Part 1: Fate
The cold, structured atmosphere of the stone chamber pressed heavily upon the senses as Haruto wake up in the castle.
The air inside the room carried the faint scent of polished wood and old tapestries, illuminated only by the dim light filtering through the high windows.
Haruto looks around him, his eyes slowly adjusting to the familiar layout of the royal guest quarters.
He was feeling like he just experience something that shatter his brain, a lingering, throbbing pressure vibrating behind his temples from the raw force of the divine backlash.
His face doesn't change any expressions at all, remaining perfectly blank and stoic like a smooth sheet of marble.
But his brain is damaged from inside, reeling from the horrific images of the burning city and the overwhelming presence that had nearly torn his consciousness apart.
He then rise his body up with a slow, deliberate movement.
And sits upright against the wooden headboard of the bed.
And the thick woven blanket is still resting heavily on his lower body, keeping him anchored to the mattress.
And right beside the edge of the bed, he saw Ken is sitting besides him in a silent, watchful posture.
His hands was resting flat on his laps, his posture perfectly erect, exuding the natural authority of a seasoned guardian.
Ken then turns his head slightly and call out Ryuk and Leo, his deep voice cutting through the heavy silence of the room.
Hearing the summons, Ryuk and Leo immediately comes their, stepping rapidly into the bedchamber from the outer corridor.
Their face contains the tension type expression, their brows deeply furrowed and their lips pressed into thin, worried lines.
They took their breath heavily, as if they had been waiting outside the door for hours in complete suspense.
"Haruto, what is exactly happening with you right now?" Ryuk asked, stepping forward with his fists clenched.
"You rapidly fainted everywhere without any warning at all."
"What is exactly happening with you behind our backs?" Ryuk asked, his voice shaking with a mixture of fear and growing anger.
"There is absolutely nothing a problem with my body," Haruto says in a flat, calm tone.
"Everything is completely normal and fine," Haruto says, deflecting the question without moving a single muscle in his face.
"What do you mean by claiming it's a normal thing?" Ryuk countered, his temper flaring instantly.
"Do you mean by that randomly got fainted in any random place like a broken doll is normal?"
"And you clearly get infected by some unknown type of thing or unwanted thing that we know nothing about."
"And you become so much in absolute danger that at the very end, the legendary Lord of Fate have to personally descend a beam to save you?"
"Still, after all of that destruction, you say it's a normal thing?" Ryuk says in high voice, the echo bouncing sharply off the stone walls.
Haruto quietly understand that the cathedral priest told everything to them about the incident at the altar.
And slowly, bit by bit, his most guarded secret is coming out into the open light.
But for now, under the intense glare of his companions, haruto have to side this dangerous question some how to keep them in the dark.
"If you truly think something is abnormal with me, then go ahead and check me," Haruto says, extending his arms slightly.
"I am completely fine now, as you can clearly see."
"I honestly wasn't know that I was in some kind of life-threatening danger before I went there."
"So if you want check me with whatever method you have."
"I have absolutely no problems with it," Haruto says, staring right into Ryuk's eyes.
Then, Ken shifted his weight and calmly asked the castle maid standing by the door to bring a diagnostic chain.
The obedient maid goes in deeper into the storage cabinets.
And she quickly brings the heavy iron chain back into the bedroom, its metal links clinking softly.
It was a specialized artifact designed to find out if haruto is normal or if his internal life force is corrupted by an outside force.
Then, Ken took the heavy links and started to analyze haruto's problem, channeling a steady stream of structural energy through the metal to scan his body.
Haruto was thinking deeply to himself as the cold iron touched his skin.
"If this artifact actually works as intended."
"And if they successfully known about the terrifying curse I have hidden inside me."
"Then it would be incredibly bad for everyone involved."
"Because I absolutely can't tell it to anyone under heaven."
"And if I tell to anyone about the truth, then I might can die instantly from the backlash."
"But if they known it through the scanning chain."
"And after some time passes, they try to interfere."
"It is the main problem I am facing right now," Haruto thought, maintaining his absolute poker face.
Then, after some few more time passed in complete, agonizing silence inside the chamber.
The glowing runes on the diagnostic links settled down, and it explicitly tells that everything is perfectly normal for Haruto.
Ryuk become completely shock upon seeing the clear result.
His face turns a shock expression, his eyes widening as he looked from the inert chain to Haruto.
Haruto slowly moves his head towards Ryuk's direction.
"See, I told you before that I am completely fine now," Haruto says smoothly, his voice devoid of any guilt.
"Okay then," Ryuk replied in a low, defeated murmur.
And he slowly moves back away from the bedside.
And he turns around to go away, walking out of the room to process his frustration.
Then, Ken fixed his sharp, piercing gaze on Haruto and asked.
"What is exactly happens with you inside that cathedral sanctuary?" Ken questioned, demanding an explanation.
Haruto calmly told that a fabricated story to protect his curse.
"I accidentally misspelled or use some wrong words during the local chanting sequence."
"That's why I saw some weird, chaotic glimpse of something I don't properly remember right now."
"Then, after that lapse, I don't know how I got saved by the Lord of Fate's light," Haruto explained smoothly.
Ken listened carefully, judging the weight of the words, before deciding then it's fine for you for the time being.
Ken then slowly stands up from his seat, smoothing down his clothes.
He started to walk with heavy steps towards the wooden door of the chamber.
Then, right before Ken fully leaves the room, he paused on the threshold.
"Make sure to stay safe in your research, because we still don't know what is actually inside you," Ken says in a dark, serious tone.
Then, he firmly opens the door.
And leaves the door, closing it tightly behind him.
Haruto was still sitting alone on the bed, the silence rushing back to fill the room.
"I honestly don't know what just happened with me that time at the altar," Haruto muttered to himself.
"I just saw a terrifying vision of something burning, but I don't know what place was that."
"I suddenly got fainted from the overwhelming weight of it."
"It could easily be for that dark forest curse or that malevolent evil entity hunting me."
"But I miraculously got saved by the lord of Fate somehow," Haruto thought, analyzing the mechanical trigger.
"But wait, where exactly is my newly purchased book?" Haruto says out loud, panic flitting through his thoughts.
Haruto see around him, scanning the surfaces of the guest room.
And he finally saw the old book resting safely on the wooden table across the floor.
Haruto stands up, throwing the heavy blanket aside.
And he walks over and sits in a wooden chair by the table.
Then, he opened the cover and started to read the book from the last exact page he reached before collapsing.
And then, turning to the hidden sections, Haruto finally decided to read Hermit Zero's confidential Japanese notes he has written so long ago.
Author note: now the text will follow as Hermit Zero's point of view as Haruto is reading Hermit Zero's notes.
"When I first saw a vivid vision of this new world upon opening my eyes."
"I saw a beautiful woman gently carrying me in her arms."
"Her ears were unnaturally long and pointed."
"I instantly realised that she was a real elf from legends."
"And I simultaneously realised that I suddenly become a helpless baby."
"Or, to put it accurately, I now understand my soul transfer completely in that newborn baby's body."
"Everyone standing around the room looked at me with incredibly bright eyes."
"A tall men was looking down at me and loudly calling me Hermit Zero."
"I understood from then onward that I was officially transported into a completely different world."
"I weakly raised my tiny hands towards them, feeling the foreign skin."
"Their eyes carried lots of deep hope and heavy emotions and bright emotions for the future."
"I looked around me to survey the surrounding environment."
"And then, breaking the peace of the cabin, I heard a terrible sound."
"A massive destruction sound echoing from the distant borders."
"A violent sound that shook the very ground beneath the building."
"A completely new sound of clashing steel and conceptual warfare."
"Suddenly, an unknown person runs in and graps me tightly."
"He frantically told my new mother that A terrifying person with the sword calvation comes to our place."
"And they have to immediately left this place if they want the lineage to survive."
"And that strong person holds me securely against his armored chest."
"And then, my new father and mother runs at one desperate direction to draw the enemy away."
"And the mysterious person runs at a completely other direction with me in his arms."
"I was fully confused by the rapid succession of chaotic events."
"But I perfectly understood their native language."
"Despite the solid fact that I am from a completely different world like Japan."
"I looked at that fleeing man's face carefully through my infant vision."
"That brave man goes into a small wooden boat tied to the riverbank."
"Then, the current took us, and the boat started moving rapidly down the river."
"I looked back from the water and saw everything burning behind us in the settlement."
"That fleeing person suddenly gazes down at my silent face."
"And he softly calls me by a name."
"Kaminari otsu."
"I become completely, utterly shocked to my very soul."
"Because that specific name was my previous world name from Earth."
"And the person who are currently reading my book right now knows exactly what world I am talking about."