Around the same time. Inside the empty greenhouse garden, Abrisius stared intently at the door leading outside.
‘How petty. Why won’t they let me go out?’
He’d heard until his ears were calloused that the outside was dangerous every single day, but Abrisius didn’t believe those words. He knew well that Seianes cherished him greatly, but the degree of it was excessive.
[I can do things by myself too!]
Fed up with the attitude that still treated him like a baby who couldn’t even control his own body, it was useless even if he said something. With the words “But I’ll do it for you~,” he always did everything Abrisius tried to do in his place.
‘Seianes seems to look down on me too much because I’m young. I can do well on my own though…’
Abrisius, frustrated by his overprotectiveness, muttered.
Unlike what Seianes said, the outside world might not be such a dangerous place.
Perhaps it was a lie Seianes made up to control his actions because he was young.
‘Should I sneak out?’
Abrisius, who had been sulking for a moment, sparkled his eyes.
“Hehehe… He’ll probably be shocked, right? If I go out splendidly and come home without a single hair injured, Seianes might allow me to go outside.”
As it happened, Seianes had left his spot because he had business to attend to.
He didn’t know what it was about, but Seianes, who had a conversation with someone knocking on the door from outside, hurriedly took all the deer and left.
Of course, leaving Abrisius alone in the greenhouse garden because he was young.
“How petty. I’m all grown up now. I’m going to go out and see the world by myself.”
Walking trudge trudge toward the door, Abrisius looked at the giant door that was dozens of times his size.
‘What does the outside look like? According to Seianes, scary monsters are scattered everywhere outside. Is it really true?’
He wanted to run outside right away, but fear of the unfamiliar world came first. Instead of rushing out the door immediately, he knocked on the door with his small hand and put his ear against it.
‘…’
He listened quietly, but perhaps because of the thick door, no sound could be heard beyond it. He couldn’t hear the cries of the scary monsters Seianes had mentioned at all.
“What, so it was needless worry after all.”
In the end, all of this was Seianes’s overprotectiveness.
“Still, to lie to me is too much.”
Reassured, Abrisius only increased his distrust toward Seianes as he used his whole body to push the giant door.
Creeeak.
Thinking that Abrisius would naturally be inside the greenhouse garden, Seianes seemed to have gone out without locking the door. When he put strength into it using his whole body, the giant door began to open, showing a gap.
Finally, a space large enough for Abrisius to slip through appeared, and he rushed outside as if he’d been waiting for this.
“Oof, uh… Woooow.”
As he opened the door and stepped out, brilliant sunlight enveloped Abrisius. Sunlight on a different dimension from the artificial light created in the greenhouse garden beautifully illuminated the giant pillars made of white marble.
“Wow, it’s so, so amazing.”
Abrisius was entranced by the beauty on a different dimension from the greenhouse garden.
To the child who had grown up in the greenhouse garden—narrow if you called it narrow, spacious if you called it spacious—the world outside the door was a place that was far too wondrous.
‘Seianes is a liar after all. Far from being scary, it’s this pretty…’
Walking for a while like that and coming outside the temple, a gentle breeze he’d never felt before tickled Abrisius’s hair.
Following his gaze to where the wind was blowing, verdant land spread out before Abrisius’s eyes.
Overwhelmed by the magnificent land that couldn’t even be compared to the greenhouse he’d been confined in until now, Abrisius’s heart pounded.
“So… so amazing.”
Setting foot on the ground, he took a deep breath. Cool air on a different dimension from what he’d felt inside filled Abrisius completely.
“Why did he hide this from me? There’s nothing scary at all!”
No scary monsters, no evil beasts could be found. The abundant and beautiful land was far from frightening.
Real gentle breezes, real sunlight, the endless blue sky—everything couldn’t even be compared to the artificially created greenhouse garden.
“I’m happy…”
Rolling around on the verdant land, he savored the freedom he was experiencing for the first time. Without even dreaming that someone was quietly watching his appearance.
“This kid is really something else.”
After the banquet ended, Amina’s premonition that he would encounter something interesting wasn’t wrong. White pupils without irises that should have had pitch-black vision explored Abrisius.
To the eye, he looked like just an ordinary child, but the flowing energy itself was unusual.
No, should he describe it as all mixed up?
Anyway, the soul contained within seemed human but wasn’t human, and though he was born with the energy of the divine race, he happened to possess the energy of the underground… it was a feeling of something all mixed together.
The incomprehensible combination drew Amina’s interest.
Even though he had lived the longest among all gods, this was the first time seeing such a thing, so it was quite refreshing.
“Is he human? Or is he a god? Or is he a new existence formed by two souls merging?”
It seemed like something interesting would happen, but he hadn’t expected this. Amina slowly approached the grass where Abrisius was playing with an interested air.
“Hello, little one?”
The shadow felt from behind along with a voice heard for the first time.
If it were an ordinary human, they would feel wariness at a voice heard for the first time, but Abrisius, who had just come out into the world, turned his head toward the voice directed at him without particular suspicion.
And he came face to face with white eyes without pupils looking at him.
“…”
“…”
A very brief silence flowed. Abrisius’s round eyes slowly scanned Amina’s entire body.
White eyes, a large and giant body. An appearance that anyone would think monstrous. Abrisius’s expression, which had been bright and innocent, hardened and the color drained from his face.
“Kyaaaaaaaaah—!”
Immediately, Abrisius’s ear-splitting scream echoed across the land.
Terrified by the strange existence he was seeing for the first time, Abrisius’s body stiffened rigid. The monster stories he’d heard from Seianes until now hit him viscerally.
‘Everything Seianes said was true!’
Until just a moment ago, he regretted so much not believing his words.
At Abrisius’s reaction of being terrified in shock, Amina tilted his head. Not knowing how his appearance looked to the other party, he reached out his hand to soothe Abrisius.
“D-don’t come closer…”
However, it didn’t work on Abrisius, who was already terrified by his eerie appearance.
“*Sob*, sniff… I don’t knooow. Seianes? Where are you? I… I was wroooong…”
Rather, the child, even more terrified, cried wailing and looked for Seianes. But perhaps as the price for not listening, his one and only guardian who would protect him had already left far away.
“Waaaaaaah—!”
Driven to the edge, Abrisius immediately began gasping as if he would stop breathing.
“Oh dear…”
At the sight that looked like he might even have a seizure at this rate, Amina clicked his tongue. To think he was crying as if he’d met a monster upon seeing himself, the most magnificent being after Chaos—his pride was slightly hurt.
That said, he had no intention of leaving so easily.
“Oh my, look at this.”
The faint energy inside Abrisius that he could still feel even now.
“I thought I felt human energy, so he wasn’t a child of this side.”
Having become interested in that energy that revealed itself more the more excited he got, there was no way he could easily let him go.
Even if others didn’t know, Amina alone could tell. When he felt a strange sensation combining the underground, the surface, and humans, it turned out the soul wasn’t rooted in this world.
Seeing the child through whom an unfamiliar sensation he was feeling for the first time in the world flowed, curiosity kept surging.
How did such a soul come to this land?
“Waaaaaah.”
But the person himself didn’t seem to even know what kind of existence he was.
“Child, stop crying. Don’t you want to know your essence?”
“Waaah… *sniff*… huh?”
Before the child could even answer, Amina, unable to contain his curiosity for the first time in thousands of years, reached out his hand toward the child.
His giant hand covered Abrisius’s body—not even a handful—blocking his vision.
“There’s no need to be so scared, child. My name is Amina, brother and father of all emotions.”
Everything about you, that is. Amina smiled toward Abrisius, completely covered by his hand.
And he whispered so quietly it couldn’t be heard.
“After just one sleep, you’ll be able to know everything. However, um… it will be a bit difficult.”
As soon as the words ended, a frighteningly cold air descended on the surroundings.
From within his hand wrapped around Abrisius, an unidentifiable power burst forth.
