In this Second Chance at Life, where I can see skills as clear as day, everything feels like a breeze. And to make it even better, I’m spending my days joyfully with my First Love. - Chapter 66

A year ago, when I barged into the Divine Realm, the Supreme God claimed that she introduced the Niigata Dungeon to give humanity a sense of crisis and a modicum of strength.

When I disrupted her plans, she retaliated by stripping me of my stats.

But when I pressed her for a deeper explanation, she dismissed me with, “It’s not something a human like you needs to know.”

Thinking back, it was an infuriating response.

She dragged me into the mess, used my name, significantly increased my burden, and even took my stats—only to say, “This doesn’t concern you.”

At the time, though, I lacked the power to demand answers.

Considering how deeply I was involved, I should have had the right to know, regardless of my strength. Still, for now, I decided to let it slide—after all, we’d just beaten her to a pulp.

And so, the Supreme God began to reluctantly explain the truth behind why she unleashed hordes of monsters and gods upon this world.

“In short,” she began, “it was to prepare for a massive disaster that will strike about ten years from now. A disaster capable of destroying even the highly advanced civilization of this world.”

“Oh?”

It sounded suspicious.

Honestly, I had expected her to admit something ridiculous, like, “It was all for fun,” or, “I see humanity as cockroaches deserving of extermination.”

Or maybe she was just too afraid to tell the truth after the beating we gave her.

When I glanced at Ichika for confirmation, she assured me that the Supreme God wasn’t lying.

“So, to prepare humanity for this disaster, you sent dungeons into the world, revealed my name, and unleashed monsters and gods that nearly destroyed everything?”

“Yes, that’s correct,” she replied quietly, sitting in a formal seiza posture.

At that moment, the Supreme God, who had once radiated an aura of divine authority, looked more like a remorseful young girl.

Ichika dismissed her answer with a sharp, “Lies.”

“Lies, huh. You know Ichika will always see through them, so you’d better start talking. Otherwise, in three hours, I’ll have the Killing Dolls ask their own questions.”

“Anything but that…!”

Her face paled as she hurriedly continued.

“Th-the disaster in ten years… It’s an event where magic beings from another world, called Majin, will revolt against the Divine Realm. Majin are the natural enemies of gods.

“If the Divine Realm is destroyed, the Majin will then move to annihilate humanity. I thought that by giving humanity trials, they could grow stronger and deal with the Majin’s invasion…”

“I see.”

So that’s why she framed it as preparing humanity. It was still an utterly selfish rationale.

“I understand why you introduced the Niigata Dungeon and the countless others after it. But then why drag my name into it?”

“Well… I was frustrated that you dealt with everything on your own when humanity was supposed to cooperate. So, I did it out of spite…”

Oh. So, revealing my name to the world was just petty revenge.

“And what about all those monsters and gods you sent?”

“Well… seventy billion people felt like too many, and experience points are finite, so I thought I’d narrow humanity down to about a billion of the strongest.

“I-I was desperate! I needed to prepare for the Majin’s invasion, but they all have Unique Skills, and none of my powers work on them because they don’t rely on skills or stats…”

Her explanation was absurdly self-serving, but it did make sense.

And it was intriguing.

Majin, as she described them, all possess Unique Skills and lack both stats and ordinary skills.

After last year’s events, Ichika and I became Jinma—a race that also lacks stats and ordinary skills. It would be naïve to assume there’s no connection between us and the Majin.

Perhaps the loss of stats and skills, combined with the presence of a Unique Skill, is what defines a Majin—or perhaps even a Jinma.

And maybe, like the Supreme God did to me, stripping individuals of their skills and stats creates these beings.

If that’s the case, then the Majin’s invasion may be driven by an understandable grudge.

In other words, this Supreme God… likely has no shortage of enemies.

If my revenge against the Supreme God had failed, and a group calling themselves Majin approached me with, “We’re planning to beat the Supreme God to a pulp. Want to join us?” I’m confident I’d have agreed without hesitation.

In the end, all this chaos was the result of the Supreme God’s behavior. And now, that mess was dragging us into it—a tremendous nuisance.

For a brief moment, I even considered tossing her to Kanahebi as food.

That said…

As much as I could sympathize with the Majin’s possible grievances, I couldn’t let Earth be destroyed.

This world has everything—modern infrastructure, delicious food, entertaining pastimes.

Honestly, I’d be fine with just Ichika and my workouts. But if the world were destroyed, Ichika would undoubtedly be devastated.

And then there’s my family—the ones who stood by me in my past life and this one, despite all my flaws. I wanted to protect their lives, too.

That’s why, ten years from now, I’ll probably end up fighting the Majin who plan to invade this world.

To prepare for that, there were a few things I needed to do.

And for those tasks, above all else, I needed Ichika.

If Ichika weren’t here, I might have destroyed the world long ago.

If Ichika were ever to disappear, I likely would destroy the world.

To me, Ichika is everything.

She is my reason for living, my motivation, my solace, my beloved partner—my everything.

After returning the Supreme God to the Divine Realm, I took Ichika’s hand and knelt before her.

“Ichika…”

The words caught in my throat before they could come out.

How should I say this? These words would stay with her forever. Anything less than perfect would be unforgivable.

Was the mood right? Was the timing okay?

I had planned to do this after getting my revenge on the Supreme God, but… now I wasn’t so sure.

“Y-you know what, never mind—”

“Yasushi… you’ve got this,” Ichika said, her gaze sincere and encouraging.

Ah, this was so embarrassing.

Who proposes while being cheered on by their partner? And yet, Ichika waited patiently, no matter how awkward I was.

How had it gone when I confessed to her?

Back then, I’d chickened out, and Ichika had been the one to confess first. Since then, I’d felt like she always had the upper hand.

But this time, she was waiting for me to say the words.

Maybe, unlike her confession, Ichika wanted to be on the receiving end of this moment.

And honestly, this kind of thing is a man’s job.

I took her hand in mine, looked straight into her eyes, and spoke from my heart.

“Ichika, will you marry me?”

“Of course!”

That day, in the second life I’ve been given—just shy of my 18th birthday—I proposed to Ichika.

And she said yes.

In other words, Ichika and I…

We’re getting married!

Ichika is officially my wife!!!!!!

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