Since Laguna was scheduled to participate in the opening ceremony in her capacity as King, she took her leave after we shared a bit of small talk.
Afterward, as I stood with Lilia-san waiting for the ceremony to begin, the dense crowd gathered a short distance away suddenly split apart. The parting crowd left a wide, straight path that looked like a grand thoroughfare. Immediately after, a loud voice rang out.
"S-She’s here! It’s the Creator God!"
The moment the words were spoken, every person in attendance knelt and bowed their heads in unison, as if they had choreographed the movement in advance. Following the lead of those around us, Lilia-san and I dropped to our knees and lowered our heads. I maintained a prayerful posture, but I couldn't resist shifting my gaze slightly to see what was happening.
I had thought Chronoa-san’s entrance at the temple before resembled a white wave, but this... this was on an entirely different level. Shiro-san held a Black Rank invitation, and she had clearly used it to bring nearly the entire God Realm with her. It was a staggering sight.
Shiro-san, the Creator God, walked at the head of the procession with effortless grace. Behind her marched the Three Supreme Gods, followed by a sea of lesser Gods clad in white ritual robes, their footsteps falling in perfect unison.
They were the true pinnacle of this world. Their presence was so overwhelming that the mere sight of them was enough to stop my breath. If I, who was relatively accustomed to Shiro-san, felt this intimidated, the tension the others were experiencing must have been unbearable. Beside me, Lilia-san was trembling—clear proof that she was under immense divine pressure.
Shiro-san maintained a steady pace until the Gods trailing the Supreme Gods finally came to a halt. Apparently, even divinity had to respect the festival’s entry restrictions. Once Shiro-san reached her destination and stopped, the bowing crowd began to rise, and Lilia-san and I stood along with them.
"Incredible... The Creator God herself. She's so divine..."
"To think I’d lay eyes on her outside of the Hero Festival... What a blessing. What a truly wonderful blessing..."
Just as those hushed whispers reached my ears, Shiro-san glanced in my direction and gave me a small wave.
Please stop! That was the kind of casual greeting you’d give a friend you just spotted in a mall! We might actually be acquaintances, but the amount of attention that wave just bought me was insane!
The moment Shiro-san waved, every eye in the vicinity snapped toward me. Seriously, give me a break... Lilia-san was turning ashen. She looked like she was seconds away from passing out.
A low buzz of murmuring spread through the crowd as cold sweat slicked my back, but luck hadn't quite abandoned us yet. Before anyone could voice their questions, a thunderous sound boomed from the Central Tower. I looked up to see a section of the tower protruding outward to form a stage. Standing there were Kuro and the others... the Six Kings.
Well, Magnawell-san couldn't exactly fit on a stage, so he had simply extended his massive neck to rest near the tower's edge.
"It’s finally time for the opening ceremony," Alice chirped, appearing beside me as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Um... What are you doing here? Don't you need to be up there with them?"
Alice let out a weary sigh. "No, much as it pains me... this is a split body. The real Alice-chan is up on the stage."
"Oh, right."
"Yeah, as one of the organizers, I can't exactly be seen slacking off via a proxy. But don't worry! I’ve dispelled the 1,800 split bodies I had scattered across the globe to create this: Perfect Split Body Alice-chan! My specs are practically identical to the original, so I’ll be able to protect you perfectly, Kaito-san!"
"...There are way too many things I want to say about that. Eighteen hundred?! You actually had that many copies of yourself running around?!"
"Oh, sure. Most of them use different appearances, obviously. Their job is to act as relays, transmitting information from my subordinates back to the main body. I had them stationed all over the place."
"I see... Still, eighteen hundred is an incredible number."
"Ah, well, if I don't give them autonomous thought or data-processing capabilities and just puppet them manually, I can handle about a hundred thousand..."
"..."
Yeah, it was pointless. I couldn't measure her by human standards. No matter how much of a fool she acted like, Alice was one of the Six Kings—a being that transcended human understanding. A hundred thousand... she was a literal one-woman army.
"Actually, creating this specific split body was also part of an experiment, but more on that later... It looks like things are getting underway."
"Oh?"
Following Alice's gaze back to the stage, I saw Kuro step forward and speak.
"Everyone, thank you so much for joining us today for the Six Kings Festival."
She must have been using amplification magic, as her voice rang out clearly across the entire plaza.
"The opening ceremony is about to begin, but first, allow me to offer a few words of gratitude on behalf of the Six Kings."
It was a far cry from her usual cute self. At this moment, Kuro radiated the dignity of a true monarch. Her voice was strong and commanding.
"We did not prepare this festival by our power alone; many others lent us their strength. Not only those of the Demon Realm, but the God Realm as well... and the Kingdom of Sinfonia, the Arclesia Empire, and the Hydra Kingdom of the Human Realm. It is thanks to everyone's cooperation that we have reached this day. You have my sincerest thanks."
So Shiro-san and the human monarchs had all contributed to the festival's organization... As I mused over that, Alice leaned in and whispered to me.
"Shallow Vernal-sama was our primary sponsor from the start, obviously. But we asked for the Human Realm’s help as well. Call it a diplomatic necessity."
"Hmm?"
"Truthfully, we have more than enough people among our subordinates, and with Shallow Vernal-sama’s support, our resources are basically infinite. But if we’d just done everything ourselves, the Human Realm would have felt excluded. We went out of our way to involve them to ensure the three worlds remain on equal footing."
"I see..."
As I nodded, Kuro paused her speech. She scanned the crowd slowly before speaking again.
"Now, before I declare the festival officially open, we’ve prepared a short performance for you all."
"A performance?"
"Just you wait and see," Alice replied.
Dear Mother, Father—Shiro-san has arrived, and the stage is finally set for the opening ceremony. Watching Kuro speak with such authority as our representative, it’s finally starting to sink in. The Six Kings Festival is truly beginning...