Side Story 01
A big thanks to the lovely Lurelia for the raws!!
Whoosh!
“Aaahhh!”
A terrifying shriek pierced the air, mingling with the violent thrashing of trees. A massive bird with the head of a lion had abducted a human.
In ancient times, fearsome beasts like this roamed everywhere. But there was something even deadlier to humans. It was divinity itself.
This was the Primordial Land – The Age of Gods:
Even when existence offered no solace and every day was a trial, humans displayed extraordinary resilience. They didn’t simply survive, they fought to live.
They bowed their heads in submission to the gods, begging for mercy. They pleaded for divine power to shield their hearts, to protect their lives from the poison of divinity.
— “It was ultimately pointless as they were all destined to perish.”
Grauzer watched a modest funeral procession pass through and mused to himself.
They conducted the funeral for Koch’s firstborn, a role sorrowfully occupied by someone just twenty-six years old. The Koch tribe stood apart as peculiar; they alone refrained from pleading for the gods’ compassion.
— “They kept protesting in the lines of something like becoming sl*ve to Gods and whatever…”
Thinking of the humans living in Prache’s territory, Grauzer could somewhat understand their sentiment. There, humans lived lives worse than animals. They toiled endlessly, and at the slightest misstep, Prache’s Avatars would strike them with whips.
It was a pitiful sight. But interfering in another god’s domain was an unspoken taboo.
— “Aite, Todd, and Natu aren’t nearly as cruel.”
Aite, for one, cherished the humans in her domain, calling them “followers.” Perhaps she liked them too much so.
— “Compared to them, I suppose I take a more casual apprach.”
Whether they accepted the contract or chose death, Grauzer cared little. He gave them free rein.
The truth was, Grauzer had little interest in humans. They were peculiar and intriguing in their own way, but that was it. To him, it was not enough to grant them mercy or meddle in their lives.
He moved past the funeral procession and ventured deeper into the grasslands. Or rather, his Avatar No. 12 did.
Grauzer often observed human life through the eyes of his reincarnations. He claimed to have no interest in humans, but eternity was dreadfully dull without some entertainment.
— “Besides, descending in my true form would be unbecoming. Not to mention, humans wouldn’t survive my power.”
So, from time to time, he sent Avatars to watch over them. Especially the impudent Kochs, who dared to live in his domain without worshipping him.
With the funeral concluded, he recognized it was time to leave.
— “Nothing else interesting is likely to happen.”
But this was his 12th Avatar we’re talking about.
— “Out of all my Avatars, this one listens to me the least.”
Avatars were fragments of Grauzer, pieces of himself given form. Each had its unique personality. Still, they were fragments of a god. So they had no choice but to obey him.
All except for this peculiar one, Avatar No. 12.
— “Where is this fool off now?”
The only redeeming quality of No. 12 was that he was the most beautiful of all his Avatars.
He was a “sculpture” in the fullest meaning— raven-black hair shimmering like a midnight frost, silver eyes glinting like polished jewels. Even Grauzer, his maker, occasionally harbored a flicker of jealousy toward his masterpiece.
Currently, he was just being a massive annoyance.
Grauzer gave up and decided to simply observe what No. 12 was up to.
Moving deeper into the grass, the Avatar paused to sniff the air before parting a thick tangle of overgrown grass.
— “?”
There, a woman with dazzling golden hair lay collapsed. Her pale, frail limbs were covered in wounds, and her flushed cheeks were laced with fresh scratches.
— “Now that I think about it, a human with Prache’s energy intruded into my domain yesterday.”
But that presence had vanished shortly after. Grauzer had assumed it was a mistake. So it was her.
— “A human in such a terrible state could only have come from Prache’s land.”
Logically, that meant she had entered into a contract with Prache. He would surely feel Prache’s presence on her.
— “But there were no traces.”
Had her contract been broken after wandering too deep into his territory?
— “What a predicament.”
Should I send her back?
— “Back to that hell?”
But keeping someone contracted to Prache in his domain was problematic.
— “That would infuriate that lunatic.”
The best option was to ignore her and walk away. But for some reason, Grauzer couldn’t take his eyes off the unconscious woman.
As he hesitated, Avatar No. 12 moved without a moment’s doubt. He gently picked her up in his arms.
— “Hey! Hey! Stop! Don’t do anything reckless!”
Avatar No. 12 pretended not to hear the furious command of his true self as he carried the woman toward the group of humans.
“W- Where did you come from?”
“Who did you bring? A woman? Or a man?”
Having just attended the funeral, the Kochs formed a circle around Avatar No. 12. Unlike other Avatars, he had no qualms about openly revealing himself to humans. The Koch welcomed him with open arms, despite viewing him simply as a traveler.
— “Cold toward gods, but warm toward their fellow humans. That’s the kind of people Kochs are.”
“I found her collapsed in the forest.”
“Judging by her state, she must’ve been a sl*ve from the neighboring territory.”
“Did she escape? How did she manage to get this far without being caught?”
“But people from that land never try to escape, no matter how much they suffer, right?”
“Maybe she’s the first one to ever do it.”
The Koch whispered anxiously among themselves.
Prache’s ‘mercy’ came at a terrible price, turning humans into tireless sl*ves, their existence a miserable ordeal.
Most had entered into contracts without understanding what they truly meant. Some were simply born into slavery, bound by the contracts their parents had made. And yet, curiously, none ever attempted to escape.
Prache’s warnings about the outside world, painting it as even more ruthless, probably kept them from venturing out. Or maybe, after living as sl*ves their whole lives, they couldn’t even comprehend the concept of freedom.
But this woman was different.
She had escaped on her own and made it all the way here.
— “And Prache’s energy has vanished from her. Did she break the contract?”
When someone entered another god’s domain, the effects of their original contract weakened. If they wished, they could even sever it entirely.
That meant they could either form a new contract with a different god or live as a free person, like the Koch.
Most people who left Prache’s land chose to form a new contract. To them, being a free person was the same as a death sentence.
— “Leave her with the Koch and come back. They’re kind. They’ll take care of her.”
Grauzer commanded Avatar No. 12.
But the Avatar replied, “I will take her to my hut and care for her myself.”
That little #@%&!
He was always disobedient, but today he was worse than ever.
— “I swear, I want to erase him from existence.”
Even knowing his true self was showing immense restraint, Avatar No. 12 didn’t bat an eye. Kochs, unaware of the silent conflict, simply nodded.
“We’ll bring some food to your hut.”
“I’ll send some herbs too.”
Though the Koch had small homes of their own, they had noticed that, for some reason, Avatar No. 12’s hut was much sturdier and more comfortable. So they willingly entrusted the woman to him.
What they didn’t know was that Grauzer had cursed endlessly while the hut was being built.
— “Why is a fragment of mine… who should eventually return to me, building a d*mn house? This disobedient punk— Ugh, whatever…”
Avatar No. 12 laid the woman down in his hut.
He simply sat beside her, staring at her face, completely still. It was as if he had stopped breathing.
Strangely enough, even Grauzer, who usually took pleasure in disrupting whatever No. 12 did, remained silent as he observed the woman.
Deep within the core of his divine existence, something stirred.
And at that moment—
The woman slowly opened her eyes. From beneath her eyelids, shimmering pink irises appeared.
Blink! Blink!
She opened and closed her eyes as if trying to grasp the situation. And with each blink, Avatar No. 12’s heart, and something within Grauzer, thumped.
“Are you all righ—”
The woman sat up suddenly causing fur covering her slipped down, revealing the red wounds carved into her pale skin. Even in such a battered state, her eyes were filled with wariness.
“Who are you?”
She glared at Avatar No. 12, her voice carrying the distinctive tone of someone from Prache’s land.
“I… I…”
Avatar No. 12 couldn’t answer because he didn’t have a name. Even “Avatar No. 12” was just a temporary designation given by Grauzer. As the silence dragged on, the woman’s pink eyes sharpened with suspicion.
With a resigned sigh, Avatar No. 12 finally spoke.
“I don’t have a name.”
