In the following days, Zeus began to interact and chat with Yae Sakura in various ways. Although it was mostly Zeus talking and Yae Sakura listening, this was still a slight improvement over her trying to hide when she first met Zeus. By the time their relationship was no longer so stiff, more than ten days had passed. Rin's Stigmata had been purified. Just as Zeus was about to tell Sakura about this, something suddenly piqued Zeus's curiosity.
"Why? I don't see any signs of people active in the village."
Zeus asked Sakura curiously. These days, she had only been focused on communicating with and guiding this lonely girl in front of her, completely neglecting to consider that while the village had only a few dozen houses, there wasn't a single villager coming to the shrine to worship or pray for blessings. Originally, Zeus hadn't paid attention, nor had she used her divine sense to 'scan' the area.
But when things were almost complete, this anomaly suddenly piqued Zeus's curiosity.
"Because they all died and are buried under that cherry blossom tree."
She didn't refuse to answer, but Sakura still paused for a moment before pointing to the very large cherry blossom tree next to the shrine. This made Zeus understand why there was so much resentment, and everything made sense. Knowing the reason, Zeus didn't intend to ask further, because this kind of thing was clearly a knot in Sakura's heart. If she delved deeper, it would definitely cause resentment. Zeus wouldn't do something that would lower her favorability.
After all, this wasn't a game where a flick of a finger would make favorability skyrocket.
"Aren't you curious how they died?"
Zeus's lack of inquiry surprised Sakura a little. After all, from their interactions these past few days, Sakura felt that Zeus was the kind of person who wouldn't rest until her curiosity was satisfied, so this left Sakura, who had prepared her speech, a little down.
"People are dead, dust to dust, no need to dwell on their cause of death, nor am I interested in knowing."
Regarding this matter, Zeus maintained a calm attitude and also knew that these 'superstitious' villagers deserved to die. To actually use a girl's life to sacrifice to a god, wasn't this an insult to the gods? What kind of evil god was this! Although Zeus liked ethnic characteristics, she deeply hated 'superstition.' For example, in her previous life, 'Falun Gong' and so on, created one human tragedy after another, which was truly chilling. Therefore, Zeus had no pity for the deaths of these 'superstitious' villagers.
Saying this, Zeus 'drank' a sip of tea. In order not to let Yae Sakura feel that she was not human at all… Ahem! Why did it feel like she was scolding herself? To prevent Sakura from realizing she had no body, Zeus still imitated the state of having a body, continuing to eat and drink. Of course, she wasn't really eating, otherwise it would just spill on the floor. Zeus created a small space in her mouth, poured the food in, and after 'eating,' she would find a corner to dump it. Although it was a bit wasteful of food, there was no other way!
"Oh…"
Sakura, who was already a woman of few words, was completely speechless now. She didn't know what to say, so she just stopped talking.
"Sakura, do you know Rin?"
"Whoosh~…"
When Zeus uttered this name, Sakura reacted quite violently, directly drawing her sword and pointing it at Zeus. If Zeus didn't explain herself, she would probably swing the sword at Zeus's neck in the next second.
Facing such an agitated Sakura, Zeus remained calm. Any physical attack had no effect on her now. If she chickened out at this moment, Zeus could just self-destruct again.
"Wh-why do you know that name? Why, answer me."
Her silver teeth gnashed audibly in her mouth. She was now looking at Zeus with vigilant eyes. Zeus's appearance, in her eyes, was becoming increasingly mysterious. The familiarity of these past few days now felt even stranger.
"Don't be nervous, Sakura. Do you believe there are souls in this world?"
Zeus didn't mind Sakura's rudeness and smiled as she spoke to Sakura.
"I… do."
After a moment of hesitation, Sakura sheathed her sword and sat (knelt) back in her original spot, speaking solemnly to Zeus.
"I have a way to let you see Rin's soul. Do you trust me?"
Saying this, Zeus took out Rin's Stigmata. Seeing the three sakura-like Stigmata in Zeus's hand, Sakura could feel a familiar sensation from them. After a moment of silence regarding Zeus's words, she firmly raised her head and looked at Zeus.
At the same time, Gaia in the heavens began searching for 'mysterious tools' in the treasure vault. But when she saw the treasure vault, half-emptied, she was instantly dumbfounded.
"This isn't a robbery, is it? Which fellow dared to steal from me?" (Athena: Achoo!)
"This is a bit troublesome now."
Gaia looked at the few remaining divine artifacts and some miscellaneous items with a headache. These all made Gaia feel a deep sense of powerlessness. If possible, she wanted to catch the 'thief' right now and lock him in a dark room, but her most urgent task now was to find Zeus.
"Don't let me catch who it was, or I'll lock you in a dark room for hundreds of millions of years."
Thinking this, Gaia turned and left. She was going to the World Tree to see if she could find any traces of Zeus. This was a task that even conceptual gods found very troublesome, and it also took a long time, but when there was no other way, this was the best method.
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