In the plaza, at Seianes’s gesture, Cairens was transported to the middle of some distant land and opened his eyes.
An unfamiliar ceiling he couldn’t name. A small room lit by a faint light entered his vision.
“Ugh…”
“Are you awake now?”
Half-asleep and unable to gather his wits, he was looking around in confusion when the door opened slightly and a woman with an ordinary appearance appeared.
“I was worried you wouldn’t wake up. You were collapsed near the beach, and I thought you were dead.”
“……”
“It’s fortunate I found you in time, otherwise it would have been terrible.”
Holding a watery stew with chunks of fish in it, she asked carefully.
“……Where is this?”
Turning his heavy body, Cairens sat up. His whole body was in terrible shape, perhaps because of what happened during the day.
“This is Iatep Beach, a little far from Iakron. My husband and I live here together.”
“What?”
Iakron was a city quite some distance from Atlante where he had lived. Even if he left now and rode a carriage without rest, it would take a good three days.
“Looking at your clothes, you seem like a young priest—are you a child who was staying at a temple near here?”
“Ah, I… that is… I came from Atlante. I ended up coming here somehow.”
“I see, from there to here? How did that happen……”
Omitting the detailed circumstances, Cairens politely explained his origins. At Cairens’s words that he had come from a city quite far from here, the woman made a dubious expression but didn’t ask further.
Occasionally there were children who were sold to temples, forced to become priests, and ran away. Seeing Cairens in his pure white priest’s robes, the woman assumed he was a child who had escaped from a temple and was trying to return to his hometown.
“Anyway, eat at least this. If you’re going to return to your hometown, you have a long way to go. I’ll ask my husband tomorrow to look for merchants heading that way. It will take time, but you should be able to arrive at your hometown quickly.”
Offering the watery stew, the woman smiled.
A stew with a few pieces of fish flesh in it.
It was incomparably poor compared to what he had eaten until now, but without showing any sign of distaste, he extended both hands and carefully received it.
“Thank you.”
For common people, even such a poor stew would be something to be grateful for.
The appearance of the people he had seen during the day. Even in the moment of being offered as a sacrifice, he couldn’t bring himself to resent the people who cried out to offer him to the gods.
It wasn’t simply to grease their own bellies or to accumulate more wealth. They simply tried to offer Cairens to the gods in order to survive.
While that situation was terrible, on the other hand, their appearance was pitiful.
‘She’s too thin.’
The woman before his eyes was the same, and the citizens of Atlante he had seen in the plaza were no different. The woman who took him in seemed to be in relatively better circumstances, but the appearance of the Atlante citizens he had seen was miserable. People so emaciated they looked like they would collapse at any moment.
If they didn’t cling to even offering Cairens, they would probably have gone mad or, soaked in despair, resigned themselves to life and just waited for the day they would die.
‘They truly believed that only by offering me could they survive. And I also thought that doing so would be helping them.’
It really was like that at the time.
When he lived comfortably in the palace, he hadn’t known about the lives of common people, but now that he had witnessed it with his own eyes, he realized how thoughtlessly he had lived.
While people suffered in famine, he had never once worried about his meals. How desperate must they have been in a situation where they could do nothing even while watching family and neighbors die?
In such terrible suffering, how sweet must the words “Cairens who will become a sacrifice and bring salvation” have sounded to them? They must have been filled with hope, thinking they could now save their families.
Even if it was the cruel act of taking one person’s life.
In the eyes of those who simply wanted to live, Cairens’s sacrifice was a secondary concern. While that was resentful, Cairens couldn’t dare hate them.
If he had been in their position, he would have rationalized it as a natural sacrifice for a hero.
So instead, shame washed over him for his ignorance in failing to care for them as befitted a hero’s destiny.
“……Next time I need to pay more attention. As much as I was ignorant and irresponsible, I should become worthy of my destiny and draw one step closer to them as a hero for the people.”
In any case, Cairens had survived safely, and Seianes had directly descended to end the situation. Only just before death did Cairens barely receive confirmation that he was not a person who should die and become a hero, but a hero who should live and save people.
Now, truly befitting a demigod with a hero’s destiny, he would not pass by people in difficulty. A hero who would step forward before everyone with conviction in any matter and save them all.
‘Like that child.’
Suddenly, Abrisius, who had stepped forward saying he would save him, flashed through his mind.
Abrisius, who had boldly stepped forward before the people saying the prophecy was wrong and that Cairens was not a sacrifice. Cairens was truly impressed by that fearless appearance and courage.
Even though he had spouted nonsense saying if someone must be offered, offer him instead, he couldn’t say anything about how Abrisius had stepped forward first, risking death for his sake.
Cairens, born with a hero’s destiny and naturally obligated to save others. Another hero given to him. Abrisius was Cairens’s hero.
‘Did he return safely?’
His last memory was the appearance of the descended Seianes. Though he seemed angry at the child, it didn’t feel like he would actually harm him.
Since Abrisius called himself the son of a god, perhaps Seianes was Abrisius’s father.
He thought that the High Priestess’s words were about half right.
She had claimed to receive a revelation from Zeyaom to offer Cairens as a sacrifice. He couldn’t know if her words were true, but as a result, she had made Seianes descend and end this famine.
Of course, Abrisius had been part of that process. If Abrisius hadn’t decided to help him, the result might have been different. Perhaps Abrisius helping him was also included in Zeyaom’s calculations. Cairens couldn’t know.
‘Can I meet him again?’
He recalled the child who had stepped forward first, saying he would save him. Since Seianes didn’t seem to dislike Abrisius, his worries lessened, but wanting to meet that child again was a separate matter.
‘If I meet him, I must tell him thank you.’
The words of gratitude he couldn’t properly give in the confusion.
He wanted to convey them if he met Abrisius again. He still didn’t know when, how, or even if he could meet him again. Nevertheless, Cairens vaguely thought that since he was the son of a god and born with a hero’s destiny, they would be able to meet.
* * *
The next day, with the help of the fisherman couple, Cairens climbed onto a small cart.
“A young kid traveling alone to a region that takes more than three days to reach. It’s something you see after living a long life.”
“Hehe, please take good care of me until the destination.”
“Well, as long as we don’t run into bandits or vagrants on the way, there’s nothing to worry about.”
Picking up the merchant’s creepy yet trivial jokes, he enjoyed the feeling of traveling for the first time in his life.
“By the way, it rained and the crops suddenly became fresh, so that’s fortunate. Did Seianes-nim cease his anger?”
“……I suppose so.”
“Now we can finally breathe a little easier too.”
At the merchant’s joyful words, instead of being greatly pleased, Cairens felt unsettled emotions.
Seianes, who had seemed to be Abrisius’s guardian.
Befitting the great god of the earth, he was beautiful enough that one couldn’t take their eyes off him, but thinking of how many people had gone blind with hunger because of that and tried to offer Cairens as a sacrifice, it was difficult to feel good emotions.
“……Still, for what reason did he bring down such trials? Because of that, many people died from hunger and disease.”
Muttering to himself, Cairens quietly looked at the sky. The sunset was already fading.
In the dim evening, when a small village appeared in the distance, the merchant drove the cart slowly.
Fortunately arriving at the village without being attacked by bandits, the merchant and Cairens were permitted to spend the night in a nearby vacant house.
“You must have worked hard to come here.”
“Thank you for welcoming us so warmly. May the peace of Nesisopos-nim dwell here.”
The owner warmly welcomed the two people, and the merchant didn’t forget to give a blessing wishing for the protection of Nesisopos, the guide and guardian deity of wanderers who tells people to receive wanderers and travelers like neighbors.
The owner treated them like old relatives or neighbors and even served them a meal.
“Such a feast!”
“The crops miraculously came back to life and I dug up a lot of potatoes. I made some soup, so please eat.”
“I’m so grateful I don’t know what to do with myself.”
“Thank you, may only good fortune fill this house from now on.”
Though it might look modest, it must have been precious provisions for the owner. Greatly grateful for his kindness, the two picked up their spoons.
While bestowing hospitality on the two with utmost sincerity, the owner was also curious about the circumstances that led two people with an age difference to travel together alone without other companions, so he approached them and carefully poured milk while bringing up the subject.
“Are you two father and son?”
“Ah, no. I’ve never even been married, you know? This child was found by a couple living on Iatep Beach… for some reason he came all the way here from Atlante, so I’m taking him back there.”
“What? Did you say Atlante?”
Atlante.
At that word, the owner’s pupils widened. He quickly placed the jar of milk he was holding on the table and looked at the two with an expression of disbelief.
“Has the news not reached Iatep yet? A few days ago, Atlante completely collapsed from a disaster!”
“……What?”
At the shocking fact, Cairens’s face turned deathly pale.
