We took a few seconds to pray in front of each statue before leaving. Most of the villagers didn’t have much to say to the majority of the gods. I think they gathered every Sunday more to socialize than to pray.

Some people even completely skipped over the irrelevant gods. It was in front of one of the ignored ones where we caught up to my mother in our route around the makeshift church.

“G-Good morning Mrs…um…Lief’s mother!” Lucy gave my mother a well-practiced curtsy as she stumbled over words.

“Well she won’t hear you unless you speak up. But like I said, there’s no point in trying to talk to her in the middle of prayer. Watch this.”

I shook my mother’s shoulder and whispered, “Mom! The house is on fire! Elliot’s trapped inside!”

She didn’t so much as twitch.

“See? Nothing. We like to joke that she’s the only statue here my father didn’t build. You might not even get a chance to talk to her today if your father really picks you up before dinner.”

“Won’t daddy get mad at me though? I’m supposed to learn from her right?”

“I did warn him this would happen. It’s his own fault for not listening. Anyways, lets finish praying before it gets too crowded in here. This is Yllavein, the Elves’ Goddess. Though you don’t have to pray to her if you don’t want to. Most people don’t.”

Unlike the other gods, her statue actually looked like her true form since the finishing details we left to me. Her torso protruded from a dead tree and was draped in a cloak of leaves. Like the elves she created, her body was thin, skin pale, and ears long and sharp. On her head was a crown of thorns.

“Elves are real? Why don’t people pray to their god?” Lucy asked.

“Well, people tend to discriminate against the elves since they only believe in their god. It got so bad that the elves were nearly wiped out in a war a hundred years ago.”

In actuality, elves don’t worship Yllavein anymore than the rest of the gods, but I wouldn’t learn that until I met them a few years later.

“Then why did you make a statue for her?”

“Mom forces us to worship all the gods, even ones for other races. She prays that the elves will worship the other gods as well someday. Dad still doesn’t like them though, so I had to do most of the work.”

“Hmm…” She took a moment to study my work before asking, “So what do you pray to Yllavein for?”

“I’d like to meet an elf some day. But that’s not very likely; they hide themselves in the woods since they’re usually killed on sight.”

“That’s not against the law?” Lucy seemed shocked.

“Not in the Thearyn Kingdom at least. Uncle John says none of the other nobles are interested in making peace with them. But he thinks there are definitely some elves hiding in his territory. His men just can’t find them.”

“Hmm…well if no one else prays here, lets move on.”

◊ ◊ ◊

After we were done praying, I led her out to the socializing area. It would be a waste simply leave after praying, so the other villagers usually spent a couple hours socializing after praying.

Of course everyone was separated by their cliques. The parents usually left their kids with the elders while they relaxed on the other side of the farm. Meanwhile, teenagers Elliot’s age would play in the river or explore the surrounding woods. Henry stayed inside the entire day preaching, but the other kids his age played near the livestock.

Unfortunately I wasn’t old enough to join them, so I was left with the elders and the youngest and most obnoxious children. Perhaps it was because of how old my soul was, but I was much more comfortable around the elders than the kids.

“Good afternoon Betty,” I called out to the woman already seated in the shade of the canopy father built.

“Please, call me grandma, like everyone else,” she said. “But who’s that hiding behind you?”

“Good afternoon g-grandma.” Lucy stepped out and greed her when she was found out.

“You don’t have to call her that if she isn’t actually your grandma Lucy,” I said. “It’s why I don’t.”

Lucy gave me a confused look.

“But she is my grandma,” she said.

It took me a moment to register what she said.

“Eh? One of your daughters is married to Micheal?” I asked Betty.

“Heaven’s no! Mother Nihs would never allow that. He’s my youngest child after all.”

“Really? That’s hard to believe.”

“Why’s that Lief?”

“Well, no offense, but I just can’t imagine you raising such a rude son.” Betty was one of the nicest and most respected people in the village, and the rest of her children were just as well mannered. So it was hard to accept that Micheal was her son.

“Well, he wasn’t always like that. Believe it or not, he wasn’t much different from you growing up. I could tell you all sorts of stories about the trouble he got into as a little boy.”

“Really? What changed?” If he really was like me, I wanted to know how to avoid turning into him as an adult.

“Well, I can’t be certain, but it was probably after his wife died. When he left to become a chef in Derton, he was still an optimistic young man. But he was already like this when he came back with Lucy.”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Derton was the closest city to our village by the way. My uncle John ruled over it as it’s duke.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know. Do you miss your mom?” I asked Lucy.

“N-No, not really.” She shook her head sideways. “Daddy says she died giving birth to me, so I didn’t really know her. Apparently I look just like her though.”

I didn’t know how to respond to that. Luckily Betty sensed this and changed the subject.

“Well, enough about that. It’s nice to see you outside of the house Lucy. Is my son here with you?”

“No, daddy dropped me off and left. He said he’ll be back before dinner.”

“That’s a shame. I hoped he’d finally forgiven the gods. No matter, he’ll come around eventually. Why don’t you play with the other kids in the meantime?”

“I don’t want to,” she muttered as she shrunk behind me again.

“Why not? They’re a bit annoying, but they’re nice kids. At least say hi.”

“O-Okay. If you say so.”

“I’ll be right here if you need me,” Betty said as I led Lucy a few feet away where the other kids were playing. They didn’t pray nearly as long as their parents, so there were already a lot of them there.

“Everyone, I don’t know if you’ve already met, but this is Lucy,” I announced.

“…H-Hello.” She greeted them after mustering up her courage. But she immediately hid behind me again. I couldn’t blame her for that after hearing their response.

“Haha, look! It’s rust-head!” one of the kids shouted.

“The witch left her house!” another one screamed. The rest of them weren’t any friendlier either.

“What’s with the name calling guys?” I was confused since they weren’t normally so mean. Insignificant fights broke out between the kids of course, but they usually forgot all about it the next week.

“She’s the witch of the village we’re always talking about Lief,” one of the youngest ones explained.

“If you make her mad she’ll curse you and something bad’ll happen to you. That’s why she doesn’t have a mom and her daddy’s such a loser,” the second kid said.

“Come on guys. That’s not her fault. Besides, her mom died giving birth to her.”

“Wow, you’ve been a witch that long?” someone asked. It didn’t sound like they were being malicious, but it still wasn’t very nice.

“Enough!” I was starting to lose patience with them. The other kids were shocked into silence as I’ve never raised my voice against them before.

I took a deep and, remembering why we were talking to the kids in the first place, approached the first kid since he was holding the toy horse my dad made for me when I was a baby.

“Can we play with that?” I asked. I assumed she would like that toy the best because of how I met her this morning.

“No! She’ll get it all dirty!” he said stubbornly.

“But they’re my toys. Is it that big a deal to share?”

“Fine!” he yelled. “I don’t want it anyways!”

But instead of handing it over, he ran it through the mud and threw it as hard as he could at Lucy. She cowered over to dodge the toy, but the mud still would have dirtied her pure-white dress. Luckily I realized what he was trying to do and managed to shield her in time.

Before I could yell at him, Betty interrupted from the sidelines.

“What did I say about throwing thing? You’re on time-out!” She was unexpectedly strict when it came to the rules. Not enough to make the kids hate her of course.

“But grandma!”

“No buts! Now go sit in the corner.”

After he stomped off to the time-out zone, Betty went back to sitting in the shade and beckoned us over.

Sensing the open hostility from the other kids, Lucy and I quickly followed her. We spent the rest of the afternoon just listening to her stories instead. I wanted to apologize to Lucy to for exposing her to the unwarranted bullying, but she wouldn’t look directly at me for the rest of the day.

◊ ◊ ◊

It was nearly time for dinner when Micheal finally returned.. Everyone else had already left, and I was about to invite her to stay and dine with us. I thought perhaps he’d forgot to pick her up.

But instead of leaving right away like I assumed he would, he tossed me a small pouch filled with coins.

“What’s this for? Hope you don’t think we’re babysitters. Or do you want us to donate it to the church?”

“Ha! And here I thought there was hope for you. But I guess all your parent’s kids are idiots after all,” he snorted.

“Then why are you giving me this?” I couldn’t think of any other reason why he’d give me a pouch of coins.

“It’s for the potion, brat. It chipped into our savings a bit, but it should be enough. Selling it’s glass bottle should be enough to cover the rest.”

“You don’t have to do that,” I said as I tried to hand it back to him. “They were a gift from our uncle anyways.”

“Listen kid, we don’t need your charity? I can take care of my own daughter.”

Nothing I could say would probably change his mind, so I decided to just accept the coins. I didn’t want to risk incurring his wrath twice in one day.

After that he left. Before Lucy followed, she gave me a deep bow and said, “T-Thank you for…playing with me today Lief.”

◊ ◊ ◊

The next day I couldn’t stop thinking about how sad Lucy seemed.

“Hey dad, can I take some time off working on this statue?” We’d just finished tending to the fields and started working on the rest of the statues. My brothers helped work the earth of course, but I was the only one who helped with the statues.

“Hmm? Why’s that?” he asked. “Just last week you were begging for more control over their designs. You did such a good job on Yllavein too.”

“Well I hoping to make some more toys. Plus, I don’t want to make a statue for Lorose anyways; he’s a jerk.”

“This again? For the last time, you never met him. Even the pope doesn’t claim to have met the gods. That was a just a dre-”

“Fine fine, I get it. Either way, I want to make some more toys.”

Nobody ever took me seriously when I told them about my conversation with the gods. Even my mom thought it was just a dream since, according to the church, you go to heaven or hell when you die. None of the scriptures mention anything about reincarnation.

Naturally I was careful to not mention to anyone outside my family, but since they already knew, I brought it up occasionally. Especially when it came to how the statues looked.

“Right now? The other villagers were hoping we could finish the statue for Lorose this week. John says the Holy Ranta Theocracy waged war on us again. They want ask him to end this war quickly.”

Unlike other countries that declared war when they had an advantage and a casus belli, the Ranta Theocracy did it whenever and on whoever Lorose tells them to. And their wars don’t end without his permission. Unfortunately they seem to have his favor and almost always profit in the end.

“Can I at least make a replacement for the one another kid ruined?” When it hit me, the head broke clean off. I considered using it as a dullahan’s horse, but I figured it was old enough that the legs would probably go soon as well.

“Sure, but be quick about it. Lorose’s statue is a lot more detailed than some of the previous ones.” His statues were based on the statues found in the real church in Derton, my uncle’s city. And his was that of a huge knight equipped with an ornate sword and shield and intricate armor.

With his permission, I immediately got to work.

◊ ◊ ◊

The next Sunday after praying, I didn’t even bother trying to convince the other kids to play with Lucy. Instead, we played together and listened to Betty’s stories from then on.

Unfortunately the bullying got worse after Lucy started going through puberty prematurely. It was rumored that Luslo’s blessing caused this, so they thought she used some forbidden magic to charm me. It was the only explanation they could come with for why I’d spend so much time with her.

I went through the same thing as her a year after she did, but the changes to my body weren’t nearly as dramatic as hers, so it went largely ignored.

When I showed her the horse I carved out for her, she tried to reject it.

“N-No, it’s not like I really wanted a toy,” she said as she stared at it.

“Come on, don’t be like that. I made it just for you.”

“Really? T-Thank you.” She lifted her head up and looked me straight in the eye for the first time since the previous week.

“Yeah, so lets paint it. What’s your favorite color?” We had a lot of left over hand-made paints from when we painted the statues. Fortunately none of the statues had any purple in their designs.

She took a moment to think before answering.

“Red.”