When Ryouta returned to camp, he finally noticed how terrible the situation was.

Not even one tenth of the original number of people in the camp managed to stay alive.

“…Where’s Vell?” Ryouta asked Hal, who was slouching against a large piece of debris with a grim look on his face.

“…She didn’t survive.” Hal closed his eyes in pain, remembering the tough woman. “What about Shiro? The barrier suddenly disappeared.” He knew some people were harbouring hate towards the little girl who suddenly stopped casting the spell.

Ryouta felt as if something was stuck in his throat. “Gone. The strain was too hard on her.”

“Oh…” Hal looked away, unable to look at the grieving boy. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

“I… I shouldn’t have told her to do it. I should’ve known her limits.”

“…Don’t blame yourself. She agreed to do it voluntarily, didn’t she?”

“You don’t understand!” Ryouta glared at the man. “I’m [Shiro’s Master]! Even if it seemed like a casual favour, anything that comes out of my mouth becomes absolute to her!”

Hal’s face changed. “Even if she was originally a slave, you shouldn’t act as if you own he—“

“I have a title called [Shiro’s Master]! Without my realisation, we made a blood contract! I didn’t even know when it happened. Why… Just where did I go wrong?!” Ryouta cut the man off, venting his feelings. “All I wanted to do was protect her…”

“…” Hal stood up with difficulty. He patted the boy’s back silently. He knew this wasn’t the time for comforting words. It was better for the boy to let everything out instead of bottling it in.

Shiro, in spirit-form, was just watching this melodramatic moment.

Eh~ Why don’t you two just chu~ chu~ while you’re at it? Shiro’s rotten heart will enjoy it thoroughly, uhehehehe~

Ah, hello!

Shiro iz alaiv!

Surprised~? Eh~

It’s not like people die when they’re dead~

…Eh? That sounds kind of weird?

Oh, anyways~

Most people who die become souls without a body, and they either return to the cycle of reincarnation or cultivate to become a spirit deity if their soul is strong enough~ Yep, that’s how it is~

By the way, Shiro’s True Self is a bona fide goddess, so even if Shiro dies, she’ll just re-assimilate into the main body~

For the time being, though, Shiro still has some things to do, so she can’t go back yet. Boo~

Let’s pause the melodrama for a bit, shall we?

Umph!

“Uwaa—you scared me!”

What the… “You’re a god; don’t be such a scaredy cat.”

“Don’t put us on the same level as you, Airi~ we’re just humble little gods, you know~”

“That’s right, that’s right~ we’re super weak compared to you~”

“Yes, yes. Stop the bootlicking.”

“””Yes~~~”””

“I came here to inform all of you that the final selection will be happening in a bit, so make sure to welcome the successor properly, okay~”

“Yep, we know!”

“Good work~”

“And don’t push all of the tedious tasks to him… since he’s still new.”

“Aw… we were found out~”

“”Aw~””

“Oh, that’s right; here’s the compensation~ Thanks for coming to our help. As you know, even with all of us combined, we couldn’t hold back the loophole. Especially since that bitch ran away~”

A small box appeared out of thin air, floating in front of the white-haired girl. “Well, I was just doing my job, but thanks, anyway.”

“Speaking of which, why did you make a move personally? Our realm is not even that important or strong?” One of the two female spoke, confusion in her eyes.

She had expected that when she submitted the request back then, [Sanctuary], the organisation that [Judgement] worked for, would send just another run-off-the-mill angel to help them clear the mess, but having such an important person come personally was not bad, either~

“…” Shiro/Airi refused to answer. She wasn’t going to say that she was bullied into accepting the task because her seniors all gave the excuse of being short-staffed, thus making her attend to it personally (using a clone).

“Ah, look!” Shiro pointed towards the water mirror that the gods have been using to watch the world.

“What? What? What is it?!”

Ah it worked. Heh heh.

“…”

Seeing that the gods didn’t get angry at her for the trick but was instead engrossed in the scenes displayed on the water mirror, she was also curious.

“Ah!”

Oh, no wonder~

It seems like the story of the overpowered abandoned hero is nearing its end.

Umph!