All of it was too unreal for the people of Goguryeo-sun. Everywhere in Goguryeo-sun, the sky turned into a night sky at around noon. Understandable that people would be confused. They hadn't seen their lord ever appear before them prior to this.
When Ae-rin's eyes met the 'Raven', it felt like she was truly back. With that same smile and soft eyes, she looked back at her friends. "I am back, everyone." Even though they still kept their head low, they could tell that she was back, unbelievably so. But, as fast as the greeting was done, she was back on alert.
"Passing the trial of imperial is indeed a sight to have once in a millennium." The Raven started. "The instinct is often overlooked for not having the 'reason' to back it up. In the trial, the unconscious is trapped, and it's left to one's conscious self to decide what their next action would be."
"But the mislead?" Ae-rin didn't flinch to question back.
"One's rationality is often a big asset, but rationality isn't an admirer of the unknown. And while one needs rationality to think of different ways to solve certain problems and make conscious decisions to utilise their power, at the sight of the unknown, the rationality gets push back to make irrational decisions. At that, the guiding force is often one's unconscious, their instinct. When utilised properly, it's as reliable as one's rationality. But worldly beings tend to choose otherwise."
"Maybe it's just because we still haven't understood that 'darkness isn't scary'"
"So, is the little one closer to that understanding?"
Ae-rin stayed silent for a bit.
"The 'darkness' is all too familiar to the unconscious, and it accepts it however; the conscious likes the brightness, because it has the comfortability and gives a sense of a safe zone. But to leap into a 'not-so-familiar' place, I need to stand in the middle." An inner rant on Ae-rin's side rather than a proper answer.
"Hu?" The Raven said.
"I mean, I need to find a balance between using my instincts, listening to my feelings, and backing my final decision with rationality. But even though I say all that, I still might not be able to do it right away, practically. But I had to start from somewhere anyway, right?"
Ok, ok, imagine you've worshipped a god since birth. Now, the god who is literally as huge as the sky is talking to a 21-year-old girl. And the girl is speaking to the massive being as though they have been friends for years. How would you feel? Big question.
That was why when the raven smiled at the little girl, everyone was watching with astonishment in their eyes.
"Power is to be given to the one who understands the importance of their role in the world afterwards. The awareness to use the 'power' fairly and keep on drifting into the unknown to make it a known land." The raven stated.
"Hu! I'll try my best!" Sayo, stance now relaxed, promised with her hand on her chest.
Tae-ya, all of a sudden, jumped off of Jihoon's shoulders and grew back to his normal size and made a full circle walk around the arena and sat down encircling Ae-rin and the team and licked Ae-rin.
Ae-rin just laughed, ignoring all those voices that either whisper-screamed "S-Scary!" or "SO COOL!"
"I am back, Tae-ya!" He let out a rather high-pitched whine, indicating he was happy.
"Tae-ya, the spirit of night, it has been over a millennium since one last met one's old acquaintance. Young one, one believes one's new acquaintance wants to inquire much. One shall gladly answer."
"Heh, thank you. *Sighs* I had this question in my mind for a while now. I would like to know the backstory of this ordeal. Opening the gate of the world tree and letting the monsters set free in this world just because a falling 'lord' couldn't contain their rage for being defeated in a war sounds too … one-dimensional."
'One-dimensional,' Everyone thought, not understanding what she meant by that.
"Afterwards, a saviour came around to lend her help; everyone knew that she was very capable in her abilities, yet some refused to come forward to put their forces forward along with her to save the crisis, for wanting to keep their lord's blessings to flow free through them. I mean, a handful can be greedy with their decisions like that, but not the whole nations when so much was at stake. People knew what the problem was, and they all wouldn't have just been sitting around in hopes of being saved. And after what I got to know at the Fountain Falls, Lady So-mang never managed to obtain the remaining two divine cosmic sorceries, the 'Heavenly body magic' and 'Hell's conqueror magic."
The countless 'Huh?! Who?'-s and 'What's she talking about?'-s could've easily overwhelmed someone, but Ae-rin knew what she was saying.
"If she couldn't manifest the other two divine spirits, then how could she have closed the world gate? I have decided to move forward in a journey to find a way to close the world gate permanently, but I also want to know the truth. And currently, the details available to me are quite broken, logically."
The Raven looked at the young girl quietly for a good moment before speaking again, in Ae-rin's mind.
"Young one, it seems one's new acquaintance's understanding of the past exceeds most. The truth of the past is indeed very different from what the world has accepted to believe. However, one believes that not too far in the future, the world would be forced to open its eyes to the truth inevitably. One's new little friend's curiosity is welcomed, but one believes the young one would be the one to find each piece of truth first and bring it into the light for this ignorant world to recognize. One must keep the truth to themselves, simply because there is a time for everything and it's not 'the time' for the young one to know just yet."
"I see. *Sighs* I understand. Honestly, I wasn't sure I was ready to hear it myself. I can only imagine how the others would take it."
Ae-rin replied in her mind. It was a very unique way of communicating like this for Ae-rin. Back in her previous world, her mind was her most sacred place to be, while in some troubled times, the most vicious, most hurting place too; even in the last few days of her accepting such a risky trial, she had her mind clouded with doubts over and over again, questioning if her choice was truly the right one or if she had stepped into the chaos a bit too abruptly. But somehow, after the trial passed, her mind felt like the clearest place, almost like a clean, still lake in the midst of mountains.
The people around them, however, had no idea of why both their lord and the divine priestess had stopped talking. Some were even fidgety if her question had offended their lord or not.