Despite her best efforts, Willow failed to find Neltarid. They had vanished without a trace, almost as if they had never existed in the first place.

Even Willow, initially consumed by fury, sensed something wrong with the situation and temporarily ceased her rampage. Of course, that didn't mean the missing Neltarid would just pop back up.

Eventually, Davey heard the news as well.

“I'll have to keep this a secret from Kain...”

He didn't know the full story, but one thing was crystal clear. Revealing Neltarid's disappearance to the Valkyries or the people of middle earth would spark absolute chaos.

He murmured to himself, “How could the Great God of Earth just afk...”

“Davey?”

It seemed Aeria must’ve woken up. When her voice drifted from beside him, he gently stroked her cheek as she lay in bed. Her ears fluttered as she gripped the thin blanket tight, covering her face in an adorable and endearing way.

When he stopped, she pulled the blanket down just below her gaze, rolled her big eyes around, and then slowly sat up.

She stretched and gave him a pretty smile.

He was pleased to see it, asking, “Are you sleeping well now?”

“Yes, I'm fine now.”

Aeria went through the toughest time when the climate changed. She was extremely sensitive to the weather, and the sudden shifts that came with the Primordial Winter often made it hard for her to sleep comfortably.

With all of that gone, she looked incredibly happy, having soundly slept and rested well.

“I'll bring you tea in a little bit,” she offered him.

“Don't push yourself. You should rest a bit longer.”

“I'm fine. It's not like I'm sick or anything.”

However, she was in fact the most physically frail of his three wives. Of course, it wasn't due to any underlying sickness. Just relative.

“I’m going to get up now, so you should rest a little longer.” He kissed her forehead and stood up, making her ears twitch with shyness. “My Lady, I'll prepare your bathwater.”

“Aah. Yes, please,” Aeria answered, shifting and inadvertently exposing her fair skin. Davey threw on a light shirt and headed for the office.

The climate change hit the livestock and agricultural sectors the hardest, striking indiscriminately.

Heins Territory, which was especially sensitive to weather, also took a considerable hit.

While Neltarid's disappearance was definitely suspicious, he couldn't afford to spend all his time focusing on them.

Illyna, who was already up when he walked into the office, quickly dealt with the documents and started talking to him, asking, “Davey, have you been on Earth’s internet recently? It looks like a lot of people caught a glimpse of Willow's face.”

“Really?” he nonchalantly responded.

“Are you sure that it’s okay, even if people find out she’s a goddess?”

“Has she been completely exposed?”

“Nah, it looks like they're just guessing.”

“Then just let it be. Some humans take ambiguous facts as gospel, while others remain skeptical. If we don't react, it'll probably die out on its own.”

“And what if she actually does get fully exposed?”

“If she's exposed, she's exposed. It’s not like she committed a crime.”

He shrugged, and Illyna nodded her head, seemingly agreeing. “That's true. Here, sign this. It’s the last one in the pile.”

“You finished everything else already? What made you save this for last?”

“The Gourmet Research Society messed up again.”

He took the documents with a wry expression. They listed the damages and compensation from yet another screw-up by the Gourmet Research Society.

“Haaah.”

He was getting somewhat tired of dealing with the head of the Gourmet Research Society, Yuria Helishana, along with the members Rinne and Marky. The outrageous, borderline insane antics that the three sometimes got up to were truly unbelievable.

“Seriously, I understand their enthusiasm, but what did they do to the hot spring geyser this time?”

“They say the geyser water from hot springs is good for you. Apparently, they ran with the idea and caused a disaster, thinking they could use that water to create something new...”

They illegally occupied a naturally spouting geyser, then messed around with its underground source by reportedly spilling a huge amount of sugar into it.

“If those guys didn't produce such great results, I'd have liquidated their little club already.”

Both the Development Society and the Gourmet Research Society were problematic. No other department had issues, but these two produced overwhelmingly good results in addition to their incredibly high rate of causing trouble.

“Those assholes never let me rest...”

“I went to see it in person,” Illyna honestly admitted. “Apparently, the sweetness has become a permanent characteristic of even the freshest spring water. I have no idea how much they had to dump to make it that bad.”

“Freyja damn, they’re driving me nuts. So, where are they now?”

“It looks like they've hidden themselves at Rinne's island on Earth. They probably think they've hid well enough not to get caught, but...” Illyna showed him the budget transfer statement. “It's super obvious.”

“Just leave them alone for now. They aren't the priority.”

Her head tilted in confusion. “Is there something else important to deal with instead?”

“It's a personal matter, Illyna.”

When he called her name, she looked right into his eyes. Her deep affection for him was unmistakable.

His heart melted at the sight. “Don’t you want a child?”

After being quiet for a long time, she shook her head. “I'm fine.”

“Is that so?”

‘I know you’re lying.’

“I only need you.” She sprang up from her seat, approached him, and grabbed his collar. She gave him a deep kiss, then slowly pulled away. Licking her lips with her small pink tongue, she smiled brightly. “Yeah. After all, all I need is you.”

“...Okay.”

‘She must have her reasons. It's not like either of us is short on time, anyway.’

* * *

Embroiled in the aftermath of the massive interdimensional catastrophe, the survivors struggled to get their lives back on track just to survive another day.

There was a saying about planting an apple tree even if the world were about to end.

Among office workers, recovery was swift enough for a meme to spread.

- Even if the world ends tomorrow, I’m still going to work.

Many people tuned in for Evangeline's stream.

Of course, since it was a global recovery period and many people had died, many of her viewers had dropped off, but there was also the strange phenomenon of new viewers and subscribers increasing just as much to offset it.

Surprisingly, the main interest of those coming in from various countries was Willow.

“Can you guys just chill for a minute? Sorry, but this isn’t a stream that satisfies your curiosity. This is a drawing stream.”

[Fact: Boss is currently doing gacha.]

“Seriously, when is the S-rank gonna drop?! My allowance for crystals is all gonna go down the drain...”

Perhaps because the Rainbow Slime that usually handled her luck wasn’t around, she was failing spectacularly with her gacha rolls.

“Damn it. Where the heck is Shadie! Please... Please let me get it this time!”

Ding!! Poof!!

[Nope not a chance KEKW]

[Wiped out for real OMEGALUL]

“I quit!” Failing to get what she wanted even after spending all her virtual money, she trembled with frustration and slammed the desk.

With talk about Willow still popping up all the time, it remained on her mind. She knew that Willow had awakened and could now descend because of what had happened. She was curious to find out the exact method she’d use to finally manifest.

Even so, she couldn't openly discuss Willow on the stream. At least, not until that girl decided to reveal it herself.

“No talking about Willow, chat. She's not a streamer.”

Despite addressing the chat, not one single person cared.

[Constellation Leo has donated 50,000 Won.]

- The disaster made my crypto tank. Should I have trusted in my bros and just invested in GamerStop? It’s getting harder and harder to HODL to my sanity...?

‘The world's a mess, and a demigod like them is spouting nonsense...’

Evangeline shot back a look of pure pity toward the camera. “Oh please, first think of how your ancestors would feel if they knew their descendant was a sweaty degen who takes financial advice from Bluedit..]

[Wow... Boss is fudged...]

[You’re.]

[Canceled.]

[You’re.]

[Canceled.]

“Why are you even talking about crypto here?! I don't care about that stuff! Stop it! Go to Mars, go to the moon, I don't care, but if you talk about crypto on my stream, I’m kicking you out.”

Beep.

[Constellation Leo has been banned.]

[Constellation Leo has donated 50,000 Won.]

- Maybe I should just buy some NFT’s, I hear they're a sure thing.

“No, I said stop! And why are you back just a few seconds after being banned?!”

Even the streaming platform had already given up on trying to penalize those constellations Leo and Sagittarius.

Since the two were confirmed to be non-human transcendent beings, all people could do was marvel at the absurdity of their amusing antics.

[Come to think of it, didn't our chairman Leo make a big fuss shouting how we should worship Willow when she showed up?]

[Wait, so she was a real Goddess?]

[Her concept wasn’t a joke?]

“Wouldn't it be better to ask her yourself? I’m done talking about this.”

Of course, the chance of Willow descending right now was practically zero.

Practically, not technically.

Pzzt.

“Huh?”

Crackle, crackle!!!

Sparks started flying behind Evangeline.

Shatter!

A crack appeared with the sound of shattering glass, then a black-haired girl in a feathered robe approached from it and ceremoniously... tripped on the rift’s edge and face-planted onto the floor with a loud THUMP.

“...”

“...”

Everyone fell silent.

Evangeline turned her head to stare blankly at the collapsed Willow.

The viewers similarly watched in stunned silence.

“Umm. Willow?” Evangeline called out cautiously in a cold sweat, but the girl still didn't get up. “What's... wrong?”

“I don’t wanna stand... I'm too embarrassed to get up...”

Her second appearance mirrored her first. Yet again, she was too embarrassed to pick herself up off the floor.

* * *

Willow, the Goddess of Harmony, had awakened a high-level authority of Goddess Freyja.

She was now a complete goddess, her power potent enough to influence all dimensions.

“If you guys mess with me, next time I'm bringing on the ice age. Got it? Watch what you do.”

[Got it, Goddess.]

[Yes yes, my goddess.]

While the viewers flattered her, she had her arms crossed with a thoroughly relaxed expression.

Evangeline suddenly felt curious. “Hey everyone, could you wait a moment?”

“Uuuh, wait, what are you do—!”

She dragged Willow out of the room kicking and screaming. She then asked, “Are you really okay?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, are you really okay coming down like this?”

“I just tried it as an experiment. Seems okay. I can only last about an hour at most right now, but that should increase over time.”

Evangeline felt relieved, as it meant she didn't have to suffer anymore. On the other hand, she was still curious.

“But... how can you come down when you’ve gotten stronger?”

Normally, it should’ve been harder for her to descend the more power she possessed, yet she was apparently an exception.

Willow remained silent for a moment before answering’ “The issues left after the winter are all just minor problems. Nothing serious enough for me to step in directly, so I dumped the work on the apostles.”

‘My condolences to the poor apostles.’

“That's not the important thing! You affect the whole dimension just by descending, don't you?”

“Actually, that is important... but I genuinely don't know.”

“What?!”

“I don't know if it's connected to Neltarid disappearing, but it’s somehow not putting strain anymore.”

She hadn't thought about it because the situation had been so urgent back then, but she had definitely descended without putting a strain on the world.

“I used that method. Normally, it shouldn't work.”

Yet, it did.

“So, I was experimenting around...”

And came down to her dimension.

“I don't know the exact reason either. Dad’s investigating, but how could I possibly put up with so much boredom? I don't know the cause, but the time I can stay here without straining the world seems to increase the more often I come down, so I'm going to descend regularly.”

It was good news, but a doubt remained about whether it was truly okay.

Saying that, Willow patted her shoulder and walked back into the stream room. “I'm going inside first. Oh, bring a coke when you come back in.”

Evangeline was speechless.

‘Okay, how in the world is that a merciful and holy goddess? She's just a goofball that wants to play around.’

Her faith in the almighty dropped sharply.

* * *

Willow had a natural knack for attracting attention.

“Ahem. So, I'm a Goddess, alright? Do you get it, chat?”

[Yeah... that concept of yours... we get it now...]

[She’s too much of a goofball to think of as a real Goddess...]

However, the more she spoke, the more the viewers became convinced that she wasn’t the goddess they had seen in the video.

While some disagreed, overall confusion remained. It was partly because she was a goofball, but also because she intentionally avoided proving her identity, carefully keeping it ambiguous enough to prevent any certainty.

[Her concept is pretty solid.]

“What's this, though? Gacha? Is she gambling again?”

[Tsk, tsk. Don't say gambling! It's gacha!]

“It's the same thing, you dummies.”

[Woah. Insults...]

[Please give us more...]

“W-what?! Stop it! That's gross!” Her indifferent, sharp tone was rough, yet no one felt any hostility.

Her levels as a goddess created that effect, though no one actually noticed anything beyond the facade.

The time Willow could stay descended was only one hour, and that hour flew by quickly.

In that short time, she firmly cemented her presence in chat’s hearts.

[My house turned into rubble... Can you restore it for me?]

Seeing that donation message, Willow squinted. “That's not my department. I regulate and maintain the world. Why don't you bug Neltarid about fixing broken stuff? Besides, isn't it a bit materialistic to ask a god for things like that? I'm not some errand service.”

The viewers were shocked by her indifference and flippant attitude.

[My Neltarid...]

[Lady Willow. Even if it's a concept, you're gonna get canceled badly...]

[Blasphemy charges are serious these days...]

“Now that you mention it, that Neltarid...”

Grit.

She ground her teeth.

Evangeline, seeing that, quickly stepped in, worried Willow would cause an accident on stream.