I Healed the Cold Dark Goddess’s Loneliness, and Now She Won’t Let Me Go! - Chapter 4

Talking to Lady Reine and finding a way to fulfill my duties as a Shrine Maiden was all well and good, but those audiences lasted less than thirty minutes.

In other words, the uncomfortable, restless feeling I had back at the village hadn’t been resolved at all. With almost no entertainment available, I really wanted to find something to do with my hands.

“And that’s the situation, Mina-chan. Isn’t there any work I can do?”

“You say that, but you are the Shrine Maiden, Haruno-san…”

I tried consulting Mina-chan, but the answer was the same. Just like the other villagers, she seemed to feel a sense of restraint due to my position. But I couldn’t just back down.

“Even just a little help is fine! Like with your chores!”

“Helping me?”

Mina-chan tilted her head at my suggestion. She’s so cute but regardless, I realized I didn’t actually know what she did all day.

“Um, sorry, but what do you usually do, Mina-chan?”

“…I…”

When I asked, her expression clouded over. I felt a chill, wondering if I’d stepped on a landmine, but before I could tell her she didn’t have to answer, she spoke up.

“Recently, I’ve started helping with the cooking.”

“Oh, cooking!”

Cooking. I actually have quite a bit of confidence in that area. Taking advantage of the opening, I pleaded with her.

“Hey, why don’t you let me help? If it’s cooking, I probably won’t be a nuisance!”

“Eh… Y-yes. If it’s just that… but I’m just an assistant, so I don’t know if I can really ‘teach’ you anything…”

“Is that so? Well, then your big sister will just have to teach you!”

And so, I excitedly headed to the kitchen with Mina-chan. However…

“I was getting ahead of myself…”

“P-Please don’t be depressed! You have good instincts!”

If I had stopped to think, I would have realized this is another world with no stoves and unknown ingredients. There was no way I could cook the way I used to. In the end, it was Mina-chan who had to teach me every little step.

“…I feel like I was better at this in the game.”

“Haruno-san?”

I used to skim through it, but in the story of Contrast five thousand years from now, there were descriptions of modern-looking cooking. Right! Using the power of magic.

“…Ah, magic!”

“Whoa!?”

“Ah, sorry, Mina-chan.”

I accidentally shouted, but it was that important. Magic should exist in the world of Contrast. Even if it hasn’t been applied to cooking yet, the concept itself should be widespread.

“Mina-chan, do you know what magic is?”

“Ma-gic…? Is that like…?”

“You know, shooting fire from your hands!”

Mina-chan looked at me with a completely blank expression. Even without words, her eyes were screaming, “What is this person talking about?” and it was starting to hurt my feelings.

“That’s something for Lady Reine. Humans can’t do things like that.”

“Ah, r-right. Of course.”

I wasn’t too surprised that Lady Reine could do it. Even if it was a small display, I had seen her “divine punishment” with my own eyes. More importantly, it seemed Mina-chan truly knew nothing about magic. I couldn’t tell if it was because she hadn’t been told, or if it simply didn’t exist in the human world yet. Regardless, it looked like practicing magic to kill time was off the table.

Anyway, while learning about the ingredients and cooking methods of this world, I finally managed to complete something resembling a meal. I gave it a taste. It was a simple flavor, but not bad. That’s when I had a brilliant idea.

“…I wonder if I can bring this to Lady Reine?”

“Eh…?”

Mina-chan’s eyes went wide.

“Haruno-san, Lady Reine has never accepted offerings like that…”

“Never?”

“The established theory is that Lady Reine accepts nothing other than the regular human sacrifices.”

“Well, it doesn’t hurt to try. Sacrifices aren’t necessary anymore anyway. If you actually talk to her, she isn’t that scary.”

“Lady Reine… isn’t scary…?”

And so, I headed to the temple carrying my handmade dish.

“I don’t want it.”

“N-now, don’t say that…”

Reine’s reaction was incredibly curt. When I offered the food, she rejected it instantly without even giving it a glance.

“I have no need for sustenance. I thought you would at least understand that much.”

“I figured you didn’t need it, but are you unable to eat it?”

“…I did not say that.”

So, while she doesn’t need to, she can eat. In that case, there’s no reason to give up. I didn’t come here just to give Lady Reine nutrients.

“Then please, try some. I went to all the trouble of making it.”

“…Why are you so insistent on making me eat?”

“Well…”

I thought about it. It was still just a feeling, but I believed Lady Reine was someone you could get through to if you talked. That’s why I wanted to communicate properly, and for that, I had to face her and put my feelings into words.

“…This was the first time I cooked since coming here, and I worked really hard to finish it.”

“? …I suppose. I was watching.”

She was watching…? Well, I suspected she saw everything, but still.

“And when I tasted the finished dish… I was more moved than I expected. So, I wanted to share that feeling with you, Lady Reine! Whether you ‘need’ it or not doesn’t really matter!”

“…!”

…To be honest, after stating my feelings, I realized I sounded incredibly pushy. As I started to panic internally, Lady Reine spoke after a long silence.

“Why me?”

“Huh?”

“I am a God. I cannot empathize with humans in any true sense. To begin with, to you, I am the one who nearly killed you…!”

Her irritated voice echoed through the upper temple. But strangely, I wasn’t afraid. Perhaps it was because I felt her irritation wasn’t actually directed at me. That’s why I was able to give her such a blunt answer.

“Well, it’s embarrassing to admit, but I haven’t made any friends at all and I don’t really have anyone else to talk to besides you, Lady Reine.”

In reality, before I became the Shrine Maiden, I was an outsider and a sacrifice, so people kept their distance even if they were polite. Now, there’s a line of “respect and restraint” between us. The only one I’m close to is Mina-chan; I don’t feel like I’m going to become “besties” with the villagers anytime soon.

“…So, you chose me by process of elimination?”

“Eh, ah, s-sorry…?”

“…Hmph.”

I braced myself, thinking I had finally angered her, but Lady Reine didn’t get mad. She stared at me in silence for a while. Then, looking quite reluctant, she finally took a single bite of the food.

“H-How was it?”

“It doesn’t taste bad.”

Lady Reine gave a completely unadorned, blunt review. With that, she used a mysterious power to push the dish back toward me.

“You are satisfied now. Take it away.”

“Wait, just one bite!? What a waste!”

“If you feel that way, eat it yourself. And do not make any for me next time.”

It seems she only ate that bite out of a sense of obligation. She had completely shut me down. Was it the taste? Was it the taste after all…?! If only I could make her say it was delicious, then maybe…!

“Ugh… if only I had more seasonings…”

In this world or rather, this era seasonings were limited to salt and herbs. The range of flavor was narrow. Without this or that, to a modern person addicted to glutamate, the taste was inevitably lacking.

“…Exactly what is it that you lack?”

Lady Reine suddenly spoke as she watched me mope.

“Eh?”

“This ‘seasoning’ you mentioned. What is missing?”

I didn’t expect her to show interest in my sore-loser grumbling, so I answered in a hurry.

“Um, like… Mayonnaise?”

“…Come here.”

“Huh?”

“Just come here.”

I approached Lady Reine as told, and she gently placed her hand on my forehead. The cold sensation made my heart skip a beat.

“This ‘Mayonnaise’… try to picture it in your mind.”

“Ah, okay.”

I did as I was told and pictured a bottle of that famous brand of mayo I used to use. Darkness gathered in Reine’s other hand, and in the next instant, a familiar bottle of mayo was sitting in her palm.

“What…!?”

No matter how I looked at it, it was the exact product I was used to using in Japan. Did she create it based on my mental image?

But before I could finish that thought, Lady Reine looked at the mayo and spoke.

“This is not a product of this world.”

“Ah…!”

Crap. Of course, it isn’t. There’s no way something like this could exist in this world right now. I had let my guard down because I didn’t think she would literally read my mental images!

“Um, well…”

“You… did you come from another world?”

Ugh…! I had been hiding it because I didn’t know how I’d be treated, but for Lady Reine to find out like this… Contrary to my internal panicking, Lady Reine didn’t seem particularly surprised.

“Well, that explains a few things.”

“A-You’re not that surprised…?”

Did she already know about the existence of other worlds? Lady Reine looked like she had simply found the missing piece of a puzzle, and she tossed the mayo to me.

“O-Oh… it really is mayo. How did you do that?”

“I reproduced it from your image. Rest assured, I did not read any of your other memories.”

It seems she was being considerate in her own way and hadn’t looked at everything. I felt a wave of relief knowing she hadn’t seen my game-related or rather, “future” memories.

“Lady Reine, you can actually do things like this…”

“Under this night sky, there are few things I cannot do.”

She truly is the ruler of this domain, an unmistakable God. As I felt a quiet sense of awe, Lady Reine let out a self-deprecating smirk, perhaps misunderstanding my reaction.

“…Have you finally learned to fear me? If I wished, I could do whatever I liked with you.”

Her words sounded threatening. But to me, they were tinged with self-derision and resignation, as if she were forcing herself to play the villain. I didn’t know why she would say things like that with such an expression, but if she was misunderstanding me, I had to correct her.

“No, not at all? I already knew you were amazing, Lady Reine.”

“…!”

I had already learned how terrifying she could be when we first met. If that had made me hate her, I wouldn’t have kept coming back here every day.

“More importantly, if that’s the case, I have a request…”

“…What. I will tell you now… it is impossible to return you to your original home. My power does not extend beyond the borders.”

“Oh, I didn’t even think of that…”

“…It wasn’t that?”

True, she would be the first person to ask about going home. Well, she already told me it was impossible but it had totally slipped my mind.

“No, my request is that there are more seasonings I want you to make…”

As I voiced my request, Lady Reine gave me a look of pure, unadulterated exasperation. However…

“…Picture them in your mind.”

Looking away, she gave me what was essentially her word of consent.

I knew it, I thought. Lady Reine really is a kind Goddess.