affection of their god towards a partner whom he had been with for hundreds of millions of years. There was no doubt – the humans were the ones in the wrong.
However, as I was a human myself, I couldn’t thank Lune enough for stopping Soleil from destroying the country and continuing to protect it for a thousand years. The goddess still had to handle Soleil’s anger that had yet to abate, so I wished that instead of turning her head away she would try to talk to him. And I wished she could persuade him not to destroy this kingdom.
“Anyway, the two of us have completed our duty, right?”
“Yeah, we’ve accomplished our goal of saving both of them and by the looks of it, we’re not needed here anymore. Still, I’m a bit worried if this is really the end of it.”
He was right. The situation hadn’t been fully resolved, so we couldn’t relax just yet.
Interfering in the gods’ conversation might make matters worse, so in the end, all that was left for us to do was to keep monitoring the situation. In the meantime, we should keep an eye on them and if it looks like everything is ok, we’ll move somewhere else.
Was it wrong of me to have thoughts like that behind Lune’s back, as if it were somebody else’s problem?
The goddess, who was showing Soleil her back, turned her eyes towards us.
『Trying to have a conversation with him might take hundreds of years. It would be decisively faster to settle this with a duel.』
Though I had asked her to stop doing it just moments ago, Lune still answered my inner thoughts. Of course, Luca was startled by her abrupt suggestion, confused due to lack of context.
I too had moments when I wished to resolve a situation through a duel. However, if the two gods were to fight, the damage would be severe. The kingdom might be dragged into it again like it had a thousand years ago.
『I understand. We shall each lend our power to you descendants, and you will fight as our proxies. Soleil shouldn’t have a problem with that either.』
『Hmm… it seems that my descendant is at a slight disadvantage here, but I guess I could compensate for that as much as needed. Right, I’ll take you up on that offer.』
