Chapter 184
Handmade
“…Come to think of it.”
A private room, fully soundproofed and with no one nearby—an ideal space for the two of us to talk.
I slowly continued speaking toward Cretin, who was trembling in front of me.
“Ms. Rania never really seemed to like talking about you, did she?”
It wasn’t that she disliked you. It was clear she didn’t hold any personal resentment toward you, but she definitely avoided bringing you up at all.
It gave off that unmistakable feeling—that digging any deeper would never lead to anything good.
And judging from the conversation we just had with the Mountain God, it was obvious that there was something uncomfortable tying the two of you together.
“……”
And just from the fact that Cretin, who had to speak about it, had been in terrible condition this whole time, it was clear this wasn’t an ordinary matter.
I silently watched her for a moment before stroking my chin.
“Ms. Cretin.”
“…H-huh?”
“If this keeps up, Ms. Rania will die.”
“……”
At my words, Cretin’s body stiffened as if struck by lightning.
From her reaction, it was obvious she herself already knew that what I said was true.
“I don’t know what happened. I can tell you don’t want to talk about it.”
“……”
“But if you don’t tell me, there won’t be any way to solve it in the first place.”
“……”
As she fidgeted at my words, I looked at her with a cold gaze for a moment.
Soon, a deep sigh fell to the floor along with it.
“…Then how about this.”
“…Huh?”
“Everyone has at least one secret they don’t want to talk about, right? So let’s make it fair.”
“…Eh?”
“I’m not exactly a spotless person either, so let’s share something we feel guilty about. Maybe that’ll ease the burden a little.”
“……”
It was a mess of logic, but the look in my eyes as I said it was completely serious.
It had a strange persuasiveness—enough that Cretin, who had been quietly watching me, nodded as if entranced.
“…Th-then…”
Of course, even so, the words that followed were filled with deep hesitation.
“…You don’t know how a priestess is chosen, right?”
Judging by what she began to say, it was only natural for her to hesitate this much.
“Originally, they gather children at a young age who have especially strong spiritual energy, and it starts with selecting them through a special process.”
In the Great Plains, there was a term called divine selection.
It meant that a priestess wasn’t chosen just from anyone, but only from children who had been granted a certain energy directly by a god.
“…Rania and I were the most promising candidates.”
In that sense, the sisters who had drawn the most attention since childhood were the two of them.
Considering they were the daughters of the Tribal Leader, and also had the qualifications to be chosen as priestesses, it would have been stranger if they hadn’t received attention.
“…That doesn’t sound right.”
When I cut in, Cretin’s eyes lifted sharply and fixed on me.
“Didn’t I tell you there was a time I buried myself in the Archive studying theology like my life depended on it?”
When you read those kinds of things, you inevitably come across all sorts of materials beyond just mythology.
Among what I had seen were papers and records about past priestess selection processes.
And in those—
“You ranked first.”
“……”
“Originally, it wasn’t supposed to be twin priestesses. You were meant to become the priestess alone. Right?”
“……”
Cretin lowered her head deeply and gave a small nod.
As if she had nothing to say, she remained like that for quite a while, and I continued speaking to her.
“What happened?”
“……”
“I’m asking what happened in between—how things changed from you being destined to become the priestess… to becoming one of the ‘twin priestesses,’ and even being treated as the one with lesser aptitude.”
“……”
This part was undoubtedly the critical point.
The reason she was so obsessed with Rania, and the reason Rania understood why she had no choice but to be that way—
It all stemmed from here.
“…I—”
Because of that, the words that came out of Cretin’s mouth were painfully slow.
“On the final day, the priestess directly receives the god and undergoes ‘Unification,’ communicating with it.”
A human who merely encounters or comes into contact with a divinity might have an extraordinary experience, but it doesn’t fundamentally change them.
But if someone reaches the level of inheriting that divinity and storing it in their ‘eyes,’ like Rania—
Their consciousness can never return to what it once was.
Cretin said she hated that more than anything.
“…I was scared…”
Because she wouldn’t be able to remain herself anymore.
Because she was afraid of going through something that would turn her into something completely different, unable to return to how she used to be.
Because she hated the idea of a voice that wasn’t her own constantly echoing in her head, and someone else entering her mind at will.
“What did you do?”
“……”
Cretin took a deep breath.
“To carry out the Unification ritual, you place a red cloth by your bedside before going to sleep.”
It was a custom—marking the child as a priestess candidate before coming of age, so that Urgan would come to visit them.
That red cloth—
Cretin…
“…I secretly left it by Rania’s bedside.”
I had left it by the bedside of a child who looked exactly like me and had similar abilities.
My sin.
I threw it onto my younger sister and made her bear it.
The next day, the unique spiritual power that Rania possessed surged terrifyingly, while the kind of abilities I had were all shaved away.
As if Urgan had left me.
It didn’t disappear completely, but it was as if it knew what I had done and chose to turn a blind eye.
“What she’s going through now—”
The Mountain God said that Urgan was now harvesting something from the past.
Whether this was something originally destined for a priestess or not, I couldn’t tell.
But what Rania was experiencing now—perhaps.
No, not perhaps. Originally—
It was something that I myself should have gone through entirely.
“It’s because of me.”
Holding her streaming tears in both hands, Cretin said that.
“I—I made Lord Urgan angry, and I ran away…”
“……”
I quietly listened, then stroked my chin.
“…I’ll just say one thing first.”
But the words that followed were calm.
“This isn’t the time to cry.”
…There wasn’t even the slightest trace of an attempt to sympathize with her current state.
Cretin, who had been crying uncontrollably, stared at me blankly.
The main reason was probably sheer disbelief.
“Crying won’t solve anything. Let’s think about a solution first.”
As I said that, I frowned and rubbed my cheek.
Inside my head, all the theological knowledge I had gathered so far was stirring violently.
“…There is one thing that comes to mind.”
And perhaps all the information I had accumulated hadn’t been in vain, because it didn’t take long for that answer to come out of my mouth.
Cretin’s tear-filled eyes widened, and she leaned her body forward toward me.
…She had acted so haughty when we first met, but seeing her like this, she looked strangely innocent.
“W-what is it?!”
“It’s the God of Ascension.”
Saying that, I pushed myself up from my seat.
It was clear I intended to act on the idea immediately.
“Judging by its nature, someone with that kind of fiery temperament wouldn’t have held onto dissatisfaction from back then without expressing it. If it went this far, it’s more reasonable to assume it ‘wants’ something.”
“…Wants something?”
“It gave a test. It’s telling us to pass it.”
The God of Ascension.
A god that revered honing oneself and reaching higher levels as the highest virtue.
Considering that nature tied to its divinity, it was reasonable to assume this situation was something Urgan had arranged.
“Th-then?”
“We kill it.”
“…Huh?”
“That Harvester thing. Let’s kill it.”
“……”
At my words, spoken as casually as suggesting slaughtering livestock for dinner, Cretin’s eyes spun in a daze.
Probably for the same reason as before—she was simply too dumbfounded.
But once again, there wasn’t even the slightest hint of a joke in my eyes.
“…H-how…?”
How, what. Was that even possible?
How could a mortal possibly defeat an agent of a god?
It was no different from an ant trying to defeat a human. No matter how strong I was among humans, it was clearly a fight that couldn’t even be established.
The question and its answer surfaced immediately in Cretin’s mind, but the man who embodied recklessness answered without hesitation once again.
“Let’s make one too.”
“…Huh?”
“A counterpart to a god.”
I had already made a promise to the Mountain God before.
To try creating a god.
“We have the materials needed, and we have a divinity to grant. I don’t see why it can’t be done.”
“……”
At my words, as I looked at her, chills ran down Cretin’s entire body.
Even without knowing the details, it was more than clear that I was planning something involving her.
“Like they say, you have to clean up what you started.”
“……”
If he put it that way, she had nothing to say.
With a pale face, Cretin staggered along after me.
After a moment, as if remembering something, she spoke in a small voice.
“Ah, right. I almost forgot.”
“Hm?”
“We said we’d each share one guilty secret. What’s yours?”
I wasn’t particularly curious, but it somehow felt unfair if I was the only one saying something like that, so I asked.
When I stopped and looked at her, she momentarily shrank back, wondering if she shouldn’t have asked.
But when I spoke again, my voice was completely calm.
“…There was a time when my entire family died because of me.”
Even though it was not something to be said so lightly.
“……”
It was a sentence that buried everything Cretin had said until now in a single blow.
