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“I guess this is slightly unexpected~?” (Giliel)
Giliel looked around herself while puzzled.
Even as she surveyed the vicinity, there was nothing. Nothing but a pure white space was continuing endlessly.
It was far too dreary and dazzled the eyes if looking at it too closely.
“Pochi? Do you sense anything~?” (Giliel)
Once Giliel pulls the lead in her hand with a jerk, a muffled groan is audible at her feet.
Following the lead’s line, it was tied to a collar which was gleaming in emerald with rivets recklessly hammered into it at the lead’s end. That collar restricted the neck of a woman with long, emerald hair.
It wasn’t just a collar that had been put around the woman’s neck. The outfit covering her body was a speckled dog costume.
Upon closer look, dog ears were properly growing out on her head.
Moreover, painful-looking bruises plastered her well-featured face here and there, but even that painfulness was spoiled in various ways because of the attached, realistic dog nose and mouth.
The woman in that outfit was groaning and had her neck strangled by the collar while being on all fours at Giliel’s feet.
“G-Giliel-sama…it hurts…” (Pochi)
“Huh~? You spoke, Pochi? No, no, something so silly is impossible, right? I mean, Pochi is a dog. There’s no way that dogs can talk, is there~? It’s certainly impossible, right~? If I heard a dog talk, I’m sure my fist would get somewhat itchy like this.” (Giliel)
“Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me…I reflected, so please don’t hit me anymore…” (Pochi)
The woman called Pochi raised her voice in fear towards Giliel who started to clutch and open her right hand while smiling cheerfully.
“I feel like I can still hear Pochi’s voice~. I have a hunch that the itchiness of my fist is about to reach its limit~.” (Giliel)
Giliel shortly glared at the woman cowering at her feet.
The woman yelped after noticing her grim look.
“Giliel-sama, don’ tease her too much. Haven’t I told ya that me and her are regretting our actions?”
The one calling out to Giliel from behind was a red-haired man.
After fleetingly glancing over her shoulder, Giliel murmured,
“You’re cheeky for a Yoshio.” (Giliel)
“So Yoshio is already set in stone, eh?” (Yoshio)
“It’s settled. Or are you saying that you have any complaints about the name master personally gave you?” (Giliel)
“No…Yoshio is fine.” (Yoshio)
The red-haired man, who was saying so with a worn-out voice and a dejected expression, was previously the supervisor of the beastman territory.
After having his territory completely stolen during Giliel’s invasion, he was forced to go along with the skit of Giliel and the little goddess, which served as means to waste some time, and was furthermore given the name Yoshio which made absolutely no sense to him.
However, comprehending that it was his end, he surrendered before being converted with force by Giliel and the little goddess, and thus his treatment wasn’t that bad.
Although his status as supervisor was revoked, he was pretty much allowed to remain the god of the beastmen as he had been until now.
However, in addition to a complete submission to Giliel, he had to bear the name “Yoshio.”
The residents of this world don’t know the names of the gods in this world.
From the start the five gods, the supervisors, didn’t have any names, meaning that they couldn’t notify the residents about them either, but by giving him a name, it became possible to use divine arts designated to him.
Yoshio himself tried to hide this fact from the world’s residents, but Giliel is planning to look for a good time to spill the beans to Renya and friends.
That’s because it’s possible to use stronger divine arts by borrowing the power appointed to this name. But it had the flaw that it becomes absolutely necessary to incorporate the name Yoshio into the chant.
“<In the name of Yoshio, I beseech…>, a chant like that really lacks impact, doesn’t it?” (Giliel)
“What are you grumbling there, Giliel-sama?” (Yoshio)
Due to Yoshio looking like he wanted to say, “I’m pretty sure she’s thinking something worthless,” Giliel abruptly turned her face away, sticking to silence.
Compared to Yoshio, the treatment of the human supervisor, who went even as far as attacking on top of resisting to the bitter end, was miserable.
She was named Pochi by Giliel, had to wear a dog costume and was only permitted to walk on all fours.
There was a discussion between Giliel and the little goddess about whether it might be convenient to cut off all her limbs since they were a hindrance while walking, but Yoshio desperately dissuaded them of this.
The little goddess declared this much of a punishment being only natural, given that she disobeyed her own master, but unexpectedly Giliel agreed with Yoshio’s mediation.
“Either way is fine, but if that’s the case, I think it might be better to avoid a method that will cause discomfort to Renya-san when he would hear about it later.” (Giliel)
Once Giliel answered like that to the little goddess, who asked for the reason while looking mystified, the little goddess became slightly pale, and decided to accept Yoshio’s mediation.
However, because her supervisory authority of a territory was fully confiscated, a spell incorporating the name of Pochi wouldn’t show any effect.
“Maybe it would be funny if it was possible to chant it…?” (Giliel)
“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but let’s first consider the situation in front of us right now!” (Yoshio)
Being told so by Yoshio, Giliel surveyed the vicinity once again.
Despite the fact of it being a headache, Giliel, who turned the two supervisors into her subordinates, decided for the elven supervisor to be her next target, forcibly wrenched open a path to his domain with three people, and tried to enter it.
Since Giliel’s abilities are used for maintaining the dragonoid territory, which lost its supervisor, and the human territory, exercising a stronger power than the elven supervisor became possible once she was supported by the other two, resulting in the task of wrenching open the path not being overly difficult.
Giliel and the other two trespassed into the elven supervisor’s domain by passing through that path, but at their destination they found this empty space.
There was no sign of the elven supervisor who should be in there.
For an instant the idea that it might be once again a trap crossed Giliel’s mind.
The memory of her confronting the supervisor after infiltrating the dragonoid supervisor’s domain was still fresh in her mind.
At that time Giliel was quite troubled by a trap with a truly detestable design of either having to destroy the trap and the dragonoid’s supervisor, who had become that very trap after having something implanted into his body, or having the domain disappear once the supervisor died, even without killing him.
In the end Giliel succeeded in slowly destroying the trap’s true core after barely managing to snatch away the management authority from the dragonoid’s supervisor in time and reconstructing the domain while breaking up her thoughts into several parallel processes.
It was especially annoying that she couldn’t secure the dragonoid’s supervisor, who had become the trap’s main body, and that she suffered not few injuries in the battle.
By elimination, the criminal should be either the elven supervisor or the demon’s supervisor, and Giliel firmly swore in her heart that she would definitely get her revenge once she found them.
As those thoughts apparently showed on her face, Yoshio froze when peeking at Giliel’s face. Pochi at her feet, who had seemingly shaken off the feeling of fear, tried to somehow escape from there, but with her neck being strangled by the collar, she started to loudly groan once again.
Coming to her senses due to that groaning, Giliel tramples down on Pochi for starters, and glares back at Yoshio.
Pochi screamed with a “Fugyaa”, and Yoshio quickly looked into the far distance.
“You can’t confirm the elven supervisor’s presence with your abilities either?” (Giliel)
“I’m bad at such detection skills to begin with.” (Yoshio)
“W-Woof woof…woof woof.” (Pochi)
While still being stepped on, Pochi barked something while gasping painfully, but naturally there’s no way that “woof” would tell Giliel what Pochi wanted to say.
Giliel grabbed the scruff of Pochi, pulled Pochi towards herself, gripped her collar next, and then lifted Pochi up.
“Woof woof! Woof woof!?” (Pochi)
“It’s not like I get what you mean with “woof”, right!? Use proper words~!” (Giliel)
“Well, the one who threatened her with “Dogs don’t talk~” was you, Giliel-sama…” (Yoshio)
Albeit timidly, Yoshio retorted to Giliel, seemingly unable to let such an extreme absurdity pass.
Giliel brooded motionlessly for a little while and before long drew the lifted Pochi’s face in front of her eye, telling her with a voice full of intimidation,
“Since it’s inevitable, you may speak. However…add woof at the end of your sentences, okay?” (Giliel)
“Such a cruel…” (Pochi)
“Hah!?” (Giliel)
“No…understood woof. I shall do as you said woof.” (Pochi)
Pochi was about to file a protest, but on top of being glared at, she was shaken violently back and forth, resulting in her being unable to continue her resistance.
Pochi accepted what Giliel had told her with tears streaming down.
After watching that in satisfaction, Giliel let go of Pochi’s collar.
“So? Did you catch anything with your sense of smell, Pochi?” (Giliel)
“It’s not my sense of smell woof…ah, no, don’t mind me woof.” (Pochi)
Pochi said on all fours while averting her eyes from the glaring Giliel in front of Yoshio, who believed that it might be better for her to give up as soon as possible since the violence in the name of punishment would escalate increasingly the more she tried to go against Giliel.
“There are still some trace of his presence left woof. But…it looks like he’s no longer in this domain woof.” (Pochi)
“Can you chase those traces with your nose?” (Giliel)
“Why can’t you quit it with the smell woof? …It’s impossible as there are not enough traces left to allow a pursuit woof.” (Pochi)
The domain having been left behind untouched didn’t mean that the elven supervisor stopped existing like the dragonoid’s supervisor.
However, in that case it begged the question why he disappeared while abandoning his domain.
“Do you have any idea of a place where he could escape to after abandoning his domain?” (Giliel)
“None is what I’d say here woof. I don’t think that there’s something like a refuge after abandoning a domain woof.” (Pochi)
“I agree with Pochi. The only place besides our domain where we can go is below.” (Yoshio)
What Yoshio meant with below were the continents where Renya and the others were currently staying at.
After considering it for a short time, Giliel asked the two,
“You think he went below?” (Giliel)
Giliel tried to pose that question, but personally believed that the person himself likely hadn’t done that.
And the reply she got was just what she had actually expected.
“I don’t think so woof. If we were to go down on the surface, you should know about it right away woof.” (Pochi)
“I also think that he hasn’t gone there. It’s not a place where he would go by choice either. After all it would be strange if it wouldn’t cause an uproar if he descended.” (Yoshio)
Putting aside their characters, the supervisors are still what’s called gods in this world.
Their names are unknown and they are beings where the residents of the world would ask why they should worship them as gods if they knew that they were playing a game with the world they are managing, but even so, there’s no doubt that they hold a position that forces others to treat them as gods if you consider the magnitude of their existence and the powers they possess.
It would definitely not be strange for it to cause a huge commotion if they were to descend to the transient world, but as far as Giliel knows, such uproar hasn’t occurred on the lower world.
“For starters…Yoshio, you will usurp the management rights of the elven territory. Pochi, you keep searching for traces of the supervisor.” (Giliel)
“Me? Well, since the person himself isn’t here, I guess it’ll probably be alright.” (Yoshio)
“A pursuit is impossible, even if I search for traces… It’s nothing woof! Please allow me to do so woof!” (Pochi)
Yoshio started the process as ordered even while grumbling about it. Pochi really began to sniff all over the place while on all fours in a partially desperate manner.
Confirming that, Giliel started to ponder what she should report to her master and what she should ask.
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