Chapter 141: Contract with the Goddess

“This is…”

Pure white space that seemed to continue to infinity surrounded me.

I had already come to this place before.

“Thank you for your hard work in defeating the Demon King, Hero.”

I whired around towards the sound, and a snow-haired old man with a white beard, looking like some kind of deity, stood before me.

Ah, actually, it was the real deal, an authentic deity, and he was the one who teleported me to this world.

Moreover, this deity was not an ordinary one. He was called the Creator God, being the one who created this world, and was considered as the greatest among all the deities.

“For you to return after slaying that Demon King in such a short amount of time...You really did well. And now, let me send you back to your previous world. Oh, there is no need to worry. I will send you back in time, right before you were summoned here.”

“Ahm, pardon me, but I want to remain in this world.”

“...What?”

“It is fine even if I don’t return back to my previous world, so can you please return me to the Demon King’s Palace right away?”

I wanted to hurry back to Tina’s side.

However —

“Sorry, but I can’t do that.”

“Wwhy?”

“I had formed a contract with the deity in the world you were previously in. The moment you defeat the Demon King, I have to return you back to your previous world. That was the condition for me to borrow you.”

If I knew, then I would have talked to Tina about a lot of things. We would’ve touched more.

I wanted to give that ring to her.

Maybe we also had the choice not to defeat the Demon King. Monsters would steadily increase if he was alive, but if we sealed that ability of his, then maybe we could’ve prevented the generation of monsters.

And since we already annihilated a million monsters, then the warlocks and monsters that would be born from the mana that leaked out of the sealed Demon KIng were nothing to us.

If not slaying the Demon King meant I could be with Tina forever, then I would have chosen not to kill him.

“You hastily requested that I teleport you right away, so I didn’t have the time to explain it to you. Still, I was able to tell the other heroes about it. Didn’t they relay it to you?”

Takato never said a word about that. That’s when I recalled Takato’s expression right before he slashed the Demon King.

That expression, he was mocking me, not the Demon King.

… So that’s how it was.

I finally realized Takato’s true intention.

Takato knew that we would be sent back from this world to our previous world. He aimed to break us up the moment he knew he wouldn’t win against me, and he failed in making Tina his.

I gave Takato the go signal to kill the Demon King without knowing anything. Because of that, I didn’t even have the time to say goodbye to Tina.

“Can’t you do something about this? All I need is a little bit more time. Please let me say goodbye to Tina.”

“It is easy for me to summon a person into this world, and teleport him to his destination, but a colossal amount of energy is needed in order to return them to the previous world.”

The positive emotions and desires of people, including their piety and wishes towards the Creator God, would become energy that he could use.

Most of the people in this world wished the world would be saved from the Demon King, so the amount of energy accumulated was enough to summon Takato and the others, and return them to their previous world, too.

However, that energy did not have any to spare. The Creator God originally wanted to summon Takato’s four man team.

It so happened that I was involved. Therefore, the Creator God needed to consume more energy than the original plan, so the creator god was also in deficit.

He did have some reserves, more or less, but he wanted to save it in case there was an emergency crisis in the world.

“Energy… C-can you supplement it with, let’s say, my lifespan, or something like that? Please, I...just a little is enough. Please let me return back to Tina’s side!”

“Impossible.”

The Creator God apologetically looked at me. That’s when it hit me that my wish would never come true.

“There is nothing I can do, but let us ask the other deities. Perhaps, an eccentric deity would come forward.”

“P-please!”

I was prepared to do anything. If I needed to defeat the Demon King all over again, then I would; if they needed my lifespan, then by all means. Just let me be with Tina, that was what I wished for.

And then —

“If you are willing to form a contract with me, then I can give you enough energy for you to meet your beloved, though it would only be a short while.”

A goddess that would grant my wish appeared.

“Thank you very much! I will do anything!”

“Fufufu, Let me introduce myself first, shall I? I am the Goddess that governs all memories of the world you just have been.”

“The Goddess of Memory…”

“Yes. As for the condition to grant your wish — please give me all your memories that you have in this world.”

“My...memories?”

“Indeed. That was quite an amazingly fun journey that you had, did you not? It’s very hard to find someone like you, a Hero who started at Level 30, nowadays. Besides, that girl, Tina, was it? I have been watching your interactions, and it made my heart pound.”

The Goddess was blushing a bit.

Eh, d-don’t tell me she saw me flirting with Tina!?

— Yup, it seemed she watched us.

Even if she was a goddess, it was still embarrassing.

“And so, I wanted to enjoy your memory from your point of view, and not from a third person’s perspective. By the way, once you surrender your memories to me, you will not remember anything, so think about it carefully.”

I was a bit torn. It would be painful to lose all my memories with Tina. However, it would probably be more painful if I were to return to my previous world with them, because my yearning for Tina would become stronger.

“...I understand. I offer my memories to you.”

“Really!? Yehey! Ah, there’s one more thing, in order to obtain the energy necessary for me to return you to our world for a time, I need to erase the memory of your name from all the people in the world, is that alright with you, too?”

“My name…why?”

“Didn’t you save a lot of people from the monsters? The world is overflowing with feelings and gratitude towards you.”

I had thought that it would be better if the world Tina lived in was a bit more peaceful, so I had done all I could, but it made me happy when I heard that many people felt grateful to me.

“We deities do not have the power to convert that gratitude and thoughts into energy. It’s because those thoughts are for you.”

The goddess then told me that the gratitude of the residents of this world towards me accumulated a lot of energy, but it couldn’t be used as it was.

“A name has a huge part in moulding the existence of a person. If I receive the memories related to your name, part of those gratitude and thoughts will then become an offering to me.”

The goddess would then be able to convert that portion of memories towards me into energy, apparently. I didn’t really understand, but if the goddess said so, then it must be like that.

Anyway, I wanted to see Tina once more. I didn’t dislike the fact that somebody felt thankful to me, but it’d be useless when I returned back to my world. Then, in that case, there should be no problem if I put those feelings and what not into something useful for the goddess.

“I understand. I agree with those conditions.”