High school student Ren Arisato falls into a world that looks like a warzone — still wearing his uniform. But he doesn't panic. He can open an admin menu. In front of trembling villagers, he casually spawns legendary divine items, mutters that he just wants a quiet life, and walks off.
Lyra, the village herbalist, becomes his guide against her better judgment. A cat-eared girl named Kiki appoints herself his official witness and sells stories about his nonsense for high prices.
When a demon ho
Do Not Bend the Knee - Shepherd's Hut and God's Menu
I was walking along pushing my bicycle when the ground lit up.
Seriously, the asphalt suddenly flashed with light, and the next thing I knew, I was standing in a grassland I'd never seen before.
"......Huh?"
Arisato Ren ran a hand over his loosened necktie as he absently looked around. His slightly bed-headed black short hair swayed in the breeze. His sleepy brown eyes remained half-closed. A white dress shirt, black slacks, school-issued loafers. No matter how you looked at him, he was a high school student on his way home.
Where is this?
Just moments ago, he should have been walking up a residential street. Thinking about how annoying tomorrow's pop quiz would be, pushing his bicycle, noticing the pedals felt a little heavy, thinking he needed to oil the chain—that kind of thing.
And yet.
Underfoot were plants and flowers he'd never seen before. Yellow-green ground stretching endlessly in every direction. Two suns in the sky. Two of them. One was white, the other orange. Both were perfectly bright.
"......Am I asleep?"
Ren sat down on the spot. He pulled his smartphone from his pocket and tapped the screen.
No signal. Battery at sixty-eight percent.
And one notification from the school's messaging app.
*"There will be a pop quiz tomorrow."*
"......Oh."
Ren let out a small sound.
No, wait. If he thought about it, wasn't this lucky?
He might not have to take tomorrow's pop quiz. This incomprehensible situation was incomprehensible, but it might be better than a physics quiz. Well, whether it was actually better was questionable, but the fact remained that he wouldn't have to take the test.
"......Well, whatever."
Having settled that, he looked around again.
A vast, open grassland. In the distance, something that looked like a river glinted. Further beyond, a small village-like settlement sat in isolation. The roofs of the wooden houses were dyed orange by the setting sun.
Where is this place?
The moment he thought that, a semi-transparent panel suddenly floated up before his eyes.
A blue-glowing, vertically elongated window.
【Administrator Menu】
"Is this some kind of game?"
Ren tilted his head.
On the panel before him, text and icons floated and sparkled. Item Generation, Status Modification, Entity Deletion. Some rather ominous words were in there too. It resembled a game UI he'd seen before.
"Uh...... what happens if I touch this?"
Curiosity got the better of him.
No, rather—if you were suddenly shown something like this on your way home, wanting to touch it would be the normal reaction. Ren reached out his finger and lightly pressed the icon at the very top—the one labeled Item Generation.
*Beep.*
A window opened.
A list stretched out before him.
【Sword of Dawn】【Hermit's Lantern】【Mantle of the Heavens】【Ring of Moonlight】【Dragonbone Staff】......
Every single one had a name that sounded like rare equipment from a game.
"Which one's the first item...... ah, this one."
Without much thought, he tapped the 【Sword of Dawn】 displayed at the very top.
The next instant, a heavy weight settled into Ren's right hand.
"Whoa!"
A longsword glowing white had suddenly appeared.
The blade shone with a pale crimson light like the morning dawn, and the hilt was decorated with gold. Just holding it made his arm tingle—it radiated some kind of incredible aura.
"......It actually appeared."
Ren's half-lidded eyes opened slightly wider.
He tried pressing the next item.
【Hermit's Lantern】
The air wavered softly, and a small brass lantern clattered to the ground at his feet. The light inside flickered with a pale blue glow.
【Mantle of the Heavens】
A silver-white mantle fluttered down from above and settled onto Ren's shoulders.
"Wait, hold on—everything just appears?"
Just as Ren hurriedly tried to close the panel, he heard a scream from the distance.
"H-Hiiiieeeeeee!!"
He looked toward the voice.
Before he knew it, about ten villagers were standing there. People holding farming hoes and baskets had collapsed in terror, pointing at him.
"Th-The divine...... the divine blessing......!"
"Did you see that light!? Legendary-grade items......!"
"Ah, that young man...... a messenger of the gods has descended......!"
The villagers remained collapsed on the ground, trembling violently.
Ren stood there holding three divine items—the Sword of Dawn, the Hermit's Lantern, and the Mantle of the Heavens.
......This was probably going to get troublesome.
So, this world was apparently called Vasteria.
Ren had been transported near the village of Karve, on the outskirts of the Belkhain Kingdom. It was a peaceful farming region located about ninety kilometers north of the Grand Crevasse that ran through the center of the continent. Putting together what the villagers told him, that was roughly the situation.
Of course.
"A messenger of the gods!"
"Have mercy upon us!"
"Please protect us!"
The villagers began prostrating themselves around Ren, pressing their foreheads to the ground.
It was, well, a storm of dogeza.
Ren was easygoing by nature, but when more than ten people all prostrated themselves at once, even he felt uncomfortable.
"......No, I'm not. I'm not a god."
"O messenger of the gods......! Your form, your radiance—truly an envoy from the heavens......!"
"Ooh, such awe-inspiring words......!"
They weren't listening.
Well, that was understandable.
A high schooler who suddenly appeared from a flash of light on the ground, casually producing legendary weapons—of course it made no sense. Even Ren himself didn't understand it, and he'd just been happy that tomorrow's pop quiz had vanished.
"......Can I just leave these with you?"
Ren placed the three items he was holding in front of the villagers.
"U-Um......?"
"Do whatever you want with them. Use them, sell them, display them."
Having said that, Ren quickly walked off.
"Please wait! O messenger of the gods......!"
"Where are you going......!?"
"Where......? To find a place to sleep."
That was really all there was to it.
Those items were just heavy to carry around. Besides, the villagers seemed to want them.
Ren was an honest man. Whether he was kind was debatable. This was also a calculated move to avoid hassle.
The villagers could only watch in stunned silence, clutching the divine items.
No one could stop Ren.
After all, this was someone who could produce legendary items just by touching a panel.
At the edge of the village, there was a small hill.
At its summit stood an old wooden hut. It seemed to have originally been a shepherd's shelter. The walls were moss-covered, and part of the roof was on the verge of collapsing.
"......This could work."
Ren opened the hut's door.
Inside, it smelled musty, and dry straw was scattered across the floor. But the structure itself was surprisingly solid. It would probably keep out the wind and rain.
"First, this."
When Ren raised his hand, the panel appeared again.
He opened the 【Administrator Menu】 and tapped what appeared to be a building renovation mode.
From the options that appeared, he selected 【Interior Template: Cozy Hideaway】.
The next instant.
The inside of the hut was enveloped in light.
The floor became a plush carpet. A grand fireplace appeared on the wall. Even a simple water fixture materialized in the corner.
A small hanging light from the ceiling illuminated the room with an orange glow.
The musty smell was gone. Even that dry hay scent had vanished somewhere.
"......Amazing."
Ren was impressed.
Well, he was impressed, but he didn't think too deeply about it.
"Time to sleep."
He muttered that and collapsed onto the fluffy bed.
This cozy hut became Ren's new home.
That night.
About ninety kilometers south of the village.
The Grand Crevasse—the great rift that tore the continent from east to west.
At the checkpoint on its northern side, something strange was happening.
Atop the stone watchtower, a lookout soldier exhaled.
"......What is that?"
From the depths of the crevasse, a massive shadow was rising.
A gigantic...... something, wreathed in red light.
The shadow turned northward.
Toward the village of Karve.
Slowly, slowly, it began to move.
The soldier gripped the sword at his waist.
"Messenger! Send a messenger immediately......!"
But his cry was swallowed by the night wind over the grasslands.
Meanwhile, as for the protagonist—
"......Zzz...... zzz......"
Wrapped in a warm blanket, he was sound asleep.
The first night in another world quietly deepened.
The truly troublesome things hadn't started yet.
Novelia is an AI-powered platform to read original light novels and fan fiction, create your own in just a few taps, and chat with the characters. New, illustrated episodes arrive daily — free to start.