Chapter 31: Female President (7) (1/2)
Chapter 31: Female President (7)
Chi-Woo left his room and returned to the restaurant Eshnunna’s request was siather all the recruits in one place because she thought she had so that could help the for some time, but the situation hadn’t i nowhere, and they were still arguing about the sa without doing anything, and whether they should at least prepare so and guided the heroes to a s next to the mansion as per Eshnunna’s instruction
“Why is she suddenly telling us to go there?”
“Let’s go along with it this time I’m also curious ere told not to set foot in there without per to was a place that Eshnunna had warned them to not enter carelessly When they opened the door, they sao alone in the center of a spacious rooe statue hanging on the wall behind her It was a statue of a beautiful Goddess, lit up by the silverish ht and wrapped all over in ste, reddish-black flower that looked like it would start dripping blood at any moment
“Is this a place of worshi+p?” Zelit asked while looking around his surroundings
“It’s not much for a temple, but it is meant to serve the master of all Gods, Elephthalia,” Eshnunna replied
“Elephthalia?” Zelit furrowed his eyebrows “I heard Liber reached its current state because the Goddess Elephthalia became crazy and put a curse on this World Why would you worshi+p a mad Goddess?”
“I suppose that’s the Shahnaz clan’s point of view There are certainly sohtly different”
“Hey, so why did you tell us to come?” the iht after arguing passionately in a oodin order to prep for the future,” Eshnunna continued calathered you all here despite how late it is, hoping to be of so us? How?” Giant Fist snorted He was clearly looking down on her, but Eshnunna shtly and turned to Zelit “I think all the inhabitants on Liber are receiving punish about divine punishment?”
“Yes We are all creatures molded by Gods In other words, our relationshi+p to Gods is that of a child and a parent,” Eshnunna continued, “If you’ve heard about our planet’s history, you must know the tremendous sorrow that we had inflicted to our Goddess’ heart And you must all know that it is also a parent’s responsibility to correct their child if they’re going down the wrong path”
Liber’s history was fraught ars The most recent one was especially harsh and went overboard; and the er Thus, she brought down divine punishment upon her people
Zelit tilted his head and said, “I get that this world is greatly influenced by a God But isn’t this punishment too extreme?” Zelit’s point was valid “Call it a curse or divine punish all over this planet, and the borders of this World have broken down to the point that aliens are invading” Rather than punishment, it see to exterminate all the humans on Liber This certainly was beyond the level of a parent scolding their child for their wrongdoings The parent in this analogy was trying to kill their child by abandoning theful our actions were,” Eshnunna responded calht be too idealistic It could be more than that”
“What do you mean by ‘more’?”
“I’ve considered the possibility that the Goddess is trying to change the owners of Liber after being so severely disappointed by huotten sick of the first child’s reckless actions and decided to abandon theive the planet to ato do We have to adiveness so that we may ask for one more chance”
“Hm…”
“Well, they always say that there’s no parent who can win over their child in the end I still hold onto the belief that our Goddess hadn’t co interpretation,” Zelit said “And what’s your reasoning behind that belief?”
Eshnunna approached the statue as if she had been waiting for thisprecious to them, she stroked the flowers in different parts of their stems
“Flowers” Everyone looked taken aback “These flowers are the final test and opportunity presented to us by our Goddess Elephthalia”
“They just look like flowers,” Giant Fist said peevishly, and Eshnunna shook her head
“These flowers don’t grohere on Liber but on this statue Thanks to theher level of safety than other camps”
“Comparably?” Zelit’s eyes narrowed “I want to kno far its effect extends to Is our safety forever guaranteed as long as the flowers are bloo?”
“No Its effects are not absolute There will be noto a test then” Of course, nobody had expected the fundamental problem to be solved simply by some flowers If that was the case, the whole area would have turned into a flower garden long ago After organizing his thoughts, Zelit spoke, “I have some questions”
“Please speak your mind” Eshnunna nodded like she had expected this
“First of all, in ay are you going to help us?”
“I will give this flower to those of you who are leaving”
“You said its effect wasn’t absolute How ive us, and hoerful can we expect their effects to be?
“As long as you hold onto one of the flowers, you will be able to escape divine punishment, and the punished ones won’t be able to approach you as easily”
“What do you mean by that?”
“It’s all in comparative terms The floill simply help you avoid them It will be useless if you purposefully cause a commotion and try to attack them”
It was clear that ‘the punished ones’, ‘the cursed ones’, and ‘the broken beings ere eaten’ were synonyins to wilt as soon as you pluck it from the statue Each of the flowers has four petals without exception, every hour a petal would fall”
“So ill be safe for at least four hours as long as we have this flower”
“Not ‘safe’,” Eshnunna responded, “But ‘safer’”
“Since they start to wilt as soon as you pluck them, the number of floe carry won’t matter much Still, it’s important to kno many there are Are those all the flowers you have?”
“Yes We tried all kinds ofworked”
Giant Fist was about to shout, ‘Why are you being so stingy and giving only one to each of us!?’ but decide to stay silent when he heard that
“They follow a strict set of rules, and everything else is futile It really is a divine plant”
“Yes, that is what I think After all, the flowers blooenuine prayer, and the nu this, everyone understood why Eshnunna had said the floere the enraged Goddess’s final grace and test
“…Okay, but I have one last question” Zelit opened his eyes widely as he asked, “Why are you telling us this now?” Sharp eyes bore into Eshnunna “You could’ve told us sooner”
Eshunna had replied to all the questions so far s “Well…” She lowered her eyes slightly and answered after hesitating a great deal “I didn’t plan on keeping the you all this now to avoid future conflicts,” Eshnunna said in a low voice “And the reason why I didn’t tell you all until now is because…anted to continue surviving”
Many eyebrows rose at this state behind her words to soree
“It is our natural responsibility to help and assist heroes, but we are all just humans We have endured so far solely on our will to live” According to Eshnunna, these floere an essential life force for the reat support to the resistance efforts However, even as the demand for them increased, the number of flowers remained s the base camp If the heroes found out about these flowers, it was obvious that they would try to use theinal inhabitants of the planets all in the na the flowers’ existence from the heroes for the sake of all the inhabitants of this camp who relied on her
“I planned to tell you all sometime in the future since it’s not as if we could si” Eshnunna turned to the heroes staring at her “Thus, after gathering all the recruits and observing the to reveal these flowers to those ould seem the most empathetic to our situation” As many eyes stared sharply at her, Eshnunna continued in a pleading tone, “I kno offensive my actions could seem, but I had no other reason but my earnest desire to find someone who could help us”
Zelit stared hard at Eshnunna, clearly displeased
“It’s fine We all have our own reasons It’s not like you tried to hide the whole thing fro deal” Ru Hiana stepped forward and supported Eshnunna
“Tch Are you discri between us? Why do you have to ruht seem a bit unfair to us, but we don’t knohat the previous recruits were like Considering that, I can understand why you’d been keeping this from us” Mua Janya quickly took Eshnunna’s side It see to rebuke Eshnunna after Ru Hiana voiced her support Because Eshnunna appeared co her people, no one could openly fault her
Zelit seeh it’s late, is it reasonable to assu us the truth?”
“It’s not even a matter of trust,” Eshnunna responded with a smile “As I said, there’s only one way for us to endure until we’re forgiven by our Goddess But even then…” Eshnunna suddenly shi+fted her eyes to look at one person “Rather than placing my trust in you because I have no other choice, I want to trust you all in earnest” Eshnunna’s eyes settled on Chi-Woo, and her gaze softened
Chi-Woo looked away, feeling burdened
“I understand what you’re saying” Zelit sighed “The princess froe for the protection of those in the main camp What does everyone think?”
nobody replied The only sound that ca
As soon as the day broke, the recruits began ht They all received a flower froroup had a native as their guide Their mission would be determined at the members’ discretion—whether it was to locate the seventh recruits that haven’t been found yet, find goods and supplies, or search for traces of the fifth and sixth recruits However, all groups had to come back to the main camp when all the petals fell
Chi-Woo ended up in the saroup as Ru Amuh, Ru Hiana, and Salem Eshnunna Giant Fist was disappointed that he couldn’t team up with Chi-Woo, but he soon becairl, Shahnaz Haas assigned as his group’s guide
“Let’s hurry! Just trust ! What’s your naed her to hi out for an exploration o?” Eshnunna looked at Haith concern as Hawa’s groupherself She had been at the front but fell back to get closer to Chi-Woo, who had been following right behind her
“I have a question,” said Eshnunna