Chapter 27: Are You Really A Goddess?

POV Luna

I finally had the chance to talk to Eliza. It had been many years since she was reborn into this world and I was to blame for that. I had chosen her soul to fight for me in my dispute with Lumos. Unfortunately, Narran was a world where humanity is poised to dominate in the future, even if they are the inferior race. But their sheer numbers, coupled with the oracles of Lumos and their ability to work in large groups, have gotten them this far. The other races on Narran were inferior to them in at least one of these reasons. There was no leader to unite them in the fight against the humans. There were two main reasons why the racial balance had not yet tipped in humans' favor. One reason was geography. The humans lived on Narran's largest continent and had conquered three quarters of it. The remaining areas belonged to the other races or were uninhabited. Maybe Eliza or one of the other three souls could become that leader. In order to prepare them as best as possible, I came up with a plan back then. Unfortunately, it was therefore necessary to modify her body according to my ideas. While the champions of Lumos could make their own decisions about their abilities, I had made the choice myself. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to meet Eliza in advance and inform her about the situation. Lumos must have had a hand in this. Therefore, I could only give her my blessing and otherwise had no opportunity to make myself known to her. So I was more than happy that she had found an old shrine of mine. Now I could finally talk to her.

'There you are at last, Eliza. I have been waiting for you. We have a lot to talk about.’ <Luna>

I could also catch a glimpse of her now that she was touching my statue. She looked badly beaten up. I wondered what had happened to her that she had arrived here in this condition. But as soon as I said my greeting, the connection broke off again. She must have let go of the statue in shock. A few minutes passed before I heard her voice. She sounded very hesitant and scared.

“Who are you?” <Eliza>

'I am Luna, the goddess of the moon and the night.' <Luna>

And then the connection was lost again. She probably didn't expect a goddess to answer her. This time a few more minutes passed before her voice was heard again, this time with less caution and more suspicion.

“What does a goddess want from me? Are you really a goddess?” <Eliza>

'I can understand your concern and suspicion, Eliza. I am truly a goddess. But don't worry, I don't want to harm you. On the contrary, I want to help you and I can answer many questions that are certainly on your mind.' <Luna>

There was a short silence, but the connection didn't break.

"I will trust you. Your aura sounds familiar to me and I don't sense any malice in your voice. Are you really the goddess of the moon? And why can I talk to you?” <Eliza>

'The statue you are touching is dedicated to me. Even though the shrine you are in has long been abandoned, some of my divine power still exists within it. And the fact that we can talk is because we have a certain connection with each other.' <Luna>

“A connection? What do you mean?” <Eliza>

'Do you know about the appraisal skill? Are you able to use it yet?’ <Luna>

“Yes, I know about it. I can use it.” <Eliza>

'What race do you see yourself as? And which class?’ <Luna>

“I see elf as a race and scout as a class. Why?” Eliza

'The next time you apply appraisal to yourself, you will notice some changes in your status. Your race is actually Dark Elf. You should have noticed that you have a different skin and hair color than other elves.’ <Luna>

“I haven’t met any other elves yet. There are no elves in the Empire except as slaves, and I've never seen any of them. I only know what I've read from stories from my old world, but they're made up. So it could be different here.” <Eliza>

'You've been in the Empire all your life? Have you never been anywhere else?’ <Luna>

“I was always here, unfortunately.” <Eliza>

'I'm very sorry, but there was no other way.' <Luna>

“Why are you apologizing? Do you have anything to do with my situation?” <Eliza>

'I would like to deny it, but that would be a lie. After all, it was I who reincarnated you into this world. Even if I had little influence on where exactly you were reincarnated. It certainly hasn’t been easy so far.’ <Luna>

“So I’m here thanks to you. Now I don't know which is more important. That I was reborn or the situation into which I was reborn. I'm grateful that I'm alive again, but couldn't I have had a better life? Or knowledge about why at all? After I came to consciousness, I didn't understand anything. I was in a world that was completely unknown to me with no knowledge and was also discriminated against. Well, most of the time I lived in peace and well protected. I have no memory of the first few years of my life and that's probably for the better. All in all, I can’t really complain.” <Eliza>

'Thanks, I'm glad to hear that, honestly. Can you tell me what has happened to you so far? Please.' <Luna>

After a moment's hesitation, Eliza told me in some detail what had happened to her in the years she had lived with memories on Narran. I was relieved that she had found community. So she didn't have to live in slavery under the clutches of humans, but had contact with lovely people and even Beastkin. It might sound hypocritical, but I was relieved at the way her life had turned out. It could have been much, much worse for her.

'I'm really relieved that you were able to spend most of your life happily. I had a very bad conscience that you were constantly having a bad time. I can help you with your current injuries. There is a hidden compartment under the statue, like under each of my statues. In addition to some money, there is usually also a potion that can heal injuries. If you're lucky it's still effective. Do you have any questions?’ <Luna>

“Why am I here?” <Eliza>

'Now we come to the reason why I reincarnated you into this world. If you lived in the Empire, do you also know the god Lumos?’ <Luna>

“Yes, even if the teaching seems very fanatical to me. It’s caused me a lot of trouble.” <Eliza>

'The god Lumos is the god of the sun and dominion. I, on the other hand, am the goddess of the moon and the night. As you can imagine, we don't get along well. I really dislike his arrogant manner and we keep getting into arguments. This time he even challenged me to a competition that I couldn't refuse. Each of us was able to resurrect four souls as our own champions and give them special abilities. The only conditions were that his fighters were human and mine were not. In addition, we each have a limited pool of benefits that he or she was allowed to distribute to the respective champions. He revived all four of his souls in the Empire, while I distributed mine across four nations. You were reincarnated into the Empire, one into the Beastkin, one into the Dwarves, and one into the Demons. You should even know everyone from your old life. Your friend Erica is the Beastkin, her brother Niles is the Dwarf and your mutual friend Monica is the Demoness. I don’t know what they’re called in Narran though.’ <Luna>

“So gods aren't all-knowing either, but at least my best friends were all reincarnated here. Wait a minute, don't tell me that the four champions of Lumos are those four idiots from the role-playing group that played in our bookstore? That's why the heroes seemed so familiar to me back then. Erica won’t like that at all.” <Eliza>

'Yes you are right. It's these four. And you just mentioned an important quality of yours. You all bear the title of hero, although yours is dusguised.' <Luna>

“Why is it disguised?” <Eliza>

'So that it cannot be recognized so easily through appraisal. Your Abilities will already be able to give you a clue and your Scout class will also suit this. Good choise. Many of your abilities and your race are designed to enable you to grow quickly and strongly. Unfortunately this would make it easy for you to be recognized as my champion. You would then be hunted mercilessly, even more than you are now. You won't be able to defeat the others in direct combat, so you'll have to act covertly and stealthily. You can recognize your three friends by the Hero title, as well as by the Reincarnated title.' <Luna>

“Does we have to defeat the others?” Eliza

'Yes, but you don't have to kill them if that's what you're after. There are two victory conditions and only one is to kill the others. No matter how much you want a quiet life, be careful. The others will, over time, be increasingly incited by Lumos and his priesthood to find and kill the rest of you. They will not stop from wiping out all other races except humans in order to achieve their goal. For the sake of the survival of you and the other three, I advise you to get ahead of them. I admit, I want to win the competition, and to do that you have to beat the others. I will support you as best I can. I don’t want you or the others to die either’ <Luna>

“What is the second condition?” Eliza

'There are dungeons on Narran, 15 in total. If you get through all of them to the end, you've won. It’s enough if one person can do it.’ <Luna>

“I will certainly not surrender defenseless. Especially not when the opposing heroes are the four idiots. But back to the disguise thing. What has been concealed and how can I remove it?” <Eliza>

'Besides the title of hero and your race, other things were concealed. In return you received a certain skill that ensures that they are not displayed in the status. It's called Concealment. The disadvantage of this is that you have not been able to see some things so far yourself. I'll remove a lot of the consealment right away. This will give you access to some special skills that will help you in the future. I would advise you to improve these skills as quickly as possible and practice using them. They will be essential for survival. Likewise, Concealment is only at master rank, which is a lot, but not all-powerful. This means that an appraisal master with the appropriate advantage could still overcome it. I expect one of Lumo's heroes to master this. Also don’t forget, with appraisal you can analyze skills if you don’t know what they do.’ <Luna>

“Okay, if you say so. Uuuuh, what's going on now? I suddenly feel dizzy.” <Elina>

'Our time is up. The connection costs you a constant MP to support it and your supply seems to be exhausted. I will now resolve the first concealment for you. Hang in there, Eliza, we can talk more next time. Just search for one of my statues again, there are several more in the empire. Even though my worship is forbidden here, their remnants from times past still exist. And find your friends, they will be able to help you significantly.’ <Luna>

With that the connection was broken. I hoped Eliza would continue to fight as bravely as she had so far.