My New Life As A Kid Goddess: Book 3 - Kingdom Goddess Arc 2

Arc 2: Kingdom Goddess - Chapter 45

Being a goddess means having many responsibilities just like being a lord or king does. However being in such positions of power come with perks as well, one of prominence being the acquisition of a champion. While kings and lords are expected to fight in wars to some extent there are battles seen as below them. For such conflicts is it customary for there to be a champion that defends the honor of their liege.

Even though a goddess having such a thing sounds quite absurd it was in fact quite common for gods to have their champions from the world I came from. The more common vernacular for them would be the words "hero" or "paladin." Someone who has taken an oath to fight in the world for the cause of their deity, normally on behalf of said deity who otherwise doesn't act in the world.

Goddesses exist in the world and can act in it with no problem sure, but there are still places they can't go to themselves due to the limitation on only moving where their worshipers are. I've technically found a loophole there where only one worshiper is needed, thus making this aspect mute. However having a human face in the form of a champion is still a beneficial thing.

It actually wasn't even my idea to get me a champion. It was the king's, or should I say his advisor's, idea. Perhaps it was to try to gain favor with me, or maybe it was to have a more human element with which to interact with. Likely someone more on their level who might be able to be intimidated or bribed. Though of course that wasn't a guarantee.

Regardless of their plans behind the scenes the one out in the open was the holding of a festival to find a champion for me. This would take the form as a jousting tournament, as many medieval societies decided such things in that way. It was a method to find someone who was good at combat and were rich enough to maintain things like horses are armor. This all also guaranteeing the person was of higher class and therefore hopefully good in diplomatic matters as well, though that varied greatly person to person.

Of course I found out about it long before the king sent a delegate to The Grand Temple of the Sisterhood, though it did come as a surprise to me. The having a champion thing was something I hadn't even thought about, probably because of everything else on my mind. However I wasn't against it and didn't make any moves until the official invitation came. Of course I accepted.

All of the preparations for the tournament were left to the king and his humans, it wasn't my place to involve myself in a party being thrown for me after all. I mean not that I wanted to anyway. For the most part I am a lazy goddess. There was also plenty of other more important things for me to do.

The tournament took only a week to prepare and was setup outside the kingdom's capital city of Norlov in the open plains. The main jousting area was a cleared patch of land that was divided by a wooden fence and surrounded by a wooden fence. Then the grandstands surrounded that in which spectators sat. The royal family and other esteemed guests sat in a large tower of sorts that was about as tall as the highest seats.

Plenty of flags and banners flew all around the place, catching in the wind and making distinct flapping sounds as they whipped about. They overlooked the rest of the festival grounds which included things like a pit for an open brawl and many vendor stands. There were food vendors, people selling knickknacks, and places that sold weapons too. With jousting being the main focus there was also a few places that dealt in horses and their breeding.

On the day of the tournament I arrived at my goddess size, walking up to the place with thundering steps in order to make a grand entrance. One must have showmanship when it comes to being important, or in my case being large and in charge. After my initial arrival I did change back to my human size however.

It was a beautiful fall morning with only a slight wind to ruffle the flags. The temperature wasn't too hot or too cold, with the morning mists fading away into bright and slightly warm sunshine. Reading about and seeing such festivities in books or movies was one thing but actually being there in person was on a whole new level. The whole place was alive with activity and seemed to be a good boost for the citizen's morale as a whole.