“What is the matter, Martin!”
“A-a-Ark… Ark ni…im… huff… huff!”
“What kind of riot has broken out?”
“huff… huff… huff…”
“Exactly, what did you see?!”
I urged him for a response, snapping like a whip on a galloping horse, without even checking his condition.
But Martin, as if teasing my urgency, was busy catching his breath, his hands braced on his knees.
Seeing no signs of his agitation and gasping subsiding,
“Damn. Ark, can you fetch some water?”
Hestia, while patting Martin’s back as he teetered on the brink of collapse, asked me for drinking water.
Nodding, I entered the nearby lodging, filled a large beer mug with water, and returned to hand it to Martin.
As I handed the cup, Martin snatched it like a bear swiping fish from a riverbank with its paw.
Tilting his head back, he gulped down more than 500ml of water.
“Phew… gasp… gasp… Lady Hestia! Lord Ark! There’s a rebellion! A riot has broken out!”
“So who? Why!”
Feeling increasingly exasperated by Martin’s repetitive recounting, I couldn’t help but respond with rising irritation.
A rebellion clearly implicates the citizens of Luna, and I couldn’t afford to be anything but sensitive.
Hestia, noticing my agitation, extended her right arm forward, gesturing a downward motion repeatedly from above.
With the Goddess intervening to calm me down, I reluctantly stepped back to suppress my impatience.
Then stepping between us, Hestia turned toward Martin.
“Martin? Take your time but could you recount everything you saw, without missing a single detail?”
“Haa… yes, yesss!”
Martin, looking unfocused, reached for the cup again to drink, only to realize it was empty and flung it to the ground.
Staring blankly at the broken beer mug, he then continued.
“The citizens of Luna have risen in revolt. The instigators remain unknown.”
“What kind of riot is it? Are they harming people?”
“No, they are not. It appears the rioters are confining citizens to their homes without causing harm. There’s been no destruction of buildings either.”
“Then why are you calling it a rebellion?”
“The number of rioters at the central square facing off against the security forces was immense. They continuously shouted ‘We can’t live like this anymore, let’s change it’—chants of rebellion.”
“And what about the security forces?”
“They were initially outnumbered. As the crowd grew, they simply surrounded the security forces without needing to throw punches…”
“Surrounded… then what?”
“The security forces were swallowed up by the rioters’ swarming mass.”
To Hestia’s rapid-fire questions, Martin answered without a moment’s hesitation.
From Martin’s expression and answers, I could tell he wasn’t lying.
But one question still lingered: why?
Why, exactly?
At this, Martin, reading my expression, said,
“I don’t know why this riot has happened. Until yesterday, Luna was perfectly calm.”
Providing yet another unsatisfactory explanation.
Riots are usually uprisings that explode after grievances have accumulated to a breaking point.
But as much as Artemis may be moody, she hasn’t done anything recently that would cause such grievances.
So why now?
“…Martin. Let me ask you one last thing. Did you see any other gods?”
“Yes, Lady. Only the familiar faces of Luna’s citizens.”
Hestia, having heard Martin’s response, looked at me with a regretful expression.
Unless a third god intervenes in Luna,
Even Hestia cannot directly interfere in events happening in Luna, which is governed by Artemis.
“Lady Hestia, I will go there immediately.”
“Ark… are you sure you’re alright?”
“Yes. Staying here won’t solve anything.”
“How about awakening Artemis and going with her?”
“No. This is part of a priest’s duty. It’s my responsibility to resolve it. If I judge it too difficult to handle, I’ll request our Goddess’s help.”
After gathering some essentials at the lodging,
Martin, whose face was imprinted with the horror of the rioters he saw, approached me as he trembled.
“Ah… Lord Ark… what should I do…”
“Just stay here. If I need help, I’ll call on you.”
“A- alright.”
Martin responded with a voice mingled with worry and relief.
I finished by bowing to Hestia before setting off down the mountain.
My footsteps descending the mountain grew heavy with countless concerns.
Not only did I have to figure out how to quell the riot,
but the handling of the aftermath itself was the biggest challenge.
Moreover, my decision to come to Luna alone without waking Artemis who was resting,
was because I wanted to resolve it before it reached her ears, knowing that the backlash would be severe.
I am well aware, from the records, of how even the kindest and merciful gods can unleash tremendous anger.
Let me cite a few examples.
What about the cities governed by Demeter, the Goddess of Earth?
Because agriculture is heavily regulated by Demeter, farming has always flourished there.
In the past, a woman was given 10 lashes merely for stepping into someone else’s wheat field, and a drunken man who trampled a single stalk of wheat while staggering home received 30 lashes, leaving him bedridden for a month.
Thus, an amusing proverb among the citizens of Demeter’s cities emerged:
“If you have a sworn enemy, push them into the wheat field.”
When I first heard this story, it sent shivers down my spine.
How about Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and War?
Her laws are relatively lenient but not overly so. Many freedom-seeking citizens migrate to her cities.
Some who moved there without fully understanding the laws reportedly suffered grievously.
While the laws are somewhat relaxed in peacetime, during wartime they become far more stringent.
There is a record of a woman who screamed at the sight of a bug one morning being arrested and detained.
Now, Artemis, the Goddess of Purity?
She tends to be unpredictable depending on her mood, causing confusion among her citizens.
When she is in a good mood, she might handle a theft with a lenient sentence, asking for the money to be returned.
But when she’s in a bad mood?
It’s a living hell.
She’s gone as far as accusing someone of attempted murder for merely breathing near her.
Ugh, thinking about it again gives me PTSD.
But there’s one thing the citizens of Luna, including myself, never question.
When it comes to sexual harassment, sexual assault, and false accusations related to these, conviction without consideration of circumstances leads to execution.
No need to go any further.
I myself barely survived a wrongful accusation of sexual misconduct.
Still, despite all this, I fell in love with the wonderful Artemis at first sight and decided to become her priest, thus working hard and enduring hardships as I live now.
In this way, every city has its own set of laws, making it difficult to call it a true rule-of-law nation,
because the god stands above the law.
In this alternate world, divine authority exists unchallenged, and the gods are quite sensitive about their domain of authority.
The examples above show that gods enforce the law strictly when it pertains to their authority and honor.
Still, each city prioritizes different aspects, and the strictness of the law varies,
but one thing no god forgives is the prefix:
“Anti.”
Oppose, oppose, resist, rebel, revolt, and all such forms.
A god represents authority and power.
Disobeying or resisting this authority is met with fierce opposition and disdain.
Especially for a sharp-tempered deity like Artemis, it would be perceived as a direct challenge.
And a rebellion has broken out in the city she governs,
Luna.
Considering the latent cruelty of the pure-hearted Artemis,
the rebels will surely be eradicated.
This culling will continue until the Goddess’s suspicion is fully satisfied.
Past examples of retributions enacted by lower gods and mid-rank gods against rebels were borderline massacres.
There have been instances where someone was accused of aiding the rebels simply for giving them water.
I do not want Artemis to be remembered as a mass murderer in the annals of history.
Martin informed me that the rioters haven’t destroyed anything or killed anyone.
Clearly, there’s still a chance for resolution.
As I descended the mountain, I was startled by the sight of the completely deserted city gates.
“What? Where is everyone? Sergeant!”
I peeked into the guard post between the castle walls, but even the guard captain, who daily lazed around playing cards, was nowhere to be seen.
The only thing left was what appeared to be a small puddle of his blood on the floor.
While I’d heard of the downfall of the city’s security forces,
I hadn’t expected the city’s entire guard force to collapse so quickly.
Why has a rebellion erupted in Luna?
Who’s leading it?
Without any information, my speculations were like stirring my hand in thick fog, leading nowhere.
At that moment, murmurs from within the city began to coalesce into a single roar.
This roar soon turned into a chant.
“We can’t live like this!”
“Change! Change!”
“Revolution! Revolution! Revolution!”
“Bring down the treacherous Ark!!”
…What?
They wanted me out?
