Tsuyokute New Saga (LN)

Book 7: Chapter 5

Kyle and Seran now headed for the most famous tower in the whole town. And as expected, the plaza where it stood was crowded.

“So that’s the Tower of Beginnings. It’s a lot smaller from up close, too.”

As Seran stated, the tower from up close held the same impression as it did when they gazed at it from afar, making it barely smaller than the average tower of a larger town. Standing around the tower was the Sacred Palace, as they called it, which made it impossible to see the bottom of the tower. The princess is supposed to be living in that Sacred Palace, but unlike in Galgan or Zilgus, you could feel a strict barrier between the noble and the common. Even so, the place was crowded with people praying toward the tower, giving offerings to the gods, creating a bristling atmosphere.

“Still…Isn’t all this a bit…careless?”

Only a small fence stood between them and the entrance to the Sacred Palace, and you could barely see any guards around. Of course, nobody would even attempt to storm their way inside, but all of this made it feel very much achievable.

“That might be true, but who would even look at it this way?”

“Really? Well, not my place to worry about it, I guess,” Seran listened to Kyle’s comment and just had a look in his eyes like he’d lost interest and started walking away from the people.

“Lot of people around here, huh?”

Since they were following people around where they went, they eventually reached this place as a naturality, crowded everywhere with pilgrims and followers of various religions. The goal of this crowd was the wall right ahead of them. It was a wall painting, filled with a myriad of colors.

“So this is the Vix’s Wall, huh? The location speaking of the various god’s legends.”

The dragon who had painted this mural was so precise in his work that he became a legend in itself…the matchless painter Vix. The one standing out the most inside the whole painting was the Goddess of Earth Cairys, seen as the younger sister of the goddess Mera. She is the god with the most faithful followers and influence in this world, with many legends telling of her stories, and her presence on the mural was greater than most other gods. And Kyle’s attention moved toward something else. In front of the Goddess were the angels, said to serve the goddess, fighting a human warrior.

“Um…This is…one of the nameless heroic tales, right?” Seran stood next to Kyle as he commented cluelessly.

“So you knew as much?”

“I do, but don’t ask me for the details or whatever.”

Despite himself being the one who brought it up, he seemed utterly uninterested and responded with a yawn.

“This is one of the few rare instances of a so-called [Descent] where a god directly shows themself in front of humans.”

Kyle seemingly had something to say about that, as his voice was rather calm. A long time ago, more specifically two thousand years and more, there was a large island to the south of this continent. Neither humans nor demons lived on that island, so it was mostly inhabited by animals and wildlife. However one day, a mysterious miasma started spreading from the center. It didn’t take long for the island to turn into an inhabitable hellscape. Eventually, this miasma began spreading, poisoned the water, and quickly made its way in the direction of the continent. Feeling that Loindars might suffer the same fate as the island eventually, a single human prayed to the gods for help, and the one to answer was the Goddess Cairys.

Nobody knows what exchanges were held between the human and the Goddess. However, the human was granted a trial, and they managed to complete it. As a reward, Cairys began her [Descent] and granted the human strength. She destroyed the cursed island and saved Loindars. That was all passed down in time, so nobody even knows the name of that hero. And ever since, the gods never showed up in front of humanfolk, and it was seen as the only example.

“A direct encounter with a goddess? Sounds fun.”

“Yeah, absolutely…Hah.”

Kyle didn’t believe that a simple prayer would bring salvation, and he understood better than anybody that their strength wouldn’t be lent to humanfolk. On the mural, the hero was surrounded by angels, watched over by the goddess.

“Hey, staring at this mural’s pointless, so let’s go somewhere else.”

“You’ve got it easy…But, good point. I got somewhere I want to check, so thanks for the reminder.” Kyle checked the map he received from Dalia as he said so.

“Where?”

“The temple of the Mera cult.”

Even within this town made for worshiping the gods, the temple for the Goddess Mera was located far in a corner. It was surrounded by a tall fence to the point you could barely see anything.

“What’s going on here?”

The fence was sturdy, depicting much stronger surveillance than in the previous instance, leaving Seran bewildered.

“It’s been locked up…And no sight of other people around.”

There were a few people who watched the temple from afar, just like Kyle and Seran, but none of them came any closer, so they couldn’t possibly be followers of Mera.

“We came all this way, so…Not gonna check it out?” Seran played with the fence when another voice called out to them.

“You, please stop.”

Looking over, they were greeted by a young and gentle-looking man, possibly someone from the ministry.

“You aren’t allowed to enter.”

“Ah, well…My bad.”

Bad at dealing with people like this, Seran looked over at Kyle, asking for help.

“Apologies for my friend here.” Kyle showed a sincere apology, leaving the man relieved.josei

“As long as you understand, I don’t mean to be a bother…I am a faithful follower of Cairys-sama, tasked to look after this place. My name is Radain.” He showed a polite greeting, so Kyle did the same.

“I’d like to ask…Is the situation of the temple like this because it belongs to the Mera cult?”

“No, any faith is allowed on these holy grounds. In fact, this is intended to protect the temple.”

“Protect…you say?”

Radain’s face grew grim as he explained.

“Yes…As you surely know, a small fraction of Mera followers are rather…aggressive toward other non-humans.”

“Ah, I see.”

Mera cult followers always try to rid humanfolk of races other than humans, sometimes even attempting more…aggressive matters. And if a victim of such acts came to Sura and saw a temple for the Goddess who urges the cult to do so…Who knows what they might do? In fact, Kyle could see several places where damage had been done to the temple, even attempting to light it on fire.

“Since we have no followers of Mera-sama to look after it, it fell upon us who adhere to Cairys-sama’s wishes and periodically clean it.”

This must be related to the fact that Cairys and Mera are sisters.

“Makes sense why it looks so deserted,” Seran said as he nodded to himself.

“So there are no followers around.”

At the very least, that’s what it looked like on the surface. Kyle had hoped to understand something after coming here, but it seemed like this’ll be fruitless.

“Thanks for telling us. This is a token of my gratitude, so I hope you accept it.”

Kyle took out a gold coin wrapped in paper. In situations like these, this was an act perfectly normal, so Radain accepted the money with no hesitation, offering a prayer for Kyle.

“Thank you very much. I hope the blessing of Cairys supports you…”

Kyle didn’t know how to feel about receiving a prayer like this, but he decided to accept it with a smile.

“All this talking got me hungry. Wanna eat something?”

“You didn’t do jack shit…right? Also, you just had something from the stall.”

Seran was walking around while eating this whole time, leaving Kyle in disbelief.

“And you’re fine not eating anything?”

“Of course I’m gonna eat, you dumbass.” Kyle had also eaten on the way here, but he immediately agreed with Seran.

“If this wasn’t some holy land, I’d be getting drunk tonight.”

Seran wasn’t even drinking all that much on the regular, but there were times when he’d just gulp down bottles on end, and today seemed to be one of those days. Of course, there existed bars even here, but they definitely weren’t open during the day.

“A regular restaurant should be plenty, right? Where could we…” Kyle started walking, only to stop in his tracks. “Hey, Seran…”

“Yeah, I know. But, they’re different. I’m guessing a different party.”

“Makes sense. This time, even I can feel it.”

Both Kyle and Seran immediately realized that someone was watching them, but the other party was not trying to hide it whatsoever. It showed clumsiness and inexperience.

Or maybe a provocation? No, it might be a regular person.

Kyle was aware of his own popularity, so to speak, so he expected to garner a certain level of attention. However, this one felt different from a regular gaze of interest or admiration.

“This…she’s looking at you specifically. I’m gonna head around,” Seran said and moved away.

Kyle pretended to wait for him and started thinking.

If they’re looking at me…It must be someone related to the Mera cult, but who would make it this obvious?

After a while, Seran returned, and they started walking again. However, Seran didn’t seem as tense as before.

“Did spot them from afar. It’s a woman.”

“A woman…Wait, hold on.”

“No worries. She’s an amateur.”

Amateur refers to someone with no skills of tailing people or having any power to fight.

“I feel no hostility or bad intentions whatsoever. And she seems more like a fragile young lady…I spotted some guards a bit further away from her. Like she was hoping to find a chance to talk. Anyway, I don’t think she’ll do us any harm.”

Just as he said, Kyle didn’t feel any hostility, either. If so, she could have just talked to them, and Kyle turned around in hopes of seeing her, where he spotted her clearly. She definitely was a woman with a hood covering her head. Her way of walking seemed determined yet graceful like she was nobility. She most likely attempted to hide herself in the shadows, but that only made her stand out even more, as even bystanders gave her weird looks.

“…Fine, then.”

The girl almost bumped into another citizen and frantically apologized, almost falling over in the process. Witnessing that, Kyle began feeling restless so he approached her. It was rather templated, but he turned the corner and waited for her to follow, then blocked off her path.

“Eeek?!”

Right as she turned the corner, she saw Kyle in front of her and squeaked. To make sure she couldn’t escape, he had Seran stand guard behind her.

“Oh…Oh…Oh…”

She seemingly hadn’t realized that she was caught red-handed, looking around panicked. Beyond the hood, she was hiding silver hair. At this point, Kyle had somewhat figured out who this woman was, but he still asked just to be absolutely clear.

“Um…who might you be?” He called out to her with a gentle tone.

If his guess was correct, he could not allow himself to act rudely toward her.

“I-It’s an honor to meet you! My name is Sakura. If you happen to have time…do you think I could talk with you?! Please?!”

With a quivering voice, the woman bowed in front of Kyle with momentum that might have caused a storm on the opposite side of the world. This person was none other—than Princess Sakura, also known as [Glorious] Sakura.