TGS - Chapter 139
Chapter 139: Impression
As a bedroom, the room was spacious, but it was not a suitable place to receive guests.
Especially since the visitors were gods. No more, no less, all eight major gods were here.
The forms of the Solancian gods were almost identical to those of humans, but when they stood beneath the ceiling, their innate aura, so different from that of mortals, seemed to envelop the entire room in a faint radiance.
Divine and fantastical, such a scene was enough to overwhelm any mortal raised on myths and legends, making them forget the power and status they held in the mortal world. They would be panic-stricken or ecstatic, prostrating themselves in worship more piously than in any ritual—
But Alyuin did not. She temporarily set aside the subtle premonition in her mind and stopped meeting the gazes of the two ravens before her.
The Princess subtly relaxed her slightly tense shoulders, raised her head to look at the assembled major gods with a strange calmness in her eyes, and then gave a simple nod of acknowledgment.
"It is an honor to meet you here, gods of Solancia."
Alyuin said, defining the meeting with a tone that was respectful yet distant.
Indeed, the meeting with the gods had come unexpectedly.
Under normal circumstances, Alyuin might have subconsciously thought of other things, like meeting the parents... But in the current situation, with war having already broken out, this was undoubtedly a formal and momentous discussion.
Everything should have been this way, and yet.
"Long time no see, Princess of the humans."
Adia spoke with a grin, her pair of emerald eyes narrowing like a fox's.
The voice was not familiar, but it was very distinctive. Alyuin paused and said, "Adia, the Goddess of Love."
Adia: "Mhm."
Alyuin's expression was solemn as she waited for the Goddess of Love's next words, thinking, So the Goddess of Love and Desire is the first major god to speak? A bit unexpected, I thought it would be the King of the Gods.
However, as it turned out, Adia had no intention of discussing official business.
It wasn't just her; the other major gods didn't either. Their eyes held a veiled curiosity, completely lacking the solemnity one would expect when facing a major event.
Adia observed the threads of love and desire from the void. The line connecting that bright point of light to the divine name above grew ever more vivid in her eyes, a crimson red on the verge of dripping.
The Goddess of Love blinked.
It wasn't this obvious the last time I looked. So, have they... talked it out?
Adia's gaze toward Alyuin immediately changed.
Regardless of how she viewed such feelings, for a human to fall in love with a god and express it so boldly was, in a sense, truly...
"Truly impressive."
Adia sighed with genuine admiration.
Alyuin: "?"
Lotus was not standing with her colleagues. The River Goddess's true form had merged with her silver mermaid incarnation, and she was hovering in the air beside the Princess.
At this moment, she looked at Alyuin, who was usually excellent at managing her expressions but was now showing a bewildered look, and then at her utterly unreliable colleagues across from them.
The Goddess of the Yilu River said nothing.
She simply pressed a hand to her forehead and sighed silently.
Lotus knew that her major god colleagues had always been rather unreliable. She had once lost faith in them, but after sparring with them personally, her confidence had slowly returned.
They were all very strong—at least in actual combat. Lotus had never seen any of them make a mistake. The combat prowess they displayed was commensurate with their divine power, their every move concise and effective.
Therefore, Lotus could assume that her colleagues were only unreliable on the surface, and this unreliability was likely an illusion caused by their various eccentricities... right?
As it turned out, indeed.
It was not an illusion.
Before the gods materialized and met the Princess, Lotus had cautiously made a few requests:
Please do not mention phrases like "the human Lotus is raising," "an insignificant human individual," or anything similar in front of Alyuin.
Please be sure to maintain the beautiful image of gods that people hold in their hearts.
And the last and most important point: whatever thoughts you have outside of official business, please don't show them too obviously. I'm begging you!
In fact, if Lotus hadn't brought it up, these major gods would never have thought to discuss the war with a human. They would arrange for gods to guard key figures to prevent sneak attacks from the enemy, but that was all.
As for discussing tactics with a human commander, that was even more out of the question.
If not for this mentality, En and Suojia wouldn't know so little about Lotus, who had been human several millennia ago.
She had told them everything she needed to, but even so, the Solancian gods still couldn't hide their curiosity and desire for gossip.
Lotus could see they were trying their best to hide it, but if even she could see it, then Alyuin, who was skilled at observing others' expressions, certainly could.
This was bad! At this rate, forget about letting Alyuin see how she was different from the other gods; she was worried the Princess would think all gods were this flaky—
To prevent her colleagues from inadvertently saying something they shouldn't, Lotus cleared her throat, lowered her head slightly, and whispered in Alyuin's ear, "I've told them about you... Don't mind them. Let's talk business first."
Perhaps even Lotus herself didn't notice that the gesture she had made unconsciously was an intimacy she would not have shown before.
It crossed a boundary, bordering on ambiguous.
Adia's fingers, which had been twirling her hair, paused. She studied Lotus's oblivious expression, and the usual lazy smile on her lips faltered, becoming thoughtful.
And as the one personally experiencing the god's intimate gesture, Alyuin's lips curved into a smile. She temporarily set aside the Goddess of Love's strange exclamation and continued the conversation.
Regarding the so-called discussion of tactics, the major gods showed little enthusiasm at first.
First, Solancia had no gods related to war.
Although the other two kingdoms also lacked a clear divine office for a god of war, they did have deities who controlled the domain of combat.
For example, the Wolf God Huracan, whom the Sanur people believed symbolized the alpha of a wolf pack, a totem of fighting, hunting, strength, and skill in battle. Or Kasnie's God of Mountains, whose mountain crown itself implied martial might and oppression.
Only Solancia lacked a divine office related to war.
This was also related to the nature of Solancian civilization. After all, it was a great nation living in a region with the flowing Yilu River and fertile soil. Although there had been an era of warring city-states, that was a very long time ago.
For several millennia, Solancia's government had been stable, and the few periods of turmoil had never threatened its foundation.
From the first Solancian king to the present, there had been few instances of waging external wars to expand territory. The last time was several hundred years ago.
For this reason, no matter how strong the Solancian pantheon's combat power was, they were not enthusiastic about war. They understood only two types of tactics—
One-on-one, and many-on-many. Whichever they encountered, they dealt with.
In any case, their divine power was ancient and formidable, incomparable to other pantheons. It was hard to lose no matter how they fought.
Alyuin: "..."
Alyuin looked at the group of gods before her, took a deep, composed breath, and then pressed her temples.
After a long moment, she managed a kind smile that could barely be considered respectful.
In that moment, the identities of these major gods before her changed from Lotus's colleagues to troublesome, powerful individual soldiers on her own side.
"I think," she said, "we need to have a detailed discussion."
In the sky, clouds drifted, sometimes obscuring the moon, sometimes letting it shine unobstructed upon the earth, casting a soft and tranquil light.
As the legendary master of the moon, Anmila was currently inside a human building, the moonlight chasing her hair.
Yes, chasing—the Moon Goddess was slightly shaking her head. Her expression remained cold, but her pale gold hair swayed from side to side in a small motion, something she did when she felt bewildered.
In terms of tactical arrangements, among the major gods, only the God of Wisdom and Lotus could keep up with Alyuin's line of thought. The former's domain had some overlap with tactics, while the latter had heard so much that she naturally understood some of it.
In truth, calling it "tactical arrangements" was less accurate than calling it "suggestions."
There were always subtle things that only the gods themselves would notice. What kind of preparation was best? No one knew better than the gods themselves.
The Solancian pantheon and Solancia shared a common destiny, but the gods were not under the jurisdiction of the human king. Alyuin's proposals were merely for reference.
The Moon Goddess was not good at remembering things. Much of the time, she would assign labels to the things around her.
In her mind, Alyuin had once been: the human princess, an important figure of 【Destiny】 not to be interfered with, the human Lotus was raising.
And now, another label was added to these: the human princess who seems to have a lot of ideas.
Finally, the continuous echo of discussion in the room ceased.
The Moon Goddess felt as if she'd been granted amnesty. She turned her head and saw that the Sun God's soul had already flown to the heavens, his eyes completely vacant.
Excellent. By comparison, it seems I understood a little more. Anmila felt a sincere sense of pride and pushed her brother out the door with the other gods.
The moment they stepped through the doorway, the major gods silently transformed into spiritual forms and departed just as they had arrived.
Suojia also smiled at the God of the Sky. "Shall we go as well? Let's hear what those emotion-related gods our subordinates captured have to say. They might know more than the Dream Succubus."
En nodded and glanced at Alyuin.
His uniquely soft, infant-like eyebrows furrowed, but he said nothing, turning to let the wind carry him out the door.
Besides Lotus, the Death God was the last major god to leave. As he left, he looked down at the floor and said simply, "When you're done talking, come find me."
The two quiet ravens opened their beaks but could not make a sound.
But they had other ways of expressing their intentions. Under Alyuin's gaze, the ravens fluttered onto the table, looking at Alyuin with their hard-to-distinguish black-bean eyes.
"This is—"
Lotus paused, then said slowly and gently, "They are your parents."
Alyuin's eyebrows shot up. Her gaze froze on Lotus's face for a moment before moving to the ravens.
After a long while, she said in a complicated tone, "I only knew that ravens offer garlands to the souls of the good. But I don't think I've ever heard that the souls of the good become ravens...?"
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