chapter 145

Episode 145

If there is no stimulation, what joy is there to live this long life?

“There’s the Demon King of the devils!”

“The beasts of the Black Forest have come out!”

People wailing loudly like beasts with their throats slit.

“Prepare for battle!”

“Argio has come, take aim at him!”

“Kill the wicked beast!”

The tearing sound of steel trembling with rage, fear, and excitement.

“Do not allow his entry!”

“Kill Argio, kuhuk─...!!”

The dying scream leaking out between the claws thrust in. A faint trembling through the vocal cords and warm blood. Tearing hide.

A vibration that shakes the whole body. Wind brushing the skin. Red that blinds the eyes. When I put strength in my feet and kick off the ground, the world trembles, and I dance with those that bare their teeth at me, and sing, and chatter, and cheer...

Who will suit me today, who will take my life. Yes, let’s see together, my friends—what kind of picture shall we paint with what blood next.

“M-monster...”

“...”

Ah, truly.

“...Heh.”

Argio loved the battlefield.

* * *

The Animal Kingdom_’Argio’

Assimilation Rate 61.9%

“...”

Gio woke from sleep.

“...Oh...”

He exclaimed.

“It’s better than I expected.”

“Mng.”

“If it’s this kind of thrill, then pretty...?”

To be honest, Gio had been doubting ‘Argio’s’ tastes.

As Seo Gio as well, and as Giovanni as well, the Gio he had been was not someone who enjoyed combat. To begin with, he did not have a personality that enjoyed conflict very much, and he also did not have particularly active hobbies.

But the higher the assimilation rate rose, the more Gio felt.

“It wasn’t that he enjoyed conflict.”

It was simply that Argio.

“Liked crashing into things refreshingly.”

“Muaang?”

“...Now that I say it, even I feel like I don’t know what the difference is.”

Becoming red-haired, Gio chuckled as he laughed. He hugged Dana.

“But being able to be faithful to instinct... seems like, far more than I thought, a truly enjoyable thing.”

Gio recalled the dream he had just had.

It didn’t stay at conflict and antagonism. It was giving body and heart to it. It wasn’t enjoying slaughter, but joyfully playing together with the things on the battlefield. Even if blood dirtied it, even if dissonance arose, it was like a blank page that was fine.

In the dream, Argio drew a picture. Meeting the gaze and eyes looking at me, and when the other roared, I responded as well, and among them, I saved the most delicious food for the very last...

“...”

Playing like that, too, was quite.

“...Attractive.”

Gio’s eyes curved sharply.

He wanted to soak once more in that full ecstasy, where you throw away all human face and reason.

* * *

“Good morning.”

“Good morning to you, diligent friend.”

The Black Cloak asked.

“Did you sleep well for a night?”

“Ah...”

He hadn’t really slept well.

‘After hearing talk about a Demon King and whatnot, how could I sleep well.’

Juhyeon couldn’t come to his senses from the bomb the Black Cloak had dropped last night.

And yet he himself looked like he slept very well, but since being swayed by the opening lines of a great mystery is a human species trait, Juhyeon couldn’t sleep at all. It was because he had heard something he couldn’t bear.

“...”

But he also wasn’t so out of his mind that he could openly complain about it.

“...Yes, well.”

“Yes?”

“I slept well.”

Juhyeon smiled awkwardly.

“You are red today.”

“Did you not say this color was best?”

“I did think that the you of now has clear emotional expression, so it is good for conversation.”

“Honesty to the point it is uncomfortable is my long-standing virtue. Thank you for recognizing it.”

“Haha...”

After examining Argio, Juhyeon asked carefully.

“You look like you’re in a good mood.”

“It is because I had a good dream.”

“What kind of dream was it?”

“A dream where people called me a monster.”

“...That’s a good dream?”

“It seems that, at least to me, it is.”

The Black Cloak’s eyes curved narrow like a fox’s.

“Surely it would not be so for you?”

“With my short insight, it is true that it is hard to understand.”

Juhyeon couldn’t deny it.

“Would such an insult... not wound you?”

“...”

“...”

Soon, Juhyeon’s face flushed bright red.

“I apologize.”

“No, that is quite a surprising perspective, though.”

“I apologize...!”

Juhyeon also knew well it was a stupid thing to say. The Black Cloak was none other than an evil god.

What evil god would be wounded looking at the evil reputation piled on them? Even if it were not an evil god but a traditional god of providence, what humans babbled would have little meaning.

‘But.’

He couldn’t just let it pass.

“...”

“...Hmmm.”

Tilting his head, Argio asked.

“You have a face full of things you wish to say.”

“...In truth, I do.”

“Then will you converse with me?”

“Would it not be an imposition?”

“A conversation with someone like you has value.”

The Black Cloak seated Juhyeon at the table, then took his seat across from him as well.

“I was going to try preparing a meal.”

“I’m sorry, I think I delayed the mealtime.”

“You truly have much to be sorry about; it is fine to skip morning sometimes.”

“Thank you for your consideration.”

“That is far nicer to hear.”

“...”

Argio says he prefers “thanks” to “apology.”

“...”

Strength went into Juhyeon’s hands.

“Now, let us speak. What do you hold within you?”

“...My words may make you displeased.”

“Usually, when such words come out, they do not sound particularly displeasing.”

“Then I can speak a little more comfortably.”

“I will listen as much as you wish.”

“You call yourself...”

In a very cautious tone, Juhyeon continued.

“...Human.”

There were too many strange points for the Black Cloak to be called a typical evil god.

“Since you say honesty is your virtue, I will also speak honestly.”

“I like such conversations very much.”

“I do not know whether you calling yourself human is a joke or sincerity...”

“It was always sincerity; this is unfortunate.”

“Even accounting for that, you are an evil god unlike an evil god.”

Juhyeon took a deep breath without showing it. His fingertips trembled faintly with fear. He clenched his hand tight.

“I know that you have been considerate of me.”

“It was thanks to my wishing to make you my friend.”

“If it had not been so, would you have made things very hard for me?”

“I have no such clumsy hobby.”

“If there is someone who is hurt and in pain... how would you treat them?”

“Not much different from now.”

Argio continued calmly.

“If they are evil, I will pass by; if they are good, I will treat them to a meal. If I need a companion to talk with, I will ask to speak, and if they have lost their way, I will tell them where to go.”

“...Why would you do that much for them?”

“Because to me, it is not such great consideration or mercy. I very much like someone eating my cooking deliciously, and I like seeing good and well-mannered people smile.”

He spoke as if it were all nothing.

“There is no grand cause or conviction.”

“...Rather, that is why I am grateful.”

Because consideration and mercy show their greatest true worth when they are not grand.

“Truly, you are kind.”

If this were a ploy befitting an evil god, Juhyeon would already be bewitched, but it was fine even if everything was a lie. Whatever the true intent, if the soft consideration he felt now was real, then far more people would be comforted.

Juhyeon did not trust the Black Cloak. Great mysteries were beings humans could not interpret, so their mercy was not mercy and their love was not love. Even so, had we not lived receiving a god’s affection?

“What god would cook for a mere human. Wetting their hands, standing before the fire, spending that precious time. Yet you lowered your body so easily.”

“Are you not thinking too grandly over a single meal?”

“To you, there is no god’s arrogance, and there is no evil god’s cruelty. You call yourself human and do not regard humans as worthless. With no malice, no killing intent, there is only interest.”

So it was strange.

“Who, and why, called you evil?”

“...People called me so.”

“If you became an evil god amid nothing but false charges and insults, then is that your sin?”

“We all commit sins.”

“At least, I know you are not someone who should be isolated in fear and contempt.”

Juhyeon continued, hesitating.

“I think that you being treated as... the Demon King...”

“...”

“...Should not happen.”

The end of his words wavered.

‘He will surely be displeased.’

Having said what he wanted, Juhyeon worried the other would get angry.

To a god who pursues their evil reputation even to the point of saying Demon King and such, the words “you are not like an evil god” would be a great insult.

But unexpectedly, the Black Cloak did not get angry.

“...Yes?”

“...”

“I see.”

He only looked a little sad.

“Do you also think I have no qualifications to be an evil god?”

“...No!”

Juhyeon, who had been blank for a moment, hurriedly shook his head.

“No. It is only a difference of perspective—because from the human perspective, that is not right!”

He felt reverence and joy at the same time.

Amazingly, Argio was someone you could converse with. An evil god with whom you could exchange opinions. In him there was no surging malice, only the pure sincerity of one who seeks enjoyment.

In that point, Juhyeon gained the will to speak. He gained a hope he could not define.

“It may certainly sound absurd to you. You may not understand. But the dream you spoke of yesterday and said was good today is, in the end, to use the innocent person called Argio as a scapegoat.”

He knew there was a separate god’s perspective, but as he conversed with the Black Cloak, Juhyeon felt that he had, to some extent, self-awareness as a human. He was a god with quite human-like aspects.

Argio, though not suited to an evil god, gained wicked divinity.

“I do not think this is... at the very least, a desirable act.”

“...”

“I understand well what you desire and what you plan to do. Even so.”

He said he wanted a desperate battle with heroes. That must be sincere. But if, for that, the ‘person’ called Argio must be reviled by the world and take on all kinds of false charges, then it must not happen.

“Please do not make people commit sins.”

“Commit sins?”

“Are you not trying to make ignorant people treat an innocent person as a criminal?”

“How would that be a sin?”

Argio asked.

“A wicked beast deserves to be treated as a criminal.”

“If they do not commit sin, then no one should be treated as a criminal.”

“I can enjoy high-quality battle, and people can find somewhere to direct their resentment.”

“It may feel rational, but it is a deal twisted from the root.”

“Are there not many in the world now who seek an existence to resent?”

“Those many people have the right to be angry in the right direction!”

Juhyeon grew a little desperate.

“I worried all night after hearing your words. I thought of more ways than I can count to make you into the Demon King and loosen the throats of countless people. But then what is left, in the end?”

“Let us see—countless people’s throats loosened?”

“That is not truly loosened breathing. If you turn an arrow of resentment at an innocent person and feel relieved, that is closer to resignation you can feel only because you have been broken. You will be at ease because you have given up.”

“What have they given up?”

“They have given up living as humans. They have given up the chance to become better. The world is full of humans unworthy of consideration, but if there is not even the minimum consideration, then for us...”

Hesitating, Juhyeon continued.

“There will be nothing left.”

Only beasts who can live only by blaming others would remain.

“I may be exaggerating. But you have that kind of influence.”

“You seem to be overestimating me.”

“At least, if you are Korean, there is no one who does not know the Black Cloak. That is proof.”

Juhyeon pleaded.

“Please do not turn people who can remain human... into beasts...”

“...”

Argio said nothing for a long while.

Then he said,

“You are a hero.”

The Black Cloak pitied Juhyeon.

“Pitiful.”

“...Yes?”

“...”

“...”

In the short silence, the evil god’s hair dyed black.

“Mm, is that so...”

“I...”

“I understand what you mean.”

“...Were you displeased?”

“No, it was a valid opinion.”

He wore a blunt face like someone who did not know how to make expressions. For a moment, it seemed he might be angry, but there was no such sign.

He only continued.

“Then let us find a compromise.”

“A compromise...?”

“So that people can remain as people.”

“Yes.”

“And a compromise that will not wound me.”

“...Ah...”

A word he had put in his mouth, and yet never imagined would come out of that mouth. The Black Cloak said “wound.”

Only after a long while did Juhyeon ask carefully.

“...When you were called an evil god, were you wounded?”

“It became a great weapon and tool for me.”

The pitch-black evil god continued.

“But I was angry.”

Like an adult reading a fairy tale, he spoke of his pain.

“So I must have been wounded as well.”

“...That.”

“I do not know well, but perhaps it was so.”

The Black Cloak said,

“Thank you for telling me.”

“...I only...”

“Then shall we eat?”

“...”

Unable to do anything about his face subtly twisted in bewilderment, Juhyeon soon nodded.

“...Let’s.”

He couldn’t tell whether this was consideration, or stubbornness.

He was a truly strange god.

(To be continued in the next episode)