TCMED 04

Chapter 04

[Saintess, “In the age of despair, the hero shall come from the lowest place.” After delivering the prophecy, she died suddenly…… The position of the next deliverer remains vacant.]

I suppose I was about fifteen when I saw that article.

The phrase from the Saintess’s prophecy, ‘the lowest place,’ was the title of a novel I hadn’t finished reading in my previous life.

Thanks to that article, I realized that there were less than five or six years left until the novel’s plot began.

<Thetis, I can’t live like this. You skipped worship again and went off somewhere alone?>

<I’m sorry…….>

I had been lost quite a bit around that time.

Memories from my previous life and from when I was reborn – and now even the solidified memories of the future – all churned together in one brain, and I felt a sense of disconnect with every breath. I was tormented by an inexplicable suffocation, and I often wanted to run away.

So, perhaps it was a natural course for me, at fifteen for the second time, to become a little rebellious.

<……Hey.>

And that year, I met Ion.

He was the young disciple of an elderly head priest dispatched from the main temple, and at the time, he had light wheat-colored hair.

I remember he wore a large, ill-fitting robe, and it was a bit grubby.

Before his divine power had blossomed, he was like a stray cat that didn’t let anyone touch him.

After our first encounter, when our eyes met from afar as I was climbing over the temple wall, that meek-looking boy started lingering around me.

I still don’t really know why. Perhaps he was simply shocked by the sight of me skipping worship services, having lived his whole life in the temple.

Anyway, I never did anything to him, but every time we ran into each other, the distance between us grew smaller.

It was one day during that time that he erased even the minimal distance he maintained and spoke to me.

<……What are you doing?>

I was leaning against a wooden pillar. I looked up at Ion standing beside me, then squinted my eyes against the sunlight.

<Skipping out.>

<You shouldn’t do this.>

His voice was quite serious when he said that. I chuckled softly, watching the scrawny kid try to act grown-up.

<Why?>

<You’ll be punished later.>

<Later? When?>

At my question, Ion seemed flustered, pressing his lips shut and pondering.

After quite some time, the answer that came out was, unlike before, uncertain.

<……After you die, I suppose.>

After you die.

Because I had memories from when I was reborn, even if not by my will, his words didn’t quite resonate with me.

<Ah, is that so?>

<Yeah.>

It was a weekend afternoon during a worship service. I briefly wondered why the young disciple of the head priest had come here at this hour.

The conclusion came quickly. Looking at him standing there stubbornly, I patted the spot next to me.

<Do you want to skip out with me?>

Ion’s eyes widened at my words. His round, fully revealed green irises wavered aimlessly. I held back a laugh.

After tormenting his own lips for a while, he finally spoke.

<……Okay.>

<Alright, come here.>

When I spread out a handkerchief for him, he plopped down without hesitation, and I laughed out loud.

That was our first conversation.

I was admiring the scenery flowing past the window when I spotted Maximus and waved. Maximus let out a pleased cry.

As I watched that and smiled, I felt someone take my hand from beside me.

“Why are you smiling?”

“Max, I mean, our eyes met.”

Yes. I am currently riding in Ion’s carriage, on my way to the capital. Ion seemed to have become a higher-ranking priest than I’d expected.

I took in his priestly robes anew. How much had he gone through to wear that?

There is a process that one must go through to become a priest in the Mitev faith.

The Pilgrim’s Path.

Every few years, when the path to the southern continent of Pavula opens, monks who wish to become priests depart on pilgrimage along that route.

Usually, the southern continent is battered by typhoons and rough waves, forbidding human entry.

Monks who set out on the Pilgrim’s Path must push through all sorts of storms to reach the continent of Pavula. Losing a fellow traveler right beside you was a common occurrence in that process.

Nevertheless, they go on pilgrimage to receive divine power from Mitev.

Those who complete the thorny path are granted divine power, great or small, and they return to become priests.

Ion too set out on the Pilgrim’s Path the very next year after we met.

At fifteen, on the night of the first snowfall. Ion, blankly staring at the sky where snow fell like stars, said to me.

<Titi.>

<Yeah.>

<Why do I not feel anticipation for what lies at the end of it all?>

That wasn’t really a question, but closer to self-deprecation.

Even if it had been a question, I probably couldn’t have answered him. At that time, my own mind was too troubled to look forward to tomorrow.

Still, Ion looked so precarious that I couldn’t stay silent. I had to say something.

<Tell me what stars are visible in the southern continent.>

I tried to convey both my hope that he would have more to look forward to besides his faith and my intention to wait for him, and that was the result.

Ion read all the hidden meaning in my clumsy words and embraced me without a word.

We parted that way and are now meeting again after several years.

I still felt the warmth covering my hand.

His white hair, grown long past his shoulders, his sharper features, and his green eyes, which had deepened like a swamp.

I tried to fathom the time my friend had spent becoming an adult in the places I hadn’t seen.

“Have you been well?”

As I offered this belated greeting, Ion squeezed my hand. Reaching out his other hand to draw the carriage window curtain, he leaned his head on my shoulder.

“……Perhaps.”

“What kind of answer is that?”

Ion laughed silently at my incredulous tone. His demeanor was completely different from when he was with his aides earlier.

Watching him act like this, he’s just the same as when we were kids.

“Titi, have you been well?”

“I’ve been fine.”

We chatted about all the stories we’d piled up until the thin curtain was dyed in twilight and then submerged in deep darkness.

“After you left, I was feeling down, and one of the village kids picked some hydrangeas for me. But by chance, the color was the same as the ones you gave me back then…….”

Knock knock.

The conversation stopped when someone knocked on the window from outside.

“Sir……, ahem. Sir Ion. It seems we’ll have to stay here tonight.”

Ion, looking disappointed and pouting his lips, whispered quietly enough so that those outside couldn’t hear.

“Since there are many eyes out there, I should say goodnight here. Sleep well, Titi.”

“Yeah, you sleep well too.”

A gentle smile appeared on Ion’s face at my words, but it was only for a fleeting moment.

The moment the aide, who had signaled once more, opened the carriage door, that peculiar pressure I had felt this morning emanated from him again.

The relaxed expression on his face had hardened into something serious.

This was the face Ion always wore when he was acting as a priest.

“Here it is.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Thanks to his consideration, I was able to stay at the same lodging, and I received the room key from the aide.

Since I was being allowed to tag along, I went straight to bed that night so as not to cause any more trouble.

The bustling marketplace, the calm beach, the vast grounds of a grand mansion.

A truly peaceful daily life. Over it, a massive claw mark flickered with an ominous light.

It was but a moment before it tore that apart, and all sorts of magical beasts burst forth.

That was the rift, the greatest challenge in the original novel.

That was how daily life was stained red.

The noise of blood splattering to the ground in chunks, the tearing sound of flesh, screams, pleas, groans.

And then more screams.

I trembled violently and tried to run away from that place, but in the end, I was spotted by a monster.

It, having found me, drooled and charged at me. Its terrifying claws filled my vision in an instant.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

Ah, it’s too late…….

“……Huh-uh!”

At the same time, I jolted and sat up.

For a moment, I couldn’t see anything, and my body trembled violently. I buried my head between my knees and tried to calm down.

My blurry vision sharpened with every blink.

I stared blankly at the warm morning sunlight illuminating the cozy inn room.

My ragged breathing slowly steadied.

“Haa…….”

I let go of my collar, which I had been clutching as if to rip it, and squeezed my eyes shut.

It was a dream.

I got up, my body soaked in cold sweat, and went into the bathroom.

I tried to lightly wipe myself down with the water the innkeeper had set out, but my unsettled mind refused to calm down easily.

Perhaps that’s only natural. What I saw in my dream was the future of this place I had read about in the novel.

Even now, monsters exist, but they are still confined to specific habitats. So ordinary people rarely encounter them.

But it won’t stay that way. In the near future, rifts will begin to appear randomly across the country, plunging the world into chaos.

My body has no mana, no aura, and not even tremendous muscles, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to survive well when that time comes.

I finished getting ready with a somewhat dejected heart.

As I stepped out of the inn, I saw the temple people bustling about, preparing to depart again, and Ion standing aloof and solitary at the center of it all.