True Chaos God

The True Chaos God. The person I'd finally tracked down said she wanted to defect to our side.

"So, are you a tomboy who uses 'ore,' or a cross-dressing guy? Confess."

"… I thought you'd ask something else first… Well, I suppose that's an important point too. I'm… my current body is female, but inside, I'm male."

"Oh…?"

"Apparently, having a mismatch between your soul's gender and your body makes chaos-aligned alchemy easier to wield, but I don't know if that's actually true. Anyway, I was male in my previous life."

What. She's a fellow TS reincarnator just like me…!

"So you're a girl then. Got it."

"Yeah. Regardless of my soul, there's no doubt my body is female. And since I want to use the women's bath, please treat me as a woman."

"… You're naive. Women's baths aren't all they're cracked up to be… It's mostly grannies."

"What!? … Then please come with me so I can verify that myself."

"Can't be helped. I'll join you if the opportunity arises."

With that, we sized each other up, practically drinking in each other's appearances.

What is this feeling? We get along so amazingly well…! If we'd met back in Japan, we might've become best friends…

"Ah. But here's the thing. I need to hand over whoever's claiming to be the True Chaos God to the Goddess. Otherwise this country gets wrecked again."

"… About that. The truth is, I've never once called myself the True Chaos God. The homunculus maid… my monitor, is the one who keeps saying that."

The True Chaos God… no, the so-called True Chaos God let out a big sigh.

"Huh? So whoever's pulling your strings is the real mastermind behind this whole 'True Chaos God' business? That changes things."

"Right? Can't you help me out somehow?"

"Hmm, I can't say for sure without asking the Goddess, but…"

When you think about it in terms of blasphemy against the name Chaos God, the mastermind forcing someone else to use that title is far more malicious than the puppet being made to use it.

Unless we rip out the source, any number of 'fake Chaos Gods' could keep popping up. With that in mind, the real target is… the mastermind!

The Goddess would surely, probably, maybe definitely say the same thing!

The only concern is whether the Goddess might still refuse to forgive someone just for being made to use the title. With that Goddess, it's entirely possible, which is troubling.

"… We'll need to improve your standing with the Goddess."

"Alright, I'll do whatever I can."

"Then here's my advice. Keep your socks on and let them get nice and warm."

"? Why?"

The blonde beauty tilted her head in confusion. I'd probably have made the same face if I didn't know.

"Nya nya. So, where's this maid who's watching you, nya?"

"I shall answer you, cat lady. I obviously couldn't bring her to a meeting about defecting, so she's waiting in the dungeon's bedroom."

"Oh my, quite the player, nya. Rivaling Karina, nya."

"Don't say that, Misha… Wait, why the bedroom?"

"… There's no way someone with a healthy male psyche wouldn't end up sleeping with a sexy maid who keeps throwing herself at them. I mean, it's definitely some kind of honey trap, but… it's not like I can escape."

Fair point. I nodded in agreement.

"Wait, no, that's not what I meant. There's a bedroom in the dungeon?"

"On the contrary, why wouldn't there be? An artificial dungeon is where you hole up when things go south. In other words, it's a shelter. Of course there'd be somewhere to rest."

"Huh. When you put it that way, that makes sense."

So she ordered the maid to warm the bed and was apparently able to come out to this room alone for roughly the length of a coffee break.

"First, we need to restrain that homunculus maid. We'll make her spill everything about the mastermind."

"Can you pull it off? She's pretty strong. Way beyond those modified lizardmen."

"I can do it. I'm super strong, so leave it to me."

I flashed a confident smile… Ah, but if they have countermeasures that disrupt Spatial Magic like this room does, things might get a bit rough…?