“Leo-nim. Please, look at this. This is a statue of Kyle-nim I carved with my own hands, holding his sword. One for each year since the Era of Calamity ended! I’ve put my heart into carving a statue of Kyle-nim every single year. This one is Kyle-nim using magic! This one here is using summoning…”
The God brought a statue displayed on one side of the bookshelf and showed it to Leo.
The statue, carved from gemstones, was so lifelike it looked as if it might start moving at any moment.
Leo picked up a red statue of Kyle posed with a sword.
The lips were curled into a smirk.
It was the look Luna often called ‘that obnoxious smile.’
“This is the smile Kyle-nim wore when he annihilated his enemies! A charismatic smile that seemed to look down upon everything in the world! Ahhh! Could you not grant me the opportunity to behold that smile in person?”
“Kyaa—! Kyaa—!” the God let out small shrieks from the side.
At that reaction, Leo’s face crumpled in disgust, and he threw the statue in his hand onto the floor without hesitation.
Crash—!
“My work of art!”
Letting out a shrill scream, the God crawled forward, clutching the scattered fragments as large, heavy tears welled in their eyes.
The despairing God suddenly snapped their head up and shouted.
“Yes! Destruction is a new beginning! This destruction signifies that Kyle-nim has been reincarnated as Leo-nim! These fragments themselves are meaningful!”
Crunch! Grind! Grrrind—
Leo stepped on the fragments and rubbed them into the floor, turning them into powder.
The new beginning had been turned to dust.
Seeing the God kneeling and leaning against the floor in despair again, Leo spoke coldly.
“I knew Gods were a bunch with nothing better to do, but why on earth are you making things like this?”
“Making these improves my work efficiency.”
“Work?”
“I haven’t introduced myself properly, have I?”
The God stood up, looked at Leo, and bowed politely.
“My name is Rian. I am the librarian of the Hero Record and hold the responsibility of the recorder.”
“The librarian and recorder? Does that mean you have authority over the Hero Record?”
“To be precise, it is delegated authority. This Record System belongs to you… no, more precisely, it belongs to the Great Heroes.”
“I see. Is that why Luna was able to record Lunia in the Hero Record?”
“Luna? Has Luna Lubinence also been reincarnated in this era?”
Rian’s eyes widened.
In those eyes, an irrepressible sense of excitement flickered.
“She stayed in this world briefly not long ago as a Spirit.”
“Ah.”
Rian let out an exclamation filled with regret.
“Judging by your reaction, you seem to know you are the master of the Hero Record.”
“I’ve met Pibua in the Hero Record before.”
“Pibua? I see.”
Rian nodded as if understanding.
Looking at Rian, Leo asked,
“By the way, wasn’t it that Gods could no longer stay on the surface because of the incident 5,000 years ago?”
“Yes, Gods can no longer come to the surface.”
“Then how are you here? If you’ve been managing the Hero Record, that means you’ve been on the surface for 5,000 years.”
“Yes, the reason I can exist on the surface is thanks to the Hero Record.”
“Thanks to the Hero Record?”
“Yes. To explain why, I believe I must first explain how the Hero Record was born.”
Rian clapped their hands lightly.
Suddenly, a chair and a table appeared out of thin air.
An ordinary mage might have been horrified by what just happened.
It was not simply summoning a chair and table through Subspace.
It was as if they had been there from the beginning.
It was not an intervention or a distortion of the laws of space. Rian had simply changed the laws themselves.
It was a phenomenon that could never be realized through magic.
However, Leo remained calm.
'Because this guy is an omnipotent God.'
Of course, Gods could not use that omnipotence properly on the surface.
The role of Gods was strictly that of administrators, or more accurately, observers.
Even if it was called administration, it was only maintaining the world so it did not fall into ruin.
In other words, they had been suppressing Erebos.
Other than that, they were restricted from exercising power on the surface.
Thus, Gods were omnipotent yet powerless.
Furthermore, because they had lived for an eternity, they had a strong desire to simply satisfy their own whims.
This was why Luna distrusted Gods.
'Benevolent Deities like Pibua are very rare.'
Leo glanced at Rian.
'This God is crazy too, but he seems to be on the slightly more harmless side of crazy. I suppose he’d be considered a Benevolent Deity.'
A Benevolent Deity.
It meant a good God.
Of course, it was not that other Gods caused harm to the world.
At most, they caused a bit of chaos and played pranks on the surface.
'Well, they’re Gods, so the scale is huge and a headache.'
There were also those who were filthily insane.
Just looking at the Heroes recorded in the Hero Record was enough to tell.
Rian seemed out of their mind, but Leo knew they were a very mild God by comparison.
“A long, long time ago, there were the Primordial Evil and the five Great Heroes.”
Rian placed dolls shaped like the Great Heroes on their five left fingers and a doll of Erebos on their right hand.
“The Primordial Evil roared. Rawr!”
“…….”
Rian, who had begun the puppet show, started their amateurish performance with an infinitely serious face.
Watching this, Leo muttered to himself.
'Correction. He seems quite filthily insane.'
“But the Primordial Evil was defeated by the Great Heroes.”
Rian moved their left fingers fluently and repeatedly struck their right hand.
“How long do I have to watch this ridiculous play?”
“Please wait just a moment. This is my favorite scene.”
Rian, who had been relentlessly beating the Erebos doll with the Great Hero dolls on their left fingers, suddenly used their left hand to ruthlessly tear the Erebos doll apart—rip, shred—and tossed it into the air.
Scraps of black cloth soared into the sky before falling back down.
“Isn’t it magnificent?”
Looking at the fanatic whose eyes were sparkling, Leo replied awkwardly.
“Sure.”
“Aww~”
Rian, who cupped both cheeks and rejoiced for a moment, suddenly changed their expression and said,
“Thus, peace returned to the world. To eternally praise the achievements of the Great Heroes who accomplished an impossible feat, and to prepare for the resurrection of the Primordial Evil which had not been completely ended, the Gods decided to create a Record System completely different from the previous ones.”
“A Record System completely different from the previous ones?”
“Yes.”
Rian spread their arms wide.
“The Akasha Record. A Record System that records the world itself. It is a system completed by all the Gods who returned to the divine realm, pooling their omnipotence together. This library is the Akasha Record itself. There is a copy of this library in the divine realm as well.”
“What exactly do you mean by recording the world?”
Seeing Leo express his doubt, Rian smiled broadly.
“It means recording every single event in the world exactly as it happened since 5,000 years ago. From the tiny movements of insects in a specific place to what kind of breeze blew there… it was a massive collection of information that even Gods could not handle. The Creator, who made the world long ago and entrusted us with its management… although even the Gods have never met them, surely even the Creator could not have predicted that such a thing would be made.”
“I get that it’s impressive. But why make such a system?”
“Because what the Gods wanted to create was the ‘world’ itself.”
“The world itself?”
“Yes. Although limited, it was to create a world. Though fragmentary, it was to reach the authority of creation.”
Rian closed their eyes and smiled happily.
“To implement things that happened in the past in the present time, just like they are ‘real.’”
At those words, Leo’s expression changed drastically.
“The Hero Record.”
“Exactly! All of this was the foundational work to create the Hero Record. The Akasha Record is essentially the basic system that makes up the Hero Record.”
Rian placed a hand over their chest.
“From the individuals recorded in that Akasha Record, we selected those worthy of being called ‘Heroes’ and recorded them in the Hero Record. So that the children of the surface could follow the records of the past and inherit the power of the ancestral Heroes. However, the Hero Record required a selection process, and there was no one who could record in the Hero Record. And we also needed a source of power to compose the Hero Record itself.”
“And that’s you?”
“Yes. I am the librarian of the Hero Record and a part of the Hero Record itself.”
“That means you sacrificed yourself. Is it worth it for a being such as a God to become a part of the Hero Record at the cost of your own existence?”
“It wouldn’t be for other Gods. I was the only one who volunteered.”
“Why?”
“…….”
Rian opened their gray eyes and looked up at Leo.
“I used to hate gray. Because it is the color of ash, burnt out and useless.”
Rian fiddled with their own hair.
“That’s why I hated you, too. No, to be precise, I mocked you. First, I hated you for having gray hair and eyes. And I thought you, who lived on because you couldn’t die even though you wanted nothing, were truly futile. So, during the Era of Calamity, I was certain of the world’s destruction. All Gods probably were… but I was closer to those who mocked. Yet, despite giving up on everything, I also hated the thought of vanishing.”
The disappearance of the world also meant the disappearance of the Gods.
“But you never gave up until the end and saved the world. I had no choice but to worship you.”
Rian smiled broadly.
“So I wanted your will to be passed down to future generations forever. From my perspective, having already given up on everything, I had no reason to cherish my own existence.”
“Anyone with power like mine would have done the same.”
Rian shook their head.
“Please do not belittle the feat that even the omnipotent Gods deemed impossible. Please do not belittle the faith of your companions who believed in you until the end.”
Rian looked Leo straight in the eye with those gray eyes.
“It was possible only because it was you. This is an absolute, unchanging truth.”
“…….”
Leo scratched his cheek.
'He is a God after all.'
Muttering to himself that Rian should not be underestimated, Leo asked,
“Did you know about my existence from the moment I was reincarnated?”
“No. Because of that damn Primordial Evil, the Akasha Record also took damage. It’s causing errors. Also, because the Akasha Record is so vast, not even the Gods know every single record.”
Rian shook their head.
“Furthermore, everyone is hell-bent on recording the Heroes they want in the Hero Record. So the discovery was late.”
“Aren’t you the one who does the recording?”
“Yes. But since I can’t keep track of all Heroes, the Gods hold regular meetings to select Heroes to record. But as you know, Leo-nim, the Gods are a hopeless bunch, aren’t they?”
Rian scowled.
“Through the meetings, even things that aren’t like Heroes get recorded.”
Annoyance was clear on their face.
“Why did you send the Genesis Heroes outside?”
“Ah, that was because I realized Leo-nim’s existence and opened a Hero Dungeon to lead you to this place… but because of the Primordial Evil, there was a surge, and the dolls made with my power ended up going out into the world.”
“As expected, omnipotent yet powerless.”
“Ahhh!”
“Why are you happy? That wasn’t a compliment.”
“If it’s something you bestow upon me, Leo-nim, I even welcome insults. No, if you were to spit—no, spray holy water upon me, I would receive it with a joyful heart!”
“…….”
“Leo-nim, this hair! After I started worshipping you, I plucked out all my old hair and planted new ones! The same goes for my eyes! I plucked them out and put in new ones! Ahhh! Now that you have red eyes as well, I must pluck one of these out too! Which one should I pluck? Left? Right?”
'He’s just utterly insane.'
The improving perception of Rian plummeted back to the bottom.
Leo clicked his tongue and said,
“If you’ve been recording the Hero Record, let me ask you one thing.”
“Yes. Please give me your command.”
“About Velkia and Vihar.”
“So you’ve learned about them.”
Rian let out a sorrowful exclamation.
“It might make you feel uncomfortable.”
“Correcting what is wrong is also a teacher’s job.”
“Then…”
Rian closed their eyes and took a deep breath.
“I shall start by telling you why the Fairy Knight became that way.”
***
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