Chapter 39: The Seal of Mase (Part 1)
“Betty.”
“Hmm!”
“So, uh, the heir. What exactly is that?”
I sat beside the campfire, munching on a chunk of ice and making crunchy sounds, while I asked her. The little girl was adding twigs to the fire and paused for a moment at my question.
She seemed a bit surprised, and after a moment, looked up and shot back at me, “Sister, you don’t know what an heir is? Then how did you devour the deity body and gain the Goddess’s favor?”
“…Favor?”
“Yep.”
Seeing my utterly clueless expression, Betty was even more astonished. She raised an eyebrow, tilted her head slightly, her little face scrunched up in confusion. After a moment of thought, she continued, “Sister, your current body is actually fused from the Goddess’s deity body, that’s what Miss Ailna said. Ah, she told Grandpa, but I was right there, so I heard it.”
The little girl fiddled with her bangs, and as she was halfway through her explanation, she seemed to recall something and her palm-sized face crinkled with concern: “Sister… when you first came, you looked terrifying. Like… like a big, squishy tumor that hadn’t hatched yet, all red and bleeding. When we put you in the cellar, you’d bounce around with a thud, thud, thud! The first time I saw you, I almost wet my pants…”
…What?
A tumor?
Me?!
Ah???
I was really at a loss for words, my head filled with question marks.
Seeing me silent, the little girl thought she had upset me and shrunk her shoulders, stuck out her little tongue, and quickly changed the topic: “Sister was carried back by Miss Ailna in a black coffin. She said it took a lot of effort, especially because those Church Knights from the Western Continent were really strict. I’m not too clear about it, but anyway, on the first day back, I saw you with Grandpa.”
“Miss Ailna placed you in that cellar and talked to Grandpa a lot, but I couldn’t understand most of it… After that, nobody was allowed in there. Only Grandpa kept guard every day. A few days later, Miss Ailna carried you out again and headed west…”
“…West?”
So Miss Ailna carried me, a big tumor, back in a coffin, fiddled with me for a bit in the cellar, and then a few days later, took me to the west…?
Where exactly is that west?
Ah, my head is a bit scrambled…
“Yep, west.”
The little girl explained: “West of the village, over by the Amigil Mountain Range.”
“The Amigil Mountain Range?”
At those words, I paused slightly; I was familiar with that name.
“West of the town is the Amigil Mountain Range?”
I remembered that place.
I had seen it in books long ago; it was mentioned in Ailna’s notes and literature. The Amigil Mountain Range, home of the legendary Immortal Race. I had never pinpointed where it was and didn’t expect it to be right here in the desert, west of Meiser Town…
“There, is where the Goddess sleeps.”
The little girl nodded at me: “And the Sand Valley is right in the center of the Amigil Mountain Range’s gorge. It’s said that if one can pass through that area, they can reach the divine mountain realm of the Immortal Race from hundreds of years ago. But it’s incredibly dangerous there. As for why it’s dangerous, I don’t know either, but the people in the town have declared it a forbidden area, and no one is allowed to go there—only Miss Ailna can.”
The Amigil Mountain Range, the Sand Valley… the Immortal Race…
The place where the Goddess sleeps…
…where the essence resides.
I fidgeted with my hair, feeling a bit irritable.
The little girl continued, “Grandpa told me that Miss Ailna took the heir over there. I have no idea what she went for, but then, after more than half a month… nearly a month had passed, Miss Ailna came back. When she returned, the black coffin was gone, but she had a girl with her—long black hair, long eyelashes, all quiet like she was asleep; that person was you, Sister.”
“She put you back in the cellar, just like before, not allowing anyone near. Only Grandpa helped guard the door. Later, Grandpa told me that you had devoured the deity body and became the Goddess’s heir, which is why you fell asleep. Now that your body has recovered, you still have to sleep for some time longer to stabilize your divine power…”
“Grandpa’s words, I half-understood, half-didn’t, but he wouldn’t explain more to me. Maybe… even Grandpa has many things he doesn’t know. But after that, he had me take care of you, like… changing the bedding, cleaning you up…”
As she kept talking, the little girl seemed lost in thought, hugging her knees while sitting on the ground, completely forgetting to add more dry grass to the fire. So, it fell to me to take over, poking the flames with a long stick to make it burn brighter, all while furrowing my brows and quietly listening to the little girl’s slow recounting.
“At first, I really didn’t want to… because I was scared of you, Sister…”
After saying that, the little girl suddenly looked a bit bashful. She donned a goofy smile and lowered her head, “But then I saw you just lying there, completely still, slowly, I felt braver. Even though a little braver, I was still a bit scared… didn’t dare to get too close. Occasionally, I’d change your clothes and my heart would drum like crazy, fearing you’d suddenly wake up and grab me, gobble me up… Hehe.”
She chuckled dryly twice: “Now I know! You won’t eat people; it was just me being too scared and misunderstanding things…”
Exactly.
I won’t eat anyone; just keep misunderstanding like that, it’s perfectly fine.
“What about Ailna? Where was she after that?”
I asked her, and the little girl replied honestly: “Miss Ailna seemed really busy; I often didn’t see her. At the beginning of the year, she disappeared for months… Grandpa didn’t let others go into the cellar, so only I could come near you. During that time, I thought it was really strange that you couldn’t wake up, didn’t drink water or eat anything, and didn’t… you know, just like a lifeless doll…”
“Not feeling hungry, not feeling thirsty, and not getting fat or thin… just lying there asleep. I thought it was really odd, and I couldn’t help but wonder how it was possible, why you could sleep without eating or drinking. So, one day, I mustered up the courage and pinched your nose—”
“Stop.”
This girl, where is she wandering off to with her stories…
Who wants to know about you secretly pinching my nose? Do you want me to smack you on the head?
I pretended to be casual and casually asked her, “So, in Meiser Town, what do people do? Why do they live here? How come they know so many things, and why do they choose to… help the Gate of Truth, such an organization?”
“Ah! Well…”
When Betty heard my question, her smile paused for a moment, then gradually faded as she began to stutter, looking a bit embarrassed.
After hesitating for a moment, she quietly said to me, “Grandpa told me not to tell you…”
