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Last Embryo Volume 4 Chapter 6 Part 1

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

Around the time when the other side of the horizon became tinged with a shade of red due to the coming sunset.

Cutting his way through the almost invisible path in the forest, Izayoi finally managed to locate the linden tree and ran towards its branches. The night will soon be upon him, but before that happens, there was a mountainload of things that he absolutely had to confirm.

Initially he wanted to find Homura and his group and rejoin with them as soon as possible, but under the current circumstances, now might not be the best time to be doing that.

Orpheus the Poet. Before he and Izayoi went on their separate ways, he spoke to him as such:

「I will wait for you until nightfall, so please, if you have anything to do, any preparations left to take care of, make sure to be finished with them by then. Next, if they will try to get in our way, we will have to do everything in our power to catch them.」

(HA! Giving me time to prepare for what is to come, oh how awfully nice of you, you asshole!)

Izayoi bit his teeth while cursing at Orpheus in his mind. Normally he would have never done such a thing, but the truth that he has revealed to him was really pushing him to the brink. But if that which he has told him turns out to be true after all, then there is nothing that Izayoi himself could do in order to resolve this situation. In fact there was probably no one in the entire history of the human race who could have resolved this problem, even if all of the greatest heroic figures from across the times banded together in order to try. And if such a figure does not exist in the history of the Outer World. . . then it will not exist in Little Garden as well.

In that case, perhaps the only way was to rely on the Gods to handle it. . . no, on second thought, maybe that will not be possible either. If any of the Gods from across any of the existing mythologies could possibly think of a solution to this mess, they would have probably done so a long time ago. That is why Izayoi headed out to the woods right now. Because he wanted to confirm that.

When the sun began to fall, the lights pf a human settlement have begun to gradually appear and disappear near the top of the linden tree. Seeing that, Izayoi broke into a sprint and headed straight towards the place.

As he passed through an especially thick part of the forest, the lights have suddenly became brighter, indicating that he has arrived exactly where he was heading.

The place illuminated by the light of the torches was the entrance to a large building that stood among what could only be described as a quiet cityscape.

「Ahhh~~ shit! Looks like I finally made it! If I knew that this was going to be this way, I would have taken some of those seeds given to me by Pritt for myself instead of handing all of them to Parashurama like a dumbass.」

Even if he personally had nothing against exploration in general, now was definitely not the time to be casually exploring the forest. And it certainly did not help that the map he obtained from the Geass Roll when the rules for the upcoming Gift Game were being introduced did not exactly cover with the map he made himself throughout the last four days, making it pretty obvious that his current location was not exactly clear to him. Spreading both of the maps on the ground, he began to compare them once more while writing something on his own copy.

When he was in the middle of doing that, he suddenly heard a voice of a young woman call out to him.

「Are you. . .  the youngster who brought the sick girl in with him?」

「Hmm? I guess that depends on who is asking. Who are you?」

「It is me, one of the people whom you and that other woman fought against back in the forest. Then again, I guess you might not realize who exactly I am because I was wearing my mask the entire time.」

The woman placed her hand on her waist, looking quite displeased. Then Izayoi realized that she was the one whom he had handed the albino girl over too and clasped his hands together as if he just had a divine revelation.

「Ah, the cow head mask gal from back then! I have to say, you look a lot younger than I have initially expected.」

「. . . You know that usually such words, spoken so casually at that, could be taken as disrespectful and enabling me to file for an official duel to. . .  haaaa. . . . . . 」

The girl looked like she wanted to say something more, but she stopped mid-sentence and simply sighed heavily out of amazement at Izayoi’s blunt disrespectfulness.

「You know what, never mind. My name is Lalah. I am an Assistant Priestess.」

「An Assistant Priestess, huh? Being a priestess was a pretty big deal in the Minoan civilization, right? Are priestesses not the most important officials, with their positions being second only to that of the king?」

「In some cases that would be true, yes. However, I am the youngest from among all of the Assistant Priestesses, and on top of that our king is currently absent at the moment. Now please, come with me, and also, let me give you a fair bit of warning. While you are here, please do watch out not to say or do anything reckless or to anger any of the citizens.」

Lalah beckoned Izayoi to come after her, after which she turned her back to him and started walking.

「I have to say, you came at the perfect time. The girl you have brought with yourself who claims to be your companion is already waiting for you. I will take you to her now.」

「Just that girl? What about Pritt?」

「That Goddess who was also with you? As soon as the Giant Spirit Train announced that it has reached Atlantis, meaning that the 2^nd War for the Sun’s Authority could now begin in earnest, she said she was going to head straight towards it. Based on what she was saying, it looks like she does not plan to get herself involved with it at all.」

Seriously, talk about a Goddess who is absolutely not worth praying to. Why is it that every goddamn time there is something important to discuss or talk about, no God or Buddha is ever around to make things that much easier on his end?

「Okay, switching the subject for a bit. . . what is up with this huge building over there? Is it okay for me to enter it?」

「I am sorry to be telling you this, but only those who have advanced enough in the Gift Game are allowed to enter our sanctuary, and since the Game has barely started you are not quite qualified to do so just yet. For the time being, you should really go see your companion. She was waiting for you to show up.」

With that, Lalah the Assistant Priestess continued to guide Izayoi through the streets and the buildings of the city that was sprawling out all around them. Upon closer inspection, all of the buildings were build out of chalk, which would make them the typical building of the ancient Greek architecture. If the circumstances were any different, it would probably be quite a pleasure to leisurely spend his time in this well-ventilated by night, definitely sunny by day city near the seaside.

And yet, there was something gnawing at Izayoi’s conscience, something that was making him feel an inexplicable sense of discomfort. And that something was. . .

(. . . . . . . . . . . . .  I knew it. No matter where you look, the only buildings that are in this city are the very simple ones.)

The classic ancient Greek architecture sounds nice and all, but in terms of its durability and resistance to natural disasters such as earthquakes, tornadoes or tsunamis, it was anything but reliable. Their seismic resistance was so bad that if an earthquake were to happen right now in this very moment, then most if not all of the buildings would crumble into piles of rubble in a matter of seconds.