【Tales of the Gods #11】Adventure God Dorantos

“Why! Does the latest episode of my broadcast! Have to be deleted!”

Adventure God Dorantos, losing all composure in his rage, slammed his fist down on the counter in front of him with all his might, his face bright red.

Dan!

The loud noise and his shouting echoed throughout the room.

On this day, Adventure God Dorantos had slipped out of his own divine domain and come to the ‘Bureau for Managing Information Transmission to Other Worlds’ in the Divine Realm of Ardyst.

As the name suggests, it was a place much like a government office that managed information sent out to worlds other than Ardyst: screening it, censoring it and, in some cases, stopping it.

In other words, 【Adventurer Mitran】, which Dorantos was currently broadcasting, also had to pass through this Bureau's censorship once before being broadcast to the gods of other worlds...... and judging from the opening line, the latest episode of his work had, as a result of that censorship, suffered the misfortune of being banned from release.

Now, where Dorantos sat at the moment was the consultation window just inside this Bureau's front entrance.

To explain the layout of this room with an example that makes it easy for us to understand, it is much like the teller windows at a bank.

The room was divided in two down the middle by a long counter, one half being the Bureau's office and the other a waiting area for visiting gods.

In front of the counter dividing the room stood several round stools, where visiting gods whose names had been called would consult with the administrative gods, and, well, that was the kind of space this room was.

Which means.

Naturally, there was another window right next to Dorantos's seat too, where another god was consulting with an administrative god......

“............Ahem.”

So if Dorantos made a racket, he was bound to bother the god next to him.

Fortunately, the god sitting next to Dorantos, a large, plump one with 10 legs whose name he didn't know, was a gentleman by nature, and settled his complaint against Dorantos with a single pointed clearing of the throat.

It was something to be both grateful for and sorry about.

Coming back to his senses in an instant, Dorantos now went pale, bowed again and again to those around him in apology, then hunched his shoulders and made himself small out of sheer embarrassment.

“Now, have you calmed down, Dorantos-sama?”

“Ah, yes, sorry 'bout that, for shouting......”

The one who addressed the cowed Dorantos in that flat, inflectionless voice was the administrative god sitting face to face with him across the counter.

In our terms, she was a beautiful but expressionless goddess wearing something like a bank teller's uniform.

Expressionless, or rather, she had never had any function for moving her face in the first place.

Even when she spoke, to Dorantos's bewilderment, she didn't even move her mouth.

As for what that meant, she was originally a magecraft doll.

Magecraft dolls were, to put it simply, helper robots that had been in wide use throughout the world in the Super-Ancient Magic Civilization.

That she, who by rights had no self of her own, should go through all sorts of twists and turns and rise to the Divine Realm in the mass recruitment after the fall of the Super-Ancient Magic Civilization just goes to show there's no telling how her life, or rather her doll's life, will turn out.

......By the way, her name is Censorship God Helper Otetsudaishimasu-chan 57321-362.

“In that case, very well. Might I explain the reason for the deletion?”

“Ah, yes, please do......”

After confirming that the bearded old guy Dorantos had become completely docile, Helper Otetsudaishimasu-chan 57321-362 took a thick book of some sort out from under the counter.

That was the ‘Ardyst Divine Law Collection’.

It was a must-have volume for the gods, collecting the rules that those living in the Divine Realm of this world must follow.

“Please look here.”

Helper Otetsudaishimasu-chan 57321-362 flipped through the thick Divine Law Collection without hesitation and opened it to a certain page.

“Ah......!”

Seeing what it said, Dorantos couldn't help letting out a sound.

On it was a table listing several cases in which transmissions of information to other worlds were to be stopped.

Among them, it was clearly stated.

‘Visual works in which a human with black hair and black eyes appears are prohibited from publication’, it said!

(Th, th, that one's to blaaame......!)

As Dorantos clutched his head, the mysterious cursed child Mitran and the others had met underground in the ruins flashed through his mind.

Originally, in Dorantos's plan, this ruins exploration was supposed to be carried out by only two people, Mitran and Leseida, as a duo.

Although Mitran's actual strength was somewhat unreliable, Dorantos had reckoned that it would be possible to break through the ruins by forcibly triggering a limited “awakening” if necessary to push through.

But open the lid, and what did he find? What the heck was that cursed child!?

A cursed child he couldn't make heads or tails of, whose existence hadn't shown up at all in the “destiny confirmation” Dorantos had paid another god a hefty sum of Mana to carry out.

That thing had suddenly popped up underground in the ruins and wrecked his plan.

Smashing the ruins' mechanisms, stealing the boss right out from under Mitran, she'd simply done whatever she pleased.

......But, in its own way, it had been interesting.

And for all that, Mitran seemed to have grown a little at heart, too.

So, thinking, well, why not, he had posted it, and this was the result.

(That one's a reason for deletion, huh......)

Come to think of it, in the Isekai Reincarnation Broadcasts from Ardyst that Dorantos had watched until now, there had indeed been no scenes where a cursed child with black hair and black eyes appeared.

Letting out a big sigh, Dorantos remembered as much.

......And he understood why, too.

Because gods had the chance to learn...... just what this system called ‘cursed child’ really was.

In a sense, that too was divine mercy toward the people.

However, there were likely many gods from other worlds who could not accept that.

After all, even Dorantos wondered if this system was really the right way to go.

That was why, to outsiders, they kept the ‘cursed child’ hidden.

To escape unnecessary criticism from other worlds.

......If they were going to hide it, they might as well just quit doing it.

Not that he didn't think so himself, but the Creator God of this world was said to have been involved in setting up this system, so a small-fry god like Dorantos couldn't carelessly offer any opinion on it.

Well, anyway.

This deletion of his latest episode would not be overturned.

That was all there was to it.

“If you were to delete all the scenes in which the black-haired, black-eyed person appears and re-edit it, broadcasting would be possible, but.”

“......Hahaha, you do ask the impossible.”

Shaking his head vigorously at Censorship God Helper Otetsudaishimasu-chan 57321-362, who announced this in her usual inflectionless voice, Dorantos laughed weakly and stood up.

“Thank you for your time today......”

Saying so, he bowed politely and left the ‘Bureau for Managing Information Transmission to Other Worlds’.

◇ ◇ ◇

“Haaah...... I'm hooome......”

Now, the place Dorantos entered with slumped shoulders was his divine domain, modeled after an office.

He said ‘I'm home’, but it wasn't as if someone was house-sitting.

This was a habit from when he was a human, one he still hadn't managed to shake off even after nearly a thousand years.

Somehow completely worn out, he rummaged through the cupboard for some tea sweets, wanting something sweet...... but there was nothing there.

The cupboard was empty.

Most likely, the Language God had once again intruded into his divine domain without permission and plundered his tea sweets.

Honestly, she was a troublesome neighbor.

She looked like a little girl, and yet she was also a great senior who helped Dorantos out quite a bit in his everyday work, so he couldn't very well complain over something this small.

Dorantos opened a secret door he had made inside his office desk, took out a candy from there and popped it into his mouth, then sat down in his leather office chair and relaxed every muscle in his body.

“But, man, what am I gonna do nooow......”

Sinking into the chair and stretching his legs out lazily, Dorantos lost himself in thought.

What troubled him was, of course, where 【Adventurer Mitran】 would go from here.

“If Leseida were a one-off character just for this time, it'd be simple: I'd just pretend this adventure never happened, but......”

However, that was not the case.

Looking at Mitran's “current” “destiny log,” this Leseida was deeply tied to Mitran's adventures to come.

Far more than just tied to them......

“Leseida is...... ‘as things stand now’, pretty much the heroine of Mitran's story, isn't she......”

Yes...... believe it or not, Leseida was actually the heroine.

Mitran and Leseida, by sharing many more adventures from here on, would grow closer.

And were scheduled to become lovers.

Seriously.

There was an age gap of about 10 years, but that much was no obstacle to love.

A romance between a boy who looks like a beautiful girl and a woman who looks like a handsome young man......

How to put it, well, as far as the broadcast went, it was a pairing that looked set to be pretty interesting.

Leseida was also Kamasse's elder sister, and Kamasse had ties to Mitran, so it looked like a few episodes could be filmed out of that relationship too.

By the way, originally, there were no such plans.

Mitran had another heroine candidate, a count's daughter.

She was quite the tomboy; after a fight with her parents, she had run away from home and was working as an adventurer with her status hidden, and one day, surrounded by monsters, she was to be saved by Mitran and fall for him at first sight.

But because Kamasse's exploits had delayed Mitran's departure considerably, his meeting with her had become something that “never happened.”

The runaway daughter was not saved by Mitran and was attacked by a pack of monsters...... but she managed to get through it somehow, decided ‘I've had enough of adventure’, went back home and apologized to her parents, and now leads an ordinary, happy life as a normal young lady.

......But I digress.

Anyway, the bond with Leseida, the heroine, had already been forged on this adventure.

And yet, as things stood, this adventure, the very episode where they met, couldn't be broadcast!

“Haaah......”

Dorantos let out another heavy sigh and ruffled his hair messily.

“And to think...... it was an adventure with the demon sword ‘Soul Devourer’ as the theme......”

That was also one of the things that made Dorantos think it would be a waste to shelve this adventure.

After all, ‘Soul Devourer’ was a famous demon sword whose existence had already spread through the world as a fairy tale back when Dorantos was human.

He had heard that its former wielder was struck down by a certain god's apostle, but in truth, the demon sword had a teleport function built in, and the moment its wielder was slain, it vanished off somewhere, its whereabouts unknown even to the gods.

That demon sword ‘Soul Devourer’ was going to appear!

That alone would surely have made it a broadcast well worth attention, even if only among the gods of Ardyst......

“Seriously...... what is the deal with that cursed child...... Emi Rune, was it...... haaah......”

Staring blankly at the ceiling, Dorantos heaved a sigh, his umpteenth of the day.

That cursed child truly was a mystery.

He didn't know why she was so abnormally strong, either.

For a moment, he had thought she might be an apostle serving as some god's pawn, or else a reincarnator, but that was impossible.

Because Emi Rune had black hair and black eyes.

In this world, gods' apostles and reincarnators could never have black hair and black eyes.

Because cursed children were......

“......Hm?”

And just then, he belatedly noticed a certain fact.

“Emi...... ‘Rune’?”

It was the fact that the surname of the cursed child in question, Emi Rune.

And that of the current Supreme Commander of the Adventurers' Guild...... the demigod Lairine Rune.

Were one and the same.

“............”

Dorantos reached for the black rotary phone on the desk, intending to contact Lairine......

He stopped.

That demigod was a troublesome woman.

Her personality made her hard to control, and for someone still stuck as a demigod, she was quite strong, which made her impossible to handle.

For now, Dorantos had the upper hand thanks to his thousand years of savings, and was binding her actions with a ‘request’, but if she ever got into a sulk, it would be a real pain.

She might start a mass slaughter on a whim again.

He might be binding her actions, but if she ever threw caution to the wind, something like that was not beyond her.

And if it came to that, then what?

The birth of a new Calamity.

Dorantos would be made to take responsibility...... and that would probably be pretty rough on him.

He absolutely did not want to become like the Magecraft God.

That was why Dorantos, despite being in a position where he could learn quite a lot about Emi Rune if he looked into it, had not done so.

There was no telling what might put Lairine in a bad mood.

In that case, it was better not to make contact in the first place.

Because that was how he saw it.

Hence, Dorantos sank even deeper into his soft office chair and began to think about something else.

He began to think about how to develop 【Adventurer Mitran】 from here on.

New information: ‘Emi-chan is a reason for deletion’.

This is why Omake-sama, who was left alone and only got information through Isekai Reincarnation Broadcasts, doesn't know why black-haired, black-eyed people are discriminated against.

By the way, I think Emi-chan has appeared in gods' broadcasts here and there until now, but since it was something that could be handled through editing, it hasn't become a problem.

Also, her Master originally had black hair and black eyes, but since her hair had turned white with age, she was made a character in the Death God's broadcast.