Chapter 158: The Dream of Ansgar Part 4

[Trusted by the Forest]

[You are the trusted servant of Lynshaka, the goddess of the forest and earth.]

[The divine power of Lynshaka inside you has reached its maximum level.]

[The forests and lands under Lynshaka's care will trust you.]

[The forests and lands under Lynshaka's care will prioritize your protection.]

[Unholy beings will fear you even more.]

-Meow.

-Meeooow.

-Nyaa.

After I petted the cats gathered under the cat tree, I carefully read through the description of my newly evolved title.

Now that the [Loved by the Forest] trait evolved into the [Trusted by the Forest] trait, the divine power of Lynshaka inside me had reached the maximum level that a human could accept.

I'm not at the level of a saint or saintess. However, obtaining this level of divine power without being a priest is nearly impossible. It's an achievement only possible through the direct favor of a god!

To survive as a druid, I would need Lynshaka's continued help. So even if Donar was a bit displeased with that, there was nothing I could do about it.

Besides…

If one were to argue, Donar also bore some responsibility for the disaster that befell Dihid, so he had to accept this much.

Donar was a god with a following so vast that he was often compared to Arzan, the god of the sun. However, Donar wasn't content with being second; he aggressively expanded his influence with the aim of surpassing Arzan and claiming the position of the supreme god.

And this was where Donar encountered an unexpected "problem".

Because he expanded so rapidly, Donar's power base wasn't solid. He focused too much on increasing his numbers and neglected the proper management of the priests who formed the backbone of his order…

Stagnant water always ends up rotting.

The crows must have been drawn by the stench of that decay.

Humans didn't live by "faith" alone. In some ways, humans were just as complex as gods. What made up a human wasn't just positive energies like faith, love, friendship, and hope.

Desire, distrust, anger, hatred…

Those too were components of humanity.

The priests of Donar's temple and even the lord of Dihid were all beings driven by desire.

But the gods didn't know that.

Or, perhaps they did and chose to ignore it.

Many tragedies started from there.

After the gods destroyed Ansgar, the nations vying for dominance over the continent slowly began to restore order over the long years. The continent became peaceful once more, or at least, it appeared that way for now.

However, evidence was beginning to appear everywhere, proving that this wasn't the case. Traces of those who were driving this world toward destruction.

"…Lady Lynshaka, do you know about this?"

No answer came. Only the leaves glowing faintly with divine power rustled lightly in the wind.

Well, it didn't matter.

Unlike the people of this pseudo-medieval land, I had no intention of leaving everything to the gods.

This was reality, but it was still a game.

No game lets the NPCs solve everything on their own.

If the player lets go, the game can never reach its ending.

So why would I just stand by and watch?

"That's why I'm counting on you."

I placed my hand on the cat tree and slowly infused it with magical power. The cat tree which I thought had fully grown absorbed the magical power and grew even thicker and larger until it became the size of a house. After planting several other purification trees around the huge cat tree, I filled the empty spaces with morning stars. Once I placed a statue of Lynshaka in front of the cat tree, a proper sanctuary would be complete.

Although I claimed I had no intention of building a temple for Donar, if more people began to visit this sanctuary, it would naturally evolve into a temple. The thought of how much this would annoy Donar made me smile. But it wasn't as if I had built a temple, right? What could he do?

If he's upset, he should have taken better care of his own temple in the first place.

After finishing up around the garden, I returned to the castle.

***

"It's finally over."

El wiped the beads of sweat from her forehead as she said so. She started to grumble after she neatly gathered the empty grain sacks.

"To be honest, Master, no one would question it if you claimed to be the lord of Dihid today. Not even His Majesty the Emperor."

"Watch your words, El."

"Yes, yes. But you know I'm right. You've prepared the city for reconstruction and even provided all the food. Sometimes I wonder how you manage to do all these things."

Well, it's because I'm a responsible young man who completed compulsory education in South Korea. I can't stand to see people go hungry… but explaining that to El wouldn't make sense. Instead, I just smiled and helped her gather the empty sacks.

El was right.

Even though Adena was supposed to bring back food supplies from the capital of the Barak Empire, there were already a significant number of people in Dihid who had been starving for a long time. And since we had to collect and burn all the contaminated rations…

The only option was to share what little food I had for now. Of course, it wasn't entirely a free donation. I planned to properly bill Adena for everything.

In any case, the people of Dihid weren't the only ones hungry. After all the hardships we'd been through while surviving on jerky and energy bars, we were in desperate need of a proper meal as well.

"Don't complain, we're going to have a real meal today."

"…Really?"

"Really."

There wasn't much left after giving nearly all the food to the villagers… but what could we do? As the saying goes, if you can't catch a pheasant, you settle for a chicken. We couldn't throw a grand feast right now, so we would have to make do with what we had.

"Let's prepare dinner before Lloyd gets back."

"Yes."

Lloyd was patrolling the city with a group of volunteers from the territory. Since there was still some time before he would return, I planned to have dinner ready by then.

"Let's see… We're completely out of eggs."

What was left included some dried rabbit meat, a salmon Ayla had caught, and a few vegetables like eggplant and zucchini.

Even the castle's warehouse didn't have anything particularly impressive left. About the only useful thing was some butter.

"We can make rabbit stew, salmon steaks, and ratatouille."

The rabbit meat was placed in boiling water with the bones still in. Potatoes and tomatoes were chopped and added, along with a generous amount of butter, the more the better. All the herbs we had were thrown in as well, and now it just needed to simmer. Since the bones were still in, the longer it cooked, the richer the broth would become, and the dried meat would soften and become tender. Adding some dried chili peppers, which the locals didn't eat, would give it a slightly spicy kick that would warm them up nicely.

The salmon Ayla had caught was even thicker than Lloyd's thigh. When I cut it open, the rich orange flesh, dripping with oil, was revealed! I was tempted to slice it up and eat it raw right then and there, but in this pseudo-medieval land, eating raw fish would be madness. It was safer to go with steaks, so steaks it would be.

As I placed the thickly sliced salmon on the hot iron pan, topped with herbs and butter, the sizzling sound filled the air along with a savory and salty aroma. While the salmon steaks were browned nicely, I quickly started preparing the ratatouille.

I sliced the eggplant and zucchini, layered them, poured a ladle of rabbit stew over the top, then added a generous amount of pureed tomatoes before letting it all bubble away. Just when it seemed done, I topped it with a generous amount of cheese. This all resulted in a rich and flavorful ratatouille.

"It's a shame we don't have any bread to go with it…"

"It smells good."

"Oh, Lloyd. You're here already."

Lloyd nodded his head and glanced at the nicely browned salmon steaks before turning to me.

"Anything I can help with?"

"Could you move the utensils?"

"Sure."

It was amusing to watch a warrior who carried a huge sword carefully move forks and plates. With most of the cooking done, I whistled for Ayla and tossed her the remaining half of the salmon. She rushed over, sat in a corner of the kitchen, and began to chew the salmon thoroughly from the head down.

"Well, shall we have our meal now?"

"Finally!"

El shouted joyfully as she quickly ran to her seat. For some reason, it felt like ages since the three of us sat down for a meal together. I placed a piece of salmon steak on each plate when suddenly…

[Theo. Me. Forget?]

"…Oh, absolutely not. How could I ever forget you?"

I quickly placed my plate in front of Legion and transferred the last piece of salmon steak onto another plate. Legion blinked his red eyes and examined the salmon steak from various angles before starting to eat with a soft chomping sound. Watching the palm-sized lizard nibble away at the much larger salmon steak was…

He's cute, but…

Phew, I couldn't be more relieved that Legion wasn't in his true form right now. If he were, he would have devoured this entire castle without a second thought…

[Theo. Delicious.]

"Do you like it? Try this too. It's ratatouille."

[Theo. Delicious.]

"Good, I'm glad. Eat as much as you want."

[Theo. Me. Want to eat. More.]

"Well, I'm sorry, but this is all for today. I'll let you feast soon, I promise."

[Theo…]

"…Alright. I understand."

After patting the sulking Legion on the head, I transferred half of the salmon steak from my plate to his.

Is this what it feels like to be a parent…?

I watched Legion devour the salmon steak with enthusiasm and then began to slowly savor the remaining half on my plate. Suddenly…

Why am I thinking of my mother…?

My mother who used to pick the mackerel flesh and place it on top of my rice. Did she feel this way too? Who would have thought that a small lizard—no, a dragon—would make me remember my mother's love.

[Theo. Me. Happy.]

"…Yeah, yeah. Do you want more?"

Looks like living in this pseudo-medieval land for so long has really done a number on me.