TGS - Chapter 124
Chapter 124: The Kasnie Pantheon
Blood spilled out from under the body, snaking down from the higher part of the stage. It flowed over the edge and stopped just before Alyuin's toes, forming a small puddle.
Fortunately, it was afternoon, during the theater's recess. There was no large audience before the stage, only a few staff members guarded by soldiers, who witnessed the scene completely unprepared.
After a deathly silence, screams and gasps shattered the stillness. The theater manager nearly fainted on the spot, muttering only, "Don't kill me."
—This was an unexpected turn of events.
No one had expected Asilu to die so easily. As the one leading the arrest, Lena had carefully considered on the way over how they should respond if their target possessed extraordinary skills and attempted a desperate, last-ditch struggle. But now, all those preparations were useless.
The musical actress chose to end her own life, unhurried as if she had long expected it. Judging by her expression and demeanor, she even seemed somewhat content.
The description was strange, yet fitting.
Alyuin's expression was inscrutable, making it impossible to tell what she was thinking.
After a moment, she said curtly, "Clean this up. Take them away."
Asilu's death only left more questions in its wake. The theater staff needed to be taken in for questioning to determine if they were involved, what they knew, and how much... Beyond that, Asilu's past and origins also required a thorough investigation.
The worst-case scenario was that the trail leading from the Perfumer to Asilu would be completely severed with the actress's death.
Alyuin had her suspicions about where the message was ultimately sent, but suspicion was not the same as fact.
And if her suspicions were correct—
Had Asilu resisted, no matter how thorny the fight, Alyuin would not be as filled with doubt as she was now.
The frightening part was her lack of resistance, her disregard for her own life.
Because this might mean that the real "Asilu" was still alive and well somewhere.
The air seemed to flow with the premonition of danger, faint and light, like an inconspicuous breeze drifting slowly from the southwest of Solancia, hiding a murderous intent.
The soldiers who had come with the Princess were busy counting the theater staff and splitting up to search for any possible evidence; the theater staff, terrified, did not dare to look too long at the corpse on the stage.
The former were diligent and responsible, the latter fearful and bewildered, but none of them knew that the event unfolding before their eyes might have deeper, bottomless implications.
...Perhaps even Alyuin did not clearly realize it.
Alyuin gave Asilu one last look.
Her gaze was as cold as the edge of a sword.
My next steps, she thought, will likely need to change.
At the very same moment Asilu breathed her last, across the vast lands of Solancia and beyond an even more distant border, something had indeed changed.
Kasnie, a neighboring kingdom to the southwest of Solancia.
Viewed from the sky, it was situated on the edge of the continental plate, shaped like a clay vase trailing two bunches of grapes.
Kasnie's territory consisted mainly of a large peninsula in the southwest of the continent and numerous coastal islands. It was mountainous and maritime. To its north, separated by several small countries, lay the highland steppes of the Sanur Tribe. To the northeast was the border of Solancia, and all other directions faced the ocean, making it a peninsular nation.
The Kingdom of Kasnie was established slightly later than Solancia. The two nations had fought wars and established diplomatic ties, at times with swords drawn and at others calling each other friends.
As nations of similar size on the same continent, friction and cooperation were inevitable.
In recent decades, the situation had been quietly changing.
The brewing storm, stirred by mortal schemes, was also manifesting among the pantheons.
At the same time that Asilu died thousands of miles away, on an island that seemed to exist and yet not exist in this world, a deity opened their eyes.
This was a deity with a female form.
She sat on a square stone pillar, her legs dangling over the edge. Her pale gold hair cascaded down like a waterfall, far exceeding the limits of human hair, nearly reaching the ground from the top of the pillar.
The goddess wore a crown as light as mist. When she opened her eyes, her irises were the deep blue of the night sky, so dark they were almost black-purple.
She looked down at her palm, an unchanging smile on her face.
"My shadow is dead."
The goddess said with a smile. Her voice was not powerful, yet it had a strange, piercing quality, as if it could pass directly through one's eardrums.
On the opposite pillar, a male god wearing a coral crown turned his head and asked in surprise, "I remember you sent your shadow out several hundred years ago. Why did it only die now?"
A god with a beast-head crown on another pillar chimed in: "Don't you know? Perseus's shadow has been replaced several times. This one was still very young, it shouldn't have been time for it to die..."
The last half of his sentence was uncertain, and he looked toward the goddess Perseus.
"It wasn't killed by a human, was it?"
The god on the last pillar frowned, the divine crown on his head shaped like a mountain range.
In the center of the island, only these four square pillars stood silently.
In Kasnie, gods were as numerous as the hairs on an ox. Almost every named thing had a corresponding deity.
Of course, not all gods could be remembered by the people of Kasnie. For an ordinary person to be able to name a dozen or so was already quite impressive.
And in this complex and fragmented system, four deities formed the backbone of the pantheon.
The God of the Ocean, the God of Mountains and Rivers, the God of Living Beings, and the Goddess of the Mind—they respectively governed the seas, the mountains and rivers, animals and plants, and the human heart and soul.
These four deities were the beings who supported heaven, earth, and the mortal realm in Kasnie mythology. They spent their years on an island at sea—an island of myth, an island of nothingness, isolated from the world of mortals.
On the island stood four square stone pillars, each belonging to one of the four gods. They were the sacred pillars where they stored their bodies.
The Goddess of the Mind, an abbreviation for the God of Heart and Soul, was named Perseus. When this goddess raised her eyes to look at her companions, her irises were identical to those of the dead musical actress, veiled in a deep blue, ethereal light.
"What a pity, this shadow," Perseus said, lost in thought. "...Such a pity."
The God of Mountains and Rivers: "So it really was killed by a human?"
"I recalled it myself. Although it would have been more convenient to let a human do it, I didn't want it to die at the hands of that human."
"Stop smiling, I'm begging you. It's really giving me goosebumps," said the Beast God.
Perseus turned to him with a smile. He took a deep breath—perhaps intending to gasp in fear—and pulled the beast crown from his head down over the top half of his face. Out of sight, out of mind.
"Speaking of which, that believer of yours died even earlier. After his location was discovered, the divine power I left there dissipated on its own. I don't know the specific details."
The Beast God said dismissively, "What does that have to do with me?"
"Nothing, it's just that this human almost created something truly useful. I was even thinking about having someone bring him back to Kasnie, but then he was gone." The Goddess of the Mind sighed. "Should I say that nothing good ever comes from encountering that human? It was true in the past, and it's true now."
The other gods didn't reply, each seeming to stare blankly into the air. After a long time, the God of the Ocean asked calmly, "Are you going to send another shadow to the mortal realm, Perseus?"
"There's no need. Solancia is about to have an internal conflict—the northern royal city and the southern sea city. The timing will be hard to grasp, so let's just let our humans worry about it."
That was right. A confrontation between the north and south of Solancia was already inevitable. A war might break out very soon.
And Kasnie only needed to watch, choose the most opportune moment, and join forces with the Sanur Tribe of the highland steppes to attack Solancia.
Conveniently, the Sanur tribes still needed some time to consolidate, so they were in no hurry.
At this, the God of Mountains and Rivers sighed. "It's not like we needed to manage it in the first place, right? As long as we're prepared when the destined day of war arrives, how the humans arrange things is their business. We only need to deal with the Solancian pantheon; the rest doesn't matter."
The Beast God threw cold water on the idea. "That's what we said the last time the humans went to war. And what happened? It wasn't a war that decided the fate of a civilization at all. The few of us could only watch from this island, unable to fight the Solancian gods even if we wanted to. It was infuriating."
Perseus said faintly, "If not this time, then we'll wait for the next. We'll get to that day eventually."
As for how long they had to wait, it didn't really matter.
Whether it was for certain humans in Kasnie or for her, they had already waited so long. They did not lack for patience.
Just then, the air suddenly fell silent.
The rocks on the island trembled, and the waves crashed against the shore with growing force. The beasts and birds in the forest seemed to sense something; birds landed on branches, and beasts lowered their forelimbs as if in worship.
The four deities exchanged a glance and lowered their heads.
"Father God," they said in unison.
Following this call, in this space that did not truly belong to reality, clouds and mist gathered, condensing in the blink of an eye into a tall, slender figure in the open space between the pillars.
Its form was indistinct, as if its entire body was shrouded in light. Its face was a swirling mass of luminous mist and clouds.
"Are you discussing whether you can go to war with the Solancian pantheon?" the figure asked. Its voice was soft and gentle, its tone androgynous, yet it also sounded like a woman, a man, an old person, and a child all speaking in the same cadence, overlapping one another in a very strange way.
Klotho. Standing above the system of the four gods, this was the deity who created the world, revered by the people of Kasnie as "the great Primordial God."
The people of Kasnie believed that Klotho was the first life to exist in the universe. It created the world from darkness and nothingness, adorning it with mountains, rivers, oceans, and all manner of living beings.
It was the Father God of all things, the faith of all people of Kasnie.
Facing this Primordial God, Perseus smiled faintly. "Yes. We hope that this time, everything can be decided."
The Primordial God turned its face of mist and cloud toward the northeast, in the direction of Solancia.
After a moment of contemplation, it said slowly, "It will."
"What do you mean, Father God?"
"This war initiated by the humans will be our opportunity," Klotho said. "We and the Sanur pantheon will win the faith of Solancia. I can foresee it. This future is very, very near."
The Beast God's eyes widened, revealing an excited expression. The God of Mountains and Rivers and the God of the Ocean looked at each other and simply smiled.
The Goddess of the Mind lowered her eyes as she heard Klotho ask placidly, "Perseus, do you have anything to say? Solancia is, after all, the land of your birth."
Perseus said indifferently, "I feel nothing. That was an old story from thousands of years ago. Besides, the humans living there now are mortal enemies with the humans who believe in me."
Klotho faced her with its visage of luminous mist and nodded.
Then it dissolved back into non-existent clouds and mist.
Perseus watched it dissipate, the smile never leaving her face.
In a daze, she recalled the old acquaintance she had seen in the Solancian royal city, appearing in the form of a black-haired, blue-eyed female official. It was different from her past appearance and the one from human legends, yet she was still very recognizable.
"Her old black hair was still easier on the eyes," she murmured to herself.
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