The girl sat staring into the void in a dark, windowless room.
The sparkle had faded from her beautiful pale blue eyes, and her expression was so devoid of emotion that one might have doubted that she even possessed a will of her own.
Her hair was a shade of pink that looked as though someone had melted down Fahri, the flower known as the flower of the gods.
By rights, a child like that would be regarded as one granted the Supreme God's blessing, and raised with the greatest of care.
Yet the girl's present circumstances could hardly be called care.
The large birdcage standing in that dark room looked utterly out of place, and inside it was a bed big enough for three grown adults to sleep on comfortably, along with a small table and a chair.
The girl was imprisoned inside that cage.
How did it come to this...?
She couldn't even count how many times she'd wondered that since she had been imprisoned here.
And today, once again, the object of her fear was coming.
The great lock fitted to the cage door rattled and clicked as it was slowly unlocked.
Such a pointless thing to do, when there was no need to lock it at all. Her legs were bound with iron chains so heavy she could barely move them.
It was almost comical, as though the lock were a display of the man's obsession.
Even as some part of her found it absurd, her body instinctively trembled with fear the moment he stood before her.
"You haven't eaten again."
The irritation in his voice was nothing new.
If anything, this man had never once been in a good mood.
She should have been used to it by now, and yet those few words alone made her flinch, and fear washed over her.
Knowing full well that no one would come to help her, she still cried out for help in her heart.
"Hmph."
The man snorted in displeasure and knocked the dishes off the table with a violent sweep of his arm.
They hit the floor with a great clatter, the soup they held spilling everywhere.
Not a single piece of cutlery was among them, because the girl had used it to resist him time and time again.
These days none was ever provided, so that she couldn't fight back or try to hurt herself with it.
This place was like a prison.
And yet the girl hadn't committed any crime at all.
"Don't make me go to so much trouble. Who do you think you have to thank for being alive and breathing? Who do you belong to?"
He wasn't shouting in the slightest, yet the menace came through all the same, and she froze.
Then, perhaps meaning to frighten her with the noise, he kicked the table.
"Answer me."
He said it as he grabbed her jaw hard enough to hurt.
"Ah, ah..."
As terror robbed her of words, his grip only tightened, until even breathing became painful.
To escape the pain, she nodded again and again in place of speaking.
"Smile."
Those words sounded like a command.
No, they were an order, plain and simple.
He had no doubt whatsoever that the girl was his property.
"Smile. Now."
There was no way anyone could smile in a situation like this.
But she knew from personal experience that if she didn't obey this man's orders, he would resort to something even worse, so she made her stiffened cheeks move and forced a smile.
Perhaps he was satisfied with that twisted smile, which held no emotion but fear, because he finally let her go.
Even the way he released her was rough. He didn't show the slightest trace of compassion towards her.
"That's all you need to do. Keep me in a good mood and keep smiling. That's what you exist for."
Spitting out those words which she had heard countless times before, words that almost sounded like a curse, the man left.
Tears streamed down the face of the girl he had left behind.
"Somebody help me... Dad... Mum...!"
If help were coming, it would have come long ago.
How much time had passed since that man had caught her?
The fact that no one had come yet surely meant that there was no hope of being saved.
Was she to spend her whole life in this birdcage, watching that man's moods and forcing herself to smile?
She would rather die than live like that.
Thinking so, she had once driven a knife that came in with her meal into her own chest.
Another time she had smashed a vase.
Another time, the dishes.
She had turned whatever she could into a means to kill herself, but that none of those attempts had succeeded was evident from the fact that she was still alive.
To stop her killing herself, the cutlery was taken away and her meals changed to soup and bread, foods that needed none.
The vases were removed, and her dishes were replaced with unbreakable metal ones.
Every time she resisted, whatever made it possible for her to resist was taken away.
Even so, she had no wish to spend her whole life like this, with her dignity as a person trampled on.
"This time for sure..."
Once she had made sure no one was coming, the girl's gaze turned to the toppled table.
The furniture too was made of metal so that it wouldn't break.
Normally it was so heavy and sturdy that her strength wouldn't move it an inch.
But thanks to the man just now, the table was lying on its side.
Its edge would surely grant her wish if she hit it in just the right spot.
Without a moment's hesitation, the girl aimed her head at the table and threw herself from the bed.
An intense pain hit her immediately after.
And as her mind clouded over, the girl smiled, knowing she would finally be free, and then she lost consciousness.
'Archmage' was a title that people had taken to using out of respect.
Her real name was Leticia.
Leticia slowly opened her eyes and sat up.
Looking around, she found herself in a grassland that stretched on forever.
And there were several chairs lined up in a row.
But no one was sitting in them.
"Wh-where..."
Sitting there in the grass, Leticia couldn't grasp what sort of situation she was in.
She was dazed as if she had woken up from a very long sleep.
"Huh? I'm fairly sure I..."
Yes. She dimly recalled that she had fought the Evil Dragon.
No matter how long she thought about it, she just couldn't work out why she was lying in a place like this.
"What's going on? I died... didn't I? Is this place the World Between?"
"Correct~. This is the best place to talk to you, after all."
Came a surprisingly light tone, and Leticia startled, turned towards the empty chairs.
At some point, a man with long, flowing platinum blonde hair had appeared in the chair at the centre of the row.
He was androgynous and slender, his beauty so divine and his presence so overwhelming that anyone seeing him for the first time would be mesmerised and fall into a dreamlike trance.
His eyes, a pink far deeper than Leticia's own pale hair, watched her with a cheerful smile.
"Ugh, he's here."
Even as she looked at the man who made her feel as if she should instinctively prostrate herself, Leticia was far from delighted; instead, she grimaced as if she'd found a caterpillar.
"Now, now, don't look so disgusted. You're hurting my feelings."
"That sluggish way of speaking is annoying. I can't. Disappear."
"Gah, that's far too harsh..."
He clutched his chest and dabbed at his eyes, but not a single tear came out.
It was fake crying through and through.
Leticia shot him a cold stare that said, "At least go and hone your acting skills before you come back," and then a massive flood of information rushed into her mind all at once.
"Ngh..."
The sheer volume made her head spin for a moment, as though she might faint, but it settled again at once.
Feeling as if her life had flashed before her eyes, Leticia understood where she was.
This was the World Between, lying between the God Realm and the Mortal Realm.
Those of the Mortal Realm could never go to the God Realm, but in this World Between they could speak with them directly.
That said, even here, the gods almost never summoned those from the Mortal Realm.
The only exception was Leticia, who possessed the Supreme God's blessing.
As one who held the protection of the Supreme God, who sat at the pinnacle of the gods, Leticia was a special existence even among those of the Mortal Realm.
Even so, she couldn't come here of her own will. Only when a god called her could she set foot here.
After all, only the spirit, the soul, could come here.
A soul stripped of its vessel, the physical body, and left utterly defenceless could never withstand the gods' powerful divine energy without the Supreme God's protection.
The instant she understood that this was the World Between, Leticia started yelling at the man in front of her.
"Hold on a second, what's the meaning of this? I died in the battle with the Evil Dragon, didn't I? So why am I here?!"
She wanted to get up and grab him by the collar, but her body wouldn't move. It was as if she was pinned to the ground.
"Supreme God-sama! Explain yourself properly!"
The Supreme God, the creator who made this world and stood at the very top of the gods.
That was the true identity of the man grinning flippantly in front of her.
The being who had granted Leticia the one and only protection of Light.
And the very person who had asked her to slay the Evil Dragon.
"I mean, I cast a barrier at the very end, and then my consciousness faded... That's right. I was asked if I had a last wish, so I said something about wanting to live an ordinary life."
Leticia spoke aloud as though recalling what had happened in detail.
And then she remembered something she didn't want to remember.
"Hang on, that's not ordinary in the slightest! I was being kept locked up, thank you very much!"
Leticia's consciousness aligned with that of her reincarnated self.
It wasn't that her reincarnated self had vanished; it felt more like she had recovered something she'd forgotten.
"Why haven't you granted any of my wishes at all? What about my reward? Didn't the Goddess of Fate swear on her name?"
As Leticia's grievances erupted, the Supreme God let out a cute little laugh. "Ehehe."
"You think that's going to fool me?!"
The Supreme God's smile had the power to make any ordinary person forgive him for anything, but such cheap tricks didn't work on Leticia.
If anything, it was only adding fuel to the fire.
"I said I'm sorry~."
"Sorry doesn't cut it!"
There was no way she could forgive him when he apologised in such a flippant tone.
Well, it wasn't the sort of thing she could forgive even with a serious apology.
Unable to calm down, Leticia stomped her foot on the ground.
"I don't understand. What happened? I was reincarnated, right?"
Leticia certainly had memories of her life since being reincarnated.
If she were told they had all been a dream, she would absolutely strangle the Creator standing in front of her.
"Mm. I reincarnated you properly. Well, since you used your life force to cast the last barrier, your soul was pretty worn out. It took a while for your soul to recover, but I reincarnated you as an ordinary farmer's daughter, just as you wished."
"Took a while? How long?"
Gods live for a length of time that would be mind-boggling to humans.
Coming from such a god, "took a while" was certainly nothing like what Leticia would call a while.
She was starting to dread the answer.
"About two hundred years, I'd say."
"Huh? Two hundred years?!"
Learning that far more time had passed than she'd expected, Leticia's eyes widened in shock.
"I can't believe that much time has gone by..."
The first thing that came to mind after learning how much time had passed was her comrades from her past life, the ones who had fought beside her.
Some of the mages belonged to long-lived races, but most of them were human.
No human would still be alive after two hundred years.
She wouldn't get to see her comrades again.
At that thought, a hole seemed to open in her chest, as though she had lost something precious.
But now was not the time to dwell on the sense of loss washing over her.
"My memories of living in the village, those are real, aren't they?"
"Yes. They're not a dream. They're real."
"I see..."
Leticia was relieved to know her memories weren't a dream, but of course that didn't leave her satisfied.
"Then what about my current situation? It's not just far from ordinary, it's the complete opposite!"
"No, yeah. It is, isn't it?"
The Supreme God scratched his cheek with his finger, looking troubled.
"Did the Goddess of Fate not grant my wish?"
The Goddess of Fate that Leticia knew wasn't a deity who would tell such a lie.
And having sworn on her name, she would surely see it through properly.
Which was precisely why Leticia found it so puzzling.
"No, she did intend to do it properly."
The past tense alone was as good as telling her it hadn't gone to plan.
Still, she held back the urge to interrupt until she'd heard the reason, and listened.
"Just as you wished at the end, she arranged for you to be born to an ordinary family, and wove your fate so you'd meet the Evil Dragon's reincarnation too. Everything was fine up to that point. But then a certain clumsy kid who was peeking in on the Goddess of Fate's work went and made a total mess of it, and the fate she'd arranged so beautifully got all twisted..."
Perhaps he did feel some responsibility as the Supreme God after all, because he looked apologetic.
"A clumsy kid..."
"That's right. A clumsy kid."
Leticia planted both hands on the ground, her shoulders shaking.
"So it was heeeer."
Leticia wailed as long as her breath would allow.
Naturally, that wail was filled with anger.
As far as Leticia knew, there was only one person the Supreme God called "clumsy kid".
A goddess whom the other gods called the same, one who took the form of a small girl.
"You and the Evil Dragon's reincarnation were supposed to meet in a small, peaceful village and live quietly together. Sorry about that~. She didn't mean any harm, you know."
Faced with his flippant apology, entirely devoid of sincerity, Leticia's anger continued to grow.
"The root of all this has come to apologise, right? Where is she?"
Leticia fixed her piercing gaze on the empty chair.
Normally the gods each sat in those seats.
The Supreme God began to speak, sounding reluctant.
"Well, about that... She was scared of being told off by you, so she's gone on holiday with the God of Earth."
"Ha-aah?"
A vein stood out on Leticia's forehead as she shot back in a menacing voice.
"Let's calm down for now. No use dwelling on what's already happened."
"No use?"
It wasn't a problem that could be brushed off with words like that.
The Supreme God broke into a cold sweat under Leticia's furious, accusing stare, but as the leader of the gods, he was just as guilty for failing to supervise her.
With Leticia radiating something close to bloodlust, his eyes wandered away.
"Ahh, looks like we're out of time, so let's get straight to the main point."
She glared at him for cutting the conversation off by force, but what came next stopped her from unleashing her anger.
"The thing is, it seems a certain beastman nation is trying to create another evil dragon."
"What?"
For Leticia, who had risked her life fighting the Evil Dragon, those were not words she could ignore.