9

CHAPTER 9

Opening his eyes again, Cassian sighed. He had spaced out quite bit while reminiscing about the past.

Dipping his hand in his shirt, he pulled out a necklace with a palm size purple jewel as its center piece.

The closer the eclipse came, the more intense the jewel shone.

And by the time the eclipse reached his peak, the purple light was so bright he could not look at it directly.

"3… 2…" Without vocalizing the '1', he jumped down from the rooftop while mumbling something without stopping for breath.

"O benevolent goddess, this servant of thee comes to heed your calling!"

Ohm!!

A low frequency sound emanated from the jewel before a spiral purple portal with black edges appeared at the bottom of the building.

Seeing the portal appear before him he sighed inwardly, relieved that it all happened as the Pope had told him.

Soon, he reached ground level but rather than getting squashed like a fly by the reactive force, he felt no pain.

Rather, his view blackened as he disappeared through the portal.

Thud.

Rather than hitting a hard surface, he landed on something soft. 

He had not been informed on what to expect on the other side of the portal other than meeting their goddess. It was to be expected as all who 'ascended' never came back but sometimes sent back messages to those they left behind on Cute Predator Star.

Whatever the case, he didn't expect to find a large room with white walls and pillars on the other side of the portal.

The bed he was lying on was the size of the combination of two and a half king size beds and it was mind-numbingly soft and bouncy.

There was a stand by the side of the bed with a silver tray holding a glass cup and a bottle of wine, as well a loaf of bread.

He narrowed his eye at the combination until he heard a low growl.

'…That was my stomach?'

He wondered how he had gotten so hungry already since he had eaten quite a meal before injecting that 'courage booster' in the bathroom.

'Tch. No point overthinking it. If anyone wanted to harm me, they could have ended me in my sleep.'

He reached out for the bottle first but paused just before his fingers made contact with it.

'Huh? Sleep? Did I even lose consciousness? It felt so seamless, like as soon as I made contact with the portal, I landed on the bed. I vividly felt myself bunce off the bed.'

'Then… this food was already set up in expectation for my arrival.'

He also vaguely considered the possibility of the food being set up for someone else but he shoved it to the back of his mind, deciding to cross that bridge if it ever appeared before him.

Right now, his stomach felt like it was going to devour itself if he didn't supply it with something soon.

"*Nom*," He took a bite into a slice of the bread and froze. "Damn." That was the only way he could express himself after a brief period of palpable silence. "*Nom* *Nom* *Nom* *Nom* *Nom* *Nom*…"

He kept on stuffing his face with the bread like some uncultured swine. All the table manners he learnt from his interaction with the Whyte family temporarily flew out the window as he seemed to be incapable of getting enough of that good taste.

It was sweet. Like the natural kind of honey that had no sugar, but better. A lot better.

By the time he regained emotional stability, he realized that he had overeaten.

He was pleased to have gotten the opportunity to enjoy such a heavenly baked good, sad that he had already reached his limit and couldn't with a sound mind eat more, and also shocked that he actually got stuffed, something that hadn't happened since he became a blessed knight.

Alas, his shock wasn't going to end there.

After he paused after taking in a few sips of the drink from the bottle that he discovered was not alcoholic, he was addressed by someone.

"Are you satisfied?" 

Startled, he immediately broke out of his reverie and bolted to his feet, turning to the direction of the source of the voice, his battle-ready stance betraying his alertness and wariness.

'How could someone sneak up on me? Since my Conferment, not even a spider or the Pope could sneak up on me without me knowing!'

Standing before him was a woman standing at about 6 feet and an inch tall, with an athletic and well-proportioned build, short orange hair, golden eyes conveying a sense of nonchalance and boredom yet hidden fierceness to them, and a heart-shaped face.

She was dressed in a shiny black body hug latex suit with yellow markings snaking around it, forming an indiscernible pattern with a pair of yellow Swade boots.

She stood there with her hands behind her back and a slightly raised brow.

What stood out the most though was her inhumanly smooth white skin. She looked like she just came out of a pool of white paint. If that was her natural skin tone, then she definitely not human… at least not the ones from earth that he knew.

 One of her brows raised as she asked;

"Cassian Rush, I presume?"

"…" He didn't answer immediately but he was shocked, his attention stolen from her unique appearance, not long after; "Huh?!"

As she continued to speak, a cobalt blue rectangular holographic screen appeared out nowhere, hovering before her.

'It doesn't look like it is being projected from any device!'

This was definitely not what he was expecting when he was going to another world where pursuing immortality was possible and would meet a goddess.

"Pardon me but I would advise you to answer my questions as this is an identity verification procedure wherein failure would signal your immediate elimination." The orange-haired lady who appeared to be in her mid to late 20s said, casually when she noticed him spacing out. 

"E-elimination? As in, killing me?" She didn't answer but her deadpan look gave him the answer he needed. He gulped audibly. "Y-yes. Please, ask away."

He had prepared his mind and steeled his heart all those years for whatever he may come across in his journey to reunite with his first love but the feeling of dread had his heart in its claws.

"…Good."