I am the Goddess Destined to be Devoured by the Protagonist - Chapter 04

========== EPISODE 4 ==========

“Huff… huff…”

Soon, I ran out of stamina.

Why is a god’s stamina like this!

It’s on the level of a South Korean office worker.

Plus, the workbench and oven were so close that every time the oven ran, the heat washed over me. I couldn’t tell if it was the bread or my own body getting baked.

I couldn’t stand it anymore and tried to move the workbench, but I couldn’t.

[Set items cannot be separated.]

[Suggestion]

[Would you like to change the installation location of the Baking Set?]

No? Just let me move one of them.

[Set items cannot be separated.]

The Baking Set had no intention of understanding my feelings. I had to keep kneading dough next to the hot oven.

Only after time passed and a decent amount of bread had piled up could I escape this hot labor hell.

“Water…”

But there was still work left to do. Feeling like a dried bellflower root, I crawled over to the Water Supply Set.

Please, let getting water not be difficult.

However, contrary to my wishes, getting water wasn’t easy either. I had to draw water from the well, but the weight of the bucket was no joke. I had to squeeze every ounce of strength into the handle just to pull it up.

[Water Supply Set: Shall we make a leaf ball?]

And there was a reason why there was a small tree next to the well.

Naturally, no plastic water bottle to hold and drink the water was provided. After putting water into a leaf plucked from the tree, I had to shape it into a ball so it wouldn’t spill.

Fortunately, it didn’t leak even if I just shaped it roughly, so the task wasn’t difficult. Also, new leaves grew immediately after I plucked them, so I didn’t have to fall into despair by looking at a completely bare tree.

After more time passed, I caught my breath and looked at the mountain of bread and leaf balls filled with water.

With this much, even if there are sixteen people, they should be able to survive for a few days, right?

I pressed the message sponsorship button.

[Please designate the sponsorship items.]

When I looked at the mountain of bread and leaf balls, it turned slightly blue.

[Sponsorship items have been designated.]

[Please select the location where the sponsorship items will be sent.]

[Sponsee’s Inventory] / [Appropriately in front of the sponsee] / [User Defined]

Just like when I sponsored the mission earlier, I could designate where to send the items.

I pressed the ‘Appropriately in front of the sponsee’ button.

I watched the broadcast screen. The mountain of bread and leaf balls that had been in front of me appeared in front of Sirius, and a window popped up at the same time.

[( ᐛ )⊃━☆o. * ･ ｡ﾟ]

I didn’t look at the text like “Your contracted god’s sponsorship…” and only looked at the content of the message. I figured I’d see it every time I sponsored anyway, so it was fine not to read it.

I was ragged from making the sponsorship items, but I didn’t show it in the emoticon. Because that would look too pathetic.

As food appeared, people’s gazes gathered.

If they had been starving for days, they might have rushed at it like beasts, but perhaps they instinctively knew they couldn’t take food from Sirius, so they just watched with piercing gazes.

Watching them, I quickly pressed the mission sponsorship button.

[Please enter the mission content.]

Since I had done a mission sponsorship a while ago, a window I had already seen popped up. There were several options next to it, but I didn’t even glance at them since I didn’t need them.

[Distribute food to the people]

After writing the content, I pressed the sponsor button.

[Converting the entered mission to the required format.]

[Mission has been sent.]

At the same time the last window appeared, a window also popped up in front of Sirius.

[Mission]

[Distribute food to everyone in the underground warehouse.]

[Mission Reward: Bread x1]

I just put up anything for the reward this time too. Because the important thing was the mission content.

Sirius, having checked the system window, stood up and first offered bread and water to the child. The child hesitated, pondered, and then accepted it.

He then distributed food to the others as well. They bowed their heads in gratitude to Sirius, who was distributing food to others without filling his own stomach first.

Finally, he walked over to the thugs who were just watching Sirius’s reaction. Sirius might have hesitated, not wanting to do something like giving those guys anything, but there was no such sign.

With everyone watching, Sirius offered the bread and leaf balls to the thugs.

The thug at the very front looked back and forth between him and the bread with suspicious eyes. He had an expression that said he didn’t understand the intention.

That was understandable, as they were opponents who had been confronting each other until just a moment ago.

Amidst the silence, Sirius opened his mouth.

-“Listener of Wishes Drawing Lines-nim has commanded me to distribute the food bestowed by them.”

-“What?”

The thugs widened their eyes in surprise.

No, it wasn’t just them. Everyone in the underground warehouse was surprised.

-“A being called by such a name…”

-“No way…!”

Sirius nodded as if to say their guess was correct.

-“A new god has arrived.”

At his words, people gasped. As if they couldn’t believe it.

-“Then, the sword appearing suddenly was also…”

-“Was it bestowed by the god?”

Sirius nodded, and a ripple of excitement spread.

-“Ah, oh god.”

-“The god has come to help us!”

-“Oh, Listener of Wishes Drawing Lines-nim!”

Everyone looked at the warehouse ceiling and praised me.

How did I feel watching that in real-time? It was extremely burdensome.

Why did I have to possess a god and receive people’s praise?

-“I thought the intervention of gods other than the two was something that only happened in the old days…”

By “the two,” they must mean the creator gods of Quartz.

Quartz was created by twin gods, the God of Fire and the God of Water.

Two suns existing in one world.

Some people used to whisper secretly about which sun shone brighter.

Their whispers reached the ears of the two gods, and gradually, the relationship between the two gods became competitive.

Sacrifices occurred in the process of the gods proving their greatness. Causing floods to show off the power of water, or causing forest fires to show off the power of fire.

Furthermore, the competition was not limited to just between the gods. It was frequent for those belonging to each temple to send assassins to deal with key figures of the opposing temple.

As those days continued, the gods suddenly disappeared.

Without any sign.

At first, the temples packaged it well, saying, “The two gods have decided to repent for their mistakes and take a time of self-reflection.”

But now, there was no one who didn’t know that the gods had abandoned their world.

With the gods who looked after the world gone, Quartz was walking toward destruction.

…That was the setting as it was known.

The real reason only comes out after the story in the novel progresses to a certain point, but it’s not very important, so I’ll just spoil it.

An existence called an Evil God appeared in Quartz, so the two gods abandoned the world and ran away.

It meant that the cause of the world’s destruction was not the absence of the two gods, but the Evil God.

Something about that guy trying to eat Quartz.

Thus, just like Sirius and the Listener in , my goal is also to defeat the Evil God.

It wasn’t revealed why the Listener’s goal was also to defeat the Evil God. It was just speculated that they considered saving Quartz as a kind of game and were trying to raise Sirius to defeat the final boss, the Evil God.

That aside, the child is safe now, right?

I looked toward the Hopeless Trio. They were greedily devouring the food as if someone were going to steal it from them.

I was the one who told them to distribute food to them, so why am I so displeased?

Those thugs had specifically targeted the child, the weakest one, to steal food. If they had said, “Haha, shall we play rock-paper-scissors and steal the food of the loser?”, they might have looked like crazy bastards, but they wouldn’t have been this unlikable.

I wonder if they committed crimes before. Would their character have been any different before?

Anyway, it was too disgraceful to leave them alone. I pressed the mission sponsorship button, stabbed the hologram keyboard with anger, and sent it.

Sirius checked the window that popped up in front of him, stood up, and approached the thugs.

-“What is it now?”

-“Have you ever committed a crime before?”

-“So what if we did?”

The thugs spoke as if asking what that had to do with him. They had no shame in revealing their ugliness.

Sirius lowered his eyes, thought for a moment, and then spoke to the thugs again.

-“100 squats.”

-“What?”

-“Do it.”

The thugs frowned at the sudden words and looked at each other. Sirius said without caring.

-“The god has commanded it.”

-“No, why would a god do such a…”

-“I was told to perform physical correction if you do not follow the command.”

As Sirius put strength into his hand gripping the sword, the thugs stiffened and stepped back. But there was nowhere to run from here.

They looked at each other and repeated squats with rotten expressions.

For a moment, their faces slowly changed like a gradient.

-“Huff, huff… huff…”

The thugs’ breathing became rough, and sweat poured down like rain. Sirius watched them and said to one man.

-“I won’t count that one. Your posture is not good. You must lower your body more and then stand up.”

He didn’t let it slide when they tried to do it sloppily and pointed it out.

Oh. I didn’t order this.

Thank you for the service, boss. I’ll give you five stars.

-“Again.”

-“Hng… huff…”

-“Again.”

-“P-please, let me off!”

-“Do it again.”

On top of that, 1:1 free personal coaching.

Even with the man’s pleading, there was no such thing as Sirius letting him off. Eventually, the man was able to repeat the painful act with the correct posture through effort that truly brought tears to his eyes.

When there was nothing left to point out to him, Sirius looked at the other thug.

-“You are the only one who is slow.”

-“Yes, yes!”

It was warm encouragement that infused strength into the body. Thanks to that, that thug was able to pick up a faster speed.

-“Ugh! Are you counting properly, huff. Are you sure? I feel like I’ve already done more than 100, cough cough!”

-“You have done forty-one, this person thirty-five, and that person forty-six.”

-“Hey, you bastard, I did forty-five!”

-“You didn’t do four of them properly.”

The man looked at him as if asking how he knew that. It was because Sirius hadn’t been looking at him until just a moment ago.

I looked at him with fascination.

He seemed to have only been listening to the sound, so how did he know?

Sirius didn’t reveal the secret and left to go harass the other man.