Yarin's POV:
The prayer room was the holiest place in the temple. Although it was not as famous as the
altar where the goddess was worshipped or the hall where the royal family was crowned, as a quiet room where the goddess could listen to her teachings, it had long been the private domain of the priestesses. Even the king could not enter at will.
This was probably the first ti in nearly a hundred years that soone other than a priestess had entered this room.
The prayer room was not big. Even though the temple had been repaired several tis, it maintained its original simple appearance. There were no fancy decorations in the quaint house of stone and wood. There was only a wooden table with a statue of the goddess, a cushion, and a brass candlestick that had been burning for years.
The priestess led my mom to kneel on the cushion, then took off her robe and folded it beside it. She told to kneel beside my mom. Then, she lit the candle on the candlestick, and a faint fragrance slowly drifted away with the candle smoke.
"Although we call the goddess 'Moon Goddess', in fact, the goddess doesn't really live on the moon. Otherwise, the astronaut nad Gagarin would have seen the goddess before all of us."
Extinguishing the match in his hand, he spoke to the pious statue of the dead.
"A long ti ago, when the Moon Goddess was first born, there was no such na. She lived alone on the boundless sea, with only a lotus flower a bird brought her as a companion.
"Even though she had great divine power, the goddess never used it because there was nothing but loneliness on the sea. She could only protect the delicate flowers day after day, look up at the soft moon, and kill the long and boring ti.
"Until she realized that the lotus flowers were beginning to wither. The sea breeze had already eroded the beautiful petals into dried veins. The goddess was about to lose her only companion.
"The reluctance and sorrow made the goddess use her divine power for the first ti, giving the lotuses a new life. This is the sea of lotus flowers that swayed around the Moon Goddess' courtyard in the legends.
"This allowed the goddess to understand the joy of guarding for the first ti. She had been alone in the vast ocean for too long. Because of this lotus, she decided to go to the human world to take a look.
"Thus, the goddess wandered the earth for a long ti. Everyone whom she had helped felt grateful. When the first person asked for her honorific na, she thought for a long ti because no one had given her a na, and she had never thought of giving herself a na. "When the goddess saw the moon shining on the earth, she rembered the many nights when she sat facing the moon in the past. She told the people, 'From now on, you can call the Moon Goddess.' From that day on, the Moon Goddess was truly born, and the moon beca the symbol of the goddess.
"In the long river of history, the goddess' story has been passed down by word of mouth, and it is inevitable that so changes will occur over ti. So until now, people have always subconsciously thought that the Moon Goddess lives on the moon. There is a land on the moon that people will never be able to observe. There stands a gorgeous Moon Palace and a gorgeous courtyard.
"But in fact, the goddess, her attendants, and the Valkyrie live in a space she only knows. The dead werewolves will receive soul purification and then return to the earth to start a new life."
The candle had tiny sparks, and an even stronger fragrance wafted out.
"This prayer room is not the original one. Even though it has been moved, repaired, and rebuilt many tis, it still has the bricks from countless years ago. And these bricks ca from the Moon Palace. The goddess' oracle can only be received in the prayer room. Of course, gods are not restricted, but mortals like us must use a dium to do so."
The candle burned very quickly. One candle was burned out not long after, and no wax was left.
The room was filled with fragrance, slling like evening primrose, honey, and lotus. "So, the secret to communicating with the goddess is to sleep contentedly in the fragrance of the moonlight. In the dream, there would be beautiful courtyards and magnificent pavilions, heroic Valkyrie guarding your path, gentle attendants guiding you, and a vast lotus sea blocking all evil and darkness from ti. Close your eyes and fall into a deep sleep. If you arrive at the eternal night, your wish will finally be fulfilled..."
The sound of the sacrifice gradually faded away. I couldn't help but doze off and fall asleep in the lingering fragrance.
Before I lost consciousness, my last thought was: Ah, so the secret kept for thousands of years was just a candle and a good night's sleep...
Rustle.
In the mist, sothing gently touched my calf. I subconsciously shrank back, but a gust of wind blew, and that soft and cold unknown thing danced on my leg. It was gentle and distant.
I opened my eyes and saw a sea of flowers stretched as far as the eye could see. I lowered my head. The thing that touched was a blooming light pink lotus flower.
Standing up, I was surrounded by all kinds of lotus flowers. The delicate petals rustled with the breeze, and occasionally, light spots floated out from the stans, filling the air and disappearing.
Only then did I realize that I was stepping on the surface of the water. Ripples spread under my feet and disappeared into the overlapping shadows of the heavy petals.
This was...
The Sea of Lotus.
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