“Kara…” I muttered without any strength. I was struggling to find a word of encouragement or cheer to her silent and dejected attitude. She glanced at me for a second and smiled weakly, as if reassuring me that she was okay.

Gray summoned his owl while the others followed. The owls dispersed everywhere, searching for any sign of life. While looking around, I caught a glimpse of Remmy muttering gibberish as sparkling light around her was bouncing around, before it disappeared which caused Remmy to sighed as her mouth frowned with a disappointing look.

I walked around as I observed my own surroundings. Kara was standing beside me as she followed my suit while carrying the unlit lantern she was holding from before. Every step we took, I noticed a gradual increase of strength Kara was using to cuddle the lantern she was carrying.

The afternoon sun stopped glowing its prime light as the color of its luminosity was turning warm red and orange. The sky was filled with the silhouette of flocks of birds, signs of the day getting darker, signaling we would need to camp soon before it got any darker.

Remmy walked as she stood besides Kara, patting her with compassion and comfort, resulting in a weak smile Kara gave. Kara thanked Remmy and went with the other mouse girls to prepare for the night, instructing them to make a simple fireplace and getting ready to cook some food.

“I should’ve expected this.” Remmy stood by me as she heaved a sigh while observing the ruin around her.

There was no sign of life in the ghost town we were standing by. Every building we passed down were either annihilated completely and been torn down while signs of fire with the burnt wall as evidence of it were visible.

The afterglow from the afternoon sun was beaming with sorrow as it highlighted the once prosperous village with bountiful wheat fields and farms, or at least that’s what I heard from Kara. However, there was no longer any sign of that, just a desolate ruin with nothing worth mentioning besides the dozens of rundown houses without anyone living in them.

Kara finally accepted the situation that befallen this village, as she put down the lantern she was holding. She opened up the lantern with her gentle hand, making sure that she didn’t clumsily damage it. She held her hands out towards the lantern as she closed her eyes.

“At least I could still meet you again, Mr. Lantern. Fire charge.” Small spark of fire appeared around the lantern until its core was lit up and brightened up the entire surrounding area near Kara.

The moment the lantern was lit up, it started to bounce up and floated towards the sky and fell down with dangerous velocity. It springed up and down a few more times as Kara smiled while looking at the energetic lantern.

Just before Kara was gonna leave the lantern alone to help the others, the lantern started to hover somewhere else, leaving Kara and us behind slowly. “Mr. Lantern, wait!” with Kara’s quick thinking, she immediately followed the lantern while instructing everyone to follow her.

The lantern was levitating at walking speed, so it wasn’t hard to follow. The mouse girls that were preparing to make camping ground immediately abandoned that idea as they all followed Kara. I and Remmy also came after Kara in a hurry with the blue tiger.

The day was turning dark, but in spite of that, the brightness of the lantern was able to luminate the path well enough for us to march on. We were trailing the lantern and arrived at a gigantic river with numerous fauna resting in peace. The lantern however, didn’t stop and kept on moving along as it stuck close to the river.

We walked quite a long time as the forest was finally turning almost pitch black as the lantern was our only source of light. The lantern kept following the river path until it suddenly stopped. I was standing in awe as I looked up towards the ethereal scenery of the towering waterfall. With the help of the lantern, I could see the splashing water from the waterfall as it assaulted the river below it.

“Wait!” Kara shouted. Without warning, the lantern was drifting afloat towards the waterfall directly. Just before Remmy was casting a spell towards the lantern to catch it, the river froze the moment that lantern was floating directly above it.

Kara walked on the frozen river without second thought as she tried to follow the lantern. I was indecisive to step on top of the river but the moment I did, the hesitation disappeared. The ice below me didn’t feel slippery at all. It was almost as if I was walking on solid concrete.

While we’re walking on top of the river, the lantern glowed another warm color onto our bodies. It was the same sensation as before. The sprinkle of waterfall that was trying to creep into us disappeared. Meanwhile, the lantern kept on going into the waterfall as we followed its suit.

“Whoa…” Kara exclaimed in surprise.

Lies beyond the waterfall, was a hidden large cave filled with abundance of houses and its inhabitants. Houses varied by its materials like stone, wood or bamboo. Some of the houses even include dirt as its main component of the wall. The variety of the houses reflected the diversity of its inhabitants. While we appeared from outside, some of the inhabitants saw us in shock.

There were a variety of lanterns floating around the giant cave as it luminated the entirety of the villages. The lantern that was guiding us from before floated alongside its friends as we could only watch from below. The light was illuminating the numerous residents as they watched us.

“Princess…” one of the inhabitants with long ears similar to Remmy mumbled in surprise. However, unlike Remmy, the elf had noticeably shorter hair. Kara looked at the source of the muttering with an uncontrollable grin on her face. Remmy was also unable to contain her excitement as she tried to hold back her tears.

“Hey, it’s the princess!” A figure yelled out. This time, the figure had a semicircle of ears instead of long and pointy, resembling a panda. His bulky figure also bore the resemblance of that black and white bear.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

One by one, many figures started to appear, crowding all of us with a mix of expressions. I could see some humans among the crowds, but most of the residents were from other kinds of races, with the exception of cat tribes. There were even a lot of mouse tribes, similar to Kara and the mouse girls group.

As the citizens started to appear, there was a clear ruckus with waves of people trying to meet us. I took a quick glance at Kara and saw that tears were falling down rapidly from her eyes, while her mouth was forming a smile. Even though the crowd gathering was making its noisy uproar, that didn’t disturb Kara a single bit.

Kara looked at the short-hair elf and panda man, and without hesitation jumped towards them with wide open arms. Both of them accepted Kara’s hugs with tears flowing down and a clear sense of relief in their eyes. “Thank goodness… Thank goodness that the Goddess of Death didn’t take you yet,” said the elf with a raspy voice.

The panda man added, “I kept praying… Day and night, that the Goddess of Death wouldn’t touch you.”

The elf with short hair and the panda man both kept on hugging Kara with tearful expressions while Kara herself was holding an awkward smile as she glanced at me. I sighed and smiled back. I wouldn’t want to ruin this wholesome moment, so I simply smiled to let Kara know that she should’ve just indulged her own wants. Kara seemed to understand me as she stopped glancing towards my direction.

A familiar group of humans made their way from the crowds to see us. They smiled and waved their arms towards me and Kara. With all the commotion, I was only able to wave back as they yelled, “Thank you for giving us a second chance at life, Miss Goddess Yuzu!”

That single sentence was able to stop the ruckus that everyone was making. As time stood still, no one was making a single noise except for the group of humans that were smiling in my direction. “Thank you, Goddess of Death,” one of them added.

That second sentence made everyone that was already frozen to completely stop breathing.

❦ ❦ ❦

“I’m only eighteen, I don’t need wine,” I said towards a cute little girl with adorable bunny ears wearing a simple wide sleeve dress as she tried to offer me a tray with a fancy wine glass. “Eeek! I-I’m sorry!” The adorable bunny girl reacted with her entire body shaking in fear. I sighed at her behavior while Kara smiled while sitting at the awkward attitude of the little bunny girl.

“It’s okay, Mia. Miss Yuzu isn’t scary.” Kara smiled at Mia as she was sitting besides me. That didn’t stop Mia from shaking with fear as she went back from where she came from. I observed around me to see a humble yet gorgeous room. The room consists of a giant circular table with stools around it with Kara and Remmy sitting next to me. Meanwhile, there were also the panda man and elf from before alongside with a human from the group I’ve met as they awkwardly sat across the table.

After the commotion, we were guided inside the town hall with Kara, Remmy and I while the others were led into guest rooms to stay. After a few moments of silence, Mia awkwardly came back while holding a tray with teacups from it as she served us. I thanked her and she nodded with a smile and fear in her eyes as she left.

I took the teacup while waiting for anyone to start the conversation. Without warning, the panda man and the short haired elf smashed their heads on top of the tables in front of them while placing their hands on the table. “We’re sorry!” They both yelled with high volume as they continued to bow down.

“It’s okay, you don’t need to bow,” I said with a sigh. This whole shtick of being a Goddess was starting to take its toll on my mind. Although it was fun being one, I still couldn’t help but feel guilty. Afterall, it wasn’t as if I did anything as a Goddess, I was just pretending to be one.

The panda man was still in his bowing position while the elf followed him. They continuously kept on apologizing profusely until Kara couldn’t take it anymore, “Stop it, you two! You’re bothering Miss Yuzu!”

Hearing Kara, both of them finally stopped pleading as they raised their heads. The familiar man was looking at them with relief. I took a quick glance at him to see that he was still wearing his fancy sword on his back. Unlike before, there was not a single hint of rag in his clothes and it seemed like he took care of his hair too. Perhaps noticing my glance, he smiled towards my direction.

Remmy was observing the other party quietly. She glanced over the elf girl. However, she didn’t say a word and simply took her share of teacup. The other elf also seemed to have something to say, but stayed in silence.

“It’s a bit late to say this, but welcome to Elarindel!” The panda man broke the ice as he gave a warm welcome.

Kara took a moment before she asked, “can you tell me exactly what happened, Mr. Baiyun?”

That sudden of a question gave a heavy, yet expected expression from the panda man. He took a deep sigh before looking outside the window. There wasn’t a sense of time of day or night just by looking outside since the main light source was from the abundance of floating lanterns above us.

“It’s a long story. After the Literea Kingdom was attacked, everyone was spreading out of the kingdom and ran away. I don’t know about the others, but we evacuated into the human village near the kingdom,” the panda man explained. However, just before he could continue, Kara stepped in to interrupt.

“The kingdom was attacked? by whom?” Kara asked.

Hearing that, both Remmy and the elf with short hair I didn’t know the name of flinched together. Kara looked at them with confusion while the panda man was struggling to continue the conversation. Remmy looked at the elf for help while she just avoided Remmy’s glance. Kara looked at the exchange with a pout as she demanded an explanation.

“The day it happened, I was taking a stroll in the forest peacefully with my cat spirit near the kingdom as usual,” Remmy started. Hearing that, I remembered that Kara was talking about Remmy as she lived alone in the forest with nature.

The short-haired elf interrupted, “it wasn’t peaceful.”

There was a hint of annoyedness in Remmy’s eyes, but she held it off. If it wasn’t for Kara’s eyes urging Remmy to continue her monologue, perhaps she would’ve said something about the short-haired elf’s comment.

“Anyway, it suddenly started raining, and a certain simpleton slipped from a tree branch and fell down,” Remmy continued.

“Hey, who are you calling simpleton?!” The short-haired elf argued.

Remmy ignored the short-haired elf and continued. Kara was listening intently as I watched the short-haired elf closely. “After I helped the simpleton to stand up, there was a demon girl near us drawing a magic circle.”

“It was completely mysterious. Not even I, the best magic researcher in the Silvrout Kingdom could figure out what that magic circle was,” The short-haired elf sighed in defeat.

“The moment she saw us, she immediately launched a barrage of attacks and managed to push back both of us. That kind of strength was ridiculous, she was able to launch dozens of spells at once,” Remmy said.

There was a string of silence after Remmy said her words. Kara was waiting impatiently for Remmy to finish her story, but I could tell that Remmy was struggling to find the words to convey. Feeling impatient, Kara switched her glance towards the short-haired elf instead to finish the chronicle of what happened that led her kingdom towards destruction.

“Whatever that magic circle was, we could tell that it was dangerous. We tried to stop the unknown demon girl but ultimately failed. Our strength wasn’t enough, and the demon girl managed to finish her magic circle,” the short-haired elf continued.

A moment of silence could be felt before the short-haired elf took a deep breath, and continued.

“That was when me and my sister saw the true horror, all of the four elder dragons shackled and emerged within the demon girl’s magic circle. They were all roaring with rage and flew towards the Literea Kingdom.”