The Rumor of Gods
I grew up in Haruna village by myself. I lived by myself since something happened to the rest of my family. The chief had told me that my family was all killed out in the woods while on a trip. He never told me the particulars about it, and ever since then I’ve been on my own in this world. I have always heard stories of gods and higher beings, but none came to fruition until I was seventeen in Haruna village.
Haruna village was nothing special on the map. In fact, if there weren’t a map I’m pretty sure nobody would ever find it because of how small it was. Haruna village consisted of twenty houses all made from wood and the central hall where things are decided on. The hall was a simple building, however it was rather large. I hear there are buildings far bigger than it in the bigger cities. My house was the smallest of them all since I couldn’t afford to keep a whole house organized. It had lots of decorations though because when i was a kid I grew into a habit of collecting ornaments and the like along with my friend Ritsuko.
Today I was supposed to go to the Hall for an errand. Once I got in the hall, I looked at our chief and glanced over him, since I have only seen him a few times before. He is a man probably around forty years old and he is rather muscular. He looks like he could easily kill a troll if he had to. After looking at him with his shirt off, this time I realized I never noticed the scar on his chest. It stretched from the top of his collarbone all the way down to his belly button and there were smaller scratches off to his sides. I asked him how he got his scar and he said, “Maeno, I got this from a scaled beast long ago when I worked as a goods transporter. It came out of nowhere and sliced my chest open and stole all of our cargo. After it left someone said they had spotted it, but it was moving so fast that no details could be made out on it”.
The Village Chief looked at me and said, “Maeno, I have an important mission for you.Go to Barui and have them send a shipment of supplies to Haruna Village. Tell them I will pay them after the shipment is delivered.Look for a man named Glen Baitor once you get into Barui. He is the person in charge of supply deliveries.” The chief looked at me and said, “Once you complete this task report back here and give me any new information that the guild hall has.”
I looked around the room for a brief second and he says “Maeno, I have something for you that I should’ve given you years ago. Your dad found this and said that you would need it should you ever leave the village.”
I looked at the object in his hand with curiosity since I didn’t know what it was. The stone itself felt strangely familiar even though I had never seen it before. It looked like some form of carved rock with black painting all over it. It had one star and the number five in the middle, along with a long, curved L that looped around it. I reached over and gently took it out of his hand. The stone didn’t seem to be anything special, but my dad probably knew more about it than I did.
If magic did exist this, would probably be considered a magic item. I put it into my pocket and started to leave the hall. Before I leave entirely, the chief tells me “Maeno, be careful when you leave the village. I hear monster activity has gotten worse”.
I nod and continue out of the hall. I look down at the stone again and find that the markings are gone. However there is a word on the rock. The word is Lucci, it could possibly be a name. I shrug and put the rock into my pocket and head over to Ritsuko’s house.
Ritsuko is a brownish red haired girl who always wears girly clothing and is into everything that she thinks is cute. She is around my age and I’ve known her since we were five. She always wears the black ribbon in her hair that I gave her we were eight, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her take it out. Ritsuko is fairly nice to me but she doesn’t really like anyone else.
She lives with her grandparents because originally her parents ditched her in Haruna Village on a trip to see her grandparents. Once they got into town they left her with her grandparents and her brother. She didn’t like living there, but since she didn’t have anywhere else to go she stayed there. Her brother once he was old enough eventually left as well leaving her with her grandparents who died when she was eleven.
Before her brother left he trained her in swordsmanship. She didn’t really talk much about her training so it was probably pretty bad. After he left though she continued training in all of the things he taught her. However since she didn’t have an actual sparring partner she never improved past what he trained her. She always came with me on my journey’s and carried that sword with her. She did this because she thinks I’m defenseless.
I am going to need Ritsuko’s help on this journey because she knows how to fight with a sword, and I don’t. Ritsuko tells me to wait so she can get changed before we leave. She comes back out in a black cloak, some light armour consisting of black leather, and cloth. She has a sword in her sheath at her side along with the bags she packed for us.
Ritsuko asks me “Do you need anything else before we head out.”
I of course tell her “No” and we embark off on our journey heading out of the village. It should be roughly two or three hours walking distance before we get to where we need to go. That would be the large city of Barui. I take a glance at Ritsuko to see how she is doing and from the looks of it she is doing well. She seems happy that I invited her along. That may also be because of the fact she has always wanted to go to a big city like Barui.
As we are walking I decide to take in the view. The trees are lush and green. The plants are just as vibrant and lively as I remember them. There aren’t any animals that I would normally see. This does not upset me, but it is a tad bit unsettling. The forest should have some form of life, but I haven’t heard any life from it since we left the village. I continue walking on the path right next to Ritsuko and pull out the stone again. I look down and nothing more has changed. The stone still says Lucci on it and the markings are still gone. Ritsuko sees me pull out the stone and looks at it briefly.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
She asks me “Maeno, what is that?”
“No Idea” I respond. “It changed though after I touched it and now it just has a name on the stone. I don’t know how to pronounce it though.”
She says “It looks like it is pronounced Lu--chi from what I can tell.” I nod and try it out for myself. I say Lucci and then say it again so I can get used to it.
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We have been walking for a while by now and we decided to stop for lunch. Ritsuko pulls out the bread and cheese she brought for us along with some freshly collected berries. The bread has gone a tad stale so it’s hard to chew, but it isn’t all that bad. The cheese is rich and flavorful, but has a slimy texture to it when it’s chewed. After we finish the bread and cheese we eat the berries. The berries taste sweet, but were a little ripe. While we are finishing off the remnants of what Ritsuko packed for us, I start small talk with her. I tell her “The weather’s pretty nice today”, and then ask her thoughts about the task the chief gave to me and this weird stone my dad gave me. Ritsuko simply thinks the chief gave me the task to make sure I was competent enough to go journeying on my own and as for the stone she only has a faint idea about it.
Ritsuko says “I know a story about some stones that I heard long ago”. “It was about how gods couldn’t intervene in the lives of mortals so they sent all twenty of each of their familiars amongst the world. In total, there were three hundred and twenty familiars, but only three hundred were actually known of.”
“There were sixteen gods and each god had twenty familiars. All total there were three hundred-twenty familiars, but only three hundred of them were ever known. However the sixteenth god was said to be death and wouldn’t send his familiars out to find masters, but rather decided he would choose who possessed his power. Different sects were formed under each god, but eventually when the gods no longer showed people started questioning if they were ever even real at all”, Ritsuko said sullenly.
“So as of now nobody believes in those gods anymore and because of it the gods powers weakened. Truthfully they may have even decayed to the point they could no longer fend for themselves so It wouldn’t be hard to imagine that they don’t show up anymore”. Ritsuko said.
“Do you believe in the gods?” I ask Ritsuko.
She says “Yes, Maeno, I believe in them, but I wish they would reappear some day.”
I say “Well, then I believe in them too.” she looks up and smiles at me. We get up and continue walking toward Barui. The rest of the trip is completely uneventful on the way to Barui. When we get there I realize this city is far bigger than I originally thought:
Barui is humongous compared to Haruna village. It’s regular business buildings are twice the size of our central hall and the guild halls are way bigger. I get so caught up in the sights I almost lose sight of Ritsuko and have to run to catch up. She was the one who carried the map of the town after all. Once I catch up to her is I ask her if she knows where the shipment and trading good place is.
She quietly continues studying the map while she shakes her head. I look around through all the department stores. Everything in these stores are super expensive. I’m not even sure I’ve seen one hundred pecunia before. I continue window shopping while Ritsuko tries to figure out where we are trying to go.
“Everything about the big city is awesome!” I remark, looking at how well made the cobblestone streets are, and how nice all of the buildings look. Everything is made from some form of timber here except the castle, but how they got it to look so pretty is beyond me.
Ritsuko finally finds the trading center Chief Ranga asked us to find, and it appears to be located inside of a guild hall. We head over to the guild hall and the outside is so shocking I can’t even move to bring myself to go into it. I want to stand outside and stare forever at the guild hall.
The walls are polished so cleanly that they sparkle. The stones that make up the bottom supports were neatly laid, and cut so well that you could not tell where one stone stops and another ends. The wood that makes up the large doors looks more expensive than the cost of our village. The roof on it appears to be one solid black stone and the inside is even more impressive.
The whole inside is clean, and everything looks eloquent from the candlesticks used to light the room, to the rugs that people walked on. This whole place is perfectly laid out. The guild has the appeal of a palace. Even though so many people must come through daily I don’t even see a speck of dust, or dirt anywhere in this guild hall. The sign on the guild hall is Dragon’s Fang.
After I regain my senses I look and see Ritsuko. She is also in awe of it. I myself have never even seen ornamental candles, but I’m sure these are definitely the expensive kind. I look around for the trading part of the guild hall. It is to our left further up the stairs. I head up there along with Ritsuko.
Neither of us talk because of how much we admire the place in its glory. Once we actually reach the trading center inside of the guild hall I ask for a person named Glen Baitor at the front desk area. He says to me you need Mr. Baitor? Yes, I respond our Chief Ranga from Harun village wanted me to come and ask for the next convoy to drop off the items needed at the village and that we should pay them when they get there.
The man looks up at me and says “Ah Haruna Village huh? Hold on a minute let me go find Mr. Baitor and I shall be up here again shortly.” He leaves the room and I look over at Ritsuko. She seems to be thinking so I decide to leave her alone. A few minutes later the man upfront says “Glen can’t come up here he is busy at the moment. However he said he would get your delivery set up today.”
I then ask “Do you know of the recent news?”
He responds, “Who doesn’t?” and I give him a questioning glance.
The man looks up at me and says “It’s just a rumor right now, but it’s spreading like wildfire. Supposedly the gods made an appearance and are coming back.”
I am in shock from this news and ask “Ok, do you have anything else?”
He replies with “Other than the gods returning, people claim someone killed a god and became one. The other part to the rumor said killing the gods should be easy since they are weak and so here in a month or two guilds are going to start going on raids and are going to start trying to hunt the remaining gods for a chance at immortality. Magic has also started springing back up again so everyone thinks that the gods are definitely back” the man says.
I thank the man for his information and leave the guild hall. I look at Ritsuko and say “We need to hurry back to the village.”
She agrees and says “I can’t believe people are actually hunting god's right now. If that rumor about someone becoming a god is true we need to stop them.”
I say “Yea and if magic is coming back like they claim, then we are going to need to learn magic in order to protect the gods.” Ritsuko nods in agreement and we decide after we get back to Haruna Village we will plan on leaving and what to do after that.