Chapter 505 (1): If You Lower Your Arms Now and Surrender, You Would Remain as a Subordinate God. Wouldn’t That Be Nice?

Grau made no attempt to conceal his contempt for Saigner. For his mission, he had had to play nice with her, but he no longer had to do that after he was exposed as a spy. He thus laid into her without mincing words, hitting where she was most tender.

Most of his insults targeted her loyalty—or the lack thereof.

“Shut up,” Saigner said with a scowl. “Whether Wayne can help me and whether the goddess will pardon my sins aren’t for you to decide.”

Losing her composure because of Wayne had prepared Saigner. While Grau’s truth bombs hurt, they didn’t kill her. To break her again... was entirely possible. The right medicine was needed—Wayne.

But Wayne said nothing. He skipped the topic altogether. Since he was now Saigner’s lifeline, she would do whatever he said. From his perspective, Saigner was far easier to control given that she needed something from him.

After familiarizing himself with the merged parts of the Authority, he felt invincible. At least he was unrivaled in the current Underworld!

Sizorn? Don’t make me laugh. He’ll stay dead for a long time after taking my punch.

“I have information about Sizorn, Wayne. I’ll give it to you for free, no price tag attached.” Grau produced a thick stack of documents, detailing Sizorn’s history, capabilities, and territories.

Wayne skimmed through everything, paying little attention to the parts about Sizorn’s capabilities and territories. He didn’t care how powerful Sizorn was now since he couldn’t be stronger than Wayne.

He focused on two things: Sizorn’s personal history and the depths of his partnership with the Divine Realm of Nature.

Wayne had found out something about Sizorn’s history before, but Grau provided a more detailed picture:

Sizorn once owned his own Divine Realm—or a close approximation of one in the form of a Divine Domain imbued with faith. It was also known as a Draconic Realm.

As a living, breathing great dragon, Sizorn had created vassals with his bloodline and produced many a draconic heir. While he wasn’t a god, he had led a far better and more carefree life than many of the gods.

That shaped Sizorn’s mindset. He had been a top dog for so long and gotten so used to ruling supreme that he would never submit to anyone or any faction, not even a god.

That was arrogant of him. Gods could mass-produce demigods, far beyond his level. A god might take him in as a lackey on a whim, but when the god no longer wanted him, They could just as readily send fixers to slit his throat.

Because of Sizorn’s arrogance and the appeal of dragon blood, he drew the attention of a god’s faction and encountered the Goddess of Sun’s knight order.

An intense heart-to-heart left the Draconic Realm devastated, and Sizorn, defeated, ended up roaming the Astral Plane with a half-dead body and thoughts. His heart fell to the Chosen Land, the explosive impact creating the Dragonheart Island.

As Sizorn wandered, his lingering thoughts prayed and swore that he would offer his loyalty to any god who brought him back to life. Whether it was a coincidence or not, Aztimor, the Goddess of Death, passed by and heard his plea. She injected him with the information of Death and modified his life essence, turning him into a corpse dragon.

Since then, another subordinate god joined the Underworld—the Executor, Sizorn the Wings of Winter.

Sun’s knight order had sent only elites to fight Sizorn, ensuring mutual destruction. Aztimor had done nothing, yet She managed to secure a subordinate.

It was too much of a coincidence.

Wayne listened to Grau’s explanation while flipping through the documents. The subordinate gods were also known as avatars, exercising the authority on the god’s behalf.

Among the three subordinate gods in the Underworld, Grau was the Observer, tasked with collecting intel as Aztimor’s eyes and ears in the Chosen Land. Saigner was the Judge, in charge of managing the Underworld for Aztimor and issuing life-or-death verdicts. Over time, she came to arrogantly believe that the Underworld couldn’t do without her, and that she could replace the goddess.

Sizorn had been a great dragon in life and was the strongest among the three subordinate gods. As the Executor, he was Aztimor’s fiercest and most volatile sword.

Grau was more of a slacker, and with all the things he had seen, he slacked off even more. For motivation, he tried his best to entertain himself while he observed the Chosen Land. The curses that the trio of magical girls was under when they first met Wayne had been Grau’s doing.

I only applied the curses. It’s up to your luck what you transformed into.

Thus, Veronica’s mana was sealed, Vera became William, her mana similarly sealed, and Kristen became a black cat—a male one.

They found their situation so embarrassing that they didn’t dare seek help from the adults. Instead, they sought ways to lift the curses on their own, so on a dark, misty night, William broke the lock on the door to Wayne’s detective agency.

The gears of fate went awry at that moment.

It was also the moment Grau first saw Wayne. He kept the information about the new Death Knight to himself.

“In the goddess’s plan, She would be ambushed by Nature, and it was necessary. I don’t know why. Perhaps you’ll know.” Grau stared at Wayne closely. “Could you... tell me?”

“No, since I don’t know the reason either.” Wayne shrugged. “I was ordered to collect the goddess’s thoughts and incarnations before entering the Divine Realm to quell the rebellion and reclaim the Authority. Then I am to awaken the goddess from Her slumber. I could only guess that the goddess’s actions are related to evolution.”

“The goddess’s wisdom is beyond me. I have yet to reach Her heights and thus cannot speculate about Her true intentions. Moreover, as Her subordinates, we only have to carry out Her oracles obediently. Overthinking is only going to lead to unnecessary concerns.”

“You’re right.” Grau nodded. He just had to do his part.

Saigner looked at them with envy. Both of them had received exclusive oracles from the goddess. Although she had received an oracle, too, she wasn’t on the list of people the goddess trusted. If Sizorn weren’t there to be the moral low bar, she would be the primary traitor in the Underworld.

“Sizorn, Saigner, and I let Nature into the Underworld. The goddess was caught off guard and entered a slumber. Then the three of us took the Authority and fought for the divine throne of Death...”

“I don’t know why the goddess made the arrangements, but I know that Sizorn had been in contact with Nature for a long time, and the goddess had known about his disloyalty. He was the most important part of Her plan.”

Wayne frowned slightly. That would mean that Aztimor had foreseen that far when She took Sizorn in as a subordinate. She had planned far, far ahead to enter a slumber—or to make sure Nature succeeded in ambushing Her. Indeed, Ines wouldn’t see a simpleton as a bestie.

“The plan went smoothly. The setbacks were only meant to lower Nature’s guard. Once the goddess went into slumber as She had planned, we took Her authority over the Underworld from Her in the Temple of Eternity...”

“Then, to stop Rognes from returning to the Underworld and stirring up trouble, Sizorn worked with the subordinate gods from the Divine Realm of Nature, catching Rognes off guard. Saigner and I were involved, too.”

“Wait a minute.” Wayne raised an eyebrow, identifying the side story. “Rognes had become the Headless Knight in an ambush led by the demons of Hell. Has Nature extended Her reach to Hell?”

Grau nodded. “Yes, there is a demon named Stolas, also known as the Lord of Night. He’s been serving Nature.”

“No wonder...” Wayne mumbled. No wonder Stolas had such a well-connected web of intelligence even though he was in Hell. That was why.

You’re dead!

As the CEO of Heaven and the Vice President of the Hell subsidiary, Wayne sentenced Stolas to death. His career ended now. No defense or appeal allowed.

After sorting through the information, Wayne asked the question he most wanted to ask: “Strange. The goddess’s wisdom may be unrivaled, but Nature has been the most powerful goddess all this time, with the brain to match Her power. Nature’s wisdom should be no lesser than that of the goddess. So...”

“Is it possible that Nature has also received Her script?”

“...” x2

Grau and Saigner fell silent. Grau frowned silently, having long asked himself the same question. Saigner, on the other hand, thought for a long time before responding with an icy expression, “Wayne, the goddess is far above anyone else, with an intelligence that far exceeds Nature’s. Nature is part of Her plan. Everything makes sense. Your question isn’t valid.”

“See?” Grau scoffed. “She’s a gullible fool. She’s already justifying everything on her own.”

“True.” Wayne nodded. “Religions can kill. Being loyal and being faithful are two different things. It’s one thing for her to fool her subordinates with empty words, but we’re alone. It shows her lack of intelligence that she’s still talking out of faith when we’re discussing business.”

(눈皿눈)

The stunning subordinate god trembled with fury. She tried to control her temper, but failed. She slammed the table and shot to her feet.

“Bastards, you two are disloyal!”

“Pfft!”

“How laughable. A traitor calling us disloyal? Both of us have our missions. What about you?”

“Kukuku—”

“Kekeke—”

“...”

Saigner plopped down, dispirited due to the series of heavy blows. Her eyes dimmed. She was this close to losing all her worldly attachments.

“Ahem!” Wayne cleared his throat in displeasure. “You went overboard, Grau. No matter what, Saigner has acknowledged her mistake and made amends. She’s now one of ours and is doing everything she can to awaken the goddess. You should apologize for your mockery.”

“You laughed, too.”

“I was laughing at you!” Wayne huffed. “You have no tact. You deserved the beating you received when the mission concluded.”

Grau rolled his eyes, reluctantly apologizing to Saigner.

Saigner bit her bottom lip with rekindled light in her eyes. She gave Wayne a grateful look. She had made an educated guess about the future Underworld. The goddess would awaken for certain; what was also certain was the rearrangement of the subordinate gods.

With rewards and punishments being dispensed fairly, Rognes and Wayne would replace her and Sizorn. Rognes would become the new Judge, while Wayne would be the new Executor due to his unrivaled prowess in one-on-one battles.

Saigner wouldn’t dream of remaining as a subordinate god. It would be merciful of the goddess not to banish her from the Underworld.

Her relationship with Rognes was strained, and her relationship with Grau, downright antagonistic. If possible, she would like to sustain her livelihood by working for Wayne. She hoped that he wouldn’t mind her treacherous track record.

Wayne didn’t know what Saigner was talking about. When the beautiful lady gave him a grateful but concerned look, like she had something she couldn’t spell out, he shot her an encouraging smile.

It didn’t matter that he didn’t know what she was thinking. Based on his wealth of experience in being a scumbag, he couldn’t go wrong with flashing her a smile.

As expected, Saigner became even more grateful after receiving what she perceived as his promise.

Grau frowned, stroking his chin. “What are you doing, Wayne? If you only show her care because you covet her beauty, I’d suggest you give up.”

Saigner’s eyes twitched as she glared at him for the nonsense. Every time he opened his mouth, he made her feel worse.

Wayne put on a hurt look. “What are you talking about, Grau? I’m not that kind of person.”

“You may not be, but she is. She will do anything for the goddess’s forgiveness.” Grau shot Saigner a derisive glance, then addressed Wayne seriously, “Keep your distance from her. You’re meant for greatness, and she’ll only be a stain on your heroic name. She does not deserve you.”

Is there more? Wayne thought. Keep going. I’d like to hear more!

Grau and Rognes were night and day in terms of personality. The former was a vermin, while the latter was a paragon of virtue. They were cut from completely different cloth. However, their loyalty was undeniable. Any devout followers of the goddess would be their best friends.

Since Wayne was a loyal disciple of Death—or so they thought—Grau and Rognes never spared any praise when it came to him. From their perspective, Saigner was nothing save for her physical resemblance to the goddess. Wayne was way out of her league.

He didn’t deserve the punishment of her company!