The Goddess of Inokua Temple

'The birds are nowhere to be seen and the bustle of people crossing the street filled the commercial district like rats in the sewer. While I was sipping my hot coffee at the table near the window watching these humans walk about their day, I thought life has been hectic lately. I wanted to rest.' Triririring…. 'A man walked in with pristine clothing and an easy smile. Personally, for me, I think this man is familiar and I'm a little bit fond of his existence, but in connection with the people he is mingled with, I feel annoyed and feel his presence to be ghastly. The problem is not how he walks like he thinks he is some kind of elite, or that superior look that he sees his surroundings like he is some kind of lord. Or sometimes his boasting attitude for his superior. Not exactly that particular reason, of course. I smile bitterly with tired eyes whenever I remember our history.' "You’ve been waiting?" 'He smiles while sitting in the chair across from me, asking as if it is my honor to have a conversation with him. Honestly, I just see him because I'm so bored and kinda miss the normality and predictability he can give me. Looking at him with disgust in my eyes over his insensibility this time, I just decided the outside of the window was more interesting.' "Hey, I'm talking to you! Why are you ignoring me? I've made time to meet up with you personally and squeeze my schedule just for you! My FRIEND!" " Can't you be less dramatic? Oftentimes I like it as a show, but now I'm tired. Can you just be normally weird enough to have a simple conversation to soothe my soul?" 'Pouting my mouth with a discontented expression, I saw him schooling his expression and his gaze, trying to be somewhat humanizing himself and be less alien, in my opinion.' "So, what's wrong with your recent trips that got you so stressed, huh?" " I'm so sad, you know? So so sad" 'I feel like crying remembering what happened a few days ago.' "What is it? Is it good?" "Of course not, you bollocks. It's real sad, SAD, no sad GOOD! "What is it? Fast, I don’t have much time" 'With indignant eyes, I stared at him and wanted to scream for all the people to hear, 'where is your conscience running to? You bastard!' But then again, I'm still good and not that crazy enough, so just like that, I'm telling my story.' "So it was around a week ago, I had a new mission to scout a left-after-long time-left-dungeon. I know Red Lion is a combat-based guild, and the dungeon has been left out for a long time, like 10 years. But still, don’t you think it's too much to order me, the useless, stored alchemist, for a monthly checkup?" "No one accompanies me, no extra care for me, all the time lost in the unknown dungeon?" 'Sniffling with snot wanting to appear on my nose and tears starting to be made to just remember the beginning of my sad story, I feel so sad!' "Wait wait, so they let you go to the dungeon alone?" "Uh huh" "An alchemist?" "Uh huh" "Even though it's an inactive dungeon, to let you go alone without anyone accompanying you is too much even for the Red Lion!" "Yeah!Even though it is a D-class dungeon, and small with a forest like inside, it's too much!" "D-rank?" "Uh huh" 'Staring at me like I'm a hoodlum picking money from little kids! I'm not!' "Why are you looking at me like I'm a bad guy here?" "Are you?" "No!" "Its honestly just a D-rank. With your ability, isn’t it just a piece of cake for you?" "I'm alone!" 'He looks at me with his dead fish eyes that look like they want to murder me sometimes. I think it's his trademark, but still, shouldn’t he be consoling me?' "Why do they want you to go there anyway? Doesn’t that kind of dungeon just need checking once half a year? "It is. It's just that I needed some ingredients for my lab, but they ran out, so they ordered me to gather them myself. What am I? I'm just an alchemist! To think they let me go roam and gathering ingredients while monsters were roaming, do they not think of my safety as a consideration?" "It's just some goblins and orcs!" "But you know, when I'm so focused I cant care about my surroundings. I could be killed by goblins too." "Yeah sure, like a few hundreds of them need to hack you together at the same time to make it happen." "Why do you talk like you want to oppose me? Huh? Aren’t you my friend? " "Okay, okay, sigh. I'm sorry, go on with your story." "So, so after that I started walking in the dark dungeon, for a long, long time-" "Don’t you bring a torch or lamp?" "I am" "Then why don’t you use it?" "I want to train my senses more without helping tools" "I think you deserve all the sadness you got there" "Hey, it's not because of that! I do walk in the dark and I stumbled about, but the problem came after that. I walked until I found the forest entry and went in. The goblins were nowhere, and I thought they were inside and just roaming nowhere. I walked there thinking happily, that it would be easy! But then after I walk around looking for my herb, where it should be, in the bark of a dead tree, there is none! None at all!" "I have kept walking for days!" "Just how wide it is for you to walk days, huh?" "Not that big, just a tenth of this city" "Uh huh, I guess so already, so what is it? You must be walking round and round and probably lost your way?" "Yes! But more than that! I found none of the herbs! And when I found one inside the cave with clear water, the goblin ate the last one! Right before I pick it! Its just been in front of my eyes! It ate my last herb and patted its belly without any guilt! Unforgivable! So I killed it right away because I thought somehow I could save my herbs that maybe aren’t discerned in its disgusting body yet. But no! After I sliced open its throat to its belly, my herb. Has been ruined! That f*****g piece of goblin! Curse you with all your parents and siblings to hell!" "Hey, no need to be so toxic to a goblin, they are just eating a herb." "Just herb? They are MY herbs, mine! I've been walking around and tired so much and I have to pause my research for that herb and it just eat it! f*****g goblin!" "Okay, okay, I get it, so that’s it?" "Uh huh- that's-um-that’s it. And I'm so sad. Now your role is to say, my bad El, what could I do to help you with?" 'He deadpanned and said, without any tender care for me'. "What should I say? I don’t want to help you" "Don’t you pity me? I'm so sad and tired, and I don’t even get what I need. Do you want me to retire? Did youuuu? I will bug you to no end and make you suffer from all the bad things that could make you jobless like me!" "Calm down, why are you so dramatic?!" "Because I'm tired! And hungry!" "Okay, okay, I got it. Calm down, calm down." "Huaaaaaa, I'm really really hungry" "What food?" silence "Chicken!" "Just that?" "And soup and rice and juice." "Okay, I will get it for you" Mumbling to himself 'have you not even eaten, huh, like a child!’ "I don’t hear you! Speak clearly!" "Okay, I will order it!" "Hehe, hehe, so easy… humhum" A while later---- "You good?" "Uh huh, but now you look no good." "Well, I'm supposed to be in a hurry. And, I THOUGHT, you wanted to say something important! But you just want food! Not even asking about my wellbeing!" "Ehem, hehehe, my dear friend, ehemhem, how are you? You must be well, as I can see you look quite healthy and happy. What are your recent things?" silence "Huuh, phew, so tired dealing with you" "You are lucky we don’t like each other and are married, or you will die because of me." "True" "Hahahahahaha" silence "Well, laughing together after so long feels so good. Do you have any new gossip?" "What is it you want to hear? You don’t even care about most of these things." "Huuuuhh… the most sensational? The most your-noticed things?" "If it's common gossip, it is issued by the country that the entry to the forbidden forest is becoming more restricted than before and people in slums are increasing because of the immigrants from around the forest." "Ooohhhh" "Then then?" "What then? Just that!" "Uhm, you haven’t said your interesting news, I know you have it from the crease in your head" "It's just stress" "Oh come on, you need to lie better than that. I'm a fool, but not an i***t. I know you enough already. Now spill it! " "I don’t!" "You have! Spill it! It! It! Now!" "I don’t!" "You are! huaaaaaa, I'm crying because you lied!" sigh "Okay, okay don’t make a commotion, I'm ashamed!" "Heh, your risk after all. So?" "The alliance leader has an interest in some girl" "Eeeehhh? Really? So suddenly? Your perfect angel? A head priest's romantic life sounds so sinful and scandalous" "He is not!" "Not what? Have a girlfriend?" "First, he has no girlfriend! Second he is no priest!" "Oh my god! You said he is a perfect angel!" "That’s not my point!" "Okay, okay. I get it, don’t scream. People watching" "Huuuh… huuuh…" "Okay, now you have calmed down. Who's the girl? I mean, what girl? Don’t see me weird! Maybe she is not human? Considering your leader is an angel" "She is just an ordinary girl. I heard the leader found her near the Ending Valley. She was treated like a guest in the central place." "Hooooo… special! What the special?" "The rumor said she is able to see the future and change fate." "Woaaaaahhhhh, so good?" "The leader is looking for the wheel of karma, and it can only be found by the prophet that could walk into chaos." "Oooooh..... Isn’t it, isn’t it just a legend?" "We believe that it is all true, there is some clue in a mythic book about the World Tree." "Oooohhhhh" "What, what kind of thing is the wheel of karma? Haha" "Well, you won't believe it, it's said that it's round like an orb and-" "Why is it called a wheel then?" "Why do you care about the shape, huh? The point is it can change one's fate and the ability to travel through space and time. It is the only one in the whole universe made from the will of god with their lifeforce, and can only be found in the disgusting chaos where people will be lost in netherlife!" "Isn’t that a legend?" "There is already a prophet. With her ability, I think it's possible to walk through chaos and get the wheel of karma." "Ow oh… Wow. Now isn’t that supposed to be a secret?" "It should, but it's already widespread after the identity of the girl was discovered by the public" "Oh huh, wow… amazing." "Though I don’t think it is wise to let the girl close to the leader and cause so much rumor. An honorary adviser is already a good enough position for that kind of girl and the help she provides. I wonder why this hubbub is created for just unsensible things like romance." "Don’t say that, it must be because you are jealous of the girl." "You're joking, I cant let the honorable will and goal of the leader be tainted by such girl." "Well, anyway, she must be pretty, right? Don’t see me like that! I'm not a scum! I'm just asking!" 'Fixing his rectangular glasses, he looks kinda snobbish, though it's enough to suwon many girls outside, his arrogance still stinks up to this day' "She is just above standards." "Oooh must be pretty then. Not many people could make you say that. I'm still sad that you just call me ugly squid." "You deserve it, hmph!" "Okay then, humhum, okay okay, I'm full, I have eaten and I want to sleep. I want to go back." "Aren’t you the one who wants to meet me?" "Yes I am, and I have met you. Now I want to go, don’t you say you have many things to do and have no time? Now go shush shush, I will treat you next time." "Aren’t you being too much? I haven’t even finished my coffee yet! " "Okay, finish it then." "No, I don’t have an appetite anymore. I'm going" "Okay, let's go out together! Wanna take me back to my lodging?" "No! I will go to my office now!" "Okay, take care!" 'His back looks like a stomping doe, cute, hilarious and ewh.... ahhhhh the harbinger of bad news!' 'Now I'm in my room, in the moderate inn with an outside view of the townscape. I think I got a problem.' 'First, I have the wheel of karma, Second, I can predict fate, And third, I think I may be hunted by a psycho' 'It's not my fault that I found good things, not my fault I'm this lucky, or unlucky in this case. I feel my life getting shorter tremendously. If I commit suicide, will it fix my problems and let me reincarnate as a happy unemployed and rich person?' "I doubt it" 'The psycho, the leader of the alliance. I know people worship him like a perfect angel, but how could I don't know how his very being screaming WARNING! WARNING! psycho in perfect disguise that could rival Satan’ 'From all my experiences of reading stories all around, I could read fate and people by instinct somehow, now I think this sight will torture my mind to death.No, not that kind of amazingness.. I just call it survival power' 'Aaaaaaa.......aaaaaa!!!! a psycho will hunt me!' 'There is no space for denial and secrecy. I'm not good at hiding. At one point, somehow, I must have been found out by that person. Considering my luck, the probability is very high. And he is a psycho, no matter what William f*****g Shell said to me otherwise.' 'How could I still live? How long could I still be alive?' 'Aaaaah that poor woman, she must be used and discarded. Aaha, that’s my future too.' 'Poor prophet' 'I think he is the kind of man that will imprison and probably torture his recent obsession to make her obey him.' "Very bad news" 'Sleeping pill, sleeping pill. I must eat it to remain sane.' '2 for my brain's wellbeing, bad events happening lately, bad measures taken by stupid me. Perfect' 'My headache isn’t decreasing though. Should I eat a headache pill?' 'Was my last thought to sleep' 'I'm sleepy, I dreamt of monsters and gigantic snakes chasing me to the end of the world.I don’t know whereever that is. What did I forget, by the way? I remember I should have panicked before. Nah, not remembering must be not important.' 'A nice new morning!' I opened my window and happily said to the world "Good morning world!" 'No screaming though. I'm shy, no, I'm afraid of attention, no. It's just so cringey.' 'By the way, the air is so nice, what should I do now? Gossiping with Will!' "Wasn’t that yesterday? Wait-" Wait Fucking wait 'Aaaaaa… damn memory come back! Sob sob, I remember!' "Why should I? It's good, but no good for my heart and mind." "Aaaaaa god help me!" 'Okay, now we must go escape. Let's go find another dimension to run.' 'First, I need to find a cave, no, find a remote place to learn how the damn thing work.' 'That thing is a blessing and a curse at the same time, honestly' Aaaa 'Gather things, my clothes, my bath, my things! Kay, should I take a bath?' "Should. Okay go!" "Okay, it's okay, everything will be alright" "Now I'm covered, with a hoodie on and a cloak and backpack, and a small sword just in case, it should be okay. Lets walk, then summon familiar to fly." 'Go from where? South gate? North gate? Lets go from less crowded' "South gate!" 'I need food, hiding need food, I feel uneasy in this city, lets just go with breakfast and lunch, the go food hunting at next town.' Walking briskly with fast paced rhythm, almost like running.... Brukk "Ugh sorry sorry," "It's okay" Deg 'I think I remember this voice' Smooth like velvet and as pleasant as a well-saved pricey wine that could only be gotten by luck. 'The hood covers my face! remember!' "Then I will be off." "Yes, please be careful." "Yes, yes thankyou" 'I think I am just answering by auto response.' 'If I think about it carefully, only a person who bought nuance and awe in me in that way, the leader of the alliance. Syrax de Coumuli.' Fuck. 'Such a bad new day' 'Good because I'm getting away from that man' 'Let's go, let's go. Let's hurry before I get in trouble.' "Aaaaaa panicked!!!"