#559 Hope in the Box

What is going on here, really?

If we were to summarize what has happened so far...

• A box fell from the sky.

• I opened it.

• A woman came out.

• Letasreit beat up the woman.

Why did a box fall from the sky, or why was there a woman in the box?

None of this makes sense!

Is this the “Mouryou no Hako”?!

No? Oh...

Come to think of it, I also don’t understand why that box opened so easily when I tried opening it.

Neither Letasreit’s superhuman strength nor Horkosfon’s mana cannon didn’t even make the cover budge. 

Is there something special in my hand?

I mean, yeah, I guess there is...

“Let me answer all of thy questions.”

“Ahh! That spooked me!”

Before I knew it, Hermes, one of the celestial gods, is here.

“I hath felt a familiar presence and descended to earth in a hurry. This is, without a doubt, Pandora, correct?”

No clue what you’re talking about.

The woman Hermes is after is still unconscious, mouth foaming, and showing no sign of waking up anytime soon.

Letasreit pokes her with a stick she picked up.

“It very much is her! She... She is out of the box! Surely, thine ‘gift’ broke the Three Realm Deities’ seal and opened the box, saint.”

“Huh?”

Yeah, I do the Hand of Supremacy, a tremendous gift I received from the god Hephaestus.

It allows me to draw out the maximum potential of anything I hold or touch and is the reason behind my smooth progress on my farm. 

“I trust thee hath heard who or what Pandora is from the person herself. The lady rebelled against us, the gods, but in the end, we couldst doth nothing but seal her up.”

That happened thousands of years ago, right?

“We cannot kill her because mine own clotpole of a father gave her the foolish privilege of being unable to be harmed by the gods. Instead, they locked her up with the help of Uncle Hades and Uncle Poseidon.”

As a result, if someone wanted to undo the seal, they’d need the agreement of all three gods.

“Well, that was intended to prevent mine own father from acting on his own. But as thee know, that gent is currently imprisoned.”

“Then who took out that box?”

“That wouldst be the highest authority after Zeus, the Celestial Queen, Hera.”

I met her once, but I remember her as a unique goddess, mainly in a disappointing way.

“She is the faction leader in the conflict that hast divided our realm in two. And the one at a disadvantage, to add. I suspect she wanted to use Pandora for one of two reasons: to strengthen her forces or to simply invoke chaos.”

Is that why she dropped the box on the farm?

“As I hath said previously, the agreement of the Three Realm Deities is essential to break the seal. There is only one way to circumvent it.”

“My Hand of Supremacy...?”

“Correct.”

The Hand of Supremacy can nullify any seal, it seems.

After all, it lets me freely manipulate what I touch.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   “I was cautious not to alloweth the gods of the heavens know of thy existence, but as I feared, Hera was one step ahead of me. As one wouldst expect from the wife who can sniff out her husband’s infidelities at a moment’s notice, it is impossible to hide aught from her. As such...”

“As such...?”

“I want to express mine own sincerest apologies!!!”

It’s rare for a god to prostrate himself.

Or not. I think I’ve seen this somewhere before.

“I shall be more careful from now on and try not to let you get involved, so prithee let this incident pass! Rest assured! The gods cannot descend to the earth unless they art summoned.”

“But you often come here even without being summoned, right?”

“Because I am the messenger of the gods! Hera and Athena art not! And since you have Hephaestus’ gift and this land has Uncle Hades’ blessing, they will not be able to bother thee!”

You don’t have to make such excuses, Hermes.

We know that today’s incident was unavoidable.

So, rather than feeling guilty about the past and dwelling on it, it would be more constructive to think about how to deal with the situation.

“What should we do about her?”

“Hmm...”

Pandora has yet to regain consciousness and is being toyed with by Letasreit, who is stuffing peanuts up her nostrils.

“Frankly, the lady remains a fool. The fact that she was the strongest mortal on earth thousands of years ago doest not necessarily apply now.”

“Is that so?”

Well, Letasreit did manage to knock her out.

“The most troublesome blessing Pandora has received is that no divine being can harm her. That makes her virtually untouchable by us.”

If that is the case, the only people who can stop Pandora are those who aren’t god, in other words, the human race. But having received multitudes of blessings, none could stand in her way back then.

“The only option was to sealeth her up. Nonetheless, thousands of years has’t hath passed since then, and humanity hast evolved. There art plenty of people who can surpass her, including Lifeless Kings.”

I think Letasreit fits the bill too.

Her power from loving and eating beans day and night won out over Pandora, who relied on what she was given and did nothing to train herself.

This is a story that I can apply to myself too.

Hephaestus has gifted me the Hand of Supremacy, that’s why I can enjoy my farm life, but if I rely too heavily on it, I will end up like Pandora.

I’ll use it in moderation and continue to do my own research, just like what Letasreit is doing.

“Would it not be for the best to seal Pandora again? The lady was condemned to be sealed from the very beginning, anyway.”

With my ability, it should also be possible to redo the seal. 

If we put her back in the box and shut it tightly, things should be fine. Probably.

I know I just did some introspection, but I’m about to rely on the Hand of Supremacy again.

“All right, then. We need that bo- huh, where’d it go?”

Ever since Pandora made her appearance, our attention was focused on her, leaving the box she came out of on the side...

...Wasn’t it supposed to be here?

“It’s with me, Master.”

“Huh? Horkosfon?!”

What are you doing with that box?!

“I wanted to test how effective packing natto in this box would be.”

“I-I see...”

I thought she vanished suddenly, so that’s what she was doing! 

“I carefully washed, dried, and disinfected the inside of the box and then packed as much natto as I could! What do you think, Master? Does it look like a proper treasure chest now?”

“Y-Yeah...!”

The inside of the box is filled with countless bundles of straw packed with natto, and it honestly looked like a cart sale more than anything.

“I suppose I haven’t tried fermenting natto that way before...?”

“What shall we do? We has’t to seal Pandora,” says Hermes, perplexed.

I stand beside him, lost in deep thought.

“I think we can just seal her up as it is.”

“Pardon?”

“Letasreit, bring Pandora over here.”

Letasreit responds cheerfully and carries the unconscious Pandora over.

“Put her back in the same box.”

“Gotchaaa.”

“Heyyy!!!”

The box was already filled to the brim with natto, but we still somehow fit Pandora in it and closed the cover.

The seal was successfully reactivated, and Pandora was locked up in the box again along with the natto.

“Art thee sure about that...?”

“It should be fine, right?”

“W-Well, time stops inside the box while it is sealed, so there is nay worry about decomposition or aught like that. But still...!”

Pandora shall remain sealed inside the cramped space, probably for another thousand years.

“No, this is for the best,” says Horkosfon. “Pandora’s presence may inconvenience people once the seal is undone, but those people will also receive a gift.”

Right.

The natto.

“Natto is the last hope left at the bottom of the box!”

“I see.”

It might take several hundred or thousands of years until this box is opened again.

Those who open the box will receive the food called natto and find hope.

That is the hope that sleeps in Pandora’s Box.

“If I taketh this box back to the celestial realm, I fear it might be used again. Doth thee mind keeping it with thee at thy farm?”

“Not at all.”

Thus, Pandora’s Box was left in the corner of our barn.

It contained a lot of natto and other goods.

Later on, the stubborn goddesses in the celestial realm soon surrendered after their plan to revive Pandora—their trump card—was thwarted.

The divine war ended without ever having begun.