The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death

The Loli Goddess might be God, but the amount of influence she held over this world was growing increasingly smaller.

When the world was still a desolate place, she established rules and laid the foundation for this world's stability.

After the birth of living creatures in this world, she set the evolution and ecology of these creatures, slowly guiding them down a long and gradual path of evolution.

Then, after the emergence of sentient races in this world, she gave these sentient creatures, which had evolved into existences much like herself, the fire of civilization, allowing them to develop their own culture and prosperous civilization.
However, as the laws of this world gradually stabilized, she also started to have increasing difficulty in creating new laws for this world.
This was because each new rule created would mean inserting a new part into an already stable structure, which could potentially lead to the collapse of the entire system.

Moreover, as sentient civilizations became more and more prosperous, people's faith in God and the natural laws also became more and more diluted.
Rather than place their trust in God and natural laws, things they could not see, they chose to place their faith in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and mana.

At that point, she could no longer freely interfere with the minds of sentient creatures such as humans, demons, elves, orcs, etc.
They already possessed a will of their own.

Having said all that, there was only one conclusion to be gained out of this.

“If I couldn't recklessly interfere with sentient minds, I would've changed your goddamned memories already!”

—A Certain Loli Goddess

After spending half an hour trying to convince Aird was the Hero and failing miserably, the Loli Goddess harbored such a vicious thought in her mind as she finally gave up on persuading Aird.
She finally understood that Aird was simply an impossible nut to crack.
Once Aird had made up her mind on something, anything others said to her would be deemed a lie.
Hence, no matter what the Loli Goddess said, Aird simply took it as God telling a friendly lie to convince her to become Alice's support.

Friendly lie my ass! You're the Hero! The Hero!!! Why won't you believe in God's word?!?!

For the first time in her life, the Loli Goddess felt it was a mistake to construct such a sturdy structure for this world's laws.
Specifically, she should've left a backdoor in the system to make it so that she could more conveniently insert new laws.

Although it was still possible to insert a new law into this world so long as she wanted to, just like how she turned the Hero's existence into a natural law of this world, doing so would take too much time.

Ever since Earth had invented a bunch of interesting games these past dozen years or so, the Loli Goddess no longer had the motivation she did 10,000 years ago.
Rather than waste her time and energy creating a new law, she preferred playing games instead.
Not to mention, even if she did create a new law to fix Aird's stubbornness, there was no guarantee that Aird could take care of the Demon King's Power.

So, the Loli Goddess had given up.
If Aird wanted to recognize Alice as the Hero, so be it.
They would most likely need to rely on the mysterious power inhabiting Alice's right hand in the end, anyway.
Thinking of it this way, it was true that the Hero would only be playing a supporting role in this matter.

“Alright, Alice is the Hero,” the Loli Goddess said as she slumped to the ground, a lifeless expression on her face.
Having a Hero refusing to believe in God's words was a truly headache-inducing experience.
“The reason why I called you here is because we have found a way to thoroughly extinguish the Demon King's Power.
However, I feel that one Hero might not be enough, so I decided to find another person to help deal with the Demon King.”

“Could that person be me?” Aird's calm expression finally broke as she asked in surprise, “Will I be fighting by Lord Hero's side? But I am still working as a spy in the demon realm…”

“It's fine to continue your spy duties.
We have already found the true Demon King and forced the Demon King's Power out of her.
So, the Demon King's Power should be looking for a new host right now,” Alice explained.
“In other words, that new Demon King might be heading towards the demon realm.
If you continue your infiltration work in the demon realm, it'll help us get information more easily.”

Normally, the Demon King would head to the demon realm once they had the means to do so.
Luna did not do so solely because of her desire to meet with the Hero.

However, it might be different for the next Demon King candidate.
If the next Demon King didn't possess a strange line of thought like Luna, he or she might head to the demon realm and try to gain influence there.
Meanwhile, Aird's role as a spy would come into play if that happened.

“I see.
If someone calling themself the Demon King appears in demon realm, I will notify you right away so that you can learn of his movements,” Aird said, nodding.
“Also, the other Heavenly Kings have already acknowledged Lady Alice as the Hero, so I can use this to our advantage and trick the other Heavenly Kings into thinking that the self-proclaimed Demon King is a fake.
We will even attack him together and imprison him if the situation allows for it.”

“…I guess you can do that.”

Alice couldn't help but be amazed by how far Aird had thought over this matter.
Her initial goal was only to have Aird relay information about the new Demon King.
She never thought to have the other Heavenly Kings capture the real Demon King.

However, while this idea might sound a little ridiculous, the chances of success were high.
This was because new candidates chosen by the Demon King's Power would need some time to grow strong.
According to the discussion Alice had with Luna, she knew that the Demon King's Power had chosen Luna as a candidate around eight years ago.
In other words, it had taken Luna eight years to acquire the strength to surpass mortal standards.

Suppose the new Demon King candidate was an impatient person and this person chose to head to the demon realm shortly after acquiring the Demon King's Power.
In that case, the Four Heavenly Kings working together should have no problem capturing him.

After all, not everyone could unleash taboos using panties like Alice.
Even with the Demon King's Power's help, it'd be tough for the new Demon King to cast a taboo without a few years of training.

“It's good that you understand.
You can head back first,” the Loli Goddess said.
After informing Aird about the circumstances surrounding the Demon King's Power, she no longer had the patience to continue speaking to Aird.
Just looking at Aird gave her a headache right now.
“In short, you now have similar authority as the Hero.
Not only do you have the Hero's Power within your body, but you can also wield the Hero's Sword.
If you are interested, you can figure out a way to collect research materials on light-attributed taboos to study.”

As one of the Four Heavenly Kings, Aird should have no trouble collecting information on light-attributed taboos.
She could simply leave it to her subordinates.
Moreover, because of the demon realm's culture of the strong preying on the weak, none of Aird's subordinates would question her motives.

Not to mention, the demons were currently under the impression that the Hero was a robust man.
Nobody would relate Aird's research on light-attributed taboos to the Hero.

“Understood.
I will do my best to adapt to this strength so that I can be of help to Lady Alice,” Aird said, nodding.
Then, after taking one last look at Alice and the Loli Goddess, her body quickly faded and disappeared from the room.

“As expected of the real Hero.
She actually managed to figure out how to leave this room by herself,” Alice said, sighing ruefully when she saw Aird disappearing.
When Alice first came to the Loli Goddess's room, she didn't know how she could leave the room.
Only after the Loli Goddess had kicked her out twice did she familiarize herself with the feeling of departure and learn how to exit the room on her own initiative.

“I created your body to have the growth potential of a Hero.
However, your mind originally belonged to that of an ordinary human.
Even if it has been strengthened by virtue of your new body, it is still far from that of a true Hero,” the Loli Goddess said as she looked at Alice.
Then, she suggested, “If you plan to study at a magic academy, it is best if you study mind magic first.
With your current body's potential, you should be able to learn it very quickly.”

“So that's the case.
I understand.”

Alice nodded to express her understanding.

“It's good that you understand… So, why aren't you leaving yet?” the Loli Goddess said as she looked at Alice in confusion.
Logically, Alice should also be able to leave by herself.
Yet, the blonde little girl remained standing in front of her.
“Do you want me to send you away?”

“No.
It's just that… Didn't you hear my prayer just now?” Alice asked as she scratched her head and let out an awkward laugh.
“You, too, know that I lost my stockpile during my fight with Luna.
So…since you have a drawer of underwear, how about sponsoring me a few pairs?”

“Get out—!”