NOVPUB80: 9.
God of Hundred Forms
80: 9.
God of Hundred Forms
“Name?”
“…Lingna.”
“How old are you?”
Fisher, holding a scroll of manuscript paper, looked towards Lingna seated on the sofa, while Renie, quite amused, was peeling candy for her.
Initially, she suspected these humans wanted to poison her, but after she tasted one, she couldn’t stop; it seemed candy was a rarity where she lived.
She paused chewing the fruit for a moment and then looked away evasively,
“Eight…
eight years old.”
This vastly contradicted her previous claim of Endless Life, and probably even she knew the makeshift lie wouldn’t fool Fisher.
Earlier, Fisher had checked her body and found that the crab-like organs were intact, and the shell resembling a piece of jewelry was firmly attached to her back.
However, according to her, the shell was light, and she couldn’t feel its weight at all underwater.
After understanding some of her physiological data, Fisher was actually more curious about what the Ocean Subhuman settlements looked like.
Ocean Subhuman sightings were extremely rare from the human perspective.
While in Nali, he occasionally heard news from the coastal fishermen about sightings of sea monsters, mermaids, and the like, which drew a large crowd of reporters and newspapers to rush there by train.
However, the black and white photos they returned with only showed tranquil ocean surfaces accompanied by a bunch of various interviews and not a single substantial piece of evidence.
Now that he had finally encountered a real, speaking Ocean Subhuman, wouldn’t he gather some information?
While Fisher had no intention of taking her back to Nali—considering Nali’s current level of technology, not only could they not reach the Ocean Subhuman settlements, but even if they could, it would only repeat the incident of the South Continent.
This research was merely to satisfy Fisher’s own curiosity, and the records would not be made public.
Most importantly, Fisher wanted to learn about the Son of the Sea.
After all, among the four Doomsday Prophecies, the description of the Son of the Sea was the most vague and wrapped in mystery, seeming utterly clueless.
“So you are only eight years old?
No wonder you’re so adorable…”
Renie peeled another candy and fed it to her, puffing up her cheeks.
Before she finished, she opened her mouth to signal Renie to keep feeding her, mouth stuffed too full to answer Fisher’s questions.
Fisher’s fingers tapped on the desk, giving Renie an unforgiving glance as if blaming her for interrupting his research, causing Renie to turn an innocent gaze towards him,
“Renie…”
“Alright, alright…
But Fisher, I really love children, you know.
If it were our child, it would definitely be even cuter than this one~”
She emphasized the “our” with a slight stress in her speech, her eyes, starry like the night sky, swept towards Fisher, as if trying to stir a certain desire within him.
Wasn’t such a young girl’s request for an adorable child something you couldn’t possibly deny?
Fisher glanced at her expectant look; at that moment, Renie was like a wife you’ve been deeply in love with for many years, longing for a love child with you, that single look making it impossible for you to refuse, filled with the desire to create life right there and then.
But it was all just Renie’s ruse, and Fisher was more aware of it than anyone.
Thus, with difficulty, he diverted his gaze, prioritizing the desire for knowledge over the desire for reproduction, and continued questioning Lingna,
“Why did you come here to steal?
Is your home close by?”
He didn’t directly ask about the situation in her Ocean Subhuman tribe, fearing that the direct question would provoke her defenses, leading her to give false or incomplete information.
Yet, it seemed that Lingna was just a younger member of her race; this one question opened up a floodgate of words,
“I didn’t steal anything!
I just, just wanted to see what was above us!
But there was nothing there, I heard from the old people in the city that there are many, many creatures above that look like us, like Humans and Sea Demons.
I was nearly hit by one of your big machines!
I wanted to go up and have it out, but then I saw a shiny gemstone necklace, and I just wanted to borrow it to have a look!”
Lingna was stubborn as a mule in denying the act of theft, insisting it was only to borrow and take a look, but how exactly she planned to return it remained to be determined.
“So what’s this royal family you mentioned before?
Are there demi-humans who are of a higher rank than yours?”
Since there were royalties, the social structure there must have already been relatively stable, at least forming a society similar to that of humans.
Moreover, according to Lingna, it was very far from where she lived to the surface of the water; she swam for half a day before she could barely see the sunlight above.
Fisher speculated that the settlement of the demi-humans must be on the sea floor of the Southern Ocean, but he couldn’t calculate how deep specifically.
According to the study of the physical structure of this Crab-man, her resistance to water pressure was beyond Fisher’s imagination, and she also had the structure to react quickly to changes in pressure; otherwise, she couldn’t possibly stay unharmed on the surface of the water.
Although the overall appearance was somewhat strange, all the biological traits seemed to be perfectly utilized in reality, almost like some unspeakable Creation of God, which made Fisher marvel at the power of nature.
“Oh, that bunch of people…” Speaking of the royal family that Fisher mentioned, Lingna touched her head somewhat embarrassingly and said in a low voice, “Actually, I have never seen them either.
They stay in a sea trench far, far away from us.
My dad said the royal family is very conservative and won’t easily leave that sea trench.
Plus, that trench is so dark I’m afraid to go there.
Ordinary people would get crushed if they went further down, only the royal family can come and go there freely…”
“I see…”
Fisher wrote down the word “royal family” on paper, as for the Ocean Subhuman race, the royal family seemed to be an extremely special existence.
According to Lingna’s family, the Ocean’s royal family was unique, all pointing to the race living under the giant sea trench.
Fisher drained all the remaining knowledge out of Lingna’s little head.
He even knew about the time the kids in her settlement rode fishes and dragged her around everywhere, all thanks to Renie’s excellent candy pouring technique, which made her unconsciously spill out a bunch of things.
“You’re not lying, are you?”
After recording this information, Fisher looked at Lingna, whose cheeks were puffed up, causing her to panic and raise her claws, innocently calling out,
“I swear by the name of the faith in Ramasitia!
I’m not lying, otherwise, I’ll…
I’ll vomit out all this tasty food I’ve eaten!”
As she spoke, as if to prove the cruelty of her oath, she hurriedly swallowed down the tasty candies in her mouth!
“Ramasitia…
What is that?”
Fisher astutely caught the strange word that came out of her mouth.
The word she uttered was very peculiar since she had just consumed the strange translation liquid, Fisher heard her voice as a stream of consciousness translation, only this term was brought out in its original pronunciation.
“Ah…
so you don’t worship the great Ramasitia,” she said, perplexed, hammering her own head with her claws as if pondering how to explain the meaning of Ramasitia in her mouth to Fisher and his people.
“My dad told me that all our lives were given by Ramasitia.
Every year we have to worship Him by throwing a lot of fish and crafts into the sea trench, although I don’t know if they’ll hit those royals on the head or not…”
“Wait, are you saying that the royals and the God you worship live together?”
“Right…
Um?
The God you worship…
uh, doesn’t exist like Ramasitia?
Then why do you worship Him?”
This question actually stumped Fisher.
Although he knew the Mother Goddess was just a means for humans to explain the world, more like a primitive belief, or rather, faith, he just hadn’t expected that the demi-humans in the ocean would actually worship a tangible entity.
That is, the God they worshiped really existed in this world, lying in a sea trench in the Southern Ocean?
“Have you ever seen that deity?”
“Nope.
But every time I pray, I can feel His response, even though I don’t understand it…”
Seeing the human in front of her deep in thought, not knowing how to explain, Lingna stretched out her claws, bringing both hands and her entire forearms together, performing an action she had done many times before, similar to a human praying, just that this praying gesture was a bit too strange for humans.
She closed her eyes, her voice serious and devout, murmuring low,
“Guardian of the Ocean, origin of Life, [God of Hundred Forms] Ramasitia, I pray to you, hoping that I can eat this delicious food every day…
Yeah, something like this.
My dad and I have to do this before every meal.
Ah, I can’t hear Ramasitia’s voice here; probably it’s too far, and He might not be able to hear me.
Occasionally at night when I’m bullied by other friends, I tell Him, praying He would have their parents spank their butts, I don’t know if He agrees or not…”
“I see…”
Fisher looked out at the vast ocean outside, and after a long pause, his quill pen noted down the last record on the paper,
[God of Hundred Forms].
