“C-cough! Ahem! Why…… whyyy?”
“Damn it, you scared the hell out of me! I thought your nose was bleeding again!”
“Wh-why would you collect something like thaaat?!”
“……? Just because?”
“Just becaaause? Are you insa— No. I-I mean, I’m suddenly really curious? Why……? What, don’t tell me. You’re going to ask them to resurrect somebody? Hah! What do you think Constellations are, gods?”
“Aren’t they gods?”
“……Well, yes, but.”
“Anyway, no. It’s not that.”
Of course, it would be nice if they could bring them back……
Salva clicked his tongue calmly.
“If they’re dead, they’re dead. Why bring them back? If you force yourself against the current, eventually you reach waters you can’t swim out of. That’s common sense for anyone who lives by the sea.”
“…….”
“More than that, I just…… Well, I’d ask them to scold someone.”
“Scold?”
“They say they’re of a higher order than Father, the evil god on our side. You’ve been here a few days too, so you know. You’ve seen how much of a mess this world is.”
Feeling the sea wind, Salva leaned his upper body far over the railing.
Sunset.
The red light seeping across the black seawater looked like blood.
A place where priests serving a god led the spread of slavery, and where everyone, desperate not to become a slave themselves, willingly put on a yoke so they could enslave someone else first.
A pyramid of…