Goddess Kaleidoscope

"She doesn't seem to be feeling well, is she sick?"

"Ah...it's alright. The child is young and caught a bit of a cold on the way here, so please don't worry about him."

Seeing the blacksmith instinctively shield the child behind him, seemingly wary of him, Lu De couldn't help but think to himself, "I'm not one of those philanderers, what are you so afraid of?"

"Don't misunderstand, I am a priest, and I also know herbalism in addition to divine magic. The goddess I worship is the goddess of medicine, and as her believer, I cannot turn a blind eye to those who are suffering from illness."

Despite Lud's repeated persuasion, Bank refused to let him treat his daughter Nina. It wasn't until Lud said he wouldn't charge money and could put in a good word for him with the village chief to get him to take better care of the refugees that Bank reluctantly agreed, though he still seemed unwilling.

The little girl Nina was timid and seemed a bit afraid of strangers, always hiding behind her father Bank. Fortunately, Ludd's current old man appearance was based on the image of the famous "melee mage" Gandalf, and he had a kind face and a very approachable smile.

Lude first checked the child's temperature by touching the back of his hand to his forehead, then examined his pupils and tongue coating. His initial assessment was that it was a common cold, and the symptoms weren't too severe. However, the child's lung function seemed a bit off; he wasn't breathing smoothly and had a fairly strong cough.

According to Bank, the little one had been feeling unwell for almost five days. No one else in the group had similar symptoms, but her lungs had been weak since she was little, so it was a chronic problem.

So Lu De first reassured the blacksmith, telling him that his daughter Nina's illness was not serious, and that he would go back and get her some medicine, and that she should remember to take it on time.

Lude then approached the village chief, who was pondering where to build the blacksmith shop, and expressed his concern that these migrants might bring evil spirits that could cause disease to the village. He hoped that a "demon-exorcising" ritual could be performed on them first. The specific method involved giving the migrants a bath.

Can taking a bath ward off evil spirits?

"Yes! Bathing does indeed have the effect of exorcising evil spirits. You must know, brother, the evil spirits of disease love to target those who are physically weak, because these evil spirits, like villains among humans, also like to bully the weak and fear the strong. People who don't pay attention to hygiene, because their skin is covered with dirt, will have their vital energy masked, making the evil spirits mistakenly think they are physically weak, and thus possess them and cause trouble. These refugees are so dirty, and they have traveled such a long way, they may already be possessed by the evil spirits of disease. Exorcising them before those ghosts start causing trouble will benefit both them and the village. You must believe me, I am a priest!"

Luther's statement was reasonable, well-founded, and convincing!

He also reminded the village chief that it would be best to first arrange for these refugees to live collectively in the northwest corner of the village (downwind). This was because after the exorcism ritual, some of the evil spirits might not have been eliminated and might have left their hosts to escape. By having these refugees live in the northwest, it was hoped that the rising sun in the east would drive away these fleeing evil spirits, preventing them from remaining in the village and seeking out other people.

The village chief, persuaded on the spot, immediately ordered the villagers to boil water. The refugees were puzzled when they heard that the village was going to force them to take a bath as part of an exorcism ritual. But since they were living under someone else's roof and were waiting for the village's relief food, no one dared to object and simply accepted it as local custom.

End of this chapter

With the concerted efforts of almost the entire village of Songshu, they quickly boiled enough water to remove the hair from ten pigs. The refugees were then divided into groups according to age, gender, and physical condition and taken to different bathing areas.

The dirty clothes that these people changed out of were either burned because they were too tattered, or soaked in water basins so that the refugees could wash them themselves after they finished bathing.

In response, Songshu Village provided the displaced people with dozens of sets of clean clothes. Of course, these were not free, so an additional IOU was issued.

At first, the villagers weren't very willing to take care of these refugees. They provided them with bathwater and clean clothes, treating them like noblemen. Some even thought that since these outsiders were possessed by evil spirits, they should all be driven away, except for the blacksmith's family.

To these idle rumors, Ludwig simply threw out a single sentence.

"The goddess will not bless those heartless and cold-blooded people!"

After all that commotion, the previously weary refugees were completely transformed, so clean and tidy that they hardly recognized themselves. Then, Lud and Aina appeared, with Aina carrying a basin of water and Lud holding a freshly picked twig, sprinkling the water on the foreheads of the refugees.

May the goddess protect you, and may evil spirits be banished!

After the exorcism ritual was completed, the refugees finally settled down and enjoyed a long-awaited hot meal. Although they found the custom of bathing to exorcise evil spirits in Songshu Village strange, they felt quite good after the bath.

Meanwhile, among the long-time residents of the village, many who were interested overheard and took to heart Lu De's words about diseases and evil spirits spoken during the day.

Holding the simple belief that "believing in the priests is never wrong," and fearing they might be possessed by evil spirits, the villagers spontaneously changed some of their old habits. They would boil hot water to bathe every three to five days and pay attention to maintaining personal hygiene. This gradually became a local custom that has been passed down through generations.

Because they took in a group of refugees, the village's original plan to sell surplus grain for money was forced to be canceled. Fortunately, the village finally had a blacksmith, who promised to work for them for free for two years, which somewhat compensated for the villagers' disappointment.

In order to get blacksmith Bank working as soon as possible, village elder Rom and his sons quickly cleaned up the empty house next to the carpenter's house, preparing to convert it into a blacksmith shop.

Old Rom was a shrewd man with six sons and three daughters. To secure his family's power and status in Pine Village, he made appropriate arrangements for each of his sons and daughters. The eldest and second eldest sons stayed home to farm, the third and fourth were sent to serve as soldiers for the lord, the fifth son apprenticed with the village carpenter, and his daughters all married into wealthy families in the village. He only had one beloved youngest son left, who had just turned fourteen this year.

Old Rom originally planned to send the boy to study under Rudd so that he could become a high-ranking priest in the future, but Rudd had no plans to take on apprentices in the village in the short term, so now he was thinking of sending him to learn blacksmithing from Bank.

The blacksmith shop was quickly set up, the furnace was built, and the anvil and pig iron blocks were bought from town through a friend. Bank brought all the tools himself.

After everything was ready, the first task the village gave Bank was to make ten sickles, as a test to see how good his skills were.

As a result, Bank's skill amazed everyone in the village. He made molds, melted iron, cast it, and then repeatedly forged it. Ten sickles were made in just a few days, and the villagers tried them out and felt they were even better than the ones they bought from town.

With his genuine skill, Bank became incredibly popular in the village, and his status rose rapidly. But then Ludd began to feel curious about Bank; logically, with such excellent skills, there was no need for him to have traveled to the kingdom's borders. Ludd's intuition told him that this was a man with a story!

Taking advantage of the opportunity to examine Bank's daughter Nina, Lude spent a considerable amount of time with the taciturn blacksmith. His daughter's cold had indeed healed quickly, but the lung problem persisted, seemingly a hereditary condition that had caused Nina's weak constitution.

At first, Ludwig worried it might be contagious tuberculosis, but he later learned that the little girl had had it since childhood, living with her family and sharing meals and lodging, yet she had never infected her father or two brothers. Therefore, the possibility of tuberculosis was temporarily ruled out. Ludwig then regretted that in his previous life he had been a cop, not a real doctor, so he couldn't be sure what the disease was.

Every time Lud and Aina came over, they would see Bank forging iron. He would simply nod at Lud's arrival without any intention of exchanging words. However, his apprentice Buddy was a very talkative young man. He could often be seen walking around the village, helping his master deliver the farm tools he had made to various households.

However, according to Buddy himself, he had only been Bank's apprentice for a short time, less than a month.

Buddy was an orphan whose parents were killed by bandits. He escaped the massacre thanks to their protection and later joined Bank's group of refugees. He even recognized Bank as his mentor.

Buddy wasn't very clear about his master's past either. He only knew that Bank had once had a wife, but she later died of a serious illness. So Bank left the place of sorrow where he had once lived with his three children. These things weren't told to him by Bank himself, but rather by Buddy and his master's children during casual conversations.

That day, Ludwig came to the blacksmith's shop again, but this time not to see Nina. He wanted Bank to help him forge some metal parts. Thanks to his frequent visits, he had become familiar with Bank's family, but the lively and adorable Aina was clearly more popular with the children than the old man.

Especially Bank's apprentice Buddy, Ludd noticed that the boy seemed to have a crush on his nun. The two did appear to be around the same age at first glance; Buddy was seventeen, and Aina claimed to be sixteen—both in the bloom of youth, experiencing their first stirrings of love. And since this world didn't prohibit religious people from taking marriage leave, the young man was quite enthusiastic.

If it were any other village girl, given Badi's qualities, he would indeed have been easily won over. The young man was not only young, but also very strong and handsome. He was also a charming and promising blacksmith apprentice, so he had attracted the attention of many girls not long after arriving in the village.

Unfortunately, this silly boy chose the wrong target and set his sights on Aina, who seemed a bit silly. No matter how much he tried to win her over, Aina remained unmoved. The only thing on her pretty little head was what to eat for her next meal.

When Ludger arrived, he found that Elder Rom was also there. As soon as he entered the house, he heard Rom asking Bank a very unusual question.

"Bank, can you forge weapons?"

"Village chief, what do you need weapons for?"

Upon hearing the village chief's request, Bank looked puzzled, while Buddy and Lud, who had just entered the house, also stared at him with slight astonishment. Lud thought to himself that he had long heard of the fierce and unruly nature of the border people, but he never expected that the village chief, who usually appeared so upright and incorruptible, would actually have such wicked thoughts, wanting to lead the villagers to do some "side hustles" in the winter.

Seeing the various expressions on the faces of the people present, Old Rom knew that they must have misunderstood, so he quickly explained.

"No, it's not what you think. Here's what happened: I received a letter this morning from my third son. He's serving in the lord's army, and he said that a group of bandits has recently appeared in Earl Ramli's territory, taking advantage of the autumn harvest to rob various villages. Several villages have already been affected, so I thought I should prepare early. As you all know, although our village has a lot of people, none of us have proper weapons. If bandits really come, we can't rely on the lord's knights or the city guards; we'll have to rely on ourselves!"

Old Rom's meaning was simple: the location of Pine Village was good, with arable plains nearby and the confluence of two major rivers. The only problem was that it was too far from the town. It would take a day and a half to make a round trip by donkey. If bandits attacked, even if they lit a signal for help, the town's guards wouldn't be able to arrive in time, not to mention that they might not even come.

Therefore, with the intention of preparing for a rainy day, old Rom wanted to forge a batch of handy weapons in advance, preferably spears suitable for beginners and capable of forming formations. Bank only needed to forge the spear tips, and the clubs for the spear shafts could be made by the carpenter next door.

After listening to the village chief's explanation, Bank nodded, indicating that he could make spearheads and other conventional weapons as well. However, the problem was that he had almost used up all the iron ingots while helping the villagers make new farm tools, and the village's own iron mine had not yet been mined. Bank was indeed a blacksmith, but he couldn't conjure iron ingots out of thin air.

Old Rom immediately said that he would solve the problem of iron ingots. He would send someone to bring a cartload of grain to town to exchange for iron the next day, and they would be back the following night. Bank could use these two days to prepare the clay blanks for casting.

After giving his instructions, old Rom got up to go to the carpenter's house next door, while Buddy, who still had goods to deliver, also hurriedly went out. Suddenly, only Lud and Bank were left in the blacksmith's shop, and the atmosphere became somewhat awkward due to the sudden silence.

“Um, Mr. Bank, I’d like to ask you to help me build some things.”

As Ludd spoke, he pulled out several sheets of papyrus from his pocket and handed them over, on which were sketches of the parts he had drawn. Bank took them and glanced at them, his expression immediately becoming somewhat subtle.

"Your Excellency, what is this?"

"A mechanical device, I call it a pulley! How about it? Can you do it?"

"I can, but as you just heard, I have to help the village first..."

"Oh, I'm not in a hurry. You can help the village chief first."

"……OK then."

Bank put away the blueprints for the parts that Lud had given him and continued to work on his ironwork. Seeing this, Lud could only turn around and leave. As soon as he stepped out the door, he saw Aina running towards him from the village entrance, shouting excitedly as she ran.

"Master! Something terrible has happened!"

End of this chapter

Completely disregarding her goddess image and the gazes of others, Aina ran wildly to Lude, but ended up out of breath and unable to utter a complete sentence for a long time.

Seeing this, Lude told her not to rush and to wait until she caught her breath before speaking. But when she finally calmed down, her first words stunned Lude.

"Master, something terrible has happened! Our temple is haunted!"

"What's all the fuss about?"

"Haunted!"

"..."

Aina's words caused Lude to reveal a very subtle expression. Regardless of whether it was really haunted or not, even if there were ghosts, you are still a genuine goddess. You may be a little weak, but you shouldn't be scared like this by a ghost, right?

Since it was still unclear what had happened, and the two of them were currently in the village with many people around, Lud immediately pulled Aina along, saying that they had to get back to the temple first to talk.

But when Aina saw that Lude was going to take her back to the "haunted" temple, she stayed where she was and refused to leave, stubborn as a Shiba Inu throwing a tantrum.

With no other option, Lu De could only take her to the village's threshing ground, where there were usually few people at night, and ask her what had happened.

It turns out that the "ghosts" that Aina mentioned were some voices that suddenly appeared in her ears. Because she could only hear people talking, but could not see anyone around her, this useless goddess was quite frightened.

Lu De thought to himself that he had been living in that temple for at least half a year, and apart from the occasional movement of the cabinet blocking the underground door in the storage room, he had never encountered any other unusual supernatural events.

So Lude pressed for more details: what was she doing before and after the incident, and what did the unseen ghost whisper in her ear? Aina thought for a moment and then said.

"I was bored at the time, so I was catching and eating faith in the temple. Suddenly, I heard that voice. It sounded like an old woman asking me to bless her grandson with health and longevity. I didn't even know who that ghost was, so how could I bless her grandson?"

"..."

After listening to Aina's description of the events before and after the ghost incident, Lud had a vague idea of ​​what might have happened. To confirm his guess, Lud asked Aina to wait for him while he went for a walk around the village and quickly returned with some fresh "faith".

"Here, eat this first, then tell me, did the ghost that whispered in your ear appear? What did it say this time?"

Taking the faith offered by Lud, Aina swallowed it without a second thought, and then, just a few seconds later, her expression suddenly turned extremely shocked.

"A ghost! A ghost has appeared again!"

"Don't panic, listen to what the ghost has to say first."

"This time it was a little girl's voice. It sounded...it sounded a little familiar. She said her breasts were bigger than other children her age, which bothered her. She hoped I could help her make her breasts smaller, or at least not grow so fast."

"Hmm, did you hear it more clearly this time than before?"

"It seems... I really do understand it better now."

Under Lud's testing, Aina consumed three different faiths, each time hearing different voices, all of which pleaded with her for help. Lud also figured out that the voices Aina heard were not ghosts, but rather the prayers of believers.

Previously, Lud had taken a stroll through the village, found a few believers, and asked them if they had any wishes they wanted the goddess to grant. He then induced them to pray on the spot, and the resulting faith was captured by him on the spot.

This kind of faith born from prayer differs from ordinary faith born from heightened emotional fluctuations; it carries a message, conveying the prayer's wishes to the god they believe in. Perhaps Aina wasn't strong enough before to hear these prayers.

Like the first ball of faith that Aina just ate, the contributor was a little girl in the village named Nice. She was only thirteen years old this year, but unlike other children of the same age in the village, Nice's family raised sheep, so she often had sheep milk to drink, which gave her an advantage in physical development compared to other children, and almost all of it was concentrated in her chest area.

This bothered the little girl greatly because the other children in the village mocked her, calling her a "cow girl" or a "big-breasted monster," which made her feel very inferior. Lude could only say, "Kid, you're still young. In a few years, those brats who mocked you will be regretting it so much they'll be licking their boots!"

Having figured out what had happened, Aina finally felt relieved, while Lude felt it was a good omen, indicating that his goddess was indeed growing steadily and had begun to possess some extraordinary power.

The two then prepared to return to the temple, but they hadn't gone far when they ran into Buddy, the blacksmith's apprentice.