Chapter 19: 19. X777
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July 7th, X777 - Almost a full year later…
The time was nearly approaching for my mistress to feast on our ancestors once again.
When she had saved me from my free will, I felt like everything was going to crash around me. But when she had given me instruction, a purpose, the world felt whole again. Everything around me became bathed in her wondrous violet glow.
It was her visage, clad in horn and wing, her words that dripped like tainted caramel that I meditated on. My entire being became dedicated to serving her so that when the time came, she would suffuse me within her embrace.
My meditation was cut short, however, when the voice of my daughter came into the room.
"Father, umm, sorry to intrude but Captain Ito Tatsuo has been waiting for you for the past hour and he's growing…impatient."
Blessed Ayako, my eldest. She takes after her mother to such a degree that I feel she's still with me instead of adventuring. But Ayako, unfortunately, praises the wrong gods, and I cannot guide her to the correct path per the orders of my mistress.
"Thank you, dear, I seem to have gotten too deep into a trance and lost track of time. I'll be down shortly."
She gave me a small nod and made her way down to, presumably, tell the old bastard that I was making my way down.
When I made it to the meeting room I realised it was empty, but remembered that I was dealing with an egoist and made my way towards the living room. Sitting on the low table in the middle of my home was the giant fossil in question, eating my food without asking first. Per usual.
But beside him, this time, was a pleasant surprise. He hadn't had a pupil since I was born over forty years ago, and that poor brat died during one of their training sessions. But this girl, Lyssa Wysteria, was at least more well-mannered than her mentor and showed great promise as a wizard.
It was a shame she joined the Elite Guard under Ito's direct supervision. Other than Ophelia's granddaughter, this girl held some of the highest potential of enchanting I've seen of their generation. A part of me wants to believe it is the girl's talent, but something about Mia's rapid development of the art makes me think she understands something that I don't and passed this knowledge to her first student.
But the girl's talent wasn't what drew me to her. It was her eyes that were captivating me. Like mirrors of my mistress's, those purple orbs made me almost kneel out of instinct.
"There you are, Ohta! Was beginning to wonder if I would run out of food before then."
"You are eating an entire rotisserie chicken, Captain. And this is a vegan household, where the hell did you get a chicken!"
"Delivery."
"What the fuck even is that?"
"I stepped onto your porch, asked a stranger to buy me a cooked chicken from one of the restaurants down the road and bring it here and paid them accordingly."
"I…don't even…"
"Besides the point," the captain just waved his hand in a complete dismissal. "I came here to talk about something else."
"Ugh, alright. What is it?" I said as I sat down.
"You've dedicating a large amount of funds to advertising the festival quite a bit. Why?"
"Ah, the answer to that is simple," and a lie, "The Magic Council have expressed concerns about the nature of the festival in the past, right? And our location within the basin makes it difficult for tourists to find a reason to come here and trade usually takes place in the cities outside of the mountains.
Offering people a chance to show up here will possibly create a greater link with the rest of the continent as well as disperse any rumours about us, opening up trade in the process. You are aware that most people in Hargeon still think we're a volcano that becomes active every year, right?"
"And you think a festival meant for us to be able to reconnect with our ancestors is a way to do that?" Tatsuo's face twisted into a scowl, showcasing a rare moment of seriousness from the beast. "Do you not fear dishonouring the dead?"
"No. I do not." I answered immediately. "The festival is a way for the living to reconvene with the dead, not just our ancestors specifically. If they proceed with the festivities accordingly and respectfully, then they should have the right to speak with the parted just like us. Take your apprentice here, as an example."
The goliath just looked at his violet-eyed pupil in thought for a few minutes before sighing.
"Fine. But if anyone steps out of line it'll be on your head."
He took his apprentice with him as he left. And I could only hope that all is quiet as my mistress feeds.
She will surely appreciate my work, and I will be one step closer to her embrace. All I need to do is wait until the time for me to unseal the demon arrives and her warmth will consume me.
Praise be the mistress! Praise be the Violet Flame!
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That Night…
I didn't expect I would be doing anything besides training here in Himura, but I've actually spent more time injured than anything. The next month and a half after the Captain's test was spent in a wheelchair and, once again, Taiyo was my nurse.
After realising how little I liked to sit still, the bubbly nurse decided to teach me more about horticulture and even gardening, which quickly became a favourite hobby of mine.
The feeling of the course dirt in between my fingers, the scent of the flowers, and the sweat that came from an honest days work felt like a small form of meditation in of itself. The night wind felt comfortable on my brow as I stood back to look at the well manicured Gardenia bushes. These flowers don't particularly like heat, but their beauty made it worthwhile to try and keep them alive in a compound full of pyromancers.
"Heeyyy! Lyssa! Come and get a drink, cool off a bit!"
My attention was drawn away from the white plants to Taiyo and the other gardeners, all of them dressed in dirty overalls like myself getting glasses from bucket of iced water. Stepping over to join them on the patio and taking a glass from the bucket of ice myself, I leaned back on the stone bench looking up at the night sky.
The moon was beautiful, like always.
I'd stay up at night looking at it as a child, admiring its beauty with the hope to one day hold it in my hands. I used to tell William nonsense about how I one day wanted to have my own personal moon. He'd just laugh and call me an idiot, but I did.
I'd look out through the window of the R-System hoping to stand underneath the moon again, free from the cult's influence one day. And here I am, doing just that.
"Hey, would you look at that!"
My reverry was broken by one of the fellow gardeners. When I looked at him, he was standing up and pointing at the sky with a mesmerised expressions. We all looked at the sky where he was pointing and gasped.
Multiple beams of lights shot across the sky in a myriad of colours. Purple, white, green, red, and a pale blue. Taiyo wrapped his arm around my shoulders with a smile.
"Hey, do you think that if we make a wish now its five times as likely to come true?"
I just shook my head with an amused smile before responding.
"Only one way to find out, I guess."
The two of us closed our eyes as we made our wishes. I wished for the obvious, for my friends in the R-System to be safe and grow strong in their own right. Their safety was all I was concerned about.
"So what'd you wish for, Lyly."
"You know you aren't supposed to tell your wish if you want it to come true, right?"
"Agh, that's stupid and everyone knows it. I wished for that designer handbag that I was going to buy with the poker money."
"It's been a year and you still haven't saved up enough to buy it?"
"It's a really expensive purse."
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