Translator - Zofu
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The royal dining hall was magnificent. So grand and brimming with dazzling colors that one could easily believe it was a banquet hall rather than a mere dining room. The higher one's status, the more they wish to flaunt wealth and power, and food and dining halls are among the best ways to do so.
In the center of the room, long rectangular tables were lined up edge-to-edge, covered in high-quality fabric tablecloths, and at the far end, a lavish feast awaited the two hero candidates.
But the one who had truly waited for them and hosted this small banquet was someone else entirely.
At the head of the table sat Sharperia, Queen of the Palania Kingdom.
And below her, three people were seated in order from the right.
Si-woo naturally knew all three members of the royal family.
'That fellow is the king—no, queen. And a princess older than me, plus a prince my age.'
He knew them, but they weren't close.
He was a bottom-tier hero who had barely passed the hero exam and in ten years had only risen from E-rank to C-rank at best. Even without him, the kingdom had no shortage of heroes.
Most were from a particular clan led by the S-rank hero Olbaek, and the queen and other royals were so busy catering to their whims that they paid little attention to other heroes.
Si-woo was the same, but since going elsewhere wouldn't change his situation much, he simply stayed in the Palania Kingdom.
'This feels fresh.'
Memories of his first cycle came flooding back.
Seeing familiar faces and names made him constantly compare them to his first-cycle knowledge. Though only a day had passed, it was amusing how quickly it became a habit.
It felt like reading a fan-made reversed-world version of a web novel he'd enjoyed, written by the original author.
A maid who had entered the dining hall with him guided Si-woo to a seat next to the princess. Ambiguous, but still higher than Geum Tae-yang's. No, upon reflection, it was clearly the seat of honor.
With only two hero candidates, they weren't made to sit face-to-face; instead, he was placed beside the princess. The maid wouldn't have acted on her own, so it must have been the queen's decision, which meant Geum Tae-yang had also been seated next to the prince from the start.
'Ah, so that's what it was.'
Si-woo finally understood why Geum Tae-yang had spoken so confrontationally earlier.
The queen had seated him, who arrived first, in a lower position while waiting for another man—he was angry and jealous.
'Idiot.'
Si-woo glanced at Geum Tae-yang, sneering at him thoroughly.
"...!!"
Screech.
"Candidate?"
"...Ah, it's nothing... ugh. It's nothing."
He pulled his chair back and tried to jump up, but reading the room, he pulled it forward again.
"Very well. Then let us continue... Ah, you must all be hungry. Let us eat first."
The queen scanned the five seated people and spoke.
Si-woo, who had unintentionally delayed the meal, bowed his head slightly to the royals, who smiled and accepted his apology. Unsurprisingly, this only made Kim Jung-kyung's anger boil even more.
Si-woo handled the luxurious meal with elegant etiquette learned from the western continent in his first cycle, not Earth. Worried he'd forgotten from disuse, but moving consciously made it come reflexively.
Thanks to this, he drew the favor and admiration of the four royals and remained the center of conversation as the banquet's sole protagonist throughout the meal.
When the meal roughly concluded and they were halfway through dessert, the queen began in earnest.
"In three days, both candidates will be transferred to the Hero Training Center."
"The Hero Training Center?"
The question came from Geum Tae-yang.
Si-woo quietly listened since he already knew most of it, deciding only to ask about what differed from his memories. If not, he could always ask Hildear later.
"Yes, my explanation earlier was lacking... but since we are now formally seated, I shall tell you how this came to be."
Thus began the queen's lecture on continental history.
'It's a story I already know, so I'll just tune it out.'
Si-woo thought the same, but from the queen's first words, he couldn't help but sense something was off.
"The goddess who created this world suddenly felt lonely, and to find a spouse, she invited gods from other worlds and their creations into this world."
'Wow, kidnapping is the default setting here.'
To kidnap not just heroes but gods and their creations en masse—truly a kidnapping scheme of epic scale.
"Among them were goddesses and male gods, but none satisfied our goddess."
Hearing this, Si-woo realized this truly was a reversed world.
If the world-creating goddess was like this, what must the women of this world, her creations, be like?
The thought of the beautiful thirty-something queen before him pouncing on a fifty-something man made him feel strangely unpleasant.
"The enraged goddess made the goddesses her subordinate gods and turned the male gods into goddesses, making them subordinate gods as well."
"???"
Si-woo's head spun.
What kind of goddess was this? Her tastes were suspicious, and her appearance was worrisome.
It differed greatly from the mythology he knew in his first cycle, though some parts were similar. But the thought that this goddess might be the one who regressed him to this world sent chills down his spine.
"By the time the number of invited gods exceeded twenty, the goddess realized something was wrong. Among the goddesses were some decent ones, but the male gods were all uniformly weak. Only later did she discover the problem lay with this world itself."
In other words, the goddess kidnapped innocent male gods, diminished their masculinity, and when dissatisfied, turned them into women. Truly a horrifying goddess.
"There was a small crack in a corner of the world, and from it, massive yin energy flowed out and spread throughout this world. The goddess urgently tried to block it and revert the male gods she had turned into goddesses, but they refused."
'Feminization of male gods... fuck. What the hell am I listening to? Is this really mythology?'
Si-woo turned his head to look at Geum Tae-yang, whose tanned complexion had slightly faded in shock.
So much so that he hardly looked tanned at all. Moreover, he didn't even notice Si-woo staring at him.
"Eventually, the goddess gave up and decided to first eliminate the residual yin energy remaining in the world, but the amount was vast, and she had lost much power from inviting so many gods. Thus, she couldn't even remove half and entered a long slumber to recover her strength."
"So that's when it happened."
"Yes. Seizing this opportunity, some goddesses woke our goddess and fostered ambitions to dominate in reverse."
'So in short, the oldest sister in charge took advantage of her weakened state and the younger sisters rebelled. Fucking makjang.'
"And the goddesses who still followed our goddess called the rebellious ones demon gods, and their creations were called the demon race. Thus, war broke out both in heaven and on earth."
Nodding along, Si-woo had a question.
"Then the ones who summoned us..."
"Yes, they were the subordinate gods, not our goddess. Of course, their power's foundation is our goddess. She briefly woke during the rebellion and granted power to the subordinate gods. Still, the war in heaven eventually reached an armistice, but the war on earth continues endlessly as their proxy war."
"Ah, so the demon side cannot summon heroes."
"Correct. The authority to interfere with other dimensions is our goddess's exclusive divine power."
After hearing the mythology, he understood the full circumstances of this world.
The reversed world's turning point lay partly in the goddess's personality and deeds, but mostly in the small crack in the world's corner. Through it, yin energy flowed in, making males rare and females abundant.
"Your Majesty? I have a question...."
Geum Tae-yang cautiously raised his hand, still pale-faced. Surprisingly polite for a thug.
"Yes. Speak, Candidate."
"Then... could my masculinity also be weakened by the yin energy...?"
"...."
'Ah, shit? That's right?'
Only after hearing the question did Si-woo realize the huge problem, his face turning pale.
If his prized 20cm monster shrank? If his ejaculate volume decreased, and he stopped getting aroused by women?
Si-woo felt he could commit suicide right then. No curse was more terrifying.
Fortunately, the queen gave a small smile of relief.
But her words were the exact opposite of her expression.
"Yes, unfortunately, that is the case."
"What? No, what do you..."
"Damn it! I knew something felt off...!"
'Huh?'
Geum Tae-yang jumped up in shock, as if part of his masculinity had already weakened. But Si-woo felt nothing of the sort.
'What the?'
The queen was equally puzzled by his reaction.
"Wh-why are you reacting like that? Though I haven't finished speaking, even if it does weaken, the effect is very minimal. The goddesses wouldn't bother summoning hero candidates from other dimensions for no reason."
"Uh, uh?"
"If one's body is highly compatible with yin energy, the effect would be strong, but as far as we know, none of the hero candidates have shown such signs...."
"...Ah, I-I must have been mistaken. Ahaha...."
Though Geum Tae-yang sat back down with an awkward laugh, the royals' gazes toward him were far from kind. They weren't fools; they couldn't fail to notice the strangeness.
Instead, Si-woo looked at him and inwardly prayed for the poor fool's soul.
'Poor bastard.'
He was certain.
Geum Tae-yang's size had definitely shrunk.
Perhaps that had intensified his ferocity. What a pitiful creature, whose savagery and violence increased as his manhood shrank.
"Ahem. In any case, that concludes the overview. You may ask me for details later, or hear them at the Hero Training Center after resting here. Though I've never been there, I'm told they have diverse curricula and systematic learning so that candidates who know nothing can learn everything."
After that, the queen spoke about this and that regarding the training center and heroes, but Geum Tae-yang heard none of it.
Thus, after another pleasant conversation between Si-woo and the royals, the banquet came to an end.
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