Fairy Tail: I Can Hear Everything With My Unique Skill

40: The Temple

It didn't take long for the two of them to arrive at the mountains where this temple was located. After all, unlike the Phoenix Mountains, these mountains are quite close to the royal capital.

"Let's take a small rest here before we start climbing the mountains, " Gildarts suggested, to which Akira nodded in agreement.

Both of them walked towards a large tree and sat down on the ground.

Akira took out a water bottle from his backpack and began to drink it. As a young child, his body needs the right nutrition and water to grow healthy. So he always brings a water bottle no matter where he goes.

"Hey Gildarts, do you think that temple may be located at the top of the mountain? " Akira asked as he looked at Gildarts.

In his past life, he knew that temples were usually built in the highest place in the villages. This is so that the villagers could go to the temple when there is a disaster like a flood or something.

But with the different worlds, this common sense may be different. And Gildarts's next words proved it.

"No, according to Lady Layla, the temple was made in order to worship the artifact of the village hero who had once protected the whole village in the past. So most likely it should be placed in the center where the villagers could enter freely without venturing into any monster's territories. " Gildarts said. He knew these things from the experience of doing many quests for all these years.

"I see, " Akira said as his eyes were shining with excitement. He was really excited to go on his first treasure-hunting quest. As an archeologist, it runs in his blood to uncover the history and its wonders.

'Ancient Temple, here I come,' Akira thought with excitement.

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"Oh, what a letdown, " Akira said with a bit of disappointment as he looked at the ancient temple.

Due to Gildarts earlier remarks, the temple may be located near the edge of the forest; both of them had to search the whole mountain from top to bottom. And this whole search took a full day, as this mountain belongs to one of the large ones.

On the second morning, they found this temple made from a natural cave that is hidden by the trees.

At first, Akira was excited since, at a glance, one would think this place was one of the ancient ruins that existed for hundreds of years. But after Akira used his unique skill to read the history of this place, he was quite disappointed.

This temple was originally built by a village that worshipped Ophiuchus, the celestial spirit who is considered the 13th Zodiac key. From what Akira could tell, in that village there was once a celestial spirit mage who was able to form a contract with Ophiuchus. Using Ophiuchus's power, that man managed to cure a pandemic that was spreading in his village.

The villagers, respecting Ophiuchus, built this temple as gratitude for all the help Ophiuchus did. The celestial spirit mage was also crowned as head priest and was also buried here in this very temple after he passed away in old age.

After his death, the villagers still came to this temple to pray to get Ophiuchus's blessing each year. This went on for years until this place was known to a cultist who worshipped Zeref the Black Wizard.

The cultist devised a plan and managed to kill the present head priest and take his place. And in months he managed to completely control the village using the religion as a front. After that, he began his real plan.