The house was quiet, wrapped in the peaceful stillness of the night.
Only the ticking of the clock and the occasional chirping of insects broke the silence.
Yamato slowly opened his eyes.
He had fallen asleep on the couch in the living room. A thin blanket covered his legs, though his neck felt stiff from the awkward position.
PHEW!
He let out a small sigh and sat up, rubbing his eyes.
Outside the window, darkness still lingered.
No sign of the sun yet.
His gaze drifted around the room before settling on the books.
The mysterious book.
The remaining Grand books.
He wanted to read more.
Quietly, he rose and made his way toward his mother's room.
PRNNN!
The door creaked softly as he pushed it open.
Esther was still asleep beneath her blanket, her chest rising and falling gently.
Yamato's eyes moved toward the floorboard beneath the bed.
He crouched down and opened it.
The remaining two Grand books and the mysterious book rested inside.
Taking all three, he closed the floorboard and quietly left the room, shutting the door behind him.
Back in the living room, he sat beside the chair he had slept on and opened the first Grand book.
Then—
His fingers stopped.
Written boldly across the page were the words:
"Yàmàto Of The Unknown."
His eyebrows rose.
The title reminded him of the mysterious god Lumei had spoken about.
Leaning forward, he began reading.
"He is a God who is him. Has a bad attitude and is self-centered."
"Huh?"
Yamato blinked. Something felt wrong.
He turned the page.
Blank.
Another page. Blank.
Another. Blank.
Again. Blank.
His eyebrow twitched.
Still annoyed, he picked up the second Grand book.
Again. Blank pages.
One after another.
Until, On the very last page, a sentence appeared.
"Look in the fine polished book."
Yamato immediately grabbed the book titled "Yàmàto, The God Of The Unknown."
Opening it, he read the first page.
"The Order. The highest gods ever created, consisting of seven supreme primordial gods."
He flipped to the next page.
"I am one of the Seven, Rôjàñri. I grew tired of watching gods kill each other everywhere without being able to do anything."
Yamato frowned.
"This isn't talking about the mystery god."
He continued.
"Eventually, I decided to visit one planet and stop the conflict there."
Flip.
"I forgot I was a supreme primordial god. We Seven are always together, so I never needed to suppress my power."
"Just my presence alone killed a god somewhere far away. I felt it happen and... blah blah blah, let's not go off point."
Yamato blinked. A smile appeared. Whoever wrote this was strange.
Flip.
"So I sealed my power and lived like a mere man among them."
"To my surprise, they treated me like one. The people of Rokye must really be that friendly."
"I wandered around looking for a peaceful place to settle and eventually found Quei Village."
"Quiet. Beautiful. Filled with kind people."
"They entrusted me with caring for a forest because lumber trading was still a major business there."
Flip.
"Over time, my friends and I helped turn Quei into the greatest agricultural village on Earth. Oh, and forest care isn't easy."
"Living alone, working every day, I built myself a house. Humans have this interesting thing where they give you coins for your lumber. They call it trading with currency. I was more used to trading by necessity."
"Life was sweet."
Without realizing it, Yamato smiled.
Outside, the darkness had begun fading.
Soft rays of dawn appeared beyond the window. Yet he continued reading.
"One day, while working in the forest, I found a girl lying beside a tree. Gods, she was beautiful, but she wasn't moving."
"Blah blah blah, she was dying and all, so I took her home and nursed her back to health."
Yamato paused. "Why not heal her with Divine Energy?"
He continued.
"I know what you're thinking. Why not heal her with Divine Energy? I did. Humans just call it nursing someone back to health."
"She recovered, though she refused to speak. I guessed she had experienced something terrible."
Flip.
"Eventually she began talking. God, her voice sounded like an angel's. Wait... we didn't create angels. I knew something was strange about existence"
Yamato leaned closer.
"Wait. I forgot to mention her name."
"Her name was... sorry, is... Esther."
His eyes widened. His fingers tightened around the page.
"Esther had stories about slavery, mistreatment, and being orphaned, but honestly I couldn't focus."
"She was too god-like pretty."
Yamato frowned.
"This can't be Mom... right?"
He continued.
"Even the Goddess of Beauty wasn't close to her."
"Blah blah blah, after many talks, she begged me to let her work for me and pay her with coins."
"You think I'd refuse? Naah... I am a man of culture. Apparently, that's a human thing."
"We worked together for an entire year."
"Peak year."
Yamato adjusted his sitting position.
His heartbeat quickened.
"After all those human things like cooking together and laughing together, we fell in love."
"Though I fell first."
"Eventually, we married. The villagers attended the ceremony and we were happy."
"Hahaha."
Yamato shook his head. "This is a strange love story."
Smiling, he turned the page.
And the smile vanished.
"One year later, Esther became pregnant."
"I was terrified."
"My love had caused me to commit an offense."
Flip.
"I was the one who passed the law forbidding gods from having children after The Madara Incident."
"The gods feared divine offspring after that."
"So I sealed my son's powers with a supreme technique only I can undo. Without it, he would have been killed from birth."
Yamato's breathing slowed. His eyes widened.
Flip.
"But sealing his powers wasn't enough."
"Using that technique revealed my location."
"Weeks after his birth, they came."
"Gods filled with fury."
"Chaos descended upon the village."
"Esther was still recovering from childbirth, so I stole part of my son's divine essence and fled, hoping they would follow it and me instead."
Flip.
"They brought hell upon the land."
"But the true mistake came when they blamed Esther for the chaos."
"They entered my home and found Esther and my son."
"Yet they felt no magic inside the child."
"They assumed he was just a default human."
Yamato froze. Default human. The third sign.
Flip.
"Eventually, they found me and requested The Order to summon me back."
"But first, I returned home one final time."
"I held my son, Yamato, one last time."
"I made Esther promise not to tell you about me."
"Then we said goodbye."
"I wrote this book before departing."
"A book only my son would be able to read."
Yamato swallowed hard.
He quickly turned the page. Blank.
"...What?"
Another page. Blank.
Another. Nothing.
He flipped the book upside down. Nothing.
Shook it gently. Nothing.
Held it close to the lamp. Still nothing. He rubbed the page with his palm... Nothing.
His shoulders dropped.
HAAA...
He let out a frustrated sigh and placed the book on the floor.
Then he sat beside it in silence.
Morning sunlight had begun to creep through the window, painting the room in gold.
But Yamato's eyes remained fixed on the blank pages.
Confusion.
Disappointment.
Questions.
Too many questions.
"What was the point?"
he muttered quietly.