Shackles

"Who asked you?" Emroy shot Hardy a glare, clearly annoyed.

Hardy chuckled indifferently and shifted her gaze toward Rory, smiling warmly. "Long time no see, Rory."

Seeing Hardy's cheerful greeting, Rory's brows furrowed slightly. To her, Hardy's smile looked anything but genuine.

Even after witnessing Hardy propose to Eriri just moments ago, Rory wasn't convinced the goddess of the underworld would give up on her that easily.

However, Hardy quickly picked up on Rory's reaction.

She waved her hand dismissively and said with a grin, "Relax, Rory. My chosen partner is this beautiful girl here now. I won't do anything to you."

She turned her attention back to Eriri and asked with eager eyes, "By the way, I still don't know your name. Mind telling me?"

"Well, I guess I can tell you," Eriri replied nonchalantly. "My name's Eriri."

Truth be told, while Eriri found Hardy's attitude a bit creepy, she didn't dislike her.

Perhaps it was the benefit of good looks. If Hardy had been a different gender or less attractive, she likely wouldn't have even gotten close to Eriri—let alone avoided being slapped away for harassing Rory.

"Eriri..." Hardy repeated the name softly, then sighed in admiration. "What a lovely name. Just like you. Absolutely perfect."

Emroy gave Hardy a blank stare, as if wondering whether this was truly the same goddess of the underworld she knew.

In Emroy's mind, Hardy might have been quirky, but she had never lacked the dignity befitting a deity. Now, with every sentence dripping with flattery, she seemed like nothing more than a simping fool.

Even after learning about Eriri's immense power, Emroy herself only felt awe and fear. She couldn't imagine groveling the way Hardy did.

What made it worse was that Hardy didn't even know how powerful Eriri was yet.

Still, that thought only lingered in Emroy's mind for a few seconds before she let it go. As she had already said, Hardy's actions weren't her business.

She simply turned her head away, choosing not to see.

Though from time to time, she still sneaked curious glances at Eriri.

"Alright, enough with the flattery," Eriri said, firmly pushing Hardy's face away again. "I'm not marrying you."

It wasn't that Hardy wasn't attractive. On the contrary, in Eriri's eyes, Hardy's beauty ranked just below that of pre-evolution Arifureta and Shinobu Oshino.

Even Rory and Emroy fell a little short in comparison.

But beauty alone wasn't enough for Eriri to consider being with someone. After all, with how many beautiful girls existed across the multiverse, things would get out of hand real fast.

Hardy visibly deflated at Eriri's blunt refusal. But before she could wallow for long, Eriri spoke again.

"I'm sure you've already guessed it by now. That's right—you ended up in Emroy's temple because I pulled you from your own," Eriri said calmly.

She paused for a moment before continuing, "There were two reasons I brought you here. One of them had to do with Rory. But seeing how you're acting now, maybe there's no need to mention it anymore."

At that, Hardy quickly exclaimed, "Eriri, you mean the whole forcing Rory to marry me thing, right? Don't worry! Just like I told her earlier, I won't do anything to her anymore."

"I may have lived for countless years, but I've never experienced love. I only asked Rory to marry me because eternity had become unbearably boring, and I just wanted a lifelong companion."

She sounded desperate, as if terrified Eriri would misunderstand her.

"I believe you," Eriri replied with a nod.

Even without peering into Hardy's mind, Eriri could tell she was being completely sincere.

Hardy brightened immediately. "Then does that mean we can—"

Before she could finish, Eriri cut her off with a breezy but firm: "Nope~"

"But... I didn't even finish saying it..."

"I know what you were going to say. But no means no."

"..."

Hardy lowered her head like a defeated puppy, her expression full of disappointment. For a brief moment, silence fell over the grand hall.

Rory and Emroy both stared intently at Hardy, curious whether she would give up or double down on pursuing Eriri.

Eriri, too, watched Hardy, who was less than a meter away. But unlike the others, her eyes held a cryptic glimmer.

She already knew exactly what Hardy would choose.

Seconds passed.

Suddenly, Hardy raised her head high, her gloomy expression replaced by resolute determination.

"Even if you reject me, it doesn't matter. That's your choice. But I will never give up. I have an eternity to reach my goal," she said seriously.

Gone was the lovesick fool; her tone and posture exuded the dignity of the goddess of the underworld. Even Rory instinctively lowered her head under the weight of that divine pressure.

But for Eriri, that pressure was nothing.

In a few seconds, the aura vanished. Hardy's smile returned.

"You must be incredibly powerful to transport me here so effortlessly. We gods stand at the top of this world, so you must be from another one."

"The flesh is a limitation to life. We gods shed our physical forms to gain eternal existence as spirits."

"I wonder if you, still bound by a mortal body, have broken the chains of lifespan. If not, I can make you like us—eternal."

"Because I absolutely won't accept a future where you disappear before we become partners."

A lengthy declaration spilled from Hardy's lips, her words filled with unwavering resolve toward Eriri.

"Alright then, do as you like. It doesn't affect me anyway," Eriri replied with a shrug. "As for lifespan, you don't need to worry about that. The physical body isn't a limitation. In fact, becoming a spirit is more of a shackle."

While Eriri didn't elaborate on how she dealt with mortality, Hardy, Rory, and Emroy all understood—Eriri was beyond the constraints of lifespan.

It was her final remark that sent all three of them into quiet contemplation.

"A spirit is a shackle... Have we chosen the wrong path all along?" Emroy murmured.

But Hardy quickly shook her head. "Not entirely, Emroy. Maybe being a spirit is a shackle, but if we hadn't become spirits, our physical bodies would've perished eons ago. It's not that we chose wrong—it was the only path available to us."

Her words pulled both Emroy and Rory out of their doubts.

Emroy had been regretting her earlier choice to let Eriri return her to her spirit form. But now she saw things more clearly.

They had fallen into a mental trap—comparing themselves to someone like Eriri, who had the ability to evolve infinitely by absorbing cosmic energy. Or to people like Arifureta, who had the fortune of joining the chat group and meeting someone like Eriri.

For godhood-seeking beings like themselves, whose mortal bodies once limited their lives, shedding the flesh had been necessary.

"Hardy has a point. Given your circumstances, what you did was the best option at the time," Eriri said. "But a shackle is still a shackle, even if you had no choice in wearing it."

"You're right," Hardy nodded. "In all the years I've been a goddess, I've made no real progress after reaching a certain point."

Eriri looked between Hardy and Emroy, her expression turning playful.

"Then let me ask you both this: If I gave you a choice now, would you prefer to regain a physical body, or remain spirit-form deities?"

Emroy sank into thought. She had already rejected her physical form once, unaware of the limitations her spirit imposed. Now, she found herself unsure.

Hardy, on the other hand, gasped in amazement.

"Wait, you can do that too?! Eriri, you really are amazing!"

She gazed at Eriri with adoration, instantly shattering the serious atmosphere. Emroy, deep in thought, was interrupted and shot Hardy a death glare.

Except her petite frame and pouty expression made her look more adorably angry than intimidating.

Even Eriri couldn't help but glance at her twice.

Naturally, Hardy was unfazed by Emroy's look. She kept her eyes on Eriri. "Say, I still don't really know how strong you are. Can I see it firsthand?"

"Of course," Eriri said without hesitation. "There's something I need to do anyway, so I'll use that to give you a demonstration."

She raised her hand and made a sweeping gesture through the air.

In an instant, a massive "gate" appeared above them.

The massive "gate" that appeared overhead was none other than the true form of the portal linking this world and the Akame world.

"That's the 'gate'? Wait… something's not right. I can't sense anything from it. And wasn't it supposed to be standing over the Alnus Hill?"

Hardy stared at the familiar archway in the sky, her expression darkening.

She knew the gate well—after all, she had been the one overseeing this current connection between the two worlds.

Meanwhile, Emroy and Rory were stunned into silence. They now realized that what Eriri had previously described as the "gate's true body" was now floating before them.

While it looked very similar to the one at Alnus Hill, this one emanated a presence far more awe-inspiring.

After all, this was the embodiment of a portion of the laws of space itself, its nature and rank towering above them.

"Of course you can't sense it," Eriri said casually. "That gate isn't the one you know. Try sensing the one still at Alnus Hill. See if it's still there."

Hardy immediately obeyed, sending her divine sense to the region near Alnus Hill.

Sure enough, the familiar presence of the gate she controlled was still there, unchanged and within her control.

She withdrew her senses, confusion etched into her face. "Then what is this? Where did this gate come from?"

"Mmm… you can think of the one at Alnus Hill as a projected clone," Eriri explained with a small smile. "A mere projection of the gate you're seeing now."

"A projection? We've been operating under the illusion that the gate we controlled all these years was the real thing… and it was just a projection?!"

Shock and disbelief overtook Hardy's expression. Her entire worldview shook as she tried to process the revelation.

Frantically, she looked to Eriri again. "If just a projection is enough to link two worlds, then what kind of power does the real gate possess?"

Her voice trembled slightly.

Hardy was desperate to understand what kind of existence this gate truly was.

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