Chapter 25
They returned to the main palace.
“I’m sorry to have interrupted a rare moment of your time.”
With a few casual waves of her hand, Nerva brushed away her helmet.
She dusted her snow-dampened hair a couple times, and it returned to its original, soft state,
as if she’d never left at all.
Then she looked out into the air, sighing quietly.
…Was something troubling her?
Sitting across from her, Elinne hesitated for a moment before speaking up.
“Shouldn’t you rest a bit? You were just fighting out there…”
“It was the heroes who fought, not I. There are times when being a god is quite convenient.”
Nerva gave a mischievous smile and reached for the teapot, still frosted over.
Soon, steam began to rise immediately from the spout.
Elinne quietly poured the tea. Like the teacup slowly filling to the brim, the question at the tip of her tongue was about to spill over.
If she was going to ask, now was the time.
“Do you have something on your mind?”
Nerva seemed to catch on instantly just by reading her face.
…Should I say it?
“Well, earlier…”
After a moment of wavering, she opened her mouth before pausing, unsure.
If not now, then when would she ask?
“When the Frost Giants attacked… I happened to see what was under a broken piece of armor.”
“That’s rare. Titan relics almost never break. You must have been surprised.”
“Yes. I thought they’d be hideous monsters, like the rumors said, but…”
She hesitated again.
Because she still remembered the blatant disgust and hostility from the other heroes.
But there was no point hiding things from Nerva. She spoke honestly.
“…They looked just like us.”
Aside from their massive size, they weren’t much different from some of the darker-skinned heroes she’d seen in Metis.
She’d expected icicle-spewing, ten-eyed abominations.
“Of course they do.”
But unlike the others, Nerva didn’t show any displeasure, compared to the others.
“In fact, the Titans were once the rulers of Elysion.”
Instead, she smiled bitterly.
“But after a long war, they were defeated by the Divine Lineage and driven into exile.
That’s how they came to be treated the way they are now.”
A race that was once rulers, but was defeated.
It started to make sense.
Those torn from power often met such ends.
“Then did the Titans rule by force? Did they enslave other races or act cruelly?”
“On the contrary. They were more… indifferent. There was little contact with other races. They simply lived in their own empire.”
“Then there’s really no reason to hate them that much, is there?”
If that was all, the hatred seemed excessive.
Elinne tilted her head.
“Everyone despises them so much, I assumed they must have done something awful.”
“If anything, their mistake was losing the war.”
Nerva’s tone took on a quiet irony.
“In wars for power, only the victors get to rewrite history. And always in their favor.”
She stared into the air for a moment, as if recalling the past, then let out a soft sigh.
“You’re right. There wasn’t any reason to be so deeply hostile.”
Nerva looked somewhat burdened, as if lost in thought.
“…As the Goddess of War, I should’ve mediated more. Had I done that, perhaps this mess wouldn’t have happened.”
Elinne blinked at the weight in her words, and the heavy atmosphere. She quietly lifted her teacup, careful not to disturb Nerva.
And nearly burned her tongue while trying to drink quietly.
Ack. She thought it had cooled down after some time!
With a tingling tongue, trying not to groan, her eyes met Nerva’s directly. Embarrassed, she gave a sheepish smile and offered an excuse.
“It’s still hot. Doesn’t cool easily.”
“Indeed. The Immortal Lands are the same.”
“…Huh?”
“You asked earlier why the Immortal Lands were so important, remember? It ties perfectly into what we’ve just been discussing.”
Oh, right. She’d forgotten all the chaos of the Frost Giants.
She’d been asking why the gods went so far as to wager a golden apple just to claim the Immortal Lands.
But now, she felt like she’d figured it out on her own.
The Frost Giants, true to their name, wielded the power of frost.
Wherever they appeared, the temperature plummeted around them.
Even the fiercest campfires would be frozen by their breath, and a single step could summon a blizzard.
“Could it be that you need the Immortal Lands to fight the Frost Giants?”
She widened her eyes.
“Since it’s said the fire there never dies, wouldn’t it be the only place that doesn’t freeze, no matter how many show up?”
“Impressive, Elinne.”
Discussion
0 CommentsReactions
No comments yet.