A white light filled my vision. I thought I heard a gentle voice say, “Rion.”
Solana was gone before I realized it. What I saw was a scene of family togetherness.
—Rion!
My young father was holding a toy sword to me, and I, about five years old, was swinging it around. Lu was still a baby, held on my mother’s lap. My father and mother were originally adventurers, and after getting married, they bought a small house in the Royal Capital to raise us.
The time of family togetherness continued.
I turned seven, then ten.
The scene of my father, mother, Lu, and me all laughing together lasted until I was twelve. At some point, I started wielding a wooden practice sword instead of a toy sword. Lu was already a responsible child back then, helping my mother and going out to learn sewing.
“I’m going now.”
Dad raised one hand and went outside. Lu, Mom, and I watched him go.
Dad never came back after that adventure.
A cold wind brushed against my cheek.
I snapped back to reality.
“W-what was that just now?”
Above me, Odin looked down.
My head is still spinning. It had probably been an illusion he had shown me.
Odin spoke.
“In the past, you lost your family to monsters.”
I remained silent and listened.
“Luisia is trying to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again. She wishes to flee to another world with her family, her precious companions, and her friends. A world where there is no fear of monsters… where the happy family life you longed for—the warmth you still regret losing—can continue forever, without anyone ever being taken away.”
A sharp pain tightened in my chest.
The days when our whole family had been together…
We had never been wealthy. But looking back now, those days had been happy. Truly happy.
“And now, that happiness is about to be lost once more.”
Odin’s voice was calm.
“Isn’t that so?”
Odin whispered.
He is forcing me to face whether I wanted to or not, exactly what I stood to lose by continuing this fight.
“You, your mother, and your sister have all been targeted by monsters. If they wished to reclaim the happiness they once had in another world, what could possibly be strange about that?”
Before the water mirror, its far edges fading like the horizon of a lake, Lu slowly rose to her feet.
She held her hand over the surface and poured green mana into it. From the depths of the mirror, a gigantic sphere of light began to emerge. It had to be thirty meters across.
Disturbing the water as it rose, the luminous orb revealed itself completely and came to a halt, floating at about the height of a child. The surface of the lake turned pure white in its radiance. As it absorbed the magic flowing from Lu, the light only grew brighter and brighter.
The sphere rotated slowly. Drawing in the green mana around it, it continued to gather strength.
“Your sister has begun Creation….”
My head still felt hazy.
That… that was Creation.
“That sphere of light is the unfinished world that was once meant to be created through Freyja, long before this age. It contains an amount of power that surpasses even the gods. But because it has already begun to take shape, it can no longer be used as ordinary magic. Its only purpose now is Creation itself.”
At Odin’s words, my throat tightened.
That enormous sphere of light—
it was the next world, on the verge of being born from the power of Creation.
“You fought well, using the skill Alarm. There is no longer any reason not to call you a Hero.”
Odin looked down at me.
“Congratulations. The people precious to you can now pass into the next world, where no one will ever be lost again.”
The Chief God repeated himself.
“Congratulations. The family life you longed for… can begin anew and continue forever.”
The coin inside my pocket trembled.
I looked around, but the goddess—Solana— was nowhere to be seen. Some power must have sealed her within the coin.
Tears welled up in my eyes.
“…That’s not fair.”
When it was laid out before me like this—when I was reminded once again just how precious they were—it made me want to treasure only my family.
Those days had been warm.
They had been happy.
I had loved them with all my heart.
So I understood. I understood the desire not to lose them… the desire to get them back. Because if there were no monsters, then everything would be solved.
But…
“I’m sorry, Odin.”
I looked up at the Chief God above me. Drawing my blue-crystal short sword, I pointed it toward him.
“I can’t accept that way of thinking.”
“Luisia fears your loss more than anything else. And you will be lost. Will you repeat the same tragedy that befell your family?”
“Maybe. I don’t intend to repeat it… but there’s a chance it could happen.”
I took a breath and continued.
“But… Father didn’t just die.”
I tightened my grip on the short sword.
“He left me the horn… and the means to fight monsters.”
The moment I threw all of that away…my father would truly be gone. I am still not ready to abandon what he had entrusted to me.
“…I see. And you do not realize that this resolve of yours is what is hurting your sister?”
“That’s why I’m going to talk to Lu.”
I answered without hesitation.
I understood how Lu felt. She had probably faced the same question I had just been given. And my resolve—to protect her no matter the cost, even if it meant my own death—was something she simply couldn’t accept.
I had been so desperate to protect her that I had never truly considered how it felt to be the one being protected.
“Thank you for giving me Alarm skill.”
I looked straight at Odin.
“But I came here to bring my sister home. So please… step aside.”
Yet Odin still blocked my path with his wall of ice.
I was about to use a skill to shatter it when a chilling sensation ran through me.
The presence I always felt—the goddess’s presence—had vanished completely.
“So…Solana?”
I couldn’t hear her. There was no cheerful voice in my head.
Odin spoke coldly.
“The skill Alarm that I granted you… I have sealed it, but only within this place.”
I called out again.
“Solana!”
No answer came.
The goddess’s voice no longer reached me.
“Can you still uphold that resolve on your own? Can you break the ice without her?”
Odin asked.
I glared up at him and pulled the gold coin from my pocket. It wasn’t just that the awakened goddess had always helped me. As one of her followers, I had forged a bond with her.
“I’ll be fine.”
I took the coin from its pouch and pressed it firmly against my blue-crystal short sword.
The gold coin began to shine. Golden mana raced along the blade.
Then a voice echoed inside my head—the voice of the gods, the voice of the goddess Norn.
| Skill『Sun’s Divine Protection』was activated. 【Sword of the Daughter of the Sun】…… Imbues the Daughter of the Sun in a weapon. |
Golden light crashed into the ice.
The wall that stood between Lu and me shattered beneath the surging radiance, breaking apart and melting away. The gold coin glimmered proudly before slipping from my short sword and falling.
Clink.
A clear, refreshing sound rang out. Even if I couldn’t see the goddess. Even if I couldn’t step outside through Alarm. This bond—the one that still let me draw upon her power—was real.
A memory surfaced in my mind.
—I will always be with you.
Those were the words of the goddess.
When I had shown her around the Royal Capital, I had made that promise.
I raised my eyes to Odin.
“I’m going through, Odin.”
I walk towards the water mirror where Lu is.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeneijiworks.com
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