Became an Apostle of an Ancient God

Chapter 1

"All prisoners have boarded."

"Good, raise the anchor. The Holy Maiden Jeanne is setting sail!"

Departure.

At those words, the ship carrying the heretics, worshippers of the God of Light Serre, sailed away from Lisboa.

The Holy Maiden Jeanne.

Haru hugged his knees, chewing over those words. As Lee Haru was now, he had no means to escape beyond these bars.

That was surely the same for the man in the opposite cell, Iron Mask, whose entire body was bound.

However, Iron Mask never stopped moving. Each time he did, the chains clanged noisily, but perhaps due to some special treatment, his restraints never loosened.

Rather, he was often whipped by the inquisitor who came to watch them.

"I told you to stay still! You masked revenant bastard!"

"..."

Yet, Iron Mask never let out a single groan, even when whipped.

'I can't watch this anymore.'

Just as Lee Haru was about to turn his eyes away from that horrific yet solemn sight.

"Hey, you. Do you have family? If not, a lover or a companion?"

With those cryptic words, a mysterious force began to pulse from the iron mask he wore, growing darker than the shadows.

As the mask turned jet black, his glowing blue eyes glared from within, and the inquisitor nearby stepped back cautiously.

"W-What the he—"

"You'd better answer the question. Say the name so I can remember it."

Just as the inquisitor flinched, a sharp spike sprang forth from the shadow beneath Iron Mask.

No, on closer inspection, it wasn't just any spike.

It was a black spear, shaped as if forged from shadow itself.

"Gah?!"

The inquisitor failed to dodge the spear that suddenly shot up from the ground. However, it didn't deal a fatal blow. The shadowy spear merely grazed his waist.

"Ugh...!! You monster in human skin! [Stake of Light!]"

Dozens of stakes made of light pierced Iron Mask's body. In that moment, the pool of shadow beneath his feet scattered into darkness. The blackened mask, too, had returned to normal at some point.

"Try rebelling like that again. This time it was just stakes, but next time, it won't end so easily."

The inquisitor growled before climbing the stairs. Still, he must have been seriously injured, as the sound of his limping footsteps

echoed beyond the corridor.

"Hah, I've grown dull compared to when I was in Anatolia."

Iron Mask, who had been whipped all over and skewered by light stakes, exhaled ragged breaths and asked Lee Haru,

"You. Judging by your hair and eye color... you look like a foreigner from far away. Where are you from?"

At Iron Mask's question, Lee Haru looked at his own hands, now those of a young boy.

Not long ago, those hands belonged to an office worker tapping away on a keyboard in some corner of a company. Haru quietly reflected on the events that led him to this cell. A strange sense of regret filled him.

After being suddenly caught in a 'bizarre accident,' he had fallen into this world in the body of his younger self, completely alone. Along with a name that echoed in his ears—[Shub].

Though there were many other complicated circumstances, he had never told anyone about them.

Lee Haru glanced at the man called Iron Mask.

And his lips slowly began to move.

"I came from... a world completely different from this one."

"I see."

"You're surprisingly accepting of that."

"Well."

Iron Mask replied, spitting blood-tinged saliva.

"The chances of someone spouting nonsense right before death are probably low, don't you think? Also, I heard there's a spell called a portal, used by mages or priests. A technique that connects two entirely different spaces.

If something like that exists, then it wouldn't be strange for one or two people to fall in from another world. Even if one's right in front of my eyes."

Iron Mask, accepting it all on his own terms.

However, what Haru was mulling over was something else entirely.

It was the possibility that a way back to his original world might exist.

To escape this prison-like world ruled by light-crazed fanatics.

When he was young.

That is, not the boyish Lee Haru now in this world, but the real-world Lee Haru in his childhood—he used to play a certain game with the 'noona' he first truly loved.

Looking back now, it resembled a kind of board game. There were many pieces, a large map board, and cards with various stories written on them.

At that time, Lee Haru had been too young to enjoy such a game properly. The rules were too complex. But the noona had said rules didn't matter, and gently explained the game's world to Haru.

[This is a story of heroes who fight, not for gods, but in service of their will and command.]

This world is exactly that.

It looked just like the small imaginary world atop the table where he used to play with noona.

If only he had realized that a little sooner... maybe he wouldn't be in this situation now. Lee Haru clicked his tongue and sighed.

"So, what's the truth? The crime you committed—what really happened?"

"Serre's followers framed me. I was just... just looking for noona."

"Noona?"

"Yeah."

A name he vaguely heard just before falling into this world. The girl who became his friend in a rural village where he had no one, and the first person of the opposite sex he ever loved.

The one who had laid out the board game that became the basis of this world and lifted it into the air.

"Maybe your noona was a follower of the Evil God or something. In Lusis, the religious court applies guilt by association. Nothing you could've done about that."

"It's not something that simple. They arrested my grandmother, who had saved my life, and branded me the Child of the Devil. I don't get why I'm being treated like this."

Lee Haru grabbed the bars in frustration. As if he wanted to tear them off and escape right this moment.

The guard, seeing Lee Haru finally open his mouth after staying silent all this time, shouted.

"Can't keep your mouth shut, huh? You Child of the Devil! You want a whipping like that monster over there?!"

The soldier who strode in was holding the same whip he had used on Iron Mask. Just as he raised it to strike Lee Haru—

The overseer, who had somehow followed him in, grabbed his wrist.

"Stop this instant."

"Why? Isn't punishing heretics the job of us inquisitors?"

"Do you even know what danger you're courting by messing with the Child of the Devil? What if he casts a curse during the voyage? Can you take responsibility? Lord Luther said to hold back until we reach the Hall of Atonement."

"... Tch. Consider yourself lucky."

The two guards disappeared from Lee Haru and Iron Mask's view. Once things quieted down a bit, Iron Mask stretched his shackled hand as far as he could to get Haru's attention and asked,

"You. Can you use divine power?"

"Divine power?"

Before being branded the 'Child of the Devil,' he had definitely heard something like that at the cathedral in Lusis. That he possessed an abnormal level of divine power, a once-in-several-centuries prodigy.

But it only took a few minutes for those words of praise to turn into the label 'Child of the Devil.'

"I'm sure I have divine power. But I don't know how to use it. I don't know what to do..."

According to what noona had told him, this world had something called 'divine power.' Though his memory was hazy, being so long ago, it was probably a kind of resource used to cast magic.

"People who use divine power... how should I put it. Like telekinesis? I heard they can do things like bring distant objects with invisible force."

"And?"

Lowering his voice slightly, Iron Mask looked around and whispered to Haru.

"That guard earlier. He had keys on his belt. I'll cause a commotion and draw his attention this way. During that time, you use divine power to secretly grab the keys. I'll handle the rest."

"You're saying you're going to escape from here?"

"Trust me. This ain't my first time dealing with crap like this."

"Wait... hold up!"

Before Haru could stop him, Iron Mask began the plan. He deliberately clashed his chains and hurled blasphemous insults. The guard reacted immediately, whip in hand, and stomped down.

"You masked revenant with no divine power...! Shut it already!!!"

"Like hell I'll shut it. Come on, try that fancy whipping again. What, scared? Afraid of getting cursed by a revenant?"

Iron Mask sent Haru a look of trust as he took the whipping. Not a single groan escaped his lips.

'I have no choice.'

Right now, he had no choice but to trust this man.

Lee Haru stretched out his dominant hand—his right hand—beyond the bars. Then he focused all his attention on the keys hanging from the guard's belt.

Feel the surge of unknown power. He chanted to himself.

Divine power is real.

All that remains is to draw it out and project it into this world.

It was at that moment. As Lee Haru forcibly tried to squeeze out the divine power he had never used before, a faint breath brushed his ear.

It was from long ago, during 'that summer vacation day.'

And a beautiful girl with purple eyes.

Just like the sensation he felt back then, during that time when she said she'd clean his ears and blew air into them.

The breath soon became a whisper.

[Ni.Ih.I.Di.Ri]

At first, Lee Haru couldn't tell what the whisper was saying. It was neither the language of this world nor the language of the world Haru was originally from.

But Lee Haru could understand what the whisper intended to convey.

[Found. You.]

The owner of the whisper was 'rejoicing.'

And was letting him know.

Telling Lee Haru how to use Divine Power.

What he could do.

It was like a 'god' answering prayers. A single ray of light guiding a lost lamb driven to the very last extremity in a desperate situation.

And that light, having completed its long journey, seeped into Lee Haru's right hand.

[Be... distorted.]

"Huh?"

Lee Haru moved his outstretched right hand from left to right and shouted.

What burst from his mouth was not human language.

It was something not of this world.

It was the 'language of the gods'.

"What...?"