362 Gabriel's story

Locating one specific person amidst the entire field painted with people lying down haphazardly on the ground wasn't an easy task, but after carefully walking in between the bodies with the utmost care as to not wake up anyone, I finally managed to do so. Yet despite how he seemed to return from the world of the dreams when he saw the buildings lined up in the distance, I couldn't help but notice how he couldn't believe he was already awake.

"Let's not speak about it for now. Follow me."

Until this point, I was the only one who ever entered the tower - excluding unconscious Eve obviously - so I didn't want to wake anyone up and let them see how Gabriel follows me there. With how reluctant he was to speak about the curse in the public, I assumed that it would be better to have this talk in the safe confines of the tower, instead of risking someone waking up to take a piss, noticing the strange buildings and stumbling upon our talk while going to check them out.

As we closed to this majestic building that Gabriel was bound to be curious about, I peeked behind and noticed a hint of excitement on his face. With how central this building was to the entire subdimension, I could already see how with time, it would be associated with my person. If my plan to expand this society beyond the number that I could control directly, I would like to add some special floor where I could let a limited number of people to report directly to me!

But even if there I had this small idea of turning the tower into the object of the cult as the home of the godlike figure, the time dilution between normal world and this dimension was simply to small for me to ever reach the point where the initial inhabitants would die off, leaving their descendants to make sense of the founding legends for this place.

"I hope you won't share the news about the insides of this place to anyone else. Before the hierarchy will be established for you and your people, I want to keep this place to myself."

With this short introduction, I opened the doors that lead to the staircase, allowing one to reach the higher floors of the tower. With how I already moved in and out of the subdimension a few times, crossing the barrier wasn't anything special, but from the look on Gabriel's face, he had to experience some kind of unfamiliar feeling.

"My lord… I'm honoured to enter your dominion!"

Unable to hold his excitement, Gabriel exclaimed while bowing in half as we climbed the stairs. That was really a sight to behold! I would never expect someone raised in such a primitive society as him to be capable of executing such a complicated task, especially while walking!

I knew that I had no real pressure to explain anything to him, but with how diligent he was in working while I was away and even going as far as breaking some kind of taboo to inform me about the curse, I would feel bad if I just kept silent. 

After all, if my guess would turn true, he would be the first leader of this small community!

"Okay then, you can sit. What did you mean by the saint's curse?"

Immersing my consciousness into the stronghold creation tool, I wasted the entire ten points to fill the room with some basic furniture, before pointing at the chair. Sitting down myself, I leaned over the table that now separated us and waited for his response.

With how everything was already in place, this was the last task that I had to take care off before being finally able to leave for the island. Hearing about the ritual from Heila and later about the curse, meant that contrary to my initial expectations, the time for my trip was actually limited!

"My Lord… What I'm about to say, is nothing more than my Father's conjecture. I dared to speak up only because all the facts simply line up perfectly if one uses this theory to explain the strange events surrounding all the appearances of the hero of the people in our tales."

As Gabriel's excitement got replaced by the anxiety, he cupped his fists and lowered his head, as if he was apologising to me in advance for daring to speak about something that wasn't a complete certainty.

"I don't mind. Speak freely, I'm not someone to punish you only because you were worried about something. Maybe that's how the Overlord acted, but I need you to stop projecting that bastard action on me."

Ah, how I wanted to have a cup of tea or coffee on me to take a sip from it! With just the two of us, Gabriels overly respectful attitude only made me self-conscious! Without anything to busy my hands with, I had no other way but to put up with this awkward atmosphere!

"In our legends, in the times of great need, the chosen princess of our folk can lead our people to the ancient ruins. There, she will lead a holy ceremony, which will end up with the strongest of the men of our blood being summoned to the ritual site, where he would be bestowed with strength unable for normal people to imagine. But sadly, that's everything that the official legend says. Speaking about our history, there were in total three occasions, where other tribes from beyond the great water invaded our island, yet we managed to repeal them with the help of the said hero. That's where our folk tales end."

With the atmosphere tensing accordingly to Gabriel's expression, I could see how we were approaching the crux of the matter. So far, he spoke about what was openly known to anyone in his tribe, as long as he was interested in it. The fact that Heila told me more or less the same, only confirmed this fact. It was time to finally learn about what made him worry!

"What my father discovered, was that no matter who you would ask, no one knew what would happen to the hero after his job was done. Some said that he ascended to the ancestral heaven, some said he would go to the eternal sleep, ready to wake up when the strength of a single hero wouldn't be enough to cope with the challenge… All in all, the history of the hero always ended as soon as he finished his job. While one could assume that with the blessing from the ceremony no longer necessary, the hero would lose his powers and return to his normal life… There was one thing that my ancestor accidentally learned where his aunt was chosen as the princess."

Taking a deep breath, Gabriel stopped his story, as if trying to keep the tension to its maximum. Either he was a naturally born story-teller slash actor, or telling the last part was insanely challenging for him.