CHAPTER 360: MISSION SECRET COMPLETED

"Pandora, you seem happy," Delphina says as she sees me checking a test I gave to the students. I always let her stay with me in the teachers’ lounge so we can chat.

Generally, when I’m here alone, so that the other teachers don’t bother us, we can have some fun conversations and light flirting.

"Yes, I’m very happy," I say with a smile. How could I not be, knowing the problematic abilities of my enemies? I’m extremely excited.

Knowing everyone’s abilities is one more step towards my revenge. I could go to the castle now and start a fight, but I don’t want to I’ll wait for the war to begin.

I want to play the role of the Absolute Evil against the Heroes. It will be fun to humiliate them in something they think they can do. Just imagining it already excites me.

"That’s good..." She speaks intuitively, avoiding eye contact.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" I ask, seeing a slight anxiety in her to speak something. She wants to say something, but she doesn’t seem sure, and her tail moves slightly with discomfort.

"Nothing...well...maybe I have to go back to my kingdom," she says, catching me by surprise. I didn’t imagine she would have to leave after just a few months, especially since my birthday is approaching.

I wanted her to participate this time, but it seems it won’t be possible, as inviting her doesn’t guarantee she’ll be able to come to my birthday, so I’ll probably just have a more contained party.

"Why? Aren’t you enjoying the classes or being around?" I ask, a little nervous that I might have made a mistake by being too focused on revenge.

"Oh no, no, no, it’s not that at all. It’s just that I also need to take care of some things in my kingdom. I really enjoyed the time we spent together and the encounters we had."

"But you know I’m not a princess, I’m a goddess, and I have my duties to fulfill, especially considering that I live in the same place as my race does," she says, and I feel there’s something more.

"Anything else you want to tell me?"

"...My divine beast [Submarine Devourer] will cause problems if I don’t go to it and resolve something, and I don’t want it to do something stupid and try to eat everything at the bottom of the sea," she says, and I think.

"I’ve heard that term before, Delphina. What is a Divine Beast?" The dwarves were trying to create one, but I had them decimated before that happened. But I’m not 100% sure what it is.

"Oh yes, you’re new, so you don’t know. All goddesses have or had one. Divine Beasts are our own creations. They’re not monsters, but they can appear to be."

"Think of them more as a biological weapon that obeys orders. They have great power and are a way to break rules without punishment. If a goddess can’t do something, she just needs to have the Divine Beast try to do that thing, although Divine Beasts aren’t intelligent and are usually not even conscious."

"Submarine Devourer is my Divine Beast. It stays underwater and I generally use it to destroy or eat annoying things that try to invade my ocean," Delphina says seriously.

"Sounds cool..." I murmur, knowing I don’t have the power to create something like that. I can create colossal shadows, but they’re not the same thing, from what I understand.

"Anyway, Pandora, I’m going back to the ocean today, so I’d like you to take care of this by telling some lie about why the ’Princess of the Mermaids’ had to leave, but say the deal for humans to use the ocean is still active." She speaks, and I nod.

"Okay...so I guess you won’t be coming back to the academy, right?" I ask.

"Yes, you’re right. It was fun while it lasted, but it’s not my style to stay around all these people, pretending to be what I’m not, you know? It was very difficult not to kill these people."

"Everything here was interesting, but a lot of it was just annoying. Why do humans make so much noise? Why do they talk so much? Can’t they walk in silence? Why don’t they stop talking? And why do they make that irritating snapping sound with their bodies?" She expresses her dissatisfaction, and I affectionately stroke her head.

"Hahaha, who knows, right? I don’t have the answer either, but it’s okay. You can go back. I appreciate the help you’ve given me. It was really nice," I thank her with a smile.

Delphina is a shark, a predator from an environment with only natural sounds and absolute silence. It makes sense that she would be bothered by any extra noise, and I must say that it’s even charming how sensitive she is.

"It’s good to be grateful!! ...And I...also really enjoyed the time we spent together," she says with a touch of loneliness. I give her a tight hug, which surprises her with its suddenness.

"Don’t worry, my love. You don’t have to be worried, lonely, or sad. Soon, I’ll kidnap you and lock you in my castle," I say playfully while gently caressing her tail, which leaves her slightly embarrassed.

"T-Thank you...really," she says as I let her go, and she steps back.

"Even the loneliest and most tyrannical of sharks needs a companion for life," I say to her with a sweet smile, which leaves her completely blushed and looking down at the ground in shyness.

’She’s so cute!!’ It’s a fact that our relationship started a bit messy and seemed more physical, but it’s clear that feelings have developed at some point, and I really care about her as much as she cares about me.

"Now go away, or I might end up trapping you here to experiment with your little body, my innocent goddess who doesn’t understand sex," I tease, breaking the farewell mood.

"O-Okay, I’m going...have a good day...and come visit me anytime in the ocean. Also, thank you for that gift. I’ll cherish that beautiful dimension with great care," she says, going to the door to leave, while the system sends me a strange alert.

[Secret mission completed.

You have completed mission ???. You have helped the Goddess of the Mermaids, Delphina Oceane, learn about the lives of others, empathy, and the interest in living life more actively.

As a lonely goddess who has always isolated herself, she had a very pragmatic view of other people’s lives, living one day at a time as if the future didn’t matter.

There is an obvious difference between living and merely surviving, something that is not noticeable to many, but it exists, no matter how much they try to ignore it.

However, you managed to make her long for the future, giving her a reason to truly live, rather than just surviving as if life was not worth it.

She now sees value in existence, both in her own existence and in the existence of the things she herself created, having a slight appreciation for her creation.

You were the mirror that made her see things from a new angle, through the care, love, and attentive care that she never expected to find in her life.

Obtained = [Gratitude]

To the one who helped improve the life of a lonely goddess, a special thank you, giving her a glimpse of a true future, [Gratitude] brings you closer to the divine, allowing you to fundamentally and existentially connect with the essence of what it means to be a deity.]

"...This message again..." I’ve already received something similar. The first time Delphina and I had sex, there was a message about me having improved her life and earned her love.

’Another secret mission...’ I initially thought these messages were from my mother, but my mother doesn’t like Delphina and even said that Delphina was "stealing" me, so it’s not her who’s giving me these messages, because she doesn’t even know about them.

I had even completely forgotten that I had already received a message like this, since it only happened once with Delphina, but now it’s happened again, and I’m sure it wasn’t my mother.

’Who controls the system? And why are they giving me these strange missions and rewards?’ The goddesses only control part of the system, as they have their own system that uses the original system as a base.

So I have no way of knowing who these notifications are from and who’s doing this, which really makes me curious, since both the mission, the content, and the reward are unusual things.

’Could it be...the primordial goddess?...No...that can’t be... why would she do that?’ It doesn’t make sense. Given her personality, I don’t think it could be her, after all, what would be the benefit of uniting me and Delphina from the Primordial Goddess’s perspective?

’To begin with, who really administers the current system? The primordial goddess or someone created by her?’ There’s a good chance it’s another being who controls the original system, because the Primordial Goddess has stopped acting directly.

Even in the meeting between the goddesses, it’s Aradia who puts everything in order, so maybe someone has been created just for the purpose of controlling the system and maintaining order. Of course, I don’t have any proof of this.

’Well...at least it’s advantageous...’ It’s not a bad thing, it’s just curious that this is happening out of nowhere and only happens with Delphina.

"At least this shows that she’s happy, so I’m doing a good job with the romance," I murmur happily.