The man whose monologue we have transcribed was named Nerve in his present world and Yutaka in his past one.
The exact circumstances of Yutaka's ascension into Godhood will perhaps be lost to memory, as will the reason and outcome of his last actions.
What we can say for sure is this:
- His Empire was in the mid of decay. 8 years had passed since his disappearance. His offspring had inherited none of his might and all of his weaknesses, for none of his aptitude or Cheat Skills could be transmitted by his seed. His power was, after all, attached to his being only by the artifice of the Goddess, who played the part of a surgeon in the circumstance. The majority of the children had been raised according to his last whims to be fractious and overweening. They vied for power in his absence.
- Those that searched for Him had collected rumors from far and wide of extraordinary events, in the expectation that fame would naturally follow where He went. By systemic investigation of these reports, they hoped to find proof and traces of his wanderings.
One small courier leaf, buried beneath many others and, eventually, fallen beneath the bumbling Scholar's footrest, described a dwarven colony's encounter with a male goblin and a haggard madman, who had dressed the monster in a frilly skirt and taken it as a mistress. The goblin was oddly obedient, a virtue that added to the offensiveness of their spectacle than decreased it. A disturbance took place, the details of which were unclear except that it involved the injury and imprisonment of the madman in question. The trading post was closed shortly afterward, the mountain blocked up, the mysterious dwarves sealed themselves away.
- 8 years after His disappearance, a magical sphere was collected by hunters in a distant county and sold to a local Adventurer's Guild. A trader brought it across the continent to a Merchant city state. It made its way eventually to the keeping of a senior Cleric, who found something deeply pleasing about the design of the object and stowed it in the sacristy to compliment the sacred decor. A foreign dignitary visiting the Church mistook it for a religious item. Though it was barely larger than a fist, there was something in its appearance that was solemn and mighty.
The sphere was divided into two halves, one red and the other white. Housed in an important room, daily dusted by the caretakers, the native glossiness of the material came into full expression, arousing in one's heart a sense of cuteness and satisfaction. Where the two halves met, a black border ran across the circumference. Punctuating this black border was a coin-sized white circle, its crisp edges carved with consummate skill, so that from the front it appeared to the onlooker as a central white circle overlapping two semicircles of red and white. This aesthetic coincidentally resembled the aesthetic of the Church, whose sacral objects emphasized roundness and bright colors.
The dignitary became deeply moved by the beauty of its form and acting upon the liberty of his exaltation (a civil liberty found commonly in Southern cultures) he reached out and took it in his hands. It so happened that the enchantment that had been bound to the sphere reacted then to something in his touch. The corpse of a great monster, apparently contained in the sphere, expanded to fill the holy area through a kind of "unfolding" mechanism, according to later testimony.
Such magic, unseen in the world, could only be the work of the lost Emperor. Much speculation was devoted to the purpose of the magic spheres. Only one thing was for certain: these magical balls were part of the unfathomable project that had forced Him to abandon His adoring people.
- Rumors in the borderlands of a powerful goblin. Bearing no interest in human women, the odious monster's sole motive for invading human settlements seemed to be to register itself as an Adventurer.
The year 8 AfAp. (After Apotheosis)
Yutaka, giving commands to the goblin "Ayame-chan" in the form of visions, dreams, prophecies, etc...
The God himself had no interest in living in high altitudes, peering from great distances at the activities below. He preferred to live a meter above the ground, in a pouch of skin between Ayame-chan's bony shoulder-blades. He believed that through certain methods he would be able to "roleplay as a character" with his newfound powers...
For the first time in decades he felt genuine excitement for the future.
The spell of insanity from which he'd suffered had faded with his ascension. In the past, his mind darkened by madness, he felt real love for the goblin, convincing himself that it loved him in return. Mindlessly reenacting a pattern of behavior with women in his Adventuring days, he had taken the goblin in as a subordinate, treated it well, raised its levels, then used it to serve his lust.
Now he was attached to Ayame by familiarity and habit.
Ayame had stowed away on a ship bound for a trading area known for its cosmopolitanism, where Yutaka hoped to have greater success in registering as an Adventurer. Much of the difficulty of the mission lay in the fact that Ayame could not speak to clarify its intentions until bloodshed already made itan enemy to the provincial towns he visited. Yutaka was disappointed, as he had trained Ayame to be innocuous, never instigating fights or acting on base desires.
Despite the reputation of its race, Ayame possessed good qualities, unknown even to Yutaka. The goblin had, with minimal involvement from its master, done a number of decent deeds on the ship. During a storm, it had come out of hiding to help the crew save the ship, risking its body to cut the mainsail and to tie several unconscious members to the deck to prevent them from drowning. This led to the goblin being befriended by the open-minded crew, who had heard stranger tales in the taverns at port.
The rest of the journey passed with calm seas. Yutaka attempted several times to foster sexual tension between Ayame-chan and the seamen but was ultimately unsuccessful, in spite of the pent-up spirits of the latter.
They landed on one of the small port villages scattered across the peninsula. At its outskirts a few of the seamen who had become fond of the goblin and its curious dignity, including the young captain of the ship, wished it luck on its journeys and saw the monster off. The young captain had even provided it a letter of recommendation for its meritorious deeds, boldly risking his reputation in the process.
Yutaka was encouraged. Though he did not succeed in turning Ayame into a comfort-woman serving the needs of a crew, or gain the pleasure of watching hardened seamen blush at the results of their own desperation, Yutaka was happy with their reactions. Their open-mindedness gave him hope that Ayame would have better luck in registering in a merchant city.
The city they arrived at was large enough to be walled. This meant that it had fixed entrances and exits, where people entering and leaving would be inspected and their goods tariffed. This boded badly for peaceful goblins.
Yutaka had already tried the combat route a number of times. This time he would do the stealth route. There were two options: hiding in a caravan or scaling the wall at night. The latter was troublesome, so he decided on the former.
To the monster he was "playing as", Yutaka delivered his instructions in three ways: visions, dreams, and sensations. The instructions needed to accomplish the task were precise and complex, so a vision was most appropriate this time.
The goblin, awakening from its trance, followed the line of caravans entering the most crowded gate. It wore a common cloak that concealed its identity as a goblin. Because it was travelling alone, it would still draw suspicion, so it stayed close by to one of the merchant wagons to seem as if it were associated.
The body of a goblin was as slight as a child's. Yutaka had taken this into account in his plan. When the caravan had come close to the gates, the goblin casually ducked underneath.
The make of caravan was cheap, used for short journeys, and known among the traders as shitty because of its uncomfortable ride. There was only just enough room for a child to squeeze between the underside and the ground. Yutaka wagered that it was unlikely the bottom of the vehicle would be checked.
Yutaka heard the immigration officer talking familiarly with the merchants. The wheels began turning again. Ayame used a pair of daggers to hook into the wooden panels, letting its legs drag behind it as the shitty caravan rattled along into the city.
"Good work Ayame-chan. Now we will be Adventurers." (Yutaka, to himself)
