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Volume 7 Chapter 158

Great Temple and Creator God

The following morning, we arrived at the Great Temple where the Creator God is enshrined. It was considerably larger than the temples of the Sea god and War god that I had seen before. Truly befitting the temple of the supreme god of this world.
In the past, it seems this temple stood alone in this area. People gradually gathered around the temple, started living, and a city was formed, eventually becoming the current Holy City. As a result, the Holy City took on the form of a circle centered around the temple.
Many people were already present around the Great Temple. The morning prayer was about to begin.
There are three chances to enter the Great Temple in a day.
Morning prayer time.
The time when the Holy Maiden bestows miracles upon the people.
Evening prayer time.
Among these, the morning prayer time was chosen because it supposedly had the fewest people. However, it seemed that nearly a thousand people had gathered.
If everyone here were to simultaneously offer prayers to the Creator God, I couldn’t help but think that my voice alone wouldn’t get the attention of the Creator God.
Well, since I had already lined up in the queue of those who had come for the prayer, I decided to give it a try for the time being.
While waiting for the doors of the Great Temple to open, I suddenly felt a large amount of magic power moving inside the temple. Several tens of seconds later, the holy barrier enveloping the Holy City was strengthened. Most likely, Seira had received magic power from the Creator God and used it to enhance the barrier.
I had heard from her before that enhancing the holy barrier wasn’t terribly difficult in terms of manipulating magic power. However, because failure could potentially endanger tens of thousands of people living in the Holy City, there was quite a bit of pressure involved.
Even now, after a hundred years—or rather, since becoming the Holy Maiden, Seira had been doing this continuously for two hundred years.
It was a task that couldn’t be easily emulated.
A while later, the doors of the Great Temple were opened by the priests. The people who had gathered in front of the temple started entering one by one.
When we entered the interior of the temple, Seira wasn’t there. Somewhat curious, I tried to sense her magic power—
She wasn’t moving from where she was, underground in the temple. There was no magic power of the Holy Knights around her either.
What is she doing?
I was a bit curious, but my ability to detect magic isn’t that advanced. I could vaguely sense the direction and approximate distance of the magic power.
Tina is much better at magic power detection, able to tell whether the people were standing or sitting from the movement of their magic power even if they were several kilometers away.
So, I could have asked Tina to check what Seira was doing, but I felt it might be better not to.
If Seira happened to be taking a bath in an underground space and I was simply looking at her magic power, it might not be considered peeping, but it felt morally questionable. Also, making Tina do it instead of me would be awkward.
Seira’s magic power remained still, so there was a possibility she might be taking a bath or resting.
Peeking at Seira’s condition even if it was just through her magic power movement, didn’t seem quite right.
Although I was curious about Seira, I decided to focus on greeting the Creator God for now.

　──＊＊＊──

The morning prayer time had ended. In conclusion, the Creator God didn’t manifest.
Well, even though only a small number of people attended the morning prayer, there were still around a thousand. If the Creator God had manifested there, it could have caused a big commotion. So, it might have been a good thing that He didn’t come out.
Nevertheless, my plans for dungeon management were tripping at the initial stage. If I couldn’t meet the Creator God, there was no way to negotiate.
My thinking had been a bit naive.
The sea god and war god I had met before had appeared quite easily, so I let my guard down.
The sea god had simply been present when I went to the underwater temple, and the war god appeared when I extinguished the flames in the temple.
Bringing the divine messengers—Shiro and Hakua, who were directly entrusted with the management of the dungeon by the Creator God—I had expected at least a word or two from Him…….
「Haruto-sama, did you receive any divine message?」
「No, there was nothing. Tina?」
「Neither did I…..」
Tina also mentioned that when we defeated the Demon Lord, she received a few words of praise from the Creator God, but this time there seemed to be nothing.
「I also did not receive any divine message「
「Neither did I」
Shiro and Hakua also mentioned that nothing happened.
My plans had gone awry.
Now, what should I do?
The prayer had ended, and people were starting to leave the temple. Since I couldn’t stay in this place, it seemed best to leave the temple with the people around me.
「Excuse me, sir over there」
An elderly man dressed in gray robes called out to us. He had his hood up, obscuring his face.
「Could you come with me for a moment?」
Though his voice was gentle, for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to oppose his words. We followed the elderly man without questioning.
Who is he? ── I didn’t even think to ask.
Beside the Great Temple were several passageways, and the elderly man entered one of them. Holy Knights of the temple stood at the entrances and exits of the other passageways, guarding to ensure that regular people couldn’t enter. However, there was no Holy Knight guarding the passageway the elderly man entered.
Though the Holy Knights must have seen us entering the passageway, it didn’t cause any commotion.
After walking in silence for a while, the elderly man stopped in front of a wall and made a motion as if opening a door. Suddenly, a pure white door appeared on what seemed to be an ordinary wall, and the elderly man went inside that door.
Our feet moved on their own, and before I knew it, we were all standing in a pure white space.
I had been to this place a few times before—the divine realm.
「W-Where are we?」
Tina looked around with unease. Rifa and Luna came close to me, gripping my arms and clothes.
「Is… is this… the divine realm?」
The spirits, Mai and Mei, seemed to have sensed it somehow.
「Indeed」
A voice came from behind, and when I turned around, the elderly man in gray robes had a kind smile on his face.
「It’s been a while, Haruto」