CH 454

“Miss Chita, that was a great oracle, wasn’t it?”

I ask Chita, who still has Taula in her arms.

“Indeed. Our chief god Rose has descended on the body of Her Eminence Taula. What her Eminence Taula said, was actually the words of our god Rose.”

Hilda has a surprised expression on her face as she hears that. That explanation makes sense to me, because I saw that divine presence glowing from Taula. But it’s more surprising for Hilda, because she didn’t see that.

“The words of your chief god Rose… I don’t understand…”

“Uu… I will answer some of your questions, young lady Renystar.”

“Your eminence, please don’t get up…”

Taula opens her eyes, and Chita tries to stop her from getting up. Taula signals with her hand for Chita to let her get up, and Chita supports her body instead.

“Where should I begin?”

“Hum, what is Araysla?”

For some reason, my question creates a smile on Taula’s face.

“It’s just like his child to ask that. That is definitely an appropriate question.”

Says Taula as I tilt my head in confusion.

“Araysla… The name of a goddess that very few people know in this church. This goddess is also known by the names Vanished Goddess, Triple-Faced Goddess… And the Coming Evil Goddess.”

“Coming Evil Goddess? From where?”

“Also a wonderful question. Do you know the difference between gods and humans?”

“I don’t. But from what I saw before in you, there seemed to be a very big debt to that being.”

I remember what I saw earlier, and try to put it into words.

“Your eyes are truly wonderful. This is simply the feeling I get from when god descends on my body, but I think god is a being that exists in the past, present, and future simultaneously.”

Says Taula while raising her arm like she’s showing me a straight line.

“Let’s imagine the world is a river, and time the flow of this river. We, along with all life, are only in one point of this flow.”

I guess she wants me to think of her arm as a river, as she stretches it forward. Chita also stretches her arm from behind Taula, and moves her index finger from Taula’s shoulder towards her hand.

I’m guessing Chita’s finger represents people. So Taula’s shoulder is the past, and her hand is the future?

“And god is like a string, tied to the source and the mouth of this river.”

Taula continues her explanation, as Chita looks a bit troubled behind her. I guess it’s because she doesn’t have a string.

But then it feels like she came up with something. She fumbles around in her pocket, and takes out an old, small doll.

She takes a ribbon off the doll, and does it very carefully. It’s clear that this doll is very important to her.

Then she takes both ends of the ribbon, and slowly moves them above Taula’s arm.

She looks kind of happy with that.

That’s nice Chita. So that ribbon is god.

“And there is more than one world.”

Taula says while holding her other arm parallel to the one she already had up. She’s leaning forward a lot.

“This is a different world, not the one where we are, and the evil goddess invaded from there.”

As Taula says that, Chita tries to move one end of the ribbon to the other arm.

“The ribbon has to be longer than the space between worlds, doesn’t it?”

I ask while looking at the ribbon.

“Yes, that is the position of god. A god has the power to cross between worlds.

The evil goddess Araysla once invaded this world, but was for the most part crushed by our god Rose’s sharp thorny vines.”

“For the most part…”

“Yes, for the most part. Some vestiges of Araysla remained in the future. Like scraps of the ribbon. And one is in this time.”

I feel Taula’s words signal an incoming battle, and hold my spear tightly.

But that’s all. Strangely enough, her explanation doesn’t raise any more questions.

I’ve been looking at this world from the moment I was born, and I’ve always felt something was wrong about it. Her explanation actually feels right to me.

And since Taula’s explanation is done, Chita carefully puts the ribbon back on her old doll.