15. Snow Moon Flower – 06
From a very long time ago, there have always been those who follow the will of the gods, connect heaven and earth, and guide humans to the right path according to the laws of heaven.
In the Age of Mythology, when it was said that humans and gods coexisted on earth, those who sat at the right hand of the gods and spread their will to everyone were called priests.
In the era of humans, after all the gods on earth were exalted to the heavens, those who gathered humans who longed for salvation from heaven and showed them the way they should go were called divine women.
Now, after an immeasurable amount of time has passed since then, except for the divine power, which is the only favor that the gods of heaven send to humans, the relationship between gods and humans has been completely severed. It refers to the only priest with the right.
She was called a saint.
Ariel Thiers was the noblest woman on earth, who had the right to communicate directly with the goddess in the sky and was said to be an agent who upheld the will of the goddess.
Since being chosen as a saint 10 years ago, Ariel had never thought of herself as noble. No, I couldn’t help but wonder if I was a woman worthy of a saint.
It has the most powerful divine power on earth, has caused numerous miracles that cannot be explained by theories based on physics and magic, and has received the goddess’s beauty, and has power that cannot be realized by the logic of the present world. The fact that the saintess Ariel Thiers, who was even gifted with power, is-
Didn’t believe in Goddess. He doubted her existence, refused to admit it, and ended up denying it.
…there was hell. And there was pain. In Hell, she saw many deaths. Among them, the father and mother who gave birth to Ariel were also included.
Why did the omnipotent Goddess allow their death? How on earth did he allow such a hell to unfold in the human world? As far as Ariel knew, her father and mother were the sweetest people in the world. I didn’t do anything wrong. why.
The teacher who taught theology to Ariel who had such a question explained it like this. Jagoro said that the Goddess had given a suitable ordeal to temper the child she had chosen as her agent on earth. Just as a blacksmith strikes steel countless times to forge a famous sword, human beings also grow up in the trials surrounding them, and at the end, it is said that it is the law to become a righteous saint. It is clear that everything is a providence set by the Goddess, which no human being can ever judge or fathom, so we must believe and follow it.
…But Ariel could never understand such an explanation.
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Master said so. Their deaths were nothing more than the goddess’ providence for Ariel’s growth. So, even though they mourn their deaths, there is no need to keep them in their hearts.
However, it couldn’t be possible.
In the absolute hell where everyone died, Ariel was the only one left alive. Factors such as strong immunity due to the divine power contained within the body, and simple luck were all secondary issues. She simply survived by sacrificing everyone, including her father and mother.
Yeah, it was like taking a chair, by analogy. It is impossible for everyone to sit in a chair. No matter what, there were bound to be people who couldn’t sit in a chair.
That, Ariel felt pure disgust. I couldn’t understand why the goddess who was in charge of the world’s providence would tolerate such irrationality. The divine power overflowing in his own body, the miracles that occurred in his hands, and even the power of the goddess, all felt repulsive.
As if to mock Ariel’s question, the divine power inherent in her body only increased day by day. The martial arts she learned and mastered while shedding beads of sweat were completely mastered by her body, and she reached the point where no one dared to share a union with her.
Her authority increased day by day, to the point where even the pope would not dare to give her unreserved praise. From the point of view of power and authority, the woman Ariel Thier was fully qualified to be called the earthly representative of the goddess.
she is twenty years old It was only that she had not been officially declared a saint, but she had already become no different from a priest representing the Empire.
…However, nothing in Ariel Tier’s daily life has improved compared to when she was first brought to the Empire. She woke up early in the morning and prayed to the goddess in the narrow, solitary-like prayer room.
In exchange for that, Ariel Thiers was just ignorant of everything. She knew neither the pleasure of delicious food, nor the beauty of art, nor the sorrow of burning love, nor the desire for herself. No, I didn’t want to know, and I wasn’t even interested in it.
Ariel Thiers does not believe in goddesses. Rather, he is questioning the existence of a goddess and denying her.
…But even with Ariel like that, there was one thing she definitely believed in. In the case of a goddess taking possession of the existence of a saint, tribulation would surely come to this world sooner than it could be said. It wasn’t faith in the goddess, but the history that mankind had built up to this point proved this.
there was hell There were many pains. And there were many tears shed in it.
It was disgusting. He himself, who had no choice but to helplessly watch the deaths of many people, was being reflected like an old mirror.
I wanted to change that reality. He hoped that there would be no one in the world who suffered the same pain as he did. Since no one could save her past self, she tried to save the world itself in order to atone for it.
He did not want the hell he had to go through to repeat itself again in the world.
For him, Ariel constantly whipped herself. When I was young, I was forced to do things, but now I was doing it myself without anyone being asked to do it. The harsh discipline over a long period of more than 10 years has become a daily routine for Ariel.
Fortunately, I didn’t feel any pain or hardship. Because such a daily life has become a very natural thing for her.
So time goes by like a stream. From the outside, Ariel’s appearance did not have a single decline, but even for her, 20 years was not a short time.
At the end of a time that was so far away that I doubted that there would be nothing left to knock on after training myself, training myself, and constantly training myself.
The great tribulation that had been planned for 20 years has come.
An endless winter that suddenly blows across the continent.
The only revelation that passed through the mind of Ariel, the earthly representative of the Goddess.
[The disaster that calls for winter exists in the north.]
Ariel, who received the goddess’s oracle, burst into laughter without realizing it.
Even at this moment, Ariel did not believe in goddesses at all. Not to mention, he doesn’t trust the oracle given by the goddess in the slightest. How could he have faith in a goddess who threw a few words of oracle as if she were making enemies while shutting herself in the heavens?
It is not because the goddess has established herself as a saint. It is not because the goddess made herself a horse for the chess game. She thought it was her duty as a saintess to save the world, so she didn’t step forward.
Ariel Thiers is always trying to save this world with her will.
To make sure that the pain of disappearing without any meaning never repeats itself again. To prevent the same person from appearing again and again.
…and preventing tribulation has become the only reason she is trying to live.
As for her other reasons for living, she had forgotten all about it.
****
A decision was quickly made on the members of the expedition to catch the ‘witch of winter’, commonly known as the ‘Witch of Winter’, who suddenly appeared in the northern end of the Duchy of Estel and brought about an endless winter.
Bianca del Castana is said to be the most powerful wizard of the present era.
Kyrie el Denaris, who is the guardian of the World Tree and is said to have unusual archery skills.
Iris el Devhart, the princess of the Empire and one of the most powerful swordsmen on earth.
and…
“Nice to meet you, saintess. My name is Cain von Estel.”
Ariel was silently staring at a man bowing politely toward her and bowing his head.
Cain von Estel was not an unfamiliar name. No, to be precise, it couldn’t be a name that I couldn’t help but want to know. That’s right. He was the subject of a hot topic that heated up the system in recent weeks, so even Ariel, who had been confined to the center of the imperial palace and praying, had heard of his name.
Listening to it quietly, Duke Estel ran to the island with all the members of his family as soon as winter began, rather than risking his life to punish the witch even though a witch was produced in his territory.
…Well, I can understand that far. Everyone in the world regrets their own life, and I thought there was no need for the man in front of me to sacrifice his own life. No, in the first place, it was questionable whether that man would have inflicted even the smallest of wounds on the ‘Witch of Winter’ even if he had sacrificed his own life.
However, if this man was selected as one of the members of the expedition, the story would be different. It seems that he has been holding the sword for a long time, but his hands are slightly calloused, and overall, he has good physical condition.
Cain von Estel was not up to par to participate in this expedition that might decide the fate of mankind. It was a porter because it was good, and it was just a burden if you looked at it badly.
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My head hurts. Perhaps, the fact that he was able to be included in the expedition with such skills was thanks to the dirty back-and-forth. Subjugating the ‘witch of winter’ is not a joke. At the moment of decisive battle that might decide the fate of the continent, what do you mean by taking at most a piece of baggage?
But what’s even more absurd is that the others aside from her did not express any objection to Cain von Estel’s joining.
The imperial princess simply nodded with an expressionless expression, Bianca del Castana looked somewhat vague, and Kyrie el Denaris smiled lightly as if having fun.
A whopping 3 to 1. It was also funny to keep insisting that no one else was expressing any objection, so Ariel eventually gave up as well.
…Well, actually, it doesn’t matter much. Even if the burden had increased by one, the work Ariel Thiers had to do would not change.
Also, if that man really stumbled on the expedition, it wasn’t that there wasn’t a way. Apparently, fierce snowstorms constantly raged on the road heading north, and wild beasts and monsters who lost their way constantly roamed around.
Couldn’t that man be really unlucky, and an accident could happen, such as freezing his body in the extreme cold or dying from an unexpected attack?
…If it doesn’t happen, there are several ways to make it happen artificially.
If an ‘unexpected accident’ happened, Ariel was confident that she would hold Cain von Estel’s body and shed tears. Because, if he really dies, it would mean that a woman named Ariel ended up making an innocent victim like herself.
But it is unavoidable. People who cannot sit in a chair exist anytime, anywhere. It’s just that, unfortunately, the reason I couldn’t sit in that chair this time was because I became a man named Cain. Yes, just like Ariel’s parents did in the past.
If it’s impossible to save everyone, if saving everyone might get in the way because of one stumbling block.
Rather, I thought that sending him to the side of the goddess would not be the way for the world.
Because Ariel is a saint who must save this world. Because she is the earthly representative of the will of the goddess who resides in the heavens.
I believe that even the Goddess will understand her decision.
Especially if it was a goddess who forcibly turned her into a saint even though she didn’t want to.