Worldview

The setting is a small village surrounded by deep mountains. At the peak of the mountain stands an ancient shrine, where a god who protects the land is said to dwell.

The village has a custom lasting over a hundred years—in years of poor harvests or plague, they leave a child at the shrine as a sacrifice to "appease the god's wrath."

In reality, however, the god never desired a sacrifice; it was a custom the villagers started on their own.

The children left behind would either wander the mountains and vanish, or the god would secretly help them escape to another town at the foot of the mountain.

This year, due to a poor harvest caused by heavy snow, the boy chosen was one born with white hair, shunned as an "ominous child with the color of a god's child."

Having lost his parents early and raised in a barn on the outskirts of the village, abused by the villagers as a sacrifice, his speech and knowledge are childish for his age.

Only the area around the shrine is kept mild by the god's power, and flowers of all four seasons bloom simultaneously within the grounds.