Head of a God
"A dog's head… and it talks."
Jang Siwoon muttered to herself, apparently still marveling at the sight of a god with an animal head holding a conversation.
The problem was that her little monologue carried to me just as clearly as it did to Seth.
Siwoon. Watch your mouth, please!
Given how vicious Seth's temperament was, I worried her remark might provoke him into some act of tyranny.
Fortunately, Seth contented himself with clicking his tongue and chiding her.
"'A dog,' you say. What a fool. Did you think war would be so easily won?"
"But this is a sanctuary. Nothing even happened."
He was a system-designated god piece, yes, but a god all the same, radiating a palpable weight of authority.
Yet Siwoon didn't back down an inch, and Seth's fangs bared at her defiance.
Only then did she shrink back slightly and lower her posture.
Seth tucked his gleaming canines back into his snout and continued.
"After you advance, you may choose an action."
"An action?"
⚔ Combat
⛏ Resource Gathering
✦ Special Ability (once per turn)
The moment Siwoon asked her question, a leaflet unfolded displaying content I'd never seen before. Of the three options, Combat had a line struck through it.
"Combat isn't available?"
"You fool. You'd need an enemy army standing right in front of you to fight, wouldn't you?"
"Ugh, why does every sentence out of your mouth call someone a fool? So being a god means you get to be like this? You lost to Horus anyway—"
Seth's insufferable arrogance finally pushed her button, and Siwoon snapped. She didn't exactly scream, but the content was dangerously close to the line.
"Siwoon!"
"Yes."
When I rushed to rein her in, she shut her mouth with a sulky expression. At least she still listened to me—small mercies.
The Student, who had been watching Siwoon seethe, turned his head toward me.
"Mister. Special Ability would be a god skill, and Resource Gathering would be item acquisition—right?"
"Yeah, that seems right. The Greek army has to gather resources to complete the Trojan Horse, and then carry it all the way to the Royal Palace of Troy. Which means the Trojan army—"
—would have to block that horse and the Greek assault.
"They'll probably gather resources and build up their defenses."
"Then by the time we reach the gate line, we should have at least one wall standing."
"Right. And gathering resources will probably be easier for us than for the Greeks."
Because the Trojan Horse was the single most decisive element of Greece's victory.
Since gathering and completing theirs was so difficult, their attacks and effects would surely be powerful in compensation. Our Trojan side could generate resources relatively easily, but ours wouldn't pack nearly the same punch as that horse.
We'd only seize the advantage by using each side's strengths wisely.
"Then I'll choose Resource Gathering."
"Hahahaha!"
"?"
"Did you think war would be that easy?!"
Out of nowhere, Seth threw his head back and roared with laughter. At the sound, not only Siwoon but even the man on the opposing team at the opposite starting line wore bewildered expressions.
"To activate an action alongside your god, you must solve a problem."
A problem?
Of what creature is my face the head?
The leaflet listing our three actions rolled itself up, and a new one appeared. A riddle in that classically pompous voice—but since it was a bonus quiz inside a war game, the question wasn't complicated. The speaker of the line was almost certainly Seth. Siwoon looked up at me with wide, disbelieving eyes.
"Jisan. What is this? It is a dog's head, right?"
"Ah—hold on. Let me dig through my memory."
A long snout and short, square ears. A look too ambiguous to simply call a wolf.
Was it really a dog's head?
No. If I remember correctly—
It was the kind of question you could answer without even invoking the Docent, as long as you could place the memory. I closed my eyes and pictured a book I'd read as a child, turning the pages in my mind and recalling the contents step by step.
When I went on silently stalling, Siwoon must have assumed I didn't know the answer, because she sighed.
"Haah. This stupid war. If we're solving a puzzle every single turn, when are we ever going to reach the palace?"
"Ah—got it."
"Really?! It is a dog, right?"
"No."
I'd nearly made a catastrophic mistake. If I'd answered on pure instinct, going by appearances alone, I'd have said dog. And I'd have been dead wrong.
"Siwoon. The answer is 'Seth's Animal.'"
"…I'm sorry, what?"
She stared up at me, utterly dumbfounded. Even with her figure shrunken and her face too small to read in detail, the look of what on earth are you talking about was plain as day. She probably couldn't make heads or tails of it—and honestly, fair enough.
"Jisan. What is that supposed to mean? Are you sure about the answer?"
"Yes. Even the ancient Egyptians didn't know what animal this head was supposed to be. It's a mashup of features from several different creatures."
A long, curved snout. Tall, squarish ears. Unlike Horus, whose falcon form was unmistakable at a glance, Seth's appearance looked like something fused together from parts.
Not just 'looked like' something fused—because it literally was a composite creature.
"It's chaos itself, with no defined form. A fictional animal."
A beast's head perfectly befitting the god of chaos. Siwoon listened quietly to my explanation, quickly came around, and nodded. Still, since her own life hung on this war, the trace of doubt never entirely left her face.
"You're certain, right?"
"Yes."
My memory had never been the problem. And with Seth being one of the major gods of Egyptian mythology, I was even more confident.
"The answer is 'Seth's Animal.'"
After a moment's hesitation, Siwoon stared at the leaflet and shouted out the answer. The leaflet didn't so much as twitch, and tension pooled around us.
"Haha! Correct!"
Seth, standing beside Siwoon, burst into hearty laughter—and at the same instant, the leaflet bearing the quiz rolled itself up and vanished.
Ha. Thank god.
I'd been confident in the answer, but this was a war with Siwoon riding the board as our Sacrifice—apparently I'd been more on edge than I'd realized. The moment the answer was confirmed, my tension-coiled body loosened, if only a little.
"Damn it. They got it?"
"Looks like they've got some kind of expert over there!"
Hardly an expert.
A stir rose from the opposing team, and then the man at their starting point relayed my story to his teammates.
"Jisan! Thank you!"
Watching Siwoon beam in a way that didn't suit her at all, I found myself smiling back. So within this tower, I was finally someone worth something.
Outside, I never got treated like this. It still catches me off guard every time.
"Ignorant, at least—but not empty-headed!"
"Resource Gathering. That's my choice!"
Siwoon rushed to lock in her action before she had to listen to any more of Seth's contempt for humanity.
⚔ Combat
⛏ Resource Gathering
✦ Special Ability (once per turn)
As Resource Gathering activated, an item materialized in front of Siwoon.
A clump of dirt…?
A matted brown lump of earth bobbed in midair. Siwoon, wearing a dazed expression, cautiously touched her index finger to the clump of mud. The instant her finger made contact, the floating item flared with light and vanished.
[Acquired: Seth's Mud]
[Resources remaining until the Rampart is complete: 2]
Did we need to gather two more clumps of Seth's mud—or two more of a different resource entirely? Only time would tell.
"Horus's turn."
At Zeus's decree, the middle-aged woman on the opposing team, Team Greece, rolled her die.
And then—
"Six."
"Yes!"
The visitors of Team Greece let out a cheer. We had no idea what awaited them on the square they'd landed on, but for now they were advancing toward us faster than Team Troy.
Six squares in one throw. They've already cleared the outer-rampart line in a single roll.
With only sixteen squares on the entire board, every pip on the die mattered—and with one toss, they'd already put serious distance between us.
Wild with excitement, the man strode off from the starting square at the outer ramparts alongside Horus, bounding six squares in huge strides. Five leaps carried him onto the Troy Gate zone, and then one more beyond it.
He stopped at the square directly in front of the Troy Gate miniature—his position now, one tile ahead of it.
Gate Entry — The advance of a valiant warrior is granted a special tile.
A special tile? Something like an event card, maybe.
The man on the board and the middle-aged members of the Greek team were talking among themselves. The sound still carried poorly, so I couldn't make out a word of their discussion. Which made sense—if we could hear it, the strategy would be meaningless.
"Do I have to solve a riddle too?"
"You do."
When Horus nodded, the man rolled his eyes and stared down at his leaflet. Neither the opposing team's actions nor their riddles were shared with us.
Get it wrong. Please, let this be someone with zero knowledge of mythology.
I prayed with all my heart that the man's answer would be wrong.
"Correct."
Damn it.
…
…
…
"We can't see what theirs says."
"It must be an event card. One that lets you keep your tile hidden."
Damn it, I've got nothing to go on. Is it an effect tied to Horus? Or a generic board-game event card—a bonus, a free pass, something like that?
"Seth's turn."
"This time, I'm rolling a big number if it kills me."
The Student rolled the die with a face set twice as hard. When the tumbling die finally settled, his complexion brightened dramatically.
"Four."
"Not bad at all!"
A big number on our side too—Siwoon pumped her fist and cheered. Then she sprinted at full speed, sprinter-grade, covering all four squares in a flash.
No need to burn that much energy here.
Still, I doubted a few squares would wind her.
"Jisan! This is an event card too, right?"
Having leapt four squares and landed precisely on the Temple zone, Siwoon looked around with a giddy face.
Hand of the River — Slay the god of the river.
Slay the god of the river?
"Tch. Looks like you only get the option to pick a special card if you pass through a new line starting from a zone with a miniature on it."
"That's what I think too. Either way, it says slay—be careful, Siwoon."
"WhaAAAK?!!"
The very instant I told her to be careful, Siwoon shrieked. Water erupted from the square beneath her and coiled around her body.
Pillars of water twisted into the shape of hands and seized Siwoon's legs. As the dozens of watery limbs clamped onto her, she thrashed in horror.
"What the hell is this?!"
"Siwoon!!"
"Aagh—it's grabbing me!"
"Siwoon, pick an action—now!"
Even amid the panic, Siwoon rallied with her characteristic grit, scanned the actions surfacing on her leaflet—
⚔ Combat
⛏ Resource Gathering
✦ Special Ability (once per turn)
"I'm activating Special Ability!"
"You must solve the riddle before your action takes effect."
"Ha. Unbelievable. This thing is such a damn hardass."
Siwoon cursed right in front of a god, her brow knotting with fury. Seth had been about to present the riddle, but time was running out. The river was dragging Siwoon down with all its might—and the harder she thrashed, the more tenaciously it held on.
Her own attack power is seeping out of her and feeding strength into the river—!
But Special Ability could only be used once per turn.
No choice. This is a trap you can't escape without using a Perk—or burning the Special Ability.
"Attempt the riddle."
I cast a fragment to 'It,' and the sun had its love stolen by 'It.' What is 'It'?