Translator: Blushy
Editor: SenjiQ and delishnoodles

Conclusion. 

I got my clothes for cheap. 

“These black pants are 3,980 karma, and with the rest of your purchase… that comes to 10,000 karma.”

This was the cheapest casual clothing store in the Divine Realm. I don’t know the value of karma yet. 

At first, I wanted to buy a dark robe and other clothes fitting for an Evil God, but I couldn’t afford them. It cost 98,000 for an outfit. Like I can afford that!

I was transmigrated into this world with debt, but I have about 500,000. I have karma, but if I lose my believers and run out of karma on hand then I’ll become a ghost, so I don’t want to waste it. 

By the way, the clerk here is also like a ghost. They must be steadily earning karma by being a clerk. 

Speaking of which, I should have asked the lady at the city office about how to collect karma, but it was too late for regrets now. 

For now, I went into the fitting room to get my clothes tailored. 

I came into full view of bare skin when I opened the curtain… 

“… Ah, I’m sorry.”

There was already a customer inside. 

Should I call this paradise? 

There was a gorgeous black-haired woman shaking and trembling inside. 

Her waist-length hair was glossy black. Her skin was clear without a single imperfection. She was slender but curvy in all the right places. Her waistline in particular was incredibly well shaped. 

I politely closed the curtain. She was a sight for sore eyes. 

 

“Sit properly over there.”

 

The woman came out of the fitting room and said without question, and I kneeled on the spot. 

By the way, she was dressed in a neat hakama now.  

The clerk and other customers sensed her hostility and watched from a distance. 

Before I knew what was happening, there was a blade pointed at my neck. It would have been charming if her weapon had been a katana or sword. 

But of all things it was a sky piercer[1]halberd.

It was an all-purpose weapon that was used by the greatest warrior of the Three Kingdoms, the almighty Lu Bu, and was hard to use, but judging from the bloodlust she was giving off, it obviously wasn’t for decoration. 

It was safe to assume that this woman knew exactly how to use a sky piercer and there was no way I could win against such a monstrous opponent. 

“You, who are you?”

The beautiful woman had a lovely voice. 

Her dignified voice along with her piercing gaze made the temperature in the room drop. 

“Hirano Bonta. I’m a new God.”

There was no other way to answer. Honestly, I would have loved to drop a line like, ‘Shouldn’t you give your name first when asking for someone’s name?’ just like a protagonist would, but it would have been too risky since there was a sky piercer at my throat. 

“A new God, are you? And yet, you seem to have quite a lot of karma.”

“Eh, karma? I only have about 400,000 left…”

“Not that. I’m talking about your ‘status’. Are you by chance an ‘Evil God’?”

“Yes, sort of.”

“Hmm. A new ‘Evil God’. No wonder.”

Status, that was a new word. I wanted to ask her not to use words I wasn’t familiar with, but I didn’t want to add fuel to the fire. 

“Well, it was probably an accident. I’ll overlook this incident today as a fellow Evil God.”

“Ah, thanks a lot.”

“But there won’t be a next time, you hear?”

“Yes… Of course.”

I see. This beauty is also an Evil God. I felt as if I had gained something. It was the worst way to meet someone though. I’ll brag about this to Draco later. 

“Ah right, what’s your name?”

“Me? Oh, I guess I didn’t give you my name yet.”

The hakama-clad Evil God halted her departure and turned around, and with a beautiful smile she proclaimed. 

“I’m the <Black Haired Princess>. Upper Senior Fifth Rank Evil God <Black Haired Princess>. Patron deity of the <Northern Overlord>. Pleased to meet you, New God-san.”

“The pleasure’s all mine, <Black Haired Princess>.”

Her lingering scent was sweet. Somehow, I became acquainted with a beauty while clothes shopping. 

But did she just say the <Northern Overlord>? If I remember correctly, wasn’t the <Northern Overlord> the one who beat Draco to a pulp? 

I should confirm this with Draco later. 

 

“You’ve been had.”

Those generous words came from the <Pig Farmer> God. 

On my way back from the clothes shop, I got in line for some fried meat skewers (128 karma) when a God had something to say to me. He resembled Cho Hakkai [2]Or Zhu Baijie, the pig demon from the Journey to the West picture books. 

He invited me to a bar and the two of us were drinking highballs in the afternoon. 

“I’ve been had?”

“Yeah. When they told you that you’ll need 500,000,000 karma even though you’re an Evil God.”

“That’s what the old lady in the afterlife told me…”

The <Pig Farmer> snorted. He really resembles Cho Hakkai. 

Well, that doesn’t matter, but is it alright for a <Pig Farmer> God to eat pork skewers? 

“You know, Hirano-kun. That’s just what they’re required to say when someone becomes an Evil God. You actually don’t need that much karma. It’s called a Basic Evil God package, but it actually comes with a bunch of powers you don’t need. For example, it costs 500,000 karma to use a power like ‘when I say something important, thunder will resound from behind me’.”

Woaaaaa, I didn’t know that. 

I would never have screwed up this badly if I were alive, but I had no idea someone would try to scam me like that in the afterlife. 

I thought that the afterlife would be free from such nonsense. 

“It’s roughly like this. The credit union that loaned you the karma and the person you spoke to are connected. Whenever a large amount of karma is loaned out, the old lady at the counter gets a little something in her pocket.”

“That’s some shady business.”

“Yeah, greed is greed. 100,000,000 is enough for a basic transmigration as an Evil God.”

“100,000,000, that’s… only a fifth?”

It was horrible. It was also horrible that it didn’t come with gigantism after they took so much karma. It was too much. 

“Well, don’t fret over it. It’s not easy to pay back a debt of 500,000,000 as an Evil God by yourself…”

“… What?”

“What, you didn’t know? The faith you gather as an Evil God won’t become karma.”

This was bad. 

My plan of ‘lazing around while watching Draco dominate the world and then retiring in heaven at a suitable time’ quickly fell apart. 

According to the <Pig Farmer> God, an Evil God’s faith is gathered through atrocious acts, but you won’t get any karma from that. It won’t take away karma at least. This really sucked. 

The only way I can earn valuable karma is to do good deeds and depend on regular karma income. Regular karma income was based on the rank of a deity. 

“Since you’re a new God, you must be a Lower Junior First Rank or higher, right? Every month you’ll receive 70,000 karma after taxes. Saving up 500,000,000 would be hard, wouldn’t it?”

“Hard or not… that would take me 7,143 months to save up[3]600 years rounded up!”

“And that’s without eating or drinking.”

“F-ck.”

He’s right. I found out that the food here was delicious after coming to this bar. As an Evil God, I won’t die if I don’t eat or drink, but I still want to eat. I also want to buy clothes, and I heard you can buy homes in the Divine Realm. I wanted to do something. 

“Well, do your best to gather a lot of believers and collect heaps of offerings.”

“What do I do after I collect them?”

“You do what I, <Pig Farmer>-sama here does, and sell them all in the Divine Realm. This shop here is mine.”

“Huh?”

That was a surprise. I didn’t think he was that much of a big deal and underestimated him.

But he has offerings. 

If this <Pig Farmer> was right, then there might be a way to earn a lot of karma. 

Having said that, Draco only has 200 subordinates, so I can’t expect them to make large offerings. What should I do?

“Honestly, I was bored out of my mind, so I’ve been going around and giving advice to new Gods like you.”

“Thank you so much.”

In the end, my drink was on the house. Or rather, it was free because it was provided by the owner. 

He also told me that I could contact him if anything comes up and gave me his contact information. 

But what should I do now? 

In any case, I have to make it work with Draco. I have a lot of things to think about. 

 

【Demon King】 

 

Draco had set up camp where the Demon Forest opened up to a hill. There was a flowing stream at the base of the hill. The location wasn’t bad, and it was here that Draco was waiting for something. 

“Aniue[4]older brother, is he not here yet?”

“I do not claim to understand Evil God-sama, but he’ll eventually show himself before us. The other shouldn’t take long to appear.”

Elena, the girl who had addressed Draco as ‘aniue’, looked down the hill anxiously. 

She wasn’t blood related to Draco. Their fathers were sworn brothers, so it was only natural that their children grew up together like siblings. 

Unlike her beloved brother Draco who had black hair, Elena’s hair was fiery red, and had been tied up in a ponytail. 

Contrary to her wild hair colour, she herself was serious and quiet. In truth, she wanted to stop escaping and hoped to live a peaceful life somewhere with her brother. 

The <Dethroned Crown Prince> Draco had given Elena an important role. 

“… Is someone as inexperienced as I truly fit for this honour?”

“Come now, how can my sister, Elena, be unfit to serve as the Evil God as his priestess?”

The Evil God’s priestess.

They convey the words of the Evil God to the people and make prophecies. 

They devote themselves entirely to the Evil God, and a virgin maiden is typically chosen for this role. 

“I’ve only met him once, but Evil God-sama appears to be kind. He’ll treat you well.”

“Okay.”

“Now Elena. That’s enough chitchat. The long-awaited moment has arrived.”

 

【Evil God】

 

I ended up spending a lot of time in the Divine Realm and ended up going back to Draco late. 

I was worried about Draco. No matter what he said, he only had 200 subordinates. They might have pursuers just like how defeated soldiers running off to a new land were pursued. 

If I were the enemy general, then I would make certain that every last one of them was dead. 

I have yet to fully grasp the situation in the Demon Realm, so I wondered what exactly was going on. Was it like the end of the Chinese Han Dynasty, or Japan’s Warring States era, where several factions are fighting for power? Or has a decisive battle already occurred? 

Was the battle between Draco and the <Northern Overlord> the decisive battle? 

If that was the case, then it would be difficult to recover.

I don’t know how strong the <Northern Overlord>’s army was, but they were in danger of his forces coming to finish the job. I should talk to Draco about this as well. 

Also, Draco said that he was a genius when it came to tactics and strategy, but I want to see for myself if he really is. Even if he was a genius, can he manage with only 200 men? It was difficult for me to believe he could from a modern-day perspective. 

I had only just transmigrated so I didn’t pay much attention to such things, but the situation would have been different if I could provide surveillance from the sky. 

As I was thinking and flying, I saw Draco and his group on a small hill. 

This wasn’t good. 

They’ve been driven to the very top of the hill. 

There were only about 50 of them on defence. Will they escape, or will they be killed? 

The enemy force was 10 times greater. 

In any case, I had to do something. 

References

References
1 halberd
2 Or Zhu Baijie
3 600 years rounded up
4 older brother