TGS - Chapter 173
Chapter 173: Will
The Sheep God's bleat was merely a reflexive response to her fright. She quickly realized she was a god, not a sheep, and clamped her mouth shut, her moist eyes revealing a timid fear.
After a pause, she tremblingly let out another soft bleat, as if to show weakness.
Lotus was unmoved. "Your acting isn't very good."
Sheli Pu froze, quickly blinked away the mist in her eyes, and closed her eyelids, becoming still.
Just in case, Lotus took out her godhood and held it in her hand.
Then, she picked up the ball of wool and continued toward the Princess's location, feeling for a moment like a heartless villain.
Alright, the Sheep God was indeed a little cute. She seemed to be of a completely different style from the rest of her kind.
But that wasn't the reason Lotus hadn't immediately destroyed the godhood.
Judging by the direction, the Sheep God had come from deep within the wasteland—very likely from the location of Alyuin and the Sanur remnants.
This sheep wasn't skilled in combat—or rather, she had virtually no divine power suited for it—but that didn't mean she couldn't influence humans.
Sheli Pu had left the battlefield and returned to the wasteland, perhaps to interfere with the Princess and protect her believers. To achieve this, she very likely had some unknown means at her disposal.
In that case, it was better to keep the Sheep God for now. After confirming that everything was fine on Alyuin's end, she would decide her fate.
Above the wasteland, the Snow Goddess, clad in a silver-white fur cloak, swept deeper into the plains. If not for the sheep prisoner she was dragging behind her, from a distance she would have looked like a large, snow-colored migratory bird.
Soon, Lotus saw a camp of tents below. The outer perimeter was mostly burned, but the inner area was intact. Soldiers in standard Solancian military armor patrolled between the tents.
As fellow beings of myth, the accompanying sprites were the first to sense their master goddess's arrival and flew into the air to greet her.
At the same time, they also saw the Sheep God, who had been bundled into a ball of fluff.
The water sprites: "..."
For a moment, they even forgot to bow.
Lotus shook the water rope. "Has she been here?"
"She has. We sensed this Sanur god's presence not long ago. It gave us a fright."
"But she didn't show herself and didn't seem to do anything."
"The human princess is fine, too."
The sprites answered all at once.
From them, Lotus learned that a sprite had previously returned to Solancia to report to her, but she hadn't received the message. They must have missed each other on the way.
Although the sprites said everything was normal, Lotus was still a little uneasy. Dragging the Sheep God, she floated into the largest tent.
At that moment, Alyuin was inside the tent, receiving the shaman of the only remaining Sanur tribe.
This tribe, which worshipped the Sheep God, was, in Solancia's view, a fish that had slipped through the net. They had escaped disaster by separating from the unified kingdom, but they would have had to be conquered eventually.
Unexpectedly, before the Solancian army could even move out, they had come to sue for peace—or more accurately, to surrender. The visitor was the tribe's shaman, which was a clear sign of their sincerity.
The shaman didn't understand the Solancian language, but Alyuin could speak the Sanur tongue, so communication was not a problem. Even Ashino, the part-time translator, wasn't needed.
Before the Princess, the elderly shaman bowed low.
"I can represent the will of everyone in my tribe. We are willing to offer you our loyalty, to become soldiers of Solancia, and to obey your commands. We are also willing to charge on the battlefield, even in the most dangerous positions."
"Your Highness, I have only one request. I implore you to allow us to continue believing in the Goddess of Sheep, to build a temple for her, and to let our descendants continue wearing the sheep amulet—"
"As long as you agree, everyone in the tribe will be your warriors from this day forward, fighting for you until death."
After speaking, the shaman closed his eyes apprehensively.
He was afraid the Princess would refuse.
Although Solancia wasn't particularly hostile towards foreign believers, it was the Sanur who had started the war, and it was also the Sanur who were now surrendering to survive. They were at an absolute disadvantage.
The Solancian Princess could easily refuse this request, because even if she did, the tribe had no other choice.
Alyuin was clearly well aware of this. She stroked the snowtu-shaped amulet, noncommittal.
Just then, Lotus's spiritual form passed through the tent flap, and her divine power condensed into a transparent lens before the Princess's eyes.
Alyuin's eyes immediately lit up. In front of the Sanur shaman, her face showed no extra emotion, but her spine straightened almost imperceptibly.
Lotus glanced at the sheep horn ornament hanging on the shaman's chest. Guessing his identity, she also made a good guess about the purpose of his visit.
"He's here to surrender?" Lotus asked.
Alyuin blinked, indicating that was indeed the case.
Her golden eyes shifted, pausing for a moment when she saw the ball of wool behind the River Goddess, and she raised an eyebrow slightly.
Lotus flicked the rope. "This is their god."
Sheli Pu had been looking in the shaman's direction. Hearing this, she stiffened and closed her eyes, playing dead.
Alyuin looked thoughtful and repeated slowly, "So, your tribe is willing to submit, as long as you're allowed to continue worshipping the Sheep God?"
Ostensibly, she was asking the shaman, but her gaze was secretly observing the Sheep God.
The shaman, unaware of the situation, said resolutely, "I implore you."
Sheli Pu had opened her eyes again at some point. Her horizontal pupils held a somewhat complicated expression as she looked at her believer.
After exchanging a look with Alyuin, Lotus gently shook the rope. "Your believers have submitted to Solancia."
Sheli Pu said nothing.
"If this tribe had chosen to surrender on its own, or if the chief had made this decision, the one who came to negotiate wouldn't have been the shaman," Lotus said. "Is this your will?"
After a long silence, Sheli Pu spoke. "That's right."
"The humans of this tribe are all excellent warriors. They will be a great help to Solancia."
Lotus frowned. "If that's the case, why did you still fight me?"
Sheli Pu said faintly, "When I saw you, I was the one who ran first."
And then she was dragged back by the River Goddess.
Lotus: "..." Oh.
Alyuin couldn't help but lift the corners of her lips, letting out a short, breathy laugh. The shaman heard it and looked up in confusion, not knowing if it signified agreement or a threat.
Lotus: "Then you—"
Sheli Pu lowered her head and said softly, "But, if I could have beaten you, I would have chosen to fight you head-on."
"I am a god of the Sanur. I will not betray my own civilization."
"But your believers are about to become Solancians."
"Yes. They will become Solancians, and they will live. Even... even if they still believe in me, a new Sheli Pu will be born after I die. That one will be the Sheep God of the Solancian pantheon."
Lotus couldn't quite understand this sheep's line of thinking, but Sheli Pu was clearly serious.
"The faith of the Sanur civilization is the foundation of my existence. Isn't it like that for all of us?" Sheli Pu twitched her ears timidly. "That's how gods are. We live and die with our civilizations. If... if it were you, River Goddess, if it were Solancia that was about to be destroyed, could you betray it?"
Lotus pressed her lips together.
"There are no 'ifs'."
Alyuin sighed silently. She looked at the shaman, who was growing more and more apprehensive due to the long silence, and told him frankly that she needed to consider it. She had someone arrange lodging for him and his escorts and told them to wait to be summoned.
Then she said to Ashino, "You should leave as well. Let me think alone."
Ashino bowed and withdrew.
She was very happy now. At this point, the Sanur were doomed to perish. As for whether the last remaining tribe survived, was wiped out, or submitted to Solancia, Ashino couldn't care less.
In fact, among all the various large and small tribes before the Sanur unified, this was the only one Ashino found relatively agreeable.
Perhaps because they worshipped the Sheep God, they didn't treat people as emergency food supplies, nor did they take pride in cruelty and ruthlessness like the other tribes. They were relatively better—though they still plundered other nations. After all, that was a characteristic of wasteland dwellers; they couldn't survive without raiding.
Ashino left the tent along with her personal guards, leaving only Alyuin inside.
The Princess finally no longer had to sit primly and pretend she couldn't see the goddess. She walked behind Lotus, wrapped her arms around her waist, and rested her chin on her shoulder, draping herself against Lotus like a lazy, resting cat.
"Lotus, you look so cold," Alyuin said, her tone somewhere between a complaint and a playful whine.
Despite her words, she didn't let go. Instead, she hugged even tighter.
The Snow Goddess incarnation wore a silver fur cloak, with ice crystals suspended around her. Her long hair was coiled up solemnly, and with the added aura of deep winter, she indeed possessed the clear, biting cold of a harsh winter snow.
Sheli Pu's eyes widened. "You two..."
How did they suddenly end up hugging?
Lotus glanced at the Sheep God, and a barrier of divine power formed, an opaque, pale blue wall that blocked the view between her and the trussed-up ball of wool.
Alyuin opened her mouth, about to say something more.
But Lotus tilted her head back to look at her, raised a hand to cup the back of the Princess's neck, adjusted to a suitable angle, and kissed her rose-colored lips.
Their lips and tongues met and entwined in a thorough exploration.
The Snow Goddess incarnation's temperature was also cool. Her breath, as always, was like water vapor mixed with the faint scent of snowtu flowers, now with the added crispness of winter snow—clean, cool, and uniquely stimulating.
It was human instinct to shrink back from the cold, yet Alyuin only shifted her shoulders slightly before deepening the kiss.
Gradually, the cool mouth was suffused with warm body heat.
Before long, Lotus's kisses lingered to the corner of her mouth, where she gave a light lick before finally pulling away.
"And now? Still cold?"
Alyuin was still wanting more. "Still a little. In appearance."
The Snow Goddess looked cold no matter what, even when tinged with human warmth. As for what she was like on the inside, only those who touched her would know.
A hint of a smile passed through Lotus's eyes. She tidied the stray hairs framing the Princess's face and dispelled the field of divine power.
The kiss hadn't actually been that long. At the very least, when Lotus removed the "wall," the Sheep God was still dumbfounded.
Although she couldn't see or hear, Sheli Pu probably! knew what had just happened—or what it meant.
The customs of the Sanur were much more open than Solancia's!
As a god with animalistic traits, she wasn't so clueless as to not realize that!
Lotus said in a businesslike tone, "Pardon me, where were we?"
As she spoke, she nonchalantly withdrew the water rope and rings, but continued to hold Sheli Pu's godhood, guarding against any sudden moves.
Sheli Pu: "..."
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