Late at night on the day Shiro became a god [Can you hear me?]
[Hmm? Kuro?]
[Seems like you can. I still feel uneasy without someone keeping watch on her, so I'd like to contact you every day at this time. Is that alright?]
[Yeah, sure, sure. We should probably keep in touch with each other anyway.]
[So, has she done anything strange since you two split up?]
[Um...]
[Don't tell me she has?]
[Uh, yeah... I guess you could say she did something?]
[What did she do?! Tell me!]
[Yeah, okay. It's going to be a long explanation, so just bear with me, alright?]
*The Demon King explains...* [So, in summary, you protected a reincarnator who was about to be kidnapped or killed by agents of the elves and the Divine Word Religion.]
[That about sums it up.]
[That's somewhat unexpected. I thought she was the self-contained type who shows no interest in anyone but herself.]
[Shiro's a good girl, you know? Her usual behavior is so chaotic it's hard to tell, but—] [Her usual behavior IS the problem.]
[Right?]
[I understand what happened this time. If anything, you did well. I'll reach out to the elves and the Divine Word Religion on my end.]
[Can I leave that to you?]
[Yes. Though I doubt I'll get a favorable response.]
[Yeah, that figures.]
[I'll try to warn them off, but I doubt that'll fix anything. Keep your guard up on your end too.]
[Roger.]
[Well, that's it for today. I'll contact you again at the same time tomorrow.]
[Sure, sure~ **One year later, on a certain day's regular report** [Did she go on a drinking binge again?]
[Yeah. The inn got blown up.]
[Good grief. How does it even come to that?]
[Well, on this particular matter, I think Kuro bears some responsibility too, for being the one who introduced Shiro to the taste of alcohol.]
[Hmm. But couldn't you just take the alcohol away from her?]
[You want me to do something that terrifying? I'm pretty sure Shiro would choose "kill and take it back" without a moment's hesitation. Wouldn't you agree?]
[You're right. She's exactly the type to do that.]
[See? I have no choice but to keep feeding her alcohol to protect my own safety.]
[At least try to minimize the collateral damage.]
[Well, I don't want to attract attention, so I'll do what I can.]
[I'm counting on you.]
**Two years later, on a certain day's regular report** [So, what happened with those playing cards?]
[I'm holding onto them. Safely.]
[I see. But if those are the real deal, that means she went to D's place.]
[Seems like it. She used to disappear from time to time, but I never imagined it was D's place.]
[What could she be up to?]
[My vote goes to "she's not thinking about anything."] [That's entirely possible, but the one she's visiting is that D. We can't afford to let our guard down.]
[I've been wondering for a while — is D really that powerful?]
[Let me put it this way: to describe the power gap between D and me in a nutshell — even if heaven and earth were flipped upside down, I still wouldn't stand a chance.]
[That much?]
[Yes. No matter what I do, if that person decides to act, there's nothing I can do about it. That's the kind of person she is.]
[Scary.]
[But that person rarely takes action. There's a specific condition that needs to be met first.]
[What condition?]
[Her vassals being harmed.]
[Huh?]
[D will not tolerate harm done to her vassals or anything resembling them. She always makes the offending party pay the price. When D declared Shiro to be her vassal back then, it was largely a show of force directed at me. Though she was also genuinely fond of Shiro, no doubt.]
[Ah, I see.]
[I had no intention of touching Shiro myself, but it works as a form of insurance. Depending on what path Shiro takes in the future, it's entirely possible she could end up opposing me.]
[And what would you do then?]
[Of course, I would walk my own path. Even if it meant being erased by D afterward.]
[You stubborn thing.]
[I'm aware.]
[Anyway, can you come meet up with us at some point? Maybe you could even break the card's curse. Actually, I'd rather have you hold onto it — I don't want a dangerous item like that around me.]
[Understood. I'll come join you when I'm free.]
**Three years later, on a certain day's regular report** [Another dead facility was found.]
[How many does that make now?]
[Living facilities: two. Dead facilities: seven.]
[Was our oversight just that poor, or were the people back then that good at hiding things?]
[Both, probably. Seven dead facilities is one thing, but three living ones — including that place — I can't excuse my own negligence there.]
[It's not entirely Kuro's fault, though. After the system went live, we were going around shutting down those kinds of facilities ourselves.]
[Or perhaps, precisely because of that activity, the concealment efforts were carried out even more thoroughly.]
[Wait — does that mean facilities were still being built even after the system went live?]
[It's a possibility. An overwhelmingly likely one.]
[That's disheartening.]
[Yeah.]
[How much longer until your work on that side is done?]
[Ideally within the next three years, but I want to be thorough with the investigation, so rushing too much wouldn't be wise.]
[Makes sense. Got it. Take all the time you need — but this time, find every single active facility.]
[That goes without saying.]
[What about the recovered cores?]
[I'm slowly returning the core energy to the world. Dumping it all back at once would be too dangerous.]
[Right. Though someone out there absorbed a whole bunch at once and became a god or something.]
[Only Shiro could pull something like that off. Even I couldn't do it. If it were that easy, at least three more gods would have been born in this world by now.]
[Yeah, if becoming a god were that simple,
[In fact, he tried and failed — which is exactly why he's in the state he's in now.]
[Should've just stayed dead.]
[Can't argue with that.]
[Still, how was Shiro able to do something so reckless?]
[Who knows. It's normally impossible, but she's special in all sorts of ways, so even I don't understand the reason. Only a handful of beings among the gods themselves should be capable of something like that.]
[So Shiro's beyond all conventional standards?]
[Someone who reached godhood in just over a year — you think she'd fit within normal parameters?]
[No way.]
[Perhaps it's precisely that extraordinary talent that caught D's eye.]
[Also, she never gets boring. Total troublemaker.]
[That too, no doubt.]
We're about to head into demon territory, and I've got nothing but a bad feeling about this.
Keep a tight grip on the reins.
If I could do that, I wouldn't need to worry.
Fair point.