Chapter 100
Eye of Aira (2)
After everything ended, I caught my breath at the top of the clock tower, which had beco much brighter now that the ceiling was gone.
When I looked at Aira, she was staring at blankly with her mouth slightly open.
“Explain.”
“Ah! Yes.”
It was rude to speak that way to soone like Aira, but I was in a very irritated state right now.
Aware of this, Aira flinched and hurried over to .
“Here. A towel. Pilgrim.”
I accepted the towel she handed . The upper garnt that had taken the direct aftermath of the Lightning Spike had turned into rags.
I roughly tore off the top and began wiping my body. I wiped away the dust and sweat clinging to and cleaned the blood from my nose.
—Gulp.
I could clearly hear Aira swallowing nervously.
“The explanation?”
“Yes. Pilgrim. In this case, it is a kind of preparatory process to go to the ‘world where the gods reside.’ The world where the gods reside is a place where the physical body cannot go, and only the soul can.”
Aira desperately avoided eting my eyes. Keeping her gaze fixed only on my upper body, she continued speaking quickly.
“The beam of light just now creates a state where the body and soul are most separated. Those who are struck by it will have their vitality nearly depleted, and at that mont, the connection between body and soul weakens, inducing a kind of out-of-body state.”
After saying that much, Aira cautiously raised her gaze. But the mont she t my intense eyes, she imdiately lowered them again.
“I-I understand what you are worried about. But at that ti, I am always by your side. I may look like this, but I have reached a very high level in healing, so ergencies almost never occur.”
Hearing that, I was dumbfounded. The point was simple. Reduce stamina down to 1. Extract the soul and guide it to the world where the gods reside.
If I had known, I wouldn’t have stepped in myself. I would have sent Winter or Aro instead.
“This is entirely my fault. I should have explained everything in advance, but your bold and confident deanor as a pilgrim made ……”
“Administrator.”
Aira quickly bowed her head and apologized. It was an apology filled with sincere regret from the depths of her heart.
I called out to her for a mont.
“Haah! Haah! Sunbae-nim!”
A familiar voice ca from the entrance. When I turned my head, Winter was there, breathing heavily and drenched in sweat.
“How’s your body?”
“I’m! Fine—no, that’s not it! Sunbae-nim! What happened?!”
Winter, who had been answering normally, suddenly startled and ran over. She examined my body here and there with worried eyes.
“The stigma is the sa, and there’s no bleeding.”
Realizing I wasn’t injured, Winter let out a sigh of relief. Then she noticed Aira standing across from .
“Oh. Hello?”
“You must be a pilgrim. Nice to et you. I am Aira, the Administrator of the Sanctuary who resides in the clock tower.”
“Ah! Yes. Hello!”
At the words “Administrator of the Sanctuary,” Winter quickly greeted her again more formally. I lightly tapped Winter’s shoulder.
She looked at with a puzzled expression, then her face stiffened.
“I saw the Lightning Spike outside earlier……”
“Oh. You saw that? I just died nine tis.”
“P-Pilgrim.”
At my heavily condensed explanation, Aira broke into a cold sweat and panicked.
At the word “died” coming out of my mouth, Winter’s jaw dropped open.
“How dare you! Kill!”
“Ah! Aro sunbae-nim!”
The one who reacted more wildly was Aro. Sitting quietly on Winter’s shoulder, Aro flared up in rage the mont I said I had died nine tis.
It was a bit fascinating to see soone I had only known for about three days genuinely angry like that.
“Uh……”
“She is a believer of the Anaye Order.”
“Ah…….”
Aira, startled that a fox was speaking, nodded at my explanation.
“Arrr! Bark bark!”
Now having lost human language, Aro bared her teeth angrily. She struggled so fiercely that Winter had difficulty holding her.
Left with no choice, Winter took out the Silent Bell and quickly shook it.
—Ding.
At the sacred resonance that cald the mind, Aro’s agitation disappeared in an instant.
Now docile, Aro stayed there for a mont before quietly approaching . She climbed up my body and settled on my shoulder.
She seed a bit embarrassed herself.
“Administrator.”
“Yes, Pilgrim.”
“I’ll ask just one thing.”
After the situation was roughly settled, I spoke first. At my remark that I would ask just one thing, Aira’s face visibly tensed.
“Which god was it?”
“Pardon?”
“The one who cast that beam of light on .”
Winter rolled her eyes around, doing her best to understand the current situation. Both Winter and I watched as Aira fell into deep thought.
“……The Sanctuary is the land closest to the gods. Originally, gods are beings who cannot directly influence this world. But here, it is different. And the only one capable of casting such a beam of light is ‘Horashu-nim,’ who holds the divinity of the sun.”
Hearing that, I took out the Holy Scripture of the Anaye Faith. Everyone looked at with confusion as I suddenly raised it.
I grinned fiercely at them and brought the scripture up to my face.
“The Goddess. I was just attacked by a certain god and lost nine lives.”
“!”
Everyone wore dumbfounded expressions. I didn’t care. Upon hearing my words, the scripture began to vibrate violently.
Taking it as a good sign, I couldn’t suppress the wicked grin rising within .
“With the Circle of Reincarnation bestowed by The Goddess, I survived, but I am bewildered. I endured through the perseverance The Goddess values, but I believe this to be an unjust act. I truly did nothing wrong. The Goddess.”
“Ah!”
At that point, the scripture shook like mad before suddenly disappearing. I stared at my hand in confusion when a scream ca from Aira’s direction.
The vanished scripture appeared above Aira’s head and flicked her forehead with divine force.
“Ah! Ah!”
As if it wasn’t satisfied, it flicked her two more tis before finally returning to my hand.
Aira, her eyes moist from the considerable pain, wore an aggrieved expression. I just shrugged casually.
“The Goddess. The na of the god who attacked for no reason is the Sun God. What was it again?”
“……Horashu-nim.”
I couldn’t rember the na, so I looked at Winter. She gave the na with an exasperated expression.
“Yes. That god, more or less. The Goddess.”
The mont I finished speaking, sothing unusual happened. The sky above, which had been wide open and clear, suddenly darkened.
A massive shadow fell over us as murky clouds began to gather overhead.
“Sunbae-nim?”
Sensing that sothing ominous was about to happen, Winter called out to quietly.
I hurried over to Aira. If a lightning strike hit and killed her, that would be a problem.
—Rumble.
With a single clap of thunder as the signal, the gathered clouds flashed repeatedly. Watching the scene, Winter retreated as far toward the wall as possible.
—Kraaah!
From high above, sothing like a scream echoed. Just in case, I looked at Aira.
Aira shook her head while pressing herself tightly into my arms.
“That is not a god’s scream. Gods are transcendent beings. The pain of living creatures, as well as screams, are things they do not possess.”
No matter how I looked at it, it sounded like a scream. Each ti the clouds flashed brightly, that scream-like sound echoed again.
“S-Sunbae-nim.”
After a long stretch of rumbling screams and thunder, the noise subsided, and an ominous current could be seen within the gathered clouds.
There was nothing I could do for Winter, who called out to urgently.
—Rumble. Boom!
A lightning strike at full power. A bolt similar to the Lightning Spike slamd down into the Sanctuary.
With a trendous roar, the lightning was so intense it montarily stole everyone’s vision. Along with it, the ominous clouds that had gathered vanished as well.
“Uh. Um.”
Winter, who had first rushed to the window to check where the lightning had struck, looked flustered.
Without exception, we all approached her and looked in the direction she was staring. A building hadn’t just collapsed—it had been shattered into pieces.
“It’s the temple of Horashu-nim.”
Aira looked utterly devastated. In contrast, my face was beaming.
Our Goddess really was the best. She was the very embodint of fiery decisiveness.
“This is also my fault. Please do not concern yourself with Horashu-nim’s temple. This, too, is a matter of the Sanctuary.”
“Yes, understood. You’ve worked hard.”
“……Yes. That is all I could ask for.”
For so reason, I felt like Aira might be crying.
“If you go north of the Sanctuary, there is a chapel for gods other than the Seven. How about calming the anger of Anaye there? I will personally prepare the offerings related to that.”
“I thank you for your effort.”
***
Winter watched Aira carefully. The flustered deanor she had shown at first was gone, replaced by an even more solemn presence.
“You are a companion of the Apostle.”
“Th-that’s right. Administrator.”
“What happened earlier was my fault. Please do not take it too much to heart.”
Winter nodded vigorously. With a face that looked as though she had aged four years, Aira forced a smile.
“Are you a believer of the Anaye Order?”
“Yes. Sunbae-nim is the Cult Leader, and I am a priest.”
“At such a young age, you walk a truly sacred path.”
At Aira’s praise, Winter felt a bit awkward. She thought it was less about her own rit and more about Davide’s role.
“Then I will grant you the Mark of Pilgrimage.”
Davide had already left after receiving the offerings. He had moved quickly to calm the anger of Anaye.
When Winter had tried to go with him, Davide stopped her. He told her to stay behind, receive the Mark of Pilgrimage, and while she was at it, also receive the Eye of Aira.
“Can I receive that too?”
“Of course.”
Aro asked while raising her fluffy front paw. At the adorable sight, Aira smiled warmly and readily agreed.
“The Mark of Pilgrimage is ultimately granted after reflecting on one’s past. It is a mont to look back on your past and your wrongdoings, to ask forgiveness and make a vow. Are you prepared?”
Aira took the hands of Winter and Aro, who both nodded, and drew up her Divine Power.
With the sensation of being swept away by a raging hurricane, their consciousness was pulled away.
‘This place…’
Winter was walking along a river of mories. Darkness spread in all directions, and the only light ca from a lantern attached to the boat.
As she sat in the small ferry and absentmindedly lowered her gaze, she realized that the river was made of mories.
—Plop.
“Huh?”
Startled by sothing hitting her head, Winter turned around. There stood the pure white deer she had t at the ash tree.
“Anaye!”
Delighted, Winter welcod the deer. She did not resist when it nudged her with its snout.
She gently stroked its neck. Each ti the deer acted affectionately, the Silent Bell attached to its antlers rang.
“I think this is my mory, Anaye.”
Winter said that as she dipped her hand into the water. The deer quietly nodded and gently pushed her.
“Hm?”
The mories began flowing in reverse. Starting from the most recent, they gradually moved further into the past.
In the recent mories, Davide appeared frequently. As Winter slowly observed them, she saw a peculiar figure in her childhood past.
“Father……”
He was the spiritual father who had guided her when she awoke at the altar and wandered aimlessly. Now, she saw his figure, rembered only faintly.
Feeling warmth in her heart, Winter took in the sight of her father. He was a being of another race with blue skin.
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