Chapter 21

Khaenri'ah was a nation without a god

It was a powerful nation, built purely by humans, an unprecedented flourishing and glorious civilization.

It was the pride of humankind.

It was dark and mostly barren of natural life. Yet people at the time were happy with their lives.

It was also partially an underground realm, and its natural faunas were few indeed. As such, its alchemy focused more heavily on the creation of life and the overall creation of a new never before seen technology.

Until an incident 500 years ago, where a couple of gods decided to get rid of it...

And so the ancient civilization has fallen, and so did the pride of mankind.

***

"Have you heard of the word...Khaenri'ah before?"

Yomite felt like Kaeya wanted him to confirm something for him, but he had never before heard of the term Khaenri'ah.

'Another tongue twister? No. It must be something important this time.' He thought for a while and replied, "Um, unfortunately, no. I have never heard of such a thing before."

"Ah, is that so? What a shame." Kaeya wasn't buying his words, putting his hand on the back of his neck, "I guess some things should be left well alone..." He looked up and caught the other's eye silently staring, as if wanting to uncover all of his secrets.

A few seconds later, he pulled away and continued, "Well then, we had a few seconds to rest, and now, it's time to go the Temple of the Wolf!" He announced, throwing his hands up in the air in a carefree manner.

"Okay?"

Yomite didn't understand what Keaya's goal was. He was thinking that maybe he could have used his second ability, the Tempus of the Story to learn something more but frankly, be wasn't that much interested.

There were so many new terms and names for everything that he felt like he should take stuff like this naturally and learn it along the way.

He would try to use his ability if Kaeya asked him again, but right now, there were more important things at hand.

'Like washing my bloodied face and eating something...'

***

Twenty minutes later, they arrived before noon, contemplating whether they should camp near the temple or go in and progress with the plan. After the encounter with the Hilichurls, they hadn't encounter any other hostile mobs so their journey became a little bit boring, but a smooth sailing was always welcomed as who knew what was hiding inside of those temples.

The entrance to the Temple, or rather, the entrance to the Domain, was huge. The gate was majestic and almost felt like it led to heaven.

The top of the gate was engraved with four leaves sticking out in each direction, and the gate itself had three gems hardened in the middle, forming a deformed triangle.

Yomite wondered if those gems were worth something. If yes, he might just take one or two of them once Kaeya wasn't paying attention.

The Temple of the Wolf was a lot farther than the Temple of the Falcon, which the other group was currently busy dealing with.

So it was pretty likely the other group would be finishing up things sooner than them and would already be waiting for them at the last location.

Kaeya gazed at the sky and felt his stomach rumbling. He turned to his companions and spoke, "I feel like we should stop for today, make a camp outside and go through the temple tomorrow. Let's put something into our stomach now, and then the next morning we will proceed to enter the Domain. How does that sound?"

"Sure, I need to wash my face in a pond anyway, it's still bloodied from the Hilichurls I killed." Yomite glanced at the nearby pond, nodding at Kaeyas's decision. It was an alright move.

Yomite went to cleanse his face into the pond. The water was cold, yet refreshing.

Slowly, he was starting to gather information from all kinds of novels he read, to utilize the best ways to fight, survive and live the best life possible inside of his head.

"Fighting while hungry is not a good idea, but overfilling your stomach isn't good either...as it would slow down your blood flow, dulling your movements..." he started mumbling to himself as if he was possessed.

"Alright so we are taking a break at once." Kaeya announced once he mistook Yomite's state of out of body experience with exhaution.

"We have a break? Okie Dokie! Let me prepare our food!" Hu Tao was happy about the news and immediately pulled out quite a few of fruits from her bag.

She lined some of them up on a nearby wooden stub and walked up to Yomite, handing him two fruits, "Here is one apple, and one big sunsettia~! For being a good boy~!"

'Good boy? What was he, a dog?'

Yomite glanced at the apple and the fruit called sunsettia and took them from her hands, "Is this supposed to be your form of apology or what?"

Hu Tao put a finger on her lips and nodded after thinking it through, "Yep! Let's go with that~!" she rubbed her palms together, generating sound from the numerous rings she wore on her petite hands.

'That doesn't sound very convincing.' He mused as Kaeya called from behind, "Yo! Can I also get one of those? Sunsettias are delicious!"

Hu Tao reluctantly pulled out one more sunsettia from her bag and walked towards him, "Here." almost spiting at him. The sunsettia he was given was disheveled, and almost completely dry.

"Aw, don't be so cold, I am literally begging here...My amazing little brother earned himself two fruits, yet you only give me one?" Kaeya was pretending to be sulking.

Hu Tao rolled her eyes and replied, "There isn't any more left."

"I see..." Kaeya let out a wry smile as he noticed five sunsettias and two apples lined up on a nearby wooden stub.

'Yes...there isn't any more left...for me that is...'

Yomite made his way to others, and grabbed Kaeya's spare knife which was conveniently laying on the ground next to him, slicing his fruits into small pieces.

"Taking my stuff without asking? Well, you can!" Kaeya's loud laughter entered Yomite's ear, making his mind go hazy.

'So noisy...'

As Yomite sat down, Kaeya detailed their plan for the next morning. After a short strategic meeting, they relaxed on the grass in the shade.

Truth to be told, each and every one of them were tired and starving, and while sunsettias and apples weren't all that fulfilling to eat, they still tasted amazing.

Hu Tao and Kaeya were tired from using their Visions too much and while Yomite's body wasn't that tired, his mental state needed a bit of rest. Luckily, this time Hu Tao had nothing to do with it.

As he ate the fruits, Yomite was slowly getting addicted to the taste of sunsettias especially.

'The apples taste better than those in my old world, but this sunsettia fruit is simply unbelievable.'

The sweetness was exploding on his tongue whenever he took a bite and swallowed. It felt like a mix of mango, kiwi and pears.

The weather was mild, and the air smelled as sweet as salt and smoke could possibly smell, and they laid like that for a while, rass-stained and spent.

'Relaxing like this is not bad at all. I really like this world.' Yomite mused as he gazed at the slowly darkening sky, thinking deeply whether the goddess that sent him here was reading his story with bated breath.

"She is definitely laughing at me from there, that's for sure," Yomite mumbled with a wry smile.

"Hwfm? uwat ghas mdat?" Hu Tao perked up while nomming on three sunsettias at once, stuffing her face, making her cheeks bigger than that of a squirrel.

Yomite replied almost reflexively, "Nothing, stop talking when you are eating. Don't do two things at once, you glutton."

"Oway!" She continued happily munching on the fruits.

"Jeez...this was the part where you were supposed to act offended that I called you a glutton..." Yomite shook his head, closing his eyes. She simply didn't understand human emotions. Or maybe she did, but still acted like she didn't. He didn't know what was worse.

Hu Tao looked at him curiously, and swallowed the fruits, "I see! You are teaching me so much! Thanks, Assistant-kun!" a lovely smile rose onto Hu Tao's face.

"Whatever..."Yomite clicked his tongue and soon the mental exhaustion kicked in. He closed his eyes and slowly drifted away to sleep.

Hu Tao gazed at his sleeping face for a while before she settled near him and fell asleep almost instantly, feeling full after eating all seven of the fruits and showing her satisfaction on her face.

"Oh, they fell asleep. It seems like they believe I wouldn't just cut them down in their sleep, huh."

Kaeya mumbled as he turned his head and peeked through his shoulder.

Distantly, Kaeya heard a wet, rustling sound of slimes slowly encroaching on them as he was biting into the dried sunsettia.

"This tastes worse than Diluc's cooking..."

He groaned, moving to sit up. "I guess it's time to clean up. But ey, they sure act like kids, eating up and falling asleep afterward." He drew his sword and gazed at the incoming slimes with hostility, "Don't you dare make a single noise while dying."