[Aside from your achievements with women's bodies, you also made remarkable progress in cultivation. From childhood to the present, due to "Mind Reading," even when you weren't training seriously, your strength still advanced at a pace others could only envy.]
[When you had just started middle school, your strength had already risen to upper-class devil level.]
[One day after you entered middle school, a female classmate named "Mariya Yuri" cried out the moment she laid eyes on you.]
[That night, the apparent "top dog" of the Japanese hidden world—the "Committee for the Compilation of Justice"—came to your door and invited you to join.]
Akuto nodded at that assessment.
"Yeah. Calling them the 'top dog' on the surface is accurate."
[It's said that the Committee for the Compilation of Justice is only the surface-level top dog. The real top dog of Japan's hidden world is the faction of Susanoo-no-Mikoto and the Yamata no Orochi. The Committee for the Compilation of Justice is merely a hidden-world management organization established by the Japanese government. How could they possibly have the resources to stand on equal footing with Susanoo-no-Mikoto, who truly rules Japan?]
[Susanoo-no-Mikoto and the battle losses suffered by the Japanese myth faction under his command were truly tragic.]
["The whereabouts of Susanoo's Last King," "the top dog's grandson, Susanoo," "using Sun Wukong's power to remove the land's dragon-serpent and prevent the Last King from awakening," "from time to time sending out the Sword Princess who represents his will, or the Heaven-Piercing Blade 'Orochi' to stir up the winds and clouds,"]
[Compared to Susanoo-no-Mikoto, the Committee for the Compilation of Justice is far too young and far too weak. Calling the Committee for the Compilation of Justice Susanoo-no-Mikoto's tool is not wrong in the slightest.]
…
[Faced with the Committee for the Compilation of Justice's invitation, you chose to refuse. Of course, the reason you gave was simply that you didn't want to be bound by an organization. If there were jobs that paid, however, you were still willing to take them.]
[The Committee for the Compilation of Justice also accepted your "mercenary" nature. They issued you an officially recognized status, and told you that if you wished, they could assign you a cultivation mentor and introduce you to training methods to improve your power.]
[You refused the Committee for the Compilation of Justice's offer of a mentor.]
[On one hand, you discovered that you were cultivating at all times anyway, so a teacher in that area would have no real use to you. On the other hand, once you accepted a cultivation teacher, you would be only one step away from fully joining the organization.]
[So you only asked for proof of identity that would allow you entry into the hidden-world library, and—along with Mariya Yuri—you obtained an intelligence operative's formal status.]
…
[After confirmation by the Committee for the Compilation of Justice, you learned that it was "Mariya Yuri" who had reported your situation upward. So on the very next day, you proactively went to find Mariya Yuri.]
[Through her, you learned that the reason she cared so much about you was because you had "divine" power within you.]
[With Mariya Yuri's introduction and help, you came to understand the source of the power of "Divine Incarnation: Vāmana" within you, and gradually learned how to control it.]
"Hm? What's going on?"
At this point, Akuto felt something was off.
Normally, Mariya Yuri should have been very afraid of anything related to Heretic Gods. So why would she proactively help him, guiding him to clearly identify and properly use his Authority?
The moment the doubt formed, Akuto received the answer.
["I almost forgot. Mariya Yuri's fear of gods and divinities wasn't innate. It was because she became a sacrifice for the Campione 'Marquis Voban' to summon a god that she developed that psychological shadow."]
[In the strict sense, I also count as 'unorthodox'—and by Campione! world concepts, 'Vāmana' encountered the holy power of the saint, Ledia.]
[If he were truly a human who could obtain a complete divine Authority without slaying a god, the Committee for the Compilation of Justice would have already seized him as research material.]
…
[With the identity of a hidden-world "mercenary," you studied knowledge, magic, and kotodama from all over the world, while also participating in certain officially assigned missions.]
[Even though you had only just entered middle school, your experiences raised you to "top-tier devil" level, making you the youngest existence at "holy knight" level.]
[Even though you had only just entered middle school, you also "luckily" earned a luxurious apartment building in Tokyo (becoming a millionaire among the elite).]
[Of course, you had already come to regard surface-world wealth as rather trivial. Compared to simple money, you preferred collecting rare artifacts of the hidden world.]
[Besides normal cultivation and mercenary assignments, you also unconsciously began meeting and befriending large numbers of girls who appeared in the original plot.]
[In less than a year, you came to know:]
[Mariya Yuri's friend, Seishuuin Ena;]
[The "Saya-miya-chan," who originally served as a trainee executive in House Saya;]
["Rengyou Tōki," who took interest in you and proactively approached you;]
[Rengyou Tōki's close friend, and also Kusanagi Godou's distant older sister, "Tsukizumi Sakura"… and so on, and so on.]
[In the course of this, you gradually discovered that everyone had a certain strange quality about them.]
[After verifying it through mythological ancient texts (you encountered the Epic of Gilgamesh and the "War God of the King's Army"), you discovered bad news—her older sister had been abducted.]
[Those who abducted Mariya Yuri were European magi who had infiltrated Japan in secret. According to the Committee for the Compilation of Justice's intelligence, the reason Mariya Yuri was abducted was because the Campione "Marquis Voban" was preparing to hold a ritual, using her as a sacrifice to summon a god.]
[After learning this intelligence, you immediately went to rescue her.]
[Europe. After a period of searching and gathering information, you finally found the ritual site with the assistance of Saint Raphael.]
[Saint Raphael was a fan of the "Italian Sword King," Campione Salvatore Doni. Although she hadn't rescued Doni before, she truly did possess the ability to "awaken from nightmares."]
[At the same time, she was also the original owner of "Lion's Heart" under Erica in the original plot, and the original owner of "Silver Artisan" in Liliana's hands. Even the "Oath of David," which could harm gods in Erica and Liliana's hands, was something obtained only after passing Saint Raphael's trial.]
[Upon hearing you intended to rescue those shrine maidens, Saint Raphael voluntarily accompanied you.]
Akuto had a certain impression of Saint Raphael.
Saint Raphael: a beautiful woman who looked to be in her twenties, with a black ponytail and a sharp, poised aura. Formerly Europe's strongest swordsman, keeper of the merit book of King David, and the original owner of Lion's Heart and Silver Artisan.
…
[When you and Saint Raphael arrived, the god-summoning ritual was already underway. Seizing the right moment, you rescued Mariya Yuri, as well as a silver-haired girl who resembled her.]
[Marquis Voban was furious that someone dared to rescue them, and he launched an attack on you.]
[Together with Saint Raphael, you resisted the "War God of the King's Army's" attack with "Lightning Needle."]
[Marquis Voban could not imagine that you could withstand his attack. Just as he prepared to destroy the two holy knights, he realized the god-summoning ritual had already succeeded.]
[After that, Salvatore Doni arrived to steal the kill. Using the absolute offensive power of the "Rending Silver Hand," he successfully ambushed and seized the god that Marquis Voban had summoned.]
As the memory reached this point, Akuto pushed up his glasses.
"Normally, this should have been a chance to become a Campione."
"Unfortunately, I didn't preset a goal of 'I must become a Campione.'"
Akuto believed that if he preset "becoming a Campione" as a target and then chose the right timing, the probability of successfully slaying a god would be high.
But after successfully slaying a god, whether he could become a Campione was a different matter altogether.
"Even if it's only a possibility, I think that even if I slay a god, it'll be difficult for me to gain Pandora's recognition."
Akuto knew very well that in the Campione! world—where "fate" was extraordinarily strong—it was difficult for the destroyer and the destroyed to gain recognition.
Sometimes, even if you won unfairly, even if you ganged up, even if you used an ambush—so long as you gained Pandora's recognition, you could become a Campione.
But if you didn't have Pandora's recognition, then even if you followed the "normal procedure," even if you didn't gang up, and even if the god had just suffered a major defeat and was already injured, you still most likely would not become a Campione.
Looking at those Campiones bound to powerful fate, from birth they were already existences of "Temple Judge" rank.
…
That's right. Even though Campiones were "acquired gods," their true fate was predetermined.
As for Akuto, he naturally had no fate "destined to become a Campione."
But he didn't need the "fate of a Campione," nor did he need to be a "Temple Judge."
Akuto's choice was to sit at the table and make money—and at the same time, become the judge first.
"Ultimately, I don't need Pandora's recognition. With the 'Ring of Usurpation,' I can seize the Authorities of defeated Heretic Gods myself."
"But if I want to do that… I'll need my 'older brother,' Mariya Yuri."
…
[After rescuing them, you learned that the silver-haired girl was named Liliana. Like Mariya Yuri, Liliana had also been abducted to serve as a sacrifice to summon a god. Because aside from swordsmanship and magic, Liliana also possessed talent for the hidden world.]
[After sending the two away, you proactively returned to the battlefield of the two Campiones and collected the corpses of the shrine maidens who were nearly dead.]
[Your instincts told you this was something that had to be done.]
[Of course…]
[You had already seen that the "fate" of those shrine maidens was to meet death. But you still wanted to struggle against fate, even if only once.]
(End of Chapter)
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