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“Hmm~? This is yet another completely unexpected event, isn’t it~?”
What Giliel was staring at while groaning was a wall, nothing else. An object made out of an unknown material, but still, it was a smooth, white wall.
If that, which felt pretty solid when touched, was really just a simple wall, it wouldn’t be all that hard for Giliel to punch through, no matter what material it was made out of, but by just touching that wall, Giliel perceived that she wouldn’t be able to knock it down with just her fists.
“Just what the hell is this?” Yoshio asked while waiting behind Giliel.
In response Giliel turned around while looking sullen, and drove a right backhand blow into the wall with a sharp motion.
Yoshio, who understood the power behind the unrestrained attack Giliel unleashed, reflexively ducked his head in preparation for the explosion bound to occur the next instant, but no matter how long he waited, nothing like that reached his ears. He stared at Giliel’s fist, wondering whether she had stopped it just before impact, but her fist definitely touched the wall, and he grasped that she likely had driven it into the wall with its full momentum just now.
“There’s no reason for it to make a sound, you know? It’s not a physical wall.” Giliel rebuked him.
“What is this thing then?” Yoshio asked.
“It looks like the domain was shut down.” Giliel replied.
The reason was unclear, but the supervisor of the elven territory was absent.
Giliel, who had taken possession of the fourth domain without putting any work into it, tried to extend her reach into the last one remaining, the demon domain. The power difference was already four versus one. As for the supervisors, she could only secure two because one was already dead and the other was missing, but Giliel had been almost certain that she would be able to capture the demon supervisor.
After examining the elven supervisor’s domain, Giliel had kicked Yoshio’s butt out of spite, and opened a path to the demon’s domain while pushing Pochi down, who had empty eyes, obviously having given up on just about everything. As she was about to march into the domain triumphantly, she suddenly had the wind taken out of her sails.
“Shutting down a domain was possible?” Yoshio asked in surprise.
“Yeah…but, since you’re a muscle brain down to your core, it might be inevitable that you didn’t know.” Giliel answered.
“No…umm, I mean, tentatively I had been a god, okay…?” Yoshio interjected in a timid manner after being told that it was not just his brain and even his soul, but actually his very existence that consisted of muscles.
However, there was no way for him to stop Giliel with such a comeback.
“That was in the past, far in the past. To explain it in a way so that even a lump of muscles without a shred of intelligence understands it: Master’s eternal kindness tolerates a supervisor abandoning their domain. No matter which world, this is a right of any approved supervisor as long as they are under master’s patronage.” Giliel explained.
“Is it fine to ask a question, Giliel-sama?” A flat, empty voice asked.
It was Pochi, the former human supervisor, who raised a hand with an expression that lacked any emotions. Previously she wore a dog cartoon character costume, had a collar put around her neck, and was led around on all fours, but this time she had been forced to put on black fishnet stockings, high heels, a booty suit that had a black luster, and for some reason overturned lacy cuffs at her wrists. Long and narrow, pure white ears sat atop her head swaying softly with the left one having been carefully folded at around the middle. It’s what you would call a bunny girl costume.
Seemingly having no emotional strength to resist any longer, the human supervisor, who had been dubbed Pochi, had silently started to change her clothes when she was ordered by Giliel to do so without voicing out any complaints towards the attire at all. Because of that, Giliel didn’t get as much fun out of it.
“What? Umm…Pochi is weird when she’s wearing such an outfit…she might need a bunny like name. Right, Yoshio?” Giliel pondered.
There were standard names when it came to dogs and cats, but for bunnies, no such standard names popped up in her mind.
Having been asked with a look telling him that it was inevitable, Yoshio answered with a dumbfounded expression and tone, “There’s no way I would know a standard name for bunnies, though.”
“Useless…in the end you’re just a Yoshio, huh?” Giliel said while piercing him with a gaze that contained plenty of scorn.
Apparently there were things that even the former beastman supervisor couldn’t stomach, he said with a subdued voice, “You, apologize to all the Yoshios existing across all worlds…”
“I don’t mind doing that to any Yoshio-san besides you.” Giliel readily answered.
Ignoring Yoshio, who dropped his shoulders in disappointment after being readily excluded, the former human supervisor muttered with a voice lacking any emotions or intonations, “How about Pyonkichi, Pyonta, or something like that?”
Giliel clapped her hands together once, thinking, ‘There were those names as well.’
“Hey, you’re making a joke out of yourself!?” Yoshio, who hadn’t expected the affected party out of all people to honestly reply with standard bunny names, retorted loudly.
However, Giliel drowned out Yoshio’s words with her own while frowning and clicking her tongue, “How regrettable. Those are male bunny names, aren’t they?”
“The gender doesn’t matter at all, right!? Or are you saying that’s what actually matters here!?” Yoshio shouted.
“How about, Pyonko, Pyonmii or Netherland dwarf rabbit then?” Pochi inquired indifferently.
“Get away from that Pyon theme!? Or rather, what’s with the last one!? The last one!” The former beastman supervisor retorted towards the former human supervisor and Giliel, who were both talking about this with serious faces, at the top of his lungs, but he was forced into silence by Giliel’s next action.
“Yoshio, you’re a bit annoying.” Alongside those words, Giliel kicked Yoshio with such force that his body floated up. Giliel had explicitly targeted his nether region.
The question of whether his body, that of a supervisor, had vital spots in the first place was still up for debate, but apparently it had been quite a weak spot going by his state. Yoshio soundlessly crouched down on the spot while holding the impact zone with both hands.
His face had become ghastly pale, but judging by the fact that this was the full extent even after getting kicked by Giliel, it seemed that he didn’t possess the part which would have otherwise received much more damage if he were human.
“Very well. Then I will call you Mini-Bunny1 while you’re wearing that outfit.” Giliel decided.
“I’m deeply humbled, Giliel-sama.” Mini-Bunny (former Pochi) bobbed her head, making her long ears sway.
Not managing to make a comeback while still crouched, Yoshio whispered after gasping painfully, “Humbled, as if…”
“Putting that side, what was your question, Mini-Bunny?” Giliel inquired.
“Yes, Giliel-sama. You said those appointed as supervisors of every world can abandon their duty and lock down their domain thanks to master’s kindness, but, how does that relate to master’s kindness?” Mini-Bunny repeated her earlier question.
“They have been allowed the freedom to abandon the work that was appointed to them by master. If that isn’t a demonstration of master’s kindness, what would you call it then?” Giliel asked back.
If she were to be told, “You guys didn’t fulfill your responsibilities and you didn’t even resign from your jobs,” there would be no room for Mini-Bunny to object.
And yet, seemingly not fully satisfied with that explanation, Mini-Bunny hung onto Giliel, and asked, “However, the destination of a supervisor after willingly abandoning their domain…”
“They have one, don’t they? Descending to the lower world they were in charge of.” Once Giliel said that while showing disgust in her voice and expression, Yoshio and Mini-Bunny stared blankly at her in puzzlement.
“In other words, you’re saying the demon supervisor abandoned his own domain, abdicated from his position as supervisor, and descended to the lower world?” Mini-Bunny asked.
“There’s no other way to explain the existence of this wall here.” Giliel hit the wall in front of her as if knocking on a door, but no sound could be heard.
The reason there was no sound after hitting a wall is either because the wall completely absorbed the impact or because it’s ridiculously thick, but Giliel appeared to know what kind of wall it was.
“For there to suddenly be a wall when you open a path to a domain means that there’s nothing beyond the path. The existence of such a wall signals that the domain of the one in charge of the demons has been abandoned and shut down. Once a domain has been abandoned, the one in charge of it has no place to go other than the lower world. Got it?” Giliel expanded on her explanation.
“Understood. So, Giliel-sama, just what would be the best thing for us to do then?” Mini-Bunny asked.
After brooding for a moment, Giliel replied, “Yoshio, reconstruct the demon domain and maintain it with all your power.”
“Eh? Me?” Yoshio was surprised.
“Any complaints?” Giliel asked Yoshio with somewhat glazed eyes after stopping her backhand blow, which had previously hit the wall, right in front of Yoshio’s cheek with a speed his eyes couldn’t follow at all.
Yoshio shook his head in panic while cold sweat ran down his whole face, “Absolutely not. With pleasure. Could you please withdraw your fist as I’m going to start right away.”
“Wonderful, then get to it at once.” Giliel pulled her fist back and glared at him.
In response Yoshio, while still pale, placed both his hands on the wall as told, and started the construction of the domain.
Mini-Bunny said to Giliel, who looked bored at Yoshio’s back, while bowing, “Anyway, congratulations for having secured all the domains.”
“Don’t say that as the ringleader of a five versus one…” Giliel muttered.
“Should I cook some red rice2 in celebration?” Mini-Bunny inquired.
“Hey…do you want me to hit you?” Giliel tried to put a bit of strength into her clenched fist to threaten Mini-Bunny, who proposed something like that with a dispassionate voice, keeping it unclear how serious she was with her threat, but Mini-Bunny’s reaction was weak.
Due to Mini-Bunny casting her eyes downwards as if telling her to go ahead, a light feeling of regret welled up within Giliel, wondering if she might have teased her a bit too much.
Even Giliel was aware that she had treated her really cruelly by having her put on a dog costume and calling her Pochi, but as a result of that, she had apparently made Mini-Bunny give up in various ways, falling into a state where it wouldn’t be odd for her to whirl around if Giliel shamelessly told her to do so.
“Not yet?” Mini-Bunny faintly opened her eyes due to the blow not coming no matter how long she waited, but Giliel was no longer in the mood to hit her.
While loosely waving her open hand, “Stop it.”
“I see… At any rate, having to control a vast domain, which was previously managed by five gods so far, with just the three of us, at least for now, will be a tough job.” Mini-Bunny commented.
“Huh? What are you saying?” Giliel’s response was apparently something Mini-Bunny hadn’t expected. A tiny bit of surprise showed on her face.
“No, I mean, sooner or later new supervisors will be sent by master, but until then we have to manage the domains of the five races…ah, am I possibly not included in the count? If that’s the case I will accept it and content myself with my fate…” Mini-Bunny said, thinking that she – leaving aside Yoshio who had surrendered quickly – might not be able to work as supervisor anymore because of the events so far.
In response, Giliel said something outrageous, “No, no. The management of the domains will be left as is with me holding the authority, but I will have you two manage them in reality. At the very least you will have to work 2,5 times as much as you previously did. Until master feels like it and dispatches new supervisors to this place, that is.”
“Eh?” Mini-Bunny was flabbergasted.
“Haah? What the hell!?” Yoshio shouted as if he had heard something unbelievable.
“Your hands have stopped. Keep on working!” Giliel ordered.
“Nuguuh…” Having his butt kicked by Giliel from behind, Yoshio went back to reconstructing the domain.
It might be wrong to say it was in exchange for him, but Mini-Bunny voiced out her doubts instead, “Managing all domains with us two supervisors, you say…?”
“Work on it as if your life depends on it. I won’t allow you to die even if you want to, though.” Contrary to Giliel, who laughed, saying, “Serves your right,” Mini-Bunny’s expression didn’t even twitch.
Her resignation had already reached the level where she would accept everything thrown her way without going against the flow.
“I see…well, if that’s your order…however, what are you going to do then, Giliel-sama?”
“I’m not all that eager to do it, but…” Pressing both hands against her waist, Giliel breathed out deeply, retreated a bit, and glared at the wall, “…seeing as the opponents I have to get rid of have gone down below, I must go after them, don’t I…?”
Upon hearing those words Yoshio looked up to the sky, stopping his work. Mini-Bunny prayed in her mind that there wouldn’t be too much damage to the humans race for whom she harbored a reasonable amount of affection albeit having treated them as game pieces so far with an unmoving expression.
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