GC | Side Story 1.1

Some time ago, he had asked him.

“Huh? Why ask why I love you? That’s a weird question, Shey.”

What, exactly, was the force that drove the love he spoke of?

“Love doesn’t need a reason. It’s fate. Shey, you can be funny sometimes. You’re a priest, and you don’t believe in fate?”

What was fate? Something that came crashing down like an arrow in flight? Something that happened before you had any chance to stop it? Something arranged before you were even born? Something decided by the gods?

“I knew it from the first time I saw Shey. Honestly, it was a little horrifying then… but what could I do? Shey is my fate. Ah, not that you were horrifying, Shey. You were, of course, exquisite.”

So he had been capable of feeling horror, too.

“Before that, I didn’t believe in fate either… but after I met you, I realized I’d been stupid. So love isn’t something I can refuse. When Shey first heard the voice of god, could Shey refuse it?”

No.

“See? I’m the same. So Shey, hmm. You’re basically my god. Ah, that’s embarrassing.”

Lies.

“I was the same way, too. You came crashing into my life out of nowhere. You changed everything about me. I couldn’t refuse it. In a way, it was like an accident. No matter how long it took, we were always destined to meet. I lost Shey once, but I got you back, didn’t I? You remember that, right?”

I’d rather you had lost me forever.

“Shey, I love you. A lot.”

At the base of Ruslan’s smiling feet, a man with a shattered jaw lay sprawled out, his tongue hanging out. He had already been dead for a long time, and his skin was slowly turning purple.

Blood pooled on the floor, while torn flesh and broken teeth were scattered everywhere. Shey sat somewhere in that pool of blood with his legs stretched out, limbs loose, his back against the cool wall.

He had stopped counting the dead. He had only briefly thought, So humans can be beaten to death, and then he had stopped thinking about that, too.

Ruslan walked closer and crouched down opposite him. Resting his chin in his hand, he stared at Shey, then kneaded Shey’s cock, still sticky with semen.

Like checking the texture of meat, he rubbed the softened cock between his fingers, lifted the balls, and inspected the filthy hole of the cunt below, where filth still dripped out.

He had always said he loved him, and that he loved him unconditionally.

So even if half of Shey’s brain were split open, even if his limbs were torn off, even if he grew old and ugly, even if filth dribbled from his lower body and he needed someone’s help for the rest of his life, this love would never change.

At that moment, behind Ruslan’s smiling face, it felt as if a dazzling radiance suddenly spread out. Shey felt that Ruslan resembled the kind of being he had tried to understand his entire life, but never could, as though they had been cast from the same mold.

Maybe he was my god.

The moment he thought that, everything seemed to become comprehensible, as if there were no reason for him to fail to understand it.

He is my god.

When he adjusted that thought just a little, everything became clear, and Shey let out a soft laugh.

Love was something that looked down from above.

Love was not something that could rise from below.

It was a matter of perspective.

✿ • ✿ • ✿

Today made it the third day.

As Shey was tidying the candles whose wicks had burned down to nothing, he stopped walking for a moment.

It had already been three days. In other words, three days had passed since the day he first saw that obedient back of a head.

Three days ago, as Shey had begun his usual routine at the temple, he had spotted something unusual. In the dim dawn, when even the most devout believers did not come to visit, some child was sitting there all alone.

It was a face he had never seen in the area before. Given his line of work, Shey knew the local residents like the back of his hand, so if even he didn’t know this child, then it was certain the child had never shown his face at the temple before.

The child had apparently been sitting in the prayer room since dawn, staring up at the murals, as though he had so much to say to the god. Shey found himself worried, as if there were some unspeakable story behind him. Still, the rule was not to disturb anyone while they were praying, so Shey pretended he had other business and passed by the child, glancing down at him out of the corner of his eye.

He was momentarily left speechless.

“High Priest. Could you come here for a moment?”

Before Shey could even finish making sense of the information that had entered his eyes, a novice priest called out to him. Looking urgent, the novice led him away first. After helping the novice priest with his problem, Shey hurried back to the prayer room as soon as he was done. But only the empty room welcomed him.

“…”

Standing at the entrance, Shey stared for a long time at the spot where the child had sat.

It had definitely been black hair and amber eyes.

Shey had been offered to the temple as a newborn who could not even open his eyes. Born with what was called the “priest’s disease,” and with the same coloring as the divine envoy described in scripture, anyone who saw him would know he was destined to belong beneath the god’s retinue.

As if to prove it, Shey became the high priest faster than anyone in history, and there were expectations that in a few years he would become the youngest archpriest ever.

Supporting that rise were not only Shey’s appearance, but above all, the powerful divine force that appeared once in a hundred years, if that.

From Shey’s perspective, he had never once heard any answer from the gods regarding his hair and eyes, so he did not consider this body proof of divine power. Still, it was certain that the color that made him up was extremely rare.

Nearly ninety percent of the population had brown hair and brown eyes, and even the rest only varied in saturation and brightness within that same range.

Now and then, people were born with especially light or especially dark coloring, but there was no one else with an entirely different color like Shey. At least, none that Shey knew of.

And yet that boy had the exact same coloring as Shey.

It was certainly not an ordinary first impression. Whether it was coincidence or some sort of revelation, there was no way to know yet. Shey’s curiosity was piqued.

And so three days passed. Shey resolved that today, of all days, he would speak to the child. To do that, he had even instructed the priests not to look for him because he had work to do, and he remained in the prayer room.

Perhaps an hour had passed.

The child, who had been sitting there for a long time, finally finiShey whatever prayer required so much to say and stood up. Not missing the moment, Shey approached him.

“Hello.”

He smiled gently, so the child would not be wary of a stranger.

“Did you come here alone? Where are your parents? Ah, I work at this temple. You’ve been coming here at dawn for the past few days. Is something troubling you?”

“…”

“Are you in a situation where you can’t stay at home?”

“…”

“Oh dear, I must have startled you. Sorry. I’m not a strange person. I’m just… this kind of person. I’ve been seeing you since three days ago, and if you’re in some kind of difficulty, I want to help.”

Shey took out a sacred object from inside his robe. It was a clearly valuable item, and his name and title were engraved on it in relief. But the child still only looked up at him with an expression that said he did not understand what it meant.

“You don’t need to worry. I’m very reliable when it comes to identity, at least. If you’re still worried, I can call over other people, too. But have you eaten? At this hour, you probably haven’t had a proper meal. If it’s all right, why don’t you come inside? If you don’t want to, I can bring food here…”

Then the child began speaking in a rush. The pronunciation was clipped, and the speed was very fast. Unlike the youthful face, the voice that had already gone through puberty early was low.

It was a foreign language.

Only then did Shey understand why the child had been staring without answering anything. It was because he did not understand the language of this country. Shey had thought the face looked a little foreign, but it seemed the child really was from abroad. Startled, Shey parted his lips.

It was a language he had never heard before. He could not tell which country it came from, but at least he knew for certain it was completely different from the languages of the neighboring countries.

“Where are you from? The Kansen Union?”

He named the country that seemed most likely, but the child shook his head. He appeared to understand the country names.

“Not there? Then the Nuvel Grand Duchy? Not there either? Let’s see, since your hair is black… Postash?”

The child looked disappointed. Shey could tell it meant he had come close, but still gotten it wrong.

If it was Postash, then it was very far from here. He had heard that beyond Postash’s borders, the climate changed completely. He had never seen snow once in his life, but those countries were said to have blizzards every single day in winter.

As the answer seemed to draw near, Shey started naming countries as they came to mind. Now the child was wearing a faint, barely visible smile, looking interested. It was kind of amusing.

“Tottrano? Then…”

“Priest, do you have a moment?”

At just that moment, a young priest who had been looking for Shey opened the prayer room door.

“Ieo! A map! Bring me a map. A world map.”

“Huh? A map?”

“Right now!”

When Shey, who normally never raised his voice, called out in urgency, the priest’s eyes went round before he hurried away. In the midst of the small commotion, the child looked back and forth between the two of them with sparkling, interested eyes.

Those bold eyes, which never seemed to shrink back even among strangers, gleamed brightly.

✿ • ✿ • ✿

He had learned three things.

His name was Ruslan. He looked young, but his age was probably sixteen. And the country his much larger hand had pointed to was Fridisien. The land of snow, where bitter cold and snowy fields spread endlessly. An icy island where faith died and atheists survived because of its harsh environment.

Shey had only ever seen it in books, and had never met anyone from that country, nor anyone who had traveled there. He was simply curious about why a child from such a distant place had come here.