Chapter 2- The Saint, Angels and Heavens

White flowers with violet to green gradients and a shape resembling the wheels of a carriage fluttered in the air.

The muddy flowers broke apart like a torn necklace, and their petals flew and fell to the ground.

Mud-smeared armored men sprinting towards something in the shadows trampled over the flowers.

Aside from me, there were eight of them, knights with large, intimidating physiques, resplendent in white-gold armor and crest symbols printed on their cloaks, each slightly different, presumably based on rank, except the gold one.

From what I noticed, they lost their armored, robust mounts seconds after I awoke and started sprinting abnormally fast to get them back. They failed due to wearing heavy armour, and those horses were faster.

My senses became sharper. I.. I felt weird.

"Hmm, wait... what happened to me? Why am I in this open vehicle and, most of all, who put me inside this rusty iron-scent cage? '

Strangely, I feel lighter and clearer than ever before. However, I want fruit badly and my stomach is grumbling weakly.

Ohh right,

I remember why I am where I am now.

***

That consolation sated the entirety of my being previously due to meeting with heavenly entities. My non-existent eyes couldn't take the sheer brightness emanating from such tremendous existences, and one was a quiet, beautiful silver-haired girl with fox ears and a well-groomed bushy tail who was always meekly looking and smiling towards me.

We are in the same position.

While the two bright suns were exchanging inconceivable discussions, I examined the surrounding area through the never-ending mirror's flat surface.

An endless space of pure, serene skies stretched to eternity. It extended beyond my vision and gradually vanished into the perfect vista.

a favorable place of absolute solemnity and a soothing atmosphere. There was no such thing as an edge or a boundary, and it appeared more like an illusion than anything that reality couldn't compromise.

Sure enough, this is what we call heaven in the afterlife. Yet, this is possibly the best scenario, in my opinion. But my entirety warned me not to look up in their direction except for the gentle human-physique fox.

No matter how much time it takes, disturbing the divine existences in their casual talk as mortals is heinous and unforgivable.

Heavenly laws, in retrospect, would bring me to condemnation if I committed a single mistake.

I couldn't even change positions where my soul was fixed at this one point.

Utmost respect is what I most prioritize since this terrifying one starts talking about my life on Earth in detail, including the sins I committed.

Those world-shattering dominant voices make me tremble.

Yes, they're terrifying! Heck, you know that swirling uneasiness where your sins are recited one by one and counted? I felt like I'd fall to hell any moment now.

At first, I barely saw them, but I knew they weren't the same way we looked at angels in literature and anime.

I think it's rather perfectly synced rings like a gyroscope, but I'm not sure. I just caught a momentary glimpse. And the other one is much more apparent due to the big plus sign and golden spiral vibes, which are similarly imperceptible in total size.

Hmm... the golden ratio, I guess?

Not to mention their towering, countless white wings, varying in sizes and the numerous clouds surrounding them.

I feel like they are going to erase me right away! It's disrespectful if I visualize two mighty Mount Everests since my gut warns me they can read my mind and don't dare think an ill-thought.

My soul continues its posture, laying flat on the ground, facing downward in reverence and fear. The same way goes for the white fox girl.

I admire her.

She was too magnanimous, gallant, and lofty as an individual. Unlike me, covered in dirt, smelling like a frightened kitten, and most of all, naked. Furthermore, she's more than five meters away from me, and I have never sensed a bit of disgust nor moved an inch away since time immemorial.

It has been quite a long time since we last changed our posture and stared at each other like lovers.

No-stop. No ill-intentions. She's a saintly kid, and I'm a sinful, worthless teenager.

My negative emotions vanished before my eyes, and the reasons were her presence and the fact that I had just been cleansed.

Wait... after discussing my lifetime, T-they... talk to me.

N-no... relaying a message with no context, sound waves, or telepathy.

So it was, through premonition means. It isn't a visual interpretation in mind.

I just get what they meant to command me simply and clearly. Stand up.

Of course, I complied immediately, and so did the girl, still exuding a continuously positive aura with her radiating reassuring smile while we were looking downwards because of intolerable brightness.

But I don't know where my shyness goes since I don't wear anything else. Not to mention, the feeling of being a dirty girl.

"!!!"

A sheer number of memories rose in fast-forward play of her life, from her first years until she died basking under the full moon's graces. a peaceful, happy, and healthy life for more than ten thousand years, but there are a lot of questions in my mind and two things I couldn't help understand why—

How did you manage to survive and raise yourself without people? How could you endure loneliness that much?

Her head turned in my direction and I received a gentle and radiating reply—a genuinely lovely saintly smile no one could apprehend.

She understood me and I'm pretty convinced she'll go to a paradise befitting souls like her.

And then I realized what she meant...

I wasn't great at describing everything that happened. Her memories were shared with me in the blink of an eye, though they were not primarily photographic memories, being inclined to eidetic.

My thoughts stopped running when another set of information passed on my imaginary highway. And it's coming from the angel on the right. However, to my confusion, the other one is left in thin air, brushing off the surroundings with a slightly strong but gentle breeze.

"They are not Gods."

My soul is borrowed from this realm's God, thus I was born on Earth.

I'm the last borrowed soul.

This fox girl will become a saint and live with other heavenly beings in eternity.

I'm not permitted to go to either heaven or hell.

A dead body of the first-ever white mystic fox incapable of reproducing offspring in exchange for eternal youth status.

To do so, a suitable and reasonable soul is required to occupy the soulless body that belonged to this girl originally.

"And that soul is me."

There's a lot of advice that came from the angel, and next, the white fox girl shut her eyes, facing brightness with great enthusiasm, and her chin lifted slightly. Then she nodded.

I don't know what they're talking about.

I'm pretty sure it was serious as she was contemplating it.

After a couple of minutes, she walked towards me, and I was astonished to look at her amazing beauty in more detail, regardless of her primitive clothes.

The white mystic fox was a beautiful, charming, admirable lady. She had long, shining silvery hair with some strands of gold reaching her waist with sharp ends like swaying needles. She had the dainty yet physically fit body of a lion, which she carried lightly as if it were air. Her eyes were dilated, deep red, and imposing in prominence. Her bushy smooth tail and fox ears, which are also tinged black at those three tips, distinguish her from humans. And her lips resembled the petals of a lotus as she said a word that left me stunned.

"Maria"

She's shorter than me, but the white fox pushed me gently enough to make me lose balance and fall into an endless pit, as if there was a hole behind my back.

As I go downward, my vision gets darker and darker until everything becomes an empty void.

***

This is where my new life begins... inside a cage, and as the angel tells me, my presumable race rarity is the reason, since I'm the only mystic white fox in history.

So, I'm not a fool to question their intentions and the reasons why I'm here or why they chose me. And the white fox earlier, who displays no conflicting emotions despite the fact that a stranger will occupy her own body.

Although my soul was cleansed, I felt ambivalent about whether I deserved this or not, since they didn't explain the main points. Perhaps a hidden mission? What's her name?

"Ma... ra... ra... mia?"

I searched for that memory in my brain and it seems she doesn't have one. Wait... these three knights spoke English!

Well, that's surprising!

Probably because of boredom or agitation of their horses' fleeing. They discussed something that caught my interest. It amazes me that I could hear their mutterings even though they were several meters away.

"Damn it! If taming royal horses is that easy, this will cut me down by 20% each day. and one week's worth of salary to buy another one. Urgh! ",

"Yeah, walking towards the nearby village for more than an hour makes me sleepy. Hey Captain Arthuro, we want to borrow ten pouches! ",

"Okay, are you sure, kiddo? Are you there, boy? We will use that vow, you know. "

The two nodded in unison, smirking and thinking they'd go on wild in the village for the whole day.

"Okay, boys! Let's break! These brats need lassies this night! "

"Hahahaha"

The blue sky turned black, and was it because of that magic spell? though not entirely covered by the horizon. It seems the origin came from that long-haired Golden Knight captain.

My guts warn me of the heavy tension pressing atop my shoulders. Since I awoke, I'm pretty sure they aren't gentlemen and are dangerous.

In truth, I want to escape and run as soon as possible, but this cage isn't something I couldn't break with my tiny bare hands.

Now that I think about it, one of the knights who drives this carriage summoned a kind of rectangular plane in front of him a while ago, whispering in a low voice.

That language he used to chant surprised me since it was my native language! It's kind of mysterious though, and not a coincidence, if I may say so, as this is another world.

Since my vision at that time was still blurry, of course, I heard the magic word, and I'll try it now in a low voice, so I couldn't interrupt them and at the same time observe them.

It seems like an unbreakable contract when every party states their conditions as many times as possible, if and only if the other side agrees, and a glowing light flickers when such conditions are reasonable, acceptable, and clear.

Well, I hope this will be like in my RPG games' status menus...

"---Estadoko---"

My calmness was broken and splattered to pieces once those familiar letters and numbers were shown.

And most importantly, no information describes what those contents are.

Oh, they have already done that. Wait... X... where's the close button? '

With no other choice, I grabbed the floating panel and slid it through my back since those lustful knights were walking towards me.