TGS - Chapter 192

Chapter 192: Memories (1)

Lotus followed the golden-eyed woman out of the forest and saw a troop of people.

Judging by their neat attire, it was clearly an army, resting by the river.

Witnessing the clothing, accessories, and utensils that could only have appeared on surviving murals or in restoration drawings by experts, Lotus suppressed the tumultuous waves in her heart and continued to act ignorant and bewildered. This wasn't difficult, as she was indeed very confused at this moment, unable to understand a single word of the people around her.

It was only then that Lotus could finally confirm just what kind of place she had arrived in.

This place was certainly not near the museum, and not even in the same era.

Unless the people here were filming a movie or TV show set in ancient Solancia, recreating the lost kingdom from several thousand years ago, and also wanted to randomly prank a few lucky passersby.

—It was ancient Solancia.

The origin of the scattered ancient artifacts she had seen through a display case not long ago.

Lotus clutched her shoulder bag tightly.

The woman who led Lotus out of the woods seemed to be the leader of this army, yet she also seemed to naturally keep a distance from those around her, alluring and severe.

No matter how you looked at it, she didn't seem the type to casually pick up a stranger she met on the roadside, but that's exactly what she did.

The gaze from those brilliant golden eyes was curious and cautious, with a hint of interest.

It was reminiscent of a feline predator at the top of the food chain that had discovered a new, unseen species in its territory, unsure if it was edible or if it might fight back. It must have worn the same expression.

Afterward, Lotus set out with the army.

This was likely the golden-eyed woman's decision. The soldiers seemed to have no objections, clearly accustomed to obeying any decision their leader made.

At first, Lotus didn't know the destination of this march.

But after some difficult communication, she inexplicably began to learn ancient Solancian vocabulary from the army's leader.

Heaven knew what kind of expression Lotus had when the golden-eyed woman pointed to her own chest and nonchalantly uttered a syllable that sounded like "Alyuin."

Alyuin.

Anyone with some knowledge of ancient Solancian history would basically know this name. She was the princess poisoned by a competitor for the throne, whose life was full of twists and turns, legendary and lamentable.

The era in which this princess lived was not far from the time of Solancia's fall, according to historians' research.

Speaking of which, Alyuin was still very young when she was poisoned.

Lotus looked again at the golden-eyed woman opposite her, a tall and agile adult woman... she seemed to fit the age of the one who was poisoned in the history books.

Had she traveled to an era on the brink of war?

Lotus was almost certain that the Alyuin before her was the princess from history, but not long after, through their stumbling communication, this belief was overturned.

Solancia hadn't even been established yet. On this vast land, city-states abounded, annexing one another in recent years, with endless wars. Alyuin was one of the lords of one of these city-states.

And the name of this city-state was Solan.

Good news: she hadn't traveled to an era on the verge of chaos.

Bad news: she was in the middle of a war right now.

Good news: she had been picked up by the army of the city-state that would eventually end the chaos.

Bad news: as a foreigner with relatively strange clothes, unable to speak the language, and highly suspicious, she was being closely watched by the army's commander.

She had also inexplicably gained an incredible ability, which could be summarized as playing with water.

Under the cover of her shoulder bag, Lotus secretly condensed a piece of ice on her fingertip, let it melt into water, and then made it disappear.

Turning the bracelet she never took off, Lotus was completely baffled. She was certain she had never possessed such a skill before. The past twenty years of her life had been conventional, with nothing "abnormal."

Recalling the moment she faced the leopard, and the coolness that had emanated from her shoulder bag, Lotus gently poked the frame of the bronze mirror through the fabric.

Was it because of this?

Reining in her thoughts, she looked up again and met Alyuin's eyes.

After these days of talking at cross purposes and language lessons, their relationship had grown closer. While not yet a friendship, they had at least become familiar with each other.

This was before the founding of Solancia, so the person before her couldn't possibly be the princess from ancient Solancian history. It was just a coincidence of names.

Although she knew little about Solancian naming conventions, she supposed that, like in later times, the rate of people sharing the same name was probably high.

At least this Alyuin bears me no ill will, Lotus thought.

So she returned a polite, faint smile.

It was clearly Alyuin who had looked at her first, waiting leisurely for her gaze to be noticed, yet upon seeing Lotus's smile, she paused.

Several days later, the group returned to the city-state of Solan.

By now, Lotus could understand some Solancian through a combination of guessing and inference. Aside from daily phrases, most of what she learned was related to military life, because Alyuin would always point at things and teach her their names.

From this, Lotus learned that the army she was with had just won a battle and was on its way back.

The reason she had run into Alyuin in the forest was that the other woman had wanted to hunt a small animal to improve their rations. In the end, she didn't catch any wild rabbits or mountain fowl, but she did pick up a "magical foreigner."

When she said this, Alyuin deliberately emphasized the syllable for "magical," the corners of her lips curling slightly, leaving Lotus to wonder if she was implying something.

Lotus: "..." So, did she see it or not?

In any case, Lotus returned to the city-state with the triumphant Solan army.

The city-states of this period had already moved beyond the more primitive tribal model. They had leaders called city lords, as well as nobles, warriors, commoners, and slaves. They were already small nations in their own right.

Having developed to this stage, the unification of lands suitable for agriculture was the inevitable trend, which was why wars were breaking out everywhere.

The city-state of Solan was a little different from the others. Strictly speaking, it was co-ruled by two city lords.

They were a sister and brother. The sister, Alyuin, had shown a talent for combat and battle planning since she was a girl. The brother, on the other hand, knew nothing about the tactics of war, but was very good at mediating affairs within the city and had the patience to go through mountain-high piles of inscribed tablets.

This model of governance had surprisingly good results. Before the previous city lord passed away, Solan was considered middle-tier among the many city-states. Now, it was gradually developing into an upper-tier power, and no other city-state dared to underestimate it.

Lotus met the other city lord, a gentle-looking youth who was sitting on a stone stool reviewing inscribed wooden tablets—apparently, more authoritative-looking chairs had not yet been invented. He looked very much like a middle school student struggling with his homework.

Alyuin said to the young city lord straightforwardly, "She is my person."

The young city lord: "Huh?"

Alyuin repeated herself, as if it were a matter of course.

The young city lord: "Ah, oh, oh."

For some reason, the gazes of the two female attendants behind the city lord seemed a bit strange.

Lotus herself didn't think anything was wrong. Ever since she realized she had traveled to an early slave society, she hadn't expected to find equality in this era from the start. "My person" was equivalent to "my subordinate/attendant." That must be what Alyuin meant.

However, on the second day of her stay, Lotus discovered that the way everyone looked at her was off.

It was a gaze mixed with curiosity, ambiguity, and gossip.

Only then did Lotus realize that she had suddenly become the legendary female city lord's lover.

In the age of city-states, people's imaginations were truly something else.

But this also illustrated a problem: Alyuin's act of bringing a foreigner like Lotus back to the city-state of Solan was so unconventional in the eyes of others that they had to concoct such an explanation for it.

The others didn't know the inside story, but Lotus had her suspicions.

So, after she had more or less fully grasped the Solancian language, Lotus knocked on Alyuin's door.

"I would like to speak with you, Lord Alyuin," she said.

Alyuin chuckled lightly. "Alright."

After some probing, Lotus finally brought up her new ability in a roundabout way. As expected, Alyuin was prepared; she had witnessed the entire confrontation with the leopard in the forest from beginning to end.

"So, who are you?" Alyuin asked, offering a speculative example. "A giant fish from the Yilu River?"

Lotus took a deep breath without showing it.

Previously, when introducing herself, she had only said her name was Lorja. This was to avoid the name "Lotus," the river goddess of ancient Solancia, as the people of Solan would likely consider having the same name as a deity to be disrespectful.

But as she gradually learned more, Lotus discovered that the city-state of Solan at this time had no god named Lotus, nor did they have a river goddess.

The mythological system at this time was still very fragmented. They believed in a sky god and an earth goddess, regarded love, desire, life, and death as parts of a mystical faith, and also revered the sun and moon and esteemed wisdom... Similarly, the Yilu River, as the only great river running through this land, also had mythological significance, but the people of Solan saw it as a gift left on the land by the primordial waters of chaos, and the giant fish were the spirits of the river.

There was no river goddess.

Lotus didn't know if this was an opportunity. She hesitated for a moment, then decided to go along with it.

"That's right," Lotus said, her face expressionless. "I am a giant fish."

After a thought, she added, "A spirit of the Yilu River."

If a river goddess had already existed in the Solan system, Lotus could have acted as a divine messenger with her ability to control water, but there wasn't one.

As for bluffing the other party with lines like "I am the goddess of the river, and I have chosen you," she hadn't even considered it.

First, a deity who couldn't even speak Solancian was too unbelievable.

Second, Lotus's abilities weren't actually that strong. Based on her secret experiments over the past few days, she could at most conjure a ball of water the size of a soccer ball or an icicle the length of her forearm. If someone asked her to pray for rain or for the river to remain calm and not flood, she would be exposed for sure.

The female city lord opposite her didn't seem like someone who was easy to fool.

Compared to being a foreigner with supernatural abilities, the identity of a giant fish spirit was perhaps safer, especially in the current era of widespread war.

Lotus looked at Alyuin.

Alyuin nodded. "Mm."

...Wasn't her reaction a bit too calm?

Alyuin then said, "Since you exist, then, do gods exist?"

Lotus shook her head cautiously. "I don't know."

In the past, she had firmly believed that gods did not exist, but time travel and water manipulation were things that truly shook her worldview. It was safer to give an uncertain answer.

"I don't really believe in gods," Alyuin said thoughtfully. "If they existed, they should have appeared long ago. However—Solan needs a god. A god who can perform miracles."

Realizing something, Lotus raised her eyes and stared fixedly at her.

Alyuin said with a smile, "What do you think?"

Lotus pressed her lips together. "I need to think about it."

As their conversation came to an end, Alyuin walked Lotus to the door and said, out of the blue, "The giant fish don't seem to like me very much."

Lotus: "?"

Alyuin shrugged. "The only time I ever saw a giant fish was when I was a child. It surfaced, flicked its tail, and splashed water all over me."

Lotus: "..."

This city lord wouldn't hold a grudge and seek personal revenge, would she?

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