Chapter 37 – In which Am already made his decision

“Do you know that… ‘meat’s’ purpose?”

“I’m afraid we weren’t able to confirm it. There is heavy interference on multiple points of the transaction route.”

“Does it mean you’re also unable to confirm where exactly their ‘meat farm’ is?”

“We’re very sorry Your Excellency.”

“No, no. I understand. There must be balance to everything.”

The two priests’ expressions were extremely sour, in most part about the situation, but in some part also because they couldn’t live up to their words ‘We’re as good as Your Excellency needs us to be’.

But Amara understood better than anyone else that they were doing more than he could ever expect them to do.

There must be balance to everything.

Just like every life must someday end, there must be evil in the world, so people never stop striving to be better.

‘But evil is only as strong as you let it be.’

His previous self understood the rules of balance, but didn’t understand the rules of compassion.

Amara briefly wondered why his previous self turned out like this, but soon realized…

‘It was because of those two idiots..?’

There were two idiots in his life who decided to break every rule they could against all odds.

If you melt and destroy all the gold, how will you uphold the rules made with it?

If all of your swords turn into rust, how will you continue to fight?

Perhaps if there is a true balance in the Universe, then this world didn’t arrive at it yet.

The current Amara had his head full of two chaotic idiots.

The previous indifference melted completely under the weight of his previous life’s memories.

Amara made a decision… or rather he reconfirmed the decision he made the moment he woke up with his old memories.

“Please show me the last gathering spots where you saw the missing people alive.”

“Yes, Your Excellency.”

The two priests immediately pulled out an enormous map and unrolled it.

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Amara examined it and everyone around followed suit.

The map was marked with thousands of dots of different colors, intersecting lines and small writings in a language which caused in most people a feeling of vertigo by just looking at it.

“The spots we last saw them alive were marked with black dots.”

The black dots were the least numerous, but they also counted up to a hundred at the very least .

Phlox who checked their location, said with a surprised face:

“Aren’t they all places that are close to the divine river roots?”

Divine river roots wasn’t a geographical term, but was a mystical term referring to the rivers which were said to take their roots in spiritual realms.

The eight rivers under the Universe Temple were also this type of rivers.

Amara and Perlliar both nodded, while Cotteo clasped his hand and exclaimed:

“Priest Phlox has good eyes! Indeed they are. And we believe it’s not a coincidence.”

“You think that the massacres may be happening in the vicinity of the rivers.”

“That’s what we’re suspecting, Your Excellency.”

Phlox frowned and mumbled:

“I don’t know the reasons behind it, but I have a really bad feeling about it.”

“Why? I thought we were supposed to burn the dead close to those rivers, because they are connected to the afterlife.”

Geod, who was silent this entire time, spoke up.

Phlox tilted her head in thought and then said:

“There is a big difference between burning someone’s body close to the divine river root, and killing somebody close to it. How to explain it… Okay. Got it, imagine you were escaping from a horrible place. You run a long way, you’re beyond exhausted, your body hurts so much as if it’s about to fall apart. And then you see the gate, the sweet freedom is just behind them. If you get there, you’ll be free. But then, just a few steps away from the gate, your oppressors caught up to you and dragged you back. How would you feel at that moment?”

“Terrible? Desperate? I think I would just wish to die.”

“Yeah, but imagine you’re already dead. You can’t die again. Your only way out is beyond those gates, but now it was taken away from you.”

“... That’s horrible.”

“Agreed. Just thinking about it makes me want to burn those places to the ground. No, I already wanted to burn them to the ground before. Burn them to the ground, and then burn the ground and then burn the ground’s ashes. That's what I want to do.”

Amara didn’t say anything.

Phlox’s instinct about what would happen to the soul was correct.

But she couldn’t imagine what could happen to that soul afterwards.

It’s not because Phlox wasn’t smart enough, but rather because the cruelty needed to come up with such an idea was beyond her.

The scenes that were buried deeply in Amara’s mind surfaced for a moment.

They flashed through his head like neverending nightmare.

… But they ended it.

And they won’t let it repeat ever again.

*Never.*

*Never ever again.*

*We won’t allow it.*

The gods silently vowed with him.

“Please observe those points and inform me when the ‘goods’ will be transported there.”

“... Your Excellency are you perhaps…”

“What are you planning to do, Your Excellency?”

Perlliar and Cotteo no longer had gloomy expressions, but rather slight smiles danced on their lips.

They were looking at Amara with expected gazes.

Amara met those gazes and said:

“I’m going to introduce them to light.”

If his siblings saw him, they would say ‘Oh, he is making that fox expression. Quickly give him sugar and patpats to calm down.’.

But as his siblings weren’t there, the gathered could only be blinded by the brilliance of his smile.

They felt like they were already introduced to ‘light’ by just taking a glance at that smile.

*-*-*

After a short discussion about what will be needed to spread the ‘light’, Perlliar and Cotteo shared one more thing with Amara.

“There is a piece of news that Your Excellency may be interested in.”

“Ah, yes. As Your Excellency instructed, we were also monitoring the ‘owners’ of those who went missing.”

“One of those ‘owners’ made a rather particular transaction.”

“Particular transaction?”

“Very.”

“Indeed.”

Amara, who was preparing to leave, halted.

After he was forced to accept another cup of tea and sat down again, Perlliar and Cotteo finally opened their mouths about that ‘particular transaction’.

“One of the managing priests at the Sun Gods Temple exchanged an old sun relic for a substantial amount of money.”

“Sun relic? Was it a dangerous type? And exchange it with whom?”

“The relic isn’t really dangerous. It only produces a strong pillar of light in a designated area and has slight purifying properties when it touches someone.”

“But that only applies if we talk about humans. But if you're, for example, a vampire, then…”

Cotteo spread his hands as if something exploded into dust.

“And as for the buying party…”

Perlliar continued with a soft smile.

“We tracked down their origins to Flavun.”