Truth Born from a Lie

A submission for the weekly short-short note project

Preface

Even in places where people have vanished, there is time that breathes quietly.
A forgotten temple and a young man who visited it.
This is a story about the "true fruit" born from that small encounter.

Body

In a place known as an unexplored region, there was a small temple.
Long ago, it was rumored that if you prayed there you would win the lottery, and it was bustling with many visitors every day.
However, the small temple bore all that greed on its own, and eventually, it fell into ruin.
It was even given the dishonorable name "Great Lie Temple," and now, no one comes to visit anymore.

A young man came to such a temple.
He cleaned the area around the temple and polished the inside of the main hall.
In the temple, which had become remarkably clean, the young man gently placed white rice and tea he had brought from home.

"It is a humble offering, but please enjoy it. I will come again tomorrow."

From then on, the young man continued to visit the temple every day.
And one day, about a year later, he quietly said goodbye to the temple.

The temple, named Great Lie Temple, gained popularity on the young man's Instagram, and it is now known as a "hidden temple." (359 characters)

Afterword

What the young man did was nothing special.
He cleaned, placed rice and tea, and just continued to visit quietly.
However, those "modest hands" awakened the dormant spirit of the temple.
In a temple with a name born from a lie, true fruit had sprouted before anyone knew it.
*This story is fiction.

I wrote this for the weekly short-short note prompt. Thank you for the prompt.