The winter season knocked on the «Empty Wilderness».
It had become awful to visit the town of the Beastkin Nation with all the snow piling up and intense blizzards, so we decided to wait until spring's arrival.
"When spring comes, I will exchange this with Carl-chan and Dolly-chan."
My days in the house would pass by looking over Selene who said so while embroidering the white handkerchief, reading books, or cooking together.
In the meantime, I would fly over with the flying broom to go around each place in the «Empty Wilderness». It was to see if the Barrier Magic tool - Stone Pillar installed there, the world trees and surrounding trees were still alright.
The mana density in the «Empty Wilderness» was still too thin and if the barrier magic tool were to malfunction or something, the large amount of mana from inside the barrier would flow out and the plants won't be able to sustain themselves and wither away.
It's for that reason I was taking extreme caution but一
"This is... surely an unexpected surprise."
I was slightly perplexed at the sight in front of me.
"The world tree has grown so big it pierced through the barrier."
I gathered magical power in my eyes and used «Mana Sense» to see the young sapling of the world tree stretching even to the outside, piercing the tiny, dome-shaped barrier.
As the world tree was something I created with keeping the harsh environment in my mind, it would have no problem growing in the low mana region, so the part that was growing out of the barrier was still fresh and green despite the bitter cold, laden with the leaves and releasing mana.
I had set the barrier so that it could expand along with the growth of the world tree but it seems that the growth of the world tree was too fast for the barrier to keep up as the world tree had pierced through it and was directly releasing mana to the «Empty Wilderness» from the overgrown part.
"That was unexpected. I guess it's time to expand the barrier."
I poured my mana into the Barrier Magic Tool - Stone Pillars and increased the range of the barrier after reaching that conclusion.
"For now, the barrier's scope and the mana released from the world tree are in balance. But given the outstanding growth of the world tree, I need to visit them more often than I had assumed. It seems a similar situation is happening at other places too......"
I thwarted the snow piled up on the ground with magic to check on the soil situation while I was on it. I saw a new layer of soil, while still thin, definitely beginning to appear probably because of the withered and rotten vegetation.
I think this has formed a remarkable recycling cycle.
"If this continues, I wonder if we can try planting in many of these spots in the spring."
Thinking of it, I scattered the seeds of medicine grass over the snow-free ground and covered them lightly with the soil.
"Medicine grass has the characteristic to grow in a place fraught with mana, who knows we might see a miracle. Now I can't wait for spring to come~."
I let out some mana to flow outside when the mana density inside the barrier reached a certain threshold to regulate the amount and I think this was sufficient enough mana quantity for the medicine grass to grow.
I calculated that we might be able to get the same amount of medicine grass as the ordinary woods region from the mana quantity here.
In this way, as I returned home flying in a broom while adjusting to the situation in other regions as well, Teto and Selene were apparently waiting for me with the stew they made.
"Welcome back, Mama~! I have warmed up the stew~!"
"We three are going to sleep together after the bath!"
"Fufu, that's a good idea. Let's sleep together and warm each other up."
One such calm, wintery day, being warmly welcomed by my family ended after us going to bed as usual.
............
......
...
‹It's been a while, Chise.›
"Liliel. What do you think about the situation of «Empty Wilderness» from a god's perspective?"
Four years, no, it should be around five years.
I have passed these years raising Selene while utilizing the knowledge foisted by Liliel into my head to cultivate the wilderness.
‹Splendid, it has just been around five years and the result is remarkable. It's a dreamlike scenery to see so much lush greenery in the «Empty Wilderness».›
"I see, I'm glad it wasn't all for naught."
‹However you similarly surprised me by creating the World Tree with the «Creation Magic». These are the same trees as the ones in the origins world.›
"Origins world?"
‹Yes, It was a plant created by the Creation God for the creation of the world. In this continent, there's just one left in the elf's village. I don't know how many world trees are left in the whole world but these are definitely priceless.›
There are numerous such similarly valuable, although still young saplings, growing in the wilderness. It may indeed sound startling to those who know.
To be honest, I imagined this to never exist before creation but it seems such species were created in the past...... Well, should I say the gods and humans think alike? Or that they choose and create this plant by intuition like me?......
In addition, my method of creating a new barrier inside the Great Barrier erected by Liliel and four other gods and starting the small-scale reformation from there was evaluated as an ingenious move impossible to be imitated by the general gods.
‹It's also due to you, Chise, releasing your mana over there that the cultivation of the «Empty Wilderness» would be over in around 1000 years even if it was left neglected.›
"That's quite a lot of time."
‹You may think so but this is still an exceptional step compared to the past when the cultivation time of the «Empty Wilderness» seemed to be as far as the horizon. Even my quickest estimation was around 10,000 years.›
"10,000 years... Just counting that alone makes me dizzy. However, I'm glad if you think this way."
Of course, I didn't neglect my work but I never thought the cultivation had progressed so far.
"Well, I guess I will continue with increasing the number of world trees and releasing my mana as usual."
‹Yes, pleas ー一「You're so sly, Liliel. To hog an excellent reincarnator to yourself.」一一 Lariel!.›
'Who the hell is Lariel?', or so I had thought but remembering the type of persona that usually appears in my dreams, I immediately understood that the newcomer must be another god.
True to my words, it was a cheerful, red-haired goddess whose disposition holds a completely different charm than the serene Liliel.
‹Yo, Liliel's reincarnator. I'm Lariel, the chief of the five goddesses. Nice to meet you.›
"You sure are immensely easygoing in contrast to who you're. And the chief?"
‹I was the first goddess to be ever born for the management of the continent when it was created, that's why the chief.›
Incidentally, Liliel seemed to be second in order.
The names of other goddesses in this fashion are Luriel, Leriel, and Loriel. It seems like Creator God didn't have any naming sense; all the goddesses' names had been decided with the letters from the 'La' letters column + (Riel). (Note - 'La (Ra)' column is 9th among the syllables chart in Japanese)
I jabbed mentally.
"No wait, La column... Don't tell me there are 9 continents?"
‹Wha!? How the hell do you know that!?› (T;dr - as the 'La' series is ranked 9th in the Japanese syllable table, there are 8 other columns above this, and Chise has just guessed that if there are 9 columns and la is 9th, then there might be 8 other continents following this sense.)
It seems the esteemed god was much lazier than I imagined.
‹As you guessed, there used to be 9 continents and each had its respective gods born to manage them but due to the diastrophism over so many millennia, some coalesce and became one large continent while some sank into the ocean. Though I don't know the precise situation since our hands are already filled with this continent and we didn't have enough spare time to keep tabs on other continents.›
In contrast to Liliel who summarised the situation calmly as ever, Lariel steered the topic in another direction in her elder sisterly tone.
‹That's not the point right now, Liliel. You surely have snagged yourself a reliable reincarnator to yourself. Furthermore, she even helped you reverse the situation in the «Empty Wilderness» so much in just 5 years. Don't you think you should stop monopolizing and ask her to help me cultivate the region under my management.›
‹No way. There's still much to do in the «Empty Wilderness» and your management region is dangerous in a different sense!›
So Liliel had replied back with a yell but for meーー
"I don't mind helping."
『「Really!? (What!?).」』
Lariel reacted joyfully while Liliel looked shocked however for me, there wasn't much difference between whom I'm helping.
"However you will have to wait until I am done raising Selene and she can be independent."
‹Oh, of course-of course, I don't mind at all! That much is nothing compared to 2000 years!›
‹By agreeing to help her, you're inviting my other sisters to ask for your help too.›
Now that Liliel told me, this might indeed be a troublesome matter, but......
"I have become immortal. I guess, there will be a lot of spare time in my hands in my life to continue."
That's why I don't mind taking in the requests from goddesses.
‹You really are good-natured. However, this is something I can't acknowledge.›
"Why? Isn't it a good thing there will finally be no more lands of nothingness?"
"Humans are greedy. There's no doubt there will come a day when those humans will wage a war revolving around those lands. There might even be a chance that they will burn down the trees and just like that, there will be no more world trees that have such an exceptional ability to recover mana once again! And you raised them with so much effort, too.›
I see, I had almost forgotten the conflicts between fellow humans.
‹That's why I will give you the management control of the «Empty Wilderness»! This or until there appears any other person who can repel the intrusion from such humans in place of Chise. That's why I reject any other goddess who wants to take you!›
Now that she's said so much, I can't do much either.
"How about signing an inviolable contract with the surrounding nations' authorities?"
‹You didn't even hesitate to say this, I'm liking you more and more, Chise.›
‹Hahaha, this strong point of yours, as expected of the reincarnator that matched with the wavelength of Liliel! The reincarnator in my camp is a muscle-brain.›
‹You can't blame others when the cause is your own personality! What else do you expect from your mixed disposition as the sun goddess and war goddess!›
It seems the summoned reincarnators are chosen based on the summoner goddess' personality. So it means Liliel and I are two of a kind.
‹Ah, it's already about time to go. I believe you can quickly solve the problem of contracts by helping the royalties or taking care of calamitous monsters solo and signing the contract, good luck, Chise!"
Thus, this marked the end of my meeting with the gods in the dream.
This meeting didn't dry me out of all my mana like before now that I have so much mana reserve but I still felt groggy when I woke up and saw that half of my mana had disappeared overnight.
Hmm, I think I'll just take it easy today.
