Saintess Summons Skeletons-Chapter 777 - Jackpot?
Entering the temple district, Sofia and Speed walked past a procession of lumber-carrying Kidjikkiks, which Speed observed with curiosity.
Sofia expected a question about necromancy but the words that came out of Speed’s mouth next surprised her.
“Why a city, by the way? Can I ask? Is it just like… For the essences?”
“It’s uh… How do I put it… Of course the bargaining power to get a few essences is nice. Other than that, there are plenty of good reasons, the city is going to benefit me in many ways… But that’s not really the main point. I kinda wanted… A place to call home. I guess.”
“Didn’t you hint at a place in the Margin last time?”
“Yeah… I- I do have that, it’s not the same, though. It doesn’t feel like a home, more like… More like… A base of operations? A hidden military outpost? When it comes to a real home home, I don’t think I’ve really had that, ever. You know, a place that you’ve bonded with, that you feel safe in, that you long to return to? That’s what people seem to think about when they talk about their home. Can’t say I relate very much,” Sofia explained, gazing at the moon above as she walked.
Speed was silent for a while. “Hmmm… I think I get it,” he finally said, “But you could have just bought a home, no? Or built one, without needing an entire huge city, right?”
Sofia laughed lightly, “I am nothing if not ambitious. Why settle for a house or even a castle when I can have an entire miniature country? I blame the beastmen continent for giving me the idea!”
It was Speed’s turn to laugh, “I do know the beastmen city-states are all ruled by several major families, right? Not just one girl and a skeleton.”
“Hah, they’re just not ambitious enough! Besides it’s not just Pareth and me, I’ve got a lot of people helping already, and the best part? I’m not paying a single one of them, they all do it for free!”
“Hmmhmm. For free… Are you sure they’re not just repaying favors, like say, free temples?”
Sofia shrugged, “They all have their own reason, so want to repay debts, some want to curry favor, some genuinely just want to help or to be part of a thing larger than themself. Doesn’t matter, I’m not forcing anyone.” While she was sincere, her tone carried a hint of mischief.
“... The more I think about it the more I’m skeptical about this temple idea…” Speed noted with narrowed eyes, “What’s the catch, really? Hoping to get free mail service? You do realize that if we were to get together I wouldn’t make you pay for that anyway, right?”
Having just reached the center of the temple district, Sofia stepped ahead of Speed, facing him with a turn of her heels. “Well well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves! Besides, who do you take me for? There’s no catch at all! Look, I even reserved you a spot already!” Sofia said, pointing at an empty lot next to a large building still in early construction.
Speed looked at the building in question, and more specifically, the divine rune engraved all over the large pile of stone blocks piled up on the side of the construction site.
Love’s rune.
“No catch at all…” Speed repeated.
“It’s in the district’s central plaza and all, prime real estate, I tell you!”
“Somehow, I have a suspicion, you know, a tiiiiiny little feeling, that this temple maybe isn’t actually going to help me much, I don’t know why, strange.”
“Eheh, I might be playing it up a bit,” Sofia admitted, “but I am being serious, actually,” she told Speed, nodding to herself. “I mean, I get the Kleptran factor in this equation, but Zoth is, uh… Pretty nice, actually? From what I’ve seen, at least. And consider, look, I’m building Sorrow’s temple right next to it on the other side, too. I wouldn’t be doing that if I thought it really was a liability.”
“You have a point. And free is free.”
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“Free is free! Plus it’ll be your temple so you can use it however you want. Could make it an art gallery with your paintings,” Sofia suggested.
Speed raised an eyebrow. “Can it really be called a temple then?”
“Sun built a space research laboratory around the sun and called it a temple so… I think the standards are pretty relaxed?”
“...”
“Anyway, that settles it! Want to come have a look at Sorrow’s temple? The surface floor is almost done. I sculpted all the statues inside myself.”
“I would love to see them.”
After a quick tour of the still mostly empty temple, Speed carried Sofia all the way to a long corridor, somewhere else. Because light was so distorted on the way, she had absolutely no idea where she was, just that she could tell her connection to Pareth was so distant it pointed toward the ground at an angle.
“Andarian city?” Sofia asked, looking around. The corridor was rather simple, with off-white stone walls and varnished wooden floor and ceiling tiles, and warmly decorated with a long soft green carpet, a few flower vases, and square paintings lining the wall. With no windows, the light came from tiny lightstone wall lamps every few meters.
Speed nodded, “Water’s temple, to be exact.”
“Your paintings?”
“Yes.”
Sofia curiously observed the paintings one after the other. They were all similar, portraits of people framed the same way, with no visible pattern between the people selected other than them all looking serene or happy. They were painted with large brush strokes in soft colors that somehow still showed a lot of details, all in front of monochrome backgrounds.
Stopping in front of the painting of a human man, she stared at it for a while.
Speed walked up to her, “Do you not like this one?”
That pulled Sofia out of her daze. She shook her head, “No, it’s gorgeous, they all are, really.”
“I’m flattered… What is it about that one, then?”
“It just… Reminds me of someone. It’s not the same person, clearly, but… Actually I can show you, is it an issue for you to enter the Margin?”
“Hmm? I have no way to get there, but I should be able to stay for a bit before my essence pulls me back out.”
Sofia nodded, “We won’t need long, I just want to show you a bone statue I made. Coming?”
“Sure, how do we get there?”
“Just hold my hand for a bit,” Sofia said, extending her left hand.
Speed hesitated for a second before grabbing her hand. He felt a bit silly considering he had just princess carried her through over half the planet, but it still felt different.
Concentric mana circles appeared above their heads, and Speed entered Zangdar for the first time. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
Taking a few steps away, Speed looked around, genuinely curious about this strange place, “Your ‘military outpost’?”
“Yeah. Alith and Saria have the two other keys, so it’s basically our shared space. But it’s often empty, like right now.”
“Empty? I feel a presence here, though? Giving me some slivers of essence, even.”
“Really? There’s only one other… Well, I’ll show you the sculpture after, then, come.”
Sofia grabbed his hand again and pulled Speed all the way to the other side of the castle, where a Dryad was sleeping in a forest of bone trees, now all covered in blood-red leaves and vines.
“This is Rem,” Sofia said, “My… adoptive daughter, of sorts. It’s complicated.”
“A dryad?”
“Yes. I just happened to find a Dryad egg, things happened. Now she’s here. I hope you don’t mind me not mentioning that earlier…”
“Well, not really? It’s still just our second date so you can hardly not call that early. I don’t mind. But… I’ve met Dryads before… They’re not… The most affectionate beings…”
“Rem is not like that!” Sofia defended, “She’s cute and nice. Never attacked anyone. In fact she spends 99% of her time sleeping here and on the rare occasions that she wakes up, the only thing she wants to do is hug people…”
“I suppose she is cute?” Speed agreed. “Hmm… She looks a bit like you, actually.”
Sofia turned away, feeling her cheeks turn red, “A-Anyway, she’s very affectionate. And if I believe the system she should be able to learn to talk and get a scribe of her own. She just needs to stop being so sleepy.”
Speed silently observed the sleeping dryad amidst the glowing trees. He had to admit, it painted a beautiful scene that made his fingers subconsciously reach for a brush that wasn’t there. Faceless, just like him.
“Must just be the essence…” he muttered.
Sofia had gone over to Rem to check on her, gently adjusting the dryad’s sleeping posture so that her weirdly both hard and soft wooden limbs wouldn’t get bent. Speed couldn’t get his eyes off of them, lost in thoughts.
