In a World without God

Chapter 55

"Leaf! Leaf!"

The masked woman said in a squeaky voice. Regardless, Leaf was playing with the dragon's skull, flipping and twirling it.

"It would have been nice to have a couple more horns on this thing," she mused.

"Leaf, you say he's a loyal follower of Lutea's will, but why would he kill a child? Why would a man who believes in Lutea do such a thing? It doesn't make sense, does it?" Kashti questioned.

"Maybe he used to, but now he doesn't. The human heart is always changing, isn't it?"

"Are you kidding me? What if we lose a shard?"

"Ah...this is so annoying."

Leaf's mouth twisted in displeasure. Even though she was wearing a veil, she could tell she wasn't happy. The woman shouted at her.

"Leaf. You're to blame! You gave me the wrong information. That Edulis guy, he's not even a Lutean, he's a murderer!"

"I don't care if I'm responsible or not...don't you have confidence? I thought you said it was an elaborate, meticulous plan?"

"Who would've thought there'd be a guy who'd go around killing all those kids? His humanity is the problem, even we don't like massacres...."

"Well, if you didn't expect that, then it wasn't a very well-thought-out plan."

"Leaf, are you going to keep talking about it like it's somebody else's problem? A shard is at stake here!"

Leaf ignored the comment and yawned.

"That guy.. he wouldn't go around digging up graves, would he? He's a Lutean, after all, and humans consider desecrating graves to be the most blasphemous of all." Kashti pondered.

"Ha." She's boring, Leaf thought and stood up from her seat.

***

Parents love their children. Every time he heard that, Bosha thought, "Is that really true? Is it so universally true that it is considered to be a law? If so, why was he abandoned in the Barus Swamp?

As the children played in the dirt, Edulis killed them all, silencing their laughter from five of the seventeen islands of the Agade region. Hearing the death throes of the children, the adults ran out, saw Edulys covered in blood, and screamed.

"A murderer! A young murderer has killed our child!"

"Oh... Marcille... my baby.... To die like this......."

"Hide the children! Urukagina, please curse this man!"

A question blossomed in Edulis' mind: were they really crying, and was it really out of love for their child?

"You bastard, you who took my child's life, I will surely chew your liver out!"

The men came out with flails, sickles, and scythes and swung them at Edulis. Edulis dodged them with ease, then smashed the gate of a nearby house.

"Aaah!"

The child hiding inside the house cried. Behind the child lay a red stone. Edulis immediately lunged at it and plunged his sword into the child's chest. Then he struck the red stone with his sword, shattering it.

"Oh, no! Lucy!" A woman, presumably the child's mother, cried out. In response, Edulis broke down the doors of every house on the island. He broke them down, found the child hiding, and slit their throats. He smashed every red stone in sight.

"Aaaaah... Lord Urukagina..."

Urukagina. Everyone screamed that name. The Urukagina faith is indigenous to the Agade region. Instead of Lutea, the people of Agade worship a saint named Urukagina. Due to the geography of the islands, which are surrounded by salt water, it has long been difficult to find drinking water, but one day a saint named Urukagina came to the island and cast a spell, and clear, freshwater began to gush from all 17 islands.