Circling around Atlante, Seianes spent two days searching for the lost Abrisius.
Hiding his true form, he wandered everywhere in the appearance of an old, haggard man.
If Siomopess’s words were correct, this should definitely be the right place. Yet Abrisius’s whereabouts remained a complete mystery.
How long had he been walking like that?
Just when his body was weary, Seianes unknowingly dozed off on the street.
“Can’t this old man get up?”
But that didn’t last long either. At the thunderous shout, Seianes jolted awake from his sleep.
“How dare you sleep in the path I’m walking on?”
A fat, extravagant figure. A man dressed like a wealthy nobleman was trampling on Seianes.
“Ah, I’m sorry… I was searching for my young grandson and accidentally…”
It was a level of rudeness that would have enraged any other god. However, Seianes, who had already exhausted his emotions searching for Abrisius, didn’t want to waste his energy on this man.
Instead of saying anything to the man, he bowed his head and politely asked while playing the role of an old, poor man.
“By any chance, have you seen a child with hair black as coal?”
“Hmph, how would I know about some brat like that? They’ve probably starved to death by now. In this great famine, you should be grateful if a lost child hasn’t been eaten, old man.”
But the man’s rudeness was endless.
Even hearing that he was searching for his young grandson, he showed not a hint of concern and instead poured out harsh words. It was enough to touch the patience of Seianes, who was already emotionally exhausted.
“…For someone of your age, you speak too carelessly. Listen here, how about apologizing before you become a creature that can’t keep its mouth shut for the rest of its life?”
Seianes, in the form of an old man, advised him. But the man didn’t even pretend to listen.
“Senile old fool.”
Until the very end, he mocked Seianes with a rude attitude and simply went on his way. Seianes stared intently at the man, and after confirming he had disappeared among the crowd, walked on again.
“A great famine… Now that he mentions it, people’s expressions do look gloomy.”
Recalling the man’s words about a great famine, things that hadn’t been visible while searching for Abrisius began to appear.
Vagrants collapsed on the roadside, starved to death. People who couldn’t overcome illness and died, and people wailing while clutching corpses. On top of that, even the weeds withered and twisted, taking on an ashen hue.
The ruined catastrophe was vividly reflected before his eyes. It was a tragedy brought on because he had neglected the earth.
“…Oh. Good heavens.”
He had to face the fact that he had forgotten his duty.
Unable to bear the horror with his own two eyes, he gave up looking and turned his head away. Then he used his power to heal some of the small, young trees that were dying.
It would be difficult to completely revive the earth that had already been affected by him. But he could save small, young seeds and parts of nature to this extent. Of course, he couldn’t use all his power completely. That would take too long, and for him right now, finding his child was more important than such work.
While he was briefly reviving small wildflowers before his eyes, he had an unexpected encounter by chance.
“Hyung! Look over there! That grandfather must be a wizard!”
A boy about 15 years old and a younger boy who looked about 7 were staring intently at him. The two, presumed to be brothers, were in shabby condition. Both were so thin from not eating much that their gaunt ribs showed.
“Just now, that grandfather just made dried flowers bloom! I saw it!”
“You fool! You must have seen it wrong!”
The young boy, full of pure curiosity, hopped around after witnessing the strange occurrence before his eyes. Meanwhile, the older brother scolded his young sibling while being mindful of Seianes.
“I’m sorry. He’s so young and immature…”
The boy who bowed his head couldn’t hide his apologetic expression and offered Seianes a polite apology. At the courteous and innocent appearance that contrasted with the man he had just met, a smile bloomed on Seianes’s face for the first time in a while.
“It’s alright. What a lively and interesting friend.”
Seianes, who had always been kind to young children, answered with a smile. The boy’s eccentric and spirited appearance reminded him of Abrisius.
‘How pitiable that they’re so gaunt and thin. How much must they have gone without food…’
Yes, since they met like this, it was fate, so let’s give them a gift. As a reward for making him smile even briefly, Seianes pretended to take something out and put his hand inside his clothes.
As his hand dug between his clothes, two small fruits grew. He casually handed the two fruits he had grown in his palm to the young children.
“If you’re hungry, eat these.”
At that sight, both boys’ eyes widened. Though it might not seem like much, in a situation where there was nothing to eat due to famine, fresh fruit was very precious food.
“Oh my, such a precious thing.”
“Thank you so much! May the gods’ blessing always be with you.”
The expressions of the two boys who gratefully accepted them brightened.
However, they didn’t eat the fruit in their hands at all, but showed signs of hesitation while holding them.
“What’s wrong? Don’t you want to eat them?”
When Seianes asked the two who weren’t eating but hesitating, they shook their heads and spoke.
“…Our mother is sick. We’re hungry and want to eat, but we were wondering if we should take this to our mother.”
“How admirable.”
They must be hungry too. How could they think like this?
Seianes was impressed by their admirable nature of thinking of their parents over their own hunger. The two, lost in thought for a moment, soon put the fruit into their respective pockets.
“Let’s give it to mother first, and we’ll eat what’s left.”
“Right, the famine will disappear soon. If the sacrificial ritual proceeds according to the oracle… probably Seianes-nim and the other gods will calm their anger.”
The two boys who spoke like that looked at each other and smiled. Seianes had been watching them warmly, but he withdrew his smile at his own name that came up in the middle. What had he just heard? With all traces of laughter completely gone and only questions remaining on his face, he looked at the children.
“Could you tell me what you just said?”
When he asked again, the children tilted their heads.
“Today the sacrificial ritual to appease Seianes-nim is starting, isn’t it? They said the God of the Earth and other gods are angry, so we have to appease him for the famine to disappear.”
Those who answered like this looked at him as if wondering if he really didn’t know. Meanwhile, the ‘real Seianes’ had an expression of not understanding what was going on. A sacrificial ritual that offered precious lives as sacrifice rather than offering objects or items originally required the permission of the god who was the target.
But a sacrificial ritual that even Seianes himself didn’t know about?
Even if it were a sacrificial ritual for another god, the gods of the Surface who were all closely connected to each other couldn’t possibly not know.
“By any chance, who told you this?”
“People who came from the temples of each country!”
The young child answered Seianes’s question.
“The adults said that a few days ago, priests from various temples including Zeyaom came. They said that Seianes, the God of the Earth, is angry so they must perform the ritual.”
When the words ended, Seianes’s face became even more suspicious.
Could it be that while he was searching for Abrisius, the other gods had reached some kind of agreement among themselves?
‘I’m definitely included in this.’
Other gods had visited several times to persuade him, but Seianes had ignored them all.
After that, none of them came looking for Seianes. Fortunately, Henelion also didn’t interfere at all, making it easier to search for Abrisius.
But they had ordered a sacrificial ritual to be held without him knowing? Were they going to hold a sacrificial ritual to appease him without Seianes himself knowing?
‘No, that’s rude. My siblings wouldn’t have ordered such a thing.’
Usually to hold a sacrifice, the god who was receiving the sacrifice also had to know. Since humans desired blessings and gods bestowed blessings, it was a kind of event that required the god’s permission or command in advance.
But it made no sense that his siblings would hold it arbitrarily without his consent.
“…Which temple’s priests are leading this?”
“We don’t really know either. We just know they’re priests from each city, including people from Zeyaom.”
Could they be humans impersonating those priests?
Or it could be that humans were holding a sacrificial ritual among themselves that hadn’t been ordered.
But the humans’ wish was to stop the great famine, so he couldn’t understand why Zeyaom’s temple was taking the lead to perform this ritual without permission.
‘I should probably check this with my own eyes.’
While he had been wandering around in a daze, many things had changed.
“Thank you for telling me, children. Do you happen to know when and where the ritual will be held?”
“Later at 3 o’clock. They said it’ll be held in the plaza.”
The kind boys kindly showed him the way. They were such good children that two fruits alone seemed too little as a reward.
“Thank you. Go home safely.”
“Goodbye!”
Kind until the very end, the children waved at Seianes and headed home.
The street was crowded with people due to the upcoming sacrificial ritual. Eventually, they were going home through a narrow shortcut when they saw clothes made of high-quality fabric rolling around in the middle of the path. There were vivid traces of someone having worn them, but as if they had evaporated, the owner of the clothes was nowhere to be seen.
“Ribbit!”
While the children were looking at the clothes with puzzlement, a frog appeared from inside the clothes with a squelch.
