Chương 132: She Who Burns the Wicked

I felt like a mother duck marching through the tunnel, and when I glanced over my shoulder my ducklings all perked up with expressions of veneration. Kasia must have seen my eyes widening in surprise, because she also looked back and then grinned widely at me, shoulders shaking from a barely contained laugh. I wanted to shoot her a disapproving look, but decided against it because I was afraid my ducklings would take offense. Maybe not offense.

It would probably break their hearts, and I didn't want to deal with a bunch of crying or groveling people, especially when there were still strzygi out here. When we exited the tunnel back into the candle-filled cavern, I saw exactly zero strzygi, which surprised me because I was sure I'd made plenty of noise. Attacking the matriarch seemed like the kind of thing that would make the reinforcements come out. Apparently not.

Another thing that pleased me was that there were only three tunnels, and we'd just come out of one of them, which meant there were only two left to explore. I tried to sneak another subtle glance back, but they all noticed and all perked up, beaming. I suppressed a sigh. Why did this make me feel so awkward? Wasn't this exactly what most people wanted? Maybe I just wasn't ready to be a goddess. Besides the fact that I wasn't actually a goddess.

"Keep it tight, everyone," I called out.

"We're heading for the middle tunnel first, and we don't know what kind of surprises those demons have in store for us. Probably nothing good, being evil monsters and all."

"You heard her!" Vasil said, which was followed by a lot of shuffling and mumbles. I wondered if the candles were just for lighting or if they served a secondary purpose. It did add to the eerie ambiance of the place. I kicked one of them over to see if anything would happen. It didn't. Maybe all the strzygi had fled already. That wouldn't be ideal. Not for my experience and not for the surrounding towns. I walked up to the middle tunnel and peeked inside. It looked just like the other tunnel.

Was it possible this would lead to a second matriarch? I resolved to immediately shoot it in the face, should that be the case. Didn't really want to put my newfound followers in any more danger than they had to be. I was also curious just how many believers I needed to get whatever it was that I would get from having believers. Losing one of them would set me back. I considered making my followers wait outside the tunnel, just in case something bad was in there.

Problem with that was that then I wouldn't be able to protect them should something come out of the other unexplored tunnel or the one that led back to town. I didn't need a [Soul Index] to know none of them had a combat class, I could tell just by the way they looked and carried themselves. What was I even worrying about? Those strzygi weren't so tough when you were expecting them. They just caught me by surprise in the inn, that was all. Yeah, this would be totally okay, I nodded to myself.

With the utmost confidence I planted my left foot into the tunnel and waited. Behind me someone sneezed.

"Shh!" I said without turning around.

"I mean, bless you, I guess."

"Thank you, goddess." Another person made a sneezing sound, only this one sounded a little try-hard, like he was faking a sneeze for some reason. Another loud fake sneeze followed. After that all my newfound believers started making fake sneezing sounds. I turned around, annoyed.

"Exactly what is going on here? Why are you doing that? Are you trying to let them know we're coming?" All the fake sneezing stopped and everyone stared at me like kids who got caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

"Well?" I asked, spreading my hands. Vasil cleared his throat.

"I believe they think you will grant them a blessing if they sneeze." I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath. If I died because a bunch of people's fake sneezes I'd be so mad.

"No. That's not how this works. In fact, I'm taking my blessing back from whoever it was who sneezed first. I'm unblessing you. Whoever you were." Hubert's shoulders sagged and he looked at the ground with a defeated expression. I put my finger up.

"And if anyone ever fake sneezes again, I'm… I'm…" This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

"Cursing them," Vasil helpfully said.

"Yeah! Exactly! It's gonna be a bad one, so you better don't even try it." Kasia put her fist up.

"Yeah! She will give you pointy elbows!"

"What? I mean, I guess? But also some other things you won't like. So don't do it." Kasia was enjoying this way too much. I guess it was kind of funny. On the other hand messing with these people probably wasn't very nice. In Graecia the gods did it all the time, of course, and I kind of understood why they would. Especially when your followers were behaving like this, but I wasn't planning on doing that myself. I'd probably feel bad. Maybe it was harmless? I wasn't sure.

Maybe they did it to prevent stuff like this from happening. Maybe I should be messing with them. For their own protection. Maybe that was something Kasia understood instinctively. Vasil shook his head.

"The goddess is most displeased." My followers collectively held their breath.

"The most displeased," Kasia said solemnly, head turned down. She looked at me with one eye and the corner of her mouth turned up. That almost made me crack up. Was this payback because I transformed into her?

"The mostest," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Now if you are all quite done, I have some treasure to acquire, for what is a goddess without treasure? I like treasure, by the way. In case anyone feels like giving me stuff. Now that may get you a blessing."

"Unless it's bad treasure," Kasia said.

"Then you will get floppy earlobes." A woman gasped and clapped her hands over her ears. I waved her off.

"Only if it's super bad. But yeah. Please don't waste my time." I turned back around and moved into the tunnel, ducklings in tow, hoping that if I just kept walking things wouldn't get worse somehow. The more time I gave them to think of ways to gain my favor, the more ridiculous things they'd probably come up with, and I simply didn't have the time or patience to deal with that right now.

Sometimes I was tempted to look back and see what they were doing, but I was afraid that if I did they would start doing something even if they weren't. I'd have to pull Vasil aside and ask for some worshipper management advice after we got out of this place.

Ola made sure to stay behind Polikarp as they followed the goddess who had saved them. While she was almost certain Hecate would never allow anything to happen to them, if something did happen it would be better that Polikarp die and not her. He was annoying, and probably had the least useful class out of all of them. Speaking of classes, Ola had always known she was destined to serve someone of great importance. While [Maid] was a common class and did pretty much guarantee you a…

somewhat decent life—as long as you worked hard—[Prime Maid] was extremely rare. So when she was offered the class on her eighteenth birthday she knew she was destined for greatness. Or to serve greatness. But that was basically the same thing to her. Behind every great leader is a great [Prime Maid]. Maybe not, but there could be. There should be! Now serving a goddess, that she could never have imagined.

That Hecate seemed so pleased with [Ablution] also confirmed she had made the right choice of class, and that she had been right to wait for someone worthy to serve. Serve properly that is. Binding herself to a single master with her passive. All this time she'd been traveling, selling her services to the higher bidder, training and boosting lesser maids using her exceptional skillset. It was fine, she supposed. The coin was good. But still, she wanted something more permanent. Serve someone permanently.

Build something. Build someone. Now it appeared that time had finally arrived, and her patience had been rewarded. She got pulled out of her thoughts by the noise Polikarp was making. For some reason he had one squeaky shoe, and every time he put his left foot down it made a stupid sound. It was annoying and matched him perfectly. The man couldn't even breathe like a regular person, so him having a single squeaky shoe somehow really tied his personality together.

She wondered if he ever noticed or if he was oblivious, like he was to so many things. She wondered if everyone just kept him around just in case someone had to die first, so they could offer him up and escape without anyone feeling bad. Silesia was a dangerous place after all. They turned a corner and immediately halted. She saw at least six terrible strzygi carrying boxes. Panic rose in her chest. Her heart started beating so fast she thought she might just fall over and die from fright.

Cold sweat ran down her back. She wanted to run, she wanted to hide, she wanted to— Polikarp put his squeaky foot down and the strzygi turned their heads toward them. Was this the end? Would they all die because of a squeaky shoe? After she just found a worthy master to serve? The next moment all six of the strzygi's heads exploded at the same time. All of them dead. Instantly. The boxes fell to the ground as their headless bodies collapsed. Ola stood there, mouth agape, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

Slowly, she glanced around and found everyone staring with the same expression, a mixture of terror and disbelief. Hecate suddenly appeared in front of them. Everything had happened so fast Ola hadn't even realized she was gone. Had she been gone? What had happened? She had no idea. Had the goddess Hecate made those strzygi's heads explode? Was that the kind of power she wielded? When they got saved from that cage she had barely been able to comprehend what had happened since it all happened so fast.

Now, even though she had been watching, she still couldn't make sense of it. Ola felt overcome with emotion. To be allowed to witness this. To be allowed to witness such indescribable power wielded so casually. To be protected by such a being. To serve a true goddess. It was all too much. In front of her, Polikarp fell to his knees and started weeping. For once she understood exactly how he felt, and she too fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face. Everyone did.

She knew, in the core of her being, that they were truly safe, and always would be. She knew, evil stood no chance as long as they believed in their goddess. She knew, that as long as they were devoted, they would be protected by Hecate, She Who Burns the Wicked.