Teogonia: Volume 1 (Premium)

by Tsukasa Tanimai

There were countless types of wild animals living in the forests of the borderlands, but very few of them moved in groups. The fact that these creatures were in a group made it much more likely that these were no ordinary animals.

  The creatures that most commonly formed groups were intelligent creatures with social structures, which in the borderlands meant humans or demi-humans.

  Intruders!

  Kai became enraged. The thought of his valley being soiled by others while he was away made him irrationally angry.

  You’ll regret this. You’ll all regret this.

  Kai used his full power to rush toward them.

  When a guardian bearer unleashed their full power, that was fearsome enough in itself. He became a rushing wind of wild rage, hurtling toward the opposite side of the valley with greater speed than a hunter’s arrow.

  As he got closer, he saw what was happening more clearly. As he’d thought, these life forms were humanoid. But they weren’t orgs; they were even smaller than humans. This demi-human species was only as tall as a human child. Kai had never seen them firsthand before, but he had heard tales of the species, and he recognized them as the koror.

  Their white clothing with its fine embroidery was clear to see even in the darkness, and he remembered that this species was said to excel in their artisanship.

  The koror were a species known to exist in the forest in vanishingly small numbers.

  They were looking over the edge of the cliff at the rim of the valley and were shouting down at the valley’s base. Kai didn’t understand their words, but he could easily guess that someone had fallen down and they were shouting their name.

  There’s been an accident?

  Their sad cries echoed through the darkness of the night.

  Their pained cries brought Kai to a shocked standstill. Several of the koror noticed Kai’s presence when they heard the grass rustle at his feet.

  “***!”

  “*****!”

  No sooner than they had begun looking at him and shouting, every one of them threw themselves down on the ground, prostrated before him, and began to mutter words of prayer.

  Their reaction was so strange that Kai decided to ignore them and walk away. However...

  “O revered god in human form.”

  One of the eldest of the koror stepped forward from the group and began to speak in the human tongue. Kai felt the opportunity to leave had passed.

  The elder koror held an object like a rosary, made from nuts and string, and he used his thumb to shift beads one after another as he stepped forward as a representative of his group. He shook the rosary before Kai and then fell to the ground, prostrated once more.

  “I hope that my words are understandable to you.” The voice of the elder carried a hint of anxiety.

  “I understand you,” Kai replied.

  Some of the other koror raised their heads and looked at each other with relief.

  “First, I must beg your mercy, for we have been so impudent as to intrude upon this sacred land.”

  After the koror had apologized over and over, Kai’s anger faded, and his usual calmness returned. He’d decided that he’d better hear their explanation, and was sitting down cross-legged before them.

  “What are you doing here?” Kai didn’t enjoy long discussions. He was blunt, simply asking them to state their business.

  The elder koror introduced himself as the head of the tribe.

  He went on to explain that his tribe had been driven out of the land on which they’d lived for many years and now they had no place to call home. Their land had been invaded, taken from them by the Geha tribe of orgs.

  None of this had anything to do with Kai. As long as they weren’t going to ask permission to live in the valley, their problems were irrelevant to him.

  As expected, the koror knew nothing of the richness of the valley’s floor. They had simply gathered here as part of their efforts to reclaim the land that was taken from them.

  They said something about an “offering” that they’d made to the valley.

  An offering?

  The koror pressed their faces against the ground once again.

  “O ancient god of arbitration,” said the elder.

  Kai remained silent.

  “***** has long been the protector of the forest. And the koror have long been devout followers of *****. We came to make an offering.”

  “...”

  “Now is the time for us to reclaim the land of our ancestors. We beg you to provide mediation.”

  They had come seeking his services.

  20

  The koror tribe’s leader was named Porek. Even he had forgotten how long he’d lived, but his people were certain that he was over 100 years old and the eldest member of their tribe.

  Porek repeatedly addressed Kai as the “God of Arbitration.”

  “What’s this arbitration thing that you think I’m the god of?”

  “You are the avatar of the revered god who dwells in the valley, are you not?”

  “How’d you figure?”

  “In the past, I have had the honor of your presence many times. You once punished this foolish old man for a past transgression. I cannot forget you for as long as I remember that pain.”

  “You were hurt?”

  Although Porek had met Kai’s eyes several times, Porek’s eyes had barely been open. Kai realized that this old koror was blind. Looking more closely, he noticed an old scar that ran horizontally through both of his eyes.

  “That punishment... was it your eyes?”

  “This was my punishment for straying into the valley unpermitted and disturbing the gravesite of my revered god,” the blind koror spoke as if this was merely an old story of youthful folly and continued to meet Kai’s gaze as he responded.

  “My parents wept and told me I’d been shown great mercy when my life was spared. But this was long ago.”

  When Kai looked very closely, he saw faint kumadori markings around Porek’s eyes. Somehow, the power of his guardian was compensating for his blindness.

  It stood to reason that the leader of the tribe would be a guardian bearer. Porek must have been young and greatly strengthened by his guardian when the previous resident of the valley made him yield and then didn’t hesitate to cut his precious eyes as punishment. This vicious behavior was consistent with what he’d heard from Goleh the lagarto.

  “Although I lost the eyes that saw with the light of the sun, I instead gained the ability to see the light of spiritual energy that lies in all natural things. Your aura is no exception. It shines blue, as if you drew the light from the sky itself.”

  “I’m... blue?”

  “There are many colors worn by living creatures, but blue is seldom seen. Blue is the color that lies between white and black. In ancient times it was known as the sacred color.”

  Kai knew his guardian’s blessings amplified his spiritual energy, causing it to radiate from every part of his body. And now he knew that this spiritual energy had a color. Though he did suspect that the color found between white and black was actually gray. Kai put this minor issue to one side and returned to the main topic. He shared his thoughts very frankly.

  “I don’t care whether I’m the god of arbitration or not. All I know is that you should solve your own problems yourselves.”

  His rejection of them was blunt. This caused distress not just to Porek, but to all of the tribe members who had prostrated themselves before him.

  “I-I beg you, wait!”

  “I’m going back to my valley. Don’t follow me.”

  “O great god! Great god of the valley!”

  “Don’t abandon us!”

  Kai didn’t feel like he was abandoning them because he’d never cared about them in the first place.

  Whatever offerings they might have made in the past, none of those had been given to Kai, and whatever Kai’s “predecessor” might have said in the past, that had nothing to do with Kai.

  The koror spoke
the human tongue surprisingly well. The rest of the tribe also pleaded with him in the human tongue.

  “But we gave you Aruwe!”

  “Give Aruwe back!”

  Kai didn’t want their offering and didn’t care if they took it back. When he put this to them bluntly, the koror let out screeches that didn’t even resemble voices. To them, the valley was a terrible place where their tribe leader, who was a guardian bearer, had once had his eyes torn out just for entering it. Despite Kai telling them to recover their offering, none had the courage to even enter the valley.

  Kai also felt that he didn’t want strangers entering the valley, so he decided that he should at least do something to avoid that.

  “Okay, fine. I’ll bring it back up myself.”

  With that, Kai agilely dropped down into the valley as he’d done many times before.

  Kai acted casually as if their offering was a mere object, causing the koror to be more confused than angry, and their shouts were becoming nonsensical.

  Don’t tell me they threw one of their own into the valley?

  Kai tried not to think about it, but he couldn’t help but worry.

  If I find a corpse down at the bottom... That’s the last thing I want.

  Kai dropped down to the area directly below where the koror were standing and searched for the offering at the bottom of the valley in the darkness of the night.

  They could have thrown it down from above the lake, but instead they’d chosen a place where the ground was hard earth. Even if the treetops had miraculously acted like a cushion, there was no surviving a fall like this.

  Kai prepared himself for the worst as he searched, and in the shadow of a rocky area directly below the cliff, he found something white. Even in the darkness, he could see it clearly. It was a bare, white foot.

  Oh, man. I hope they’re in one piece at least...

  Kai started to pray as he walked around the rock to see what was behind it.

  The body of the white foot’s owner slowly came into view. He was relieved when he saw that the scene was not as gruesome as he’d feared, but then the corpse sat up and made eye contact with him, causing him to fall backwards in surprise and land on his rear.

  “***...**...”

  What lay before him was a young girl, covered in blood.

  The traditions of the koror may have demanded that any sacrifice had to be a beautiful young girl. At any rate, she was shorter than most members of her species. Even Kai, who wasn’t yet an adult himself, thought she wasn’t just a young girl, but a little girl. And now this little girl had come back to life, standing unsteadily on her feet with blood gushing from her forehead. Her legs gave way and she fell down once more, but she continued to struggle. The sight was so horrible that Kai felt his gut clench.

  He was frozen in shock for only a moment.

  He knew that this young girl was in a critical, half-broken state.

  The girl named Aruwe still had a straw rope tied around her waist, which had probably served as her lifeline when she started climbing down the cliff. The rope must have broken at some point as she fell. The short piece of straw rope lying beside her told the story.

  My healing magic!

  Kai had never imagined that he’d ever use that magic on anyone besides himself.

  His healing magic wasn’t effective if applied too broadly, so he dealt with each of the wounds he found in turn.

  Then he looked for broken bones and made some makeshift fixes for the broken parts of her spine. He also put right the things known as “nerves” that ran through it.

  Once that treatment was finished, the girl’s expression lost its grim appearance as if her agony had been lifted. She stared up blankly at Kai who was continuing to treat her.

  “***...”

  “Don’t move. Your bones haven’t bonded together yet.” Kai scolded the girl for trying to move and then went back to concentrating on his work.

  When the girl saw the kumadori on his face, she began to cry anxiously. “Please save... ***, ****... k-koror.”

  The girl had realized that Kai didn’t understand her and had started to speak in the human tongue. It was more evidence that many koror spoke the human language.

  Kai remembered that the exquisite handiwork made by the koror was often sold by merchants here and there across the borderlands. Porek and others may have had the chance to learn the human tongue through their dealings with humans somewhere.

  “Please save, koror.”

  “Nope. Just sounds like trouble.”

  “Me, not enough? Then...”

  “Do your people really think I’m going to be happy if they give me dead bodies?”

  “Do not know...”

  Kai focused his power and made sure the bones were at least adhered together.

  Kai had seen firsthand how injuries like these might not kill someone, but could leave them unable to live a normal life. He’d seen several of his fellow soldiers lose the ability to move their arms and legs, and they’d die without someone to take care of them. In a village where people struggled to find enough food, no one was allowed to continue living if they’d simply eat without working. As soon as recovery looked unlikely, either someone would have to promise to spend their life caring for the person, or they’d be sent to the monastery under the guise of being sent for care. Their lives were ended in the monastery as part of what was known as a clearing ceremony.

  Now that Kai had found a way to heal that type of injury, he could spare this girl from a living hell.

  “Can you stand?” Kai asked her.

  The girl moved her fingers to check that they worked, and then she sat up while twisting her body. She looked at Kai in surprise when she found that it didn’t hurt. Her face, which had looked lifeless before, now had a reddish tinge to it.

  Kai offered her a hand, and she climbed to her feet and stood there just looking at Kai. The girl did nothing but stare in awe at this person who had wrought the miracle that Kai called healing magic.

  “Now go back to your group.”

  “Aruwe go back?”

  “Go back.”

  “No help?”

  “Exactly.”

  “...”

  Suddenly she was clinging to him in desperation.

  “Go back!”

  “Me, no good? Worthless?”

  The girl was clinging desperately to Kai’s legs just like a child as tears streamed down her face. Because she was so short, her face pressed against Kai’s waist, and her tears and mucus were absorbed by his clothes, creating a damp feeling in that region.

  “Me is offering! If no want, I die!”

  “Hey... Ah, give that back!”

  She suddenly took the knife that was hidden in the folds of Kai’s clothing and was about to drive it into her own throat. Kai grabbed the knife and took it away from her.

  Then, with the girl hanging onto his shoulders and demanding he give the knife back, Kai climbed the cliff, carrying her like luggage.

  She tried biting his shoulder but he felt no pain at all.

  Kai wanted to return this offering right away and then start building his cabin. Kai was already absorbed in thoughts of how he was going to work with and assemble the wood that he’d collected during the previous visit.

  Kai only had until morning, and all of this was a painful setback in his schedule.

  21

  I’ve wasted so much time.

  Kai sighed as he stood, arms folded, looking at the balen cedar trees he’d cut down during his previous visit, which were now lying in front of him. Now the question was how to work with them.

  These trees weren’t especially big, but balen cedars became impressively large trees as they grew old. Although Kai had chosen young trees, they were still broad enough that multiple adults standing around the trunk would just barely be able to join hands.

  He could still hear commotion from the koror some distance away. They were calling to the god of the valley, and to the god of arb
itration, but Kai didn’t care about their gods, and he knew very little about the land god resting in the valley’s gravesite, so he had no interest in the noise they were making.

  Wow, they really are an annoying bunch.

  Kai tried to ignore them while thinking about how he’d cut through the balen cedars to the right length. He wanted them to be roughly twice as long as he was tall. Then he would cut them lengthwise into long, thin pieces.

  As for how to cut them, he could essentially use the same “invisible sword” method that he’d used to cut them down, but that only gave him a few moments of cutting power from the length of his fingertip to his shoulder, and he’d have to repeatedly apply the same magic before the cut with the blade. The balen cedars were so thick that just cutting them into two was enough to make Kai breathe heavily.

  Over the course of roughly half a toki, Kai cut with the blade six times and created seven thick planks from a large tree.

  Kai had never been taught any construction techniques, so he simply stuck the planks in the ground to create walls, giving the cabin its rough shape. His cuts weren’t exactly straight, so there were gaps between planks, but for the time being he didn’t worry about that because he knew he could fill in the gaps with scraps of wood from the balen cedars.

  He soon finished making the walls by liberally using full planks. One face of the cabin was against the side of the gravesite, so seven planks was enough to create an enclosure.

  Although it was an enclosed space, it was very different from the “cabin” that he’d had in mind. Then there was the question of how to make a floor and roof.

  To start with, he cut another tree into planks, which he put on the top like a roof such that one end of each plank was resting on the top of the gravestone. The floor was already in place in terms of size, so he put down more planks as flooring.

  This doesn’t look right.

  The planks that he’d driven into the ground using his strength as a guardian bearer looked fairly sturdy, but he wasn’t so sure about the roof or floor, which both felt very makeshift. He’d have to learn some better approaches by asking someone more knowledgeable in the village. What he’d built himself could barely be called a cabin; it looked kind of pathetic. On the other hand, the rough construction did make it feel more like a secret base, so Kai couldn’t help but feel some level of affection for it. When he went inside, he found it was filled with the smell of freshly cut lumber.