Unnamed Gaps

I glared at the book in my hands.

The familiar letters of my native language were not something that I expected to see again in this another world, but seeing them like this…

I can’t help but feel anxious.

Once I opened this book, the nameless god said that I would be able to know what I should do.

But what if I don’t know? What if I will never know?

In the first place, can we even trust that nameless god…

“Goddess, please destroy this world.”

He wished for something like that. He doesn’t want this world to be saved, he wants it gone.

Can we really trust him?

I know that he is Ollie’s original god, but I can’t bring myself to give him the same amount of trust as I am giving to Ollie.

Ollie has an innocence of a child, maybe because he’s literally a kid who was just born from a fragment of that god, but as for the nameless god, he knows a lot of things and he hasn’t been exactly honest… he’s hiding a lot.

Yet…

When I think about it…

Am I not the same?

I haven’t actually been honest and I still hide a lot of things about myself that I deemed unnecessary to disclose beyond my internal monologues and thoughts.

That god was certain that he wanted this world to be destroyed, but it’s not like I am saying that I want to save it anyways.

I just want to make up to the people that I caused and will cause misfortunes to…

But saving the world?

I don’t have the power nor the confidence to do it on that scale.

As I am now, I don’t want this world to be destroyed, but at the same time, I am not confident to do anything to save it.

I am just a former office lady who happened to write the story of this world in my past life.

I am not some kind of hero with a strong sense of justice.

I am not a saint that is benevolent and wants to help everyone.

I am not a god who’s willing to sacrifice himself for the survival of others even if it means shattering into pieces and being forgotten by the world.

I am just…

A selfish author.

That’s all I am.

I bit my lip in frustration and put the book back on the bedside table. I don’t feel like opening it right now, I need to mentally prepare myself.

I’ll sleep on it tonight and hope that I’ll find the resolve to do something about it tomorrow.

______

Once there was a grand temple that existed in the past, but that temple was now nothing but ruins.

In the middle of that crumbling temple, a solitary person sat on the ground.

“What kind of God of Prosperity am I? My people are all dying of hunger…”

The person sitting alone was a god, the God of Prosperity. His temple should be the most extravagant, the most brilliant, the most lavish, yet none of those things could be seen now.

“I have listened to their cries, they were begging for rain to let their crops grow… they were begging for money to be able to buy overpriced goods that were monopolized by the wealthy… but my Sanctuary has already fallen.”

The god lamented.

“And soon, I too will fall.”

The god stood for one last time, he pushed himself to the limit even if his body started falling apart.

“I have already lost most of my authority as the God of Prosperity. This final attempt might be meaningless, people will still suffer after this anyways… Even so! I AM THE GOD OF PROSPERITY!”

His voice resounded inside the ruined temple.

It was loud, confident, and decisive. There is no hint of fear nor hesitation in his words.

“Even if I cease to exist right here and right now, I will never turn a blind eye to the suffering of the people! I shall bestow the final prosperity to humanity…”

The god smiled to himself.

“I hope that you will keep this prosperity until the end of time.”

And with that, the god’s body turned to stone and crumbled along with the remnants of the ruined temple.

He was an obnoxious god, an arrogant one who claimed the wealth of the world, and he has all the rights to as he is the God of Prosperity, but beyond that… he was a compassionate god.

He hated poverty, famine, and drought. He can’t stand to see the people suffering, so he sacrificed everything that he has.

His wealth, his money, even his existence.

It might be meaningless because the people will still suffer after it, but he did not hesitate to give himself up.

He did what he could do at that point…

…and that’s all that matters.

______

“Lapis-sama, you found the book! That’s great!” Ollie cheered when I showed him the book.

“Yes, it was in my room.”

“Do you know what you need to do now?” Ollie curiously asked as if waiting for me to give some cool answers like I suddenly had a prophetic enlightenment.

“Not yet. I didn’t open it, I’m scared to do it last night. I was thinking that having Ollie-kun around can give me some courage.”

“Really? Then, I’ll gladly become Lapis-sama’s strength!” Ollie exclaimed.

When I woke up this morning, I actually had a very sad dream.

In that dream, there was a ruined temple and a solitary god. I don’t recognize who that god was, but I witnessed how he sacrificed himself for the people.

I know that I don’t have the same resolve as him, but in that dream, something resonated within me.

“It might be meaningless because the people will still suffer after it, but at that moment, he did what he could… and that’s all that matters,” I muttered to myself.

That’s right…

Any attempts that I will make from now on might be meaningless… but it’s better to do something than nothing at all.

That’s all that matters.

“I will open it now.”

Ollie nodded, looking curious and anxious at the same time.

On the other hand, I feel strangely calm.

I am prepared to do something now.

I can’t change the world, but there is something that only I can do as the one responsible for what will happen from now on.

With that small resolve, I opened the book.

There was no light or mystics when the pages were revealed. How anticlimactic.

Even so, the simplicity of this event was actually more ideal.

“What a mysterious language…” Ollie commented while looking at the opened book.

“Can you understand it, Ollie-kun?”

Ollie shook his head while frowning.

“So I’m the only one who can read it.”

I looked at the letters again.

It is indeed the story of this world, but it wasn’t the [Dream-colored Sky] that I remember writing.

I flipped through the pages, and after a few blank ones, I finally saw the first chapter. The story that I wrote that started after the twins had already passed away.

I also noticed some blank spaces on certain pages with written words.

I understood what it meant right away.

The blank pages are the timeframe where a Plot Hole might occur, and the blank spaces are the part of the story that lacks supplementing information due to the Plot Hole.

“If it’s like this, then I think it’s possible to do something.”

“Do you know what you need to do, Lapis-sama?” Ollie curiously asked.

I smiled at him.

That’s the thing, understanding the meaning is not the same as instantly knowing the next course of action.

“Nope. I still don’t know what to do,” I beamed brightly.

“Eh?”

He then looked at me as if I said something absurd.

That’s right, I just said something absurd.

And guess what?

I still don’t know what I should do, but I have an inclination to do something absurd.

“It’s fine to not know what to do, don’t you think so?”

“Uhm… I don’t understand, Lapis-sama.”

“I’m saying that it’s just alright for us to not know what to do yet, but that doesn’t mean that we will do nothing. Say, Ollie-kun, I want to try doing something… will you accompany me?”

I offered my hand to him, and in the blink of an eye, he lit up.

“Of course! What is it, Lapis-sama? I’ll accompany you anywhere!”

“Fufu, thank you Ollie-kun. For now, let’s go out to eat.”

Ollie nodded enthusiastically and led the way.

I closed the book and took it with me outside.

I don’t know how this will turn out, but we won't find out until we try.

____

Ollie and I arrived at the town once again.

The festival succeeded yesterday, and the stalls are now being cleaned up.

I opened the book and read the latest paragraph before the pages turned blank prior to Chapter One.

[On the eighth birthday of the twin royals, a parade was held in celebration of their birth. The parade was held in the royal capital, as well as the neighboring towns. It was truly a beautiful festival, and its huge success was highly praised by everyone.]

That was different from the festival that I experienced on the first cycle.

I’m assuming that once a Plot Hole occurs, the cycle will repeat with a completely different flow of story.

A Plot Hole is a discrepancy from this world’s attempt to connect the events of this world to the story that I originally wrote. Until we reach the start of the story, the Plot Holes will continue occurring.

In that case, what I can do is to connect the plot of this introductory chapter to the first chapter that I originally wrote, so that a Plot Hole will not occur.

Now here’s the difficult part…

The inciting event of this story is for the twins to meet their end so that the main character, Prince Blane, will aim to discover the truth of their deaths and confront the looming threat that will destroy the kingdom.

…

…

And that’s where I am stumped.

I know that in order to stop a Plot Hole from occurring, I have to give up on the twins and give them a death that will justify what I wrote in the following chapters…

But how could I do something like that? That’s no different from taking the lives of innocent children who did nothing wrong!

“Lapis-sama, where should we go eat today?” Ollie asked with a bright smile.

Looking at him, I feel dread towards myself. Those twins look much younger than Ollie, and they are going to get killed because it is ‘necessary for the plot’.

I wonder what kind of monster would do that… oh wait, it’s none other than me.

“Lapis-sama?”

“I’m sorry, Ollie-kun… I’m really sorry…”

“W-w-what are you apologizing for?! “ Ollie frantically circled around me. “Did you forget what you wanted to do today? It’s alright, we can still do it tomorrow!”

I shook my head. “I just really need to apologize to someone. Don’t mind it. For now, should we go buy some groceries first?”

“Okay! Ollie will guide the way to the general store!”

Ollie enthusiastically led the way while humming to himself in delight.

While walking, I observed the town once again and noted the peacefulness and calmness of the streets. During the parade incident, this town was engulfed in a tragedy and probably got utterly destroyed if the time in that cycle had continued.

This is a nameless town, with equally nameless people… and that doesn’t sound right.

Up until now, I really haven’t completely accepted this as reality. Sure, I already understood that I am now existing and living in this world, but I have yet to acknowledge that others are also living the same way.

I was truly selfish… to think that I failed to understand something so simple.

How pathetic.

But that’s fine, I’ll be as pathetic as I can be.

If there is no way to change the inevitable, then it might be possible to change something else.

“Ah, it’s the siblings who bought my Flower Candies! Hello!”

The little girl that I remember from my first day in this town greeted us when we passed by each other.

“Hello!” Ollie greeted back, “But to correct you, Lapis-sama is a goddess and Ollie is her guide.”

“Uwah, are you roleplaying?” the girl looked at Ollie with confusion.

“Hello, little girl. Did you enjoy the parade?”

“Yep! It was so pretty, the Third Prince made it seem like it was raining flowers!” the little girl continued telling what happened on the parade with exaggerated hand gestures. Ollie and I just listened to her as we did not have the heart to interrupt her, seeing how she was so excited about it.

“You should have seen it too!”

“Well, we had some urgent business yesterday. It’s great that you had fun though,” I said to her with a smile. “By the way, little miss, what’s your name?”

“Hmm? I see… you’re not from here, are you? That explains it…”

“What do you mean?” Ollie asked the little girl.

“How should I explain it to outsiders…” the girl pondered to herself. “To put it simply, in this town… no citizen has an actual name.”

“Eh?” Ollie and I reacted.

“That’s right, you noticed how this town doesn’t have a name, right? It wasn’t just the town, it was also the same to us townspeople.”

“Why?” I asked her firmly.

The girl shrugged. “That’s just how things are for as long as we know. Some of us speculated that it was because the Creator of this world considers us irrelevant and we were deprived of names.”

“What?! That’s not—!” I blurted out in disbelief.

“Ehh, don’t mind it. Compared to those who live in the Royal Capital, there are countless towns and people who don't have a name. For example, I am just called Flower Candy Vendor, the old man on the book stall is called Book Peddler.”

What in the world…

“You two have names, right? I’m quite envious~”

“Lapis-sama… this is…” Ollie muttered with an anxious voice.

“I know…” I answered, then turned to the little girl. “Little miss, don’t you find it strange? Why isn’t anyone giving names to those that should have been named?”

“Of course, everyone thinks it’s strange, but we got used to it. Even without names, this town is still peaceful, we are still healthy, and we still have livelihood. Names are actually considered as blessings from the Creator, but to those of us who don’t have names, we are still blessed by other gods like the God of Prosperity and the Goddess of Harmony so there’s really no need to complain.”

W-why is it like that?

I don’t remember writing a setting like that!

This nameless town, these nameless people… could it be?

I bit my lip out of frustration when I finally understood what’s going on.

The reason why this town doesn’t have a name, the reason why these people don't have names…

Background Characters.

As an author, it’s impossible to name every town, every people, if the story only focuses on a main character and his story. I can’t possibly name every stranger that the main character passes by on the road, or every shopkeeper that he bought something from.

Then… What about the names of the background characters then?

When writing the story, their names will simply become irrelevant. There is no reason to write their names… I guess in theory it is indeed the same as being considered irrelevant.

“Little girl, I’m sorry.”

“Eh? Why are you apologizing?”

Ollie tapped the shoulder of the girl and whispered something in her ear but it was loud enough for me to hear.

“Actually, Lapis-sama is a goddess. A real goddess.”

“Eh? So you’re not roleplaying?” the girl gasped.

Ollie put a finger to his lips, warning her not to be loud.

“That sounds about right,” I sighed. “I’m really sorry for the troubles that I caused. I’ll make up for it.”

“Are you going to give me a name?” the girl’s eyes lit up. “Please, goddess!”

“Sure. I’ll give you one. Give me a moment…”

I started thinking about the best name that I can give to her. When I finally had one, I faced her.

“How about this? I’ll call you Dolce, in one of the languages in my forme— I mean, one of the languages that I know, it means ‘sweet’.”

“Dolce… it’s so pretty! I like it!” The girl jumped in delight. “Thank you very much, goddess! Come with me, I’ll take you to my family’s pastry shop!”

“Eh? You don’t have to, also, I want you to keep my identity as a goddess secret, okay?”

“Silly, of course it’s a secret. I just want to thank you!” Dolce smiled brightly. “I mean even if I call you Goddess, the adults are not going to take me seriously, they're going to think that I’m just riding along with Ollie here. Isn’t that right, Ollie-kun?”

“I think so too!” Ollie nodded in agreement. “We can get the groceries later, let’s go to the pastry shop, Lapis-sama!”

“Okay, okay, let’s go there.”

All I could do was sigh to myself as the two kids practically dragged me to where they wanted to go.

The moment that I gave the name Dolce to the little girl, I thought it was just a small thing that I could do for her.

Little did I know, names can actually give a hint on dealing with the greater dilemma.