1st day: Begin

This is a memory from 10 years ago.

When I woke up... I saw an unfamiliar ceiling.

The curtain sways gently, blown by the breeze that came from the window.

──Outside the window.
The bright blue sky was absolutely beautiful.

...the calm and refreshing wind.
A signal that spring has come.

It seems the gods are quite pleased with the occurring events around this time of the year.

"Hello, Raya. Congratulations on your recovery."

An unfamiliar man with a neat cloth and a clean robe stands beside me. He extends his hand for a handshake. He's wearing round glasses with his short, straight hair brushed cleanly to the left. A very befitting man to be called a doctor.

"Do you feel any kind of pain in your body right now?"

"...No"
The doctor starts taking notes.

"Do you remember why you were here in the first place?"
"...No. Am I in a medical centre?"
"Correct. You were found unconscious by the people who saw the accident unfold. Unfortunately, all of your family members were dead, excluding you as the sole survivor."

...I don't think a child needs those kinds of information. But the doctor said it with an unchanging smile.

----Awful.
I felt incredibly awful.

"Doctor... may I sleep?"
"Yes, of course. Your main focus is to recover. While the medicine could heal your injury in a matter of hours, it still drains your stamina to do so. So be sure to rest and don't push yourself."

He said with a smile.

The doctor took a quick note once more before he eventually left. He walked towards the door without looking back and left the room.

Some gruesome accident happened, my head got covered in bandages, and my parents gone.
I couldn't process the situation, but I roughly understood that I'm alone.

I tried to look around.

Besides me, there are several beds with similar people covered in bandages.

...It seems those people also suffer the same fate.

──A few days passed since the day I regained my consciousness.

Just like the doctor said, the wounds I suffered are completely healed without a scar in just a couple of hours. But even when I didn't do anything on my bed, I felt incredibly exhausted for no reason. No matter how long I slept or how much I ate, I didn't feel any energy inside my body.

I spent my days lying on top of my bed, worrying about my future. But even so, I actually got some information to ascertain the incident that happened to my family by listening to the other patients.

They said a power reactor that was supposed to be implanted in the outskirts of the city exploded, causing a great fire on the building around it. Luckily, the Medicus, the group that follows the teaching of Apollo, came to evacuate the victims of the explosion. Many of the people were saved and they said the victim of that explosion didn't even reach ten people.

...I guess my parents are just really unlucky.

Even when they got buried under the rubble, the blessing of the gods already protected their body, making them much more durable than humans in the past. This is the reason they could withstand the collapsing building and the spreading fire.

---Or at least, that's what I heard.

For a world that is governed directly by the gods who claim to have control over fate, it’s quite surprising that misfortune and accidents still could happen.

...What a strange thing.

Just when I started to get worried about myself, a man came right to me.
Wrinkled clothes and uncombed hair.
A man who looked like in the same age as the doctor earlier.

"Hello Raya, it's nice to meet you."
He greeted me with a smile.

"I'll be blunt. Which choice do you prefer? Go to the orphanage, or be adopted by a suspicious man you've never met before?"

...What?

A man suddenly said that he could adopt me. Whenever I asked about his identity, he always answered that he is a complete stranger. He insisted that he doesn't have any relation to my father, mother, or me. He was not a direct family member, a relative, or a friend. He was just a complete stranger. A stranger without any single relation to my current or past life.

...I don't want to be rude,
but... his future looked kinda bleak.

...but it made no difference. Between the orphanage or the guy, no matter which one I choose, I'll eventually live with people that I know nothing about. So, I decided to go with him.

"That's good. We'll be leaving at noon when you've packed all of your stuff and file your discharge report to the hospital."

...So soon?

The man quickly packed my stuff into his luggage. Looking at how he put the stuff inside his bag, even a child like me could tell that his work is messy.

"Oh right, I forgot to mention one important thing. Do you mind if I tell you about it?"

"Yeah."
I nod.

"Well, to cut it short, I'm a demi-god."