While everyone was still somewhat shocked, the village chief continued:
"This is the miracle left by the deity we will later worship!!"
"Our village's bumper rice harvest this year is a miracle left by the goddess!!"
"As long as we believe in the Goddess of Harvest, our village's rice harvest will be as bountiful as this year's every year!!"
"This..." Some people below still hesitated.
Having lived most of his life, this was the first time he had ever witnessed something like this, and he found it hard to accept.
But the others didn't care what you thought; immediately, villagers raised their fists and shouted:
" Goddess of Harvest! Goddess of Harvest!!"
Inspired by him, more villagers joined in the chanting.
" Goddess of Harvest!!!"
" Goddess of Harvest!!!"
" Goddess of Harvest!!!"
Looking at the villagers below, all chanting the title of "Goddess," the village chief smiled with satisfaction and gently raised his hand to quell them.
After the scene quieted down, the village chief spoke:
"But the goddess has brought us a bumper rice harvest, so what can we give back to the goddess?"
The scene fell silent for a moment as everyone pondered. Soon, a villager raised his hand and said:
"We can build a temple for the goddess!"
"The goddess doesn't need us to build a temple for her!" the village chief retorted.
"We can worship the goddess at home!" another villager said.
"The goddess doesn't need your offerings!" the village chief continued to retort.
The villagers recounted all the stories they had heard about worshipping gods, but the village chief dismissed them all.
Finally, the village chief asked with some doubt:
"What does the goddess want?"
The village chief smiled slightly and stated the key point.
"The goddess needs divine sons and daughters to serve her!"
The scene fell silent instantly. Everyone looked at each other, and no one spoke for a moment.
After a long while, Yuuichi finally spoke first, asking:
"Village chief, what do you mean by that?"
The village chief, with a smile on his face, stared at Yuuichi and repeated himself:
"The goddess needs to choose divine sons and daughters to serve her!!"
"How... how should we serve them?" a villager asked.
Then another villager asked, "Yes, and how long do we have to serve before we can come back?"
The village chief raised his hand again to press down, before speaking to explain:
"Serving naturally means staying by the goddess's side, and how can one pray to return while staying by the goddess's side?"
Upon hearing that the child sent there wouldn't return, everyone stared at each other in disbelief for a long time before someone finally spoke:
"Or maybe we shouldn't believe this... this..."
" Goddess of Harvest!" someone reminded him.
The man nodded repeatedly and continued, "Yes, how about we just stop believing in this Goddess of Harvest? We can still get by, can't we?"
Immediately, a villager retorted, "Of course we believe it! Why wouldn't we? Look how much more grain we harvested this year! If we had this much grain every year, we could raise not just one more animal, but three!"
"Hey! Koji, stop yelling! You don't even have a child, what are you yelling about?"
"So what if I don't have children? Does that mean I can't have children in the future?"
"You'll have a child later, so what about now..."
"Alright, alright! Stop arguing. Every three months, the goddess will choose a child under the age of 10 to serve her. Everyone will get a turn sooner or later!" The village chief interrupted the two's argument.
"Heh, did you hear that Koji? Even if you give birth to someone else, you'll still be chosen!"
"Hmph, fine, I'll take it. As long as every year's harvest is as bountiful as this year's, anything goes."
"You... you have no humanity left!"
"Tch... Humanity? Can humanity be eaten? It's only because the harvests have been a bit better these past few years, allowing you to eat your fill, that you have the mind to think about this. Otherwise, when the harvests were bad, you might be the first one wanting to send your child there!"
"You..."
"Alright, alright!" The village chief stopped the two from arguing. "From now on, the priestess and goddess will be decided by drawing lots from families with children under 10 years old!"
"Ah... this..."
Many people still have some reservations.
One villager continued to ask, "Won't there be any danger in serving the goddess?"
The village chief laughed and replied, "What danger could there be? The goddess isn't some evil deity. Look, even the Inari usually doesn't bother with whether our harvest is good or bad. The goddess does, so why would we need to ask?"
"That seems to be true!" the villager murmured.
Someone who cares about the lives of ordinary people shouldn't be a bad person... right? A bad god, isn't he?
However, they still hesitated, since the child might not be able to come back once sent there!
Koji continued grumbling, "What's there to be afraid of? The child is being sent there to serve the goddess! Who knows, maybe they'll live a better life than we do here? Besides, the goddess... the goddess... how many months does she need a child, village chief?"
"3 months!"
Having received the village chief's explanation, Koji continued, turning his head and muttering, "Did you hear that? You can only have one child every three months! There are so many people in our village, even if you wanted to draw your own child to serve the goddess, you might not even be able to draw it!"
Koji's words were immediately echoed by villagers, "Yes, I support him! This year's harvest is almost double that of a normal year! I don't want to go back to those hard times!"
"Yeah!! And in previous years, during famine years, several people would starve to death, right? Since they were going to die anyway, wouldn't it be better to send them to the goddess?"
The supporters spoke haltingly, and many people nodded unconsciously in agreement.
Many of these families have children under the age of 10!
They were terrified of poverty, and in such remote mountain villages, the poorer they were, the more likely they were to survive.
They hoped to change their family's fate by having more children, hoping to produce an outstanding individual, and also hoped to add another laborer to the family through having more children.
However, many families end up becoming poorer with each child they have, as their already meager food supply is further divided into several portions due to the increase in family members.
In such families, they might barely survive during famine years, but during years of natural disasters, several people will almost certainly die.
It is clear that the majority of those who die are among the few who are born.
In this context, it seems acceptable to assign one or two people to serve the Goddess of Harvest.
Moreover, because Rice Flower Village is located in a remote area with no major cities nearby, it has attracted almost all the people from the surrounding area, and the entire village has nearly 200 households.
One winner out of 200 people—the odds must be incredibly low. I doubt I'll be chosen.
Standing on the high platform, the village chief looked down at the clamoring crowd below, raised his hand again, and gestured for everyone to be quiet.
"Now let's all vote! Let's see how many people support it and how many oppose it!"
"Raise your hand if you support this!"
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Hands were raised.
The village chief glanced at it briefly, then frowned slightly.
Less than half!!!