World Keeper

Chapter 1185: Home Again

A black-haired kitsune let out a sigh as he wandered the streets of Ashtanu, his eyes looking at the various buildings around him. In the back of his mind, he tried to estimate how long it had been since he had last been home. Fifty years? No, maybe it was closer to a century. He thought to himself. Even before being captured by the Collector, he was always traveling.

Perhaps that was why Her Highness did not notice my absence. He mused, a wry smile on his face. It was not uncommon for Sinclair to go decades at a time without reporting in, despite being one of Udona’s Holy Knights. If Udona had been busy with other matters, it would be completely understandable if his extended absence didn’t feel unusual to her.

Furthermore, he was not able to send her his prayers while he was trapped in that collection. Admittedly, that Collector must have been extremely bold to capture a personal knight of Udona for his collection.

He thought back to the time of his capture, when he was wandering a remote world. He had been taking in the sights, shuttling from planet to planet with no real destination in mind. At one point, he had passed by a strange doll shop, and his curiosity had been piqued. At the time, there were few such shops in the outer colonies, and he did not have a real destination to begin with, so he entered the store to take a look.

The store owner, who he would later come to know was the Collector, seemed nice enough, though Sinclair didn’t purchase anything. That night, while he was resting at his inn room, that same man had come and collected him while his guard was down. Ever since then, Sinclair had been a silent observer from within the man’s shelves.

As he reached the palace, Sinclair was surprised to find a chef casually leaving the premises. Sinclair vaguely remembered him as the head chef of the palace, but he had only just been recruited back when Sinclair last left. He couldn’t even remember the man’s name.

Given the time of day, perhaps he displeased Her Highness, and was fired? If it was simply a matter of procuring ingredients, there are other people that could be sent out, no? He asked himself, before shaking his head. He offered a silent prayer for the man, entering the palace.

Soon after entering, he found Udona sitting upon her throne, and knelt down on one knee. “Your Highness, Sinclair Song has returned to your service.” He reported, and Udona looked at him with an apologetic smile.

“Thank you, Sinclair. I’m sorry about what happened to you, truly. I only just learned myself that you had been taken like that. I always thought that you had just gotten yourself lost on one of your adventures again.”

Hearing that, Sinclair gave a somewhat bitter smile. She wasn’t wrong to think that. Sinclair’s divine domain made him something similar to a god of travel, but… he could only travel to places he had never been with his divinity. Every time he used his domain, he could think of the type of place he wanted to go, but he would always have to spend time after arriving trying to figure out where he had ended up.

In the most extreme situation, he had once tried to overly specify his destination, wanting to arrive at Ashtanu’s palace directly. However, what happened was a sick twist of fate where he appeared in an alternate universe entirely. This alternate universe physically resembled Deckan, but was ravaged by powerful monsters, the city resembling Ashtanu left in ruins.

With no natural way back, Sinclair had been forced to ask the Goddess Aurivy for help bringing him home. Since then, he had learned not to try to force his divinity to take him to a familiar location. “That is perfectly understandable, Your Highness.” Sinclair finally answered, his head lowered.

Udona hummed thoughtfully, leaning back on her throne. ‘If you had arrived a few minutes earlier, I would have had you meet my husband before he left.” She muttered, and Sinclair blinked in confusion.

“Your… husband?” He asked, having never heard anything about Udona getting married. “Oh, did you join your sister in matrimony with the Keeper? That is great news!” He smiled brightly, but this time it was Udona’s turn to blink.

“W-What? No! No no, I’m not married to the Keeper.” She said with an embarrassed laugh, quickly shaking her head. “My husband is Aznod. I don’t remember if you ever had the chance to meet him or not.”

“Aznod?” Sinclair tilted his head, searching through his memories to try and place the name to a face. Eventually, he remembered this as the name of the chef that he had seen leaving the palace on his way in. “The chef?” Sinclair’s eyes widened in astonishment, and Udona chuckled. I guess the way to a woman’s heart truly is through her stomach…

Udona’s eye twitched, her smile spreading a bit wider. “I have the  feeling you just thought something incredibly rude… You wouldn’t have done that, right Sinclair?”

“O-of course not.” Sinclair shook his head, quickly clearing his throat. “Still, I would like to offer my congratulations. Had I known in advance, I would have prepared a suitable gift.”

Udona’s gaze softened, and she shook her head. “Did the news never reach you in your captivity?” She asked in a softer tone.

Sinclair could only shrug his shoulders. “The Collector rarely brought me out of containment. Since my capture, I believe I only saw the outside world… three times? And one of those was when the Blood Empress had me freed. If I were to venture a guess, he kept contact with me to a minimum in order to avoid any information making its way to you. Having a direct knight of the Greater Pantheon surely gave him a large amount of divinity, but it was also a major risk if he allowed the fact to be discovered.”

Slowly, Udona rose from her throne, walking over to crouch down in front of Sinclair, putting the two at eye level. With a far kinder expression on her face, she placed a hand on his shoulder. “I truly am sorry that you had to go through that. Had I known that one of my knights had been captured in such a way, there is no force in this world that would have kept that man from harm.”

Sinclair nodded his head, a smile returning to his face as well. “I have no doubt, Your Highness. Would you like me to organize a team to bring him to justice?” He asked. However, to his surprise, Udona shook her head.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

“That won’t be necessary.” She said, rising back to her feet. “Someone else has already made a move. There is no longer any need to worry about the Collector anymore.”

Sinclair paused, but ultimately nodded his head. He could only assume that the Blood Empress had decided not to let him off so easily after freeing those that he had captured. “I understand. In that case, do you have any other assignments for me?”

Udona thought about that for a moment, before smiling as she returned to her throne. “You have been gone for quite some time, Sinclair Song. The world has changed in your absence. As such, you should take the time to explore the city, and understand the new world that you have found yourself in. However, do try to avoid using your domain for the time being. The space outside the inhabited systems is not as safe as it used to be.”

Sinclair wasn’t quite sure what she meant by that, but did not argue with her words. He rose to his feet and bowed. “I will keep that in mind, Your Highness.” He said, before turning to leave the throne room.

Udona watched Sinclair leave, a sad smile on her face. She truly had been busy since his departure. At first, she just thought that he was traveling. However, when he hadn’t reported in again even after the invasion of void beasts that nearly destroyed all of Deckan, she had assumed that he was among the many killed. He would certainly not have been the only god to have fallen in that invasion.

She felt somewhat guilty for never having confirmed his death for certain, but with the reconstruction of Deckan, it had simply slipped her mind. Now that she knew that he had been alive all along, and simply captured long before the invasion ever took place, she couldn’t help the feeling of remorse.

Lena? Udona closed her eyes, sending out a mental message.

Yes, L-- Udona? Lena replied, barely stopping herself from calling Udona by her formal title. Udona’s lips twitched into a small grin at that.

Please ensure that the Collector is never seen again. His actions have greatly offended me on a personal level. If I were to see him, there is no doubt that I would immediately kill him myself. Contrary to her expression, her thoughts were cold. If it were not for the fact that she considered the Collector’s current predicament as a more fitting punishment than simple death, Udona would have already snuffed his life out.

…I understand. Don’t worry, I have no intention of freeing him again. You have my word. Lena responded in a firm tone. Is there anything else that I can do for you?

Udona thought about it for a long moment, before shaking her head. No, that should be fine. However, I have a special training plan that you might be able to benefit from, to prepare for the upcoming invasion. I heard that there is a good chance that we will be facing entire universes soon.

That’s correct. If you have any advice for my training, I would happily accept.

Hearing Lena’s readiness, Udona nodded her head in approval. You should practice with an educational stream. Use your divinity to understand the process of world creation from Chelsea’s notes, and then practice altering the properties of a world from within the void. With your domains, it should be completely doable to change a targeted world’s systems, as long as you take the time to understand what you are changing.

That caused Lena to pause, clearly thinking about what Udona had suggested. This was no easy feat, either practically or ethically. After all, by altering the properties of an entire world, she was essentially asking Lena to slaughter a universe of living beings. Like Udona said, this was something that she could do with her domains as they were, but it would still be a heavy burden for her heart. And that was even considering all of her training to become the Golden Shadow.

I… understand. She responded after a few moments. This is something that needs to be done to save our own people. I’ll start my training right away.

Udona gave a small nod. Thankfully, everyone in Olympus had been granted the qualifications to teach others in any subject they wished, allowing them to host those educational streams. This was something that Udona personally ensured, as the Goddess of Education.

Try not to worry too much about the moral implications. Udona communicated in a gentle tone. This invasion is different from any others that we have faced before. Although not everyone that arrives will be considered an enemy, searching through them to find those hostile to Dale would take years. There might be a single farmer in a remote village on a nearly abandoned world that has hostility to the Keeper, and that alone would be able to prevent the invasion from ending.

I understand that this is a cruel way to handle the situation, but there are no alternatives. It would be nice if we could simply convince them all to join us peacefully, but we can’t expect that to work. Even if we employ divine powers to brainwash them, there will inevitably those with the power to counter it.

Hearing this, Lena let out a long sigh. I understand. Don’t worry, I’ll train well.