Chapter 39

Prologue, The God in the Fire

Are you afraid of fire?

Have you ever been caught in a fire or something?

Sure, it's scary if it's blazing right in front of you, but doesn't a little flame like this in the middle of the night make you feel safe?

Normally, it's the darkness that's scarier.

Humanity grew stronger after discovering fire because it allowed us to conquer the dark.

You never know what's lurking in the darkness. There could be wild beasts, or maybe a friend you trusted waiting with a knife.

What's even scarier is how not being able to see lets your imagination run wild with fear.

It's pretty common to find out that the thing you feared turns out to be nothing at all once you actually see it.

The forest around this village is deep, so I guess everyone started imagining bad things.

That's why they decided to seek protection from the bright sun.

Listen, you can hear the festival music.

Everyone's carrying torches and heading up toward the shrine.

Our village worships the sun god, so on festival nights like this, we keep everything bright. That way, if the god mistakenly thinks it's still daytime, they might come down to visit.

Are you afraid of that fire? Sounds like you're possessed. Just kidding, just kidding, it's a joke.

But still, maybe you're right. When they light the fire at the shrine like that, maybe it's better to be a little scared.

Our shrine is pretty big, right? And around it, there are a bunch of smaller shrines and altars.

Do you know why that is?

Long ago, people here had no choice but to worship small, terrifying, and evil beings as gods.

But even after being worshipped, they kept causing trouble, and eventually things became unbearable.

So they decided to call a big god from far away to come and wipe them all out.

That's why, on nights when the sun god has gone away, all the sealed evil things start crawling out.

Wherever there's something big and bright, there's always a swarm of small, nasty things gathering in its shadow.

I'm not trying to scare you.

It's just an old story.

Besides, in this village, the sun is always here, even at night.

Have you ever seen it?

The forest glowing deep inside?

Yeah, sometimes the whole forest shines red, like there's a bonfire burning faintly.

It's not the sun—it's fire.

The sun only shines. No matter how hot it gets, it won't burn you to death.

But fire is different.

It burns up all those small, terrifying, and evil things together.

The shrines and altars around here are just shells now.

That fire deep in the forest keeps burning so those evil things don't start causing trouble again.

What were those small, terrifying, and evil things like?

Who knows... I've already forgotten. By now, they've turned to ash, and no one could tell what they used to be.