Chapter 910: Meeting Goddess Eris Again
"Where are you rushing off to in such a hurry?"
Just after finishing his match with the goddess Wolbach and stepping through the villa's entrance, Eiji nearly collided with Darkness, who wore an anxious expression.
"It's you... I need to find Chris!"
"Chris? What happened to her?"
"Ask Kazuma and the others, I'm in a bit of a hurry!"
Darkness mumbled a few unclear sentences without properly explaining, then brushed past Eiji and rushed out of the villa entrance.
"What's going on?"
Eiji walked through the door in confusion and asked Kazuma, who was leisurely lying on the sofa playing with a game console.
"Where did you get that PSP?"
"Boss, you're back!"
As soon as Kazuma saw Eiji, he proudly waved the black handheld console in his hand.
"Aqua found this in the Crimson Demon clan's storage room. To thank us for our efforts in saving the Crimson Demon clan, the village chief gave us this, along with a Nintendo Switch and matching game cartridges!"
"You only held us back, didn't you?"
"Please don't expose me like that."
Eiji remembered that while wandering around the Crimson Demon village earlier, he had seen a notice written in Japanese that explained the Crimson Demon clan's origins—it seemed that hundreds of years ago, some reincarnated person with too much time on their hands had used their cheat abilities to conduct biological research and created artificial humans. The storage room contained various modern items that this reincarnated person had created using their abilities. Game consoles were among the toys they used to pass time, which was why the storage room's password was the Konami code.
"Boss, you just took a bath, did you go..."
Kazuma looked him up and down and started snickering.
"Don't change the subject. What's going on with Chris?"
"Oh, it's like this..."
Even though you were the one who changed the subject first, Kazuma thought to himself while explaining everything that had happened during the day.
"Prince Zest is looking for Chris... I see."
After a moment's thought, Eiji suddenly understood.
He must be looking for the goddess Eris!
Presumably, after Zest returned to the royal capital, he informed the king and Princess Iris about the new Demon King's conditions, then learned from Iris that Chris was actually the goddess Eris.
During the previous battle in the royal capital, it was Chris who appeared in time and told Eiji about Ascore's weakness, allowing him to repel the Demon King Ascore. The young princess Iris witnessed the entire scene and deduced that Chris, who had used unimaginable divine power to escape under Eiri's threat, was actually the goddess Eris herself.
Considering that the goddess probably didn't like being pursued, Iris likely didn't state it directly, but at least told Zest that "Chris is someone related to the goddess Eris," which is why Zest is making such a public search for her.
"Then why is Darkness in such a hurry?"
"Chris seems to be her only friend..."
Darkness had just explained this to Kazuma and the others.
She had been a very withdrawn person since childhood, combined with her embarrassing fetishes that were difficult to talk about, which meant Darkness never got along well with others while growing up. She had no friends with whom she could share her joys and sorrows.
"Lady Eris, please grant me a friend!"
Darkness went to the church every day to pray to the goddess Eris.
After an unknown period of time had passed, a female thief named Chris appeared before her.
"So you're Darkness? Let's be friends!"
The female thief smiled radiantly, her infectious grin instantly capturing Darkness's heart. The two quickly became close friends who shared everything.
"So that's why Darkness became a devout follower of Eris?"
"Probably because of that."
I see.
Moved by the goddess Eris granting her wish and out of gratitude toward the goddess, Darkness joined the Eris faith and became a devout crusader.
But... I wonder what expression she would make if she knew her only friend was actually the goddess Eris descending to earth in person to befriend her?
"Boss, you're grinning mischievously again. What evil scheme are you plotting?"
"Shut up! I'm going out!"
Eiji hurriedly left and asked passersby about Darkness's whereabouts.
Fortunately, their group was quite famous in Axel, with every move drawing attention, so it was easy to find out where Darkness was.
The inn.
Darkness arrived at the agreed-upon room and immediately bombarded her friend with questions upon seeing her.
"Chris, what exactly is going on here!"
"Well... even if you ask me like that... I..."
Chris had been waiting here for quite some time. Faced with Darkness's anxious questioning, Chris scratched the scar on her face and guiltily averted her gaze.
Most likely because her identity had been exposed.
Chris was somewhat aware of this herself.
However, why would a prince so abruptly seek her out?
Weren't they worried this might incur the goddess's rejection and displeasure?
Although she considered herself not to be that kind of petty goddess, as believers, how could they so casually approach the goddess they worship? Surely they should feel anxious, thinking "would this anger the goddess?" right?
Could it be that something serious had happened?
"Darkness, you're the daughter of the Dustiness family, right? Could you help me ask Prince Zest why he's looking for me?"
Chris carefully looked at Darkness, smiling apologetically as she pleaded with her.
"You really don't know why the prince is looking for you?"
"Uh... regarding the reason, I genuinely don't know."
Faced with Darkness's suspicious gaze, Chris couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.
"Alright, it seems I'll have to go back after all."
Darkness sighed helplessly.
After chatting for a while longer, Darkness hurriedly departed.
"Phew..."
Chris let out a long breath and plopped down onto the bed.
"Why do I run into this kind of thing as soon as I return?"
She had been handling affairs outside the world these past few days and was utterly exhausted.
According to messages from the heavenly realm, one of the Archdukes of Hell seemed to have personally invaded this world under her jurisdiction. She had been busy all these days searching for that guy's traces.
This world was under the management of the goddess Eris, so Eris possessed special authority in this world—simply put, it was like EX-rank Clairvoyance, capable of seeing everything happening in the world at any given moment.
However, this ability was not omnipotent. Powerful barriers could block her vision, and her processing capacity was limited. To precisely locate a specific individual in the vast sea of people across an entire world would require at least ten to fifteen days of effort.
Thus, she spent ten days—ten sleepless days conducting investigations from beyond the world's boundaries—until she was nearly exhausted to the point of collapse.
Yet, she still found no trace of that individual, as if they had never entered at all!
How infuriating!