172 - Dog fo Gunic
Elpoep Nesohok Sudogg Fo Gunic Eft. The words came out naturally from my mouth, but I had no memory of them. But it seemed that Remihio, right before me, understood the meaning immediately. Remihio, who had been kneeling to me, stepped back one pace, then sat formally in seiza and bowed his head deeply.
...Why the sudden dogeza!?
He was worshipping me with such fervor it looked like he was pressing his forehead to the floor. At first glance he seemed like a gentle young man, but this was a little scary. The words were meaningless to me, but to Remihio, they must have been words that made him act so strangely.
"Remihio-sama? Is something the matter?"
...If possible, please stop the dogeza soon.
The sight of an adult man doing dogeza toward me was too unbearable. I wanted a hole to crawl into. It would help if he'd at least lift his face, but Remihio remained frozen in his dogeza.
"Tina, where did you learn ancient language?"
"Ancient language?"
As I was flustered by Remihio's behavior, Leonardo spoke up from the side, perhaps trying to lighten the mood. Even being told it was ancient language, I had no idea what he meant.
"You said 'Elpoep Nesohok Sudogg Fo Gunic Eft,' didn't you?"
"It just slipped out of my mouth. Um, Elpoep... Nesohok...?"
I tried to say it again, but my tongue wouldn't move properly. I tried several times, but the result was the same. I could only pronounce it smoothly that first time.
"Elpoep Nesohok Sudogg Fo Gunic Eft. The saintly woman blessed by the Divine King."
...Ugh. That sounded like another troublesome title, evolving further.
Since I had someone close to me, Nils, who was called the same way, I didn't mind being called 'Spirit's Favored Child' that much, but 'saintly woman blessed by the Divine King' was something none of my acquaintances were called. It was a more than a little embarrassing name. Perhaps judging from my exchange with Leonardo that there was no need to be so formal, or perhaps unable to stay silent while I couldn't pronounce it correctly, Remihio finally lifted his face. That was good, but couldn't something be done about this hard-to-welcome title? I had a strong urge to run away because it felt so suspicious, but since Remihio was in the direction of the escape route, running away was impossible.
...Huh? 'Blessed by the Divine King' means...?
"That man... is Elpoep Nesohok...?"
"Elpoep Nesohok Sudogg Fo Gunic Eft. If that's too difficult, Dog fo Gunic will do."
"Dog fo Gunic... Ah, I can say it. Um, so Dog fo Gunic is the Divine King-sama?"
When someone suddenly calls you something grandiose like 'saintly woman blessed by the Divine King,' even I could imagine that must be the case. Even if it wasn't correct, it couldn't be that far off.
"Elpoep Nesohok Sudogg Fo Gunic Eft is an old phrase meaning 'King of the People Chosen by God.' Simplified a little, it becomes Dog fo Gunic. In modern language, it means 'Divine King.'"
"So that person was the Divine King-sama..."
I'd met someone incredible. The other party was an ancient king who disappeared from history after the incident at the Recollection Festival. Indeed, it was no wonder I was being revered as a saintly woman who met the Divine King. Not that I myself had any particularly blessed effects or amazing abilities.
"Um... first, may I deliver the Divine King-sama's message?"
I offered Remihio a seat, since he had lifted his face but was still sitting in seiza on the floor. That man, the Divine King, had asked me to do something, and I'd already received the reward in advance. It felt unsettling to keep putting off my role.
Remihio demurred, saying it was too much to sit in the same seat as a saintly woman, but I practically forced him into a chair. Having him standing there the whole time would be more unbearable for me.
"Well then, here's the request from the Divine King-sama. He told me to give egg sandwiches and juice to a black-haired man with different-colored eyes, so please accept them."
"...I humbly accept."
The juice had gone completely lukewarm, but this was what the Divine King had specified. I couldn't exactly prepare new ones now.
"But why egg sandwiches?"
"Huh? I don't know. Maybe he just... liked them?"
"Liked them...?"
Remihio's interest seemed less in the egg sandwiches placed before him and more in the matter of why egg sandwiches. Even asked why egg sandwiches, I didn't understand either, so I recounted the Divine King's state as best I could remember. He seemed to be looking for a woman. He seemed hungry, so I offered egg sandwiches. After finishing them, the Divine King told me to give egg sandwiches to the man who would come.
...I'll keep quiet about receiving something like a blessing.
Just meeting the Divine King was enough to be called a saintly woman. If they knew I'd received a blessing, I had no idea how I'd be treated.
"...I see. I understand."
"Huh? From which part of the explanation, understand what?"
At the end of the story about how the Divine King had definitely finished eating the egg sandwiches, yet somehow egg sandwiches remained, Remihio finally showed signs of understanding and let out a relieved sigh.
"First, before the eggs go bad, I'd like to put them where they belong."
He asked if that was all right, and I leaned back. My task from the Divine King was done once the egg sandwiches and juice were given to Remihio. I had no intention of hindering them from going into his stomach.
"...Are they tasty?"
The Divine King had seemed to speak somewhat strangely. Besides, these were egg sandwiches that had once entered the Divine King's stomach and disappeared. In this world where strange things happen, I was a little worried about thinking they were the same delicious egg sandwiches as before.
"The Divine King is now a being without a physical body. Even when he eats, it must be different from how we do it."
"Without a physical body?"
"He dwells in the same world as the spirits. Though the Divine King is human, he wanders through an eternity where his physical body would have long since decayed under normal circumstances."
Remihio said his physical body as a human had long been lost. The physical stomach to hold egg sandwiches no longer existed for the current Divine King.
"When he said to give me the egg sandwiches, he was probably thinking about disposing of them as physical objects. What the current Divine King consumed still retains its form, but it's become something that can hardly be called pure food."
"Hardly be called food..."
I was the one who offered them to eat, but was it really all right to have him eat something like that? Suddenly worried, I looked up at Remihio, and he smiled with a slightly troubled expression. That face looked familiar.
...Ah, I remember. He resembles that man from the Divine King Festival.
His hair was black, and he also had different-colored eyes. That man back then had one blue eye and one red eye, but his gestures and atmosphere resembled Remihio. He seemed kind, the kind of young man who, I felt, would probably be the type Nils would become when he grew up.
"Um... would you like to try tasting it, if you don't mind?"
Seeing me staring up at him with worry, Remihio made this suggestion, though hesitantly. I was a little scared, but since it was something I'd offered to another person, I steeled myself and had him tear off a piece of bread so I could confirm its taste. The taste of the bread I fearfully put in my mouth was, well, quite strange.
"...It has no taste."
The texture when chewing was definitely bread, but it didn't taste like bread. It wasn't bad, but rather, it had no flavor at all. I'd heard somewhere the phrase about feeling like eating sand, but surely sand has more taste. The texture was unmistakably that of eating bread, but I started to feel like I was chewing on something flavorless in my mouth. It wasn't the taste but the weirdness that made me feel sick.
...I made someone I'd just met for the first time eat this stuff that I had waiting here...!
No matter how I looked at it, that was too cruel. It was an act that could be taken as harassment.
...And now I understood what the Divine King-sama meant when he said it would be pitiful to make someone else eat it.
The Divine King must have known that what he ate turned into something completely flavorless. Knowing that, he specified who should eat it.
...Divine King-sama, were you being playful, or was it harassment, or a prank, which one!?
I had Kalisa prepare a drink to cleanse my palate while I watched Remihio eat the flavorless egg sandwiches. Whether he had been prepared from the start, Remihio silently chewed the egg sandwiches that had nothing but weirdness to them, without showing it on his face.
"On a different topic, saintly woman."
"I'm not a saintly woman. I'm Tina."
The custom of giving thanks to ingredients after a meal exists in this world too. When Remihio offered his gratitude to the ingredients and then called me 'saintly woman' again after the meal, I immediately corrected him.
"Then, Saint Tina. If you would, would you like to come to my Divine Kingdom Quevia?"
...Huh?
At the unexpected invitation, I blinked involuntarily. As my brain slowly processed Remihio's words, my head tilted unconsciously.
"...Is that a trip?"
"No, permanent residence. If possible, I would like Saint Tina to serve at the Divine King's shrine in the divine domain, as the shrine maiden who spoke with the Divine King for the first time in several centuries."
Whether this was a good or bad offer aside, should I take this as a job placement? At a loss, I turned my gaze toward Leonardo, who was standing nearby, and found him staring at Remihio with a demonic expression, glowering. It was immediately obvious he was opposed, but the fact that he said nothing was a bit unsettling.
...Rather than saying nothing, it felt more like he couldn't say anything?
It was just a gut feeling, but that's what I thought. When I thought about it, Remihio, whom Guide Anna had introduced as a pilgrim, was being called 'Remihio-sama' by Anna. Yet here in the fortress city, Anna called Leonardo, the master of that fortress, 'Leonardo-dono.'
...His travel clothes are a bit shabby, but is he another person with a troublesome status?
Once I realized the possibility, my answer came easily.
"I don't want to move. I'm not going."
Now then, how would Remihio respond? If this were Ethelbert or Alfred, they'd try all sorts of tactics and words and wouldn't back down easily. I steeled myself that I wouldn't agree to any persuasion, while grabbing Leonardo's clothes as he stood beside me. When I gave Remihio a look full of suspicion, he seemed to understand that I was on guard. Surprisingly easily, Remihio backed down.
"...Then if anything troubling occurs, please contact the Divine Kingdom at any time. Our country will assist the saintly woman blessed by the Divine King, at any time and in any situation."
Saying he had gained an unexpected harvest, Remihio left after thanking me many times. It seemed that during his pilgrimage, he happened to be passing through during the Recollection Festival season, so he stopped by the city of Grenore where a new Spirit's Favored Child had been found. Originally, he'd only planned to greet me briefly and teach me how to interact with spirits.
...Far from teaching me how to interact with spirits, he introduced me to a job, though.
After Remihio and Anna left, Leonardo made a troubled face as he looked at the top of my head. After pondering for a while, he opened his mouth, and what came out was something about dressing up as an animal costume, completely ignoring the season.
"It's not like I was kidnapped by a spirit, you know."
Leonardo started saying things like this probably because I was the only one who met the Divine King. Even though Kalisa and Nils were here, I was the only one who met the Divine King. I'd been interacting with someone who was here yet not here without even knowing it. As a guardian, he might be worried.
"Even besides spirits, Tina keeps making connections from strange directions without me understanding, so I'm worried."
He said he wanted to lock me up in the residence, and I think that was more than half serious. After roughly tousling my head, he pulled me into an embrace against his chest.
"Who exactly was that Remihio-sama?"
I pushed against Leonardo's chest to break free, since it was hot. I was freed from Leonardo's warm chest, but since I was only pushed back as far as my arms could reach, there wasn't much distance.
"If he was just a pilgrim, they wouldn't guide him to a Spirit's Favored Child who was working, right?"
"He's someone it's better not to know."
"We've been having a lot of those encounters lately."
I'd thought the same when I met Ethelbert in Lagarette. Though in the end, Dietfried, who didn't think about the meaning of hiding one's status, revealed that Ethelbert was the former king.
"By the way, Leonardo-san."
"You can call me Leo."
He pointed out that I'd called him that earlier, making me a little embarrassed. I was deliberately calling him 'Leonardo-san,' but when flustered, I still accidentally called him 'Leo.'
"Leonardo-san, shouldn't you go back to the residence and rest soon?"
I pointed out that he had rites to perform tonight, but Leonardo showed no sign of leaving. He listed various reasons -- he changes into his costume in the management tent for the night rites, and the venue is the plaza right in front here -- and seemed to have decided to stay in the seat prepared for the Spirit's Favored Child.
...Honestly, I don't think I'll make any more strange connections today.
If anything, I couldn't possibly make connections above a mythical king. The Divine King is the highest-ranking being in this world. Above that, only gods exist.
It didn't end, so I think tomorrow's will be short. By the way, in the setting, Saik and Napaji are ancient languages.
I'll fix typos and misspellings later. I found and corrected some typos and misspellings.