ISGW 01

Chapter 1

Harin Goes Out into the Outside World (1)

In the beginning, there were gods. Among them were the seven greatest gods, who were known as the Seven Great Gods.

Since ancient times, there had been the Asura, enemies of the gods who hated them and slaughtered those who worshiped them. They brought chaos and destruction to the world, and those terrible monsters eventually came close to wiping out the races of the land.

In response, the gods of the heavens decided to intervene in the mortal world. The Seven Great Gods established seven kings on earth: four kings for the human race, two kings for the beastfolk, and the strongest of all for the beautiful and exceptional fairy race, who were loved by the gods.

However, they did not give a king to the Gremlins, who had sided with the Asura during the massacres and betrayed the gods. They were branded as those abandoned by the gods, and for the rest of their lives, they were persecuted by other races and forced to survive in caves.

After that, an age of peace continued under the protection of the gods. But after a long time had passed, even among the glorious Seven Great Gods, a traitor appeared. Mirharin, the Water God, was branded a traitor for betraying her own kind. She was cast out from the world of the gods and came to be known as the Fallen Star.

As a result, the ocean kingdom of Elysion, which had been under her influence, also lost its king and became an abandoned nation. Now, the land of Elysion had become a wasteland overrun by all kinds of pirates and outlaws.

“Mirharin…”

The blue-haired girl put down the book she had been reading and fell into thought.

“…Her name is strangely similar to mine.”

Had her parents known that her name resembled the name of this Water God, a figure whose name carried such a strong sense of disgrace, when they named her? Harin did not know.

No, perhaps she would never know.

Harin was a nineteen-year-old girl. According to what she had heard, her parents had abandoned her in a beastfolk village when she was still a baby.

She had only heard that story, so she could not know whether it was actually true. But because of it, Harin was the only human in the beastfolk village, and the inhabitants of the isolated village had always regarded her as an unwelcome presence.

Among all the beastfolk, only her grandmother Iyore had taken her in and raised her. But long ago, even Grandma Iyore had passed away, leaving Harin completely alone.

“Sigh…”

Only the greenery of the grass swaying in the wind could be seen outside the window. Suddenly feeling lonely, she let out a sigh.

Out of habit, she gently brushed her hand over the cup filled with water.

The water inside the cup rippled.

Like waves in a tiny cup.

Harin flinched and pulled her hand away.

Moving water unconsciously like this was dangerous. Her late grandmother Iyore had called it a “strange power” and warned Harin that this ability, which made her different from everyone else, could isolate her even more. She had told her never to let the other beastfolk in the village find out about it.

As if I could become any more isolated than I already am.

Harin sometimes thought that, but she had always taken Grandma Iyore’s advice seriously.

She drank all the water in the cup in one go and placed it back on the desk.

Knock, knock.

“Harin, Harin.”

Harin turned her head toward the door.

She could easily guess who it was without even going outside.

There was only one person in the village who would come to visit her home.

Creak.

“What is it, Leod?”

When Harin went to the entrance and opened the door, a familiar face was standing there, just as she had expected.

He was a boy with short turquoise hair and a sturdy build. The only unusual thing about him was that, instead of the round ears humans had, he had furry, triangular ears.

His appearance, so different from that of a human, meant that he was a beastfolk.

Leod looked about the same age as Harin. He gazed at her with his characteristically gentle brown eyes.

“What do you mean, ‘what is it’? Do I need a reason to come see you?”

He grinned.

“What are we, then?”

“Obviously, I’m Harin’s only friend!”

At Leod’s cheerful answer, Harin gave him a faint smile.

She could not deny it.

Leod glanced through the gap of the door where Harin was standing and spotted the book she had been reading, which was still open on the table.

“You were reading another book written by humans?”

There were only a few books in the village. They were traces of humans that had somehow made their way into this beastfolk village, which was particularly hostile toward the outside world.

At the same time, for Harin, who had never left the village, they were her only way of connecting with the outside world.

“Yeah. I want to know about the outside world.”

“Heh. That’s just a waste of time. It’s not useful at all.”

Leod shrugged as if he could not understand why anyone would spend time on something so pointless.

“You know Uncle Hoyan, who lives beside the poplar tree? Apparently, he dreamed of becoming an adventurer when he was young. But in the end, he never even left the outside world—he lived his whole life in this village.”

He continued talking excitedly, seemingly unaware that Harin’s expression was growing darker.

“And what about Grandma Rinoa from the apple-tree house? She said that when she was young, her dream was to meet a beautiful fairy and fall in love. But she never even got to see a single leaf from Isillie Forest, where the fairies are supposed to live. And yet there are still girls in the village who are just like Grandma Rinoa was when she was young. Harin, are you one of them?”

“…You know that’s not what I’m like.”

Only then did Leod notice Harin’s cold, hardened expression, and he fell silent.

“Are you saying I’ll never be able to leave this village until I die? I…”

Harin stopped speaking for a moment, trying to suppress the emotions welling up inside her.

“I’m going outside the village to find my parents. I have to.”

When Leod noticed the sadness clouding Harin’s face, he belatedly patted her shoulder and tried to comfort her.

“Yeah, yeah~. If you keep trying, you’ll be able to do it someday.”

Without saying anything, Harin pushed Leod’s hand off her shoulder and walked a little farther outside.

Even if he—or all the beastfolk in the village—laughed at her and said her words were unrealistic, Harin found it difficult to argue with them.

The Rosentina Forest between the beastfolk village and the human kingdom was a dangerous forest filled with wild beasts. There was no way Harin could cross it alone.

And even if she somehow made it through Rosentina Forest and reached the human kingdom, there was no way she could easily find parents whose faces she had never even seen.

The only clue she had about her parents was the white necklace she had supposedly possessed since she was a baby.

Harin lowered her head and looked at the necklace around her neck.

It was a silver necklace, delicately crafted to look as though it had been carved from moonlight.

Whenever she wanted to drive away feelings of despair and hopelessness, Harin would look at this sole trace her parents had left behind.

“…?”

As Harin stood with her head lowered, she suddenly noticed that there was a commotion in the center of the village.

She looked toward Leod.

“What’s happening in the village?”

“That’s right! We have guests from outside!”

Leod answered excitedly, seemingly happy that Harin’s attention had finally shifted away from the heavy silence that had surrounded her.

“Guests?”

“Yeah! The son of the late king from the Red Mane tribe has come to visit our tribe!”

The Red Mane tribe was the tribe where the Earth God Garcias had established a king for the beastfolk.

Together with the Black Claw tribe, where the Dark God Asmodin had established a king, it was known as one of the two nations of the beastfolk that had a king.

The White Fang tribe, where Harin and Leod belonged, had been without a king for a very long time. Because of that, the other two tribes had not even treated them as equals.

So the fact that someone from the Red Mane tribe had come to visit them—and that it was the king’s son—was extremely unusual.

“I don’t know for sure, but maybe it has something to do with choosing the next beastfolk king?”

Harin thought Leod might be right.

The Seven Great Gods of the heavens—no, now that the Water God had become the Fallen Star, the remaining six Great Gods—had established six kings who ruled the world.

The kings chosen by the gods were called those who walked with the gods, and they were granted eternal life.

But that did not mean they could never die.

If a king was murdered, even he could not escape death. And if he broke the rules he was required to follow or fell out of favor with the gods, he would lose the blessing of eternal life and die.

Harin had vaguely heard that the late king of the Red Mane tribe had suffered the latter fate.

Then… could this be a chance for the White Fang tribe to finally have a king too?

“If the next king can come from our White Fang tribe… it would be Asbel, right?”

Leod seemed to have reached the same conclusion as Harin, because he spoke excitedly.

Harin silently agreed.

Asbel was the daughter of the White Fang tribe chief and one of the strongest beastfolk among their generation.

Whenever the children of the village played together, she was always the leader.

So she was clearly the most likely candidate.

Harin suddenly wanted to see the beastfolk from the Red Mane tribe who had come to visit the village.

Curious about what kind of changes might come to the village, she turned to Leod.

“Let’s go to the center of the village.”

Murmur, murmur.

Near the house of the White Fang tribe chief in the center of the village, a huge crowd had gathered. It seemed as though nearly every beastfolk in the village had come.

The visit from the Red Mane tribe, another tribe, was such an unusual event that it had drawn everyone’s attention.

As Leod approached the gathered beastfolk, he quietly moved away from Harin and slipped into a group of beastfolk his age.

Harin was the only outsider in the beastfolk village, and she was not welcome.

Because of that, Leod avoided acknowledging Harin in front of the other beastfolk.

Harin was used to his behavior, so she did not mind.

Instead, she turned her attention toward whatever the other beastfolk were looking at.

Just then, the door of the chief’s house opened, as if something inside had just been settled, and the delegation from the Red Mane tribe appeared.

For Harin, who had spent her entire life seeing only the beastfolk of this village, these were the first outsiders she had ever seen.

Her eyes widened with curiosity.

The delegation consisted of two adults and a teenage boy around her age.

The boy walking at the front had strikingly handsome features. From the whispers around her, Harin learned that he was the king’s heir—the son of the king who had once been chosen by the Earth God Garcias before being abandoned by him.

“So that’s the heir to the Red Mane tribe’s throne?”

“He’s so handsome!”

“Oh my! I think we just made eye contact!”

His bright scarlet hair shone under the sunlight, and his eyes were golden.

With his handsome appearance and dignified air befitting a royal heir, it was only natural that the attention of the village’s beastfolk women was drawn to him.

Following behind him were the village chief and his wife, along with their daughter, Asbel.

She had bright blond hair and golden eyes. With a small scar on her left eyebrow, Asbel usually had a fierce expression.

But today, Harin thought she looked unusually cheerful.

Perhaps because of whatever she had discussed with the royal heir inside the chief’s house, Asbel kept stealing glances at his face.

“Now, people of the White Fang tribe.”

A confident, weighty voice rang out from the heir of the Red Mane tribe.

His calm and dignified voice made the villagers look at him with favorable expressions.

“I, Franz of the Red Mane tribe, would like to tell you about what has been agreed upon with the elders of the White Fang tribe.”

After confirming that everyone was paying attention to him and that the crowd had fallen completely silent, Franz continued with satisfaction.

“First, I believe everyone knows that my father, the king of the Red Mane tribe and one chosen by the Earth God Garcias, was deposed after ruling for 120 years.”

It was a well-known story, especially among the beastfolk.

“You also know what caused it. Our terrible enemy—the Asura.”

His voice was low, heavy with sorrow and anger.

At the mention of the Asura, murmurs of fear spread among the beastfolk.

“They, the enemies of the gods, stole our ‘Garcias’s Divine Relic.’ My father was deposed because he was held responsible for failing to protect it.”

Being deposed meant losing the blessing of eternal life and eventually dying.

As Franz spoke, his voice became filled with resentment, as though remembering the loss of his father had stirred up his grief once again.

After remaining silent for a moment to regain his composure, he continued in a calm voice.

“…Now, I imagine that the beastfolk of our tribe and the other tribes are all wondering which tribe the next king will be chosen from. That is why our side made a proposal to the chief of the White Fang tribe.”

The beastfolk of the White Fang tribe had secretly hoped that their own tribe might produce the next king.

Now that the very matter they had been wondering about had been brought up, the entire crowd became so quiet that even the sound of a needle falling could be heard.

“Our god favors the strong. Therefore, the heirs of the two tribes will embark on a journey to find ‘Garcias’s Divine Relic’ and prove their courage. Whoever is chosen by the god will become the next king.”

Franz paused and gestured to Asbel, who was standing beside him, telling her to come stand at his side.

“And the candidates will be myself, Franz, from the Red Mane tribe, and, as you all know, Lady Asbel from the White Fang tribe.”

The beastfolk around them erupted into excited murmurs at the astonishing news.

Standing beside Franz, Asbel looked calm, as though she had already heard everything inside the chief’s house.

No, there was even a hint of excitement and pride in her expression.

She had always taken great pride in being the chief’s daughter. With adulthood approaching, she was thrilled by the opportunity to prove herself—and by the possibility that she might become a queen.

As Asbel looked around at the villagers cheering for her with a proud expression, her eyes briefly shifted toward Franz.

There was a faint look of admiration for the candidate from the other tribe in her eyes.

“I will take only one attendant with me in order to prove my own abilities. Phillips has served me for a long time, but he is not particularly skilled in combat.”

A tall, somewhat thin beastfolk man with dark navy hair and brown eyes bowed beside him.

He appeared to be in his forties, and just as Franz had said, he did not look like a particularly strong warrior.

After introducing his attendant, Phillips, Franz turned his gaze toward Asbel.

“Now, Lady Asbel, it is your turn to choose your attendant.”

“Ah, yes!”

Asbel seemed slightly flustered and embarrassed for a moment, a side of her that Harin had never seen before.

But soon, she cleared her throat and composed herself like a proper candidate for the throne before looking over the crowd.

The beastfolk whose eyes met hers showed some excitement at the thought of being chosen.

But more than that, their eyes held fear and worry.

Asbel was thinking that, for the sake of fairness with Franz, she should avoid choosing someone strong.

Her gaze wandered among the beastfolk several times.

Someone who can keep up with me reasonably well… and who will listen to what I say…

Eventually, her finger came to rest on a boy around her age.

“You, Leod.”

Leod stood where Asbel was pointing, his eyes wide.

Among the other boys his age, he looked around desperately after being singled out, repeatedly hoping that she was not talking about him.

But once he realized that she really meant him, his face fell into complete despair, as if he had just lost everything.

Asbel looked at him pitifully before gesturing for him to come stand beside her.

“As you can see, he is not even an adult. At most, he is only suitable as an attendant who can carry luggage. Therefore, I do not believe there will be any issue with fairness in the competition to test the candidates’ abilities.”

Franz glanced at Leod’s confused face, which was filled with some unknown fear, then nodded in agreement.

“Then, Lady Asbel, do you need no other attendants? Is one enough?”

“Of course…”

Asbel was about to answer without even needing to think when she suddenly stopped.

Someone had stepped out from the crowd.

A girl around her age with long blue hair reaching down to her waist.

From Asbel’s perspective, she was an extremely unwelcome outsider to the village.

“Me too…”

The girl’s blue eyes trembled slightly as she looked at the two candidates for the throne.

Harin took a moment to steady her trembling heart before cautiously opening her mouth.

“I want to go too… to the outside world.”