The forest was quiet.
Not peaceful quiet.
The kind of quiet that made every small sound feel wrong.
Wet leaves stuck to the bottom of his sneakers as he stood between the tall trees. The ground was soft with mud, and the air smelled like rain.
The young man slowly looked around.
Trees.
More trees.
A lot more trees.
"…Okay."
He rubbed his face with both hands and let out a long breath.
A few minutes ago—at least he thought it was a few minutes ago—he had been sitting in his small apartment room.
Computer on.
Curtains closed.
Lights off.
A normal afternoon.
Then there had been a flash of light.
A very bright flash.
And now he was standing in the middle of a forest.
"…Right."
He looked up at the sky through the branches.
Then he looked down at his hands.
"…This is probably a dream."
He waited.
Nothing happened.
The wind moved softly through the leaves.
Birds made distant noises somewhere deeper in the forest.
He sighed.
"…If this is a dream, it's putting in way too much effort."
His stomach growled.
He slowly looked down at it.
"…Of course."
That made sense.
He hadn't eaten anything since last night.
The young man started walking through the trees. Not fast. Just slow steps, hoping he would eventually find something that looked like a road.
After a few minutes—
He heard voices.
He stopped walking.
"…Huh."
They were human voices.
A lot of them.
Whispering.
Praying.
Some of them sounded like they were crying.
He frowned.
"That's not comforting."
The voices were coming from ahead.
He hesitated for a moment.
Then he walked toward the sound.
The trees slowly became thinner.
Light from an open space appeared between the branches.
And then—
He stepped out of the forest.
There was a clearing.
Dozens of people were standing there.
All of them wore long robes.
Many were holding candles. Others held banners with strange symbols he didn't recognize.
And every single one of them was looking directly at the forest.
At him.
The young man stopped at the edge of the trees.
"…Oh."
They looked at him.
He looked at them.
No one spoke.
The wind moved through the clearing.
A candle dropped to the ground somewhere in the crowd.
The young man lifted one hand awkwardly.
"…Hi?"
At that exact moment—
Lightning struck.
A massive bolt of lightning slammed into a tree directly behind him.
BOOM.
The explosion of light turned the entire edge of the forest white.
The tree split apart with a loud crack.
Smoke rose into the air.
For a moment, the young man's shadow stretched across the ground like a figure stepping out of the sky.
The entire clearing fell silent.
Completely silent.
The young man slowly turned his head to look behind him.
The tree was still smoking.
"…That seems unsafe."
He turned back to the people in the clearing.
They were all staring at him.
Then—
One person suddenly dropped to their knees.
A young girl with long silver hair fell forward onto the ground.
She didn't just kneel.
She bowed deeply, her forehead touching the dirt.
"He has come," she whispered.
The young man blinked.
"…What?"
The girl slowly lifted her head.
Her eyes were wide and shining.
"The prophecy was true."
More people started kneeling.
One after another.
Ten people.
Twenty people.
Within seconds almost everyone in the clearing had fallen to their knees.
Some people were shaking.
Some were crying.
The young man stood at the edge of the forest.
Looking at them.
Then he looked up at the sky.
Then back at them again.
"…Wait."
No one answered.
The silver-haired girl stood slightly.
She looked at him with an expression of absolute awe.
"Welcome," she said softly.
"O One Who Descended from the Heavens."
The young man stared at her.
Several seconds passed.
"…I didn't—"
The wind suddenly blew stronger across the clearing.
The candles flickered violently.
Someone in the crowd gasped.
The young man closed his mouth again.
He looked at the dozens of people kneeling on the ground.
Then he looked at the girl.
Then he slowly rubbed his forehead.
Inside his head, his thoughts were racing.
This was bad.
This was extremely bad.
This looked like a misunderstanding.
And not the kind of misunderstanding you could fix with one sentence.
He opened his mouth again.
"You should probably stand up—"
Nobody moved.
The silver-haired girl lowered her head even deeper.
"Such humility," she whispered.
Several people behind her started crying.
The young man stared at them.
"…No, that's not—"
His stomach growled again.
Loudly.
The girl looked up immediately.
Her eyes widened.
"He feels the emptiness of the world."
The young man blinked.
"…What?"
She stood quickly.
Her voice became serious.
"Prepare food."
She turned to the others.
"The Divine One has traveled from the heavens. Even a divine body must endure the emptiness of the mortal world."
Several people immediately ran in different directions.
Others began praying even louder.
The young man stood there.
Watching all of this happen.
"…I'm just hungry."
The girl closed her eyes respectfully.
"Even the simplest need carries meaning."
He stared at the sky again.
A few seconds passed.
Then he looked back at the crowd.
At the tables people were suddenly bringing out.
At the bowls.
At the bread.
At something that looked like soup.
He sighed.
Deeply.
"…Fine."
The girl immediately bowed again.
"We hear your will."
The young man opened his mouth slightly.
Then closed it again.
Something told him that explaining things right now would only make everything worse.
And honestly—
He was really hungry.
So he sat down at the chair someone had placed in front of him.
He picked up a spoon.
The entire clearing watched in total silence.
He tasted the soup.
He paused.
"…Not bad."
The crowd exploded.
Some people started crying loudly.
One old man fainted.
The silver-haired girl quickly pulled out a small notebook and began writing.
The young man noticed.
"…What are you writing?"
She answered with deep respect.
"Your first words."
He froze.
The spoon stopped halfway to his mouth.
"…I said the soup isn't bad."
She wrote faster.
"The first judgment of the mortal world."
He looked at the bowl of soup.
Then he looked at the sky.
Then he looked at the people crying because of soup.
Inside his head, only one thought appeared.
This is going to become a huge problem.
He took another spoon of soup.
And quietly continued eating.
Behind him, the lightning-struck tree still smoked like a divine sign.
And in front of him, the silver-haired girl wrote carefully on the first page of her notebook.
Volume One.