"Kami-sama, is it…" Tina Sprout answered him in her heart.
She was sitting on an abandoned girder dozens of stories above the ground.
The night wind stirred her long golden hair and the thin nightgown hanging off her small frame. A phantom light flickered.
The illusion of a wooden tube floated into being in front of her.
Tina put out one small pale hand and slid it slowly inside.
Her fingertips brushed a lot. She gave it a light tug.
Shff. A metal lot blazing with brilliant golden light settled neatly into her palm.
"So I have the luck to go to a new world too?"
Tina looked down at the strange golden lot in her hand.
Her sleep-heavy eyes went wide.
In that same moment. In every corner of World G-404.
Countless dazzling pillars of light shot up into the sky.
Haimer stood in the open ground at the center of Eden.
He raised an arm and traced his fingertips lightly through empty air.
A low hum—and a gate of light tens of meters across tore open in midair.
Inside the gate churned the deep colors of a starlit sky.
Drawn along by his Divine Power, the several hundred Cursed Children who had drawn golden lots dissolved into drifting motes of light and were carried in an instant to that wide clearing.
The clamor of voices rose. Several hundred little girls stared at one another.
Some of them wore ragged cloth. Some still carried scars.
But the moment they saw Haimer, every trace of unease turned into fierce, joyful trust.
"Kami-sama!" the girls called out as one.
Haimer looked at these children who had handed their fates to him. He knew what waited for them. Orario's rules were cruel and tangled.
Turning children who had only just walked out of an apocalyptic wasteland loose among scheming adventurers and gods would be throwing lambs to the wolves.
"Everyone, sit down first."
Haimer's voice was airy and gentle, and it carried over all the noise.
The girls obediently sat cross-legged on the open ground.
"Before we go to the new world."
Haimer pressed his hands together in a seal, and a soft pale-blue divine light spilled from his palms, settling over the whole field like fine rain.
"There are some things you need to know to survive there."
"Go to sleep. In the dream, I'll be with you."
As the pale-blue light came down, several hundred girls felt their eyelids turn to lead.
One after another they sank onto the soft grass and slept.
Inside the dream, Divine Power stretched time out without limit.
Haimer's Divine Power took on solid form and walked at the head of the column.
He led the several hundred girls on a stroll down Orario's bustling Northwest Avenue.
"This is Orario's adventurer district."
Haimer pointed at the weapon shops and item stalls crowding both sides of the street.
Inside the dream the girls gaped at beastmen, dwarves and elves they had never seen before.
"Those are the Cat People," Haimer said, answering one girl's question patiently. "They're born quick, and their hearing is very sharp."
The scene shifted. They stood beneath a tower that climbed into the clouds.
"Below this tower is the Dungeon I told you about."
The scene turned again.
Now they stood on the Dungeon's first floor.
Haimer let them watch with their own eyes as a goblin was born out of the wall.
"Remember that scent," he told them. "Dungeon monsters have no reason in them. Only the instinct to kill."
"If you run into one, never show it mercy."
Through a dream-memory a full week long, Haimer answered every child's questions one by one.
He explained how a [God's Grace] is updated.
He walked them through the reach of the three great factions and the purpose the Guild serves.
He even told them, as a joke, which dish at The Benevolent Mistress costs the most.
That week of memory was branded into every girl's mind.
It gave them a clear, fully rounded picture of the Labyrinth City called Orario.
They would not be blundering in blind.
Dawn came the next day.
The horizon paled to fish-belly white.
A cool morning breeze drifted across the clearing in Eden.
The girls opened their eyes one after another.
They touched their own foreheads, less confusion in their gazes now and more clarity.
"It feels like I lived in that world for ages," Yuzuki Katagiri muttered, rubbing her eyes.
Haimer stood before the gate of light. "Is everyone ready?"
He turned to face that enormous column of children.
"Ready, Kami-sama!"
The answer rang back across the clearing in perfect unison.
"Good." Haimer nodded. "The next time I come back here will be a week from now."
"Then let's go."
Haimer stepped forward first, into the gate churning with the colors of a starry sky.
Several hundred girls followed on his heels, pouring through like a tide.
Outside Orario.
Morning mist filled a hidden ravine.
It was still some distance from Orario's towering walls.
The ground here was remote, and caravans and adventurers rarely came this way.
A hum sounded. Deep in the ravine, space rippled.
Haimer's figure stepped out first.
Right behind him, several hundred little girls came spilling out of the gate in a chattering flood.
"Wow!"
"The air's so clean!"
The girls pulled in deep breaths of air rich with magic and green growing things.
None of the wasteland's clinging burnt-earth stink. None of the pressure the Gastrea virus left hanging over everything.
They looked around wide-eyed at the steep rock walls and the lush vegetation.
At the front of the column, a few figures stood out from the rest.
A girl with long black hair stood quietly at Haimer's side.
She wore a set of light blue armor.
A standard katana hung at her waist.
—Asaka Mibu. The samurai girl who had ranked 275th on the old IP list.
She wasn't shrieking and exclaiming like the others.
She only watched the mouth of the ravine with deep green eyes.
Her palm rested easily on the hilt, guard never dropping.
Beside Asaka stood a girl with long chestnut hair.
She carried a composure far beyond her years.
—Hotaru Kouro. Bearer of the "Model Planarian," with regeneration on the terrifying scale of a Gastrea, able to recover even from wounds that should kill outright.
"So this is the countryside outside that world we saw in the dream?"
Hotaru shut her eyes and felt the place out. "It really is somewhere impossible." She turned to look at Haimer.
Haimer smiled and started to answer.
"Um… Kami-sa…"
A voice came from behind him. Haimer turned.
There was Midori Fuse in her broad black witch's hat, hiding behind Yuzuki Katagiri.
Both hands were fisted in the hem of Yuzuki's clothes.
The fuzzy black cat ears trembled nervously under the brim of the hat.
"What is it, Midori?" Haimer asked gently.
He had seen on the list that she'd chosen to enter the draw, and that she'd drawn a winning lot.
For a timid little cat girl like her, finding the courage to take that step was something that warmed him.
Midori swallowed.
She inched half her body out from behind Yuzuki.
Her pale cheeks had gone scarlet.
Her hands twisted together, and she didn't dare lift her head.
"I… I want to…" she stammered.
"I want to do my part for you too, Kami-sama…"
Getting the words out seemed to drain every scrap of strength she had.
She nearly shrank all the way back behind Yuzuki again.
"I… I can find things by smell…" She was trying so hard to prove she was worth something. "And I can run really fast…"
That timid little declaration melted something in Haimer.
He stepped up to her.
Reaching out, he patted her trembling head through the wide brim of the witch's hat. "Thank you, Midori."
There was nothing but acceptance in his voice. "The thought is more than enough."
"In my Familia, you never have to force yourself to do anything you don't want to do."
It was a warm moment—right up until Yuzuki Katagiri planted her hands on her hips beside them, golden twin tails swinging. She grinned wide, showing off a small fang.
"Kami-sama, don't let the scaredy-cat act fool you!"
Yuzuki blew her companion's cover without a shred of mercy.
"Sure, she's about as brave as a mouse."
"But her IP rank is 970th!"
Yuzuki jabbed a thumb at her own nose. "That's almost a thousand places above me at 1,850th!"
"And in a fight, those cat claws of hers really hurt!"
With her secret dumped out like that, Midori wanted a crack in the ground to crawl into.
"D-don't make things up!"
The little cat girl stamped her foot and clapped both hands over her burning cheeks.
Watching the two of them bicker—opposite in every way and somehow perfectly matched—Haimer laughed under his breath.
The spark and life in these children was the whole reason he had taken them out of the wasteland.
"Kami-sama, though…" Hotaru Kouro stepped forward, cutting the horseplay short.
She swept her gaze over the vast column, several hundred strong.
"We saw how big Orario is in the dream."
"It's a huge city, but there are at least a few hundred of us."
Hotaru's brow creased; she had clearly thought it through. "If we all go marching in like this…"
"Are the gate guards and the other Familias really not going to notice?"
The question landed, and the girls who had been happily gawking at the scenery fell quiet.
They carried the knowledge from the dream, but they were strangers here, and wariness of unknown powers was carved into their bones.
Asaka Mibu's hand closed on her hilt again.
Under hundreds of anxious stares, Haimer stayed perfectly at ease, a faint smile at the corner of his mouth.
"Don't worry. I settled all of this yesterday."
"I've already spoken with the commander of the guardsmen who hold the city gates."
"They'll open a passage for us alone. Nobody will stop us to ask questions."
Haimer glanced toward Babel Tower, faint and shifting in the distant morning mist. "Besides."
"The place you're about to move into is a large castle stronghold that's only just been finished."
"It can house more than a thousand people."
"And once you're inside, no one will dare bother you."
With a promise that certain, the girls let out the breath they'd been holding.
Kami-sama had even prepared a home for them. Being looked after that thoroughly left them feeling safe beyond words.
"Let's move, children."
But just as he was about to take the first step, Haimer felt warmth in his left palm.
A soft little hand had slipped into it without any warning at all.
It hooked around two of his fingers.
Haimer looked down.
Tina Sprout, all that long golden hair, was standing right against his leg.
She was still wearing that oversized nightgown.
Her head bobbed and dipped like a chick pecking at grain.
Those big cerulean eyes were hazy and half-shut.
Her long lashes kept losing the fight to stay open.
"Kami-sama…" Tina mumbled, her voice thick and nasal with sleep.
"The sun's up… Tina wants to sleep…"
And with that she simply tilted, as though every bone had left her body, sagging limply against Haimer's thigh.
She had fallen asleep standing up.
Haimer's arm shot out and caught her by the shoulders before she could go down on the loose stone.
Looking at the little assassin breathing evenly in the crook of his arm, Haimer sighed.
Tina carried the "Model Owl."
It gave her sniping ability at night that nobody could match. But it came at a price.
The moment the sun rose and daylight claimed the world, her body clock dragged her into forced dormancy.
Keeping her alert during the day was harder than climbing into the sky.
"What a handful you are," Haimer said, shaking his head with a rueful smile.
Then he bent down.
Both arms slid under her, and he lifted the sleeping Tina clean off the ground.
He let her small head settle comfortably against his shoulder.
He even shifted her carefully so as not to wake her.
The sight stopped every other girl in her tracks.
Several hundred pairs of eyes locked onto Tina, sleeping soundly in Haimer's arms.
In an instant the air went sour with envy and jealousy thick enough to touch.
"That's so unfair!"
Yuzuki ground her teeth and yanked at her own twin tails. "Using her constitution to fake being asleep so Kami-sama has to carry her!"
"I want Kami-sama to carry me too!"
Midori hid behind the others and said nothing, but her mismatched eyes were full of little envious stars.
Down the length of the column, the girls behind them made no attempt to hide their jealousy.
If there hadn't been a road to walk, someone would already have charged up front demanding "equal treatment."
"All right, everyone keep up."
Haimer carried Tina and walked at the head of the column.
Outside Orario's north gate.
Shakti stood in full armor.
That morning, following yesterday's instructions, she had deliberately cleared the caravans and hangers-on away from the gate.
She had left one passage open for them alone.
____
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