Despite the shocking revelation I had just heard from Canaris, I figured that unless they were travelers like her, most Gods who managed their own worlds probably couldn't just pop over here whenever they liked. Maybe I didn't need to worry too much about it.
Machina was a special case—she was the God of my old world and an old acquaintance of Shiro's. If the other World Creators were truly as terrified of Shiro as she said, they likely wouldn't go out of their way just to catch a glimpse of me. I told myself it would be fine.
With those thoughts in mind, we moved to the reception room and I showed Canaris to a seat. Right on cue, Illness-san arrived with black tea. She set the black tea and tea sweets down, bowed politely, and withdrew.
"...So, back to the main topic, what brings you here today, Canaris?"
"Well, the main reason is to introduce myself properly to Kaito-sama with my real name. Oh, I know what you want to say. Why did I use a pseudonym at the party only to reveal my real name so easily the second time we met? Well, to put it simply, it's because the problem I was facing has been resolved."
"A problem?"
"Yes. Hmm... this might get a bit long, but would you mind if I shared my life story?"
"That's fine. I'm interested too, if you're okay with sharing it, Canaris..."
As I had thought from the start, Canaris was definitely a good person. Even earlier, she had made sure to give me a polite heads-up before mentioning the rumors about me among the Gods or the fact that Shiro was feared, and she was checking with me again now.
Compared to fellow Gods of World Creation like Shiro or Machina, she seemed remarkably sensible. She lacked any sense of pushiness, making it almost easy to forget she was an Almighty Class deity.
"As I mentioned, I am technically a world creator; I once made my own world. But things didn't exactly go as planned. Due to various circumstances, my world ended up on the brink of destruction... Taha~, I'm so sorry my management was so poor! Then, an incredibly amazing God whom I respected from the bottom of my heart sacrificed themselves to save my world. Well, I doubt that person thinks of it as a sacrifice, and they'd probably be mad if I said so, so let's keep this between us..."
"W-wow, that's a story of incredible scale all of a sudden."
"Taha~, I am technically an Almighty Class, after all, so I'm kind of a big deal. Oh, not geographically! There are some physically massive world creators out there, but I pride myself on being slender. Oops, excuse me, I got sidetracked."
Her tone remained as comical and bright as ever, but her face didn't move an inch, and her eyes lacked even a glimmer of light. Surprisingly, I found myself getting used to the atmosphere.
"So, I felt a lot of regret and self-loathing. Above all, I felt like I didn't have the knack for managing a world, so I asked a close friend who is also a world creator to take over my world, and I became a traveler wandering through different worlds. Taha~, a drifter, you could say!"
"I see. That must have been for an unimaginably long time."
"It was. I've traveled through so many different worlds, so I'm actually quite knowledgeable about other dimensions. But putting aside my wandering boasts, let's get back to the story... Well, my feelings of self-loathing were so strong that I unconsciously avoided using my real name. Oh, and by the way, my facial muscles resigned all at once because of that incident."
She spoke in a cheerful tone, but the content was quite heavy. To put it simply, she had let someone she respected die in her place, and out of regret and self-loathing, she had avoided using her real name, and her expression remained vacant and unchanging. Something like that.
"...Wait. But since you've given me your real name this time, has there been a change in your feelings?"
"Yes. Actually, the person I respect has been resurrected... or rather, it's more like a reincarnation. Being able to reunite and speak with them again made me feel like I've finally moved on."
"I see... Ah, um... sorry if I'm wrong, but could it be that you're an acquaintance from when Nebula was a God, Canaris?"
"............That's strange. I thought that was a very delicate subject, so I thought I'd glossed over it quite a bit... Based on my assumptions, there's no way Kaito-sama should have reacted like he knew about it... Huh?"
Even though her expression remained unchanged, Canaris's voice sounded quite bewildered as she tilted her head deeply to the side.
Serious-senpai: "Wait, you knew?! Ah, but I see... I was thinking that even with Doting Parent MAX, he was ignoring the Nebula-related stuff way too much, but since he knew Nebula was a rank-lowered God of the quasi-Almighty Class... he probably just reacted like 'if it's Nebula, she could do that much'..."