Chapter 1 - Section 1: Village Negotiations Part II
҉ Heracles POV ҉
This tiny village is a place Master has decided to live for a time, since as he explained due to some of his own actions drawing far too much attention we are going to be staying here for a while until the country's population settles down enough for him to once again travel unimpeded in this world.
A new world one filled with all manner of strangeness, most of which is just the scale of difference between the races known to us from Earth compared to the ones we've heard of or seen here on Terra
The monsters we've encountered are also strange but I suppose being what they are monsters here are not that much different than those of Earth, and seeing that by using his own powers Master is able to remove the impurities from these monsters and summon their pure forms to serve him in a similar capacity to myself and Shenron.
The rest of the morning was spent rather lazily as Heracles just sat out the couch reading various texts provided to him by Satou for the purpose of learning various things about this new world, and the monsters in order to provide intellectual support to him when needed. This of course isn't what he wanted to do if he was to refer to his own list of priorities, but well since it wouldn't be safe to leave Lady Primrose all alone in a village full of rough types this was the best way to pass the time until the lady woke from her deep slumber.
The slow day of reading continued until the suns were high in the sky until finally noises of someone moving in the adjacent rooms could be heard.
[Seems the young lady has finally awoken, I should prepare some food for her she surely must be hungry]
Putting the book I had been reading down and getting up, lightly dusting off the clothes I had been provided and walked into the kitchen, I cannot compare to master's level when it comes to cooking but I think following a recipe for a simple sandwich should be fine for lunch. Operating the magic sack that was hanging from the wall, reaching my entire arm into the sack that should only have needed me to put my forearm in to touch bottom.
From the bag I began to pull a loaf of bread, various vegetables, a couple bottles containing sauces and lastly a chunk of smoked white meat. Moving the ingredients over to a counter with a wooden board which master called a cutting board, taking up one of the knives on the counter I sliced up the loaf of bread, then proceeded to chop the vegetables up as well arranging then equally on slices of bread then applying the white, and yellow sauces from their bottles. Lastly I took the chunk of meat and worked with reckless abandon with a kitchen knife in both hands as I chopped and shredded the entire hunk until all that remained was a pile of shredded meat, applying a nice layer of which to the half assembled sandwiches before finishing them with a final piece of bread. Plating then up and heading for the table.
Just as I reached the table the young miss came around the corner still yawning, and rubbing her eyes.
"Good Morning Milady"
"~Yawn~ Good Morning Sir"
"You've missed breakfast, but I have some sandwich here that we can have for lunch if you'd like?"
"Oh my, that sounds great I'm starving"
Placing the platter piled with sandwiches down, the lady took her assigned seat at the table, I quickly started to set her place setting with napkins, and a plate for her own sandwich to be placed. Once finished I took a standing position at the wall watching over proceedings.
"Oh dear you don't need to do that please come and join me just like with Satou"
"If you are ok with that milady "
She nodded in the affirmative so I took up my own seat at the table with a plate and the pair of us happily consumed the sandwich I had constructed, but we both did agree I had a way to go to match the masters talent though it wasn't the lady who stated that fact first but rather myself, but the master already has a leveled up cooking skill whereas from what I've heard I have yet to attain the skill at all so this is all that can be expected of a novice cook.
With lunch over I collected the plates and placed then next to the sink in the kitchen before performing a modest clean up and disposing of the leftovers or remains that could not be stored as a snack for later.
"Mr. Heracles what are you going to do today?"
"Well I had plans to see the village elder if possible to receive permission to create a shrine or temple for the gods in this village"
"Awa that's amazing the gods should definitely have a shrine out here, and if you do that I'd get to see what they look like since there would be statues or carving of them right?"
"Well depending on the scale, but that all still depends on if we can even receive permission in the first place."
"Well we should go if we wait too long we'd have to wait until tomorrow to see him"
"Hahaha and here I was just about to ask you if you'd like to go milady"
"Yess. I will but on one condition, since I'm no longer a komtess or even a noble for that matter please call me Prim from now on."
"I can agree to your terms, so let us be off."
With that the two of us quickly suited up to the bare minimum with Primrose equipping herself in basic armor and weaponry, while I only had to equip the weapons provided to me by Master all of which were hidden on my person.
The pair of us set off from our home locking the door behind us since we were the last ones to leave the house for the day
Walking along the quaint little village I'm sure from the outside we would look like a well to do father walking beside his daughter or something like that since a Noble with her butler would never be seen walking the frontier village streets.
Once we'd made it to the mainstreet the number of people we saw easily quadrupled since this was a place of business, as opposed to the residential area which would obviously have far less foot traffic in the middle of the day.
"Maybe we'll be able to spot Satou, and Raisa here?"
"It's possible but from what I understand, Mr. Satou was planning on taking some guild quests so he might not even be in the village at the moment."
"Wahhh!"
"But as for us we need to head over there"
Raising one of his arms to point at the largest building in the village which acted as both the townhall and residence of the village elder.
The pair continued on crossing the main street before entering the main door of the town hall.
"Good Afternoon"
After entering the door a younger blonde haired woman wearing what closely resembles the Suit that Satou provided to me, her eyes filled with pride.
"Good Day Madame"
'Blush'
"Wha.. What can we help you with today?"
"We've come to speak with the elder about purchasing or leasing land if possible?"
"Oh my well the elder should be available now, would you like me to entertain your daughter while you're busy?"
'Gah!'
"For your information! I am 16, so I shant be excluded from this important business regarding my lords plans"
"Oh my, dear me I am so terribly sorry!"
'Bammmm'
The representative bowing her head so violently smacked her head down upon the desk in front of her.
[Given the young miss's choice of word this representive probably thinks she's insulted the retainer of a noble]
"Apologizes ourselves Madame you need not go that far, and Miss Primrose there is no reason to behave like that towards someone in charge of running this village, it was an honest mistake."
"I'm sorry Herc it's just been so long since anyone's made that mistake towards me so I overreacted."
"I'm not the one you need apologize to you know."
'Owa'
"I'm sorry for lashing out like that Madame!"
The town hall representative raising her head a visible red mark spreading across her forehead and tears forming in her eyes.
"Thank you so very much for forgiving me and even more for apologizing yourselves. Let me lead you to the Elders office."
Getting up from her desk, fixing her skirt before leading the pair of newcomers down the hallway before stopping in front of a wooden door
'Knock Knock'
"Please wait here for a moment"
The door opened and the representative stepped in before closing the door on us.
"Think she's gonna have an surprise attack setup for us when that door opens again?"
"Milday it's not good to court disaster even if it is only a joke"
Puffing her cheeks up at, as she pouted not being allowed to pull a prank she probably used to pull with Satou back in the city.
A few minutes passed before the door swung open again but this time it opened all the way, and the representative ushered us in before closing the door as she left.
The room had a simple layout with a rather large desk front and centre covered in piles of paperwork, directly in front of that was a pair of greenish colored sofa's and a small table
"Thank you for coming here today, I understand you want to discuss land allotment"
Bowing slightly at the waist as Primrose performed a simple curtsy towards the elder man sitting behind the desk. Both his hair and beard were while and long, but the years were evident in the wrinkles portrayed across his face.
"That is correct sir, we are here today to inquire if you would be opposed to us setting up a shrine or temple in or around this city, and if it's permitted then to discuss to purchasing price of land here within"
"A temple? Oh I see well we already have one to the Goddess of Earth Terra here in the village which God or Goddess are you looking to dedicate the temple to?"
"Well actually that's the primary reason for our purpose being present to request permission rather than just sending a letter. Our intent is to dedicate a temple to the Gods of a different religion than those of the 8-Pillars"
"Hmmm oh I see, well that makes this a tougher choice then since the 8-pillars is as I know it the only religion, but if you can tell me the reason and details behind this I can make an informed choice"
"That tale will certainly take more than a moment do you mind if me and the lady here take a seat?"
"Oh no no of course not how rude of me, please have a seat wherever you'd like, if you want I can even have tea made for us?"
"Oh my yes please sir a cup would be lovely, we've been working all morning"
Hand still in the air about to wave off the offer, Heracles hand dropped as the pair walked towards the couches to take a seat the elder meanwhile spoke softly to what looked like nothing before turning his attention to use once again.
"The tea shall be here shortly in the meantime do you mind if we start with your reasoning?"
"But of course"
Both the Elder and Primrose leaned forward on the edge of their seats in an attempt not to miss a single word.
"Our reason is the desire to spread our own faith and belief which were founded and cultured by the summoned heroes"
"Oh I see, so it is the religion of heroes then?"
"That is partly true, but the summoned heroes it seems can belong to a number of different faiths and well they also can find it hard to assimilate to the 8-pillar gods they are unfamiliar with, and after converting a small number of ourselves the blessings we received were more than we could hope for and in dedication to that we wanted to give our thanks by creating something to honor them."
As per the direction of Satou, Heracles explained the truth of Summoned heroes as he knew it while also allowing for a little bit of white lies mixed in to increase the chances of gaining approval without full on lying
"The values of this Heroes religion are peaceful and in some ways similar to the 8-pillars but while the structure of it being quite a bit different, we in no means mean to forcefully convert worshippers but rather just to create and spread the teaching to those that want to know it."
"Well the reason I can accept at least since it would just be another building and since its purpose is not to cause harm, or crime to my village I can find no reason to reject it, however I would still like to learn more about this Heroes Religion if you wouldn't mind since we also can't allow worshipping of demons and the like either"
"We don't mind explaining, so starting with the beginning like the 8-Pillar gods there are 9 primary gods of the Hellenic faith, but unlike the 8 pillars who are structured with the Creator on top, the Hellenic faith has six Core Gods reigning at the top with another for serving as greater gods beside them, followed by the lesser gods who are also below the rest. This pattern is similar if you think of the top 3 pillar gods as ruling together on par with the Creator God and then the remaining pillars being their children, and the servile gods who serve under as their grandchildren."
"So a faith with the gods pantheon being a family as it was?"
"That is correct"
"But doesn't that mean that for more gods to be born incest between sibling or parent gods/goddesses must be performed for anyone to condone such conduct would be beyond Taboo?"
"Sorry for not explaining that part enough, but nothing of the sort takes place, the Hellenic pantheon grows with the intermingling of Gods, and those of the races. That is to say when a god descends to the world for a lifetime and produces an heir when on the ground, but that's not to say that a god is always born when this occurs. The offspring is at first referred to as a Demi-God, but the strength of the Demi-God depends on the parents with the child normally inheriting traits and powers of both, but unless the child grows to a point where they can ascend they will remain as one of the races, but if divinity is activated then an offer to ascend will be given but if refused they shall have the divinity sealed and remain to live in the world."
'Knock Knock'
The door swinging open as a cart carrying a tea pot, cups, and plates containing various treats entered with the receptionist. She hastily placed everything before us on the table and poured three cups of tea before both she and the cart left the room. All the while the Elder's mouth was hanging wide open as he just stared out as if he fainted.
'hrrmmmm'
Clearing his throat, before reaching out for the tea, Primrose following suit the Elder snapped out of his delirium
"So the Hellenic gods are composed of ascended races then?"
"I cannot speak for all the races since the world the heroes come from only has Humans so all the gods are human in appearance but I doubt they would take issue with the races of this world since they are firm believers in all life."
"But still for one of the mortal races to be given the chance to attain godhood is a thing unheard of."
"The chances of ascending are rather slim admittedly but there are cases of ascendance on record"
"I see, so that is why the Heroes themselves are so strong when summoned."
"Perhaps though I cannot speak much to that since I know so little about the summoning ritual itself, and the chances of always summoning a godkin would be pretty rare since usually only one or two in a generation or normally born from what I hear."
"I see I see, so then can you go into details as to these 9 core gods you mentioned before, or I guess the Hellenic was it? Pantheon if you please."
"Certainly, the leader or king of the Gods as it were is the God Zeus, he is referred to as the World God as well as the God of the sky, while ruling the gods atop his throne in the immortal realm of Olympus he watches over the races with his family, his chief domain being the sky he is also referred to as the weather god by some since it is claimed that when lightning strikes it is Zeus casting bolts of his weapon
After taking a pause to refill his own cup of tea, before sitting back once again staring across at the faces of the Elder and young Primrose, both now wearing the same face. Primrose had heard briefly about the gods and goddess's but not much more was said about other than Zeus and Hecate who were the reported gods that Heracles, and Satou 'worshipped' so in some ways this was the first time hearing about all of this. Not to mention the goddess she seemed most interested in not being mention among the core goddess's.
When they finally restored themselves the talks progressed more as questions about each god or goddess went on, followed by asks of the other lesser gods especially magic which was not among the core gods which resulted in the explanation that earth was not a mana rich world so those who could use magic were rare and it's power fairly weak compared to Terra which is mana rich, but without an oracle from the gods themselves restructuring of the pantheon is not allowed so it would need to be shelved for a later date. The hours passed as the questions were asked and subsequently answered.
"Alright that's all my questions and it seems. Thank you for thoroughly answering them all."
"No problem at all, if anything I assumed that these questions would be asked since any new religion would need to be heavily scrutinized since none would wish for something to disrupt the natural order, persecute, or even encourage discrimination"
"Well short of getting a justice stone in here I will have to take your word at face value but someone like you I feel I can believe in the weight of your words so, the only remaining issue would become that of the location and size."
"Well I will defer to you on that one since we are willing to pay whatever we can for a lot inside the village but if none are available than a shrine outside the village can also be made along the roadway or something."
"Well we can certainly sell a plot of land since many are available in the village but the scale of this temple would need to be known or do you intend to purchase multiple lots to erect temples for each god?"
"Thank you, individual temples are at the discretion of the followers as for us our intent is to create a core temple one dedicated to all of the gods, and goddess though reliefs of only the core will be portrayed, possibly the others will be added at a later date."
"I see so then quite a sizable plot will be needed?"
"Not at all even a normal sized house plot would suffice since it's not like a grand cathedral will be built or anything, just a simple basic place of worship"
Silence reigned once again for a moment as the elder thought deeply before leaving to get a list of all available houses, and spare plots in the village. After reviewing the whole list the choice was made and payment processed. Primrose who had fallen asleep on the couch from the conversations and number of questions asked was hoisted up on Heracles's back before he shook hands with the elder, thanked the receptionist for the tea and head off back to their rented home, Primrose and papers in tow.
In his mind he is overjoyed knowing that the first Hellenic place of worship will soon be built in this new world, but since his creation and even with the development of this plan no ideas on just how this temple will look has surfaced in his mind, so now a burning desire to have his Master Satou the prophet will need to be inquired for the plans of this new temple.