TGS - Chapter 129
Chapter 129: That Is Not Blasphemy
A moment ago, just as Lotus arrived outside the royal court, she sensed divine power nearby.
It was very faint, with a light and illusory quality, but it did not escape her perception.
The situation she had anticipated might become reality. Lotus's mind could barely hold any other thoughts, fearing only that if she arrived too late, she would face an irreversible consequence.
Yes, gods could not use their divine power to kill humans—but that was a rule from before the divine war began.
The God of Wisdom had said that the restrictions on gods would be reduced during the divine war, but to what extent? She didn't know.
Just like the countless fantastical ideas humans projected onto myths, there were too many ways to use divine power.
Even a deity with divine power as minuscule as a sprite could not be underestimated.
But when Lotus rushed to the door, she happened to hear that sentence, and her figure couldn't help but pause.
—I once swore an oath: never to betray, never to blaspheme.
—I've already committed one. If I commit both, then I truly deserve to die.
The whisper that had completely baffled the Dream Succubus was, to Lotus's ears, like a riddle with the answer laid bare before her.
But how could that be considered blasphemy…
This thought flashed through her heart and vanished. Lotus spoke to attract the foreign god's attention, releasing her divine power at the same time.
Her water-aspected power, having repaired itself over the past four years, was still as responsive as her own limbs. It surged forward like a bolt of frost-colored silk, binding the Dream Succubus tightly.
After restraining her opponent's movements, Lotus slowly walked into the room and looked properly at Alyuin.
"…I'm back. What did she do?"
Alyuin's lips tightened. She didn't answer immediately, her long eyelashes half-lowered, casting an obscure shadow over her eyes.
The Dream Succubus tried to struggle, but she knew it was futile.
Her divine power was weak; otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to sneak into Solancia at the start of the divine war. The only reason she could affect the Princess was due to the special nature of her divine domain.
Facing one of Solancia's main gods, the Dream Succubus had no chance of escape.
But—
The Dream Succubus opened her mouth, revealing sharp, shark-like teeth, and said fiercely, "I know you, Water God of Solancia."
"At such a critical moment, did you rush here specifically to look after this human?"
Lotus frowned and glanced at her, not noticing Alyuin's suddenly clenched knuckles.
But the Dream Succubus noticed. Believing she had grasped a huge piece of leverage, she laughed all the more wantonly.
"How interesting. You gave her a divine token, hung on that amulet. But you never imagined, did you? This human isn't that devout toward you. In fact, you could say it's the complete opposite."
"I am Kasnie's God of Dreams. I can travel freely through human dreams, so I could hear it. In her dreams, she made no effort to hide her dark thoughts about you. Even I was shocked!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the Princess's expression turned frigid, her fingers resting on the hilt of her sword.
Lotus already knew about her feelings of love, and she wasn't afraid of the Dream Succubus revealing them. But those sorrowful, detestable, malicious thoughts that she desperately suppressed in the depths of her heart—Lotus could not be allowed to hear them, no matter what.
If not for her reservations about the nature of gods, Alyuin would have likely run the foreign deity through with her sword long ago.
The Dream Succubus was completely unafraid of the human's threat, still waiting expectantly for Lotus's reaction.
However, Lotus: "…"
No way, this one knows?
The River Goddess remained impassive. As she sized up the Dream Succubus, her blue eyes suddenly flickered.
"Then tell me, what kind of thoughts were they?"
Lotus tilted her head, indicating she was all ears.
Now it was the Dream Succubus's turn to be stumped. How could she know the specifics? With the divine token present, she couldn't enter the dreams at all and could only guess based on fragments of speech.
So, the Dream Succubus stammered, "She… this Solancian princess doesn't want to believe in you at all. She's tired of your existence…"
Unable to make up any more, the Dream Succubus gave up and said desperately, "They're malicious thoughts, anyway. Does it really matter what kind of malicious thoughts they are?"
Lotus averted her gaze.
Alyuin, meanwhile, peeked at her from behind lowered eyelids.
The Dream Succubus: "…?"
Although she hadn't expected them to turn on each other on the spot, after she had exposed this dark side, this was not the reaction she had expected from the two of them!
"You—" The Dream Succubus, confused and unwilling to give up, tried to speak again.
Lotus came back to her senses, her expression turning cold. She raised a hand and swiped it through the air in front of her.
The divine power binding the Dream Succubus changed accordingly, extending and transforming into a massive sphere of water.
The gray-winged succubus was enveloped within the sphere, her movements frozen, like a large bird sealed in transparent resin.
Thank heavens, she was finally quiet.
But once the Dream Succubus fell silent, the room seemed excessively quiet.
It was as if one could only hear the breathing of two people, and perhaps their heartbeats, almost in sync.
Lotus's expression was calm, but inwardly she felt a little lost.
She didn't know how to begin.
"I'll seal her for now—"
"Did you kill her?"
The two voices spoke at the same time, then stopped at the same time.
Alyuin, on the contrary, let out a soft laugh and made a "you first" gesture.
So Lotus continued, "I don't plan on killing the Dream Succubus right now. She's a god from Kasnie and more or less knows something about the other side's situation."
As she spoke, Lotus turned the water sphere around so that the Dream Succubus's face was toward the wall.
While Lotus did this, Alyuin's gaze never left the goddess's profile.
Pensive, profound, and impossible to ignore.
Alyu has changed a lot.
Lotus thought this as she transformed her divine power, along with the Dream Succubus, into a spiritual form invisible to human eyes.
A few years ago, to stabilize her divine position, Lotus had slept for three years.
During those three years, Alyuin's changes were also significant, but those changes were more physical. To Lotus, it felt more like the wistful feeling of "in the blink of an eye, the little girl has grown up so much."
This time, however, Alyuin seemed unchanged in appearance, yet her gaze, her movements, her attitude—all of it declared—
Things are different now.
Casting aside her pretense, she stood before Lotus, no longer hiding the feelings she had long kept hidden, as if laying everything bare.
But the part that had once been open now seemed to have been carefully tucked away. The Princess's expression was inscrutable and focused, giving Lotus the illusion, for the first time, that she couldn't see through her.
Although in everyone else's eyes, Her Highness the Regent Princess was the epitome of decisiveness and authority, Alyuin rarely acted assertively in front of Lotus.
More often, she preferred to use coquettish means; she was good at that.
Now, however, Alyuin unconsciously exuded a faint pressure. Her posture seemed casual, but was in fact tense.
Like a large feline staring intently at a herd of elephants. The huge and powerful white elephant was by no means its prey, yet it was starving, on the verge of death. If it couldn't hunt, it wouldn't survive… So the big cat adopted a pre-attack stance, struggling between going for broke and continuing to endure, its eyes revealing a powerful sense of uncertainty.
Lotus sighed softly to herself.
She herself was far from as calm and composed as she appeared. In comparison, Lotus's turmoil was no less than Alyuin's.
She had originally planned to discuss official business first, but perhaps it was better to clear the air now—for both of them.
"Alyu, that's not a bad thing."
This was Lotus's first sentence.
Alyuin suddenly raised her eyes. Her long, slightly curled dark lashes lifted, and in her translucent golden eyes, the goddess's reflection was clearly mirrored.
"It's not detestable, nor is it dark, not like the Dream Succubus said. And of course, not like you yourself think."
"That is not blasphemy."
"If it's not blasphemy, then what is it?" Alyuin tilted her head, asking in a conversational tone. "Are you going to tell me that this feeling, which both torments and blesses me, is just youthful ignorance, mistaking familial affection and faith for love… or do you have some other explanation?"
Lotus shook her head.
"Perhaps I considered that at first, but I know you wouldn't confuse those things."
During the time that appeared to the outside world as sleep, but was in fact a period of controlling her healing process, Lotus, besides fighting against overwhelming drowsiness, had also been thinking about her and Alyuin.
At the very beginning, she had considered whether the young princess had simply mistaken the jumble of emotions from the past few years for love. It was a plausible thought, but Lotus had dismissed the possibility.
The Princess had always been clear-headed and rational.
Whether she could be swayed by her emotions, Lotus couldn't say for certain, but she was sure that Alyuin wouldn't be unable to distinguish between them.
However, Lotus didn't think that simply being clearly aware of one's feelings meant there was no problem.
The problem lay with herself. From their very first meeting, the manifestation of a goddess and the deliberate act of communicating through a dream had established an equation.
Lotus equals the Goddess of the Yilu River.
Of course, that was indeed the truth.
But had Alyuin developed feelings for the River Goddess, or for Lotus herself?
Lotus didn't intend to raise this question now. In any case, there would be plenty of opportunities later to slowly reveal the difference between the two.
What needed to be made clear right now was—
"So, you just happen to love a god." Lotus, ultimately too embarrassed to say it directly, replaced "me" with "a god," her voice soft and gentle.
"Is 'love' a bad feeling? It's not blasphemy, and you haven't broken your oath, so…"
Don't talk about yourself in that lonely, self-deprecating tone anymore.
Alyuin smiled faintly. "I understand."
The one who doesn't understand is you, Lotus.
You have no idea what thoughts I've truly buried, nor do you know what I would have done if you hadn't returned, or if you had appeared decades later.
And I will never let you find out.
"Then, what are your thoughts?"
Alyuin took a step forward, dropping the honorific.
"Me?"
"Yes. If you're just going to say, 'Oh, I understand your feelings, so let's just go on as we did before,' or something like that, I'll be very sad."
Lotus paused for two seconds before saying in a complicated tone, "I don't know."
Alyuin: "…"
She narrowed her eyes.
Lotus pressed her temples but didn't avoid Alyuin's gaze, even though she knew it was not a suitable answer.
But Lotus couldn't be sure.
She couldn't confirm whether the feelings she now recognized in herself had reached a level sufficient to respond to Alyuin's.
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