O Month X Day
I've decided to start keeping a diary to pass the time. When no souls come to me, I'm happy, because it means no one has lost their life. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't get bored here sometimes. This diary seemed like a good idea because I can write it without leaving my post. As for what to write about… no one came today, so I'm rather happy about that. Hopefully things continue to be peaceful.
O Month X Day
Three people came today, a party of adventurers. Cause of death: they were exploring a dungeon and fell into a deadly trap. They were berating themselves for their carelessness, but they didn't seem too distraught. Well, by becoming adventurers they were already prepared to risk their lives, after all. Two of them chose to reincarnate, while the third decided to ascend to heaven. I think it's a shame that promising young people like them had their lives cut short, but I'm glad they were quick to accept it. Their biggest regret was that they didn't claim the treasure hidden within the heart of the dungeon. I wonder, if I were a mortal adventurer, could I have reached it?
O Month X Day
Only two people today. The first was a young boy. Cause of death: falling off a cliff while playing in the mountains. Such a young life lost. I really wish there had been a priest in the nearby village that could've cast Resurrection on him, but unfortunately that spell is difficult to learn, and only a select few priests can cast it. He chose to reincarnate. I did my best to ensure that his next family would be as loving as his last, though I imagine that in his next life he may experience acrophobia.
The other was a middle-aged fisherman. Cause of death: murdered by a demon while walking home with his catch… I haven't had this job for long, and this is my first time meeting someone who was murdered. When I asked the man if he wanted to be reincarnated, his eyes filled with fear, and he frantically demanded to go to heaven… I've known demons were evil, but actually seeing the effects of their malevolence firsthand was still a shock. To think that there are beings in the world capable of such terror that those killed by them would want to leave this world forever… frankly, it sickens me.
O Month X Day
Twelve souls arrived today. All civilians from the same village. Cause of death: all were slain by a roving band of demons. Of the twelve, only two chose to reincarnate. The rest all fled to heaven. I offered my condolences, but comforting words can only go so far. One of them, more distraught than the others, shouted, "If you really cared, why didn't you save us!?" That's not fair. I'm performing my duties in accordance with the laws of heaven. If a god were to interfere directly, it would violate those principles… right? No matter what I tell myself, that person's words still haunted me.
O Month X Day
56 souls arrived. Soldiers. Cause of death: a war against the demons. Only six chose to reincarnate.
O Month X Day
231 souls arrived. 227 were soldiers. Cause of death: battle. None chose to reincarnate.
The other 4 were civilians. Cause of death, a fire broke out in a village due to a lightning strike. The civilians had lost their lives while pulling others out of the fire. They all chose to reincarnate. I gave the brave heroes my blessing so that their next lives will be fortunate.
O Month X Day
Only eight souls arrived today. Soldiers. Cause of death: battle. But when I looked into their memories, something was wrong. There were hundreds of deaths in that battle, but only these eight had come to me. I looked closer at the battlefield. Undead. Most of the soldiers killed had been reanimated by a demon necromancer, trapping their souls in a cursed existence. It took all of my effort to keep myself from descending to smite that demon. By the way, none of those eight souls chose to reincarnate. The thought of how they had barely escaped the horrible fate of becoming an undead had overpowered any positive feelings they had for this world.
O Month X Day
Only two souls arrived today. Soldiers. Cause of death: battle. Seeing this low number again, I feared the worst, but when I looked into their memories I saw something unexpected. A black-haired youth mowing down ranks of demons at a time with a sword filled with holy power. Casualties were low since the lone warrior held the line against the demons' forces by himself. That sword is definitely the work of a god. I need to look into this.
O Month X Day
It was Aqua-senpai. After seeing the rising casualties and low reincarnation rate of this world, she took it upon herself to reincarnate a soul from another world and give him a powerful boon. She did this without informing me, then earlier today she barged in and demanded my gratitude. The hero she sent has indeed been successful so far in fighting back the demons, but I wish she wouldn't make such reckless decisions on her own. Then again, perhaps this is just my lack of experience showing. Surely my senpai wouldn't have done that if she didn't know what she was doing.
O Month X Day
It's been a while since my last entry. The hero, after pushing back the demon army, managed to take down the demon king leading them, ending this horrible war. It seems I must apologize to Aqua-senpai for doubting her methods.
There were only two deaths today, an old woman and a teenage boy. Causes of death: the woman passed peacefully from old age, and the boy had fallen victim to a hunting accident. The woman ascended to heaven. The boy lived in the capital city of his kingdom, and thankfully there was a priest able to resurrect him. He was fun to talk to, so I hope I don't meet him again for a long time… This job is hard sometimes.
O Month X Day
Today the hero died. Since the last war, there have been new demon kings, and new wars started. The hero fought valiantly, saving the world many times, but inevitably he made a misstep and was struck down by an unbreakable curse. Though he had an Archpriest in his party, I could not allow him to be revived. He had already lived a second life, and the laws of heaven prohibit a mortal to be resurrected more than once. He chose to go to heaven instead of reincarnating.
I informed Aqua that the hero she sent had died, and she responded by saying she would just send more over. Is it really that easy to find a heroic soul among the young souls that visit her?
O Month X Day
There have been a total of four heroes now, including the first one. As to their quality… it varies. The first and fourth were brave souls who embraced their new mission. The second and third, however, were lacking in heroic traits. The second one shut himself away in a secluded place, using his boon to simply make his life easier. The third was antisocial and unstable. He fought alone, making no connections, and though he eventually killed the demon king, he took up his mantle and became the new ruler of the demons in his place. I confronted Aqua-senpai about her choice of souls, but she got defensive and said things along the line of "Young Japanese people are the best choice since they're the best at adapting to these circumstances" and "Why are you complaining when I'm going through all of this work to send heroes in the first place? You should be thankful that I'm able to send any at all!" Aqua-senpai really is unreasonable.
O Month X Day
The latest hero has created a natural disaster. Working with the technologically advanced nation of Noise, he created an ultimate weapon known as Mobile Fortress Destroyer. It went berserk and razed the entire nation to the ground. The loss of that nation alone will probably set back the technological level of this world by several centuries, not to mention that this superweapon will continue to rampage indefinitely.
This catastrophe led me to think about other lasting effects the heroes may have on this world, when I had a sudden realization. The holy sword the first hero wielded was not returned to heaven after his death, but instead remained in the world. The same applied to equipment the other heroes possessed. I need to look into this more.
By the way, 483,427 souls visited me today. Cause of death: see above.
O Month X Day
After some investigation, here is what I've discovered. The boon equipment wielded by the heroes will have weakened effects when wielded by others, with the exception of sentient items. However, the heroes' descendants, if they obtain the equipment, can access their full power. In addition, heroes whose boons were special powers or abilities also pass down those powers to their descendants, without any loss of effectiveness. The nation of Belzerg has apparently discovered this long ago, and has integrated heroes into their royal bloodline, creating a line of what are effectively superhumans.
All of this is giving me a headache. I need to figure out how to clean up all of this.
O Month X Day
I need to either seal the relics (heroes' equipment) or return them to heaven. As for the boons that give the heroes' descendants special powers, I've concluded that nothing can be done about that short of killing every one of them, which naturally is out of the question, so I'll just leave them be. So now I need to figure out how to collect these relics. I thought about asking some angels to descend and retrieve them, but their appearance would cause a humongous commotion, and those who would be reluctant to hand over their relics would hide them away. In addition, most angels have… troublesome personalities. Some are completely incapable of deceit, while others speak their thoughts aloud constantly, regardless of how unflattering they are.
So how should I go about this…
O Month X Day
I've been working on a plan to allow me to descend to the world myself. When I first started, I wouldn't have dared to consider leaving my post, but the more I think about it now, the more feasible it seems. First of all, my job doesn't usually require constant work. When I'm not meeting with a soul, and there aren't any other matters to attend to, I'm technically free. Secondly, time here in heaven is much slower than time on this world: several months down there are equivalent to just a single hour here in heaven. This means that I could be away for months at a time, and any souls that have been sent to me would have been waiting for an hour at most by the time I returned. Resurrection spells don't need any interaction from me as long as they're following the rules, so people dying in the world won't need to wait a month to resurrect. And of course I would still know when someone died, so I could go back immediately if I absolutely needed to.
There's just one more wrinkle I have to sort out. If I descend in my full divine form, it would be even worse than sending the angels down. Therefore, I'm working on creating a mortal vessel to use.
I'll also need a pseudonym to use, since even in a body without divine power, calling myself "Eris" would still attract unnecessary attention. How about… "Chris"?