Chi-Woo left his room and returned to the restaurant. Eshnunna’s request was simple. She wanted him to gather all the recruits in one place because she thought she had something that could help them. Chi-Woo had been away from the meeting for some time, but the situation hadn’t improved at all; the heroes’ conversation was going nowhere, and they were still arguing about the same topics, namely how long they were going to keep waiting without doing anything, and whether they should at least prepare some countermeasures.
Chi-Woo interrupted the meeting and guided the heroes to a small building next to the mansion as per Eshnunna’s instruction.
“Why is she suddenly telling us to go there?”
“Let’s go along with it this time. I’m also curious why we were told not to set foot in there without permission.”
The building they were going to was a place that Eshnunna had warned them to not enter carelessly. When they opened the door, they saw a woman standing alone in the center of a spacious room.
“Welcome.” Eshnunna bowed, revealing the large statue hanging on the wall behind her. It was a statue of a beautiful goddess, lit up by the silverish moonlight and wrapped all over in stems; on each stem was a blooming, reddish-black flower that looked like it would start dripping blood at any moment.
“Is this a place of worship?” Zelit asked while looking around his surroundings.
“It’s not much for a temple, but it is meant to serve the master of all gods, Elephthalia,” Eshnunna replied.
“Elephthalia?” Zelit furrowed his eyebrows. “I heard Liber reached its current state because the goddess Elephthalia became crazy and put a curse on this World. Why would you worship a mad goddess?”
“I suppose that’s the Shahnaz clan’s point of view. There are certainly some who think that way. However, my opinion is slightly different.”
“Hey, so why did you tell us to come?” the impatient Giant Fist asked bluntly. Since he had come right after arguing passionately in a meeting, he wasn’t in a good mood.
“I heard that you all were in a meeting in order to prep for the future,” Eshnunna continued calmly without a change in tone. “Thus, I gathered you all here despite how late it is, hoping to be of some help.”
“You, helping us? How?” Giant Fist snorted. He was clearly looking down on her, but Eshnunna smiled brightly and turned to Zelit. “I think all the inhabitants on Liber are receiving punishment.”
“Punishment? Are you talking about divine punishment?”
“Yes. We are all creatures molded by gods. In other words, our relationship to gods is that of a child and a parent,” Eshnunna continued, “If you’ve heard about our planet’s history, you must know the tremendous sorrow that we had inflicted to our goddess’ heart. And you must all know that it is also a parent’s responsibility to correct their child if they’re going down the wrong path.”
Liber’s history was fraught with wars. The most recent one was especially harsh and went overboard; and the master of all gods couldn’t bear to watch any longer. Thus, she brought down divine punishment upon her people.
Zelit tilted his head and said, “I get that this world is greatly influenced by a god. But isn’t this punishment too extreme?” Zelit’s point was valid. “Call it a curse or divine punishment, but it doesn’t change the fact that monsters are roaming all over this planet, and the borders of this World have broken down to the point that aliens are invading.” Rather than punishment, it seemed more accurate to say that the goddess was trying to exterminate all the humans on Liber. This certainly was beyond the level of a parent scolding their child for their wrongdoings. The parent in this analogy was trying to kill their child by abandoning them in danger.
“Because that’s how wrongful our actions were,” Eshnunna responded calmly. “Of course, I know I might be too idealistic. It could be more than that.”
“What do you mean by ‘more’?”
“I’ve considered the possibility that the goddess is trying to change the owners of Liber after being so severely disappointed by humans.” In other words, the parent could have gotten sick of the first child’s reckless actions and decided to abandon them to give the planet to a more obedient child.
“That leaves us with one thing to do. We have to admit our mistakes and beg for forgiveness so that we may ask for one more chance.”
“Hm…”
“Well, they always say that there’s no parent who can win over their child in the end. I still hold onto the belief that our goddess hadn’t completely abandoned us.”
“It is an interesting interpretation,” Zelit said. “And what’s your reasoning behind that belief?”
Eshnunna approached the statue as if she had been waiting for this moment. With the gentleness one showed to something precious to them, she stroked the flowers in different parts of their stems.
“Flowers.” Everyone looked taken aback. “These flowers are the final test and opportunity presented to us by our goddess Elephthalia.”
“They just look like flowers,” Giant Fist said peevishly, and Eshnunna shook her head.
“These flowers don’t grow anywhere on Liber but on this statue. Thanks to them, this main base has enjoyed a comparably higher level of safety than other camps.”
“Comparably?” Zelit’s eyes narrowed. “I want to know how far its effect extends to. Is our safety forever guaranteed as long as the flowers are blooming?”
“No. Its effects are not absolute. There will be no meaning to a test then.” Of course, nobody had expected the fundamental problem to be solved simply by some flowers. If that was the case, the whole area would have turned into a flower garden long ago. After organizing his thoughts, Zelit spoke, “I have some questions.”
“Please speak your mind.” Eshnunna nodded like she had expected this.
“First of all, in what way are you going to help us?”
“I will give this flower to those of you who are leaving.”
“You said its effect wasn’t absolute. How many are you planning to give us, and how powerful can we expect their effects to be?
“As long as you hold onto one of the flowers, you will be able to escape divine punishment, and the punished ones won’t be able to approach you as easily.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“It’s all in comparative terms. The flowers will simply help you avoid them. It will be useless if you purposefully cause a commotion and try to attack them.”
It was clear that ‘the punished ones’, ‘the cursed ones’, and ‘the broken beings who were eaten’ were synonymous with each other.
“Additionally, the flower begins to wilt as soon as you pluck it from the statue. Each of the flowers has four petals without exception, every hour a petal would fall.”
“So we will be safe for at least four hours as long as we have this flower.”
“Not ‘safe’,” Eshnunna responded, “But ‘safer’.”
“Since they start to wilt as soon as you pluck them, the number of flowers we carry won’t matter much. Still, it’s important to know how many there are. Are those all the flowers you have?”
“Yes. We tried all kinds of methods to increase their supply or maintain them, but nothing worked.”
Giant Fist was about to shout, ‘Why are you being so stingy and giving only one to each of us!?’ but decide to stay silent when he heard that.
“They follow a strict set of rules, and everything else is futile. It really is a divine plant.”
“Yes, that is what I think. After all, the flowers bloom only through a genuine prayer, and the number of flowers never changes.” Hearing this, everyone understood why Eshnunna had said the flowers were the enraged goddess’s final grace and test.
“…Okay, but I have one last question.” Zelit opened his eyes widely as he asked, “Why are you telling us this now?” Sharp eyes bore into Eshnunna. “You could’ve told us sooner.”
Eshunna had replied to all the questions so far smoothly, but this time, she had trouble responding. “Well…” She lowered her eyes slightly and answered after hesitating a great deal. “I didn’t plan on keeping them a secret forever.”
“Then?”
“I am telling you all this now to avoid future conflicts,” Eshnunna said in a low voice. “And the reason why I didn’t tell you all until now is because…we wanted to continue surviving.”
Many eyebrows rose at this statement; they could guess the meaning behind her words to some degree.
“It is our natural responsibility to help and assist heroes, but we are all just humans. We have endured so far solely on our will to live.” According to Eshnunna, these flowers were an essential life force for the main base and offered great support to the resistance efforts. However, even as the demand for them increased, the number of flowers remained small and constant. It was already difficult maintaining the base camp. If the heroes found out about these flowers, it was obvious that they would try to use them, prioritizing themselves above the original inhabitants of the planets all in the name of saving Liber. Thus, Eshnunna had been hiding the flowers’ existence from the heroes for the sake of all the inhabitants of this camp who relied on her.
“I planned to tell you all sometime in the future since it’s not as if we could simply continue this situation for long.” Eshnunna turned to the heroes staring at her. “Thus, after gathering all the recruits and observing them, I was planning to reveal these flowers to those who would seem the most empathetic to our situation.” As many eyes stared sharply at her, Eshnunna continued in a pleading tone, “I know how offensive my actions could seem, but I had no other reason but my earnest desire to find someone who could help us.”
Zelit stared hard at Eshnunna, clearly displeased.
“It’s fine. We all have our own reasons. It’s not like you tried to hide the whole thing from us—it’s not even a big deal.” Ru Hiana stepped forward and supported Eshnunna.
“Tch. Are you discriminating between us? Why do you have to make us feel bad when we came to save you all?” Giant Fist grumbled.
“Well, the situation might seem a bit unfair to us, but we don’t know what the previous recruits were like. Considering that, I can understand why you’d been keeping this from us.” Mua Janya quickly took Eshnunna’s side. It seemed like people weren’t planning to rebuke Eshnunna after Ru Hiana voiced her support. Because Eshnunna appeared completely sincere in helping her people, no one could openly fault her.
Zelit seemed to have dropped the matter as well and asked, “Even though it’s late, is it reasonable to assume you trust us now since you’re telling us the truth?”
“It’s not even a matter of trust,” Eshnunna responded with a smile. “As I said, there’s only one way for us to endure until we’re forgiven by our goddess. But even then…” Eshnunna suddenly shifted her eyes to look at one person. “Rather than placing my trust in you because I have no other choice, I want to trust you all in earnest.” Eshnunna’s eyes settled on Chi-Woo, and her gaze softened.
Chi-Woo looked away, feeling burdened.
“I understand what you’re saying.” Zelit sighed. “The princess from a fallen kingdom wants to offer flower petals in exchange for the protection of those in the main camp. What does everyone think?”
Nobody replied. The only sound that came out was Giant Fist’s snorting.
* * *
As soon as the day broke, the recruits began moving as they discussed last night. They all received a flower from Eshnunna and formed a three-member party, and each group had a native as their guide. Their mission would be determined at the members’ discretion—whether it was to locate the seventh recruits that haven’t been found yet, find goods and supplies, or search for traces of the fifth and sixth recruits. However, all groups had to come back to the main camp when all the petals fell.
Chi-Woo ended up in the same group as Ru Amuh, Ru Hiana, and Salem Eshnunna. Giant Fist was disappointed that he couldn’t team up with Chi-Woo, but he soon became happy because the mysterious silver-haired girl, Shahnaz Hawa, was assigned as his group’s guide.
“Let’s hurry! Just trust me and don’t worry about anything! What’s your name?” Giant Fist grabbed Shahnaz Hawa’s hand and dragged her to him. He didn’t look like someone going out for an exploration mission.
“Shall we also go?” Eshnunna looked at Hawa with concern as Hawa’s group moved further away before she got moving herself. She had been at the front but fell back to get closer to Chi-Woo, who had been following right behind her.
“I have a question,” said Eshnunna.
“Yes?”
“Why did you do that yesterday?”
“I’m sorry, what are you asking about?”
When Chi-Woo asked with a confused face, Eshnunna pouted and complained, “Why did you avoid my gaze?”
“Ah…” Chi-Woo scratched his head and glanced at Eshnunna. “Were you hurt?”
“A bit.”
“Were you very nervous?”
“You think I wouldn’t be?” Eshnunna grumbled. “I only revealed the existence of the flowers because I became braver from the conversation I had with you. I had nowhere to rest my gaze, so I tried to gain a bit of courage by looking at you. How could you…”
Chi-Woo blinked. It felt strange to be suddenly addressed as ‘you’ when Eshnunna made sure to always call him ‘sir’.
“No, well…was it bad?”
“Yes, a little.” However, Eshnunna seemed only mildly annoyed as she glanced softly at him.
“I’m sorry.” Chi-Woo didn’t really have anything to say, so he apologized.
Eshnunna looked sideways with a coy expression, and after a fake cough, she asked, “What is your name?”
“My name?”
“Yes. Now that I think about it, I haven’t asked for your name.”
Chi-Woo looked troubled. He heard a soft ‘pwff’ from behind his back. It seemed that Ru Hiana had been eavesdropping on their conversation judging from the way she quickly covered her mouth. Chi-Woo shot Ru Hiana a glare and complained inside his mind, ‘Damn it. Why did I end up in the same group with them of all people.’
“What’s wrong? Do you not want to tell me your name?” Eshnunna asked in a sulky tone.
“No, that’s not it. My name is…” Chi-Woo calmly said, “Ru Hiana is a stupid dumbass.”
“What?”
“No! Senior!” Ru Hiana quickly ran towards him. “What’s up with that!”
“What do you mean?”
“Why am I a stupid dumbass?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Miss. That’s my name.”
“In what world can there be such a name?”
“My world, of course.”
“Senior, are you seriously going to keep up with that argument?” Ru Hiana huffed. Eshnunna looked startled, while Ru Amuh quietly laughed. But then Ru Hiana abruptly stopped talking.
There was a commotion in front of them. It was Giant Fist’s group, which had departed earlier than them. Then they saw Shahnaz Hawa on the ground.
“What the— What happened to her?” Ru Hiana asked in surprise.
Eshnunna quickly stepped forward and approached Hawa.
“What happened to her? She suddenly…!” Mua Janya and Zelit, who were in the same group as Hawa, looked bewildered. Giant Fist’s face was red, and he was huffing in agitation. Shahnaz Hawa was unable to lift her head. Just a few minutes ago, the atmosphere of Giant Fist’s group had been very energetic, but the tension between them suddenly ran high.
“Hawa! Are you all right? Ha….oh my!” Eshnunna was shocked as she lifted Hawa’s head. Hawa’s left cheek was bright red and swollen, and one side of her lips was ripped and bleeding. It was clear that someone had hit her very hard in the face.
“Why…For what reason…” Eshnunna was very startled as she requested an explanation.
“That damn bitch. She shouldn’t have played so hard to get. She got too cocky because I was so nice to her!” Giant Fist huffed in anger and yelled in frustration.
Eshnunna asked, “Did this child do anything wrong?”
“Anything wrong? Yeah, she did!” Giant Fist shouted confidently, “She shouldn’t have ignored a hero like me! Why do you think I came all the way here!?”
“Sir, she ignored you?”
“No,” Mua Janya intervened. “It’s his hands that are the problem.” Mua Janya looked at Giant Fist’s massive hands and mocked him.
“I just touched her a little because I thought she was cute!”
“Crazy bastard. Is that why you patted her butt and touched her breast?” Mua Janya looked sick of his behavior.
It was then that everyone could guess the situation. It was obvious that Giant Fist probably kept hitting on Hawa, and he eventually crossed the line. When Hawa reacted stronger than expected, he got angry and hit her.
“This fucking bastard…!” Ru Hiana glared at Giant Fist with anger.
“Hawa. Are you all right?” At Eshnunna’s concern, Hawa lowered her head without saying anything. Eshnunna wrapped her arms around Hawa’s back and gritted her teeth. Then she said, “Apologize.”
“What? Apologize?” Giant Fist looked like he thought he heard her wrong. “Apooologize? What the hell!”
“Apologize to this child.” Eshnunna resolutely got up. “Apologize to her.” She looked straight at Giant Fist and clearly enunciated each word.
“Why should I?” Giant Fist growled threateningly.
“We are your aids, and we’re here to assist you.” Eshnunna didn’t back down. “But that doesn’t mean you can just treat us however you want.” She looked at Giant Fist with fury in her eyes. “I’m saying that we’re not your slaves.” Her gaze was firm and intense, and she seemed like a different person than when she was complaining to Chi-Woo before. “If you want treatment like that, you should go to a place where you can receive such treatment. I won’t stop you from leaving.”
“What? How dare you!?”
“If you do something like this again, we would also treat you appropriately. Keep that in mind if you plan to stay, sir.
Giant Fist’s face became red and twisted in fury. He looked like he was going to hit her at any moment. However, he then saw Chi-Woo’s cold expression, and his face contorted before he turned around. “Fuck! Why did I come to such a shitty world like this!?”
Ah—! Spit!
Giant Fist spat loudly onto the ground and angrily stomped towards the entrance by himself. Even though people asked him where he was going, he didn’t reply.
“T-t-that shit…!” Ru Hiana was so shocked that she stuttered. “What the—! That fucking trash! Senior, are you seriously just going to stand by like this?” Ru Hiana followed that up with a litany of swear words.
“Stop. Let’s stop.” Zelit rubbed his forehead like his head hurt. “Sigh…Perhaps, would you be able to become our guide?” he asked Eshnunna, who stood rooted to the spot with a tired expression. “We won’t let his behavior slide anymore, but if that guy has a brain, he won’t do anything funny with the top person in charge. Anyway, it’s only him we have to deal with, and we still need a guide.”
Moreover, if they exchanged the guide with a native other than Eshnunna, Giant Fist might let out his frustrations on the innocent native.
“…I understand.” Eshnunna hesitated for a bit, but she accepted that there was no alternative and looked back at Hawa. Chi-Woo nodded to ease her concern. In the end, Eshnunna joined the others and left to chase after Giant Fist.
Hawa remained on the ground. She seemed to be extremely shocked.
“For real, what the hell is wrong with that bastard? Senior, why are you close to such a trashy bastard?” Ru Hiana repressed her annoyance and walked towards Hawa and Chi-Woo.
“Miss, are you all right?” Chi-Woo checked Hawa’s puffy cheek and stared at where Giant Fist had headed off towards. It would be a lie if Chi-Woo said he wasn’t disappointed. He hadn’t expected Giant Fist to be a person like this at all. “Would you be able to stand up? Please grab my hand.”
Hawa nodded silently. As soon as she got up with Chi-Woo’s help, her legs wavered, and she fell into his arms.
“Ah…!” Their faces got close, and Chi-Woo froze. Hawa’s small lips quickly moved. Chi-Woo paused, and Hawa quickly moved away. “I’m…sorry.” She quickly apologized while she struggled to gain stable footing. It seemed that she was still reeling from what had happened earlier.
“Are you okay? Does it hurt a lot? Ah, let me see your face. That rotten lizard bastard!” Ru Hiana carefully held Hawa’s face and angrily yelled.
“…”
Chi-Woo stared silently at Hawa.