Chapter 503

Chapter 503

“No. Nope. Absolutely not.”

The second Ben walked through the gate and got a look at the city beyond, he was already turning around to go back, thinking of how he’d apologize to Nare for not being able to meet his request but placing his life above any promise. The only thing that kept him from his escape was Thera’s grasp on his arm.

“Come on, it’s a bit hot but it’s not that bad.”

“A bit hot? Thera, look at that! Some idiot built a city beside an active volcano! I see smoke and fire, I’m pretty sure everyone should be evacuating!”

“Nobody’s evacuating because it’s perfectly safe. What has you so scared?”

“My intense urge to not die?”

“Then everything’s fine. I’ve heard about this place, a lot of fire and earth elementals and fairies live here and they keep the volcano in check so the climate is better for certain races. Why don’t you know this?”

“I haven’t read any geography books and apparently neither god thought it was important enough to bring up,” He spoke accusingly to the heavens, not getting any reply. If he ignored the volcano there was nothing wrong with the city. It was hot like Thera said, but his heavily enchanted jacket made that a bit easier to deal with and everything was constructed in a way to help with airflow, meaning the buildings themselves wouldn’t be ovens, but that was just it. He couldn’t make himself ignore the presence of the giant volcano looming overhead with wisps of smoke making it to the skies and the glow of lava lighting up cracks and crevices. He was sure it was the sort of thing that would look beautiful at night, but in the moment it only looked like impending doom.

God, if I die from an eruption I’m going to be pissed. That would suck so much.

Still, Thera seemed thrilled by the location with how different it was from anywhere else they’d been and it really was late to be cancelling, even if he did feel like he was led there without being fully informed of what that meant, so he tried to suppress his desire to flee as they continued down the streets, taking in the various other sights that didn’t speak of a future fiery death.

It seemed that Nare’s people were at least a group he recognized, the ignisia, who fit into the common hominid body type, with the biggest distinctions to set them apart from his own kind being their sold black eyes and bony exoskeleton along their hands and forearms, with that pale outer shell able to retract and extend across their hands depending on if they needed to protect their more delicate inner flesh from whatever they might face or something that would require a finer sense of touch.

It wasn’t hard to find Nare’s granddaughter’s residence, it was as huge as one would expect for anyone with god-blood running through their veins, and the craftsmen and architects who’d built it had made sure to put their full efforts on display to avoid giving any shame to the one they worshiped.

Filled with columns and swooping arches, statues and decals of all sorts, it couldn’t help but be visually stunning, a testament to the shared will of the people who put it together.

I wonder if Falk helped with any part of it, he worships Nare so it would make sense.

...Wait, does he worship Nare? I know Nare’s the one who told Myriad to send me his way but it might just be something he learned about since it seems like the crafting gods talk. Maybe something to ask later.

He didn’t have a set time to get there that day but didn’t want to be too late, so he put off admiring the structure for another time and instead the two of them made their way to the front gate, introducing himself as the apostle of Myriad and proving it by showing his card before the two of them were led inside, passing gardens at the front and going through great halls to end up at what could best be described as a workshop, or maybe a hobby room with all it contained.

It was neater than the shop, that much was certain, with different areas looking like they were divided up to let the one it was built for focus on the different aspects of her crafting skill, with tools of all sorts lining the walls and storage areas for different materials.

Seeing it brought a single word to Ben’s mind, fun, but he told himself he’d admire it more later, instead giving the three who had been working in the room before he showed up his most winning smile before lightly bowing and speaking up.

“Hi there, I’m Ben, the apostle of the god Myriad, and this is Thera. We’ll be here for a couple of weeks so I hope we can get along.”

He didn’t think he did anything wrong with his introduction at least, but his greeting was met with looks of disgust by the summoned individual of Yuzu’s race and the ignisia woman who had to be Nare’s granddaughter, while the last person who he couldn’t guess the identity of gave a low mutter.

“It really is the mad apostle.”

Okay, this seems like it might be slightly less fun than I was expecting.