Late at night. Under the night sky draped in moonlight.
In the dark underground dungeon where moonlight alone didn’t reach, Cairens sat alone.
The cold, damp dungeon was lonelier and more frightening than anywhere else.
The humid air filled his lungs completely, as if even his depths were being invaded by the filthy underground air.
“Haa……”
How had he ended up in such a state? Even until yesterday, he hadn’t thought he’d be in such an impious place.
“This is the end of the son of a god?”
A futile laugh quietly settled in the cold dungeon.
While being dragged here, Cairens had met the priests of the temple. Led by the priest of Zeyaom, they had babbled to Cairens about the prophecy spoken by the World Tree god who tells the future.
‘The most noble life that Cairens possesses. That surely refers to you.’
‘You are a hero, Cairens. Lord Henelion foresaw this situation and sent you to us.’
Was it really true?
Henelion had periodically lain with human women over hundreds and thousands of years to father children.
He had relationships with women of various origins and statuses without discrimination, but the children they bore were all destined to become heroes without exception.
Among them, one defeated an underground serpent that had nested in a city, someone else swept away all the bandits who were plundering temples, and yet another killed a lizard-headed monster in the palace labyrinth.
In this way, Henelion’s descendants became heroes in various manners.
However, that didn’t mean all heroes had to win wars or defeat monsters.
Noble sacrifice.
Laying down one’s life for the world.
That was a true hero.
As an example, there was Eom, Henelion’s son who became nourishment for the great World Tree Zeyaom that was withering away.
And now Cairens too would become a hero with the same case as that Eom.
Not a hero who defeats monsters or builds cities like most of his siblings, but a hero who must save countless people through mere noble sacrifice.
“That’s my destiny? This is what a hero is?”
Henelion. Was this the kind of story you wanted, you who caused me to be born?
In the first place, it was because of them that the world had become like this. Whatever the reason, they had caused chaos in the world. And they were trying to quell this chaos using Cairens, a hero for humanity, as a sacrifice.
Cairens was a human hero to quell the gods’ wrath. The gods would show off their existence to humans, and humans would praise Cairens’s nobility highly and revere the gods.
‘In the end, for just such a reason… you made me be born?’
To make him be born even to the point of saddening his mother.
‘Henelion. If this ending isn’t what you wanted, come here and help your pitiful child.’
Making a plea that wouldn’t reach, Cairens prayed quietly in the dungeon.
Even pretending to be calm, he was actually afraid of dying. He wished Henelion would come save him right away.
If he was his father, if this sacrifice wasn’t his future, he desperately prayed for him to please come save him.
“……”
But even after a long prayer, Henelion gave no response.
Having given up, Cairens stopped praying. Perhaps, as the priests said, this was Henelion’s will and the reason he was born.
“Ha… haha.”
Only laughter came out.
‘Making me a hero by sacrificing me in the chaos you created. Were you planning to turn the world back to normal and show humans the fearfulness of the gods?’
He thought he understood a little why his mother hated the gods.
Flowing tears soaked his clothes. His life that had been so very lonely was ending so miserably.
“I miss you.”
Suddenly, he wanted to see the deer.
The small beast that had become his friend though it was a short time. He began to miss the warm texture of embracing it, playing together every day.
‘Is he eating well? He shouldn’t go hungry…… He must have been very frightened earlier in the day too…… Surely no one drove him out?’
Even though he would die tomorrow, he began to worry about the deer.
Now there was no one to protect him. Since he was still a young deer, if he was driven out of the palace, he might not be able to survive alone. Perhaps Ricarkos might bully the small deer.
“No, that can’t be…… At least you must be happy.”
He hoped his mother, who had pitied him at the last moment, would take him in.
If not that, then to leave this city and roam freely across that vast land. Without catching the eyes of hunters or hungry wolves, happily for a long, long time……
This was Cairens’s last wish.
His first friend. Even if it was just a deer that seemed a bit special, during the short time they spent together, he was able to laugh sincerely.
Cairens, born with the destiny of a hero.
Born with the destiny of a hero, he would simply fulfill his mission quickly.
Since it was the destiny of a hero who protects countless people, if this death was also a hero’s destiny, then it would be destiny.
“I want to sleep a little.”
Cairens’s eyes, which had been blankly staring at the ceiling, slowly closed. Leaning his back against one side of the wall and taking a comfortable posture, he relaxed his body comfortably.
If he was going to die tomorrow like this, he wanted to rest peacefully even now.
“Hey!”
However, that peace was quickly broken by the appearance of an uninvited guest.
“Huh?”
At the child’s voice heard from the underground dungeon, Cairens’s mind snapped awake.
A child? Was it a hallucination……?
Unless it was a special case like Cairens, there was no way a child would be in such a place.
Could it be that he was hearing hallucinations right before death? Had the god of death already come?
“Hey! Can’t you hear me?”
As if frustrated by him hesitating about whether to open his eyes like this, this time a louder and more irritated voice was heard. At the continued pestering, Cairens opened his eyes. And the moment he turned his head toward where the sound was coming from.
“You’re……”
He couldn’t close his mouth at the unbelievable sight unfolding before his eyes.
“Hello, Cairens?”
Before his eyes was a deer. To be precise, Abrisius, whom Cairens had released telling him to run away, was now standing before him speaking human words.
Was this a dream or reality, was he really seeing hallucinations right before death?
At the sight he couldn’t believe even with his own two eyes, Cairens’s mind became confused. Regardless, Abrisius, who until now had only been prickly toward Cairens, slowly opened his mouth with his voice.
Cairens cautiously approached the deer in front of the iron bars and asked.
“Is it really you?”
Abrisius blinked his big eyes and nodded. He wanted to laugh at Cairens’s flustered expression as much as he could, but for now that wasn’t what was important.
“Yeah, it’s me. Cairens, I came to save you.”
“What do you mean you came to save me?”
Returning to the present, looking at Abrisius who had become a talking deer, Cairens was stunned.
It was surprising that his pet deer suddenly spoke, but he couldn’t hide his bewilderment at the absurd talk of saving him.
“What I mean is, I’ll become the sacrifice in your place.”
At Cairens’s surprised words, Abrisius answered as if it was no big deal. At Abrisius’s words, speaking so easily as if saying he was going out for a neighborhood stroll, Cairens’s brow furrowed.
“No, so what I’m asking is why you’re volunteering to become a sacrifice!”
There were many things he wanted to ask, like how the deer had learned to speak, how he had been able to avoid the jailer’s eyes.
But setting aside all those many questions, Cairens was reacting first and getting angry at Abrisius’s choice to sacrifice himself in his place.
“You absolutely can’t. And it’s already useless. The sacrifice the King and priests will offer is me, not you. Just run away like this and live well—that’s the way for me.”
“I appreciate you saying that, but my choice won’t change.”
Looking at it one way, this might be his true nature. Since he was born with a hero’s destiny in the first place, that much, sacrificing himself for someone might be easy.
“But you’re not destined to become only my hero.”
However, unfortunately, Cairens wasn’t a great man who would die after saving just one person. His destiny couldn’t end here. Even for Seianes’s future.
“So I’ll be offered in your place. The temple said, didn’t they, that the most noble life you cherish must be offered.”
“Yes, they did. So I……”
“The most noble life…… That’s not you, it’s me, Cairens.”
At the nonsensical words, Cairens’s face crumpled. Before Cairens could ask back what on earth he meant, a golden light tinged with red began to flow from the small deer’s body.
Beautiful.
An enchanting light that couldn’t be expressed in words embraced Abrisius’s entire body. Forgetting even what he was going to say, Cairens could only watch that scene in a daze.
