Chapitre 50: Impotence
"Here you go, sweetheart, have a candy." The kind old lady handed a small sweet to Riveria with a big smile.
"Thank you very much." Feeling a bit embarrassed, Riveria took the candy from the elderly woman's hands and carefully tucked it into her robe.
After receiving the kind offer of a ride from the old woman, Riveria—though confused—accepted the transport and climbed into the small truck with her family.
After all, she had no idea where they were or where her *Kami-sama* was, so for now, her best option was to find a place to gather information about this new world.
Looking back, Riveria saw her family members squeezed together in the back of the truck, cramped amongst the fruit.
"Sorry, we must be a heavy load," Riveria apologized with a slight blush.
Although she couldn't fully comprehend the workings of this strange metal vehicle, she assumed it was a common mode of transportation. After inspecting it for a moment, she deduced it didn't run on *mana*, which meant it must operate using some other kind of system.
Though curious, Riveria had more pressing matters to deal with at the moment.
"HAHA, don't worry, little Sakura can carry much more weight than we've got here." The elderly woman chuckled and gave Riveria a gentle pat on the shoulder.
"Kyaa!" A shiver ran down Riveria's spine at the old woman's touch, and she let out a small yelp.
For elves, physical contact is very selective, even with family members. There are very few people Riveria feels comfortable touching without feeling uneasy.
Despite the discomfort, Riveria didn't say anything. After all, she understood that the elderly woman had no ill intentions, and she was unfamiliar with the customs of this place.
You can't be rude to a kind face.
The old woman didn't seem to notice Riveria's small cry or trembling and made no comment.
"By the way, dear, your costume and those of your companions look so realistic! When my granddaughter dressed up in what they call *cosplay*, it didn't look half as real. It looks like you really put in the effort!" The old woman remarked as she looked at Riveria's long ears, along with Elinalise, who was sitting in the cab with her.
"Haha, thank you. We did put a lot of effort into it," Riveria responded with an awkward smile.
From the old woman's explanation, *cosplay* seemed to be something akin to dressing up as a character. Apparently, she believed that the ears and outfits the Rozzo family was wearing were part of a *cosplay*.
Faced with this assumption, Riveria could only play along to avoid any potential trouble.
"By the way, ma'am, you said the *cosplay* convention was 80 kilometers from where we were?" Riveria asked, turning her attention back to the old woman, hoping to gather more information and possibly head to the convention to learn more about this world.
"That's right, sweetheart. We should be there in about an hour. My granddaughter is cosplaying there right now, and I'm on my way to give her a bit of extra money." The elderly woman's face lit up with a happy smile as she spoke of her granddaughter.
"If you want, I can introduce you to her. She goes to these conventions a lot, so maybe she can help guide you."
"I would appreciate that very much, ma'am!" A sincere smile appeared on Riveria's face. She thought it was truly a blessing to have encountered such a kind soul just after arriving in this new world.
Turning her gaze, Riveria looked at Elinalise, who had been unusually quiet since they got in the truck.
At that moment, Elinalise was eyeing a small black and silver device resting on the dashboard of the truck.
"Elinalise, do you know what that device is?" Riveria asked tentatively, recalling that *Kami-sama* had given Elinalise something called "comics," which contained information about other worlds.
"Oh, Riveria-chan! I'm not entirely sure how the device works, but I've seen it in some of my romance comics. It seems to be used for communication and is called a *telephone*," Elinalise explained, snapping out of her trance after Riveria's question.
In truth, Elinalise didn't know much about *telephones* or *cars*. When she read comics, she focused more on the romance rather than the world-building around it. After all, the comics didn't offer detailed explanations, and her god hadn't explained much either, so she had given up on researching further.
"Communication?" Riveria looked at the small device with confusion, unable to imagine how such a small object could serve that purpose.
Noticing Riveria and Elinalise's curious stares at the phone, as if they had never seen one before, the elderly woman smiled.
"This is the new phone my son gave me. If you'd like, you can play around with it while we head to the event," the woman offered, handing the phone over to Elinalise.
"Um... Thank you very much!" Elinalise carefully took the phone and began examining it.
Riveria leaned in close, watching as Elinalise tried to figure out how to operate the device.
The elderly woman, watching the two beautiful girls, smiled warmly. She thought perhaps their family wasn't very wealthy, and this was the first time they had seen a phone.
...
"INCREDIBLE…! How does this thing move? What kind of system powers it?"
Meanwhile, in the back of the small truck, the dwarf Talhand was questioning his very existence.
He shifted from side to side, trying to understand how this strange metal carriage they were in managed to move.
For him, a blacksmith and craftsman, this metal carriage was a walking enigma, and like any good artisan, he was determined to uncover the mysteries of its operation.
"Calm down, Talhand! Your massive weight is going to tip us over!" Paul warned, concerned that the dwarf's fidgeting might upset the kind old woman's truck.
"Hmph, I don't know what all the fuss is about. It's just a metal carriage. Still, it's slower than my own legs," Eris huffed, looking disdainfully at the vehicle.
To Eris, who could reach supersonic speeds, this truck felt as slow as a cart drawn by a tired old horse.
Alfia and Ghislaine said nothing, but they shared Eris's sentiments. To them, it was faster to run than to ride in this strange carriage.
"You can't say that, Eris. Perhaps for adventurers this is a waste of metal, but for common folk, this speed is still incredible. I'd love to see the engineering behind this piece of work," Roxy chimed in, finding the vehicle fascinating.
Behind her, Sylphiette nodded, clearly interested as well.
"Hehe, it really is an exciting topic to discuss, but don't you think the little amount of mana in this world is even more interesting?" Rudeus interjected, finding it amusing that the group was fixated on something so trivial.
Everyone in the back of the truck fell silent for a moment before quickly tuning their bodies to sense the mana in the environment.
"The little mass of perversion is right. This place has a lamentable amount of mana," Alfia commented after carefully sensing her surroundings, one eye open.
Rudeus forced a somewhat stiff smile at Alfia's nickname for him; he knew he was to blame. After all, it was hard not to focus on Alfia's two prominent attributes.
"Didn't Kaylon say this world had a higher level than my home world?" Paul pondered, recalling bits of the basic information their god had provided.
This place seemed to have less mana than his own world (referring to Mushoku).
"The great mass of perversion speaks the truth. Kami-sama mentioned that this world was an ancient-level world," Alfia noted.
According to their god, it was only two levels below the primordial world of DanMachi.
"Still, it feels different. Despite the small amount, its quality and density seem better than in my native world," Sylphiette commented, letting mana flow through her body.
As everyone discussed the differences in mana in this world, Ghislaine, who had been using her magical eye to observe where the truck was headed, remarked, "I sense a colossal amount of magical energy gathering in the place where the old woman is taking us. The ratio compared to the outside is 10 to 1."
"You saw that clearly with your magical eye, didn't you, Ghislaine?"
"Umu," she confirmed.
Everyone knew that Ghislaine had an eye capable of seeing mana, making her the most sensitive to it in the entire family.
"So the mana is divided into specific areas and not evenly concentrated throughout the world... interesting," Roxy noted with a smile, jotting down the new information in one of her many notebooks.
"It's hot."
"Yeah, it's hotter than both worlds I've been to."
"That's climate change."
"Huh? What's climate change, Rudeus?"
"I have no idea."
…
"WOW, WHAT BEAUTIFUL COSTUMES!"
A beautiful young girl around 17 years old exclaimed in surprise as she spotted the peculiar group.
"See! Your grandma told you they were incredible costumes!" The kind old woman who had brought Riveria and the others proudly said as she watched her granddaughter.
"Nice to meet you!" Elinalise, at the front of the group, introduced herself with a smile.
The entire group nodded in greeting, except for Alfia, who was covering her ears in annoyance while casting murderous glances all around.
"Hehe, I'd love to spend more time with you, but Grandma has to go sell her fruits. I hope you all have a great time!" The grandmother, watching the group introduce themselves, said with her usual smile.
"Thank you for the money, Grandma!" The young granddaughter kissed the old woman on the cheek as she said goodbye.
Seeing that the old woman was about to leave, Riveria approached her and gently placed her hand on the old woman's shoulder.
"Thank you very much for bringing us. I wish you blessings in your life," Riveria said with a warm smile as she bid farewell to the grandmother.
"HAHAA! It was a pleasure meeting you, beautiful Riveria. I hope we can meet again," the elderly woman laughed heartily as she walked toward her truck.
"Riveria-chan, what was that?"
Perhaps others hadn't noticed, but Elinalise, who was close by, saw a faint green glow emanating from Riveria's hand at the moment she touched the old woman's shoulder.
"The old woman's lungs seemed very worn out, so I just used a bit of vitality to restore them to optimal condition. It's the least I could do," Riveria said, smiling as she watched the old woman depart.
It had been a long time since she had encountered someone with such pure intentions and no hidden motives—just a person who sincerely wanted to help.
"Little one, may I ask your name?" Riveria approached the old woman's granddaughter with a smile.
"My name is Aiko!" the energetic young girl introduced herself to Riveria.
"Aiko, can I ask you a few questions?"
...
"Phew, that was a relaxing experience," Kaylon sighed contentedly as he sat back in the chair at the tea table.
However, unlike when Kaylon first arrived, everything was now in shambles: the sky hung ominously, threatening to fall at any moment; the ground boiled like lava; and the space around him was wrecked.
"Don't you think so, Gea?"
With a smile, Kaylon observed Gea. Unlike her previous calm and majestic demeanor, Gea now looked lamentable. Her skin was as pale as paper, dried blood smeared across her body, and her indifferent eyes appeared extremely weary.
"It was truly difficult to fight you without accidentally killing you."
For a primordial, a god-king was no different from an ant, so Kaylon wasn't exaggerating. After all, it was challenging to play with an ant without crushing it.
"I hope your resentment has faded, Kaylon." Slowly walking over, Gea sat in the chair across from him once more.
Only she knew how much damage she had sustained during their "fight." She had lost count of how many times she had to regenerate her body from scratch. Fortunately, Kaylon had genuinely restrained himself from killing her; otherwise, it would have been much worse. It seemed she would take a long time to recover.
"Not at all, but it no longer makes sense to continue taking it out on you," Kaylon said simply, expressing his boredom.
"How long do you plan to stay in my world?" Setting aside the damage to her body, Gea asked Kaylon the important question.
"For a short time for now, but I'll be back later. You don't have to worry about that; I won't transfer my personal resentment onto this world." As a mortal in his past life, Kaylon had no interest in destroying mortals for fun.
"I understand. I trust your word." Gea still believed in Kaylon's character, although even if he wanted to destroy it, there wouldn't be much she could do.
"By the way, when do you plan to tell the other gods?" Kaylon inquired. He had discovered that Gea had known for a long time about his knowledge of the locations of new worlds, so the question was when she would share this information.
"I can't tell you exactly; after all, I'm merely an avatar. However, we share the same essence and think alike, so I would wait for the best moment to encourage the world's growth," Gea shared her thoughts with Kaylon.
"Umu."
Nodding, Kaylon thought it made sense. Knowing Gea, she would probably mention it when she saw that travel to other worlds could benefit her world.
"Well, my family must be worried about me, so I'll be leaving. It was nice talking to you."
Swishh
As soon as he finished speaking, Kaylon's figure simply vanished, leaving the steaming teacup on the table.
The space seemed to fall silent for a long moment until a voice broke the stillness.
"The damages aren't only present in your body, Gaia. Many timelines have been altered, and some individuals you had contained have taken this opportunity to escape."
The little Alaya, who had decisively fled earlier, returned to report the damages.
"Sighh…"
Little Gaia, sensing her own state and the state of the timelines, sighed wearily.
After centuries of feeling no emotions, for the first time today, she felt impotent.
All she could do was accept the loss, and she couldn't even seek revenge.
"It's an unpleasant feeling."
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Hahaha, did you miss me
Well, maybe not… heh.
I won't make too many excuses or say a lot of nonsense; I simply didn't have the time to continue writing, and I left it for a long time. Now I have more free time and intend to continue this story, which I hold dear. So stay tuned for new chapters!
Hehe, I hope someone is still out there!
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone