Xenon nodded with difficulty. The woman sighed softly and knelt down. Then she placed her hand on Xenon’s forehead.

“This is troublesome… It’s too late.”

Feeling the cool yet gentle touch of her fingertips, Xenon’s consciousness gradually faded away.

* * *

“Haaah!”

Xenon awoke with a gasp, gulping air like someone emerging from deep water.

I thought I was dead…

He breathed heavily. He was alive. His racing heart proved it.

That wasn’t all. His broken bones had returned to their proper places, and his torn skin bore no scars. Every wound had vanished without a trace, making the previous situation seem like nothing more than a nightmare.

How… did this happen?

Xenon looked around with trembling eyes. At that moment, he discovered the woman collapsed before him.

What… is this?

With confusion filling his heart, Xenon carefully lifted the woman. She was as still as death. Only the faint, weak breath told him she was still alive.

Could it be that this woman saved me?

It was too vivid to be a dream. The soft, warm temperature of the woman that had transferred to him when he faced death.

Wait!

Young Xenon suddenly became frightened. He sensed the existence of the woman lying limply across his knees, seemingly dead.

No. That’s impossible.

The small boy shook his red head vigorously. Even someone as unlearned as himself knew the stories about the god Pathos. He was a cruel and relentless deity. This compassionate woman couldn’t possibly be Pathos.

Yet simultaneously, there was no other explanation. The fact that he, dying moments ago, had been revived without a single wound could only be described as a divine miracle.

The moment he realized this, Xenon ran with the woman in his arms. Fortunately, while not close, a temple stood not too far away. He believed that regardless of the woman’s identity, the temple could save her. Even though the temple was a closed place, the rumored priest was there.

When he arrived at the temple, Xenon was already exhausted. But he couldn’t put the woman down. He pounded on the temple door and shouted.

“Please… help us!”

Xenon’s cries echoed noisily throughout the temple in the late night. But that was all—no one came out. His voice seemed not to reach anyone.

However, Xenon’s desperate cries didn’t stop. His voice, continuously resonating, reached deep into the temple, and finally, a priest with silver hair appeared. With an extremely annoyed expression.

The very priest from the rumors.

It was a story Xenon had heard while doing menial work for the guild. That there was someone chosen by Pathos. But because of his arrogance, he helped no one. This man was the one who had locked the temple doors.

Because of this, Xenon bowed as low as possible and begged desperately. Please save the woman, he pleaded. He would lick the man’s boots if necessary, he implored.

“I’ll take over from here.”

Perhaps moved by Xenon’s desperation, the priest accepted the woman. More easily than expected.

With a loud bang, the temple door closed, and Xenon collapsed right there.

* * *

Not long after, the world buzzed with excitement. The temple doors opened again, accompanied by rumors of a new deity. People called her “The Goddess of Light.” The temple became crowded with people wanting to see the goddess. From farmers in tattered clothes to nobles wrapped in expensive cloaks. People flocked endlessly to make their wishes.

Some came for healing sick family members, others for wealth, and still others to save their villages suffering from drought. However, the temple severely restricted who could meet the deity, regardless of wealth or status. Because of this, even towns far from the temple were always filled with people waiting their turn.

Thanks to this, Xenon, who couldn’t return to the mercenary band, easily found work. He lived day by day carrying luggage, feeding horses, and catching brief naps in alley corners.

Nevertheless, perhaps due to the joy of survival or the hope of seeing the woman again someday, it wasn’t difficult.

One night at the beginning of winter, Xenon, curled up resting in an alley, closed his eyes looking up at the starlight. Imagining the day he would express his gratitude.

That night was unusually warm. The air was so cozy it was hard to believe it was early winter. It was soft and warm, like that woman’s touch.

That can’t be right!

Realizing belatedly, Xenon’s eyes flew open. His surroundings were stained red. Large flames covered his vision. A fire that started in a nearby shop was rapidly spreading toward him along a pile of garbage. He tried to escape, but it was already too late. Before he could take a step, hot heat engulfed him.

Is this the end? So meaningless.

Xenon felt empty. Was his revival not destiny after all? Had his belief that God showed him even a little mercy been an illusion? The small boy’s hope that someday there would be a destiny given to him was ultimately nothing.

Lying face down on the hot ground, Xenon shed tears endlessly. He bowed his head in despair, waiting for everything to end.

However, even after the rising flames burned everything and disappeared, Xenon remained alive.

Pain enough to kill him surged, but he didn’t die. In the midst of agony, he felt an unknown force. His skin, which had been horribly distorted from burning, slowly began to return to its original form. The searing pain that had been burning his flesh disappeared, and his breath, which had been gasping under the pressure of the flames, began to open up again.

What is this?

Xenon raised himself and looked at his arm. It had clearly been a part where the bone was exposed in the flames. However, now there were no wounds or scars remaining.

At that moment, Xenon realized.

The warm temperature he had felt when she placed her hand on his forehead that day, and her silver-shining hair. The moment when his heart, which he thought had stopped, began to beat again. The woman had not simply healed his wounds. It was more than that.

Simultaneously, rumors that had flashed through his mind resurfaced.

People whispered quietly. They said the one called a goddess in the temple actually had no power. All the fulfilled wishes were accomplished through the ability of a priest, and this was simply a show put on by heretics. These were blasphemous words from people who had only believed in Pathos, the one true god.

Whenever he heard those words, Xenon had laughed at their foolishness. But now he couldn’t easily dismiss them. Though the boy wasn’t deeply educated, he wasn’t so foolish as to not know that the changes in his body were taboo.

The woman had lost her power. And for what? To save his worthless life.

Xenon returned to the mercenary band. He hunted monsters, risking his life. He believed it was the only way he could repay even a little of the taboo sin he had committed.

He hunted monsters day and night. His young age and inexperienced skills didn’t matter.

Since he couldn’t die, there was nothing to fear.

Young Xenon stood at the forefront, leading more than anyone. He threw himself into every moment, risking his life, constantly testing himself. He never backed down from any monster and fought desperately to the point of being called reckless.

Life was full of pain, but he didn’t stop. Because he believed it was the only way he could repay the woman who had sacrificed everything to save him.

Thus, the young boy grew into a young man. His once clumsy movements were refined into agility through countless battles and became legendary. No matter how threatening the monster he faced, he never retreated, and even tracked down their lairs to eradicate them completely. His tenacious and persistent fighting style instilled both fear and awe in people.

That reputation soon brought an end to the war. All threatening monsters disappeared, and no more dangerous monsters existed in the world. People regained peace. But Xenon’s heart remained heavy. To him, life felt like a never-ending homework assignment. Carrying a debt he could never repay in his lifetime.

Then one day, an anonymous request arrived.

“Please rescue the Goddess of Light from the hands of the beast-people.”