Grand Lust Sovereign

"…is this your axe?" The Poseidon cosplayer deity asked the sobbing woman.

"No, lord." The woman cried but denied, not feeling any greed.

'Of course.' Julien wasn't surprised.

The deity slowly descended into the water and came back again with a silver axe.

"Is this your axe, woman?"

"No, lord." The woman denied again.

The deity slowly descended into the water again as she refused.

He came back with a bronze axe.

"Is this—"

"No!"

"Let me finish!" The deity spat.

"H-hic, S-sorry!" The woman kowtowed.

"Is this your axe, woman?" The deity asked again.

"No, lord. I had a wooden axe." The woman said truthfully.

The deity went back and reappeared with a wooden axe. It had some cracks in it.

"Is this your axe, woman?"

"Yes! That is my axe!" The woman exclaimed happily. "Thank you! Thank you for fetching it for me!"

'This is so corny. What am I even looking at and why is this happening? Are the people here stupid or something?" Julien thought as he couldn't bear to watch the overly dramatic scene.

"Your honesty has moved me." The deity said. "You can have these all."

The deity handed the woman the wooden axe along with the gold, silver, and bronze ones.

The woman couldn't contain her happiness and repeatedly thanked the deity.

She left the lake and went to the small village.

Julien and his party followed her.

Within the village, the woman happily made a big meal of oats for her children without caring for tomorrow's food portions.

Her and her children had a hearty meal and went to sleep.

A while later, a man sneaks into the house.

He finds the three axes and picking up the golden one, states, "There really was a treasure here! The revelation did not lie!"

The man went out of the house with the axes.

"The woods have even more of them! I should get going!" The man ran into the forest in the deep night without caring for his safety.

Julien was baffled by the scene. 'Are these idiots really doing this?'

He did not follow the man and let him disappear.

'What now?' He thought.

Should he continue to stay here or should he go back to the maids and sleep? The question lingered in his mind.

After some thoughts, Julien decided to come back after a short sleep, right before it was morning. That way, he would be able to see the woman's reaction as she finds her axes stolen.

Julien went back, and as the night passed, he came back for the reaction.

When the woman woke up, she was horrified to find her axes gone.

She dashed out of her house and told the villagers everything and asked them whether they had seen her axes.

Everyone shook their heads and the woman was left troubled and broke again.

Having heard her tale, a villager went to the same lake.

Instead of going through the route as the woman, he began fishing for treasures.

Instead of a treasure, he caught a small golden fish.

"Human, let me go and I will fulfil one of your wishes." The fish spoke in a clear human tone.

Julien was watching this spectacle from the shore while hiding in a bush with Jackie and Amelia.

Amelia couldn't see but was able to hear everything clearly.

Jackie was as surprised as Julien when she saw the scenes.

"Really?"

"Yes." The fish promised.

It wouldn't hurt the man to let the fish go. He took off the hook from its mouth and dropped it into the water.

"Make a wish." A voice resounded from the waters.

"I wish for the village to be prosperous again!" The man exclaimed in glee.

The moment he did so, his hair turned white, his skin wrinkled and cracked.

Before he could react, his body turned into dust and disappeared into the wind.

A villager nearby who had come to fetch water shrieked in horror.

In front of his very eyes, the water dried up and everything in the surroundings decayed.

The village fell into chaos.

Julien was quite shocked by the sudden change in scenes.

He couldn't hide behind the bushes anymore as they decayed.

But to his surprise, his presence was not noticed by any of the villagers. It was as if he was invisible to them.

Julien didn't hide anymore and continued to spectate.

A day passed.

Julien went to his camp to eat and sleep, and his sleep was quite short too as he didn't want to miss anything happening in this village.

He was running late to his aunt's place, but it was fine. A day or two extra won't hurt him.

When he went back to the village, he saw a mysterious woman at the gates of the village.

Her presence was soothing and she brought calmness in this panicked village.

The woman was here to offer the people expensive silk garments at a small fortune.

The villagers were surprised but took up on that offer nonetheless.

Soon, a merchant caravan arrived and the villagers sold the silk to them at a high rate.

In a day's time, the village became prosperous.

It was as if this mysterious woman was drawn to them because of the misfortune they suffered.

Julien believed it was exactly due to this and Jackie and Amelia seemed to be agreeing.

Another day passed.

The villagers were restless.

The reason for it was the mysterious woman. She was staying in a small, candlelit room, only emerging to deliver robes of shimmering white thread.

One of the village's boys was curious and it got the best of him.

He peeked into the woman's room wondering what she was doing, but only saw a pile of scattered white feathers on the ground. She was nowhere to be seen.

By morning, the village was shrouded in thick mist.

The roads twisted and no matter where the villagers walked, they found themselves back in the same spot.

Their eyes were lifeless too by this point.

Julien and his party however were unaffected.

Soon, as the mist cleared, they saw an old woman by a wooden hut.

She walked into her home and there, she saw a mirror.

As she saw her worn out, old face full of wrinkles, the woman couldn't help but comment, "Oh, how I wish to be young again…"

To Julien's shock, the reflection in the mirror changed and it turned into that of the woodcutter woman.

The mist appeared in the village again.

Julien couldn't see anything.

When the mist cleared, it was dusk.

In place of the elderly woman was a young woman holding a wooden axe.

She asked her children to behave and went deep into the woods to chop some wood and work overtime to feed her starving children.

The dried up lake was there again.

Julien was shocked beyond comprehension and couldn't understand what the hell was going on.

In almost three day's worth of time, he had seen many folklores in real life, but they were all cursed and not funny at all.

He thought from the interaction of the woman and the Poseidon cosplayer that it would be wholesome, but it was definitely not!

"Jackie, Amelia… you both saw that too, right?"

"Yes…" the two did not deny. This was the weirdest experience of their lives.

"This is not good. We should leave." Julien said and dragged the two away.

It was best to avoid such cursed places.

On the way away, Julien thought in his mind, 'El, are you there?'

There was no response.

'Daddy, you there?' Julien immediately thought.

-My child…

A pleasant voice rang in his ears.

'El… you're here.' He said. 'I have a really important question to ask. Can you please answer?'

-Not even a greeting and straight to the point, eh? Do you only remember your parent when you're in trouble? Tch. Tch. Kids these days are so ungrateful…

Julien completely ignored those words and asked, 'El, can you please check whether I'm cursed or in trouble? It's really important and my life is at stake.'

-Hmm? What?

El was surprised by the sudden question.

She did her magic to check up on Julien and said calmly, "There's curse or anything. Why? What did you do to ask such a question so suddenly?"

'It's a long story. I'll tell you later.'

-You better not forget.

El didn't really mind and went away. She reminded and warned him again before leaving.

Julien breathed a sigh of relief and stated, "That place wasn't cursed. We're safe."

"What now, Master? Are we going to ignore what we just saw?" Jackie asked the important question.

Julien sighed. "What else can we do? Going there is only inviting trouble. We are able to freely move in and out of there, but what if we aren't able to do so? What if we're stuck forever like those fools? That would be really bad.

Jackie felt it made sense. She nodded in understanding and said, "If that's the case, then I believe we should ignore it and get going."

"I was gonna say that." Julien nodded.

"Before we leave," Amelia chimed in. She turned to Julien and continued, "Master, there is something I wish to confirm. Can you please tag along?"