Chapter 23 - The Devil of Gluttony Part 1

A white jersey, white hair, blue eyes, a straight-laced boy–Ritsu Saineji–woke up in the gloomy Sanctuary.

He was holding a sword and a backpack in his hands.

“Although I had only seen photos of Lars before… He looked more human than I thought.”

Standing up slowly, he twisted and stretched his small body.

Looking around, he started walking toward the nearby wall.

“Where did everyone go? From what I heard, people were supposed to be randomly transported, I think. As expected, it’s scary to be alone.”

He looked at the ruined world around him.

However, further in, he could see light shining down.

Ritsu made a face when he looked at it, and with a trembling hand, he clutched his sword.

“Ugh! Woah! That scared me! Wow!”

On the way there, he was unnaturally surprised by nothing at all.

No matter how you looked at it, he was acting and not actually surprised at all.

“Well, this should be enough practice for my reaction when meeting the devils. Hahaha, since I’m getting scared for real now, I’ll be nervous while I can.”

In order to distract himself from the fear, Ritsu mumbled to himself as he walked along the road.

The inside of the Sanctuary was certainly gloomy, and the world gave off a sensation enough to make chills go down one’s back.

It was quite difficult for a 13-year-old boy to walk around alone.

“Yeah, there’s nothing here.”

He walked from wall to wall, moving like a spy on a mission.

The world that had been lit up was strangely warm.

“Since this part suddenly got bright… it’s that, right? The power of a devil?”

He looked up at the sky.

There, the sun was way too close and was shining over him.

Giving off just the right amount of warmth, it didn’t seem that different from the sun in space.

“This atmosphere is completely different from the abandoned townscape. I’m sure there’s a devil here.”

The world extending below the sun looked different from the previous endless world he was walking around in.

It seemed like a train station with fresh green grass and moss spreading out.

A part of the road had disappeared, and the train station had become something like a basement.

Green covered the trains inside, and water, clean enough to be drinkable, filled the space.

There were several fish living inside the water as well.

It was a strange place someone had set up.

In addition, edible large tomatoes and bell peppers, as well as cattle, were there.

“This is Ritsu, I’ve come to a place where devils are believed to be. I’m going in.”

To distract himself from the fear, he imitated a spy while passing through the sunlit green place.

At that moment, footsteps heavy enough to cause the ground to shake came from further ahead.

“No way… A devil?”

Ritsu hid himself behind a nearby rusty car.

Nervously peering in the direction of the footsteps, he bated his breath.

“Biiii.”

The devil that appeared looked frightening enough to paralyze Ritsu completely.

Without even have to look, he sensed the danger.

With a crocodile-like body, a pig-like face, insect wings sprouting from its back, it was big enough to crush a train under its foot.

“Oh no, it’s coming this way.”

The devil was slowly approaching Ritsu.

Panicked, Ritsu attempted to hide inside the car and pulled the door open.

However, because of the rust, the door refused to open.

“Woah, this is dead.”

Giving up, Ritsu noticed a tomato fallen to the ground and saw hope.

Before the devil reached him, he jumped to the tomato and jammed himself inside a broken part of it.

“Biiii.”

The devil passed the tomato by.

As it walked sluggishly, the footsteps echoed on the thin road.

While smeared with tomato juice, Ritsu hold his breath with all his might.

A few minutes later, the deity’s footsteps disappeared.

“It's gone, that Pig bastard… To have the nerve to scare me…”

Confirming the devil was gone, Ritsu left the tomato.

Shaking off the dirt, he wiped it off his clothes and sword too.

“I panicked when the car door didn’t open, but good thing a tomato was close by. Anyway, no one but me would come up with the idea of hiding in a tomato. If there was, they’d be a genius like me.”

Muttering that, he hoisted the backpack up on his back again and returned to walking through the world.

However, because of his shaking legs, he couldn’t move at all.

“Wha–!? Are this master’s legs paralyzed!?”

Curling himself up, he hit his legs with his sword to curb the trembling.

In that instant, the ground he sat on collapsed.

Because of the walking of the previous deity–the Pig bastard–a crack had opened up and split the ground.

The Pig bastard was that heavy.

“No way!? Because the Pig bastard walked past? This is bad!”

Falling down, Ritsu checked what was below him.

There was a place similar to a train station, and the ground had grown hard with moss covering it.

Because of the height, he would definitely die if he fell down there.

Although the train to the left had water, there was a distance to reach the water while falling down, and above all, impossible.

Naturally, Ritsu was still falling down together with rubble.