Cursed 30: The Soul, Defined

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Chapter 30: The Soul, Defined.

I won’t give up just yet.

I don’t think I’m that far off from common sense – just yet!

“Wait a second, please! Even if you say you can’t get Blessings from hard work, that’s how I was able to get and level my [Cooking] Blessing this far-! Aren’t there milestones to leveling Blessings?”

Oh.

Hey, Minerva-sama is suddenly shocked into silence.

That’s… I probably shouldn’t be feeling a small bit of satisfaction like this.

“Well. That is somewhat outside of my expectations…”

… Why are you rubbing your chin with a sheepish look on your face…?

“AaAaaah… See, Minerva-chan? Something unexpected has come out of your implementation of THAT.”

“Hmph. It’s been 3 centuries before any problems like this has cropped up, so isn’t it fine?”

“Only 3 centuries… who was boasting about it standing the test of time?”

“Tsk. It wasn’t just me, you know? And like, all of you guys were all for it, weren’t you? Odin even forced Mimir to work on it, even after he became just a head.”

… … ?

I am SO confused.

I’m not the only one. As the two goddesses start discussing various things, the rest of us are left outside the discussion.

Even Honoka looks completely clueless.

“But, well… I’m starting to see what you’re talking about. So, it’s that, isn’t it? His soul has access to the Fount of Blessings in order to conform its innate abilities to this world.”

“Fufufu. It’s more interesting than that, Ina-chan. Not only does he have access to it … haven’t you noticed? His Soul Core is a well-spring. That’s the meaning of that Lv8 Sub-Blessing. ”

There’s silence.

For Minerva-sama and Inari-sama, it seems like it’s because of the weightiness of the topic.

For the rest of us, it’s because we’re completely lost.

After a little bit, Minerva sighs and says,

“Hm… Kousei-kun aside, is it okay for the other two to hear about this, I wonder?”

“Ah… since Honoka-kun is now his familiar, not to mention a former servant of a kami, I think she’s fine. I’ll personally take responsibility for whatever may happen. Excuse us for a moment, Officer. Don’t worry, you won’t have gone deaf. It’s just for a little bit.”

Inari-sama waves her hand and a feeling like a haze drifts around Minerva-sama, Inari-sama, Honoka, and me.

Daiki-san has a complicated look on his face – ah. Honoka does too.

“As you might expect, this is strictly confidential information limited to god-tiered beings, but with the circumstances as they are, it would definitely be better for you to hear about it. Honoka-chan too, since she’s basically made a soul-pact with you anyway.”

As Minerva says that, I notice Daiki-san is just staring blankly at us.

So they did something so he’s unable to hear us.

While I’m idly thinking –off topic as usual – Inari-sama places a hand on my head and then a hand on Honoka’s head.

“Well, since it’s gotten this far, we might as well make it a soul pact, right? Wouldn’t it ease the strain on his body? Although I’ll admit that I’m partially suggesting it because it will simplify things within my court of kitsune.”

Minerva-sama thinks for a little bit.

“Un, let’s do that, but first let me explain things. Ina-chan, you’re impulsive as always.”

“Call it opportunistic.”

Inari-sama sniffs and releases the two of us, Honoka looking like she wants to shrivel away and die from being touched by Inari-sama.

Eh … why do I feel like a lot of ominous things were just said and decided for us right then?

“Well, the first order of things is that we god-tiered beings are strictly those who manage the Blessings for both the living and non-living. The power to manipulate Blessings comes from a pool of power we’ve taken to calling the Fount of Blessings. This is something that no one else is capable of touching, mind you. It’s a matter of the shape of a soul.”

“Eh, um … so literally, unless you’re a god, you can’t ever manipulate Blessings.”

Minerva-sama nods.

“You’re beginning to understand it. God-tiered beings can bestow Blessings as they wish. Humans and youkai who want specific Blessings can try to curry favor with the god-tiered beings, and god-tiered beings themselves can feel moved by the dedication, perseverance, and hard work done and bestow Blessings that way. So, in a way, I suppose you can say that Blessings can be earned through hard work, although I’m personally adverse to seeing it that way, since it’s technically incorrect.”

So it’s like that.

Somehow, I feel like I’m beginning to see why I didn’t feel the jarring difference between my former world and this one. If you didn’t know the gods actually existed as people, you just live your life and hope Blessings will come, or work hard in hopes of attracting a Blessing.  Even more so for people on the other side of the Veil, who have lost their detailed understanding of how the Blessing thing works.

It’s just, it’s common sense here that hard work does not necessarily mean you get a Blessing.

I guess that’s why everyone’s stuck more on ‘natural-born genius’ or ‘naturally-fated to have genius’ in this world.

There aren’t as many under-dog stories, except literally as fantasy stories involving waking up unexpectedly with a new Blessing.

“So… then from what was being said, then I actually have access to this Fount?”

“Yep. Even though you clearly have a human soul, somehow you are able to access and use the Fount without damaging your soul. That’s pretty dangerous for people to find out, honestly. Throughout history, even before the Darkening, people have lusted after the power to attain Blessings without doing so through a god-tiered being.”

“E-eh….”

I feel a chill run up my spine.

It really takes no effort to think of how power-hungry people would have blood-shot eyes in their greed over that.

Even though it’s not like you can just … well, I don’t really know how to USE it, so I think they’d find that having this power is not as user-friendly as they think.

“Actually, even if they found that out, it’s still better than finding out that your soul actually produces a Fount on its own. I don’t even want to think what the creativity of humans will think up if they found THAT out.”

“E-eh? Uh, what… does that mean, exactly?”

“Fuu… that’s not god-tiered anymore. That’s Progenitor-tiered, isn’t it? Even god-tiered beings would kill for that.”

Inari-sama sighs.

… … … … eh.

Hiiiii-!

That’s freaking terrifying-!

“Yes, I suppose we’ll need to keep this just between us, Ina-chan. I’ll have to disguise it on his Blessings list, as well. Even if the Digir and other more aggressive gods were annihilated during the Darkening, I don’t think it would be wise to leave it as is.”

As Minerva-sama busies herself doing … something, Inari-sama sighs and makes a wry smile.

“Although we’re not really sure ourselves, but there’s a theory that the Darkening was judgment on gods who overstepped their bounds, killing other gods and tyrannically ruling directly over humans and youkai. Anyway, a lot of the violent, power-hungry gods were gone after the Darkening.”

The scale is too large. I can’t understand.

“Then… many of the gods are gone?”

Honoka suddenly asks.

Inari-sama sighs and nods.

“Yes. About a third or so.”

Whoa.

“Alright. So here’s what I’ve got. Ah, I’ve also made it view-able only to god-tiered beings, so it will be gone from your medical records next time you get that checked up. I can’t hide it from other god-tiered beings, though. Literally, it’s impossible for me to do, but since I’ve given the Lv8 one a somewhat faulty translation, they should see that instead of the god-language version.”

“… Even if they see the god-language, would they even be able to understand it?”

Inari-sama snorts.

Minerva-sama makes a wry smile and says,

“Mimir and Ganesha aside, Anansi …”

“Ah. That guy would figure it out by instinct, and he’s definitely someone I’d rather keep this a secret from.”

Who’s Anansi?

Another god, I assume.

Minerva-sama tapped my list of Blessings and it updated.

That problematic Blessing is now:

—

[Abnormal Soul] Lv6
|Sub-Blessings>
||>[Overflowing Spirit]Lv8
||>[True Sight]Lv10
||>[Bestowal]Lv4
||>[Voice of Power]Lv3

—

“The Lv8 Blessing would normally be something like ‘Innate Fount’, but, well.”

Minerva-sama shrugs, looking at the list with a somewhat satisfied face.

I am … totally not satisfied!

‘Abnormal Soul?!’

Ugh… well, at least no one but gods can see it… is it okay if I console myself with that?

Honestly, a lot of what they told me hasn’t sunk in yet.

It’s all too … too… ugh. My brain hurts.

“… So what’s up with being able to sense how to get Blessings?”

I decide to do my ultimate move of ignoring the difficult things – for now.

“ “Ah…” “

Both goddesses make a kind of strained sound.

Inari-sama spoke up first.

“No, well, you know, it got a little tough with the population boom… and the amount of gods got reduced, even, so… well…”

Minerva-sama, sitting completely straight, pushed her glasses up with a glint and said,

“We automated some basic Blessings.”

Ah… I see… eh. EH?!

“Automate – what?!”

“Well, with some things like mandatory education and domestic chores, and basic body-enhancing Blessings and such, just by working hard at them, you’ll naturally hit certain milestones… well, like that, we’ve managed to set up a system that will automatically dispense certain Blessings when you hit the milestones we set up. Ah… it took a whole team of us almost 250 years to make it work… it was completely out of my expectations that a human would ever be able to find out… Just saying, but if you published a book on how to meet all those milestones, you’ll get a lot of suspicious god-tiered beings watching you and my efforts to hide your Blessings won’t matter.”

“I won’t do that-! No, wait, are Blessings something you can just set up to dispense like a timed-feeder or something?! Isn’t it because of that, that there are some humans who are going, ‘There aren’t any gods, all Blessings can be obtained with the right set of rules’? Is it okay like that?!”

It’s not quite as atheistic as my former world, probably because the gods are much more… personable here, but on the OTHER side of the Veil, the beginnings of the desire for godlessness can be seen right now.

Inari-sama snorted.

“Ah, those types of people, just leave them like that. I’d rather them idiotically pursue some fruitless endeavor than what those types USED to do. I’ve had enough of fighting god-eaters.”

“G-god-ea – eh?!”

Minerva-sama also has a tired, annoyed look as she explains.

“Instead of frenziedly studying how to manipulate Blessings into being, before the Darkening there were so many humans and youkai who tried to ascend to god-tier to get the power to manipulate Blessings. Or, just tried to devour god-tiered beings. What a pain. There were even a few on this side of the Veil who tried it after the Darkening. When was the last one… it was in Japan, wasn’t it?”

“ARGH! What a nightmare. He was the worst one ever, that monstrous dragon-eater… Nobunaga Oda-!”

“Hah-!?”

Although Oda’s legend was a little different in this world, he was still the violent warlord who first tried to unite Japan. Just, he succeeded in uniting the main island of Japan and started moving to take over the world – with the breath of dragons, apparently.

Of course, nowadays they’re saying the ‘breath dragons’ was a metaphor for guns… but …

“The dragon-gods were already scarce after the Darkening, but that Oda-! He killed and ate the souls of 5 dragon-gods! And the last one was even an elder dragon-god! When I think about how he just smirked at us when we tried to stop him, like, ‘What are you going to do about it?’ – kiii-! Pisses me off!”

Inari-sama rages.

Damn.

It wasn’t the ‘breath’ (気=ki) of dragons, it was the ‘soul’ (気=ki) of dragons!

Wtf?!

No, more like, if there any more Oda’s who’d be able and willing to slay 5 gods, what would happen if word got out about me?!

Strange, even though I’m not crying, why do I feel like there are tears streaming from my eyes?

---

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<a/n: Anywhere that says ‘Font’ instead of ‘Fount’, please report. Because, amusing as it is, that’s something I definitely don’t want to get wrong, lol. Well, typos in general as well, because I does them :)
The reason I have to specify that one is because my typos are often phoneme-based (don’t ask how that even happens. I don’t understand my brain sometimes), and Font and Fount are just too close in sound AND appearance.

The Oda story was supposed to be silly, but somehow, the idea of him standing over a slain elder dragon god, flaunting it in front of other gods, was kind of badass.

Dunno if the title finally makes sense, but this was the defining chapter. Kousei has so much (potential for) Blessings that he’s …
The play on blessing vs curse is not exactly intuitive… I have some doubts about the title I chose.
orz

Fluvia 19 up
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