------------------
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
------------------
Chapter 43: Do they still look like an ordinary human to you?
In a world overrun by monsters, demons, devils, and black mages, celebrating someone’s birthday every year is a true luxury.
There was a culture of commemorating the fact that an infant grew into an adult without dying from illness, but no one really celebrated just being born.
"A... birthday?"
The muscleheads in the hero's party had their simple sides, but that didn’t mean their sense or personalities were wrong.
"Well, maybe in spring? I’m pretty sure it was during planting season."
In fact, they were born thirty or forty years before me and lived through even harsher times.
The elven prince and the dwarf uncle, being of different races, probably managed to live decently.
But the northern warrior Ignar, Cardinal Calhart, and the thief, all born as poor commoners or paupers, likely never had proper meals growing up—let alone a birthday celebration.
In a world where it’s a miracle to survive past ten without being eaten by monsters or demons.
It’s only thanks to the efforts of people like me and my companions, who eradicated demons, that the chaos has somewhat subsided.
So all I ever had was a continuous cycle of training and enlightenment through fierce battles.
Not once in the past twenty years had I bought a birthday cake to celebrate myself.
There was one occasion I marked to commemorate when I truly stood alone as a hero—but I never bothered with a sappy birthday.
I wasn't some child demanding attention when most people didn’t even remember the month they were born.
So, I kind of forgot.
I knew my birthday was around this time, but I didn’t particularly care.
Even now, realizing it in passing, I didn’t feel any strong emotions.
It just made me reflect—
That I’ve returned to a peaceful world.
That I’ve dealt with everything.
That I’ve done it.
It was a strangely novel feeling.
[The goddess smiles.]
"Shall we go home and watch a movie or something?"
At that moment, I wasn’t expecting anyone to celebrate with me.
* * *
Just like the saying “When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” it’s common to follow the customs of the world you’re in.
Thus, the transcendent being managing that fantasy world—Balance of Order and Causality—
—did not celebrate anyone’s birthday, in line with their world’s customs.
Birthday celebrations were a luxury even nobles of the imperial capital enjoyed only rarely, and such things had no place in the war-torn lives of the hero’s party.
No one found that strange.
Elves, dwarves, northern warriors, and thieves all throwing birthday parties?
Now that would be strange.
But after seeing the world through the hero’s eyes and being exposed to many earthly cultures, the goddess started to understand his homeland’s customs.
—Shall we buy a castle to celebrate the day you were born? By the time we’re buried together, we might even have founded a nation.
As cringey as it sounds, the goddess—having watched emotional K-dramas full of cheesy lines—suddenly realized:
"Wait... birthdays are a big deal, aren’t they?"
Of course, in reality, no one’s actually buying castles.
The line was from a powerful female lead in a drama, half boasting, half joking.
Still, in these shows, they celebrate everything:
Tutu Day, 100-day anniversaries, 1-year milestones, wedding anniversaries…
But birthdays were the most celebrated of all.
And since she’d come all the way to Earth, she figured she should follow Earth’s laws and customs.
So the goddess had been quietly preparing Shin Yuseong’s birthday for a while now.
She didn’t do it all by herself.
“Uh, Mayday, Mayday, respond!”
[...Where the heck did you pick up that weird stuff?]
“A sophisticated goddess like me keeps up not just with heaven’s trends, but Earth’s too.”
[No, seriously, please don’t say things like that in public.]
She even requested the cooperation of the deity managing this alternate Earth to prepare the event.
It wasn’t just about the birthday—it was also the celebration of his coming of age in this world.
The hero was now in university, just starting to live life as a normal adult.
Even in that brutal world, they celebrated when a child became an adult.
How could she not celebrate the coming of age of the hero who had served her for decades?
That character in the drama exaggerated by saying she’d buy a castle—
but as a goddess, surely she could buy an entire country.
Not that she would literally gift him a country, but she prepared it with that level of devotion.
[An event? Wait, is this for real?]
There were limits to the divine power she could send to this world, so she couldn’t intervene too heavily—
but she still wanted to give a breathtakingly amazing gift.
One that would shock even the cynical hero.
A grand, unexpected surprise.
Thanks to the souls of demons the hero had hunted and offered up, divine power wasn’t in short supply anyway.
She borrowed a bit of that to enhance this occasion.
“I’ll hand over this amazing gift myself.”
Simply put, this was that kind of thing.
A birthday gift—with an extra surprise added on top.
Yes, the goddess herself is coming down to Earth.
[Wait, seriously?]
The goddess of that other world said something or other, but at this point, she didn’t really care.
* * *
------------------
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
------------------
Meanwhile, in the secret lab of the Blue Mage Tower—
Albania, the holographic overseer of the facility, effortlessly put down yet another coup attempt today.
The overwhelming difference in power made it easy for her to suppress them, but for the demon who was defeated, it was an outrage so infuriating that the blood vessels in his eyes threatened to burst.
[Albania, you wretch…! How long do you plan to keep this up? You, a countess of hell, acting like a dog to humans?!]
[Ugh, gross. Borobofos, shut your mouth—you’re spitting everywhere.]
[Damn it! You’re the worst kind of turncoat! May you spend your entire life as a human’s pet! Let us innocent demons go free already!]
The concept of “innocence” hardly applied to demons, at least not in the human sense.
For their kind, petty crimes like murder, theft, or arson weren’t considered sins.
Among demons, where everything was dictated by power and hierarchy, defeat itself was the only real crime.
Thus, the head of this lab—Albania, former countess of hell—smirked coldly and muttered with a sneer on her beautiful face:
[This is why clueless brats are hopeless. After all this time in the presence of the Great Master, you still don’t get it?]
To a demon, hellish mana was as natural and vital as air.
It was understandable that being trapped here, beyond just visiting, would feel suffocating.
Even Albania, now the one in charge, had once considered fleeing.
[The Great Master is truly “great,” you say?]
[…? Hey, Albania. What nonsense are you spouting now?]
[Exactly what it sounds like, idiots.]
But she no longer had any thoughts of escape.
The Great Master, after all, was more thorough than a demon lord, more powerful, and far more cruel to demons.
She didn’t know what kind of curse—or divine law—was in place, but she was pretty sure that if she ran, she’d explode on the spot.
Even if she somehow succeeded in fleeing, he could recapture her with a mere thought.
Because the Great Master was just that great.
[Do your pitiful little souls still see him as just an ordinary human?]
[…]
The demons imprisoned in the mage tower’s lab looked at Albania with puzzled expressions.
They all knew he was no ordinary human—he was a monster of unbelievable strength.
But it seemed she wasn’t just talking about raw power.
[…Good grief, I can’t believe I’m the same kind of demon as you lot. Even weakened as we are, do you think I—a countess—could really be subdued by a mere human? You pathetic little things maybe, but me?]
[Th-then…]
[That’s right, you fools. I’m telling you—the Great Master is no mere human.]
The hologram of Albania spoke with a calm expression, devoid of any trace of jest.
[He is, without a doubt… a god!]
[……?!!]
[…Do you have any proof of that?]
[You simpletons! His divine aura, his cold reason, his majestic grace—how could you not see it?!]
Truly, beings who ascended to godhood were marked by divine majesty, transcendent clarity, and a higher gaze.
The master of this hellish lab bore all those traits.
[…Ah, is that how it was?]
[It was insane, even for a human.]
[If he’s a god visiting for amusement… yeah, then being captured like this makes sense.]
For the noble demons whose magic was being extracted by a human, it was the perfect excuse.
They had been wallowing in shame at their one-sided defeat, but if their captor was actually a god?
Then it was an inevitable, justifiable loss.
It might have been a betrayal at lightspeed from Albania, but her reasoning had a certain twisted logic to it.
As the demons began nodding in acceptance, Albania smiled graciously.
[Now do you understand the meaning of the Great Master's mercy upon us?]
[…Mercy? Was there such a thing?]
[Sigh, you ignorant fools. You still don’t get it.]
Albania clenched her fist and shouted:
[With a god, you offer tributes, not make deals! Why do you keep whining and complaining?!]
[…What?]
[If you’re real demons, stop sniveling just because you got caught! Pay your ransom or work diligently as his servants, damn it!]
Coming from a demon who had betrayed them first, her words were brazen—but she hit a nerve.
The other demons could only stare at her, stunned into silence.
------------------
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
------------------
