The divine realm, managed by Asura and inhabited by many goddesses, is quite vast.
Kousuke, who rarely goes out, has no grasp of how extensive the divine realm actually is.
He hadn’t needed to know before, and he didn’t think he would ever need to know.
His stance was that if there was a necessity, he would ask at that time.
Kousuke was walking towards a certain place within that divine realm.
It was a place Kousuke could absolutely never forget.
The reason Kousuke was heading for that place was not for himself, but because Eris had made a request—or rather, a plea.
Having found the target of that request, Kousuke said lightly, raising his right hand.
“What are you doing in a place like this?”
“Kousuke…”
Asura, the very person he was looking for at Eris’s request, replied while sitting on a rock that held many memories for Kousuke.
Asura, sitting on the rock, had a lonely expression, the first Kousuke had seen since coming to this world.
“Eris said you seemed different and asked me to check on you, but did something happen?”
Asura’s expression was enough to elicit that question from Kousuke.
In response to Kousuke’s question, Asura gave a slight wry smile and then quickly shook her head.
“Nothing special happened. …It’s just that even goddesses want to worry sometimes. Is that strange?”
“No way. If you say that, then wouldn’t I be strange all the time?”
As Kousuke said teasingly, Asura chuckled and replied, “You’re right.”
Normally, she might have wanted him to deny that, but Kousuke didn’t reply that way this time.
Instead, he silently sat down next to Asura.
Then, for a while, they sat on the rock in silence, passing the time.
“…You’re not asking anything.”
“Hmm. I’ll listen if you want to talk, but I have no intention of prying it out of you.”
Besides, Kousuke didn’t think his conversational skills were that great.
It was a selfish thought, but he believed it was better to simply be there in silence than to awkwardly start conversations and get irrelevant answers.
Perhaps Kousuke’s thoughts were understood, or perhaps she didn’t expect him to comfort her with conversation, Asura fell silent again.
Knowing that she would clearly tell him to leave if she disliked it, Kousuke remained silent as well.
About ten minutes passed, and then Asura asked in a unusually timid voice.
“Hey. Kousuke, do you want to separate the Central Continent and manage it as a separate world?”
“…Huh?”
To Asura’s abrupt question, Kousuke finally responded after a good ten seconds.
He genuinely didn’t understand what Asura was talking about.
Seeing Kousuke’s reaction, Asura gave a slight wry smile.
“I see. So that’s your reaction, Kousuke.”
“Uhh, I don’t understand what you mean…?”
As Kousuke tilted his head in genuine confusion, Asura smiled her usual, albeit small, smile.
“Oh? That’s not like you, Kousuke. I thought I’d given you plenty of hints so far?”
Being told he wasn’t like himself, Kousuke looked at Asura, who still showed a hint of timidity, and pondered what she meant.
He quickly realized that Asura bringing this up at this timing must be related to the dragon he had met the other day.
Moreover, as the fact that the goddesses had been involved showed, Asura must have been involved to some extent.
However, he couldn’t immediately connect that to what Asura had just said.
Therefore, Kousuke took some time to think.
Like Kousuke had done earlier, Asura waited in silence.
About five minutes after he started thinking, Kousuke remembered something.
“That dragon was Asura’s familiar, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, it was. Furthermore, it was the first familiar I summoned in the tower. It wasn’t as imposing back then; it looked like a small lizard.”
“No, a lizard?”
“Oh, it’s true. The species name registered in the tower was Lizard.”
Kousuke was quite surprised to learn that the dragon had truly been a lizard in origin, without any figurative meaning.
He couldn’t guess at all how it could have evolved into such a creature.
Seeing Kousuke’s momentary expression of thought, Asura chuckled.
“Why do you look so detached? Isn’t Nana similar?”
“No, isn’t that a bit of an exaggeration?”
If asked whether Nana now could fight that dragon, it would be quite difficult.
It was an opponent that even Kouhi and Mitsuki had said was difficult to fight.
Surely Nana didn’t have that much power, so Asura’s statement could be considered a bit exaggerated.
As Kousuke thought this, Asura shook her head slightly.
“That’s not true. At least, I believe you will grow to that extent eventually, Kousuke.”
Hearing Asura say that, Kousuke looked troubled, unsure whether to be pleased at being evaluated or to retort that it was too much expectation.
Seeing Kousuke’s expression, Asura smiled her characteristic smile.
“Truly. You never change, Kousuke.”
“Uh, um? …Thank you?”
Hearing Kousuke’s reply, Asura finally began to laugh, just as she always did.
Glancing at Asura’s smiling face, Kousuke began to speak, as if organizing his thoughts.
“That dragon is Asura’s familiar… and Asura also used to manage the tower. That’s clear from the tower we visited before.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“If you think about it like me, then Asura wasn’t originally a god either.”
“That’s also true.”
Conscious of Asura affirming his words, Kousuke paused briefly before making his final statement.
“Which means, of course, that I too can detach and manage my own tower as a separate world…?”
Here, Kousuke finally connected Asura’s earlier statement and looked at her with a questioning expression.
As Asura watched Kousuke’s face, she replied, “Correct,” and began to clap lightly.
This is the epilogue.
More details will be uploaded in one hour in (Later).
