They all call me an Outer God.

Chapter 51 The Unembellished Legend

The woman also curled her lips into a bright smile, revealing a mouth full of sharp fangs.

She lovingly stroked the people covered in fish scales on the ground, the sound of her fingernails scraping against the scales particularly clear in the rain.

For some reason, she didn't notice that Ria was standing by the window. After collecting enough bighead carp, she left, carrying a heavy net, and decided to sell the extra fish to various places in Grani.

Lia stared for a long time at the disemboweled "fish" twitching intermittently in the rain, and sighed softly.

He stopped paying attention to them, turned around, closed the curtains, and lay down on the bed. As long as he closed his eyes, the darkness would shut out everything that affected his mind.

The rain has stopped again.

The "fish" returned to their original state, like zombies sleepwalking back to their dwellings and falling asleep. The dark clouds in the sky dispersed, and a crescent moon was in the sky.

The next day.

The person on the other end of the walkie-talkie continued to ask Ria what kind of breakfast she wanted, and this time Ria answered that she needed fish.

No longer caring whether he was allergic to fish, when Ria opened the door, the plate was filled with fragrant fried fish, and the edge of the plate was garnished with wasabi.

"They actually made the fish look like this."

When asked to eat a bite of fish in front of him, Lia complied.

However, this time the food will still be processed by Little Swarth, and the mythical creatures will find a place to store these "waste products" and "sell" them when the opportunity arises.

According to the host, there is no such thing as waste in the world; everything has its value.

Little Swarth thought this statement was very true, and even regarded it as the maxim of his life.

This statement implies that Ria doesn't consider it useless.

It was in Liya's eyes.

"Goo!" Little Swarth couldn't help but exclaim excitedly in his non-existent mind, watching Ria close the door and then hide all the fish from the plate.

About half an hour later, someone cleared away the plates, and Lia took advantage of the daylight and the absence of rain to leave the hotel.

He found Steyr sleeping on the floor in the Bayshire Tavern again. Steyr, still half-asleep, propped himself up: "Good morning, how did you sleep last night?"

"Quite exciting."

"Really!? What did you do last night?"

At the mention of this, Stellen perked up, trying to hear something pleasant from Ria, but what Ria said next was quite different from what he had imagined.

"They ate people."

"Ah...ah? Ah!? Don't scare me!"

"I'll show you something and you'll understand."

As he spoke, Ria told little Swarth to put the man's hand from yesterday into his pocket, while he took the hand out of his pocket.

Is that a vegetable leaf or a hand?

"It must be a hand—but where did you get a hand from?"

"A complimentary gift from the hotel."

Ria recounted the events of the previous day to Steyr, omitting unnecessary details about herself. Steyr listened, his face turning pale. "My prophecies can only predict one outcome. I can't predict this kind of thing, but you're saying the fish for the Great Rain Festival came about like this… by being forcibly pulled from a person's stomach!?"

"I've seen fish inside a mule's belly."

Lia pondered for a moment: "Well, Grani is located on a plain and is not particularly wealthy, yet its fish industry is so developed."

Those bighead carp have obvious characteristics of sea fish, and no one has ever questioned where the fish we usually eat come from.
Or perhaps someone knew, but lost their memory due to the sudden downpour.

While traveling on the plains of Gutheron, the animals that were rained on turned into fish, and when the sun came out, it was as if nothing had happened. Ria had reason to suspect that the rain had the same effect on people.

After hearing his explanation, Steyer sat up abruptly from the mattress: "You mean the people here have been affected by the torrential rains for so many years?"

"Yes, the heavy rain has numbed people's minds, making them take these things for granted. Even if someone notices something is wrong, the slime of the supernatural fish-men can have the same effect. Think about it carefully, is this the first time you've heard of something like this?"
Could it be that, without realizing it, you've already been affected by the rain or the slime, numbing your brain, and then becoming accustomed to everything that happens here?

I heard they've built a railway here. Ah, so they'll use trains to transport these fishmen and fish all over the world?

Ria ran her hand along the silver handle of the cane, and Steyr finally realized the seriousness of the situation. He covered his head, trying to recall some key details from his memory, but he couldn't remember anything no matter how hard he tried.

"Is it the 'idiot' meme that's stopping my thinking?"

"Maybe?"

Ria couldn't help but wonder: "Meme derivation is simple, but it must have its drawbacks. Are you really in such a hurry to get to Meme 8? What will you do after that? Meme 7 doesn't have a second 'idiot' to choose from."

And how did you come up with the idea of ​​choosing it?

"Did you choose it, or did it choose you?"

“These are questions I can’t answer, Kelcha.”

Steyr's face was full of bitterness: "Sometimes, it's easier to know nothing. You see, by becoming an idiot in advance, I don't have to think about anything anymore, and even the strangest things won't affect me."

"What you said makes sense."

Ria wholeheartedly agreed. He had already left the inn, and spending a few days hiding in a tavern might not be a bad choice, as there would be company, and plenty of good wine and music.

But sometimes running away doesn't solve anything. Even if a person does nothing, trouble will still find him by following his scent, like a snake flicking its tongue.

"Do you remember the legend about the Great Rain Festival that we heard before?"

The sky was raining heavily, so people lit big fires and poured strong liquor on them to drive away the dark clouds and welcome the sun.

"Legends and stories always embellish the facts. If we reverse that legend and story in the current context, do you think it might have developed like this—"

For a period of time, dark clouds obscured the sun, which disappeared for many years. Heavy rains fell continuously, flooding houses, causing crop failures, fruit trees to rot and become infested with insects, and extraordinary creatures appeared.

People and livestock turned into fish, and there was nothing to eat, so in those days—fish ate people, people ate fish, and fish ate fish.

It was the saint who came from afar and discovered the suffering who prayed and offered sacrifices to the radiant rising sun, dispelling the dark clouds.

The saint called upon his companions to gather together and summon the sacred fire of the rising sun to ignite the flames, but the flames were always extinguished by heavy rain. At this point, the saint poured a kind of sacrificial wine into the fire and burned himself as a sacrifice.

The flames instantly rose and evaporated all the rain and clouds, and the sun shone on the land once more.

But the rain always came again, and the fishmen did not disperse because of it…

(End of this chapter)