Evil God Average-Mysterious Tradition ‘Happy New Year and Cultural Exchange’ (4th Commemoration Chapter)

“Well then, now we shall start the sacrificial ceremony to celebrate the new year!” f𝐫𝑒𝗲𝙬𝒆𝚋𝐧૦𝘃𝗲l.c𝚘𝘮

“Enough of that already.”

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“Happy new year.”

“Happy new year, Anri-sama.”

“….Happy new year.”

“Happy new year.”

I exchanged greetings with Tena, Lily and Leonara in the dining hall.

This would be my first time experiencing a new year in this world.

“By the way, what do you guys do to celebrate the new year in this world?”

“Hmmm.. Well, to start with, we all have osechi together.” (*food served during the New Year’s Holidays)

“Osechi? You have those here?”

Suddenly hearing such a nostalgic word from Tena, I kinda got my hopes up.

The food I normally have are good but I do occasionally want to have some Japanese food.

I want to have a boiled taro.

“Yes, I have them prepared properly. Wait just a bit.”

“I will help.”

“Thank you, Lily.”

After Tena went down to the kitchen together with Lily, they soon came back with a few layered boxes.

They put those on the table, opened the lids and lined them up, side by side.

“Please dig in.”

Inside the box, there were salmons, steaks and many other colorful food, all packed.

Yep, it is great. It is great but…. It is quite different from the osechi I know.

Isn’t this just packing what was called ‘western food’ in the previous world into a box?

“Osechi is something the hero of the past had come up with for esteemed new year food.”

“Ah, so that’s why….”

The ‘achievements’ of past summoned heroes just like the time with christmas.

They probably weren’t able to explain much more than packing in good food into a multi-tier box.

If they went to all that trouble then they could have introduced Japanese food too…

Well, the food is actually quite good so I guess it is okay.

“Let’s dig in.”

Yep, these are delicious.

“What other things do you do?”

“Hmmm….”

“Otoshidama. You give special money to the children for the new year.” (New year’s gift)

Ah, they also have the custom of otoshidama.

I stopped eating and was about to take out some silver coins from the item box to hand over to Tena and Lily but then,

“By the way, the custom is to drop it in front of their eyes, not hand it over directly.”

The hero who spread these customs, exactly what kind of person were they….?

Well, I guess it is fine. I don’t feel like going too deep with it so I just gave it to them like the custom.

“Thank you for everything.”

“Ah, thank you very much!”

“Thank you!”

I went over in front of them and dropped the coins in front of their eyes.

The coins fell down due to gravity and landed on their hands.

“What about me?”

“Leonara, you’re not a child anymore.”

Leaving that aside, I looked sideways to face Sophia and Amber. The two were peacefully celebrating the new year, not joining in on the conversation.

The two were already drinking by the time I woke up.

“Drinking from the morning?”

These hopeless humans… Ah, they are not actually humans.

“It’s okay, it’s the new year after all.”

“There’s a custom of offering sake to the gods in the new year. So it’s our duty as gods to drink these sake.”

Surely, these are sake offered to the gods but to me, it just looks like they are using it as an excuse to drink.

Well, I guess I will put that aside for now.

“—su”

“?”

“What is this hand?”

Of course, it is for otoshidama.

“Otoshidama.”

Please.

I should have the right to receive some from these two veterans since I am just a beginner.

“You fool, why do we have to give you otoshidama?”

“Seriously.”

“I really don’t think you will be doing something bad by showing your good sides as senpais to your cute kouhai.”

“Say those things with a little bit more cuteness!”

Ouch– my hand was slapped from above.

“In the first place, the Gods don’t really have any money to begin with.”

“Yea, it’s only you. Who is a God and is diligently earning money.” 𝐟𝘳𝑒𝗲𝘸e𝒃𝘯𝒐𝐯e𝚕.c𝒐𝒎

Certainly, pure-borns like them would not need any money. They won’t have a problem without the necessities of life and they don’t also need to go shopping. It is only natural for them to not have any as they don’t require any.

In short, they are penniless.

“Poor guys.”

“That kinda makes me angry though, oi.”

Well, it doesn’t really matter. I wasn’t really expecting anything from them in the first place so I had nothing to lose.

I will just leave these drunkards alone.

I gave up trying to get otoshidama from them and returned to Tena and the others.

“What else do you do?”

“Umm, new year’s card?

You report your recent condition to someone far way.

I also just wrote a report to the demon territory a while ago.”

Is that really a new year card?

I kinda feel the nuance to be different…

“Why send something like that at this timing?”

“No, well, I don’t quite know why but it has been like this since long ago.

Only once a year does not feel enough so I do send some periodically though.

Not ‘Sending reports of the new year’ but rather ‘Sending reports on the new year.’, eh?

This, is it not just that the hero who brought the custom of the new year was feeling it was bothersome to write reports so they struggled to make it only once a year?

Well, at the very least, I do not have anyone to write reports to so I guess I will leave it as it is.

“And there’s also the first shrine visit of year.

It doesn’t have to be today but it seems like they call the first visit of the year to the church that.”

First shrine visit, eh… Come to think of it, I also went to the shrine on new year’s day and drew a fortune slip.

The result of the slip is a secret.

But, even if you talk of visiting a shrine —–

“This is the shrine.”

Since I am the God.

Who will I go to?

“Ahaha. Ri-right.”

When I said that, it looked like Tena also realized it and gave a bitter smile.

But, in the next moment, she wore a serious face and started whispering something into Lily’s ear.

“???”

When I was wondering what they might be talking about, both of them joined their hands before their chests.

……Wait, am I being prayed to now?

What do I do? I kinda feel really embarassed.

Incidentally, Leonara had gone to Amber’s place to pray.

To not let them know of my embarrassment, I patted their heads.

“I will be counting on you guys this year too.”

“Yes!”

“Yes!”

By the way, if there is the concept of first visit, is it really okay for us 3 Gods to be here?