Chapter 13 - 13. First Offerings

Luckily Agatha had already done something that could help them with that.

Ogar and the newcomers had no idea what had happened last night. Well, several of the residents themselves still couldn't believe what had happened.

However, it was a fact that something divine had helped them with the nobleman (pig) and his keychains (bastards), and at least 4 people (who without knowing the number was already growing) also suspected that whoever or whatever had helped with this also eliminated the goblin during the night.

Just because of what happened to the nobleman would be enough to revere that, and that was exactly what several villagers did with the help of Sofi and Agatha, several villagers made a small stone temple in gratitude to whoever had acted yesterday.

It was a very simple construction, some smooth stones overlapped tightly with an adhesive mixture of herbs and tree sap.

Agatha was responsible for the appearance of the structure, Sofi provided the materials and some villagers built the small building that barely reached a meter in the village square, where birthdays, births and rare festivities were usually celebrated.

This little project was done very quickly in less than 30 minutes, after they went to see the plantation. As rudimentary as it was, it was still an altar for worship, and one of the things that was done at altars was to leave offerings, which was exactly what they intended to do, both to give thanks for the night spent and to ask for help with what was to come.

It may be their presumption, but Gerard, Sofi, Agatha, Ivan and Hannah firmly believed that the being who had helped before would help again, nothing more fair than offering a few words of gratitude and, if possible, something more physical.

Gertrude still didn't know everything that had happened during the night, due to her age she had become very susceptible to illnesses and had been in bed for the last 3 days with her husband with her, especially last night.

She knew that some noble and some of his servants had appeared and caused confusion but were detained somehow, what or who had detained them, how and what had been done to them, she and her husband no longer knew.

And frankly they didn't care, one thing they had seen often thanks to ages was nobles abusing their power even with the world in the state it was in, so even if some noble disappeared or died she wouldn't care, she might as well wishing he really died, for everything that concerned him.

"Ivan do you have any idea what to do?"

"Some, but I think the best option would be for me to give most of the game I have saved to our friends here, but my most recent and best quality game we will use as an offering on the altar."

"Offering? Altar?"

Ogar didn't understand what they meant by that, offering for whom? Altar? Since when did the village have an altar, and for whom, almost no Gods were actually worshiped these days, except perhaps the death gods of the dark realm who allowed a smooth passage into the afterlife.

But the actual worship of deities was not something that was carried out much nowadays, except for the Theological Nation of Naúrin, but their forces were more focused on internal maintenance and stabilization of the barrier that prevented Corruption from spreading even further, therefore they did not have effective personnel to spread their beliefs, even more so in more remote places like the village or village.

For the people of these places, waiting for something to happen is useless, so faith in Naúrin was not practiced throughout the region. Which made Ogar's confusion quite justified, he just hoped that the villagers hadn't turned to some evil deity that had become strangely common lately, as he had heard from some travelers.

"Honestly, we're also unsure of his nature, but at the very least he doesn't seem to intend to cause harm to us."

Gerard said when he saw the look on his old acquaintance's face.

Which didn't do much to alleviate Ogar's concern, but knowing Gerard and the people in the village he knew that at the very least they didn't intend to get fat and then sacrificed or anything like that.

 

 

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Shortly afterwards a veritable crowd gathered in the square, most of it obviously consisting of newcomers who had come for the food being distributed, it was basically stew with two pieces of stale bread, but as on the way to the village they barely had time to eat anything other than of perhaps a couple of pieces of beef jerky and water, just experiencing the heat of something hot and filling the belly was already a huge satisfaction for everyone.

However, there was a small group, perhaps with a maximum of 20 or 30 people, who were not even helping with the food or eating, they were in front of a small building that the newcomers only noticed now.

It looked like a small tower with an ugly triangle at the tip with 3 elongated stones. Several of the older ones had already been to the village a few times in their lives but were sure they had never seen it before. But some could guess a little about what it was and what its purpose was, even though why they built it still didn't make sense.

The resident villagers didn't care much about the newcomers' reaction, everyone was more focused on what was about to happen.

Right in front of the newly constructed altar, Ivan had just placed his most recent and difficult hunt, an entire adult wild boar, which he had obtained using only his dagger.

He cleaned the boar as best he could with the help of Hunson the village butcher, the boar's carcass was as clean as possible, no blood, no guts or dirt of any kind (A/N: included on the back if it is who understand me).

No one there knew very well how an offering should be given to a deity but they were sure that something with a rotten smell would hardly be accepted. Or if anything would actually be accepted, but if not, they could still enjoy some of the boar, which some people were secretly hoping would happen.

With the boar duly placed at the foot of the altar, Hannah, who was voted as "mediator" of the situation, after having been one of the only ones who acted against the nobleman and his knights besides Matt who was unable, stood in front of everyone in a small platform (it was actually just a box).

"My friends, thank you all for coming. Many of you know why we are here, for those who don't know, I will explain as quickly and succinctly as possible." Hannah then explained what had happened to the newcomers who were paying attention with the wooden bowls with the stew in their hands (yes, several had brought bowls with the things they managed to grab before running away).

"And so, now we will try to apologize for our boldness yesterday. We just asked without offering anything in return. Now we offer this boar as thanks for the help given to us, as an apology for not having said thanks before and as a proof that we believe in its existence." She concluded with as much conviction as she could muster.

For the residents, Hannah's performance was admirable and inspiring, although it did not have as much effect on the newcomers. They were impressed by the passion and detail in which Hannah told the story, but to them it seemed like just that, a story.

They saw nothing remotely divine helping them when a band of goblins invaded their homes and killed their friends and acquaintances, not to mention those who had the horrible experience of seeing them devour some of the corpses right in the middle of the battlefield as they fled.

So for them, everything Hannah said seemed like another story to cheer up the spirits of the newcomers, and this ceremony was just a more theatrical way of offering a whole boar to those who couldn't escape.

Touching but many also considered it useless, some even wondered if they should tell them to forget about this nonsense and roast the boar once and for all, but they were not tactless in that regard.

However, all these thoughts exploded into nothingness as the boar was enveloped in a white light and disappeared right before their eyes.