I invited Mia over for lunch and introduced her to my family.
My mom was very surprised knowing that she is a level 30 adventurer. The meal was much more enjoyable and I felt at ease, as if I am bathing in the sunshine.
I was relieved that Lu seemed to be fine. I don’t know if yesterday’s treatment worked, or if it was because I successfully slayed the werewolf zombie, but she doesn’t cough now.
However, she’s quite concerned on one thing.
―Oniichan, what about that…… uhm, the blonde girl from before?
―Uh, her? Things didn’t line up with her schedule today….
Lu, why are you so curious?
The meal was fun, but after Mia left, the Eastern Dungeon really stuck in my mind. I was wondering if we should all go to check the dungeon again. But the guild never announced that we can go exploring again.
Soon, night fell.
“I’m going to the roof for a minute.”
After dinner, I informed my mom and Lu and then I head upstairs. There is a ladder in the bedroom that can be used to access the roof. I want to talk to Solana so that is the only convenient place. There was no place in our house where we could be alone. There’s only the kitchen and the bedroom after all……
So, the roof is our private space. When we had important conversations, my father would often call me here as well. It’s a chilly night. The air is clear, and the moon and stars are so visible they seem as if they might fall from the sky.
I took out the gold coin from my pocket. The gold coin shines as it bathes in the moonlight.
| Skill, 『Alarm』was used. Executing 【 Unseal】. |
Light flooded out of the coin and Solana jumped out.
“Rion”
Solana floats in the air and looks around the night view languidly. Her blonde hair also seemed to have lost its usual energy.
“I…., I don’t know where to start.…. but I just remembered something.”
Her golden eyes wandered as if she is hesitating. It was the first time I’d seen her like this.
Eventually, she takes a deep breath.
“What was sealed in that dungeon was a very, very strong god and his enemy. Thor, the God of Thunder and Skoll, the Wolfbone.”
The moment she said the name Skoll, her small shoulders trembled.
“I still remember that the army of monsters filled the earth, and humanity and gods fought a desperate battle in the few remaining underground shelters.”
The Eastern Dungeon may have been one of such shelters. That would explain the weapons and spirits that were there at that time.
“The myth goes like this.”
Solana looked up at the night sky and spoke in singing like tone,
“The gods have won. And to heal their wounds, the gods have been sealed in dungeon and the monsters are sealed away to be used as materials for people –but this is not the case.”
I nod my head.
There are too many things that cannot be explained by the myth. An army of monsters were frozen in ice in the bottom level of the Eastern Dungeon after all.
“If the dungeon was a shelter a long time ago, the very fact that there was a demon general and a group of monsters in the deepest layer is a proof that it was attacked.”
Solana embraces herself. Her fingers were digging into her arms.
“I couldn’t remember…… Or rather, it was sealed in my memory.”
Goddess-sama seems to be desperately trying to face her memory.
“Solana……”
“Let me tell you about myself at that time. Me and my mother are ancient sun goddesses. We are gods created to send magic and light from the celestial bodies floating in the distance to the world. Therefore, if we left the surface world, the world would become as dark as night. We didn’t escape underground, thus we are continuously attacked by monsters outside until the very end.”
Solana clenched her fists tightly.
“I hate that I couldn’t remember it right away.”
She took a deep breath and then she continues,
“My mother fell first. There are only two sun goddesses, my mother and me. The believers did everything they could to get me away, and so did my mother. Just before my consciousness was swallowed by the seal, I was sealed away in this gold coin instead of being frozen in the ice.”
The gold coin that contained Solana is now just a flat coin. The carving of a girl on it is gone. She looked at the golden bracelet on her right arm.
“Gold is the metal that contains the magic of the sun. My mother was very skilled at making items from gold. She must have thought about the possibility of me residing in the coin and escaping to safety, if the worst were to happen. So inside this coin, I had been protected for thousands of years.”
The giant god – Thor was frozen in ice, but that state seems to be a considerable burden for the gods. It seems that if the weakened Solana had not been protected by the gold coin, she could have simply disappeared over time.
“No way….…”
It is completely different from the founding myth of the country.
“This is the truth.”
Solana closed her eyes.
A cold wind blew in. The brightness of the stars covering the royal capital and the scattered lights of the capital both looked dreadfully unreliable at this moment.
“It wasn’t a crushing victory, nor was it even a close one. The gods were on the verge of defeat, so the chief god mustered all his strength to seal us all away. In order to postpone the conclusion of our defeat for 1,000 or 2,000 years.”
My father’s death and Lu’s illness —the monsters in the dungeon are the cause of these misfortune.
Even the Gods couldn’t handle them. So much so that in the middle of the battle, all of his fellow gods had to be frozen in ice.
“So to speak, I am nothing but a defeated god. A god who was almost killed by monsters and had to flee.”
Her wry smile made my heart ache.
“I must have disappointed you….…”
“No. That’s not true at all.”
I stood up and grabbed Solana’s hands. I looked straight at her eyes, like when I encouraged Lu.
“You cured Lu, you also helped me a lot in the dungeon. Solana—you are a fine goddess as you are!”
I was careful not to look away. Just like what my father does when he tells me something important.
Solana’s eyes blinked for a moment.
“Uh—”
She looks like she’s about to cry and I panicked.
When I became Solana’s believer, the anxiety and fear I felt must have come from this. She had lost her mother and her former believers, and even before she woke up, Solana was already alone. Even if she lost her memory, her heart must have felt extremely lonely.
“Uu……uh-!?”
My confidence quickly dwindles as the goddess’ tears are about to fall.
It’s hard to cheer someone up after all…!
“I’m… not… crying……”
“Mm. The sun doesn’t cry.”
Solana shakes her head. Her blonde hair swayed side to side.
“Sniff. Having you as my believer, I cannot be down.”
Solana chuckled.
“Thank you, I’m glad you are my first believer….…”
I think the reason I blurted that out was because the expression on her face seemed to tell me that I saved her, and my heart warmed as well.
“Well, we’re starting out I guess.”
“Hn?”
“I just defeated my first boss, so….…”
“I see. You’re my first believer and I only have one believer as of the moment —indeed, both of us are just starting out.”
We looked at each other and laughed. The weight of various things, the pain, everything, they became lighter.
Right. I’m just getting started.
From now on, I can start again. Well, together with a Goddess.
Solana put her hands together and floats softly into the air. She’s looking up at the night sky.
“But now that this has happened, I’m even more worried about your sister’s illness.”
“……Does it have anything to do with dungeons?”
“I think so. It seems that someone is loosening the seal, but maybe the seal itself is also weakening. I was awakened thanks to you, but if it had been 100 years ago, even the removal of the seal might not have awakened me.”
In the first place, I met Solana because I got to know an antique dealer at a second-hand shop as a wake-up caller. I haven’t been able to see him since then, but……. It’s quite a coincidence and a stroke of luck on my part I guess.
Solana shivered.
“It’s time to go back to the gold coin. Rion, call me again.”
I took out the gold coin and held it out to Solana. Somehow, I felt like it is better that way.
“Fufu, thank you. You’re not only a good believer, but you’re a good boy too!”
The smile on her face is sunny as always.
Our hands touched. Then, my chest is getting hot, it was like—
““Eh?””
Our bodies started to glow golden. When Solana and I first made our vows, even more power than that flowed into me now.
“T-this is?”
“I, I don’t know either!”
Then complaints from the neighbors like, “Oi, it’s too bright!” and “I can’t sleep!”, came in one after another.
Sorry everyone. I’ll wake you up refreshed tomorrow morning!
“Oniichan? There’s fire!?”
Lu popped her head out onto the roof, so I hurriedly put Solana away in the gold coin.
However, my sister did not press me on that, instead—
“……Really, it’s fire!”
The fire was coming from the direction of the Eastern Dungeon. Then I could hear the distant howl of a wolf. For some reason, I felt as if I could hear Gideon’s screams in the back of my ears as I dropped him into that pitfall.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com.
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