Marvel Book of Magical Events

Chapter 1713 Chapter 1709 Inanna

Captain Miller put down the carbonized reed pen and ended his day's work.

He handed the clay tablet to his student, then stood up and walked to the window, parted the linen curtains, and pushed open the transparent glass window that should not have been made in this era. The sunset on the coast of Mesopotamia came in unceremoniously with the sea breeze, casting a piece of orange-red light into the room.

If a human being can devote twenty years to a certain skill and career, what kind of achievements can this person achieve? Now he feels that he can answer this question. Twenty years is enough to make his hair gray and his knees sore. The high-back chair made of precious wood on the Mesopotamian plain cannot relieve the back pain that may come with aging even if it is covered with the softest cashmere. None of this happened. He still looked like a middle-aged man. His dark skin became rougher due to long-term labor, but he was still strong and healthy. This was a gift from the emperor. After becoming a nominal priest, the emperor gave him a bottle of red liquid medicine, which could keep him young and alive. Twenty years was enough for him to become an educator from an astronaut. He sorted out and mastered the cuneiform scripts of Eridu and its surrounding areas, which gave him a very high social status. The children who were once taken away from their hometown by caravans have now become shrewd and capable young people, such as the student next to him.

They wore simple linen uniforms that were completely different from those of local humans, and had a completely different way of thinking from this era. These children had seen the emperor not long ago, but Captain Miller had not. He had not seen the emperor for a long time, and the emperor did not seem to want to see him. Captain Miller was very satisfied that he could live in peace with the emperor.

"The Venus Festival is coming, teacher. The temple avenue will be covered with petals again." The student stood aside and said respectfully.

The work of firing clay tablets is in charge of a special person, and students no longer need to do it themselves. After the clay tablets are fired and formed, new apprentices will copy them on sheep fetal calf paper and put them in the archives of the temple for storage. The emperor brought great changes to Eridu. At least in this era, alloy weapons and simple black powder fixed firearms that should not be manufactured are now hung on the waists of students. Weapons are quite necessary for humans in this era, especially students from the temple, almost every one of them is a symbol of wealth. The safety of students does not need to be worried about Eridu and hundreds of kilometers nearby, but it is difficult to guarantee that there will be no one who will be tempted by money in places farther away. It seems that in order to avoid accidents, all students will participate in basic weapons training and learn how to use short knives and fixed black powder weapons.

Eridu has changed more than this in the twenty years since the emperor arrived.

"Your marriage application has been approved, Cadmoz. I know about this, and I am willing to give you a day off on that day." Captain Miller said gently like an elder, "Venus Day is the best opportunity for couples to get together, and you shouldn't give up on that girl."

"But my job application has also been approved."

"You didn't tell me about this." Captain Miller raised his eyebrows, "What job?"

"I don't know, it was the Guards that told me. The angel told me that I passed the test, but I didn't take the test." Cadmoz grinned embarrassedly, "The best apprentices can accept the Guards' missions, and I was asked to go to the temple for training. Anyway, this is a good thing, isn't it?"

Cadmoz didn't see that his teacher was as surprised as he expected, but was a little angry instead.

This made him at a loss, thinking that he had made a mistake.

"This is not your fault, kid, you did a good job." Captain Miller suppressed his anger.

Every year, the Guards will take the best children away from them.

Cadmoz was a student majoring in mechanics. His knowledge was so valuable in this era, but the Guards still decided to take him away. It seemed that the Guards thought Cadmoz had a more important use. He would not know what kind of training those outstanding students would receive. Captain Miller's authority allowed him to know that the emperor had established an organization under the jurisdiction of the Guards, but the information he knew was limited to this. This organization had some purpose that he did not know and operated according to logic that he did not understand, but Captain Miller knew that the selected students would not appear in front of him again. They would become the emperor's agents, away from this city to the Mediterranean coast north of the Mesopotamian Plain or Egypt, becoming informants of the emperor and the Guards, obtaining intelligence or killing people there.

He heard some rumors.

It is said that on the narrow Red Sea coast where the Suez Canal has not yet been dug, someone has seen the "blue angel". This rumor has been spread by merchants for decades. He is very sure that the so-called "blue angel" is some kind of alien. The emperor did keep his promise and fight for the human race against all enemies, including aliens, but Captain Miller knew that he could not bear such a responsibility, and he did not want his most valued students to waste their lives fighting against the enemy.

They have a more important responsibility, which is to pass on the knowledge he taught to future generations.

"You should enjoy your life, Cadmozi. Ask that girl out, get married, and have some children. I'll talk to Constantine, and don't worry about the Festival of Venus, Inanna would be happy for you to attend her festival."

Inanna is the emperor's guest and now one of the hostesses of the temple.

She had been the emperor's guest twenty years ago when the emperor first ordered the people of Eridu to clean the city, pave the roads, and sprinkle the avenues leading to the temple with flower petals. The breathtakingly beautiful young woman walked down the road, led by the emperor's equally delicate maid. She was wearing a coat woven from bird feathers that looked like wings, a golden necklace inlaid with lapis lazuli beads, and nothing else. Her soft and smooth skin was exposed to the sun, and she exuded a dreamy glow all over her body. Even walking barefoot on the streets, Inanna's white feet were not stained with a speck of dust.

There was no doubt that this was a god.

All the residents of Eridu saw with their own eyes that day that the emperor stood in the square in front of the temple to greet the woman, and the "golden angel" presented gifts to the goddess on behalf of the emperor. The gifts included the lion skin peeled off by the emperor after hunting, fragrant soap (primitive soap existed in this era), dates, milk, wheat, and a rose knot seal symbolizing identity. From then on, the rose knot seal became the symbol of this god. When the goddess put on the lion skin given by the emperor, she announced to the emperor's subjects that she lived in the wilderness and came to the city to obtain the emperor's wisdom.

After that, Inanna lived in a corner of the temple.

The Eridu people believed that every morning the temple priests would make a bed for Inanna and sprinkle perfume on the cashmere bed. Inanna would clean herself with soap, and then passionately lie on the sweet cashmere bed to perform a sacred union ceremony with the emperor. Inanna would be satisfied and happy, and then bless the women of Eridu. Therefore, young women and pregnant women in Eridu would bring clay cakes with obvious fertility worship images to the temple and receive the blessing of Inanna, who was fully armed, under the guidance of the messenger Nimshubur. They called her "Goddess of Heaven" and "Lover of Gods", and they worshiped her, but not for marriage but for love.

All Eridu people knew it. To be precise, in the myth that Eridu people were allowed to know, Inanna complained to the owner of the City of Sweet Water, the god of knowledge and crafts, and the god of wisdom that she was treated unfairly, but the emperor told Inanna that she already had her own power, so he would not give her any more. The emperor gave Inanna sacred objects, including abstract concepts such as truth, victory, and advice, as well as writing (text), weaving technology, laws, the social structure of priests and monarchs, in addition to armor, bows and arrows, and a living lion. The day when Inanna came to Eridu was designated as the Venus Festival, a festival that all men and women of appropriate age in Eridu and its surrounding areas would come to the city to participate in. Whenever the Venus Festival came, the energetic and tireless Inanna would wear high-heeled sandals and come to the crowd, encouraging young girls to accept their inner impulses and welcome their other half in love.

Regardless of what the so-called gods are, Captain Miller's cognition is obviously different from that of others.

Captain Miller knew that reality was far from as beautiful as in mythology. He did not think that a cold and rational person like the emperor would accept an inexplicable woman sharing half of his bedroom. The so-called "Ninshubul" was actually the emperor's maid Dinah, and the emperor placed the maid next to the goddess to monitor this so-called god from the wilderness. But it is undeniable that Inanna did have a certain status in the temple. The once young female officials have now entered the best childbearing age, and Dinah ordered them to train a group of new young girls to serve the emperor, and these girls now also serve Inanna. There were also rumors that the emperor had built a courtyard full of everlasting flowers for Inanna, but Captain Miller knew that the so-called courtyard was actually an experimental field for students majoring in botany, biochemistry and pharmacy.

The emperor sat on the throne day after day, and every civilian and priest who was allowed to enter the temple for twenty years could see him. On another smaller throne under the steps of the throne in the temple hall sat a young woman, who twisted her body in dissatisfaction under Dinah's stern gaze, as if the soft and delicate cashmere clothes made her skin, which was much more delicate than ordinary people, itchy. She looked at the emperor who was handling official business on the throne with longing eyes, and then was repeatedly tortured by the boring environment of the workplace. Whenever she tried to stretch her neck to listen to the conversation between the emperor and the guards, the maid in a long skirt would stand in front of her and press her shoulders unceremoniously to fix her firmly on the throne.

The emperor waved his hand, "You haven't completed your weapon training today."

"Because you have been writing!" Inanna shouted dissatisfiedly.

Compared to her appearance when she first entered Eridu twenty years ago, Inanna has completely changed her clothes.

In order to restrict her movements, Dinah deliberately chose a 21st century tight evening dress and high heels, which Inanna could not keep her balance even when she stepped on them. However, she liked these high-heeled sandals that could kill people very much. Dinah had no idea why her restrictions would fail, and even the evening dress could not bring any restrictions to Inanna. She is the goddess of sex and love, a deity born from the worship of fertility and reproduction at the beginning of human civilization. When she entered the city, she wore nothing but a feather coat and lapis lazuli jewelry.

Compared with women's clothing of this era, a backless evening dress with slits to the thigh can be called conservative, and even fashionable. The only restriction that can work is Dinah's strict control of cosmetics and daily necessities. Inanna is reluctant to give up those things that can only be obtained in Eridu. If it weren't for this, this god with his own little thoughts would have made a big fuss in the city long ago - Inanna thought she had obtained the sacred objects of Eridu and the most precious civilization, but the ability shown by the emperor showed that what the Eridu people had obtained was not of much value - she ran a farm with the emperor, learning planting and animal husbandry, and she didn't think she had learned all the knowledge.

"You don't need me to participate in your training."

The emperor glanced at her unhappily. He didn't like being interrupted when he was working, but his contract with Inanna could not restrain her at this time. After all, he was just dealing with "daily affairs" instead of "emergency affairs" now, and Inanna had every reason to occupy his time. Inanna was in charge of sex, reproduction and war, and was also related to justice and regime. It was not accidental that she came to Eridu. The emperor had seen Inanna transform into a cat on her own initiative - this was a talent, Bayonetta and Jeanne d'Arc could also transform into cats without spells - the emperor believed that the sadistic tendencies of the Shadow Witch clan might have an unknown relationship with Inanna. More reliable evidence is Inanna's appearance. When he lived with the witch, he had seen a vision. He thought it was Bayonetta in the Mesopotamian plain before the Common Era, but now the appearance of Inanna shows that the vision he predicted in the 21st century was actually Inanna, not Bayonetta.

The Supreme Sorcerer may have realized this and persuaded him to accept Inanna. The fate of him and the Shadow Witch clan is far more entangled than imagined. This is one of the reasons why the emperor accepted Inanna. She is too much like Bayonetta.

Another reason is that the emperor needs sufficient high-quality labor, and cooperating with Inanna is the best choice. As a human worship of fertility in the Mesopotamian plain, the southern coast of the Mediterranean and ancient Egypt, Inanna can increase the fertility rate in Eridu. Coupled with the midwives trained by the emperor, the midwifery tools made by students of mechanical science and the herbal extracts made by pharmacy majors, the infant mortality rate in Eridu has dropped to 10%, and the average annual population growth rate has reached 6%. Due to the emperor's construction of collective farms, dams, and manufacturing of large agricultural tools to improve efficiency, the grain output of Eridu is now enough to feed more than 7,000 residents of Eridu plus all the villages within a radius of 30 kilometers. Only sufficient food can support the small factories built by the emperor to produce qualified industrial products. Whether it is a collective farm or a factory, it is a labor-intensive industry. The emperor needs a large population, and Inanna is the best choice.

"But I want you. Whether it is day or night, whether Venus is above or below the horizon. Every year on this day, you are mine!" Inanna twisted and turned on the throne and finally stood up. She raised her voice, like a roaring lioness swearing sovereignty, very much like the tone of Bayonetta and Joan of Arc when they were angry. "I will fight alongside you, An (her name for the emperor), this is the condition we agreed on!"

Inanna's willfulness made Dinah very angry. She glared at the goddess fiercely, as if she was going to teach her a lesson again.

The former proudly puffed her chest and accepted Dinah's challenge, not thinking about the consequences that had happened several times before and seemed to continue to happen. Perhaps because of the similarity between Inanna and Bayonetta, Dinah always quarreled with Inanna. With the emperor's express prohibition of physical conflict, the fight between Inanna and Dinah was still within control. Almost every time, Inanna would admit defeat and beg Dinah to return the confiscated gem jewelry, perfume and cosmetics to her. The next time she would forget the previous lesson and provoke Dinah again. Their relationship was not always so bad. Inanna could help Dinah with her duties in other aspects, and the latter was very happy with Inanna's advice, because Inanna did share the emperor's bedroom, and He was destined to be entangled with the Shadow Witch Clan.

"My Lord." Dinah stopped persecuting Inanna and regained her professional calm, "Captain Miller wants to see you."

"It's time." The emperor nodded, "Let him come, we no longer need him for our teaching mission."