Chapter 27: Ch 27: Framing Outsiders

Aiden’s command immediately snapped everyone into motion, and they started to run around and grab whatever tools they could.

From their coordination, Aiden could tell that this was not the first time they were pulling a body out of the well.

One of the villagers noticed his expression and quickly defended himself and the other villagers.

"Small animals and sometimes even humans fall down the well, and we usually pull them out once we notice. It’s not a usual occurrence, but we still have guidance on what to do if this happens."

That made sense, but Aiden had not needed a clarification from the villagers. He had never accused them of killing anyone anyway.

The body was quickly pulled up, and Aiden noticed that someone had deliberately tried to destroy the kid’s face. But there were more than enough features left to be able to tell who the kid was.

"Does anyone know who he is?"

Aiden asked the villagers, and they shook their heads.

"I have never seen this kid before. Our town does not have a large enough population to have an unfamiliar face. I don’t think this kid is from our village."

The man who pulled the kid out proclaimed, and everyone nodded in agreement.

This made the situation much worse since it meant that this was an unknown kid who somehow managed to get to their village.

It was not impossible for a kid to come here on their own, but to then fall into the well as well? The coincidence was just too much.

"I will take this kid back for now and preserve his body. That way, if anyone shows up to claim the body, I can hand it over."

Aiden had the technology to keep the body preserved, but he would prefer to hand it over as soon as possible.

As for what happened, he was beginning to form a hypothesis.

There was only one group of outsiders in the village, and the body in the well had been discovered after they visited.

’Those priests had something to do with this body. Is this their way to frame my goddess for a murder they committed?’

Aiden tried to find a reason this happened, but little did he know that he had hit the nail on the head.

For now, he needed to head back and inform his goddess of what happened. And after that, he had a letter to write.

Unfortunately, the priests were faster than him.

...

By the time he managed to preserve the body and write a letter to send to the next town over, the priests had already started spreading rumors about what a vicious priest Aiden was and how he was totally out of control.

They painted Goddess Apophis as a kind-hearted goddess being manipulated by her priest, and he became a root of all evil who sacrificed people to become more powerful.

Why did they choose to go after a priest rather than the Goddess? It was because it was safer for them.

It was easier for people to believe that a person was bad rather than a god. And their anger was also easier to divert against someone they could relate to.

A goddess would only make people give up since they could not compete with her. But her priest was a different matter. Moreover, it was to paint a narrative for when the news of that kid’s death came out.

If a god killed a human, it was divine punishment, but when a human did it, it was murder. And right now, that murder would become the weapon that would drive a wedge between their Goddess Apophis’s priest and the villagers.

They would start to see them in a different light, and as a result, they would turn their eyes back toward their god and the priests.

The coffers that were starting to run dry would get filled up in an instant.

’What a brilliant plan.’

There was just one problem—Selene.

She was much harder to fool than the people since she knew their true nature. And the only reason she had left them alone until now was because they were not causing her god any trouble.

But she finally cornered them this time to extract the truth out of them.

"What did you all do? Don’t you dare lie to me! I know that you stole the tribute we sent with them. But what else did you do?"

Selene asked them, and they all looked like kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar. They debated whether to tell her the truth or not when one of them decided to continue their lie.

"Why would we have done anything else? You already caught us, so we will admit that we did take the tribute. But only a small amount."

Selene looked doubtful. But before she could question them further, something else startled her.

It was the news that one of the kids had gone missing, and their parents came to her to try and figure out where that kid had gone.

Selene hated to let the priests leave, but helping out a believer was much more important than figuring out whatever these people had done.

So she used her power to try and find the missing child, only to come up short.

"Priestess, did you find him?"

The mother asked in a desperate voice, and Selene shook her head.

"I cannot find your son’s spirit. But maybe I can track his body..."

And she did track it, but it was in the other village. Moreover, she could feel divine power protecting that body from being seen.

The fact that she had been allowed to see it meant that it was only for her eyes. And that was also because she was using the mother’s essence.

’But why is the child there? And moreover, this cold aura...’

It felt like death.

The kid she had been tracking was dead and likely had been for hours at this point.

She did not know how to break the news to the mother, so for now, she decided not to say anything. First, she was going to get to the bottom of this matter and then make accusations.