Chapter 71: God of All Forms
“Name?”
“Rena.”
“And your age?”
Fisher held a scroll of paper and looked at Rena sitting on the sofa, while Renee next to her amusingly peeled candy for her. Initially, Rena suspected that these humans were poisoning her, but after eating one piece, she couldn’t stop, seemingly because such treats were rare in her living place.
She paused in her action of chewing the fruit, and then her eyes darted away.
“Eight years old.”
This was quite different from her earlier claim of having an endless lifespan, and she probably realized that her last-minute fabricated lie couldn’t deceive Fisher anymore.
Fisher had just checked her body and found that those crab-like organs were perfectly intact on her, and the decorative crab shell on her back was completely connected to her body. However, according to her, this shell was very light and felt weightless while swimming in the ocean.
After understanding some data about her body, Fisher was actually more interested in the settlements of subhumans in the ocean.
Ocean Subhumans rarely appear in human sight. When he was in Nali, he occasionally heard news of fishermen discovering sea monsters or mermaids by the beach, attracting a wave of reporters and newspapers to travel by train, but all the black-and-white photos they brought back were just calm sea surfaces accompanied by lengthy interviews with no substantive information.
Now, he had finally encountered a real, talking Ocean Subhuman. Shouldn’t he gather more information?
Although Fisher had no intention of taking her back to Nali, given Nali’s current technological level, it couldn’t even reach the underwater settlements of subhumans, and even if it did, it would merely replicate the incidents of the Southern Continent.
This research was solely to satisfy Fisher’s curiosity, and the recorded information wouldn’t be shared.
Most importantly, Fisher wanted to learn more about the Child of the Sea, as its description in the Apocalypse Prophecy was the most vague and used the word “mystical,” sounding completely elusive.
“So you’re only eight years old? No wonder you look so cute.”
Renee peeled another candy for her, making Rena’s cheeks puff up, and before finishing her mouthful, she opened it to signal Renee to continue feeding her. Her mouth was so stuffed that she couldn’t answer Fisher’s question.
Fisher tapped his fingers on the table, looking at Renee coldly as if reprimanding her for interrupting his research, causing her to turn to Fisher innocently.
“Renee.”
“I know, I know. But Fisher, I really like kids. If it were our child, it would surely be cuter than this one~”
She placed extra emphasis on “our” in her words, and as she said this, her starry eyes swept towards Fisher, as if wanting to draw out some desire from his heart.
Could he not entertain the request of such a young girl wanting a cute child?
Fisher glanced at her eager expression, at that moment Renee seemed like a long-time wife hoping for a love child with you; a simple gaze made it hard to refuse, filled with desire, almost making him want to create one with her on the spot.
But all of this was just Renee’s trick. Fisher knew this better than anyone, so he struggled to divert his gaze, suppressing his reproductive desires in favor of his thirst for knowledge, then turned to Rena and asked,
“Why did you come here to steal? Is it close to your home?”
He didn’t directly ask about the subhuman tribe where Rena lived, fearing that such a straightforward question would raise her wariness and cause her to provide false or vague information. However, Rena in front of him seemed truly just a younger subhuman, and his question unlocked her words like a box opening.
“I didn’t steal anything! It’s just, just that I wanted to see what was outside! But there was nothing up there. The old folks in the town said there are many creatures living above that look a lot like us, like you humans and Sea Monsters. Then I almost got hit by that big thing you have, so I thought I’d go up to ask about it, and then I saw a shiny gem necklace. I just wanted to borrow it to take a look!”
Rena adamantly denied stealing, insisting she only wanted to borrow it for a look, but it remained uncertain how it would be returned.
“What was the royal family you mentioned before? Are there subhumans there that are ranked higher than you?”
Since there was a royal family, the social structure there should be relatively stable, at least forming a societal framework similar to that of humans. Moreover, according to Rena, swimming to the surface from her living place was very far, and she swam for half a day just to vaguely see the sunlight above.
Fisher speculated that the subhuman settlement should be on the seabed plains of the Southern Ocean, but the exact depth couldn’t be calculated. From what he had learned about the crab-like creature’s body structure, her resistance to water pressure was beyond Fisher’s imagination, while also having a structure that could rapidly respond to pressure changes. Otherwise, she couldn’t possibly remain unharmed at the surface.
Though her overall appearance was strange, all her biological features seemed to perfectly apply to reality, like some unspeakable divine creation, making Fisher marvel at the greatness of nature.
“Oh, those guys.” When speaking of the royal family, Rena shyly touched her head and quietly said, “Actually, I’ve never seen them. They live very far in a trench away from us. My dad said the royal family is very conservative and doesn’t easily leave that trench. Plus, it’s too dark down there, and I’m scared to go. Regular folks would be crushed if they went deeper, only the royal family can move freely in and out.”
“I see.”
Fisher wrote down the word “royal family” on paper. For Ocean Subhumans, it seemed to be a uniquely special existence. According to Rena’s family, the ocean’s royal family was unique, singularly pointing to the species residing in the massive trench.
Fisher squeezed all the remaining knowledge from Rena’s little head, even learning about the children in her settlement riding on fish pulling her around, all thanks to Renee’s excellent candy technique, making her unconsciously spill out a lot of information.
“You aren’t lying, right?”
Once he recorded all this information, Fisher looked at Rena, whose cheeks were still puffed out, causing her to panic and raise her claws innocently, exclaiming,
“I swear by the name of Ramastia! I am not lying; otherwise, I’ll spit out all this delicious food I’m eating!”
As she said this, seemingly to affirm the cruelty of the oath, she hurriedly swallowed the treats in her mouth!
“What is Ramastia?”
Fisher quickly caught onto the strange word that had popped out of her mouth. This word that came from her lips was quite unusual. Due to the odd translating fluid she had just ingested, Fisher heard her voice as if it were a stream of consciousness, yet this term was pronounced exactly as it was.
“Oh, so you don’t believe in the great Ramastia.” She rhythmically tapped her head with her claws, appearing to think about how to explain the meaning of Ramastia to Fisher and the others.
“My dad told me that our lives are all given by Ramastia, and every year we must go to worship Him, throwing many fish and crafts into the trench. Although I’m not sure if they’ll land on the heads of that royal family.”
“Wait, you mean that royal family lives together with the god you worship?”
“Yes! Isn’t there a god like Ramastia that you believe in? Then why do you worship Him?”
This question caught Fisher off guard. Although Fisher knew that the Mother was simply a tool for humans to explain the world, more akin to primitive belief or faith, he hadn’t expected that Ocean Subhumans would genuinely believe in the tangible existence of a being.
That is to say, the god they believed in actually existed in this world, lying somewhere in a trench of the Southern Ocean at this very moment?
“Have you seen that god?”
“Not at all. But every time I pray, I can feel His response, though I don’t understand it.”
Seeing the human in front of her deep in thought, not knowing how to explain, Rena extended her claws and brought her hands together including her forearms, making a gesture she had done many times before, similar to a human praying. However, this praying posture looked a bit strange to humans.
She closed her eyes, speaking seriously and sincerely, reciting softly,
“Guardian of the Ocean, origin of life, God of All Forms, Ramastia, I pray to you, hoping that I can eat this kind of delicious food every day afterwards. That’s about it; my dad and I must do this before we eat every day. Ah, I can’t feel Ramastia’s voice here, it’s probably too far for Him to hear. Occasionally, when other friends bully me at night, I tell Him and pray that He will make their parents spank them; I don’t know if He responded.”
“I see.”
Fisher looked at the vast sea outside, pausing for a long time before scribbling down the last part of the record on the paper:
“God of All Forms.”
This is not the Child of the Sea! But she will still have her side story later.
Afterward, I’ll update once around noon and once at night. The timing may fluctuate a little, but roughly around twelve noon and ten at night!
Next week I’ll be rushing for recommendations, occasionally three updates, to make up for the previous additions for everyone, to avoid crashing on the day of release (I didn’t save drafts).
Lastly, I earnestly ask for follows and votes, this is very important to me, thank you all!
(*`*)
(End of chapter)
