I sat on a wooden bench while Cassira threw a precooked piece of flatbread on a metal pan. She placed her hands under the metal pan and with my heat vision I saw her hands starting to heat up. I placed a bench next to her and took a seat.

“I’ll hold the pan for you.” She thanked me. “So, what are the teachings of Selanni?”

“I’m glad you’re interested in her. Although I love talking about her no one wants to listen.”

“But, how can her own followers not want to talk about her?” Not that I couldn’t imagine why they wouldn’t want to listen to her. However, if I played my cards right, she could be very useful, so I’d have gone along with it.

Cassira took the flat bread off the pan and placed it on a wooden plate. Next, she took a small basket filled with various berries and started to mix them in a mortar. “I see you understand, unfortunately others say that they rather listen to that Slar.” The sound of the pestle scrapping against them mortar increased and filled the room with her anger.

I placed my hand over hers, “Well, instead of talking about them let’s talk about Selanni.”

She smiled and nodded. The pestle stopped assaulting the mortar. “Yes, Selanni is the one who looks over every living being, and when she deems someone to be too retched, she will abandon them.” She added oil to the mix of fruit. “And I think it is time for her to abandon the people of this town. They have grown too accustomed to water and the wealth it brings.”

“Then do you want to leave the village? But don’t you have family or a husband?”

“I had a husband, but he died when the sea people came about a decade ago.” She took a spoon, scooped the fruits out of the mortar, and spread it on the flatbread. “No one wants to marry me because I couldn’t bear a child during the five years of my marriage. They said I was abandoned by the Selanni, and cursed by the goddess of fertility, but that’s not true. They are the abandoned ones. Even the Slar has abandoned the goddess. I doubt he has even undergone the rite of passage. The goddess of fertility hasn’t cursed me but my husband and this village.”

I hugged her tightly. “Yes, you’re right. From the way you speak, I can understand that only the ones who have strayed from the goddess are the villagers.”

Although I wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the chief, I could take advantage of this maid. She should know a lot about this world, the chief, his family, and the others who need ‘saving’. Plus, since she lived alone and had a decent job, she probably had a decent chunk of change.

When I let go of her, she looked into my eyes and spoke. “Should I bring you to the river to formally make you one of Selanni’s children?”

I nodded.

“Let’s do it tonight.” She got up from the little chair. “I must head back to the chief and say that you’re doing well. I’ll be back tonight.” She quickly left my room.

I waited for her footsteps to disappear into the hallway. When it did, walked to the window, flatbread still in hand and stared at the city. There I saw a girl abandoned by her village run with fervour in her eyes. Cassira was someone waiting to be taken advantage of. She was simply fortunate enough to have been born in a village where everyone looked after each other. Even though fire of war was burned brightly not too long ago, the embers hadn’t reached this village.

I took a bite out of the bread; unfortunately, it didn’t taste too good and stuck to sides of my throat. The first bite was always the hardest to swallow, you got used to it after that. I finished my meal and went to get a good day’s sleep. I didn’t know when I would get a nice wool bed again after all.

#

Unfortunately, six hours later I heard a knock on my door. Perhaps dealing with her wasn’t worth it if it meant losing sleep.

Since there weren’t any locks on the door, Cassira entered without further notice.

She wore a cloak and hoody. Although the days were hot, the nights were as equally cold. While I analyzed the workmanship of her cloak to better determine this world’s level of development, I noticed a flash of silver on her waist. It was a silver dagger.

“Did you come to kill me?” I asked.

She looked confused at first but soon figured it out and pulled out the dagger on her waist. “No,” she said while shaking her head. “It’s for the ritual. I would never kill someone that is as good as you. I’m sure that Selanni will feel the same as me.”

That last statement made my eyebrows raise. I got out of my bed and walked up to her. “That’s a beautiful blade. Is it made of silver?”

She gave me a large smile. “Yes, you have good eyes. This is my fathers. He used to be the Slar. Although the blade would normally be passed down to the future Slar, he refused.” She caressed the blade. “They no longer follow the proper rituals. They have dragged the respect and tolerance of Selanni through mud and dirt. They have faced the consequences once with the recent invasions and they will face it again.” She looked at me with upturned eyes.

A grade S crazy had appeared in front of me.

“This village and kingdom are doomed. That’s why I was planning to run away?” She moved the blade in her hand until it suddenly pointed towards me. “Will come with me?” 

I had to choose, either to distance myself and give up on this plan, in which case that blade might end up inside me or get close enough for the blade to miss me. I picked the latter, of course. “You’re right, for them to have rejected the Selanni’s blade is equivalent to rejecting her.” Although now I was wondering if I could seduce her just to offer myself another layer of protection and sway over her.

I decided to try. I caressed her, “Perhaps you should be the Slar. Don’t you think so? There’s no way Selanni could abandon such a beautiful person as yourself” I caressed her cheek and drew closer to her mouth.” However, she took a step back.

“No, I have to confirm that Selanni blesses our marriage first.”

Now it was my turn to take a step back. Although a marriage would fulfill the goal, I wonder how she jumped there so fast. Well, she probably wanted to act fast to disprove those who said she had been cursed by the goddess of fertility. But it didn’t concern me as long as she convinced herself she loved me. “Then let’s go,” I said.

I followed her in the night. Thankfully, there was enough moonlight for me to see where I stepped. Without encountering anyone we reached the river near the village.

“Sit with your feet in the water.”

I sat with my feet in the water.

“Next place both your hands in the water.”

I placed both of my hands in the water.

“Now give me your right hand.”

I gave her my right hand and she placed the knife above my palm.

“This is how you become a follower of the water goddess. I’ll cut both of your palms then place them in the water. If they heal well, it means you’re accepted, however, if you aren’t deemed unworthy you will die.”

Now I understood why this religion wasn’t catching on. Having people die of infections each year due to a custom, especially after a war wasn’t ideal. However, if I wanted her trust and support, I had to go through with this. Well, with the nanomachines it should go well, maybe too well.

“Do it. I have faith in the goddess,” I said.

Cassira didn’t react and just cut open my palm. She didn’t hesitate, nor spare any force. If she had been a bit stronger, she would have cut into my bones.

She plunged my hand into the river. The blood flowed away, she pulled my other hand out of the water and repeated the action. It was truly a miracle that the previous generations survived this trial. However, there was probably a step of the process missing since this was a magical world. She wasn’t a real Slar and she had talked about a rite of passage. That sounded a lot like a criterion to gain a special job which would help with this ritual.

Cassira held my hands in the water for ten seconds, seemingly concentrating on the blood and water while she muttered words under her breath.

When I pulled my hands out of the water, my wounds were closed thanks to the nanomachines.

“How is this possible?” Cassira dropped her silver dagger in the river. I quickly took it before it got washed away. When I placed it besides me, I reacted to the miracle.

My jaw hung agape. “It must be a miracle by the water goddess,” I said. “What does this mean?” I asked her, holding back my grin.

Cassira fumbled with her words for a few seconds before prostrating herself before me. “You must really have been blessed by the water goddess. Our meeting must also have been preordained by her.” She started to get on her knees and hands.

I grabbed her shoulders and raised her. “Don’t bow down. After all, didn’t you say were getting married?”

She jumped into my arms and pressed her head against my chest. “Yes, this way I can prove the other wrong.”

What a horrible mentality, but none the less easily manipulated. “Yes, now let’s do the marriage ceremony you talked about.”

She nodded and took the silver dagger and rolled up her right sleeve. There one could see a horizontal cut along her upper forearm. Even with a special job the founder of this religion must have had a few screws loose.

“We each cut our forearm, press them together and plunge our arms into the water. If we are both alive after two weeks, we are married.”

She eagerly took the knife, but as she was about to cut herself, I took the knife. “Wait I want to do it.” If someone blame me for not trusting her then that was their problem.

She nodded. “That’s fine.”

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a way to sanitize the blade. I would simply have to hope she got lucky and survived. Plus, even if I sanitized the blade, the wound could still get infected later.

First, I cut her, and then myself. I didn’t cut too deep either; she would have cut off my hand. We glued our forearms together and plunged our arms in the water for ten seconds. When I took out my arm, my wound had already healed. “Another miracle. It seems that my part of the wedding is accepted,” I said with a large smile.

She looked at her still bleeding arm and looked slightly disappointed; however, I spoke up to cheer her up. “It’s OK, I have no doubt it’ll heal well.” Well, I had no clue if it would. She might really die of an infection.

I gave her another hug. This time I wrapped my hands around her waist. “I just have, to escort the chief’s son. I’m sure that once I come back, we’ll be husband and wife, no?” I patted her head, “We can leave this village after that.”

I felt her nod, but also cry. The pain she must have endured before had no doubt permanently weakened her mind. “You should also find other that think like us. This way we can leave before the water goddess condemns this village. Of course, don’t let anyone know of this. Not even the mayor. Only speak to the people you think are fit for the goddess. When I come back, I will show them the miracle. When they’ve seen this, they’ll follow us without doubt. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Good.” I tried to pull her away; however, she wouldn’t let go so stayed there for a few minutes with her in my arms. Religion was a cruel thing sometimes; however, I had more important things to do other than heal a person’s trauma. “Let’s go. I have to leave early tomorrow.”

Finally, after another five minutes she let me go. She accompanied me back to my room and left for her home.

I desperately wanted to go to sleep; however, this might have been my last chance in a while to check my interdimensional mailbox. I unfolded the same teleportation device I had used in the Congolese jungle to teleport here, turned a switch to mana from electricity and another from teleportation to the mailbox. When I placed my hands on a rubber handle, it started to draw my mana into the device. When a white bar of light next to the rubber handle had filled up the entirety of the device emitted a blinding white light, and a thin piece of paper appeared inside the circle.

Swartze

In the next chapter we'll go back to adventuring. I wanted to flesh out the world and show the MC's mentality in chapter 4 and 5. Let me know if you like this kind of chapters or if you want the exploitation/character interactions to be a bit shorter.