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The residents who had been participating in the ritual procession returned to town and were met by Fiona Schillings, acting town mayor.
“Thanks for your help, everyone.”
The men wearing indigo-blue ceremonial clothes bowed their heads in unison, turned, and walked away from the mansion. As Fiona silently watched them disperse to various places in the town, she repeatedly curled her long blonde hair around a finger. This was a pointless habit of Fiona’s that she did whenever she was irritated.
The ritual procession had returned, but the ritual itself was not over. There was simply no more role for humans to play. The main event, yet to come, was to be conducted by the god of the land. Of course, it was a “ritual” only in name. In truth, it was a brutally heartless feast.
Fiona’s jade-green eyes narrowed, and a melancholy expression distorted the neat and pretty face for which she had been well known back at the academy in the capital. “I suppose it won’t help to express my displeasure,” she said.
“It is, after all, a tradition that has been upheld for generations,” replied the man standing beside her.
She wasn’t particularly seeking an answer, but one had come anyway from the Schillings family’s butler. Not only did he handle miscellaneous tasks within the house, he also assumed the role of assisting Fiona, who was serving as the town mayor in place of her bedridden father. The butler had been born and raised in this town and was of course older than Fiona, even older than her father. For him, this ritual was very, very natural.
“Because nothing could be done about it,” Fiona said.
“But of course. Nothing can be done,” the butler replied and nodded deeply, a smug look on his face.
People often create logic to justify pre-existing facts. Here in Friedland, the ritual was simply accepted. After so long had been spent rationalizing it in the name of "the greater good," no one even thought to question it anymore, regardless of how hard it was on everyone emotionally.
Fiona thought about how it really was scary, what people grew to accept. If she had grown up without ever leaving this town—if she hadn’t left to study in the kingdom’s capital—she would have accepted this ritual without even questioning it. Of course, she understood that nothing could be done about it. The royalty and nobility in the capital did not concern themselves with rural politics. As long as the taxes were coming in regularly, they had no interest, whatever might be happening out here. Even if she made some kind of complaint, they would simply recite that they “respect local customs,” and steadfastly refuse to get involved.
“How long are we going to have to keep doing this...”
“Forever, Milady,” the butler said with a gentle smile.
✦ ✦ ✦
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When he woke up... there was a naked girl right beside him.
That was more than enough to disturb Yukinari.
“What...?”
No, on second glance, she wasn’t naked, but... in a way, what she did have on made her look vastly more inappropriate than “nothing” ever could have. What she was wearing was thin, underwear-like clothing that covered only limited areas. It was made of finely woven silk gauze, and he could essentially see right through it to her skin. It wasn’t a matter of just seeing “outlines.” If someone were close enough, they could probably discern the peach fuzz on her skin. Yukinari couldn’t help but think that going openly and completely naked would be less arousing to wandering eyes than wearing what she did.
Moreover, the girl was cute. She was maybe sixteen or seventeen, her hair was long and flaxen, and she had a pretty face. However, she looked somehow fragile, and the light dwelling in her amber eyes seemed terribly faint. It was far easier to picture her crying than laughing or being angry. She was that kind of girl. Her appearance might even tempt people of a certain disposition to cruelty and the desire to tease her for no good reason. However, Yukinari had no such tendencies.
Dasa, who had been sleeping next to him, also awoke with a mumble of sleepy confusion. She had probably picked up on Yukinari’s surprise. She took her glasses off, rubbed her eyes to wake herself up, put the glasses back on, and looked at the girl who was just standing there next to them, not moving.
“You...” Dasa’s eyes narrowed behind her lenses.
“Are you into some kinda niche stuff?” Yukinari asked first.
“Stupid...” Dasa delivered a terribly cold assessment of Yukinari’s dim-witted remark.
“So she isn’t?”
“She’s chained... up.”
“Uh, yeah, that was my point...” Yukinari said, tilting his head.
In Yukinari’s simple worldview, if someone were chained up and as good as naked, they were either a slave or a pervert. But there was surely no way that a slave would just be left by a huge stone monument out here in the mountains. The point of slaves was to put them to work. So the only remaining possibility was—
“U-Um, please, please get out of here quickly...” The girl in thin clothing interrupted Yukinari’s thoughts. Her voice was as timid as she looked, and yet within it, there were unmistakable tones of urgency and panic.
“Don’t you know where you are? This is the erdgod’s sanctuary...!”
“Erdgod?” Yukinari furrowed his brow.
“You might be okay, but the girl next to you,” the girl said, looking at Dasa, “she might be seen as a ‘shrine maiden’ like—”
She was unable to finish her sentence. A squelching sound of feet against wet earth boomed through the air overhead. And then, shortly after—
“Ohhh... Ohhh...” Was that sound, like mud bubbling, a voice? “There are... two... whole... sacrifices...”
Yukinari turned in the direction of the voice. And there—
“An erdgod,” Dasa muttered.
Standing there was a gigantic monstrosity. There was no other way to describe it. The textures and shapes of the various parts of its body seemed familiar enough, and it was covered with the kind of fur commonly seen on four-legged animals. But a six-legged creature like this was far beyond a mere “animal.”
To be precise, it had four hoofed legs and two additional limbs that were not identifiable as arms or legs growing from its body. At the ends of those two limbs were long, thin “fingers” that seemed to dangle down, and they were all moving independently, restlessly, like the legs of an insect. Moreover, its head was clearly not that of a four-legged animal. In fact, its face was constructed more like a monkey’s—no, a human’s. It was round, and its eyes, nose, mouth, even its ears were gathered close together in the hairless area at its center. It was as if a tiny human face had been embedded in the middle of a faceless ball of meat.
Then was this thing human? It did have a human-like face, and it could understand and use human language...
“SACRIFICES. SACRIFICES.”
“SMALL ONE. WANT. WANT.”
“EAT MAN TOO.”
There were other monstrosities crawling around the huge one’s feet. They were about the size of a dog or cat, but again their heads were more like those of humans than four-legged animals, creating a horribly incongruous picture.
“What are these guys...?”
“An erdgod and... its familiars,” Dasa replied.
“Erdgod? You’re telling me this thing is a god?”
“Most were animals at... first,” Dasa said, opening up her case and reaching inside.
“Animals, huh... Well, yeah, it doesn’t look like we’re gonna have much of a conversation.”
Yukinari looked around with a weary expression. There was one gigantic monster—or should it be called a god?—called an “erdgod,” and its ten or so divine familiars. They were each holding a position to surround the megalithic structure the girl had called the “sanctuary,” and all were staring at the three humans. The familiars’ faces resembled those of human beings. However, it was impossible to sense any higher form of intelligence in their expressions, and drool was dripping from their half-open mouths. At least the erdgod, which could have been called their boss, did not have a face that slack.
In any case, Yukinari, Dasa, and Berta were in the very picture of a tight spot. Not only were they surrounded, their enemies were horrible monstrosities. Although the familiars had bodies like large dogs, it was still clear just by looking at them that they were not something that a human being could handle on their own. If it came down to a bare-handed fight to the death, a human wouldn’t even be the favorite against ordinary, medium-sized canines. The dogs would jump at him all at once, and he would be bitten to death, powerless to stop them.
“SMALL ONE! EAT!” Making its move before the others, one of the familiars started to approach. It seemed to have determined that Dasa could be its prey and was advancing, hoping to sink its teeth into her. The girl in thin clothes belonged to the erdgod, but it looked like the other two, who hadn’t been planned for, were first come, first served.
“EAT, EAT!” Barking the words more than speaking them, the familiar leaped at Dasa. The jaws of its very human-like face opened, and its fangs, which were unequivocally those of an animal, snapped for the kill as saliva trailed from them. And then—
There was a deafening noise—a violent explosion of sound, a voice of dissent at this insane banquet. The familiar that had jumped at Dasa bent in midair and fell to Dasa’s side in a strange posture. But that was all. The familiar did not get up again but just lay there, its body twitching and convulsing. It was clearly near death. The erdgod and the other familiars froze in shock. It seemed that they were intelligent enough to understand that this was an abnormal situation.
“Yuki,” Dasa said, looking at him. “I’m going to... use it.”
“You already did... Ehh, whatever. It’s not like you had a choice.” Yukinari nodded at her. Permission received, Dasa aimed her weapon again, this time with proper form. The last time had been a quick draw, so she hadn’t had enough time to take aim.