Published: September 10, 2025
Mr. Satou here. When we talk about cities, the cliché “concrete jungle” often comes up, but lately it feels like the urban center is becoming greener than the countryside. In half-hearted rural areas, it’s more of a mottled gray and navy.
â—‡
“The Seal of Tenion, huh? Very well, you may pass.”
“May the god’s blessing be upon the gatekeeper.”
“Yes, blessings.”
The gatekeeper in dull gray, looking rather unmotivated, made a slight hand gesture shaped like the holy seal and let us through the city gate.
He was among the better ones; the other guards seemed to be engrossed in a dice game beside the guardhouse.
“They’re quite an unserious bunch of guards, aren’t they?”
“Indeed—Liza, you don’t have to be so tense.”
I answered Sera while warning Liza, who was intimidating the surroundings with her sharp gaze.
Today, all three of us wore disguise masks, so unless someone possessed the original Yamato Stone or appraisal skill at Arisa level, they wouldn’t be able to see through our disguises.
There were few people on the street; everyone wore gray clothes and walked with their backs hunched.
There were shops, but their shelves were sparse and customers few. Judging from the exchange between shopkeepers and customers, it seemed paper currency was used in this city.
A quick check of the map showed that at the center of the city, there were seven huge temples enshrining gods except the demon god and the dragon god. Confirmed through distant vision magic, all seemed under construction.
“Are those altars too?”
“Yes, Liza. It looks like each of the seven altars bears the holy seal of different gods.”
I shifted my gaze to the altars Liza and Sera were discussing.
At every street corner, there were small altars resembling Jizo statues. Instead of idols, blue stones engraved with holy seals were placed.
The order of the altars seemed fixed, starting with the unfamiliar Heralon God and ending with God Parion.
From materials I studied recently at the Parion Temple in the Duke’s Capital—
“The chief of the gods,” God Heralon.
“Struggle and victory,” God Galleon.
“Judgment and condemnation,” God Urion.
“Wisdom,” God Carion.
“Passion and change,” God Zaikuon.
“Healing and love,” God Tenion.
“Infants and justice,” God Parion.
—that’s how it was written.
Of course, descriptions of what each god governs have changed over time, and the gods themselves do not explicitly declare, “I am the god of such and such.”
Anyway, setting that aside, on the way to the central great temple, we heard calls for help from a small temple—
“Please, priest! Have mercy on the Healing Garden!”
“I told you before. All we can do is pray to the gods. We cannot use spells to heal the epidemic.”
This was a common exchange back in the Shiga Kingdom, but checking the map revealed a different situation here.
Despite the many priests in this city, their levels were low. Except for a few at the central temple, all were below level 10.
At this rate, they couldn’t use mid-level holy magic like “Remove Disease” or advanced holy magic like “Plague Purification (Purification Virus).”
“Mr. Satou.”
“Wait a moment.”
I stopped Sera, who seemed eager to help, and rechecked the situation on the map.
It appeared the epidemic was spreading in the city, but the rulers understood the importance of quarantining carriers, so except for a few, the patients were gathered in one district.
Looking up the disease name from the map in our stored books, it was a fatal illness but with a short incubation period, so a pandemic was unlikely.
“Confirmed. It seems to be an epidemic type that can be healed by Sera’s holy magic.”
I informed them and cast a spacesuit (astro suit) spell on my companions to prevent infection.
“Shall we go then?”
“Yes, Mr. Satou!”
We headed to the small temple with Sera leading.
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“The priest has arrived!”
The Healing Garden, where the man who petitioned us led us, was surprisingly hygienic.
“Priest, please change into the purification clothes in this changing room. We prepared new quarantine cloth, so please rest assured.”