Now that cooking class is over, I could head back to the cottage in the Great Forest… but I only get to see Maggie once a month.
Last month, we sang songs and chatted while I helped out in the back garden. Since I don’t have any farming memories from my past life, I’m grateful for the chance to learn by doing.
I did use that strange song to make some crops grow, but I’m pretty sure that was a forbidden technique.
Since the boss lady is busy minding the general store, Maggie and I take care of the cleanup.
We wash and put away all the cooking utensils and dishes, scrub the dishcloths, and hang them on their nail to dry. Then we’re done.
“Hey, let’s go to the riverbank!”
Maggie sounds urgent.
This isn’t just the two of us chatting. She’s probably meeting Matthew, isn’t she?
I hate to third-wheel those two... but I’ve got the feeling this is going to be even more annoying than that.
I’m a witch. My intuition is sharp. And the moment I see Matthew sitting on a rock by the riverbank, waiting for us, I feel like turning around and bolting.
I knew I had a bad feeling about this, and I still walked right into their trap.
“Matthew, sorry to keep you waiting!”
Oh no. I really want to leave.
But Matthew stands up. “Zoe, I need to talk to you.”
I don’t see how that’s my problem. I’m not even a resident of Lang Village.
“Let’s sit over there and talk.”
Ugh. Maggie’s way too smooth about this.
The three of us sit on rocks by the water.
“We held the summer festival,” Matthew says, “but it hasn’t rained.”
So it didn’t work?
“That’s right! Dad said the summer festival was supposed to bring rain, but… at this rate, the crops will wither!”
Maggie’s getting passionate, but honestly, this has nothing to do with me.
I say, “Can’t you just water the fields?”
I mean, Maggie was watering the garden behind the general store, wasn’t she?
“Zoe, gardens and crop fields are completely different sizes…”
She gives me a withering look. Okay, fair.
“Besides, look at the river.” Matthew gestures, and I do.
He’s right—the water’s lower than it was when we were practicing for the festival.
“That sandbar wasn’t there before,” he says. “And the wells are running low, too. If this keeps up, it’s not just the crops. The villagers will suffer too…”
He’s giving me this earnest, pleading look, but what exactly does he want me to do?
“We’re thinking of redoing the summer festival!”
Well, sure. If that’s what you want.
“We want you to perform, Zoe.”
Why is Maggie the one asking? Matthew’s clearly the mastermind here. This is awkward…
“Um, does the village chief know about this?”
That seems kind of important.
But Matthew doesn’t give me a straight answer.
“Father’s forgotten what the festival is really for. It’s gotten so big, he’s just happy Lang Village is becoming famous.”
It’s true. Even people in Carlton had heard about the festival.
“I asked Old Inga about how it used to be. There’s a shrine to the water goddess in front of the waterfall. We’re supposed to offer rain dances there.”
A water goddess, huh. That’s kind of interesting.
I say, “I want to see that shrine.”
If there really is a goddess, maybe a rain prayer would actually work.
Then I start wondering to myself.
“Eh? Hang on… If I remember right…”
Selina brought back textbooks from her family home. They’re mostly about the Kingdom of Sarina, but they cover history and classics too. There was a whole section on the founding of the church.
“Yeah... the church says we should only believe in the god Unia, but local gods have existed since the days of the Shazane Empire. Now they’re considered spirits that serve under the one god...”
So, in the eastern kingdom, they worship their founder Unia as a god. In the Kingdom of Sarina, they worship Sarina instead.
Both claim descent from the Shazane Empire’s emperor, but that empire was polytheistic. Claiming divinity now feels a bit… bold. When I was reading the textbook, it struck me as shameless.
Apparently, the smaller countries have their own local gods too… though the textbook didn’t go into detail. It was from the Kingdom of Sarina, after all.
It spent a lot of time justifying that kingdom’s legitimacy while criticizing how the eastern Kingdom of Unia was founded. Honestly, they both seemed pretty much the same to me.
“Won’t the church cause trouble if they find out?”
I don’t know much about religion, but something about this is making me uneasy.
Matthew replies, “No, it’s fine. The church allows for local spirits, as long as we praise Unia first. They’re surprisingly lenient. Even Carlton’s harvest festival honors the goddess of abundance.”
So basically, they made their founder into a god, but for actual blessings, they still rely on the old polytheistic customs from the Shazane days.
“I was taught that the Sarina Church was created by the Kingdom of Sarina to copy us and assert their own legitimacy.”
I think the Kingdom of Unia did the exact same thing. The Great Forest used to be smaller, and the two countries fought all the time, each insisting they were the rightful heirs.
“If the church is fine with it, then okay… but you still need the village chief’s permission.”
I’m interested in the shrine, but I don’t want to get dragged into village politics.
As we head toward the waterfall, I grumble about it, but Matthew grumbles right back about how he’s tried convincing his father over and over.
“The village chief’s pretty ambitious, huh?” Maggie says, unusually critical.
“Yeah, he’s trying to marry my sister off to some knight. But I don’t think Lucy wants that…”
Sounds like Maggie knows Lucy pretty well, too. Lang Village is small, after all.
“I thought Lucy liked George... Well, that was when we were kids. She did say she didn’t want to end up as some noble’s maid.”
Selina’s novels had ladies-in-waiting and that sort of thing, so I guess that’s common here too.
“Has Lucy gotten prettier?” Maggie asks, curious.
“Well, she’s more put-together than when she was running around the village barefoot. She was in a uniform and acting all proper, so… yeah, I guess she looked decent.”
That’s a pretty blunt assessment of his sister, but Maggie laughs and nods along.
“Then maybe she’ll find someone nice! Even if it’s not a knight, I hope Lucy finds someone she actually likes.”
Chatting like this, we follow the river upstream, toward the mountains. I can already hear the rush of the waterfall.
Now… I wonder if there really is a water goddess waiting at that shrine!