Chapter 5

Temeraire’s eyes widened briefly. His face turned pale red, and he averted his gaze once more. It was the same flustered expression as before. Yuichiro was perplexed as to why Temeraire had made such an expression. It was like seeing a woman in love with a man. When Yuichiro was about to contort his face in wonder, Goat’s voice from the front of the carriage cut him off.

“We’ve made it to the castle.”

Yuichiro immediately peered out the carriage’s window and saw a huge case presented in front of his eyes. It was a magnificent white limestone castle, surrounded by massive rocky walls. At the main entrance to the castle, a gigantic gate was tightly shut. Myriads of large junipers grew through the cracks in the walls, obscuring the castle’s entire appearance with their dense white foliage. The castle was like a natural fortress.

Getting off the carriage in front of the gate, Yuichiro and the others passed by the guards and proceeded into the castle. When Noah, Temeraire, and Goat appeared, everyone came to a halt and bowed deeply. However, once they saw the bloodied Yuichiro, they all looked at each other with bewilderment. All of them quivered as if they had seen something terrible.

The stench of blood, which he hadn’t noticed until a few minutes ago, was overpowering. He sniffed with his arms close to his nose. It smelled like blood and mud. A week of walking through the jungle had also left a strong odor of sweat and grease. Yuichiro felt as if his whole body had turned into a fermented corpse.

“The odor…” Noah muttered to himself as he watched Yuichiro sniffing his own smell.

“Should I say it now?” When Yuichiro replied, Noah stared at him, his eyes red from crying earlier. Nonetheless, despite having just been verbally abused by Yuichiro, he had the audacity to curse at him. “There’s no such thing as a stinky Goddess.”

“I’m not a Goddess, am I? Yuichiro chuckled at Noah’s sulky tone. After that, Noah gritted his teeth and replied, “I don’t want you to be a Goddess.”

“Because I kill people?” Yuichiro responded casually. Noah averted his gaze awkwardly for a moment before looking at Yuichiro with a pained expression. “There’s that, but it’s not the only thing…”

“What do you mean it’s not just that?” Noah remained silent in response to Yuichiro’s question. Noah’s ears turned red within the next second. Yuichiro was staring at Noah’s reddening ears when he heard Temeraire’s voice from behind him.

“Let’s take a hot bath before we meet Hōshu.”

Yuichiro cocked his head as if it were a natural course of action when he heard the word ‘meeting’. “What is this Hōshu you’re speaking of? Is it a person’s name?”

“It’s not a person. Hōshu is Jeweld’s national treasure.”

At Temeraire’s explanation, Yuichiro became more dumbfounded. Then, he saw Temeraire’s frown, looking a little uncomfortable. He didn’t appear to be enthusiastic about the treasure. Yuichiro deduced that, despite his calm demeanor, Temeraire was the type of person who wore his emotions on his sleeves.

“Hōshu is an entity that elects the ’Rightful King’ as well as those who serve, dedicating themselves when the country is in turmoil. Hōshu has chosen both Noah-sama and me. It also informed us that Yuichiro-sama would be transferring here.”

Hearing Temeraire’s explanations, Yuichiro let out a small chuckle. “Does that mean this Hōshu is a prophet?”

“It’s fine if you think so.”

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“Hey, I’ve been wondering for a while. How are my words being conveyed to you guys? What language am I speaking right now?”

Temeraire gave Yuichiro a thoughtful look before responding slowly, “The language that Yuichiro-sama is speaking right now sounds similar to the language that we are using. When you came into this world, it was said that you were ‘tuned’ to our language.

“Tuning?”

“Yes, I heard that every goddess who had transferred into this world up to this point all referred to the automatic conversion of words into our language as ‘tuning’.

Yuichiro smirked, [Huh, what a laughable and cute expression].

“—However, there are some words that cannot be ‘tuned,’ such as words that did not exist in your previous world. For example, Yuichiro-sama, you couldn’t understand words like distance and time units such as ‘roth’ and ‘eighth’ even when you were tuned right?”

“Ah, that’s right.”

“Once there are discordant words, they will never be properly converted to your language.” We don’t know what’s causing it, but one of the previous goddesses stated that the discordance was causing her discomfort.”

“Discomfort?”

“The uneasy feeling that this world is not her world.”

Oddly enough, Yuichiro felt a tinge of sadness at the revelation from Temeraire. After a brief silence, he asked, “Is there any goddess who has ever returned to her own world?”

Temeraire was the one who went silent this time. “There are… those who have returned,” he replied quietly later. Temeraire came to a halt as Yuichiro was about to ask how, and motioned with his palm to the door on the right. “Please call me when you’re done bathing.” Yuichiro was hesitant to ask any further questions because of Temeraire’s solemn tone.

Yuichiro washed himself under the hot water, cleaning off the dirt that had accumulated all over his body. As he observed the blood and brown water flowing down from his skin, the memories of the battle that had just taken place came flooding back to him.

[Oz was most likely dead by this point. Following a direct hit from the grenade… His chances of survival are slim. But, why? Why didn’t he just get on the ground? If he had escaped on his own… Even if he is injured, he may have survived the blast]. Yuichiro pondered deeply, concluding that Oswald covered himself with the grenade rather than fleeing because he was behind Oswald. To protect Yuichiro, Oswald had used his own body as a shield.

[If I was right, then he was a fool]. Instead of gratitude or sympathy, Yuichiro felt a sickening sense of disgust well up inside him. He didn’t want to know what his emotions were called. Even if he knew, these feelings would still persist.

Yuichiro soaked in the large bathtub provided for him after cleaning his entire body. He hadn’t soaked like this in months, he thought. The bathtub’s left side was not enclosed by a wall; instead, it was adjacent to an open space leading outside. Yuichiro could gaze out the bathtub at the expanse of silvery white sky, followed by the vast desert that stretched all the way to the horizon.

Yuichiro rested his arms on the bathtub’s edge and gazed into the view for a few moments. Despite the fact that the view was mesmerizing, he felt even more abandoned. He gazed at the white sky littered with scattered stars, trying to find Earth among them.

He didn’t feel any nostalgia when he finally found them. Yuichiro had no regrets about his previous life. In reality, he had left nothing behind in that world. However, this time around, would he be able to leave something behind in this world?

[This is ridiculous], Yuichiro got out of the bathtub, shaking off his sentimentality. He changed into clothes that had been prepared ahead of time after wiping off the excess water roughly. It was a pair of white shirt and white pant with a linen-like texture.

Next to the clothes were his AK-47 and a survival knife. The survival knife, in particular, had already been sharpened and bled off. Yuichiro hid the knife behind his waist and carried the gun over his shoulder. As he walked out of the bathroom, he ran into Temeraire, who was standing at the door. Temeraire had also bathed and changed his clothes in hot water. He was dressed in a long robe that reached all the way down to his shins, with his damp hair tied in a knot at the back of his neck.

“I’ve been expecting you.”

“I never asked you to wait for me.” Temeraire smiled mischievously in response to Yuichiro’s rude remarks and said, “I’m beginning to understand Yuichiro-temperament sama’s a little bit.”

“Hey, what kind of temperament do I have?”

“I think Yuichiro-sama is a loveable person.”

Yuichiro almost cringed at Temeraire’s response and narrowed his eyes at him. Temeraire’s smile widened even more at this. After some thought, Yuichiro concluded that something about Temeraire’s beauty stood out to him. His appearance was divine.

“I’m not sure what to think when someone with your beautiful face calls me beautiful or lovely, but I can’t help but think you’re mocking me.”

“That’s what I really think.”

“If that’ s what you really think, it’s madness. It’s more like a curse than madness.” Yuichiro was baffled by Temeraire’s words. When he cast a sidelong glance at Temeraire, the man chuckled quietly from the back of his throat. His chuckle was a feathery laugh with a melancholy undertone. Temeraire then directed Yuichiro to begin walking. They both made their way through the maze of corridors and came to a halt in front of a large door. When Yuichiro opened the door, he found himself in a deserted hall. It was a brightly lit room with a high glass ceiling.

Translator’s Notes

We’re finally midway through the 1st arc! Yay! I personally love this chapter, what do you readers think?