I paced around the cell grumbling and muttering profanities. I and the dwarf were still stuck in the prison building just outside of the temple.

Damn it, I should have kept my mental mouth shut, then I wouldn’t have been dragged into this situation.

「Yusdrolir: Any plan chief? We could maybe say we’re really sorry and all and they’ll let us off?」

I stared flatly at the dwarf while I experienced a vague sense of déjà vu.

「Yudrolir: Oy, ain’t that funny. This time you screwed up bigger than me. Haha.」

The insufferable dwarf mocked me, for once not alone in the embarrassing fuck-ups department.

「Allen: Yes, ha-ha. fucking great. At least this goddess doesn’t want to kill me… yet.」

That ‘yet’ was full of doubts. What do I do now? My mind processed the possible scenarios.

If I try to escape it might create problems for the others and I would get myself killed. I heard all the elves learn magic to some extent, so my magical edge might not really help me at all. No, in fact, my magical edge probably looked like a dulled blunt instrument in comparison.

But then what? Should I just wait patiently?

How long?

What about my lessons? Gods, Grohm is gonna be pissed.

They also seized all my stuff.

I sure hope they’re not fucking up with my silver cube. I scowled at the empty air.

How unfair. I had been 100% sure the high priest would vouch for me and send me back to my friends. I should just have run into the mountains.

Hellhounds had a much warmer welcome.

I muttered more curses under my breath.

I heard footsteps approaching. Taldinann and two guards came into view, glowering disdainfully at me.

I felt a pang of sadness. I did not deserve to be treated like this.

I wonder what the trio had been doing. They were too good to just leave me rotting here.

The three elves stopped in front of us.

Taldinann pointed at me and spoke some elven gibberish.

The guards nodded and whisked me away into another room. Taldinann sat on the comfortable chair and stared at me.

「Taldinann: So… Allen is your name.」

The elven priest stated. I nodded.

「Taldinann: Your friends have been petitioning me to let you go.」

I felt a tingle of hope.

「Taldinann: But the Goddess is not deceived…」

Hope died. My shoulders slumped.

「Taldinann: Not only you’ve insulted her…」

「Allen: It wasn’t intentional!」

I complained. The guard on my right sucker punched me to shut me up.

「Allen: Ooofff!」

I struggled to refill my collapsed lungs. And not to throw myself against the guard in a moment of murderous fury.

「Taldinann: … She saw through your facade and found something unnatural about you.」

He said a bunch of bullshit.

「Allen: Eh?」

I asked in confusion. What the hell did he smoke?

「Taldinann: Hold him down.」

He motioned the guards who quickly complied. I scowled at them.

Taldinann touched my forehead with two fingers and closed his eyes.

「Allen: …」

So, what is this guy trying to do? I could see a faint magic light being emanated. I was slightly concerned.

After a minute he frowned.

「Taldinann: Blessed Analher, forever may she shine…」

He muttered something more in elven jargon.

「Allen: What?」

I shrugged voicing my exasperation. This is unreal, imprisoned just for badmouthing a prissy Goddess?

「Taldinann: I’ll be the one asking questions… it’s as the Goddess said, your soul does not match your body age. It’s almost as if it were a newborn. Explain that to me.」

My soul is like a newborn? That must be because I never had any mana until recently.

「Allen: I, uh… come from a land without magic?」

I said vaguely.

「Taldinann: … Does that mean you were you a soulless?」

He asked wide-eyed, furrowing his brows.

「Allen: Soulless?」

Well, I was a corporate drone. But maybe calling me soulless is a little extreme. It’s not like I was a murder-happy psychopath. At best I could be a sociopath.

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「Taldinann: I believe you people call them mana dead.」

He explained, restoring his scowling face.

「Allen: Look, when I came into this w- country I didn’t even know that mana and magic existed. This is all new to me.」

Shit, did the Creator do a sloppy job with my spirit? I felt a cold sweat forming on my skin.

「Taldinann: Impossible, you must be lying. But I have just the thing.」

He fumbled within his priestly robes. Oh boy, he’s going to take out some kind of torture device.

The elf took out a familiar looking sphere of crystal. Oh… one of those truth-telling magic devices, just like the one Violet used on me. So many happy memories about it.

Taldinann gave it to me.

「Taldinann: Hold it.」

I did so. Anticipating the jolt, I did not let it fall.

Taldinann narrowed his eyes.

「Taldinann: You already know what this is?」

「Allen: A truth-telling device, I suppose?」

I said. I think that only made him more suspicious.

「Taldinann: I see… are you a spy?」

He leaned forward trying to stare intimidatingly. A wasted effort against a man who can’t really feel fear.

「Allen: No.」

I replied flatly. Again with this spy bullshit.

「Taldinann: Did anyone perform experiments on you, restoring somehow your soul?」

「Allen: Not that I know of.」

I shook my head.

「Taldinann: Have you stolen that body?」

He said, narrowing his eyes even further.

「Allen: What? No, this is my body!」

I squirmed agaisnt the restraints. Taldinann stared at the crystal and back to me for a few seconds.

「Taldinann: You said you come from a land without magic, yet you clearly have a soul… was it perhaps hybernating due to the lack of mana? Where is such a place?」

「Allen: In my country…」

I said its name.

「Taldinann: I never heard of it, where is it located exactly?」

「Allen: I, err… I don’t know?」

Shit, I can’t half truth through this.

Taldinann frowned glancing at the crystal.

「Taldinann: That doesn’t make sense. Ho could you possibly not know?!」

Taldinann was getting impatient, his brow was twitching. Aggravating douchebags is a small comfort, but one I gladly receive.

「Taldinann: Stop playing games! Where are you from and how did you get here?!」

「Allen: I just… went to sleep one day and woke up here.」

I shrugged innocently.

「Taldinann: What? Someone must have brought you here, who was it?」

「Allen: The… Creator… of this universe?」

I said, slowly rolling my eyes upward.

Taldinann massaged his temples, clearly disappointed at the crystal not blinking even once.

「Taldinann: I don’t know how you’re doing it, but you’re lying.」

「Allen: I’m not!」

Taldinann snorted and stood up, scowling at me with all his might.

「Taldinann: As you wish, this requires the intervention of the Goddess. Let’s see if you can lie under her scrutiny.」

He made a sign to the guards and walked out.

I made a pitiful face while the guards dragged me into the temple.

I had a bad feeling about that.

----------------------------------------

They tied me on a chair in a small room with various symbols painted on the ground and walls.

I sure hope this is not one of those rooms where priests do blood sacrifices.

「Taldinann: Now then, I’ll summon the Goddess and expose your lies!」

He started chanting, praying or both. After a while, I started feeling again that unpleasant sensation of something intruding my mind. I shivered.

『WHY IS THIS ABOMINATION HERE?』

The Goddess spoke telepathically.

「Taldinann: Oh blessed Analher, guide me in exposing this human’s lies.」

Abomination? Whew… Having a goddess calling me that was somewhat depressing.

This is divine bullying. I filed a mental complaint.

『SILENCE!』

I’m not even talking, this is a violation of my privacy!

「Taldinann: Do not disrespect the Goddess!」

The high priest barked at me.

Apparently, the Goddess was simultaneously talking to me and the high priest.

Maybe I shouldn’t have accepted the quest to help these elves. No good deed goes unpunished. I thought back at all the flames we had to endure against those stupid hellhounds.

Besides, How is she even understanding me? I’m thinking in my own language! I just didn’t know.

Taldinann flooded me with questions, I replied truthfully.

「Taldinann: Again… who brought you here?!」

He asked for the seventh time. I groaned.

「Allen: The Creator of this blasted world!」

I said with exasperation, picturing the episode back in my mind. Urgh. Damn, I felt like something was running a blender through my brain.

「Taldinann: Liar!」

『HE’S… TELLING THE TRUTH』

Stated the goddess.

「Taldinann: Huh?」

『OR SO HE BELIEVES』

Yeah sure, I brainwashed the 30 years of my life with super accurate delusions of a real life in a world without magic and advanced technology. I thought sarcastically.

I mean, it must happen all the time, right? Also waking up embedded in the ground, in a random place, that’s like a daily occurrence. It’s magic after all. I couldn’t stop myself.

『ARE YOU MAKING FUN OF ME?!』

The shouting goddess asked angrily.

I probably shouldn’t aggravate a goddess, what am even I doing? I thought, questioning my sanity.

『INDEED!』

I guess I’m just under the common misconception that my thoughts are just my own. It’s like someone broke into my bathroom and got me arrested for offending him, just because at that moment I was naked, trying to dress up in evident panic because SOMEONE HAD ENTERED WITH NO PERMISSION!

『THIS SACRED GROUND IS MY DOMAIN, BLASPHEMER.』

The goddess shouted, only making my headache worse.

Look, can’t I just say I’m sorry? It’s not like I actually meant any disrespect. I’m sure you can see that since you’re ravaging my hopeless mind!

『…』

I was confused. How could a goddess not know the Creator? It made no sense. Aren't gods born from the Creator? Were they abandoned at birth with no explanation or purpose? Or mayb–

Taldinann cleared his throat and spoke.

「Taldinann: I would appreciate if you voiced your thoughts!」

「Allen: Fine.」

「Taldinann: So this Creator sent you here… for what reason?」

「Allen: He wanted me to… try out this world? Give feedback? I’m starting to suspect he only brought me here to have a laugh at my back. What can I say… I can only make hypotheses. He… it… whatever, only talked to me once! Once!」

I was still pissed about that. I had been dumped into this world without a goal or even a glint of divine wisdom.

『HE BELIEVES TO BE SAYING THE TRUTH』

It is the truth!

「Taldinann: What about your soul then?」

「Allen: Maybe since there’s no mana from where I come from, the Creator had to create one for me?」

Taldinann kept staring at me with a hard face.

「Taldinann: Blessed one, are you certain he’s truthful.」

『THIS HEATHEN HAS NOT SPOKE A SINGLE LIE SO FAR』

Of course, I don’t want to die! I still retained my common sense, after all.

『AND YET…』

Another ‘yet’ that made me feel queasy.

『I FEEL THE TOUCH OF A DARK GOD ON HIS SPIRIT.』

Dark god? Was that a false accusation? She was the first god, besides the Creator, I ever talked to.

Unless the Creator was actually a dark god or something.

A sharp pain coursed through my spirit as if it had been caught under a lawnmower. I choked down a whimper.

「Taldinann: Is that so… who do you serve human?」

The high priest tried to sound intimidating. I seriously wished he stopped that, he looked completely out of character. I wanted to punch his stupid face. Stop! The goddess is listening! I admonished myself.

「Allen: Nobody! This is the first time I even interact with a god of this world! I didn’t even know they actually existed!」

How could I know, when people are wont to invent gods out of thin air?

『EXFERAS… DOES THIS NAME MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU?』

The screaming goddess projected her question painfully inside my mind. Alas, the name didn’t ring any bell.

「Allen: Who?」

I asked, not sure where to direct my questioning gaze. The headache intensified as the force intruding my mind rummaged around. I gritted my teeth, enduring the suffering.

Taldinann rubbed his chin for a few moments.

「Taldinann: Could he be… unaware? What are we supposed to do with him?」

He spoke to the empty air.

『KEEP HIM UNDER OBSERVATION, MY ATTENTION IS REQUIRED ELSEWHERE.』

The pressure on my mind relented and I gasped in relief.

The priestly elf raised his head upward.

「Taldinann: Thank you for your guidance, o’ blessed one.」

He said with his hands closed in prayer. I didn’t feel thankful at all. He turned his gaze on me.

Well, shit. No! Keep down the profanities! Damn it! This is so unjust.

「Allen: Please do not dissect me.」

I pleaded, still recovering from my splitting headache.

The high priest narrowed his eyes without replying.

How did I end up here? Why does the Goddess keep shouting? What's this shit about dark gods?!

I just wanted to go back home.