Chapter 4: 2.2 Church

The chaotic murmurs of countless voices slowly receded, and Satou was left with a sharp throbbing pain in his head. Everything felt muddy. His sense of orientation, whether he was up or down, was in void.

“Aaughh,” my head…

In his stupor, Satou tried to get up, but found himself unable to move merely his fingers at best. It was as if he his body had been detached from the dictates of his minds.

Fortunately for Satou, though minuet, he felt himself gradually regaining autonomy of both his body and mind.

At first, he struggled to think of anything other than the pain at present. But as his headache receded, he felt his senses came back with it. The cold hard floor on which he rested, the growing pattering of rain on panes of windows nearby, the only melody that kept him company.

Am I even awake right now? And why am I on the floor? Did I fall off my bed? Am I ill?!

Questions and doubts began pouring in. He did not know what was wrong with him and was left to guess for himself.

All I can do is wait for now. I hope I don’t end up dying from whatever this is…

He gulped gravely at his own thoughts. He did not know whether he was in dire need of some serious medical assistance, or whether it was merely just a phase that was to eventually pass. Satou prayed for the latter. And given his headache had finally receded quite a bit now, and that he felt a lot better than he felt a few minutes ago, a sense of security wash over his troubled mind.

At least this cold floor is keeping me cool…Hah… It was then that his trail of thought led him to an epiphany.

Wait, this floor… To confirm his doubts, he began to feel the floor with his fingers. Is this stone? Stone was not what the floor of his house was made of.

Satou felt his heart suddenly sink. Like a flood, he started to remember.

I-I was at school.. Then a white light, it—

The awareness of one, triggered another, and like a cascade, he remembered everything that had transpired prior.

A fit of adrenaline took him, he found himself regain his energy. He forced his eyes to open wide. Finally, he found success!

At first, nothing appeared clear to him, a hazy screen of darkness covered his eyes, making it difficult to make out any forms whatsoever.

“Wh-Where am I?” Satou muttered.

But slowly but surely, that haziness too began to fade away. There, Satou found himself greeted by the sight of a cold spacious room. No, a hall, one though large— was less than half the size of his school auditorium.

In front of him in the darkness, he saw dark oak benches lined up in rows facing towards him, partly illuminated by the moonlight that bled in from behind, through large windows. Looking up, he saw ribbed vault ceiling, with chandeliers hanging at regular intervals.

Chandeliers? Satou became perplexed, Am I in some church?

He forced himself upright, barely managing to do so. His head began to spin like crazy from his sudden action.

He did not know how he got here, but he had some good guesses for it.

Did that light have something to do with this?

Did I—

A sudden exhilaration welled up inside him, making him widen his eyes in astonishment, fear, hope, and utter excitement, one that only an otaku like him would feel in such a situation.

Did I get isekaied?! Given that none of what happened made any sense, this was a very valid suspicion to hold. A wild situation requires a wild hypothesis after all.

Finally upright, Satou began to look around.

A church… was indeed where he was.

The austerity of the sanctuary stood out to him. It was quite barren, of an ascetic kind, and had a sense of being quite stark and cold. Lacking much décor, the place appeared larger than it should’ve.

He turned around and faced where the tall windows stood, and stared at something in front of him. Contrary to Satou’s expectations of a Christian Church, there was no crucifix, no Mother Mary, but instead, there rested on an ornate pedestal, a sculpture of a person half his height.

He walked closer to inspect it. It’s details hard to make out in the dim and poor lighting.

The sculpture was of a woman in an ornate ceremonial gown that covered half her face diagonally, namely her complete right eye. Her beauty was of a fair and motherly one; and her subtle kind smile was directed towards at what looked to be a flute resting in her hands, which she held with the utmost delicateness.

The ornate flute, Satou found, had intricate details inscribed onto it, one that he could tell at a glance wasn’t there just for decorations, but the poor lighting made everything too fuzzy to make out.

Creakk…

Amidst the sound of thundering storm and the pattering of rain on the large windows, the entrance to the Church suddenly swung open. Satou in shock quickly turned around, and from the half-opened door, a body leaned in. With a lantern in one hand, a stranger, a fairly aged man, pointed the light directly towards Satou, slightly blinding him.

When the stranger saw him, he froze. “By the Gods!” He exclaimed, and Satou who too was frozen in fear, not knowing what to do, dumbly stared back at him.

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“Please,”

“Ah, no, it’s fine, I’m not hungry—”

“No, please! Do eat something!”

Satou tried to politely decline, but the person was adamant once more. Never in his life had he felt this much of a pushover. In the end, he yielded after the third time, and ate as he was asked of. Fortunately, the food wasn’t bad.

The two of them sat facing each other behind the table. Satou felt quite awkward as he dined on the biscuits and tea, and the silence between them did not help.

These aren’t that bad. Satou tried to think of something else to take his mind off the uneasiness.

“I still can’t believe it… You’re a hero.” The old man remarks all of a sudden, matter-of-factly, with a brimming smile.

“He-ro?” Caught off guard, Satou failed to properly respond, almost chocking on his meal.

Does he mean it in an isekai, fantasy sense?

All this time, Satou had not properly contemplated it. It had completely escaped his mind. He had been thinking about the same thing over and over again: whether he had been isekaied or not. But the thought of why or how had never come up, until now.

Indeed, that was very stupid and careless of him, as the question of why he had been summoned to this new world carried with it, epiphanies of great magnitude. For one, his future fate depended on how summoned people were treated here: whether they were revered, uncared, or used as blood sacrifices.

He was familiar with many novel tropes of isekaies he’d watched and read, but this being real life, he wasn’t so sure whether they were of any help, if at all.

“I should explain.” Seeing Satou’s perplexed expression and his pause, the stranger decided to take things slow, “You are what we call here, an otherworlder. You in particular, are a Hero, because you were summoned inside a holy ground, the Church of the Goddess of Life no less.” He tapped his finger on the table, pointing downwards.

Satou’s heart began to race as he quietly sat there and listened. “A Hero is an otherworlder summoned to this world by a pact with the Great Creator.” He paused, “Your clothes, your foreign looks, you being in this church, and your mana, all of it assures me that you’re a Hero.”

“What was the pact? Did he just say mana? He can sense that?” Satou questioned after a brief pause. He did not remember anything of that sort after falling unconscious—of ever meeting any God or Goddesses.

“Forgive me, but I do not know anything of the pact. I am but a mere laity of the faith. Ahh, where are my manners! I am Lawis Darin, the humble priest of this Church, of this village, born here.” He bowed sagely.

“I’m Hasegawa Satou, and I’m from an island called Japan.” Satou decided to keep his introductions succinct too, and bowed in return.

“Yes Japan, I’ve heard of it before.”

“How?!” Satou exclaimed in shock.

“Other Otherworlders. I’ve only ever met two. Three, now!”

“Are they, are we, common?”

“No. Rare, very rare, and many if not Heroes, tend to keep their identity a secret. Most, at least anyways.”

Satou, having too much new information to take in began to lean back. His heart raced like crazy. It was as if his dream had come true.

“Now,” Lawis began, “The Church should already be aware of you being here Sir, Hagewaa—sa?”

“Um, Hasegawa. That’s my family name. You can just call me Satou.”

“Ahem yes,” Lawis coughed, “The Church should’ve already sent someone from the capital to escort you. They should arrive here by tomorrow morning.”

“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” Lawis continued as he stood up, “I must go and make the proper accommodations for your stay for the night. Please wait here, I will be right back.”

Satou nodded in return. The man had helped him enough already, and even though he wanted him to stay and ask him more questions, he was too shy to ask.

The rain had finally stopped, and Lawis grabbed his umbrella and left with a farewell. Satou stood there at the doorsteps of the church, and watched Lawis disappear into the night. Apparently, the church sat on a fairly high and on a steep hilltop, which explained partly the place’s austerity, and the view.

There on the summit of the tall hill where the church stood, Satou stayed frozen in a trance, mesmerized by the scenery that laid before him.

“Wow…” He unconsciously muttered.

Far off in the distance all the way to the horizon, he saw, countless glimmers of light scattered all throughout the land. Clusters afar, an indication of thriving civilizations, were plenty; while single dots of light, usually solitary, far from others, scattered throughout between them in a kind of harmony.

Following the sea of stars, where the edge met the sky, Satou followed it and looked up, and saw two moons right next to each other like two twins, ying and yang, illuminating the world for him.

I really am in another world. He remarked with a gasp and an open mouth.

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