TGS - Chapter 175
Chapter 175: Alyuin, the Favored Concubine
The warships of the Kasnie army advanced across the wide surface of the Yilu River, their tiered oars churning up waves and shattering the unique, tranquil serenity of the turquoise waters.
The warships moved at a considerable speed. Even heading upstream, the wind made the rowers' task seem somewhat effortless.
For days now, the warships had advanced in this manner.
The Yilu River brought abundance. It coiled across the land in a near-perfect configuration, allowing one important city after another to be built along its banks. While this brought great convenience, it also made things easy for invaders from beyond the southern coastline.
The triremes had limited capacity for supplies, but all sorts of provisions could always be shipped from the rear. If that wasn't enough, they would simply dock, and the infantry would disembark to attack the riverside cities, always yielding more military equipment and rations.
Most of the cities along the river before Surinia had weak defenses, and some city lords chose to flee or surrender without a second thought. The Kasnie army could occupy new cities without paying a great price, thereby obtaining double the supplies.
This day followed the same routine.
Conquer a city, station a garrison to await orders, rest in place for half a day, and then the main force would resume rowing and set sail.
A warship bearing the Kasnie royal crest sailed in the middle of the fleet, heavily protected. Inside the cabin sat Prince Kaimon and a priest of the Goddess of the Mind, while three Kasnie gods floated above the prow.
"How much longer do we have to wait?" The Beast God had escaped from Nierde, and his entire being—both his condition and his temper—was in a foul state. "I've had it. What kind of monsters are the Solancian gods? Velenna's divinity has already fallen. What are we supposed to do now?"
Velenna was the divine name of the God of the Ocean.
In the first round of the divine war, his divinity had been destroyed by the Goddess of the Earth, reducing the Kasnie pantheon's combat strength by nearly a quarter in one fell swoop.
In addition, the Sanur pantheon was almost completely wiped out. The whereabouts of the surviving Wolf God and Sheep God were unknown, and the Kasnie Beast God himself had been suppressed by the God of Wisdom, barely managing to escape with his life.
The Goddess of the Mind and the God of Mountains and Rivers had been victorious, but their opponents' divinities remained intact. Adia's complex injuries might keep her from returning to the battlefield, but Suriel could still possibly recover during the war.
Broadly speaking, the future would be six against five.
Six for Solancia, five for the other two pantheons.
But in terms of actual combat strength, it might as well be six against three. The outcome was easy to imagine.
To have lost so much of their pantheon's strength in the very first encounter—even the Beast God, who had always been fearless and arrogant, couldn't help but feel the situation was dire.
"Are we just going to hide and wait for the Father God to leave his island?"
The Beast God complained resentfully.
Perseus remained unperturbed, and the God of Mountains and Rivers was impassive.
At that moment, both deities were busy countering the divine power released by the Solancian gods to impede the army's advance.
The God of Mountains and Rivers' power, heavy as a mountain, countered the resistance of the river's current. The Goddess of the Mind, meanwhile, strengthened the favorable wind, gently and imperceptibly neutralizing the power of the Sky God transmitted from afar.
With the gods' protection, the fleet was able to advance steadily.
The Beast God's ears shot up in anger, pushing up his beast-shaped crown. "Are you two even listening to me!"
The God of Mountains and Rivers said, "We heard you. So what?"
"We should hide! If we can drag this out until the Father God arrives, it'll be the end of the Solancian pantheon," the Beast God said. "But if we stay here, won't the Solancian gods pick us off one by one?"
"How rare. I can't believe you're willing to hide."
"...I'm not an idiot."
Feeling slighted, the Beast God was very displeased and turned to Perseus.
"You must know more than we do, right? The Father God trusts you the most. Did he say when he'd be able to leave the island?"
Back when the Sanur pantheon was still around, they had always wanted to know the source of Kasnie's confidence in victory over the Solancian gods.
But the Goddess of the Mind had been secretive, leading them to believe it was some unspeakable secret weapon. Despite their anxiety, they didn't press the issue—and so they faced the Solancian gods in complete ignorance and were almost annihilated.
In truth, it was no secret among the Kasnie gods.
Their reliance was on the supreme creator god of Kasnie mythology, Klotho, revered as the Father God.
However, the Father God originally had no physical form; he was essentially a humanoid mist of light that could only appear between the sacred pillars on the island of the gods' domain. Despite possessing immense, unparalleled power, he was unable to leave and join the battle.
Fortunately, the Father God had found a way to participate in the divine war. The Beast God knew little about it; all he had to do was wait.
So, in reality, the Beast God's understanding was no clearer than that of the Sanur pantheon, and the only one he could ask was the Goddess of the Mind.
Perseus merely smiled at him.
The Beast God resentfully averted his gaze, daring only to grumble inwardly.
It couldn't be helped. The Goddess of the Mind had existed the longest among them, was the most powerful, and was the most trusted by the creator, the Father God Klotho.
The Beast God dared to run his mouth about the King of the Solancian Gods, but he was uniquely terrified of this companion. On a normal day, he might have stubbornly muttered a thing or two, as the Goddess of the Mind never bothered with such trifles, but today was different.
His animalistic acuity told him that Perseus was not in a good mood.
Don't provoke her, don't provoke her.
The Beast God reclined in mid-air, crossing his legs out of boredom.
Fine, we won't hide. If the Solancian gods come looking for us, my two stronger companions will be the first to face them anyway.
Even if they can't hold out, even if their divinities are destroyed along with mine, it doesn't mean Solancia will win in the end.
Even if all four of us gods perish, there's still the Father God on his distant island. The Kasnie army is advancing like an unstoppable force. Everything is still going according to plan.
Once the Father God leaves the island...
...it will be time for the Solancian pantheon to be annihilated.
Perseus paid no mind to the Beast God's thoughts. She quietly gazed down at the Yilu River, her deep blue eyes reflecting the churning spray, which danced ceaselessly in their depths.
Lotus hadn't expected that the "private talk" Perseus had mentioned earlier would come so soon.
However, it wasn't her true self that had come, but her shadow.
It still had the appearance of a young human woman, bearing some resemblance to the former royal city actress, Asilu. The deep blue eyes and almost rigid smile made her easily recognizable.
Carrying a familiar wooden box, this new shadow appeared with a standard smile on the barren plains, just outside the Solancian army's temporary camp.
Lotus, in her Snow Goddess incarnation: "..."
To be honest, if this kept up, she might develop PTSD from smiling.
However, the shadow itself possessed no divine power. At most, it was a human vessel carrying a god's consciousness and could be easily killed.
Lotus pondered for a moment and decided to meet with her.
Since the other party posed no immediate threat, it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing to hear Perseus's intentions. It would be even better if she could learn something.
Alyuin had been inexplicably wary of Asilu before, and upon hearing Lotus speak of the Goddess of the Mind, she immediately declared, "She's definitely up to no good."
Lotus: "I think so too, but I need to hear what she has to say."
Alyuin weighed her options. "I'll have someone bring her in."
She paused, still a little worried. "I'll be right outside. Call me if anything happens."
Lotus looked up. "Aren't you going to stay, Alyuin?"
"But you just said, alone."
"That was Perseus's suggestion, not one I agreed to." Lotus shook her head with a faint smile. Her cool blue eyes seemed to hold ice and snow, but they always appeared gentle when looking at Alyuin. "If her shadow demands that you leave before she'll speak, she's plotting something nine times out of ten, and the conversation is off."
Alyuin's delight was visible. She leaned against Lotus, who had taken the form of a female official, and draped a long, honey-colored arm behind the goddess, taking hold of her other pale, white hand and intertwining their fingers intimately.
She rested her head on Lotus's shoulder, languid and boneless, but her brilliant golden eyes were fixed sharply on the tent flap, ready for a confrontation.
This posture was less like that of a solemn ruler and more like a bewitching, favored concubine clinging to her monarch, about to unleash her full seductive-villainess aura and flaunt her power before a minister.
Lotus pressed her temples.
Well, this is fine too.
When the Goddess of the Mind's shadow walked into the tent, this was the scene that greeted her.
Her smile didn't change in the slightest, but her eyes were half-lowered, a stark contrast to the perpetually gentle smile on the lower half of her face.
Lotus spoke first. "What did you want to say?"
The shadow said, "As I thought, you're still like this."
Lotus frowned slightly, but the shadow made no further comment on Alyuin's presence.
As if she had never mentioned wanting to speak alone, she said nonchalantly, "Kasnie has not destroyed your temples. Every single one is intact."
"And the priests of the river have also been properly settled. The people of Kasnie respect them as they do their own priests."
"Velenna has already faded, but Kasnie will have a new god of water."
This opening was unexpected for Lotus, but after a moment's thought, the Goddess of the Mind's intention was glaringly obvious.
This was a show of goodwill, or rather, an attempt to win her over. To put it more directly, it was an attempt to persuade her to surrender.
She never would have thought that just a few days after trying to turn the Sheep God, someone would now be trying to turn her—and in front of Solancia's mortal ruler, speaking so brazenly.
Lotus felt a strange mix of emotions and could feel the Princess's cheek, pressed against her shoulder, puff out slightly, likely from gritting her teeth.
The favored concubine act could no longer be maintained.
Alyuin sat up straight, her full authority on display, and said with a half-smile, "What is this you're saying, right in front of me?"
The shadow shot her a dismissive glance. "A mortal human wishes to interfere in the affairs of gods?"
"Lotus is a god of Solancia. She is my god." Alyuin's voice deepened, and she put special emphasis on the word "my."
"She is now, and she will be in the future. If the people of Kasnie ever begin to worship the River Goddess, it will only be because their lands have become part of Solancia's territory."
"Do not speak so lightly of the future, human. The unknown will not unfold as you imagine, just as you cannot know the future cause of your own death—"
"By that logic, I suppose you know exactly how you'll die, O great prophet."
Lotus, the one they were trying to persuade, had yet to speak, but the human and the shadow before her were already at each other's throats.
Alyuin's solemn declaration was also quite cute. The corners of her eyes were downturned and her expression was faint, but her gaze was fierce, like a cat declaring its sovereignty and marking its territory—staring coolly and impassively, but inwardly arching its back and bristling its tail.
After indulging in the mental image for a moment, Lotus collected her thoughts and looked at the shadow with a stern expression.
"Alyuin is right."
"I am a god of Solancia and will not belong to Kasnie. If you came here only to say this, then there is nothing more to discuss."
The Goddess of the Mind's shadow hugged the wooden box, resting her chin on its lid. "You've misunderstood, Lotus," she said softly.
"I'm listening," the Snow Goddess incarnation said coolly.
"I am not asking for your opinion, nor am I persuading you to surrender." The curve of the shadow's smile lifted slightly. "Because your opinion will not change the outcome."
!
"As long as the mythology of the mortal world changes, you will have no other choice, nor will you need to make one. As I said before, I bear you no ill will. No matter what happens, you will not fall because of this divine war."
"I just wanted you to know this. That is all."
The air fell silent for a moment. Alyuin's gaze suddenly darkened.
Anyone could tell something was wrong from that tone and meaning.
Lotus gently patted the Princess's shoulder, as if to soothe her.
"It seems Suojia was telling the truth when she said you knew the human me."
The shadow nodded, but before she could speak, Lotus said, "But I also believe it was merely an acquaintance. Even if we did interact, it couldn't have been pleasant."
A flicker appeared in the shadow's eyes. "You don't remember—"
"I've only forgotten. I'm not an idiot, nor have I been replaced by someone else." For once, Lotus was mercilessly sarcastic. "Have I ever mentioned this? The very first time I saw Asilu, I felt uneasy. Why do you suppose that is?"
Alyuin let out a light, cheerful laugh.
This soft, breathy laugh seemed to draw out the shadow's anger. She stared at the Princess with her eerie, deep blue eyes, and Lotus could almost detect an imperceptible hatred within them.
A strange emotion.
Lotus thought, and decided to see her guest out.
And the best way to see out the shadow of a Kasnie god was to send her on her way to the afterlife.
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