A goddess' request

Goddess.

It was a word Shin had heard relatively a lot over the months he had been in Grigarm.

In this world it was hard to find a person who didn't have any beliefs or didn't pray to any deity.

Even if they weren't the most devout people still almost everyone worshipped a god.

However, Shin was different, he came from a place where science predominated over religion so he was never influenced by it.

He never had any interest in researching the gods in Grigarm as he was focused on survival.

But now in front of him was a woman who called herself a goddess.

The woman saw the clear doubt on Shin's face but didn't bother and instead smiled and took a sip from her cup.

"It's okay that you don't believe me, I wouldn't believe someone either if they told me that as soon as we met"

Shin agreed with the woman's words and let her continue.

"We really don't have much time, so I want to ask you a favor."

Shin looked at her strangely but did not deny the woman's request from the beginning and instead preferred to listen to her request before refusing.

Shin remembered the voice he had heard in the lake and the question she had asked him, although he had answered without much thought, he truly felt that for some reason the answer he gave the woman would change his life completely.

"It depends on whether I can fulfill it or not..."

The woman kept smiling and set the cup down on the table before speaking.

"I'd really like you to fix my garden"

"...."

Shin didn't know what to reply as it wasn't what he expected at all.

"Are you serious?"

The woman jumped up from the table and looked around.

"Yes! the truth is that my garden used to be in the middle of a big, beautiful lake which is now...a bit in disrepair."

Shin could only think of the lake from before, but he didn't remember seeing any garden in the center of it.

"It may not be easy, but rest assured that I will also lend you my help"

Shin was still a bit stunned by the woman's weird request, so he didn't know what to say. Not until he heard the woman's next words.

"Ah, I forgot to tell you. Even though I'm asking it's not like you can refuse, since if you do, I'll have no choice but to kill you."

The woman's slender body began to emit a greenish aura that caused Shin to feel as if a thousand swords were pointed at his entire body...no, it wasn't a thousand swords, it was a thousand rose thorns.

"It's not a threat, it's a reality."

Shin felt his whole body go numb and only managed to rest his arms on the table to keep from falling.

The woman noticed how Shin was feeling very weakened, so she retracted her greenish aura until Shin felt fine again as if nothing had happened.

"So, ready to accept my application?" asked the woman clasping her hands together as if she were saying a prayer and nothing had happened.

Shin looked at her cautiously for a few seconds before sighing and lowering his gaze.

"...Well, I guess I will."

The woman put on her best smile since Shin had arrived and approached him quickly.

"Very good! I'm really glad you had accepted. I didn't want to wait another...How much was it?, it really doesn't matter. What matters is that you accepted without a problem!"

'You repeated it twice...'

The woman extended her hand towards Shin and said:

"Give me your hand."

Shin hesitated for a moment but in the end, she held out her hand which the woman caught between her two hands and closed her eyes.

A greenish aura just like the previous one came out of the woman's body again, but this time Shin did not feel any pressure or any threat against his life, instead he felt a pleasant scent of roses.

The green aura spread down the woman's arm until it reached Shin's hand and passed up to her forearm where it began to glow more brightly before suddenly disappearing as if it had never existed.

The woman opened her eyes and let go of Shin's hands.

"That's it!"

Shin looked at his forearm and noticed a light green line matching the aura surrounding his forearm.

"What is this?" he asked dubiously.

"It's just to show that you accepted my request, now whether you fulfill it or not only depends on you and your perseverance."

Shin looked up and asked:

"Perseverance?"

However, all he saw in front of him was red water and in the background Astheria's voice.

'Shin?'

As soon as he heard Astheria he snapped out of his thoughts focusing on what was happening.

'What happened?'

Astheria didn't understand his question at first but ended up answering his question.

'No idea...apparently everything is back to normal.'

Shin looked around and noticed how the sea of stars had disappeared and all around him was red water.

'How long did it take?'

Shin was in that garden for about 5 minutes, although it was very little time, it was long enough for Astheria to notice that something had happened with Shin, however the sea of stars she saw 5 minutes ago had just disappeared for her.

'What are you talking about?, it just disappeared.'

Shin frowned and looked at the white sword he was clutching in his right hand.

'Just disappeared?'

Astheria couldn't hear his thoughts since she was not directly in Shin's body but inside the sword, so even if they could talk inside Shin's head, they could both have their own thoughts without the other hearing.

Unlike when Astheria possessed Shin and they both shared her body for a couple of hours.

'Is something wrong?" asked Astheria with concern as she noticed how Shin was acting strangely.

'...No, it's nothing' Shin denied as he looked at the light green line around his forearm.

'Now what do we do?' 'Astheria asked.

As soon as Shin heard Astheria he remembered the situation he was in, a situation which was not very good for both of them.

Shin swam to the surface and as soon as he approached the surface, he looked at what was going on outside while staying underwater so as not to reveal himself to the hooded men.

The moment the sea of stars disappeared, the lake was apparently a normal lake again, so now he could see what was going on outside from the inside.

The hooded men seemed to be talking but the giant was staring at the lake intently, and an instant after Shin looked at the giant it looked him straight in the eyes and roared.

"What the fuck!?"

The giant did not hesitate and the next moment he jumped into the water.

***

At the top of a tree the red-haired woman had been looking at the lake she saw how as soon as the water on the surface of the lake moved the giant roared and jumped into the lake.

In truth the giant had not seen Shin, he simply saw the ripples in the water and jumped straight in without thinking too much about it.

For Shin it had been about five minutes but for everyone else it had only been about a minute since he had jumped into the water.

The woman, seeing that the giant hooded man had jumped into the water, jumped from the top of the tree and in an instant covered the distance between her and the hooded men who watched in a daze as the giant had disappeared into the red water.

The woman was so fast that the hooded men did not notice when she arrived, however it was too late when they noticed her as 7 of them were already on the ground with a mortal wound in their chest.

The woman opened and closed her bloody hand several times and looked at the hooded men before sighing in excitement.

"Ahhh, it's been a while since I released my stress."

The remaining hooded men shrieked and ran to attack the woman who only frowned at their high-pitched shrieks but that was all.

Before the hooded men could do anything they all fell to the ground with a wound in their chest.

The ground slowly filled with blood from the corpses of the hooded men, but the woman didn't care about any of this and just looked at the lake for a few seconds before speaking.

"How strange...well, I guess that was it."

After noticing that the water of the lake calmed down again and again looked like a big red mirror of how still the water was, the woman decided to leave but again just as she was about to leave the water moved again and Shin's unconscious body appeared floating face down.

The woman smiled as if a predator was looking at its prey and opened her palm in which a rope appeared out of nowhere.

"Heh, I can't wait to see the look of frustration on that woman's face when I tell her what I just saw."