Chapter 37

A quietly floating letter envelope appeared in the lower right corner of my vision.

For thousands of years, that envelope hadn’t shown up, and I clicked my tongue lightly. That so-called Creator God who left me here in this world without a single word for such a long time… What does he want now by sending this?

I forcibly suppressed the slight irritation rising in my chest and touched the envelope with my fingertips.

┌──────────────────

│Congratulations!

│

│Sentient beings have learned writing!

│They’ve taken the first step in primitive faith!

│

│Due to sentient beings’ faith,

│GodTalk has been activated.

│

│Increase their faith toward you even more!

│The path to omnipotence is not far away!

│

│This is an automatic message.

└──────────────────

Tch. Look at this. Now it’s just automatic messages?

Or something else… Were these scheduled messages opening now? Activated when the text spread?

Gah… What exactly does that Creator guy want from me? I can’t figure it out at all in my current state.

I let out a small sigh and neatly folded away my thoughts about that Creator into a corner. It’s better not to waste energy worrying about incomprehensible beings.

Rather, GodTalk… thinking about it, there was mention of this when I first opened it.

I scrolled to the top of the open messenger window and checked the first message I’d received.

│By the way, this is a messenger made specifically for gods.

│Name it GodTalk!

│Right now, only you and I use it,

│but if gods ever appear in this world, they might use it too?

Judging from that part… it was meant to be used like this from the start.

I closed the message window. It says it’s a messenger for gods, but I don’t know how to use it…

✉️

Another message window floated into the corner of my vision.

And this time, there was a small number attached to the corner of the envelope icon.

It looked like it was showing unread messages, similar to regular messengers.

The number… 10, 30, 50, 100… what is this? Why does it keep going up? The continuously climbing numbers stopped at “999+”.

What is this… countless messages piled up here, huh?

Unconsciously swallowing dry saliva due to the overwhelming pressure, I cautiously touched the envelope icon with my finger.

Then, a message window of indeterminable length appeared before my eyes.

The name written on the message window belonged to the recipient god: Creator Dragon God.

The senders were countless Lizardmen.

Hmm… So… each prayer sent by the Lizardmen to the Creator Dragon God is written here. And judging by the timestamps, they’ve been piling up until now, flooding in once GodTalk was activated.

All the prayers the Lizardmen have offered since they started believing in the Creator Dragon God are gathered in this message window…

How am I supposed to read all of this…? Even if I stop time, it feels impossible.

While seriously considering ignoring all the messages, fortunately, I discovered that the message window had a function to filter prayers.

Of course. How could all prayers be answered? Minor ones can just pass by easily. Yeah.

Let’s filter for mainly the Great Chief of the Lizardmen tribe and focus on truly desperate prayers. Fortunately, the filtering function was quite detailed, so I could even check heartfelt prayers.

Hmm… so…

「Oh great Creator Dragon God! Are you resting?!」

That’s the most recent prayer, sent by the Great Chief of the Lizardmen.

Hmph… a prayer searching for me. Well, I haven’t done anything special for the Lizardmen for a few hundred years, so they probably felt like I was being neglected.

Maybe I should have shown my face occasionally. But while focusing on other races, the Lizardmen ended up being put aside.

Because I strongly believed the Lizardmen would manage fine on their own, I didn’t pay much attention to them. Hmm…

Could it be… Is the faith the Lizardmen have in me, or rather, in the Creator Dragon God, fading?

I looked through the prayers received under the name… no, the alias of the Creator Dragon God. There were plenty of old prayers, but the frequency was gradually decreasing.

Indeed… Recently, the number of prayers isn’t very high. The faith the Lizardmen have in the Creator Dragon God is clearly declining.

Ugh. While I didn’t particularly like the name Creator Dragon God… it’s slightly concerning that the prayers directed at me are decreasing.

Well, since I’ve been neglecting the Lizardmen while focusing on other races, maybe I should help them a bit from now on?

But even if I help… I don’t know what the Lizardmen need right now.

Physically strong, no shortage of food. Their technology development seems stuck at obsidian stone tools because they think it’s sufficient as it is…

Ah, that’s right. How about bestowing blessings upon one of the Lizardmen?

Roughly holding a martial arts tournament, selecting the strongest Lizardman, giving him the title of Great Warrior, and granting him a bit of blessing—this will quickly restore faith in me.

Hmm. Should I mix in something else? Since Lizardmen use magic powered by spirits, why not create the position of Archmage?

A trio of Great Chief, Great Warrior, and Archmage ruling over the Lizardmen? A separation of powers? Ah, this is different.

Anyway, select the Great Warrior through a martial arts festival, choose the most talented mage among the Lizardmen as the Archmage…

And let the Great Chief continue to inherit the bloodline. Hmm.

Now that I think about it, did they still retain the obsidian spear I personally fixed a long time ago? Hmm…

If that spear is inherited by the Great Chief, wouldn’t it be better to make a completely new weapon for the Great Warrior? Since the obsidian spear is already passed down to the Great Chief, it can’t be used.

I need to think about this a bit more. About what kind of weapon to bestow upon the Great Warrior of the Lizardmen.

No, no, let’s change the plan.

Instead of bestowing a weapon, how about blessing the weapon the Great Warrior already uses?

Unlike the Great Chief, who inherits power through bloodlines, the privilege of winning the martial arts tournament needs to fit the victor.

It would be better to bless the weapon the victor is already familiar with rather than fixing the type of weapon. This would also benefit the chosen Great Warrior.

Let’s strengthen him physically as well. Hmm… How about evolving the Lizardman’s body to become dragon-like?

Of course, compared to real dragons, there would be some differences, but a Lizardman possessing even a portion of dragon power would certainly be valuable.

Good. With the Great Warrior roughly decided, next is the Archmage… Hmm…

How should I handle this? Select the most talented Lizardman?

Compared to the Great Chief, who inherits power through bloodlines, and the Great Warrior, who rises through personal strength, the Archmage chosen for talent seems like a balanced combination.

Perhaps give the Archmage the privilege of direct communication with me, teach them immediately if they need anything, or modify and teach the Lizardmen’s magic…

Hmm. It seems better to lend knowledge rather than provide material assistance to the Archmage.

Finally, the Great Chief… since they already have inherited power through bloodlines, it should be fine.

Alright. With the general direction set, I’ll slowly decide and then inform… no, telling only the Great Chief instead of the entire Lizardmen population would be better.

At the next festival, I’ll announce the selection of the most outstanding warrior and the most talented mage who will communicate directly with me.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

One of the representative festivals of the Lizardmen. On the last day of the Festival of White Flowers, a martial arts competition is held to select the representative Great Warrior of the Lizardmen.

Only Lizardmen can participate in this martial arts competition, and the winner receives the honorable title of Great Warrior along with the blessing of the Creator Dragon God, transforming into a dragon-like being beyond the limits of the Lizardmen.

Of course, this temporary blessing is only permitted during the one year the Lizardman serves as the Great Warrior.

But even this one-year blessing shouldn’t be underestimated.

When receiving the blessing, the body returns to its prime, and any physical issues vanish.

According to records, one Great Warrior had serious heart disease among other problems but was the strongest Lizardman, so he became the Great Warrior. Once he received the Creator Dragon God’s blessing, all his physical issues were resolved.

And after one year, when another Lizardman became the Great Warrior, the blessing left the previous Great Warrior’s body. However, strangely, all physical issues remained resolved.

Just by becoming the Great Warrior and receiving the Creator Dragon God’s blessing, minor problems like diseases were completely resolved.

– Excerpt from the Festival of White Flowers promotional pamphlet.