CH 13

Karina here. I'm at the church right now!

It was easy to find just like the merchant Onii-san said. What a nice place.

"Ojou-san. Do you have business with the church?"

And why was it a nice place? Well, because of this beautifully endowed pink-haired Sister-san!

Was she a Succubus or something?

She's gonna make the youth go crazy with lust.

I couldn't help but gulp back my saliva at the sight of her soft body with its beautiful curves.

"Oh, umm, I was hoping to pray."

"Oh my! What a wonderful attitude. Please come this way."

Sister-san led me into the chapel. In front of me was a wooden altar with stained glass behind it. The symbol was a circle, like the 5 yen coin ID I got.

There were long benches facing the altar with a few people here and and there sitting on them.

Looks like you can pray wherever you want… there was even someone sleeping on the benches.

"Is that guy there okay?"

"That's another form of prayer, the 'Way of Sleeping' kind. I'll have to wake him if his snoring gets too loud, though."

"I see?"

If that's considered prayer, I could see myself becoming a devout believer.

With that thought, I somewhat arbitrarily sat down on the frontmost bench.

Let's see, how should I offer my tribute to the Goddess? I decided to take out the Harumikazuchi-oneesan's stockings from my storage space.

I suddenly got the feeling that space around me was being painted over.

Next thing I knew, I was sitting in a space where the sky was filled with twinkling stars. I was sitting on an invisible chair.

Before me was the black-haired and golden-eyed Goddess I'd met before, but the area around us was different from the white space we'd met in before.

"Heya heya, welcome Karina-chan! I've been waiting, so give me the stockings!!"

"Oh—here."

As soon as she asked, I handed over the stockings I'd brought with me. The Goddess took them and happily exclaimed, "Hyahho!" before gently sniffing them.

"Mmm, the subtle scent of incense. It's got that 'older sister of the night' feel to it, very good! I'll enjoy their taste later."

The Goddess carefully put the stockings away in her storage space.

It felt like I'd just heard a pervert review her plans for the future, but I'm sure it was just my imagination. I want to believe it was just my imagination, at least.

"… So like, why stockings?"

"Because socksstockings are the closest thing to a person's feet, which support their entire body. Therefore, they contain a part of that person's life and information. As Gods feed on information, socks are very suitable as offerings!"

What a surprisingly reasonable explanation.

… No, if it was reasonable, she wouldn't have said that review just now. It felt like she was just making excuses.

"The best offerings are socks that have been worn so long that it's embarrassing to wear them, or socks that have been freshly taken off after getting sweaty! I'm looking forward to more of that in the future!"

So it was just her fetish after all. This Goddess is a perv…

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing."

The Goddess was smiling in glee. She'd look like a very cute girl if it weren't for her perverted nature, but perhaps her sexual perversion was what made the Goddess a Goddess in the first place?

"Oh, right, Karina-chan. I didn't give your storage space the ability to manipulate time, did I? Freshly removed socks will lose their warmth over time if you store them like that, so I'll make sure you can set a time manipulation factor between zero and one times the normal flow of time. Just as a special, okay?"

"Wooow, I'm so happy. Thank you so much."

My spatial magic was powered up for a particularly trivial reason. Come on.

A factor of zero, huh. So that means I can stop time?

Huh? But I thought she said time magic was forbidden…? Guess I'll just have to not get caught.

"You probably want to eat seafood. Seafood shouldn't go bad if you keep it in there, yeah? You can stop time and store it, then copy it whenever you want to eat fresh fish!"

"Oh, that's actually really nice."

"Riiiiight~? You can also store magic and save it for later, or use it somewhere else. Magic Gun: Neo Magic Cylinder~!"

… Goddess, did you just give me a ridiculous power up?

"… Is it really okay for me to have this power…?"

"It's fine, that much is nothing. I can just remake civilization if it gets destroyed."

It was a power that could unilaterally beat up the self-proclaimed Chaos God who made a country, but to the Goddess, it was barely anything.

"Let me clarify something while you're here. It's very good that you've imposed some limits to restrict your spatial magic. I'm giving you this power up as a reward for your spirit… as such, I look forward to your future efforts."

"I could have agreed with you if you hadn't said that last part… Is that just a formality?"

"It's my honest opinion, too."

Mm, is that so? Then—

"Wait, how did you know about me putting restrictions on my use of spatial magic?"

"Guilds, shops, and gates all have altars dedicated to me. It's easier for me to hear your thoughts when you're at one of those. I can only hear strong feelings like determination, though."

It seemed that I, an apostle, was particularly easy to notice. She was watching me from the altar at Shun Lai Pavilion when I was having my first time. The embarrassment is real.

"Uhh, I'm sorry for using the body you gave me like that…"

"Don't worry about it. I made your body with strong desires in mind, so it's only natural that you'd lose control when you're drunk. I was actually cheering you on, going, 'Good, do more!'"

"Excuse me, Goddess?"

"I mean, it's so much more interesting that way… the possibility of obtaining all sorts of socks goes up… it's my hobby. I look forward to working with you in the future. The sock fetish function is working properly, as expected of a body modeled after mine."

"Excuse me? Goddess?"

"My apostle, this Goddess will always be watching over you…!"

It seemed that she was getting tired of pretending. This GoddessPervert had too much time on her hands.

What was that about a sock fetish? Did you really build that into my instincts? Come on…

"But there will be times when you want to hide from my eyes, right? Like when you're preparing to rebel."

"… I don't exactly have any plans like that, but I do want some privacy now."

"Then take this! Koshori-kun!"

With a flourish, the Goddess showed me a palm-sized egg with a pedestal.

"Place this in your room and no god will be able to see inside! It has a range of about ten meters from where you open it!"

"Ooh!"

"Well, it's not that I couldn't peek if I really wanted to, but I vow under my name as the Space-Time Goddess that I won't look inside unless it's an emergency, even if you die in there."

"… Even if I die? What kind of emergency would make you peek?"

"I dunno, stuff like if you don't contact me for ten years, or if my beloved comes to visit you. I don't think that'll happen, though."

No going near this Goddess's lover. Got it.

"Anyway, this'll be your reward for the next time you bring me socks. I'll be waiting for the new socks."

"Wait, you're not giving it to me now!?"

"You've gotta pay if you want it, you're a merchant, right?"

I couldn't even groan in protest to that.

"… My socks aren't good enough? I'm a beauty, you know?"

"Nope. You know how some artists don't like their own paintings? It's like that."

So no duplicates either, then. The magic power in them would become mine, and the Goddess would lose interest.

"I was lucky to get them this time, but beautiful women's socks aren't easy to come by. So men's socks are no good either?"

"It's partly because they're so hard to obtain that they're valuable… men's, the elderly's, even children's socks are okay, but there's the problem of a lack of embarrassment about the whole thing."

"Embarrassment?"

"Yes, embarrassment is the best spice. Socks without embarrassment are much less valuable. And the more beautiful a woman is, the more embarrassing it is to give up her used socks! Harumikazuchi-chan was pretty embarrassed too! So wonderful!"

The Goddess emphasized her point.

She also added, "Please note that they're almost worthless if they've been washed."

… Apparently, the Goddess would get angry if I delivered socks with low value. Terrifying.

"… So, for now, I should aim for that Succubus-like Sister-san's socks…"

"That Succubus-chan is one of my [Creations]. She's not a reincarnator, but more a messenger, like an Angel. Her race is Succubus though."

Angels were the equivalent of the Goddess's hands and feet, so they were probably also subject to the [Nope] ruling.

Actually, if this Goddess's Angels were Succubi, then she's definitely one of the bad ones, right?

"There is an Angel in the church of every moderately sized town to monitor it. They also provide me with socks from believers and such, so they're basically your colleagues. Please get along with them."

"Colleagues, huh."

Although I was aiming to be a merchant, I don't remember becoming a used sock dealer.

Not that I mind getting along with them.

"… Please don't get mad if I unknowingly deliver an Angel's socks, okay?"

"You'll be able to tell if you look them in the eye, so please check beforehand."

"Oh, okay."

What a convenient system.

"Well, it's about time. I'll be waiting for your next visit, Adieu~ ノシ"

"Oh, uhh, alright. Adieu?"

The fuck is with the ノシ? Goddess, there isn't Japanese in this world, right? You seem to know a lot about another world.