SRS 196

Yohan raised his hand to block his left eye. His vision was hazy and blurred; he could barely make out vague shapes, nothing distinct. He had lost the sight in his right eye.

Since he had experienced the loss of one of his five senses as a price to pay before, it wasn’t all that surprising. Compared to what he had heard, it was a rather merciful outcome.

Moreover, hadn’t god said he wouldn’t suffer for long? At most, it would take a week to recover.

Yohan slowly stood up, gazed at the statues of various gods, and then closed his eyes.

The prophecy.

The predetermined future.

Finding that child.

Nothing about this was trivial. His mind was exhausted from the chaos of so many thoughts, and even though only one eye became blind as the price for glimpsing the future, both his eyes felt strained.

After pressing on both eyes a few times to relieve the ache, Yohan straightened his posture, looked at the statue, and bowed his head.

“…May God’s blessing be upon us.”

He slowly stepped out of the temple. What he needed to do had become clear. [stolen content]Since the god had asked him personally, early graduation was no longer the priority. Finding that child, no matter what it took, became his most important task.

For his own sake, and for Mikael’s.

And for the sake of the Empire’s pitiful subjects.

If this prophecy was unavoidable, he would charge straight through it. He would find that child as soon as possible and return to the Empire as soon as possible to save the people.

A time of turmoil.

Yes, a time of turmoil.

While pondering the god’s words, Yohan looked down at his still bloodied hand, healed it with divine power, and set off.

Fantasiademia is a school where the makings of heroes gather. And the god had said he sent Yohan here by his own will. It was as if he had indirectly revealed what he desired.

Therefore, it must be so.

A hero of these troubled times.

“I shall follow.”

Yohan ‘Herse.’ The High Priest, whom god loved dearly, willingly resolved to shoulder this heavy responsibility once again. After all, this whole situation had arisen because he had failed to properly resolve the mistakes he had made during his lifetime. It was something he simply had to do.

***

“Yohan, you’re back… Huh? What’s wrong with your eyes?”

Upon returning to the dormitory, Suhyeok, who had been polishing his sword in Room 304, stopped short of greeting Yohan and asked in surprise. Mikael and Kylus, who had been lying, sat up.

“What’s wrong?”

“What happened?”

The two approached him. Yohan lowered his face so they couldn’t see his eyes, but he could feel the pressure of the footsteps entering his field of vision.

“What do you mean, ‘what’s wrong with your eye’? Lift your head up a bit, Yohan.”

“Explain yourself, Im Suhyeok.”

“Why are you all making such serious faces at me?”

Feeling wronged by Kylus’s questioning, Suhyeok gave Yohan a nod.

“Your right eye is blurry. It looks like someone’s smeared gray paint on it.”

“What?”

“Yohan”

To verify if Suhyeok was telling the truth, the others surrounded Yohan. The unspoken demand for him to look at them grew so intense that he could no longer ignore it. When Yohan resignedly raised his gaze, they immediately frowned. Kylus let out a low groan.

“It’s true.”

“Ah, see? What did I tell you? I said it was real.”

“Yohan. Why are you like this?”

“Did you… overwork yourself or something? Study too much?”

“That makes sense. Or did some potion splash on you while you were preparing for the Herbology exam?”

“Did you sneak off to grow lilycias and get into trouble?”

Speculations flew in from all directions. But since they were all talking as if he were a troublemaker, Yohan felt a bit flabbergasted. After some hesitation, he gave an awkward smile.

He couldn’t bring up the prophecy with Suhyeok or Kylus. Not only would it [Read on]be hard for them to understand, but since it wasn’t a matter for their level of understanding, it would only add to their confusion.

And… he knew that the fact god had taken the sight from one of his eyes might seem cruel and unreasonable to ordinary believers or non-believers alike, which made it even harder to talk about.

“I was trying to make a new potion and made a mistake. Since I have divine power, I’ll be fine in a little while.”

By confirming their guesses and dodging the question, their suspicious glances subsided.

“Is that really the reason?”

“If you’re lying, tell us now, Yohan.”

Suhyeok and Kylus stared at him. Just then, a somewhat subdued voice caught the attention of all them.

“…That’s strange. With your divine power, getting splashed with a little potion shouldn’t be enough to cause blindness. Even if it did, you’d have recovered by now.”

“……”

Mikael walked forward, pressed his thumb against the area beneath Yohan’s right eye to examine the pupil closely, and then frowned.

Whoosh.

A light symbolizing divine power blossomed from his fingertips. Yet, as Yohan’s eye remained the same, the other visit our site two students froze. The atmosphere, heavier than before, weighed down on Yohan.

Since everyone was waiting for a clear explanation, Yohan sighed and turned his head to look at the mirror. No wonder it looked like looking through a hazy film whenever he covered one eye. It had taken on a distinct grayish tint compared to his left eye.

No wonder they were worried.

Understanding his friends’ feelings, Yohan repressed his discomfort. Judging by their stubborn expressions, it was too late to dismiss this as something trivial.

Lately, nothing seems to go the way I want it to…

If he decided not to speak, he ended up speaking; if he decided not to be caught, he ended up getting caught.

While wondering why the world seemed to be working so contrary to his wishes, Yohan sat down on the bed. Naturally, the three followed him.

“…Let me tell you this up front: the Heavens are very benevolent. Just look at how the sky is the same for everyone.”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“…Are you saying this has something to do with your god?”

“…….”

His attempt to preempt his friends’ misunderstandings by explaining the situation first only intensified their suspicions. Among them, Mikael’s gaze was particularly intense and dark. It seemed he had already guessed what Yohan had been up to.

Well, he is an angel, so he couldn’t possibly not know.

Now that the word “Heavens” had been mentioned, it wasn’t really that hard to guess that Yohan, as the High Priest, had gone to do something to communicate with his god. Since things had come to this, he had to tell them everything without holding anything back, so Yohan cleared his throat and explained the situation.

He was as calm as someone reading a passage from the scriptures. Perhaps because this only heightened the sense of dissonance, his friends, their faces twisted in disbelief, fell silent for a moment. Soon, Suhyeok let out a hollow laugh and slapped his forehead.

“Wait, does that even make sense? Isn’t that saying your world is about to end?”

“He didn’t say it was that bad…”

“What do you mean, ‘not that bad’! He said demons are running rampant, everyone’s dying, even the saints are dying, and the priests have fallen? That means it’s already ruined… Gah.”

As Suhyeok shouted in disbelief, Kylus’s wrath came crashing down on his head. Kylus slammed his fist into his friend’s head, rubbed his wrist, and looked at Yohan.

“You.”

“Hm?”

“Are you… alright?”

“…I was surprised, but I actually think it’s a relief. At least we found out in advance.”

“…The fact that your world has been destroyed to that extent means the Dimension Destroyers must have interfered.”

“It seems that way. Maybe the day will come when I have to go to my world on a dimensional mission.”

The Dimension Destroyers’ activities tend to occur first in suspicious or extreme situations. Kylus (unlike Yohan) couldn’t bring himself to smile and bit his lip.

It probably didn’t feel like someone else’s problem to him. After all, his dimension was already being ravaged by war. That was why he felt a bit awkward talking about it in front of Kylus. It might have brought back painful memories.

In that sense, if he had to pick the person he was most worried about among them, it was undoubtedly the one who had been staring at him since earlier.

“…Mikael.”

When Yohan called out to him first, Mikael, who had been lost in thought, let out a soft gasp and looked at Yohan. He seemed no longer worried about his right eye regaining its sight, but instead, other complex emotions were visible on his face.

“Are you alright?”

When he asked cautiously, Mikael smiled.

“…There’s no reason not to be. You know that.”

Yes, I know.

Mikael’s hatred for that child was sealed away in a box, so he probably wouldn’t be as angry as he’d feared. But just because he wasn’t angry didn’t mean he wasn’t troubled.

After all, this meant the child who had been appearing in his dreams one after another was alive, so even though it wasn’t his fault, Yohan felt a little guilty. Mikael chuckled softly and gently stroked the corner of Yohan’s eye.

“It’s fine. Actually, I’m grateful. Thanks to you, I was able to find out the truth. But… next time, don’t risk your life to uncover the truth.”

He kneaded Yohan’s cheeks with both hands, then met his gaze and pleaded. When Yohan avoided his gaze, a loud intake of breath could be heard.

“Just answer him. He’s going to rot inside if this keeps up.”

Kylus agreed with Suhyeok, who chimed in from the side. Yohan pretended not to notice their reactions and kept his mind elsewhere.

He was the High Priest.

The position of High Priest required him to throw himself into danger at any moment to save the world and carry out god’s will. It wasn’t as if he was going to die, what did it matter if he paid a small price?

After living his previous life that way, he was stubborn. The students in Room 304, who knew that once Yohan set his mind on something, he rarely backed down, felt a headache coming on.

“This isn’t the time for this.”

Yohan nonchalantly brushed Mikael’s hand aside and looked around at everyone.

“According to what the Heavenly Lord said, that child in question is probably wandering through various dimensions. If I’m going to find him, I need to be able to set out on a dimensional mission as soon as possible…”

“We.”

“Huh?”

“I said ‘we,’ not ‘I.’”

Suhyeok corrected Yohan with a grin.

“If you were planning to handle this alone, wake up. We’ve come too far to start dividing things into ‘your dimension’s business’ and ‘my dimension’s business’ now. We’ll help you. In return, you help us if something happens in our dimensions. How about it?”

He made the proposal.

“I agree.”

Kylus agreed as well. Slightly surprised by their willingness to help without a moment’s hesitation, Yohan couldn’t help but laugh.

“…Alright. Let’s do it.”

Anyway…

It occurred to him that perhaps the reason his god had sent him here was because of these people.