NOVEL NEXT Chapter 19 – In which gods worry if Am has a problem with insomnia
Chapter 19 – In which gods worry if Am has a problem with insomnia
Third day since Amara’s soul pieced itself together and Amara’s memories of his previous life returned.
The day went by without any problems.
Phlox continued her mission of pretending to hunt down the source of corruption in the temple, while also trying to move the indifferent saint.
Rasin continued to pop up and pretend he is dying of worry about Amara’s health and life, and how is doing everything to find out who sent a heretic to threaten Amara’s life.
And a small head appeared here and there around Amara and Amara did very well at ignoring it completely.
Unfortunately, it seemed that Phlox didn’t do so well at it, and was caught by the small head.
After she found her way back to Amara, her mind was still a bit lost because she whispered:
“Such cute Young Excellency… Young Brother… If His Excellency only turned around…”
Completely lost.
Amara had no idea what she was talking about.
The same was for the gods in his head.
*I think… Those are dark circles…*
*What?! Impossible! All I see is light!*
*If you stare long enough…*
*My eyessss bleed tearssss of hapinesssss when I ssstare long enough.*
*I heard that if you stare at the sun, you will see black spots later. Maybe you’re mistaken.*
*... Are you speaking from experience? Did you lose your eyes to the sun?*
*My lost eyesight was a divine gift. Don’t get sun bastard into it.*
*And I don’t have any black spots, you blind bastard.*
Since this morning, when one of the science gods calculated that Amara isn’t getting enough sleep, gods’ favorite conversation topic became Amara’s sleep schedule.
Amara indeed didn’t sleep much for the past two nights.
During the first one, he was almost assassinated and didn’t sleep after that.
During the second one, he went to visit prisoner Seven and the entire operation took quite some time.
And tonight, he planned to use the opportunity of the fact that Rasin sent a lot of personnel out to investigate the circumstances of assassination attempt, to sneak out of the temple.
In other words, he wouldn’t be sleeping tonight either.
“Miss Phlox, please return to your senses.”
Amara put a spicy dumpling in Phlox's hands in an attempt to make her regain her mind.
He needed at least one voice of reason around.
“Your Excellency…”
It didn’t seem to work. It looked like she was about to cry.
*-*-*
“There was one time when I filled the entire cathedral with such mannequins and tricked the priest into believing she had a full audience. It will be fine, Your Excellency.”
“May I ask why Priest Phlox filled a cathedral with mannequins?”
“I had trouble finding the evidence of that priest’s corruption, but I heard that she had a tendency to blab about herself when there were a lot of people listening. So after tricking her a few times I finally obtained some clues and unraveled her corruption.”
“So it was not one time but a few times.”
“Well, no, filling the entire cathedral was once. The other times were when I filled the entire cathedral and the plaza in front of the cathedral.”
Currently Amara and Phlox were moving through the secluded garden around the Universe Temple.
It was night and no one was around.
A few minutes before, Phlox, who took upon herself the duty of guarding Amara tonight yet again, produced very life-like mannequins from somewhere and put them in Amara and her place.
Amara had flashbacks to when Saf once brought him to the creepy cavern she found, full of human-size dolls. He had nightmares because of it for weeks.
Both Amara and Phlox were merged with shadows, the same as Amara was yesterday when visiting Seven in prison.
Amara planned to just give Phlox a blessing of shadows after completing the ritual, but surprisingly she learned the ritual in the meantime and was able to replicate it.
Well, it wasn’t that surprising considering that she was an outstanding priest.
A human size doll which resembled him very closely was much more surprising.
“We will go through the attendant’s quarters, there is a back gate near their building.”
“Understood, Your Excellency. Let me open the door, they seem a bit heavy…”
Phlox, who was opening the door, paused when she came face to face with a young attendant.
There was a moment of silence and then Phlox said eloquently:
“Fuck.”
Well, if the attendant’s attention wasn’t captured when the door suddenly opened on its own, it was surely captured now.
In other words, he could see Phlox.
Phlox blinked, she seemed to realize what she had done, as she turned towards Amara and said:
“Your Excellency, please pretend you heard nothing.”
And now the attendant could see Amara too.
“You mean about ‘fuck’?”
Amara asked just to make sure, but Phlox jumped and covered his mouth.
“Your Excellency, you can’t say such words!”
“Priest Phlox, there is nothing wrong with the word ‘fuck’, be it in it’s literal meaning or when used to vent or express emotional state. Foul language becomes negative only when used with the intention of shaming or harming somebody else.”
“... Huh. Your Excellency can really start a philosophical discussion at any time about anything, huh? But it still doesn’t feel very good when swear words leave the Saint’s mouth.”
“Maybe because Priest Phlox sees swear words as primarily negative? But I don’t think it's a really good moment to talk about it. And you, please stand up, your clothes will get dirty.”
Amara, who was momentarily distracted by sociological and psychological perception of certain words among different people, turned around and spoke to the attendant, who was kneeling in front of him.
The attendant stood up.
Amara recognized him as the young man he met at the infirmary yesterday.
“What are you doing here?”
Amara asked him, but it was actually more reasonable if the attendant asked Amara that.
Among them, the Saint being at the attendant’s quarters in the middle of the night was much more unexpected.
“I… Was going out for a moment…”
The attendant fumbled with his words.
Was it something difficult to say?
“Your Excellency, it’s because of me. I wanted to go out, and he followed after me.”
Suddenly, from the shadows, the older attendant popped out.
Amara quickly caught him and stopped him from kneeling down.
He really wished they would all just stop doing it for a moment.
*I would kneel down in front of our Am too.*
*I don’t have knees, but I’ll figure it out if needed.*
*Oh! Do you guys think that if we all kneel down, Am will go get some sleep?*
He wished that all beings, including gods, would never do that.
Amara was surprised to find the two of the attendants here, sneaking out.
It was a very risky action. If something went wrong, they would be heavily punished.
“Did something happen? Are you sick?”
Amara couldn’t figure out why the two of them would risk it.
The attendants hesitated for a moment, and then the older spoke.
“I… I was saved by Your Excellency. I wanted to find a way to thank Your Excellency somehow…”
“What type of way?”
Amara would be thankful if the attendant just rested and didn’t do any risky actions.
The attendant closed his mouth and looked at the floor. He seemed to be in his 30s, but somehow, he now resembled a ten year old who realized he did something wrong.
Amara's stomach was cold when sighed.
“Nevermind, I don’t want to know.”
Then he turned to Phlox, who watched the entire situation as if she was witnessing a scene from holy scriptures.
“Let’s go.”
He bypassed the two attendants and headed towards the other exit from the attendant’s quarters, which was close to the gate he wanted to use.
When he and Phlox made a few steps forward.
“Your Excellency, please wait.”
The older attendant stopped them.
That was unexpected for an attendant.
Amara could see the younger attendant behind the older man, making an anxious expression.
“May I ask where are you going?”
“... I need to go out of the temple for a moment.”
“Then please allow us to follow, we may be of use.”
Amara wanted to refuse, but the eyes of the older attendant looked so stubborn he gave up.
Instead, he turned to the younger attendant.
“Do you also wish to follow? For certain?”
The younger attendant seemed to be surprised for a moment about the development of the situation, but he quickly resolutely nodded.
“Fine then. But I’ll need to give you a blessing of shadows first.”
*-*-*
About 15 minutes later, they successfully left the temple through the back gates.
Before them, stretched out an empty plaza which surrounded the Universe Temple from all sides.
Amara blinked.
He realized that it was the first time this body was out of the temple in the past ten years.
In some way, it was the first time he had ever seen this square.
*Ah! Unfocused gaze! It’s a syndrome that Am is falling asleep with his eyes open!*
*Noo! Am, you need to close your eyes when you sleep!*
*Quickly! Someone send rain to water his eyes!*
*Then you will wake him up, you idiot!*
*... I can’t believe I ever got along with you brainless bastards.*
Gods’ voices get him out of it.
He turned around and looked at the two attendants.
They also seemed a bit dazed.
They probably weren’t outside for a long time.
“We’re outside, so… If something goes wrong, I have to have a way to call you quickly to give orders. So I’ll give you some nicknames if that’s okay with you?”
“Nicknames… so names basically…”
“To use by His Excellency?”
They seemed to be even more dazed than before, but they agreed.
And so, the older attendant's name… or rather a nickname, became:
Alexandrit.
And the younger attendant was named:
Geod.
*Oh, this is so beautiful. It must be a dream.*
*Did we all fall asleep with Am?*
*I wish we had a dream where Am sleeps.*
But gods still couldn’t shut up about sleeping.