“Goddess?”

Lukas looked at Pannata in surprise.

Pannata continued to speak with a slightly fanatical expression.

“Right. She’s the greatest, strongest, and most beautiful being on the entire island.”

Dragon King and Goddess.

He was thinking that this was something to pay attention to, but he couldn’t help but pause when he heard Pannata’s next words.

“She suddenly appeared on the island one day and wiped out all the Ancient Dragons around her.”

“…”

After hearing that, he couldn’t help but wonder.

Half confident in his conjecture, Lukas decided to throw out some bait.

“…I found the corpses of five Ancient Dragons when I was passing through a nearby mountain range.”

“So you saw it.”

Pannata smirked.

“Those five monsters were the rulers of that mountain range. But even those fearsome beings who had ruled over their territory for hundreds of years could only become cold corpses after meeting the Goddess.”

Lukas recalled the wounds he’d seen on those Ancient Dragon corpses. He also recalled the faint energy signature he’d felt from them.

It was only at that moment that he was certain of the Goddess’ identity. The name goddess didn’t suit her at all, but he decided to put that aside for now.

“I think the Goddess might be my companion.”

“What? Hahaha.”

It wasn’t just Pannata.

Even the Dragonmen guarding the hole above let out loud laughs.

“That’s enough of your bullshit. If the Goddess is your companion, then I’m the Dragon King’s older brother.”

“No. I’m serious. Does your goddess have black hair and red eyes-”

“Shut up. If you insult the Goddess one more time, I will kill you on the spot.”

He looked really angry, so Lukas decided to not continue. Pannata glared at Lukas with an expression of annoyance.

“I think I cleared up enough of your doubts, so stay put.”

With those words, Pannata headed up on his own.

Lukas did as he was told. This was because there was no reason for him to run in the first place. Without another word, he walked to a corner of the pit and sat down. Then, he closed his eyes and began to meditate.

‘…so she became a Goddess.’

What had Sedi been doing on Death Island?

* * *

A few hours passed.

Now that he thought about it, Lukas realised that this was the first time since coming to Death Island that he’d stayed in one place for so long.

During this time, he managed to increase his mana regeneration a bit by increasing his concentration.

It was a harder task than collecting moisture in a desert, but it was still better than nothing.

From the movements above him, he could tell that it was around the time for Sedi to arrive, but there were still no signs of her yet.

Lukas looked at the black ring and injected his mana into it.

Fwoosh-

“…?”

However, instead, the beam of light acted strangely this time.

Instead of shooting out to one of the sides, it shot straight up. In other words, it was pointing at the sky.

Just as Lukas lifted his head to look up, a strange sound came from the sky.

Gugugugugu-

It sounded as though the air was vibrating. Even the ground began to shake a bit.

“Hey! Come up!”

When one of the Dragonmen who was guarding the pit called out to him in a slightly urgent voice, Lukas easily leaped out of the pit before looking up at the sky once again.

All the Dragonmen in the village also began rushing out of their pits.

“She’s here!”

“Ohhh!”

Pannata walked out from the group of cheering Dragonmen and looked at Lukas.

“Now you can get rid of any thought of escaping. It won’t be possible anyway, but if you quietly accept your faith, you might be granted a quick and painless death. Now get on your knees.”

All the Dragonmen, including Pannata, got on their knees and bowed.

Their attitudes were reverent as though they were actually meeting god. They looked completely different from the savages who would even eat their own kin.

Bang!

Suddenly, something fell from the sky like a meteor, throwing dirt and pieces of stone into the air and creating a cloud of dust. A figure stood up from within the dust cloud.

This blurry silhouette was rather small, even smaller than Lukas, who was dwarfed by most beings on the island.

Soon after, the dirt cloud dissipated, and the Goddess was finally revealed.

“…”

Hair darker than the night sky and bright red eyes that created a stark contrast. Her bored expression and heavy aura didn’t quite suit her small stature.

Unlike Lukas, who was unable to remain at his peak in this environment, she appeared to be thriving. Her hair was glossy, and her face was bright.

Sedi patted dust from her shoulders before speaking in her uniquely disinterested tone.

“Food.”

“We greet the Goddess.”

“Yeah, whatever. Food.”

“Yes. We prepared an excellent delicacy for you today.”

Pannata spoke with an extremely subservient attitude.

Sedi looked around and even met Lukas’ gaze, but she didn’t seem to recognise him.

After all, he was still wearing the hood.

“Is this the delicacy you were talking about?”

Her frown was the expression that Lukas was most familiar with. Her expression made it look like she was whining to him, but it caused Pannata to tremble fiercely at the thought of angering his god.

“I-, it’s meat from outside. We captured him without a single casualty…!”

“…”

“D-, do you not like it?”

“Of course I don’t. Do you think I’m like you? I told you before that I only eat Ancient Dragon Hearts. Those that have been completely saturated in demonic energy.”

When she said that, the Dragonmen prostrated around her began to tremble, shrinking into themselves and doing their best to become unnoticeable.

Sedi snorted at them before turning to look at Lukas once more.

“But this is the first time I’ve seen anyone wearing clothes on this island. Take off the hood.”

“Ye-, yes.”

Pannata hurriedly removed the hood that was covering Lukas’ face.

“…”

“…”

Their eyes met.

Those bright red eyes that were similar to a rabbit’s widened. At the same time, Sedi’s expression became indescribable.

It was a mixture of shock, disbelief, doubt, and finally, joy.

Then.

“…ha. Hahaha. Ahahaha!”

Sedi burst into laughter. She laughed so hard that she doubled over and held her stomach.

The Dragonmen, who were still nervous, also began to laugh as Sedi laughed. They didn’t know what was going on, but the Goddess seemed to be happy. This convinced them that their sacrifice was actually the right choice.

“…kukuku! You there.”

“Ye-, yes!”

After laughing for a while, Sedi wiped tears from the corners of her eyes.

“Who captured this person?”

“I did!”

Pannata replied with a proud expression on his face.

Unfortunately, he didn’t realise that Sedi, who he revered as his Goddess, had addressed Lukas as ‘this person’, instead of ‘this guy’ or ‘that guy’ like she usually did.

“He’s actually really slow and stupid for an outsider. So we were able to capture him easily.”

“Hoh.”

Sedi mumbled under her breath before smiling.

“Right. I suppose I should commend you. Then…”

With a beautiful smile on her face that made her look like a real Goddess, Sedi beckoned to Pannata with her finger.

“Come here.”

With a bright smile on his face, Pannata walked to Sedi.