His order placed and most of his gear stowed safely inside the blacksmith's home, save for his sarcina and pugio on his belt, Glavus now had one problem. He was desperate for some kind of direction, rather than physical help now. He needed to make a visit, and for that he needed an animal.
And so here he was outside the silversmith's home, his sarcina now full of native coin as he strode out into the street. "Thank you again, Gekkafoji. I really do appreciate your help."
"Ah, don't mention it," the blacksmith's daughter said, waving him off. "I can't have that old geezer ripping off one of my friends. And since I can tell the purity of metals, it was as easy as pie!"
Glavus tilted his head. "Easy as pie?"
"Oh, ah, it's just a saying. It was easy," she answered, shrugging. "Oh, and call me Niko."
"Then I guess you can call me Glavus," the Roman replied, earning a slight smile from her. "How does that ability work anyway? Do other people have abilities like that?"
Niko shook her head. "No, they're pretty rare. I only noticed I had mine a year or two ago. And I don't really understand it," she explained. "It's like trying to explain taste to someone who can't taste."
"That's very interesting. I've only heard of the descendants of gods having abilities like that."
She chuckled at his statement. "No, nothing crazy like that. An oni in the forest just gave me a sword to restore as a job."
That reply gave Glavus pause. He wasn't entirely sure whether that was more or less believable.
"An oni?" he questioned.
"Yup, big monster, red skin and horns on his head, apparently they like to eat people."
What? What!? Glavus decided to just ignore that. He'd already had a ten year old try to eat him and was visited by some insane goddess. "Niko, I have another favor to ask."
The shrine at the top of the hill was rather modest, but well upkept. He passed through a massive wooden squared portal as he reached flat ground and took in the view. Three or four acti away sat the shrine, a one floor structure surrounded by a sparse wood, that gradually grew denser the further away from the shrine one went. It held an impressive roof for its small size. Glavus began walking down the stone tile path towards the squat building. Niko had elected to go back to her shop. She had business to conduct, it seemed.
The legionary held the bag tightly by the top; the chicken had mostly given up, but would jump at the chance to run away as soon as he gave it one. He reached the steps to the shrine, which were worn smooth over the years with small ruts forming in the center, and stepped up to a large wooden box with a slotted lid at the top.
It was rather foreign to him. There was no large decorated building, no wide altar for a group to use for their sacrifices. Well, I might as well, he figured. He dropped a couple small coins into the box.
The second the coins rang as they hit the bottom of the box the sound of shuffling feet and sliding doors could be heard coming from the interior of the building. "Thank you for the donation~"
The woman that greeted him wore rather strange clothes, but then again so did everyone in this place. Rather than the Vestal robes he was used to, the shrine's pristess sported a split front robe-like blouse that was common to the villagers, except it was tucked into her legwear rather than running the woman's entire length. Her legs were covered by what appeared to be a brilliant red skirt. But as she moved, Glavus discerned that the skirt was instead very loose and pleated trousers.
The most interesting part of her image was, rather, her bright green hair that cascaded down her shoulders, which framed a prominent face studded by a pair of bright green eyes. "An outsider, huh?" she asked, her hands moving towards her hips and her brow furrowing as she took in his figure. Eventually her gazed reached his hand clutching the small burlap sack. A small chirp erupted from it.
"What the hell are you- is that a chicken!?" the priestess yelled, pointing angrily at his bag as the creature inside began to stir from the sound of the conversation.
"I can't afford much more for a sacrifice," Glavus explained. Of course, he thought, what else would I be at a shrine for?
"You don't sacrifice animals to gods!"
Now Glavus was confused. "What? Of course you... Who even is the god of this shrine?"
"I don't-" she stopped a second, averting her eyes quickly as she thought. "That's not the point. If you really need to just do it over there!"
She pointed back towards where he came, by the large gate at the entrance of the shrine grounds.
"Just clean up after yourself!"
Really? No altar or anything?
"Thank you," he replied, giving a quick nod. No point in pushing the issue for anything else. He was sure the gods would understand his predicament anyway.
"Trivia, goddess of the road to the Underworld, I pray on behalf of my comrades. I offer this chicken I sourced from the village as a sacrifice. May-"
The fire almost unnaturally sprung up and consumed the beheaded chicken which had been placed on a spit over the small bundle of twigs. It was no proper altar, but any divine being willing to help him out was probably not picky about the exact method. It bloomed brilliantly, stinging his eyes as it engulfed the entire animal. Within minutes it was gone, leaving only the charred stick and bones to fall down to the center of the ash. The flame went out with it, leaving wispy trails of smoke that dissipated into the air.
"Huh," was all he had to say. He carefully looked around, subtly sweeping his head side to side a couple times.
"Huh indeed," came a voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once.
He twitched in surprise as a smooth, sweet voice unlike any he had heard spoke up from behind him in perfect, unaccented Latin. The Legionary turned towards the voice and immediately fell to his hands, digging his face into the stone ground once he saw the divine form before him.
"I'm glad you've made it here, Glavus."
"I cannot thank you enough for saving my life," the Roman replied. Emotions welled in his chest, choking him as he thought of more to say. All the stress of ever since the battle, if not his entire life in the Legion, seemed to melt away.
"Thank your lar," the voice answered. "She heard your prayers and asked for intervention. I have to say, spirits coming to me on behalf of humans is rather rare."
"Where is the lar now?" Glavus asked. What a loyal being! If he ever found his lar again he would lavish it with sacrifices!
"Honestly, I don't know. I had to work through a friend of mine to get you here. She made this place so who comes in and out—and when—is up to her."
A third voice popped in suddenly. "Hey, what are you doing here?!"
Glavus' head popped up to see the priestess hurriedly making her way towards the two.
"Hecatia, last time you were here I was cleaning up Hell fairies for a week!"
"Oh, calm down, Sakura. I'm just visiting a worshipper," the goddess answered.
It seemed that the priestess wasn't someone to be trifled with if she could speak one-to-one with a goddess such as Trivia like that. But with his head raised, Glavus could now get a better look at the goddess. Rather than the flowing robes and tall, regal face he expected, she had a set of clothes on he had not seen even in the strange village. She had a short blue skirt on that reached to just above her knees, and her feet were rapped in mid-calf boots that had no apparent seams save for the lacing in the front.
The most confusing aspect of her clothing was a rather baggy shirt that cut off at the waist and halfway down her upper arms. Trivia turned around and faced him. Plastered across the chest on the shirt was the word "SLAYER" in poor handwriting; he wasn't quite sure what that meant. But he supposed that between the two of them, the divine were allowed to wear whatever they wanted.
"Please excuse her," the goddess said. "I supposed I did cause some trouble for her a couple years ago.
Glavus bowed his head once more in obedience. "Of course."
"Now, I have some business to attend to. Clean up, please, and thank you for the chicken. No one knows how to worship a proper goddess anymore."
With the remains of the fire and sacrifice cleaned up and buried a couple dozen feet into the trees, Glavus made his way back towards the stone pathway and towards the stairs.
"Roman..."
The voice was small, and sounded from right behind him. It was hardly a whisper, but consumed his entire awareness.
"Roman, listen well..."
Again the voice touched his mind directly. He looked around the shrine grounds. The sun was setting and the dark was growing, but the shadows of the forest seemed unnaturally so. It reminded him more of that child monster's power more than natural shade.
"Be wary of the people against which you cast your die."
A bead of sweat beginning to form on his eyebrow. Sparing only a final glance at the woods, he set off at a brisk pace towards the village. The sun would sink below the horizon in roughly an hour. He paid no mind to the woman who was sitting on a boulder by the gate to the shrine. He noticed neither her green hair or eyes, nor her missing legs.
AN: Relatively short chapter but I think I established for the later story pretty decently. And if you think I was lazy with the scene transitions, I was. I would rather release an imperfect product than never at all though so screw it.
The fan-gathered timeline is very loose, so I'm going to put this after the "Vampire Incident" where an unnamed vampire went on a 'slight' rampage. But, Reimu and Marisa still aren't even born yet. Because screw it, I can. Although later on I may change the last couple chapters. I'm not 100% sure I want the SDM in Touhou that long before EOSD. But luckily they aren't critical to the story so I don't have to drastically change anything, just how he was 'taught' Japanese.
As for Niko's ability to "see the purity of metal", not all humans are necessarily unpowered. Characters like Reimu or Marisa aren't the only examples. Kosuzu from Forbidden Scrollery, for example, is able to read any written language after being exposed to Youma Books.