[172] 1. Kergo Autonomous District (4)
Fortunately, there was an exit. The air tasted different, and they emerged halfway up the stepped tiers of the altar.
The jungle of Mount Toa lay beneath them like a rolling sea.
From twenty meters up the forest spread wide, with Kergo hamlets scattered here and there.
On the far side of the altar stood a palace of gold—the chieftain's house. Inside, a long hall held two rows of tables.
Shirone took the seat of honor. To his right sat Amy, Rian, Tess, Kanis, and Arin in that order.
To his left sat Chief Kadum and the elders. Hasid, the horn‑blower, was absent. Mahatu was at the rear seat, which suggested his rank wasn't insignificant.
Music began and Kergo dishes were served. Before they could taste anything, warriors came in two by two carrying large chests.
They opened the lids. The chests overflowed with gold coins and jewels.
"What is this?"
"A humble gift from Kergo. Please accept it."
It wasn't something you could count coin by coin; it had to be weighed. Together the five chests must have weighed at least a ton.
Amy set her plate down with a sour expression.
This wasn't revenue from the ruins. It was money earned by trafficking loop. That sum could feed the whole tribe and still leave plenty.
"Shirone, you're not actually going to accept that, are you?"
"I can't just take a huge sum without knowing why. It wouldn't be something offered for nothing."
When Shirone demanded an explanation, Kadum's expression shifted.
Even the most saintly person changes their breathing at the sight of over a ton of gold. But Shirone treated it as if it were nothing more than stones—completely indifferent.
That didn't mean Shirone was above money. He simply wasn't foolish enough to cling to what wasn't his.
Kadum didn't hesitate. He clapped his hands, and a second offering was brought in.
He seemed confident that even those who rejected riches could not refuse this.
Men with white facial tattoos—like the ones from the Room of Achievement and Sacrifice—entered. Shirone guessed they were clergy.
They stepped aside, and a dozen young beautiful Kergo women filed in.
The boys, Shirone among them, gaped. It was a sight rare for their age.
The women—dressed to the point of near‑nudity—moved forward in a sensual dance.
From afar it looked ornate, but close up it was shamelessly lascivious. Their eyes were glassy, as if drugged into a trance.
"How do you like them? They are the most beautiful priestesses in Kergo. They are the second offering to the messenger of the god. We hope they please you."
Shirone felt the seat beside him heat up. He didn't need to look to know Amy's expression.
Kadum's generosity had backfired.
The priestesses' group dance might have been alluring to others, but to Shirone it was simply the writhing of women intoxicated by loop.
Unwarranted kindness feels like a threat; the colder he analyzed Kadum's intent, the colder Shirone's heart grew.
When Shirone stayed unmoved, worry finally flickered across Kadum's face.
An unlocker's intellect may be lower than a common saint's, but that doesn't make him enlightened. The Immortal Function is a path toward nirvana, not instant emancipation.
Someone truly free of the five desires and seven emotions wouldn't be loitering in a Room of Achievement and Sacrifice. Kadum had no idea what Shirone wanted.
"I misjudged you. I thought you would be pleased. Honestly, this is my first time welcoming the messenger of the god, so I was only following tradition."
That remark irritated Shirone further. How debauched must the other unlockers be to call this "tradition"?
"Did the unlockers like this sort of thing?" Shirone asked.
"According to records, they didn't dislike it. But don't misunderstand—there's no ulterior motive; it's just tradition. Kergo is a tribal society and the priests hold great power. Priests divide into clergy and warriors, and among the clergy the women are priestesses. By Kergo custom a priestess must be beautiful and remain pure all her life, but she may sleep with someone once to bear an angel's child. In short, the priestesses are prepared to give everything for Shirone, the angel's offspring."
"And if I accept these women, what would I have to do?"
A chieftain wouldn't risk his people's lives without compensation. Tradition is a custom born of necessity.
The gold could feed the entire tribe. The women parading for Shirone's favor were potential mothers who could increase the tribe's numbers. Kadum was, in effect, offering the tribe's wealth and future to Shirone in exchange.
"The Kergo are children of the great Ra. And the angel's offspring are the only ones who can link the Kergo tribe with the god. Please carry our faith to the god."
"You mean Anke Ra?"
"Anke Ra. It means the immortal Ra. He has existed since the beginning and created us. With great power, he still watches over us."
Strip away the piety and it came down to a bargain.
Take the gold and the women as payment, then go to the god and deliver the tribe's petition. How Shirone would convey it was unclear, but it was surely related to the Immortal Function.
Their mental channels buzzed as they argued about whether to accept.
Tess was against it. Beyond the money, the thought of Shirone sleeping with other women while Amy sat by was unbearable.
But contrary to expectation, Amy was in favor of accepting the payment. Shirone agreed as well.
- Shirone! How could you? They say all men are beasts, but I trusted you.
- Don't get worked up. See what Shirone's thinking. Amy said it's okay too.
- Ridiculous! Rian, are you defending him just because you're a man? I'll never agree. Amy, say something. Doesn't this make you mad?
- Of course it's annoying. It's disgusting to feast while a people starve. But Shirone can control it. For now, getting more information is what matters, so let's accept.
While Shirone's group exchanged thoughts, an old white‑haired man entered. It was Elder Hasid, the horn‑blower. His gaze, which had been skimming the elders indulging in food and drink, hardened into anger.
Mahatu rose and bowed nervously.
"You have come, elder."
"Tsk tsk, pathetic. What on earth is this chaos?"
When the music stopped, the girls who had been dancing collapsed, exhausted.
Hasid hobbled over to Shirone with his cane, moving as if he had three legs.
Kadum blocked him in a high‑handed tone.
"What are you doing, father? You're ruining a sacred feast."
"A sacred feast? Outside, our people starve day after day. If we keep wasting money on such frivolities, the tribe will truly fall!"
"It's astonishing that a former chieftain and noble elder would speak such nonsense. Shall I put that remark to the council?"
"That would be wrong. The people are buoyed by hope at the arrival of the messenger of the god. But that's all. They want happiness, not just a messenger of the god—don't you understand?"
"We've heard the elder's opinion. Regardless of anyone else, I am the chieftain. Kergo will be revived by the god's grace. We will not hide in the mountains watching the outside world; we will restore our former brilliant civilization!"
Hasid clicked his tongue and turned away, beard trembling.
In any case, Kadum was the chieftain. If the dispute escalated in front of the elders, there was no guarantee the civil war from five hundred years ago wouldn't flare up again.
As the mood sank, the elders slipped away and the feast ended.
Kadum led Shirone's group up to the top of the altar. The roof was broad, and to the north stood a seven‑meter statue. The moonlit giant radiated an oppressive presence.
Kadum stood by the statue and looked up at the night sky.
Countless stars glittered.
But the star he was fixated on was only one.
"Do you see that cluster in the northern sky? Connect them in a figure eight, then find the brightest star at the crossing of the two loops."
They'd come because they were promised something to see, not a lesson in constellations. Reluctantly, they took the time to find the star Kadum pointed out.
What he said next stunned them.
"That star is the Kergo's homeland."
"What? Homeland?"
Shirone's idea of homeland was the place where one was born—a spot city youths feel nostalgic for, not a distant point in the night sky.
"Kergo believe that the god who created us lives there. We are born and die on this land, but our souls fly to that sky. The country of the sky. So we call that star Heaven."
Shirone felt awkward.
Heaven is an abstract place. It's not something you recommend to a traveler like a tourist site.
"I don't get it. Why is that place called Heaven?"
"Shirone, you don't believe in gods, do you?"
Shirone neither believed nor disbelieved.
A mage's mind doesn't make firm judgments about what can't be analyzed.
To Shirone, a god was something whose existence couldn't be determined.
"There is this in Kergo creation myth. It's prehistory. In the beginning giants lived, and humans were born from the giants' blood and flesh. The first humans, Garok, lived about seven hundred and eighty‑two years. His child Deris lived 982 years, and his son Theses lived 1,320 years."
Ra's creation myth wasn't especially different from other religions' myths.
Some scholars say the lifespans of figures who appear before recorded history don't indicate literal years lived but the period a family or house ruled.
If a name like Elajin is passed down for thirteen generations, the myth will speak of an Elajin who lived a thousand years.
It was a plausible interpretation.
Even in the Kingdom of Tormia, the king's name was inherited. The current ruler was Adolf XII.
Kadum rattled off a string of lifespans for people Shirone had never heard of, as if proud of his memory.
When the age of myth ended, they entered the age of history.
"Two thousand years ago the pioneer Hanes built a civilization here. Since then we've been in Ra's embrace. You may have wondered why we do not restore the Kergo ruins buried in volcanic ash."
Shirone recalled the thick barrier that even Amy's sniper mode couldn't pierce, the one cutting through the ruins' middle levels.
"There are many ancient ruins in the world, and this is one of them. But there's a hidden fact the public doesn't know. Long ago our ancestors seemed to travel freely to Heaven. The underground facilities in the ruins prove it."
"What on earth is down there to make you say that?"
Shirone couldn't stand not knowing.
Kadum stared into Shirone's curious eyes and said,
"Beneath the ruins, a gate has been installed that leads to Heaven."
It hit him like a hammer. Heaven. Surely he didn't mean the star floating in the northern sky—
That place was in space.
It was a distance no human power could ever cross.
"You mean we can go to where the god is?"
"Yes. Exactly that."
For a moment Shirone wondered: was Chief Kadum mad, or was he telling the truth?