Not A God

Chapter 7 - In God's Favor

Kaye was the only doctor in town, or at least after the Black Death, he was the only one left. A pale man stood behind the heavy curtain of the window, looking out of it with sombre eyes.　　

The sky was overcast as if it was about to rain for months on end, with no sign of sunshine. Crows cawing on the dry branches, their raspy voices carried across the sky, fallen leaves swept down by the wind, and one by one, thin townspeople walked past, dressed in their uniforms. Going to work at the factory on the other side of town, each with such a calm and kind expression, as if the world were an unbelievably beautiful place.

The simple town has always been so peaceful and quiet, and after the catastrophic plague, people seem to be much more open-minded, happy in time and gentle with others and themselves. After all, life is short, and it is better to enjoy it than to die for nothing, as they did during the plague. But what these townspeople forget is that some will never be able to enjoy life, and will have to lie in the ground for a long time, perhaps continuing to suffer in the great pain they felt before they died.

Kaye's ghastly white palms gripped the curtains as hard as if they were the necks of his enemies, his deadly black eyes filled with hatred, the blood almost turning his eye white blood-red.

His poor, pre-teen sister, Mary, had died in the middle of summer before she had time to grow up, while those who had killed her would live to see the autumn and winter of the coming year. To Kaye, who had grown up with her sister, everyone in the town was a sinner, with Mary's blood on their hands.　　

"It's okay ...... it's okay, as long as, as long as I make it, Mary will be back ......"

Kaye had a few nerve-wracking moments of biting his already jagged fingernails, his thin bony fingers taut, his gaze wandering down to the black walnut table not far away. On the table was a sheepskin-wrapped book, its thick pages wrapped in a yellowed sheepskin cover with grotesque twisted lines painted on it, like a giant eye peering into the outside world.

It was a forbidden book that Kaye had inadvertently obtained, and it was rumoured to contain the means to summon an evil god.  It was a completely heretical belief for those who generally believed in the Sun God in this day and age, and should have been handed over to the church to be purified of the sins in the book by a priest.

But Kaye did not do so.　　

Originally a believer in Sun God, Kate was shaken in his faith after the death of his sister Mary, questioning why the god who was supposed to save the world did not save his pure and innocent sister. Especially after the Black Death, watching the evil townspeople living in their happily ever after, the last straw fell from Kaye's back and the existence of the Sun God was completely abandoned by him. He began to hate all false gods because the evil gods, summoned to fulfil the wishes of their followers at a price, were more like the righteous side.

So Kaye began to frantically gather information to summon the fearsome evil god that was fabled to grant the wishes of his followers. For him, who was born with a great talent for languages and an excellent memory, this should have been an easy task, however, deciphering the summoning rituals written in this book was not as easy as one might think.

The language was an unfamiliar ancient script that required careful study, but even Kate's genius was useless when he could not mentally support himself. It took Kaye a full six months of study to tentatively understand the steps of the summoning and have the strength to try to summon the gods to resurrect his sister.

Although he still did not know exactly what the gods the book summoned were.　　

All he knew was that he was being tempted by the devil towards the abyss and that he would be releasing a terrible evil god himself, but ...... it was all worth it for Mary. Kaye picked up the books on the table and coughed weakly, his cheeks flushed a sickly red, and a hissing laugh escaped his hoarse throat in excitement.