The Goddess of Inokua Temple

Chapter 4

Musing to herself while clothing, eating, and walking around, she basically is living in her own head.

"Oh, start thinking the way back. Oh! How could I forget! How many days have I been here? The people back there must be gone! Are they still there? Ugh, what could I do?"

Using her new-found ability to talk to the secret world, asking with just her thought, how could I leave?

With just that question, new information appeared in her mind. Starting from where she stands, spans to a few kilometers, the sensory mini-map of the whole place is presented.

"Uhm, hum. There is only one door to the outside world. Does it lead to the same place where I come from?"

'So sad, my creation becoming this pathetic'

'If I'm thrust into this hell and have fallen from my heaven,I have no choice but to drag others to accompany me. After all, this sadness will become a little more bearable with many companies, isn’t it?'

"Let's do that."

'If in this life, in this new world, I can't be happy, I will make everyone suffer more.'

'Lets just collect the valuables now then'

Walking towards the clothes pile from before,wearing the clothes she wants, changing into another. Finicky and carefree.

'Finally, I end up wearing clothes suitable for travelling. All dresses, yes, flowing yet as soft as petals is preferable. Choosing the moss green dress with silver lining, long sleeves and neck covered.'

"Wait, isn't it weird to come back with a different outfit? Ughhh, trouble!"

She stood naked with a bag dangling over her shoulder.

"I have no choice but to bear it."

'Time to go. '

Bringing a bag, sturdy enough, and useful enough to carry many things.

'I think it has some kind of space magic, even though I remember it doesn’t mean I understand, and I don’t remember every single thing. Just some traces of the past. I wonder if that is me. I'm still wondering. I think this place shows me their memory, rather than me gaining my past memories. That's why I don’t remember many things. Still, I know which things are precious and useful to me. This place is good. As expected of my bourdoir'

'I know how these worlds are made, yet I don’t know either. There are so many things I don’t know. I feel like crying, the little piece of what I know can't satiate my curiosity for the time being, and it makes me feel anxious, like this incomplete answer is too much. Too imperfect, too complex for a human me.'

Thinking about many things in that little head, she kept on picking the herbs and fruit and taking it to the bag. After storing the silver water in her pouch, she walked out. Get out of where her past is. And coming back to where she comes from, or at least exploring outside.

'I'm a little worried about the people I left behind. I hope this leather skinbag doesn’t stand out too much. It's small, like a pouch. So ggod. If I'm not wrong, I should be back before the event begins. The time here should be unrelated to the outside. Arriving at the tree root, she looks at the pond, and her reflection in it. '

'The effect is so good. I look prettier, cleaner. My body is better, like a new container for power. I can feel the power of nature coursing. And the mana I have never felt seeping in. It's not the energy I made my world with. But similar. From outside.'

"I like this appearance. Like it so much."

'Pretty black hair, red lips, my teeth look so perfect and small. My nose, I think its getting better. My eyes are bigger. I don't even need my glasses anymore. It's not like my skin being bleached, just cleaner. It looks deliciously tan. It's like the perfect image of what I could ever be become true. Hehe. The silver spring is the best.'

With all the preparations she had made, going out through the lake once again, to the outside world.

She went back to the shore and picked up her clothes from earlier and wore them.

'You ask me why I go out of this paradise? Because this little world is like a prison after all. These resources will come to end with just a moment of instability. Nothing much that is magical or useful in the outside world is full of magic. The first thing that is beneficial is the silver spring. And I've gotten that. The fruit surrounding it has already been eaten. Even though it is lush and comfortable, the possibility of outsiders coming here to plunder these little lands is bigger, and harm may come to me. No matter what my identity here is, the weak will always be a victim after all.'

'Back to the question, my babbling, though good but useless, the conclusion is, if I'm summoned here, there must be a purpose. Finding out the purpose is the first priority and, by coming in this little world, can't make me go back to my world. The only choice is to go out after getting what I need here'

'Observing the surroundings where there was not even a single sound of an animal. The wind passing through the grassland feels quite harsh and cold.'

Walking through the forest ground to the periphery, where the trees are sparse and full of grass. There is a big hole, deep enough to seem like a black hole and wide enough to swallow a whole elephant effortlessly. It is located exactly covered by the grass. People who don’t know would have fallen without knowing how tall the grass there is. The sky is blue. Pale blue. Different from the forest where even the sky is invisible, here the sun is nowhere to be seen, yet strangely enough, everything is crystal clear.

Looking at the forest with a dazed look, she felt sad and relieved at the same time.

Once again looking at the big hole, she murmured to herself.

“So it is the passage to the outside.”

She walks straight and falls into the hole, curling herself into a ball, moving like a silly to the center and flapping her arms like she tought she could fly

“aaaaaaaaaaaaaa”

“I'm flying!”

Brug! Flop!

“I'm dying”

‘Surprisingly, I'm not dead. I'm not hurt as much as I expected from surviving such a hole’

Slowly sitting up, she looked around her surroundings with a headache and pain all over her body.

‘It’s the place of the three doors, but instead of doors there is only a wall.’

Musing to herself, she decided to go back from where she came from. The corridor and the stairs still looked exactly the same, as far as she remembered. The walk is quite fast, because it is a familiar road. Coming out from the secret passage into the corridor with shining moss, she thought to herself.

‘Even though I know and remember some things, I don’t remember many. It doesn’t help my current situation at all. The creation of the world absolutely doesn’t affect my ability to protect myself or gain opportunities in the world. The probability of the outside world being familiar is low.’

Walking silently, she came back to the hall where other people slept, with no waking soul apparent.

‘I wonder where the three of them are going. They aren’t here yet. The others aren’t likely to wake up. Let's go to sleep once more.’

She placed herself where she was laid off before. Sleeping through even with many things in her mind about the future and the past.

The next time she woke up, there was a murmur from the surroundings. Waking up with a dazed mind, she opened her eyes, with lights all over the wall, blinding and making her bleary.

“Ugh, umm”

“El, you’ve woken up?”

“um? Aifii?”

“It's good that you’ve woken up”

“What happened?”

“I also don’t know.”

She said while looking at the crowds of people at the other side.

“Why do they cause crowds over there?”

“Probably because the three people who went out to investigate?”

“Um-hum”

“Apparently, they are awake while the rest of us are falling asleep. They said we’ve been sleeping for about a week.”

“A week? So long? What's wrong? The light?”

'How did we survive without eating anything for a week, by the way?'

“I don’t know. I’ve just woken up before you”

“Do we not wake up the remaining others who aren’t awake yet?”

“It's no use, some have already tried. They can't be woken up. Just waiting to wake up on their own.”

“Then, let's go over there? What are they talking about anyway?”

“From what I heard, the adventures of the three of them while we are sleeping”

“The cause of us falling asleep? The moss?”

“I don’t know”

“Then let's go hear them closer.”

The two of them walked closer to the crowd and listened to the conversation of the three about their experiences for the week.

“So while we were going out through the tunnel, we passed by several other rooms. Empty, no door, no window. No other object to be found at all for about 4 hours we walked.”

“Honestly, it's not that long, but because we don’t know what may happen, we take extra caution to inspect each room.”

There are not many turns, quite simple honestly. Just quite long for each passage.”

“So, we kept walking till we found a way to the outside.”

“It’s a little garden. With a big decorated pot filled with water, and a garden with trees.”

“It's nothing much. But we last for a week, eating leaves, grass, and whatever fruit we can find.”

“The weird thing was, after we got back. You are all nowhere to be found in the former room! We looked everywhere for you guys.”

“After a day probably, that’s from the watch that I wear. We found you all, here, sleeping and can't be woken up.”

“quite the other end of whatever place it is, from the garden I have to say”

Having heard of past events while they are asleep,now the crowd are getting back to the early confusion and curiosity.

“Then,from that garden, can we go out?”

“What about the way back home?”

“Yeah, did you guys find anything? To make us go back?”

“sigh, sadly no. Outside the garden is a forest. But we can't even go into that forest outside. There is like an invisible barrier preventing us from getting outside.”

“Then how do we get out of here?”

“What to do? My parents must have been worried.”

“Are there no police coming to save us?”

“There must be a wanted list of missing people after a week, right?”

“What should we do after all?”

“Why are we all here in the first place?”

In an instant, everything was filled with chaotic words. The leader frowned and said

“Calm down, calm down. I'm sure there must be a way. Maybe there is some secret way or room that we couldn’t find before. With this many people, I'm sure we could survive and find the way back home.”

“That’s right. Just listen to the boss”

The commotion calmed down and only murmuring remained, though the crease on everyone's forehead remains the same.

“That’s possible.”

“Yes. We can do it!”

Then someone raised their hand and asked

“What about food? We probably can't eat grass forever, right?”

“What about water?”

“That’s right.”

“What he said is true.”

“Yeah, what about our basic needs?”

Asked many questions by others, the face of the leader turned sour. Shouting loudly to calm everyone, he said

“Silence!. Please calm down, it's not like I'm responsible for all of this either. And I'm not your mother who has to take care of all of you, so please, calm down”

‘I think the leader said that to himself’

“We will figure it out together.”

People who feel shocked by the sudden outburst, and the others who keep silent stay in their position and some start to sit down or go back to the place they lied before.

“Then shouldn’t we go to the garden?”

“Yes, I think that’s right.”

“Yes, we will lead you there. How about waiting for the other person who isn’t awake yet? And we could go there together.”

“But-“

Glaring at the man who was speaking of just now, made him fall silent.

“Yes, okay, we will go there after everyone wakes up.”

A few hours after that, everyone had woken up, and the group of people gathered together to head for the garden.

“So we will go to the garden where there is food and water. I will lead the way and there is no danger from what we have seen this far, but be careful not to scatter and be lost to one of the rooms and separated from us.”

“It's better if one of us stayed at the back.”

“Yes, I thought so.”

“So, Ratun, you will be in the far back. Okay with that?”

“Okay bos”

Right after we started walking through the hall to the corridor, there is a blinding light. And from there appeared a human-like figure. A rhonum, a human with runes inscribed all over their body from the moment they are born. Seeing that scene, everyone is rooted to the ground, supified by the sudden intrusion of human pop out in the middle of the air.

After the light died down and the subtly glowing rhonum looked into their place, they each looked at the other.

The rhonum start speaking as if they are envoys to us.

“I am Lapis Caeruleus, one of the helpers of the 273th Vin ' te Faciam Fortunatum Ceremony. I am here to help you go to the prepared place for the occasion”

“What? What are you?”

“I am what human called rhonum.”

She said with the poise and elegancy of a miraculous being. Her hair, pale golden, looks shining and contrasted with the dim glow of her rune. Wearing a beautiful dress like a fairy and skin as white as snow, she looks inhumanly beautiful.

“Why, why are we here? Let us go back please.”

“Yes, yes, please let us go back.”

“That’s not possible. You are all the summoned human. The lucky beings who have given the chance to live in this incredible world full of miracles.”

“What, what do you mean?”

“You can't make us go anywhere without our consent!”

“Yes, yes, that’s right!”

“Even though you are pretty and all, it doesn’t mean we will comply with a freak like you!”

She doesn’t look offended by their rude tone and the insult thrown at her. Still speaking politely, she calmly explained

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity that not any random human being could get. To be given this chance means you can get a wealth that lasts several lifetimes, power as strong as immortal and everlasting life. Please cherish this opportunity.”

Everyone appeared to be thinking of the marvelous offer spouted by the rhonum.

“What could make us believe you? You could be harming us”

The boss said with wariness in his eyes, considering many things that could be of harm and the weirdness of all the past events.

“It doesn’t matter if you are willing or not, or you believe me or not. After a moment, you will all be transported to the gathering point. I hope you all will be wise enough to be alive and be lucky enough to achieve your utmost desire”

“I am a messenger and I am here just to inform you. I wish you all good luck”

With that, the rhonum disappears with a light and everything goes back to normal.

“What's that?”

“It's just a dream, right?”

“Aaaaahhh, what will happen to us now?”

“Let's run from here”

Everyone started running to the corridor, but an invisible barrier prevented them from leaving the hall.

“Sigh! What is it?

“It seems we can't leave this place.”

“What should we do? What should we do?”

"Sob, sob, what's gonna happen now?”

And at that chaotic moment, there are once again symbols on the floor. With blinding light, they disappear from the ruined hall.

And everything goes to silent, to the way it was before, for the last ten thousand years.