Celia had a taboo.
Yet, only to that young man, she said...
"I love you."
Celia had been in the human world for a thousand years.
During that thousand years, she was quiet and reserved, yet governed the world with perfect order and kept the peace. She ended conflicts between small nations.
But on the thousandth year and one day,
a man appeared outside the temple.
He was gravely wounded and collapsed in a pool of blood.
*
The old priest was the most respected priest in the temple, and the one who had served there the longest.
He watched the supreme Pope's once cold face, which never spoke a word, change until laughter brightened even the corners of her eyes. Then came grief and despair so devastating they seemed to tear her apart.
He deserved to die.
He should never have brought that man into the temple.
*
Celia's golden hair had turned white. The once-glorious temple had collapsed into a ruin filled with swirling dust.
Only the heart in her chest, which had never wavered for anything in the world, was now pierced as if by ten thousand arrows. She didn't know why.
Long ago, before she became a god...
She had been warned that gods must have no emotions.
She had made a mistake.
And the price of that mistake was having her beloved drive a sword through her chest with his own hands, pinning her to a statue of a god.
[Reader's guide]
· This is the prequel to the goddess Celia's story, explaining how the great villain of The False God came to be a deity who sent everything to hell with a single thought.
· It can be read as a standalone story, though it is best read after The False God is complete.
· Asa Jane in this short story and Teres Hamon are the same person. But Teres has lost all memories of his past lives and reincarnated as a mortal.
Theme: For life and death, for oneself
