Campione! - Volume Ex - Chapter 2.5

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Thus, Aisha teleported once more.

The place she arrived to was a white castle.

There was a grand mansion at the center. It was being surrounded by seven towers, a beautiful garden, waterway, fountain, etc. The buildings were mostly created from white stone. It possessed a size and elegance that were fitting for the gods or royalty to live in.

Aisha right now was in the garden.

The artificial pond and fountain were really elegant. There were colorful flowers all over the place.

However, ahead of the stone paving that was displaying the inside of the temple’s ground──was a dry desert.

A vast land that consisted of only white sand was stretching without end. There wasn’t a single grass growing. This place was a sanctuary, a white temple existing alone at the middle of night desert.

In exchange, the stars shining in the sky were shockingly radiant.

Especially conspicuous was the large blue star right above her head──

「Eh, earth!?」

Aisha doubted her eyes.

The blue of the ocean and the blend of brown and green that denoted the land. The white color that was the cloud also became a color accent.

It was the figure of earth like in the satellite photo. Is this place at space? Aisha thought in bewilderment. Seeing her like that, the war god Verethragna sighed ‘fuh’ and smiled.

「You’re in the residence of my lord, the Temple of Infinite Time.」

「Haa……in other words, this isn’t anywhere in earth, but a special space isn’t it? It’s like the mansion of Plutarchos-san that I visited before──」

「I don’t know about that mansion but, your understanding is correct.」

Verethragna spoke with a know-it-all airs.

「Here in this temple, no matter how much you rampaged, there won’t be any people who get troubled by it. We can have a contest of strength here to our heart’s content. Now come.」

「N, no! I have only come here but, I’ll leave immediately!」

「──You can’t.」

In front of Aisha, a man in the prime of his life clad in the majesty of a king suddenly appeared.

His divine name was most likely Mithra. That stately voice was the same like the voice she heard in the middle of the teleportation just now.

With the entrance of the king, Verethragna quietly kneeled with his youthful figure.

Also, beside Mithra there was a stone mask of lion appearing. It was floating in the air. The mask that was modeled after the king of hundred beasts had “living snakes” growing from both its sides.

The snakes bared their fangs at Aisha and hissed *Shaah!* threateningly.

And then, Mithra started talking quietly.

「The judgment will begin now. O godslaying witch, your name?」

「A, Aisha.」

「Very well.」

Mithra who was clad in royal garment thrust the scepter in his hand toward Aisha.

「Then Aisha. The god of law and the King of the End Mithra hand down the verdict of death to you. The execution will be entrusted to Verethragna who wield the sword of salvation──」

「Hiih!?」

「Is what I want to say but……」

The king’s face turned pained here.

「Regrettably, there is a circumstance that doesn’t allow me to declare so.」

「Hou. O my lord who receive the divine protection of Zurvan. What could be the matter?」

The youth’s eyes glinted in amusement. Verethragna cut into the talk.

Mithra spoke with a voice that was oozing with vexation even amidst the dignified tone.

「This accursed witch possess the authority『to open the passage to different world』. In this recent years, the corridor became connected exclusively to only『the territory of mythology』.」

「Hohou.」

Aisha gasped after she heard what the king and the war god were talking about.

By territory of mythology they meant the mythological world. Come to think of it.

(It’s only sometimes but, there were times when the corridor was connected to Olympus Mountain or Midgard. Because it rampaged greatly several years ago, it changed into that kind of ability!)

Aisha grasped that comprehension. Mithra talked further while ignoring her.

「The number of the corridors this accursed witch unthinkingly created isn’t just a hundred or two hundred. That number──actually it even reaches 473 in total. All of them right now are connected to some kind of sanctuary.」

「From the view point of a god who embody justice, that is really one terrifying deed.」

Verethragna smiled callously.

「She ought to be executed swiftly. That’s what I’m thinking but, is there a problem?」

「I also agree. However, the divine protection of Zurvan that transcend time gave him the vision of a future. If this witch is executed, at the end all the 473 corridors would start to rampage recklessly in their death throes──we don’t know what kind of scar it would leave in the many mythological worlds.」

「Hou!?」

「Many of the corridors would be extinguished. But, several wouldn’t vanish and persistently continue to remain or even connect two territories of mythology that shouldn’t come into contact by any means……they will become secret passage!」

Mithras spat out angrily.

「For example, if the sanctuary of ancient Persia and Aztec sanctuary that was born at the faraway future life are connected──『the god of snake that is covered in feathers』 might stand equal beside Verethragna and Mithra. And then not all gods who come from outside will be wise. They might foolishly rampage as they please and change the plot of the proper myth……」

「That’s certainly possible.」

Verethragna received that warning and muttered with the face of a wise youth.

「The myth’s plot will change. A god who originally shouldn’t exist will appear in a myth that must not exist. That will greatly change the way things are for us gods……」

「Umu. Therefore, this witch cannot be killed.」

The god king of the ancient Persia solemnly announced.

On the other hand, in contrast of the displeased gods, Aisha sighed in relieve.

It seemed the danger to her life had passed away. After that what was left was to somehow beg the two gods so they would send her back to her original world──

Even though she was thinking that, Mithra said.

「We won’t kill the godslaying witch Aisha, however, we’ll wholly seal that authority. The means is already worked out……」

The king at the prime of his life quickly signaled with his gaze.

The stone mask of lion that had been floating in standby all this time──had come to in front of Aisha unnoticed.

The two snakes growing from the mask, one of them bit at Aisha’s neck.

The suddenness made her unable to dodge and her consciousness quickly became distant. Aisha felt how a terrifying divine power was flowing into her body──.

.

「……Oh?」

Aisha suddenly opened her eyes and then she stared in a daze.

She was in a kitchen of a mansion that she was indebted too for a long time. She was living here as a live-in maid.

「I fell asleep. Perhaps I was tired. Various things had happened.」

It seemed she was sitting on a chair and fell asleep on the table.

Inside the kitchen, no, inside the mansion there was only Aisha alone. Until a month ago, this place was bustling with the 『young lady』 who owned this place and the servants.

However, the young lady suddenly died from sickness and the mansion fell into other person’s hand.

If Aisha left from here as the last person remaining, this mansion would become completely empty.

「What should I do from now? I had lost my work and also the place to live.」

Aisha muttered solemnly.

The girl was born in India that was a colony of Britain. She came to the home country when she was a child. A wealthy family of Britain people took a liking of her and she became a maid that attended to the young lady.

But, the kind master and his wife, along with the young lady got caught in the epidemic and in succession they──

*Hics*. Tears were welling up.

「You can’t be like this, Aisha. You have to live energetically for the share of those who have died too. Perhaps I should try travelling to Greece that Ojou-sama said she want to go to……」

The young lady who took a liking to Aisha left behind a meager inheritance for her.

If it was travel expenses than she had enough. If she was going to travel there was only now!

……The era was year 1850 in dream.

The whole Europe was being swallowed by a kind of mania. The technological innovation that accompanied the industrial revolution. The spread of steam engine. Colonial expansion toward Asia.

The Indian maid Aisha who lived in that era had only turned seventeen.

The turning point of her life quickly came to her.

.

The brown skinned girl was walking while dragging a large travelling bag with her.

She didn’t even look back toward the mansion she left. Her destination was station. She would board a locomotive into a long travel. And then she would accomplish a godslaying.

It was the slaughter of Goddess Persephone by the witch Aisha. However.

「However this time, that girl doesn’t meet any god. Isn’t that right, my lord?」

「Umu. Because there is that set up.」

Mithra who was clad in royal garment replied to the question of war god Verethragna.

The stone mask of lion was floating behind the lord and retainer in standby. The three gods were staring at a pond.

The clear spring located in a corner of the sanctuary, the Temple of Infinite Time──.

The figure of Aisha departing to travel was projected in the water surface. Mithra talked.

「Borrowing Zurvan’s divine power, that person’s body and soul were rewound until when she was seventeen years old. In addition she was sent back to the past 160 years ago. To the era where that girl became a godslayer, where she was only a human.」

「The authority of Zuvan who transcend time is truly absurd.」

Verethragna spoke a compliment from his heart.

「Over there is year 1857 in human calendar……is that so?」

「Indeed. In this year, the girl Aisha encountered the goddess Persephone. But, that was in the 『world of King of the End Rama』. This time, the place we sent that witch to is different.」

「It’s the world that your honor built as the King of the End Mithra──the world after the devil king extermination.」

「Umu.」

Mithra nodded.

「The girl Aisha won’t encounter any god like that and continue to travel as a mere human. But, one day due to the mischief of hapless fate, an unexpected sorrow will come over her.」

「Hou!」

Inside the fountain’s water surface, the life of the girl Aisha was progressing with a terrific speed.

She enjoyed the land of Greece, and then she didn’t return to Britain from there and instead toured all over the Mediterranean Sea, and before long in a certain country she visited──

「Thus no godslayer is born and that girl fall into sleep for eternity. With this the peace and balance of the diverse worlds far and wide will be protected for eternity.」

「So that accursed witch’s hand is sealed like that. Splendid!」

Verethragna clapped his hands and complimented.

In respond, the lord who was protected by the god of time spoke solemnly.

「Next will be your turn, Verethragna. Before long your arch-enemy will come in pursuit of the witch Aisha. Turn the table on him without fail.」

「By your will.」

Kusanagi Godou. The name of his arch-enemy who was once his friend.

It was finally the time for the rematch. Verethragna felt his fighting spirit was blazing inside.