[Imperial Year 331, January 14th]

Two weeks later. Deep within a mountain.

Sera, in a tattered state, was utterly exhausted.

She had been surviving by crossing mountains, gathering mushrooms and herbs, and selling them in villages she passed through to earn her keep.

“Huff, huff. I think I’m almost at Letren now…”

The sun that had been shining through the forest covered entirely by trees was now setting.

‘I shouldn’t have pushed myself to come. I should have stayed a day at the village I saw earlier… Spending the night in the mountains is too dangerous…’

Rubbing her arms against the chilly weather, she looked around but couldn’t sense any human presence.

‘Given the situation… I have no choice but to stay in the mountains.’

Before the sun completely set, Sera hurriedly gathered dry firewood and moss to use as a blanket.

‘It would be nice if there was a cave.’

The mountain quickly became pitch dark.

In the darkness, she collected moss wedged in a large rock wall.

‘Let’s just gather all of this.’

Swoosh.

While removing moss from the wall, a hole about knee-high to Sera appeared.

‘Oh. What is this? This hole…? Hmm…? It feels familiar. Hmm…’

Sera dug out the moss and crawled into the hole. As she went further in, it widened enough for her to sit up straight.

‘Wow! It’s cozy! No wind, it’s perfect!’

Dragging her bundle inside the cave, Sera sat in the pitch darkness and fumbled to start a fire.

Snap! Snap! Whoosh…!

“Kyaaaa!!”

“Aaaah!!”

As the fire lit up, the inside of the cave became clearly visible. Right in front of Sera’s nose, a human figure appeared.

“Wh-who, who, who… who are you?! Please save me! Please… God…?! I can’t die like this! Please save me! Huaa…”

Sera squeezed her eyes shut and blurted out anything that came to mind.

“…”

In the suddenly quiet situation, Sera slightly opened her eyes and was startled to see a pale face illuminated by the light, causing her to scream.

“Kyaaah!!! Who are youuu?! What, what is this~?!”

Filled with caution, Sera shrank back and pleaded.

“Please spare me! I have nothing!! I haven’t even had my pheromone manifestation yet… so… I can’t even have that kind of relationship…! Ah, I’m completely useless…! I’m sorry! The reason I came in here is…”

The other person just quietly watched Sera.

‘Uh… I feel like I’ve seen them somewhere…’

Sera looked at the silent person and cautiously spoke.

“Um… excuse me… why aren’t you saying anything…?”

A look of confusion flashed across the person’s face.

“Um… I’m sure you screamed along with me earlier…”

‘It’s such a familiar face, where did I see it…? Ah!! I remember now.’

“Hey?!”

“Eek!”

The person, who was unfamiliar yet not entirely so, was startled and fell backward when Sera leaned in.

Hearing the voice, she was sure it was a man.

“Ah, so you were a man after all. I didn’t mishear the scream earlier.”

Seeing the man sprawled out awkwardly, Sera’s tension eased, and she burst into laughter.

“Ahaha! I’m sorry. You were startled, right? You looked like someone I know, so I wanted to take a closer look…”

The man remained dumbfounded on the ground. Sera continued to ramble on her own.

“What brings you to this cave? Ah, I apologize for shouting out of nowhere. I was just so startled… But the outside was covered in moss, so how did you get in? Was there another entrance? What were you doing in the dark? You didn’t even light a fire… Oh, did I wake you up if you were sleeping? If so, I’m sorry…”

Sera locked eyes with the man, and as they stared at each other, she leaned in closer and said.

“…By the way, you really look like someone I know. No, not just similar, but exactly the same.”

“Who… who are you talking about…?”

“Ah~ You finally speak. I guess you can’t resist curiosity, huh? It’s the god! The god~! You’ve been to the temple, right? You look just like the statue of the god in the temple. It’s amazing. It’s like they sculpted the statue based on you.”

The man frowned and adjusted his posture.

“Well… that’s because I am the god.”

Sera widened her eyes and asked.

“What?! Pfft… That’s quite the joke…”

“Sigh… I guess you can see my form. It’s been a while since I came to the human world, so I’m not used to this body.”

“…What kind of… joke is that…??”

Sera looked at the god with disbelief. She muttered as she looked at the face that was indeed identical to the statue of the god.

“This can’t be…”

The god extinguished the fire Sera had lit and illuminated the cave brightly.

“It can be.”

“Wow… is it real?!”

Sera looked around the cave, now bright without any fire or lamp. Behind the god, there was a vast space that seemed as large as the Seren Orphanage building.

In the center of the cave, there were ostrich egg-sized eggshells scattered around.

“Huh? This place… feels familiar somehow…”

Approaching the eggshells, Sera picked one up.

“This is… an eggshell…? Yes… I’ve seen this before…”

The god felt a bit upset with Sera, who seemed uninterested in him.

“Hey. Shouldn’t you be more amazed by me?”

Sera was startled and turned around.

“Oh! I’m sorry. But are you really a god? Just because the cave lit up, calling you a god seems…”

The god, feeling upset again, shouted at Sera.

“What do I have to show you to make you believe I’m a god? Ah. It’s strange that you can see me at all. Even if I came in a human form, I could at least hide my appearance. What exactly are you?”

The god approached to place his hand on Sera’s head, but she quickly dodged backward.

Sera’s body moved on its own, floating in the air, approaching the god. Sera couldn’t move at all.

“Ahhh! Oh, oh… Is this the power of a god?!”

The god frowned and placed his hand on Sera’s head.

“Do you feel anything, God?”

“…You’ve touched a dragon before, haven’t you? I can sense Jake’s magic.”

“Jake? Dragon Jake? I did see him recently… from a distance.”

“Sensing this much magic from just seeing him from afar is unlikely.”

The god set Sera down and thought.

‘This body is still weaker than the newborn Jake’s magic. I need to catch that troublemaker Jake soon.’

Sera suddenly remembered something and asked the god.

“Excuse me, God! If you really are a god, could you… manifest my pheromone?”

“Pheromone?”

“Yes… I can’t manifest my pheromone because I don’t know my original name.”

“Hmm… if that’s the case, it’s a piece of cake.”

The god once again placed his hand on Sera’s head, closed his eyes, and reflected on the image of her praying.

The image of Sera praying during her coming-of-age ceremony appeared.

“…Hmm! Sera, so that’s your name now. The name registered at the temple… I can’t find out because my powers haven’t fully recovered yet. Jake would know. He can see your past.”

‘I should have this child find Jake and bring him here.’

“Oh, that’s right. My name! I didn’t tell you, but you guessed it. You must really be a god…”

Sera couldn’t hide her sudden disappointment after her initial amazement.

“In the end… I need to know my name…”

“Yes. Find Jake and learn your name. Then you can have your pheromone manifestation. And could you pass on a message to come to this cave?”

Sera, sensing the god’s intention, slyly joked.

“Hmm… How am I supposed to find Jake? I already asked the guild to find my name anyway. If I wait, they’ll tell me! The guild can do what even a god can’t! Haha!”

Sera laughed innocently.

‘Wow. In front of a god, I express my feelings just as they are. Shouldn’t I be more cautious? Hmm… Whatever. Let it be.’

The god, with a reluctant expression, sighed deeply.

“I can give you a pheromone manifestation right now.”

“What?! Really?!”

The god, crossing his arms, spoke confidently to Sera.

“I can grant pheromones with my true form. Even without my powers, that’s easy enough. I’ll give you the strong pheromones you wanted. But there’s a condition.”

“What… is it?”

“Find Jake and bring him to this cave. How about it?”

“What do you mean, how about it? You’re offering to manifest it right now! Uh, uh… But how am I supposed to bring Jake? Finding him is one thing…”

“Oh… even if finding it is one thing? In reality, once you find him, the work is as good as done. If you find your name, I’ll make sure that pheromone that Jake would fall head over heels for is manifested.”

“Really? Then Jake too…!”

Sera couldn’t continue her words and recalled the first dream she had.

Seeing Sera’s peculiar expression, the god also looked at her silently.

“…”

“Ahem… but, God! Are you a man? You look so beautiful that I couldn’t tell your gender, but I didn’t think gods had a specific gender? Earlier, I thought you were a man because of your voice, but, um… listening to your voice, are you really a man?”

To Sera, who was babbling nonsense, Shin answered quite seriously.

“I’m a man. Of course… there are female gods too… and it’s not like gods only exist in this world, but anyway, I’m a man.”

“Gasp! If it’s a female god, then a goddess?! Wow. Another world? I never thought there’d be gods from other worlds, let alone a goddess… what does a goddess look like?!”

“That’s…”

The god paused for a moment before continuing.

“That’s not the story we should be talking about now. Do you have a way to find Jake?”

“Ah, I’m sorry. I got excited and started rambling. Hmm…”

Sera, feeling embarrassed, awkwardly rubbed the back of her head.

“I know a way to meet Jake. Uh… for that, I need to seduce someone with incredibly strong pheromones… so you’ll have to give me really, really strong pheromones…”

Seeing Sera awkwardly rolling her eyes, Shin rubbed his head as if he had a headache.

“Alright, I got it. I’ll give you really, really strong pheromones.”

Sera jumped up and down with joy.

“Wow! Thank you! I can’t believe things are working out like this! I’m really lucky!”

Shin chuckled softly and spoke gently to Sera.

“Come here.”

Sera scurried over to Shin. When he placed a hand on her head, a white light enveloped her.

Vroom.

The brightly shining white light was beautiful. Shin, observing Sera’s glowing pheromone, uttered a meaningful remark.

“If this is what you want… you could enjoy plenty of happiness.”

“Huh? Is it all done now?”

“Hmm. Just a moment.”

Swish.

With a gesture from Shin, a white ring appeared on Sera’s left ring finger. He lifted her hand and said,

“This ring is a sacred object imbued with my divine power. If you reclaim your name, pray to the ring using your original name. It will have the same effect as praying to a statue, and your prayers will reach me.”

Sera looked at the ring in her open hand and said,

“Wow. It’s amazing. But do I have to… pray?”

“That’s how you’ll manifest the pheromone to attract Jake. Now, I plan to go into hibernation in the cave to recover my magical power. As a god, I must return to my main duties. Even now, my avatars are searching everywhere in chaos.”

“Ah, I see. You’re busy… So, if I bring Jake to the cave, how will you know, God?”

Shin walked to the corner of the cave and said,

“Come and wake me. Even if you don’t, Jake will handle it himself. Make sure to find and return soon.”

“Uh, but why are you looking for Jake? Oh, right. They say when the pheromone manifests, you feel something… like a controllable ability? I don’t feel anything at all…”

Shin shook his head wearily.

“You sure have a lot of questions. I’m going to be buried under all these question marks. Sigh…”

“Shouldn’t I tell Jake the reason God is looking for him? Just luring him with pheromones and bringing him here seems a bit… It’s really far, and I’m not confident.”

The god chuckled and turned around.

“Seeing how you act in front of me, it’s hard to believe you’re not confident… It’s fine, have confidence and act as you wish. ‘Sera,’ even if you pray in your name now, it will reach me, so I’ll respond right away. I’m tired, so enough for now…”

“Wow, really? Anytime?”

“Only in front of Jake. Please keep our meetings a secret from everyone else. It could cause confusion… Actually… I’m the most confused right now. Stop. Asking. Please~! At dawn, I’ll cast a barrier on this cave, so you should sleep and get up to leave…”

With that, the god transformed into a small, glowing white egg.

“Wow!! Amazing!”

Sera approached the egg and tried talking to it, but there was no response.

‘Is he asleep…?’

Sera prepared to sleep around the egg.

“It’s warm… Thank goodness. I think I can sleep well today. Thank you for everything, God.”

Sera laid down some gathered wood and moss on the ground and, satisfied, lay down with a smile.

‘Finally, this life is over… After hardship comes happiness. I never thought pheromone manifestation would happen so easily… But how would I know I had a pheromone manifestation? Once I return to Seren, I should… visit the priest Sherburn. If I kiss him again… I’ll know if it’s unpleasant or not.’