Chapter 12 Let’s Touch the Evil God’s Reverse Scale!
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
Before deciding what to do with our uninvited guest, the Water Princess Mizuki, I first led her to a room untouched by the miasma.
When the Underground Temple was built, it had dorms for the carpenters who stayed here.
Protective spells kept out the Evil Dragon’s miasma, and inside was a wide space where dozens could sleep.
Near the entrance stood a monument for those who died during construction.
When I pressed my hands together in prayer, Mizuki did the same beside me.
Then, in a room once used as a break space, I began the meeting with Mizuki.
Even if she was Yaten’s acquaintance, I had to know why she tried to free the Evil Dragon who could destroy the world.
”They say you are the Evil Dragon’s acquaintance from long ago. But why would you want to release something that could end the world?”
I watched Mizuki carefully as we sat across the table.
She was the acquaintance from over a thousand years ago.
Even knowing the Evil Dragon as disaster, she had come to free her.
If Mizuki wished for ruin like a doomsayer, I would need to deal with her right away.
After a moment of hesitation, the beautiful woman removed her veil, revealing eyes like red jewels, and spoke.
”Do you know that there is a distortion in the relationship between Gods and humans?”
”You mean the Heaven and Earth Reversal.”
Heaven and Earth Reversal—this problem came in modern times, when humans found ways to control the Gods.
As the earth lies beneath the sky, so must there be order between humans and Gods.
But with modern rationalism and scientific values, people no longer worshipped Gods as higher beings.
As civilization advanced, humans even made tools to use the Gods for their own greed.
”Like when they cast down the God of Fertility for crops. Instead of praying with awe and receiving blessings, they force the Gods to work, as if they were livestock. That’s why this age is called the end of law, a time when monsters run wild. People twisted the law of nature.”
”That is the truth. Because of humans, the world itself is breaking apart even now.”
Mizuki leaned forward, her voice burning with passion.
For her, this was the perfect chance: the Shiryuin head, the key to freeing the Evil Dragon, was listening seriously.
If she could persuade me, she could achieve her long-cherished goal.
She bore the mission of saving the world, and I could see her firm resolve.
Of course, I already knew all of this from the start.
But I wanted to hear how it tied to freeing the Evil Dragon, so I continued.
”I understand your goal. But I don’t see how freeing the Evil Dragon connects to it. Don’t tell me you mean to ask Yaten to destroy humanity in exchange for release?”
”No, never! Because I am close to Lady Yaten, if I ask with sincerity, she will help free the Gods oppressed by humans. Yes, many humans will suffer as a result, but if it prevents the world’s destruction, such a sacrifice is necessary!”
Her words carried no sign of a lie.
When I carelessly spoke Yaten’s name, she had shown shock, but nothing more.
She spoke openly, even knowing many would die if the seal was broken.
Facing me—the head of the Shiryuin Clan who had guarded the seal for a thousand years—she remained painfully sincere.
Her plea was like staking her very life.
If it had been any other head, she would have touched the Reverse Scale and been killed on the spot.
She was asking me to waste the sacrifice of every head of the clan over the past thousand years.
And though she thought of Yaten as a close friend, to Yaten she was barely an acquaintance.
She had risked her life, but her plan was flawed from the very start.
Even if Yaten listened as Evil Dragon, there was no guarantee she would keep her promise after release.
Now she had softened as a mother, but when I first met her, she had been the very embodiment of evil.
She might pretend to hear Mizuki’s request, only to reveal her true nature the moment the seal broke.
Following her cruel instincts, she would deceive Mizuki, throw her into despair, then kill her.
If she had not become my mate and the mother of Sakuya, Yaten would still be a monster of pure evil.
So I pressed the most important flaw in Mizuki’s plan.
”Suppose you freed the Evil Dragon and used her power to release the Gods, as you say. Then what? If you leave her alone, she will destroy the world instead of humans. What would you do then?”
That was the greatest question.
Even if the plan worked, how would she deal with the Evil Dragon afterward?
Fixing the Heaven and Earth Reversal problem only to let the Evil Dragon take over would solve nothing.
At my words, Mizuki’s face twisted in shock. Her lips trembled.
”Y-you are right… I was so focused on freeing the Gods, I did not think of what would come after…”
”…What?”
”…What?”
Both Yaten and I gave the same reaction at the same time.
Even Yaten, who had been watching through thought-link with amusement, was stunned at her acquaintance’s recklessness.
Mizuki had risked her life to reach the Shiryuin Underground Temple and tried to break the seal of the Evil Dragon, yet she had no plan for what came after.
A bad feeling struck me, and I asked, hoping I was wrong.
”By the way, how were you planning to break the seal?”
”Eh? By untying the ropes that bind Lady Yaten, of course.”
”…Those ropes bind the being who could destroy the world.”
”Ah…”
At that, a chill ran through me.
The fact that someone so reckless could sneak into the Underground Temple, which had guarded the seal for a thousand years.
She did not even know how to release the ropes that bound the Evil Dragon.
Her actions had been nothing but impulse.
I truly did not know how to respond to Mizuki.
Many groups and individuals had tried to enter the Underground Temple to free the Evil Dragon, but never before had I met someone who came with no real plan at all.
This was a land of death, filled with miasma where anyone had to accept dying.
For a thousand years, the heads of the Shiryuin Clan had guarded it and defeated every intruder.
Yaten laughed at Mizuki as a fool, but her level of carelessness made me feel fear instead of amusement.
”By the way, how did you get into this Underground Temple? This is a place cut off from the outside. You don’t just wander in.”
”I came through the water pipes. I am a water god, so if water flows, I can swim through no matter the size.”
”I see… that’s… good… really good…”
At least she had used her head for the method.
If she had reached this place with no plan at all, the honor of my ancestors would have been crushed beyond repair.
The Underground Temple was cut off from the outside, but infrastructure still reached it.
Electricity, gas, water—all the basics of life.
Even the internet worked.
It was not true isolation, and Mizuki had taken advantage of that in a way only a water god could.
Thanks to that, my ancestors’ pride was spared.
If she had just blundered in on impulse, it would have been unbearable for me.
Mizuki seemed to feel the same.
Having exposed her own lack of foresight through this conversation, she blushed red and covered her face with both hands.
”Um… it’s so embarrassing to ask, but… what should I do now?”
”You can use the pipes to go back. Just be careful on your way out.”
I was already half giving up.
Here I was, fighting against a thousand years of tradition, yet I had to deal with a reckless god like this.
Even so, Mizuki’s will to act for the sake of saving the world was worth praise.
About the Heaven and Earth Reversal problem, I would need to answer her seriously.
It was, after all, a matter tied to Sakuya’s future.
”And lately, I too have been thinking about the Heaven and Earth Reversal problem. No, the world won’t end right away, but great disasters will happen. It will come in our children’s time, but it is our duty as parents to deal with the roots now. We too will have to face it.”
”Oh! So the Shiryuin Clan will also face this problem!”
”…Yes, that’s right.”
She did not miss the slip in my words.
Her eyes shone like she had found an ally.
Her gaze pressed closer, closing the distance with sudden warmth.
Snakes were usually sly, but Mizuki’s nature seemed simple and friendly.
It was because of that open heart that she could connect with anyone.
Truly, she showed the natural virtue of a god.
But because of that, she committed the one fatal mistake.
”Let us save the world together! Humans and gods, hand in hand, can solve this!”
”Wh—wait, this is—bad!!”
Overjoyed to find that humans would work on the Heaven and Earth Reversal problem, Mizuki threw her arms around me.
It was a hug of affection, the joy of finding hope after reckless wandering.
But for Yaten, who saw everything through clairvoyance, it looked like another woman was trying to steal her beloved mate.
Mizuki had brushed one of the two untouchable reverse scales of the Evil Dragon.
—You… you touched my mate.
The voice was not filled with anger.
It was not hatred.
It was too calm, too flat.
The words, spoken through thought-link, were nothing but a simple statement of fact—and that was what made them terrifying.
When passion passed its limit, it sometimes turned into an icy calm.
That was Yaten now.
Her feelings could not be read at all.
Which meant only one thing—
”■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■…!!”
—Yaten had lost her composure. She was furious.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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