The First Servant Returns
A world where the very survival of humanity had become a tragedy.
Life demanded death, and dignity was sold off as the price of survival.
Those who remained did not dream of tomorrow. They merely hoped that today would be slightly less horrific than the last.
Yet, even in such a world, a flower bloomed.
“O Light, take away the pain of the wounded.”
As he chanted the incantation, the bleeding stopped and the flesh knit together. Those who witnessed the miracle called him a ‘Saint.’
But at some point, those who called him a Saint vanished. Instead, he was given a new name.
The Executor who carries out the god’s commands.
The Agent who acts on the god’s will.
The Judge who weighs sins by the god’s decree.
In the end, people came to call him the ‘First Servant’ of the one true god, Oranis.
And that ‘First Servant,’ hailed as the miracle of humanity—
“O Mother without a mother, born of prayer.”
—did not revere the god.
“Hah, if it weren’t for the contract, I would’ve quit ages ago. Oranis, you know this is an unfair contract, right?”
Bound by the contract, he simply performed Oranis’s orders with diligence.
“No?”
When Oranis asked, the ‘First Servant’ smiled as if he hadn’t just complained. It was because this contract was his only hope.
“Stop what? Just send me straight home once the contract ends.”
“What is it, Oranis?”
Kang Jinwoo, the ‘First Servant’ of Oranis, felt his temper flare and instinctively ran a rough hand through his hair.
‘Phew, will she really send me home?’
The breath he couldn’t release was swallowed back down his throat. An ominous premonition had grazed his mind.
‘What if she says she won’t send me home? How should I coax her?’
It was a natural reaction, considering he had signed a contract with someone who could tear it up whenever she pleased.
That was when it happened.
At the piercing remark, Kang Jinwoo’s jaw trembled slightly. The agitation he hadn’t managed to hide showed clearly on his face.
“...I don’t? Who in this world trusts you more than I do?”
The low, resonant voice sent a chill through his eardrums. Since he had already been caught, he offered a pious prayer instead of an excuse.
“Ahem, you really will send me back to Earth when the contract ends, right?”
At those words, Kang Jinwoo shut his mouth.
It wasn’t exactly that he couldn’t trust Oranis. She was the existence who heard every prayer in the world and granted miracles in return—she was the goddess Oranis, and the only reason humanity could maintain its civilization in this insane, crumbling world.
Oranis was undoubtedly a benevolent goddess. However, Kang Jinwoo had seen her ‘shadow,’ something no one else had ever witnessed.
An existence said to have birthed herself at the dawn of the universe. Without beginning or end, a being infinitely close to omnipotent, capable of erasing the world on a whim.
It was an uncomfortable truth known only to Kang Jinwoo, and the source of his fear.
‘Crazy bitch.’
Sighing inwardly at Oranis’s teasing, Kang Jinwoo left the prayer room. As he did, the brand of her mark on his right wrist glowed faintly.
“Please, stop reading my mind! How many times do I have to tell you it’s an invasion of privacy!”
“Gyaaaah!”
In the city of miracles, where humanity had found a brief respite from the threat of extinction, Kang Jinwoo’s scream echoed out.
It had already been 10 years since I was transferred to this insane world. I’m not even sure if ‘transfer’ is the right word.
I was an ordinary middle schooler, holding my younger sister’s hand on our way home. A thin drizzle, broken streetlights, an alleyway swallowed by deep darkness. It was a familiar route home, but that day was different.
“Do you like snacks more, or your brother?”
“Ugh, brother?”
“I like snacks more than Jina.”
Just as we were trading our usual banter—
Crack-!
“Huh?”
With a loud noise, the air cracked, and the fissure erupted, swallowing me whole.
“Aaaah!”
What on earth was happening?
‘W-what?’
When I cautiously opened my tightly shut eyes, what I saw wasn’t the familiar sky, but a bizarre one, and corpses strewn across the ground in a gruesome display.
“Is this a dream? Yeah, it must be a dream.”
It was too horrific to be reality. So, rather than coming to my senses, I chose to deny reality first.
‘Just when am I going to wake up from this dream...’
But no matter how much time passed, the nightmare didn’t end.
“T-this isn’t a dream?”
It wasn’t a nightmare; it was reality.
“Damn it...”
A sigh escaped me. I wanted to collapse, but unfortunately, I couldn’t. My younger sister had disappeared.
Scouting? Don’t make me laugh. Cutting through piles of corpses is something only a protagonist in a cartoon can do.
“...Jina, Jina.”
Some might call me ‘frustrating’ if they saw me in this situation.
“Jina, are you there?”
But this frustrating display was the absolute limit of the courage I, 16-year-old Kang Jinwoo, could muster.
Anyway, how did I manage to survive in this other world for a whole 10 years in such a desperate situation?
“I-is anyone there? Jina, are you there?”
“Gyaaaah! A ghost!”
“Please save me. Please save me. Please save me. I was wrong. I was wrong. I was wrong.”
It was because a god existed. And because that god had chosen me.
Oranis, who claimed to gaze upon the entire universe, instantly recognized that I was a stranger from another world and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.
And so, I’ve been working like a dog, day and night, for 10 years. Finally, tomorrow, this damn contract ends.
‘I’m so sick of it.’
Looking back, it was a life in another world full of twists and turns. I healed soldiers on the brink of death on the battlefield against monsters, again and again. On other days, I became Oranis’s sword, personally cutting down monsters, demons, and races hostile to humanity with my own hands.
I personally delivered judgment upon those who committed crimes too heinous to even speak of.
Of course, someone like me was quite reluctant to use my hands on people. Unless you’re a madman, how could you kill someone without any emotion?
Most of the criminals were ‘people who deserved to die,’ but...
Executing criminals with your own hands is another story, isn’t it?
I could never get used to condemning people. But setting aside my personal feelings, I silently fulfilled my role as a Judge.
Aside from the lingering discomfort, the punishment system was quite rational.
Anyway, today is the final day of my tiresome life in this other world.
“It’s peaceful.”
I sat alone on the city’s highest watchtower and looked down. As a warm breeze blew, the mark on my wrist glowed.
Life in another world?
I said without a moment’s hesitation, “It was hellish.”
Even if I pretended otherwise, my mind was at its limit. Even if I had been born here, this wasn’t my home, and I had a reason to return.
...Still.
“It was hellish, but it was somewhat rewarding.”
Leaning against the watchtower railing and looking at the streets, the people came into view.
“If you think about it, it’s all thanks to you, Oranis.”
She was right. I didn’t save people because of her orders; I saved them because I wanted to. I brought them hope for a tomorrow, even if I knew better than anyone that such hope was futile.
Because this place was still a ‘paradise above hell.’
That was why I clasped my hands together.
If the paradise I built were to crumble, I think my heart would ache a little.
“Oranis. You already know what I’m going to ask for, right?”
Oranis spouted more nonsense, as if to respond to my prayer.
‘...Why is she like this again? Did she lose her mind?’
For a moment, goosebumps broke out all over my body. It was a different quality of fear than what I’d felt facing death. You might call it nonsense, but it really was.
Should I call it a fundamental terror?
Having indirectly experienced glimpses of the power Oranis wielded, her whims were more terrifying to me than death.
‘Don’t tell me she’s going to destroy the city and everything else the moment I get home?’
My god, Oranis, who showed me her universal mental state again today, as if she’d read my thoughts.
“Please, stop saying things like that! Cherish people like you cherish me! Cherish life!”
As expected, she’s an opponent I can never win against with words. Since our perspectives on the world are fundamentally different, persuasion is likely impossible.
Still, one thing is clear.
Oranis, who gazes upon the entire universe, ‘specially’ cherishes me, Kang Jinwoo.
Thump.
“Your first and only servant offers a prayer. Grant mercy so that humanity may overcome hardship and adversity.”
As I knelt and clasped my hands, the mark on my right hand shone brilliantly.
With those words, a warm breeze, unsuited for winter, blew. The demonic energy covering the sky and the red clouds pregnant with blood split in an instant. Light, carrying life I thought I’d never see again, poured down over the city. The diseased trees encroached upon by demonic energy sprouted new buds in an instant, and the crumbling walls were filled in with threads of light.
It was a miracle. A miracle that only an existence infinitely close to omnipotent could show.
‘Crazy.’
At that miracle, not only the people but I, too, looked up at the sky with a dazed expression. The mark burned brilliantly, drawing her symbol across the sky, and I was at its center.
“...Is this a farewell party?”
Compared to the miracle unfolding before my eyes, it was a truly pathetic remark.
“Yes, well...”
I was scratching my cheek, not having expected her to actually grant my prayer, when a warm glow enveloped me.
I had only wished to return to Earth as soon as possible.
As Oranis announced the end, I suddenly felt sorry. Even if she was a crazy bitch, hadn’t she looked after me until the very end?
“...Did you read my mind again?”
“Yes, yes. The great Oranis, who gazes upon the universe.”
A fissure appeared in the air, just as it had 10 years ago.
“Oranis, I’m going.”
Before crossing the fissure, I conveyed my sincerity one last time.
“Thank you so much for everything. My god.”
I startled and turned my head as a voice suddenly came from behind me.
Hair as transparent as white snow. Mournful golden eyes beneath rich, shadowing eyelashes. A lovely woman, as if molded from all beauty in existence.
“...This is the first time I’ve seen you in person, not in a dream.”
“Hehe, I am not that heartless. My child is leaving his mother’s embrace, so shouldn’t I see him off in person for the last time?”
Oranis, having descended into the mortal realm, pulled me into an embrace.
“I thought I knew everything, but this is truly fascinating. And this... so this is what lingering attachment is.”
It seemed she was reluctant to let me go.
However, it was a behavior I found hard to believe.
‘What is she planning this time, laying the groundwork?’
When I didn’t react, Oranis pulled away from the hug, took my hand, and pressed it against her cheek.
“To be so irreverent until the very end.”
I always think it, but she has the face of a pure angel who doesn’t know a shred of evil. That is why I can never fully trust Oranis.
“What kind of bullshit is that... Huh?”
Thump!
Before I could even finish my sentence, Oranis shoved me into the fissure.
“Hey, you crazy bit—! I wasn’t finished—!”
“I’ll never say your name again—!”
Just like 10 years ago, I was sucked into the fissure.
When I opened my eyes again, what I saw wasn’t a sky covered in demonic energy, but a familiar one. The smell of exhaust fumes stung my nose, and the sound of car horns filled the air.
Yes, it was Earth. I had truly returned to my hometown.
“I’m back... I’m really back!”
But then.
“Ora...”
A prayer flowed from my lips reflexively, and I suddenly let out a hollow laugh. Hadn’t I just said goodbye to the other world? Memories are beautiful only when they remain as memories.
Well, it’s a bit of a stretch to call them memories, but anyway.
‘Kang Jinwoo of the other world is dead. I am now an ordinary South Korean. New Jinwoo.’
I quietly pushed the life in the other world to the back of my mind.
But to think I would pull those memories back out again.
“O Oranis, Mother of the Beginning, of all things and the nameless. Kang Jinwoo, your first and only servant, offers you a prayer. Your servant shall listen to the pleas of the wronged left on this land and personally judge those who made them weep.”
There were simply too many sinners for me to live an ordinary life.