The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

There were myriad differences between a god with emotions and one without. However, the biggest difference was the former’s susceptibility, perhaps even propensity, to making mistakes. Emotions often served to over-complicate and cloud judgment, eliminating the inherent objectivity traditional gods operated under.

Recalling the wish she needed to grant Si-Woo, Willow began to seriously doubt her own judgment. “Did I pick the wrong one?”

That was despite Si-Woo and Park Seung-hyun's requests being, frankly, far too modest for wishes made to a god.

Nonetheless, Willow and Neltarid had expected the wishes to be fairly mundane, not bothering to worry very much about them before accepting the requests and offering their services.

The real problem began once they got into the real meat and implications of the wishes. Willow had tried to dump the hard job on Neltarid by giving him Moderation, keeping Si-Woo’s simple matchmaking wish for herself.

By the letter, Si-Woo’s request was asking for quite a lot. Matchmaking while preserving free will would certainly be beyond difficult to do for more... homely wishers. Fortunately, Si-Woo was handsome, well-mannered, wealthy, and quite famous.

Still, exceptional people didn't necessarily need to partner with similarly successful people. Given Si-Woo's broad taste, instead of fishing through tabloids for prospects, Willow focused on finding someone who shared a proverbial red thread of fate with him.. Considering his personal tastes, Willow meticulously searched for beings who could be connected with him with the red thread of fate.

However, things couldn't have gotten off to a worse start for the young goddess. It didn't take long before she was forced to realize how hard it was to select a fated partner for someone.

Willow was the Goddess of Harmony, not some Goddess of Love. No matter how intricately she was able to grasp an individual’s feelings and emotions, she couldn't possibly know at a glance if a man and a woman would fall in love, or if they’d even stay happy once they did.

Ever the resourceful one, she made the executive decision of taking a shortcu— tactically efficient path. She used the beautifully thick and loving red thread of fate connecting Davey and Perserque as a baseline to effectively filter through countless potential partners for Si-Woo.

She sought a soulmate for Si-Woo, someone who could love him just as much as Davey and Perserque loved each other. A soulmate, destined by fate.

Remarkably, the strategy was actually viable! She heaved a sigh of relief and filtered for the soon-to-be love of Si-Woo’s life, but the outcome was beyond her expectations.

She stood speechless for a good minute before finally managing to mutter, “How is that even possible, bro...?”

The filter returned zero results. Zilch. Nada. Not a single person on Earth shared such a connection with Si-Woo.

She’d looked for someone who wasn't much older or younger than him. When not a single match appeared, her stubbornness kicked in, and she drastically broadened the age range.

Yet, despite her concession, the result remained the same.

Willow had yet to realize that destined soulmates like Davey and Perserque were supremely rare to encounter.

She began to feel more than ever that she’d made a mistake foolishly accepting his request. She couldn’t grant the wish if there was no one around who could help her out!

‘Since it's come to this, maybe I should go a little further and create an apostle tailored to him from scratch?’

She thought it over, knowing how absurd such a notion was, and concluded she'd save the option as a last resort.

In the end, she was forced to return to the tiresome and mind-numbing method she’d been avoiding—she traveled all over Tionis and other dimensions to search.

And then, as if by a miracle, she found one person. She was far older than any human, but that was little matter.

The woman was a succubus. The problem, as it so happened, was that this particular succubus was a priestess in a convent where marriage was forbidden.

There were many sects within the Church of Goddess Freyja, with some more traditional sects employing priests and priestesses who took vows of celibacy. Such an environment really didn't suit a succubus.

However, the red thread connecting her to Si-Woo was proof that once the two of them had their meet cute, they could have a perfectly happy and cherry-blossom-fated relationship.

“The way Goddess Freyja detects things definitely gets results, I'll give her that.”

The only issue was that their statuses and positions which practically ensured they would never naturally cross paths. After all, a red thread connecting two people didn't necessarily guarantee they'd meet at some point in their lives.

Realistically, plenty of people married even without the thread. A thick red thread only indicated they'd be the greatest soulmates if they met, precluding any certainty.

“This is getting so complicated,” she murmured to herself, biting her fingernails. “What should I do...”

It was the first wish she would be granting as a goddess, so she couldn't just back down and start her sure-to-be illustrious divine career with a failure.

Willow contemplated for a long time, ultimately deciding to observe the priestess for a while. She arrived at the location, diligently shadowing and analyzing the woman for an entire week before revisiting her viability.

Unfortunately, her findings were far from promising. The fact that the priestess was a celibate maiden was certainly an obstacle, sure, but she had run into a much bigger problem. The succubus priestess, named Elysia, didn't enjoy the presence of males.

Though, such a description was frankly an understatement, as her feelings went beyond a distaste into outright androphobia. She instinctively avoided men approaching her, even unconsciously and constantly releasing a pheromone that repelled the male gender.

While Willow could surely suppress it with her power as a goddess, she also recognized what a bad idea it would be.

Her mission was about connecting two people, not picking up a person like an object and giving them as a gift to Si-Woo. Sure, his opinion was important, but Elysia’s will was naturally just as important.

Lost in woeful contemplation and consternation, she sighed, “Haah. I don't know the first thing about this kind of stuff. What do I doooo...”

It was then that a woman in religious garb approached Willow, pulling her from her thoughts. The woman gave a graceful, beautiful smile and politely offered, “Hello, my name is Elysia. Do you perhaps have a problem, Sister?”

Willow turned around with a start, quickly noticing that the few people who had been nearby were all gone. It seemed she'd been thinking too hard and neglected her surroundings. She was flustered, realizing she may have been caught red handed watching her from a distance.

She tried to compose herself, but still stuttered, “P-pardon?”

“Fufu. You look like you have a lot on your mind. I haven’t seen you around here before, are you from out of town?”

“Ah. I'm just a tourist.”

In a small village, it was the best excuse for her presence.

Looking ever at ease and ready to provide counsel, Elysia softly asked, “If you don't mind, could I hear what's troubling you?”

Willow waved her hand and replied, “You don't need to do that.”

The last thing she needed was to start talking and accidentally let it slip that she's a full-blown goddess on a covert tailing mission. As long as she kept her mouth shut, her identity should be secure.

Even if the other person was a succubus, she was only a plain, lower-level succubus. On top of that, Elysia was suppressing most of her power, so she didn't recognize Willow’s level.

“Are you sure? I was feeling a bit bored, actually, so I'll go on about myself instead.” Smiling demurely, she sat down next to Willow on the long wooden bench. Eager to make conversation, she rambled, “Almost no other clerics ever visit this church. There’s only one, but he's not feeling well.”

“Is he sick?”

Elysia gave a bittersweet smile and nervously fiddled with the ends of her hair before sadly answering, “Unfortunately, his years have caught up to him, and the time for him to return to God’s embrace is approaching.”

Willow had already vaguely felt the priest was nearing his end. She'd sensed a faint trace of life coming from inside the prayer room.

She could extend his life a little with her powers, but she chose not to. It would be a betrayal of his dedication to Goddess Freyja, something she wouldn't want to put him through.

Intrigued to hear the woman mention a man, Willow cautiously remarked, “It sounds like you care about him quite a lot.”

“That’s right, I suppose I do. Even though we're not related by blood, he's like a father to me.”

Curiosity piqued, Willow figured it was a good opportunity to learn more about the woman. She questioned, “If it's not too intrusive, would you mind telling me more about him?”

Whether she was a succubus or a priestess didn't matter at that moment. Willow needed to see what kind of person she was at her core.

Elysia chuckled, “Fufu. I offered to counsel you, but now I'm the one receiving it.”

“No worries. I'm also part of the church,” Willow reassured her. “Since we’ve already reached this point, why don't we counsel each other?”

Though her claim of being a church member wasn't true, it wasn't exactly wrong either. The church itself followed a goddess. Willow, though born from Davey, was also their goddess’s daughter, having inherited Goddess Freyja's power.

“Oh, I never would've thought! Which sect, if you don't mind my asking?”

“Ah. Well...” Willow pondered for a moment, facing the unexpected question. Then, she smiled and used her incredibly vast knowledge and supreme intellect to graciously... lie, answering, “The Harmony Sect.”

“The Harmony Sect? Forgive me, but I haven't heard of that one before. Of course, the sects that serve Goddess Freyja are varied, even if they're small in size. It's a bit embarrassing, but I don't know the names of all the sects yet.”

A smile slowly grew on her face as she recounted, “A long time ago, I was just a little orphan wandering the world. One day, the priest found me starving in the street, and he was kind enough to take me in. Although he's strict when he needs to be... he's the warmest person in the world, my closest family.”

She quietly bowed her head and continued, “The holy doctrine tells us that the dead return to Goddess Freyja’s embrace. My foster father has always believed that completing one's holy mission and returning to the goddess’s embrace is a blessing.”

Willow added, “A blessing, indeed.”

“But... I'm not so sure. I've served the Goddess for a long time, but... even if I will return to the Goddess's embrace upon death, I am not sure if I can truly accept it with a smile. Ah, Goddess... Please watch over this lamb...”

The church’s clergy believed that after they fulfilled their divine duty to the Goddess, ultimately leaving their mortal coil, they would return to her embrace.

As it happened, that was far from the reality of death in their world, even for Goddess Freyja’s clergy. The souls of those who died under her purview were destined to be purified in the River of Souls before entering the cycle of reincarnation. Alas, believers like Elysia had no way of knowing that.

“It must be hard, accepting death with such peace...”

“You think so?”

“Returning to God’s embrace may be the dream of all clerics, but humans are too emotional to just throw everything away and accept death without any issue.”

Elysia smiled faintly at the explanation. “I see. This is just another trial God has given me, then...”

‘No, girl. It’s simply the human condition, not a special trial from an attentive creator.’

Of course, Willow couldn't say that outright. Frankly, even she sometimes found the goddess's will to be completely incomprehensible.

“Now that I've told you about what’s on my mind, can you tell me more about your own struggles, Sister?”

Having fallen into the flow of the conversation, Willow assented and told her, “A friend of mine is planning to get married.”

That wasn’t the “problem” Elysia was expecting to hear about. “Oh! Well... congratulations?”

Willow calmly went on, “The problem is the woman my friend is going to marry. Where I come from, there’s something called the red thread of fate.”

“The red thread of fate? There's actually something similar in my church's scripture. It's said that Goddess Freyja connected the first man and woman with a red thread of fate, and they lived happily ever after.”

“Yes, exactly, it's the same concept. Well, I actually have the power to see something similar to the red threads of fate.”

Elysia’s head tilted in confusion. Even though she found it to be an unbelievable and pointless lie, she didn’t say anything about it and just let Willow continue.

“So... I'm asking you. Marriage... Are you interested in that kind of thing?”

Only then did Elysia realize her intent in bringing up the subject. She paused blankly for a moment, then let out an awkward laugh. “Ah?Ahahaha...”

She then prayed to the Goddess's symbol hanging in front of her and informed Willow, “Sister, I've devoted myself to God.”

“I know.”

“Hmm. I don't know what you saw that made you come to such a difficult decision, but... I’m afraid I can’t accept that.”

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