Alphen walked alone in the desolate streets.

Muddy floors, cold, damp air, ubiquitous void monsters, everyone's heart is dead.

For the most ordinary youth in this kingdom, all of this became his only knowledge of the world.

The nobles enjoyed the best and safest protection, even if they fell ill and died, they were protected by Elijah, and the knights of the kingdom were the elite of the country, and everyone dreamed of being a part of it.

"I'll be a knight and lead everyone to happiness!"

However, becoming a knight is out of reach.

At the beginning, Alphen still had the heart to fight for change, and he had been practicing martial arts with the veterans in the town, hoping to serve the country in the future, become a knight, and resist the void.

However, before the 17-year-old Alphen woke up, a series of disasters struck.

The family's fields were flooded with water, and they had to leave their homes. In order to defend the rations, the father let the mob beat him to death, and only slept under the rock for one night, and his sister, who was slightly pretty, was looted and taken away, and her whereabouts have not been known since.

Mother was strong, and she held herself on, and just as they were about to cross the riverbank, opposite the town, the monsters of the void suddenly attacked her, disemboweling her and eating her alive.

"Run! Son, run! ”

In the face of the bloody killing, Alfen's mind went blank, and his legs and feet moved unconsciously.

He didn't remember anything, except that his mother's call kept ringing in his ears.

Alphen kept running, and the people around him kept falling, he didn't know how long he had been running, he didn't know if he was running fast, he didn't remember how the sun burned his back, and he didn't remember how his fellow travelers infected by the void disintegrated little by little, everything in his body was stripped and fell off, and finally he fell sadly on the side of the road, holding his head and waiting to die.

By the time he came to his senses, not only was there no void around him, but there was no living person left.

He walked alone on the earth, his eyes numb and distracted.

Alphen did not complain about the injustice of fate, in fact, after the loss of his family, he no longer had the strength to curse the scourge. All he could think about was 'Run!' Son, run! This sentence keeps lingering in my brain.

He didn't know why he wanted to live, he just instinctively followed it.

Alphen walked along the road, looking for something to fill his stomach everywhere. Unless it rains, he will hide from the rain, and the rest of the time, he will keep walking.

There is no complaint, no sorrow, no pain, his heart is like a pool of stagnant water, and he can't even have a little hatred for the thugs, the void and the natural disasters that killed his family.

It's not that he's forgotten all this, it's that he really doesn't have the strength to fight his mind.

He walked like this for an unknown amount of time, and his clothes turned into shreds, his skin was dry and cracked, and there was nothing left but this life.

But more than anything else, a more serious and real crisis lies ahead of him.

Gollum......

The empty pouch of his stomach burned constantly, his eyes turned white, and the world in front of him was sometimes dark, sometimes upside down.

In his numb and dull life, there was finally something that could make him more worthy of distraction than moving forward.

- Hunger

He crawled blindly, reaching for the air, trying to snatch away every shred of edible breath, and followed it step by step.

The mountains in the distance were pitch black, and then they turned into small dots, crowded with people, and Alphen couldn't tell whether it was food or the smell of sweat from the crowd, and he didn't care whether it was a suppressed army or a swaggering knight of the kingdom.

In the past, he admired the knights of the kingdom, but in the plagued areas, he did not show his duty as guardians of the kingdom, they brutally beat the people, looted food, and protected the departure of important officials and nobles, but did not show the slightest respect for the commoners.

All he knew was that in the wilderness, there was nothing to eat.

Alphen bent over towards the group, and the closer he got, the more clearly he could discern the smell that was wafting through the air—the aroma of barley and rice.

Gollum......

When hunger struck again, Alfin completely lost his consciousness and rushed towards the other party, where he saw the men in black and green robes getting closer and closer, holding flags with four-horned bull heads.

Soon, soon!

He quickened his pace, and seeing that he was only a few hundred meters away from the group, he stepped into a small puddle of water, and fell to the ground, fainting.

Hunger tortured his body, exhaustion tortured his will, and the long march of suffering had destroyed Alphen from a civilized man into a primitive beast.

After an indescribable period of time, Alphen's dark world suddenly took on color. He saw his eyelids turn orange, his ears lingered with cheerful clapping and singing, the smell of burning wood came to his face, and the instinctive pursuit of heat by creatures awakened Alphen at once.

He opened his eyes and sat up immediately, the tall tent replaced the starry night, and the beds and busy nurses beside him, as well as the hanging needles on the back of his hands, all told him at all times: you have escaped the wilderness and are now in the shelter of civilization.

The strange feeling on his body made Alphen subconsciously look down.

At this moment, the body is no longer ragged, but has changed into clean and wide clothes. In the process of escaping from the famine, the wounds were treated, plastered, bandaged, and the smell of herbs lingered in the mouth.

Alphen lifted the quilt, his blood-stained feet were carefully washed, put on clean and breathable socks, the feeling of being wrapped and protected rose from the soles of his feet and spread to his whole body, making him feel the urge to cry for a while.

"Ah, you're awake."

Alphen looked up, and an old man in a black and green robe walked up to him, the old man with white hair and a kind eyebrow, holding the scriptures and the emblem of the four-horned bull's head in his hand.

When he arrived at the head of Alfimmi's bed, he bowed his head slightly, and said:

"Thanks to the blessing of Gio Skua Crown, we have saved another life. Don't worry, kid, you're safe, you just haven't eaten for too long to feed you right away – but don't worry, two more days of concentrated glucose and you'll be able to move and eat normally. ”

Alphen stared at the old man in a daze, his gaze focused on the scriptures and emblems that 'inadvertently' appeared in the other's arms.

The emblem of the four-horned bull's head, the green and black costume, is an extremely unfamiliar image to Alphen, and he has never been in contact with it.

“…… Is all this true? ”

He muttered.

"Thank you for ......"

"No, you don't have to thank us."

The old man just smiled, patted him on the shoulder, and said:

"It's all the will of Gio Skura."

"Gio Skua ......"

"Yes, son, that is the god we believe in, who foretold this calamity with his heart in mind, and told me to wait for the messenger to come to the rescue of the need—if you want to thank him, thank him only for the crown of Gio Skura."

“…… But what are you trying to do? ”

"We don't ask for anything, everything we do is guided by the gods, we trust Him, and only Gio Skua can overcome all these difficulties in our place."

The old man said, handing the holy emblem in his arms to the young man:

"To tell you the truth, we don't have enough manpower, there are more people who need to be saved, if you are interested, you can choose to join us and spread the gospel of Gio Skuou."

"Religious? But the Kingdom Council should have eliminated religion decades ago. ”

"I think if you have nothing, instead of sitting and waiting to die, it is better to find a god and believe in it first."

The old man shrugged his shoulders and said with a light and humorous voice:

"It's entirely up to you to return to nothingness after death, or to join the reincarnation of Gio Skua after death and live another life."

(End of chapter)