I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm

"B~bawk!"

Yes!

Rynn trotted over to the newly impaled chicken attached to the end of his javelin.

"This power is crazy," he couldn't help but mutter.

He had effortlessly launched his javelin over 100 feet and perfectly pierced his prey. Of course, the power he gained after becoming an Oracle only directly affected his strength- not his accuracy. It was his hard work over the past month that allowed for such a strike to be possible. 

This should be enough for tonight.

After retrieving the green chicken kabab, Rynn headed back toward his small camp where a familiar face greeted him upon his return.

"Rynn! You are back!"

"Mhm. It took me a bit. These guys are so much easier to kill, but they are way harder to see than mountain chickens," Rynn wiggled his javelin with the chicken on the end of it, "It smells pretty good... did you manage to find some mushrooms, Ayla?"

"I did! You would never believe it! There was a mushroom almost as tall as me not far from here!" she beamed.

"... A mushroom almost as tall as you?"

"Yes! I have never seen anything like that near our village! It is very yummy too~"

"Right..." Rynn forced a wry smile as he removed the chicken from the end of his javelin and handed it over to the girl.

"Hmph. You do not believe me, do you?" Ayla pouted.

Rynn sat down on a fallen log and watched her remove the chicken's feathers using the edge of a stone.

"I believe you... it would not be the weirdest thing I have heard of."

"You have a point," Ayla smiled, "Well, I am sure we will come across more on our trip, anyway."

"Ugh. We have been walking so long that I would not be surprised if we came across things much crazier than giant mushrooms," Rynn groaned.

The two had been traveling for well over a month at this point. It was a trip that seemingly came out of nowhere for them; after spending a few weeks repairing the village, the creator of the village suddenly spoke and asked for Rynn to travel to his temple.

"Has he said anything?" Ayla asked, "Maybe he can tell us how much longer it will be?"

"I have not heard a word since we left."

After the night when the village was attacked, Rynn did not hear a single word from the creator of the world. If it weren't for his power, Rynn would've thought that his becoming an Oracle was a sort of nightmare after waking up the next day. The order to travel south was the first and only time since then that he heard the creator of the world. 

"He probably hates me..." Rynn muttered.

"Huh? Did you say something?"

"No- it is nothing," Rynn sighed, "Let me start cooking the chicken- I am hungry."

Rynn snatched the bird from Ayla's lap before she could protest.

"H-hey! I was not finished!"

"That is fine. I want to eat," Rynn nonchalantly shoved a stick through the chicken and began roasting it over the fire.

"Hmph. Have fun eating feathers..."

Ayla began sipping on some mushroom stew that she prepared earlier using a large carved-out branch as a bowl.

"Hey, Rynn, do you think the village is okay?"

"I think so. With the amount of mountain chicken meat we left them, they should be fine until the younger ones get used to hunting. Besides, I am sure the girls could manage to catch a chicken or two."

"I guess you are right," Ayla sighed, "You did a good job with getting them ready before we left, though. I can imagine what the look on Rathok's face would have been if he saw you helping out."

Rynn smiled as he pictured his brother's smug face.

"Yeah, well I did not help because I wanted to. Helping them is what he would have wanted me to do... and since he saved me, I thought that I should do that for him."

"Oh? The last time I brought it up, you said something about it being 'the duty of the Oracle'?"

"... Please forget that," Rynn's face flushed red at the recollection.

"No! It was so cool!" Ayla stood up and deepened her voice, "I have been given the power of an Oracle! I will not let a single one of you die!"

"Please... please stop,"

Rynn hid his face as he reflected on the day after becoming an Oracle. The whole situation was like something out of a legend- him getting caught up in the excitement was only natural. Now that things had settled down a bit, he was back to his usual self, however. 

"So, you're embarrassed of being an Oracle, are you?"

"Huh!?"

Rynn shot up at the sudden appearance of a voice in his head- unintentionally dropping his chicken into the fire.

"No! Not my chicken!" Rynn quickly snatched the end of the stick and shook out the fire along it, "What was that for!? You almost made me ruin my dinner!"

"I... did not do anything though?" Ayla tilted her head in confusion.

"No, not you. The creator of the world said something," Rynn looked up at the sky, "Do you need something or did you just come to be annoying?"

"Rynn! Why are you being so rude to him!? You need to apologize!"

"Yeah, are you always this grumpy? I don't think I've ever had a conversation with you where you're not mad about something," The voice joined in.

"I am not grumpy... and I am not apologizing either. You have only talked to me three times anyway."

"I've been busy talking with baby Angru."

"... Baby Angru?"

"Yeah, he's my priest. The people at the temple refer to him as 'Angru IV' though. You'll get to meet him soon enough; he's pretty excited to see you."

Rynn took the chicken off of the fire which had finally finished cooking and cut a piece off for Ayla as he listened to the voice.

"How much longer will it take for us to get there? We have been walking for over a month now..."

"That's what I came to talk to you about. When I first made the plateau where my temple is, I made two stairways up: one in the north and one in the south. Sadly, it looks like the northern one is in terrible condition and not really usable, so you guys had to go the longer way." 

"Okay," Rynn took a bite of the chicken, "How much longer will it take to get there?"

"You've already been on the path, so just keep traveling south for another day then head east until you see the plateau. I'll have baby Angru send some people there to guide you to the temple."

"That sounds fine, but I have a question."

"... Yes?"

"What is a plateau?"

"Ah-"

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"So that is a plateau..."

"Wow! It is huge!"

After a bit more traveling, the two had finally approached this massive chunk of land that seemed to pierce through the sky. Although Rynn had some uneasiness with the creator of the world's explanation of 'you'll know when you see it', such a statement was accurate enough.

Rynn had heard stories of land that touched the sky from some older hunters in the village, but this was the first time he had seen anything like this in person. 

"It is so beautiful," Ayla muttered, "Maybe there are so many people here because they like the view?"

"Huh? I mean... maybe?" Rynn tilted his head.

Despite trying to come up with some kind of retort, he honestly could not figure out why there were so many more people here than where they came from. The frequency of their encounters with villages, and people by proxy, had gradually increased as they went further along their journey. It had now gotten to the point where it was difficult to find a place not inhabited by people now that they were finally at the base of the plateau.

Luckily, such a situation made it extremely easy to figure out where the two were supposed to go. The people in the area were apparently familiar with the path up the plateau and happily pointed them in its direction.

With their help, it did not take long for them to arrive at the massive set of steps hiding at the vertex of the star-shaped plateau between its two southern arms.

"This... is going to take a while," Rynn couldn't help but sigh as he strained his neck, looking to where the staircase led.

"Could you maybe carry me and jump to the top with your Oracle powers?"

"... You know that is way too much even with my power. We have no choice but to climb," Rynn responded with a sigh.

While the two kids were complaining, a man sitting on the first step of the staircase suddenly stood up and jogged over.

"Excuse me, but would you happen to be Rynn?"

"Huh?" Rynn turned to the figure and squinted his eyes at the sight of his flint-tipped spear, "Yeah, that is me..."

"Perfect! I can finally head back then! Please follow me, I will guide you two to the temple," the man said with a smile before retreating back to the massive staircase.

"Right..."

Rynn hesitantly nodded his head at the offer.

"We are following him?" Ayla checked by his side.

"I guess so. We need to go up there anyway, so there is not much point in us not going with him. Besides…” Rynn casually flexed his right arm, “I could easily stop him if he does anything suspicious with my power."

"Good point~" Ayla smiled slyly, “I am Rynn! No one can mess with me now that I have the power of an Oracle!”

“I never said that one!”

“Really~? It sounds like something you would say though!”

The two continued their banter as they began their trek up the staircase. 

.

..

...

"That was horrible!"

Rynn sprawled on the ground after finally reaching the top of the plateau.

"I have done this trip multiple times and it never gets easier," the man who was guiding them admitted while he sat down not far from the two, "Still, I know you are young, but I thought you would not be as phased by such a trip?"

"I would not be as tired if I had not had to carry a certain someone most of the way..." Rynn shot an accusatory glance toward the girl with a flushed red face laying next to him.

"I-I am sorry!"

She had climbed roughly the first 500 steps with them, but that seemed to be her limit. It was an impressive number, but it was only a quarter of the over 2,000 total steps they needed to climb. Of course, that meant that Rynn needed to carry her up the remaining 75% of the way on his back.

"Go easy on her- there is no way a kid your age would have been able to do all of that without a break. It is no wonder why Angru IV wants to meet you so badly."

With nothing else to do but climb, Rynn had chatted with the man on their way up. This started with Rynn asking how he recognized him so easily and the man pointing out how rare mountain chicken clothing was in this area.

Rynn remembered hearing stories about how mountain chickens rarely came this far south, but as someone who lived his entire life in a village that was built on fighting them, such a fact never really seemed to resonate with him.

Maybe that is why there are more people here? Not having to deal with mountain chickens would be nice… but it seems so boring.

Honestly, he hated them. He had lost both his brother and father to those beasts; Rynn felt that he could understand the reasons to get away from them more than anyone, yet at the same time, that was never something he really wanted to do. 

Sure, it would be nice in the short term to not have to worry about the dangers, however, he hesitated to develop a conviction to abandon the hunting lifestyle entirely. Battling those beasts was in his blood stemming from the time when his great-grandfather first moved into the village as a kid. If living a life of peace was as good as it sounded, there would have been no reason for him to leave this place.

That is right… my great-grandpa used to live here.

Such a realization served to snap Rynn out of his thoughts.

“What is with this Angru guy? Is he the leader of your village?” he asked the man sitting near him.

“The leader?” The man slipped into thought for a second before replying, “In a way. He only follows what the creator of the world orders, so I guess it is more accurate to say that the creator of the world is the village leader.”

Right… he did mention talking to that guy.

“Do the two of them talk a lot?”

“Mhm. Based on what I hear, the two of them talk fairly regularly.”

“... He never talks to me though,” Rynn couldn’t help but mutter.

“Huh? Did you say something?”

“No, it is nothing,” Rynn sighed as he lifted himself off of the ground and turned to Ayla, “Are you ready to keep going?”

“Yes…”

Ayla lifted her arms up innocently.

“... I am not carrying you again.”

“Boooo~”

Seeing the two re-energized, the man hoisted himself up with the shaft of his spear.

“Alright. It looks like you two are ready. Follow me- you already got through the worst of it.”