chapter 156

Episode 156

The incident began with a teddy bear.

“Coo.”

“What is it?”

“Coo-oo, coo...”

“You’re looking for lulupu juice, you say.”

This was when Gio was in the middle of worrying about what to give as a “friend fee.”

The new friend named Juhyeon was an older, adult-like capable person that wasn’t easy to find, and Gio was thinking of taming him with delicious meals, a comfortable bed, and a refreshing event.

And since he’d been stocking up this and that...

“Just so happens I have what you’re looking for.”

He even had lulupu juice.

“Coo?”

“Yes, because it would be good to use as perfume.”

“Coo-coo-coo...”

“It certainly is a good idea, isn’t it?”

Even if it didn’t have any particular taste, its fragrance was extremely good, and if you put it in a bottle, it was beautiful, so it had value for viewing just by itself. He had made it in advance, thinking he’d gift it if he found someone looking for a decent perfume.

“But Father, why are you looking for lulupu juice?”

“Coo-oo...”

“Ah-ha, you’re saying you’ll give that tasteless thing to Dana.”

Is that okay?

“...”

Giovanni asked with a serious face.

“...She won’t get an upset stomach, will she?”

“Coo-coo.”

“Forcing something tasteless on her...?”

“Coo.”

“Ah-ha, if that’s the case, then it’s perfectly fine.”

“Coo.”

The teddy bear clapped its cotton paws—plop plop. Just looking at it, it looked plush. Gio, whose family’s joy was his joy, looked at him with satisfaction, then asked.

“Giving her the juice isn’t a problem, but how were you going to give it to Dana? Was it Dana’s request?”

“Coo!”

“I don’t know why that story is suddenly coming up, but yes, right now I was 고민 what gift to give my friend Mr. Juhyeon.”

The previous-generation Sun God pinpointed the current situation where Gio was 고민 the gift to give his new friend, Juhyeon. When Gio affirmed it, the teddy bear that smelled like warm sunlight went coo-coo and continued.

“You’re saying we should help with Mr. Juhyeon’s funeral.”

“Coo.”

“It can’t be that you mean you’ll kill Mr. Juhyeon himself.”

“Coo...!?”

“Then it would be the funeral of his friends and family...”

Gio nodded.

“I also haven’t failed to consider that. Mr. Juhyeon recently lost his family and friends and is blaming himself greatly, and since he’s just become independent, he’s currently planning to make graves for those people.”

To Juhyeon, this was extremely important work. Not only could it ease his guilt and sense of debt to some extent, but it was also a responsibility that had to become the starting point no matter what he did in the future.

“It wouldn’t be a problem for me, who inherited Father’s divinity that sowed and reaped life, to give my friend help related to that.”

“Coo-coo?”

“That’s right. As you said, helping Mr. Juhyeon’s funeral event would be fine. I also clearly know that could be quite a plausible gift, but...”

Gio, who prided himself on having decent looks and common sense, grew serious.

“I’m worried that it might be too discourteous.”

“Coo...?”

“Isn’t it discourteous to interfere recklessly in someone else’s painful circumstances?”

It was a reasonable point. Between humans and humans, there is always, in their own way, a line, and this tragedy tied to Juhyeon’s guilt was too private a circumstance for Gio, a complete stranger, to handle.

But gods don’t know that sort of thing.

“...Coo??”

The teddy bear looked up at Gio with eyes that said, ‘Why? Why would being involved in a human’s death become discourteous? That’s weird—back then, humans really loved it when I did that...’

“Mm.”

That can happen.

‘Father has never lived rubbing shoulders among humans.’

Gio found an appropriate answer.

“That was a privilege Father could enjoy because you were a god.”

“Coo??”

“Ah-ha, come to think of it, I’m a god now too.”

So even a pig-potato like me, who can only eat well and sleep well, becomes a god. Gio worried, what kind of trivial god is this, but soon he laughed proudly and continued.

“I’m an ordinary human with a god’s license.”

“Muaaaang—...”

Dana let out a cry that said, ‘I love Dad, but he’s talking nonsense right now,’ then trotted past. On her head, Honey vanished along with her younger sibling with eyes that said, ‘I love Dad, but Dana is right.’

“...”

Gio felt a little wronged.

“Just because I have a god’s license, does it make sense that I don’t get treated as human?”

“Coo-coo.”

“Of course not, Father. Where in the world is there a god who roasts and eats sweet potatoes with his own hands.”

At that, the teddy bear looked up at Gio with eyes that said, ‘Right, how do you do that?’ and Gio was left speechless. He never thought he’d be treated as an oddball for eating roasted sweet potatoes in his life.

“Anyway, Father, listen. I don’t know what may have changed after the world turned upside down once, but in this country where the roots of Confucianism are absurdly deep, a human who barges into someone else’s family funeral with no real pretext is discourteous.”

“Coo.”

“More than anything, Mr. Juhyeon is a friend we’ve just caught... no, just made, isn’t he. We’re only just getting close, so at times like this, we have to slowly tame him with small, unburdensome consideration and gifts until we can bind him into a relationship where he won’t run even if we send three boxes of sweet potatoes. If you rush too much, you get sick.”

“Coo.”

“Besides, Mr. Juhyeon is thirty-six, older than me. Offering to help with the funeral of someone more experienced and socially skilled than me is a tremendous insult. And interfering without consent with someone who’s trying to do it well on their own is rude too.”

“Coo?”

Again, gods don’t know that sort of thing.

“Coo-oo?”

“Even if it’s discourteous.”

“Coo-woong...”

Around then, Iser, who had come to visit after a while, found the two.

“Teacher? Is something the matter?”

“I was talking with Father about the funeral issue of a friend I’ve newly made.”

“That’s a confusing situation just to hear about.”

After hearing the course of events, Iser nodded.

“In my view, it doesn’t seem like it would be a great nuisance.”

“If the two of you feel that strongly, then I want to hear your opinion. Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Teacher, aren’t you the Sun God?”

“And you are also Mr. Juhyeon’s newly made friend.”

“And that human named Juhyeon also knows you as a god.”

“That is true, but...”

“What is the problem, Teacher?”

Iser tilted his head.

“For a god to cradle a human’s life and death directly is not a nuisance, but great mercy.”

“Mercy, you’re telling an embarrassingly sappy story.”

“Mm, I don’t know what part you’re embarrassed about, but the Sun God was like that too.”

“That’s because Father was the Sun that creates and reaps life...”

“You inherited that divinity, so I don’t think it’s strange for you to do similar things.”

Iser had once been a priest of the deep sea and a believer of the Sun God. As someone who studied theology under Giovanni, the most intelligent child of the Sun, Iser found Gio’s question-not-a-question quite peculiar.

“Teacher, don’t you know well? Governing life is a god’s right and duty. I don’t know what part you feel resistance toward, but it is a very natural thing.”

“So I said I’m an ordinary human.”

“I truly respect and love you, Teacher, but I know that statement isn’t valid. Even so, if we think from a human perspective, how about you think of it as having inherited a family business?”

Iser politely pointed at the teddy bear with both hands.

“You inherited the family business of divinity from the Sun.”

“This is my first time becoming a god, so I ask because I don’t know well—when you inherit divinity, do you also have to inherit the previous god’s duties?”

“As far as I know, yes. A kind of hereditary succession.”

The mermaid, who once dreamed of becoming a legitimate priest, looked down at the teddy bear.

“It seems the previous-generation Sun God... wanted you to bestow the gift called mercy upon the human you cherish, and at the same time learn your authority and position as the Sun.”

Gio had also guessed that.

“If not, there’s no way Father would suddenly advise me to preside over a funeral event. I think Father stepped in because I’ve been so lazy as a god.”

“Ah, you can think of it that way too.”

“Until now I thought I’d inherited only the license, not the position itself. But calling it a family business makes me think that up to now, I’ve been neglecting Father’s family business.”

At that, Iser smiled a reassuring smile as if telling him not to worry.

“Please don’t be anxious, Teacher. All of the existing duties the Sun once managed sank together with my and my older sister’s seawater, so you don’t need to worry.”

“What a strangely nerve-wracking thing to say.”

“What I mean is, you don’t need to feel too burdened about being involved in humans’ life and death and their rites, just because you carry divinity.”

Having said that, Iser smiled bitterly.

“If you were an ordinary being, you would have thrown away all your humanity as you inherited divinity, yet for some reason, Teacher, you have maintained your humanity even now, so it seems you are bound by humans’ etiquette like this. It’s surprising.”

“Did an idea as grand as ‘humanity’ really have to appear for the obvious principle that you shouldn’t barge into someone else’s funeral? Unless you share a family register or are sworn brothers who shared souls, you must not recklessly meddle in someone else’s deep circumstances.”

“You and humans are not equal beings, Teacher. Your small goodwill becomes enormous mercy—or calamity—to humans. Once you inherited the Sun’s divinity, that was a most natural sequence.”

Sorrow settled on Giovanni’s face.

“To say something like a species-discriminationist.”

“...”

“Right, Teacher’s sin is great.”

Iser, who once grew into both a victim and a perpetrator of species discrimination, was briefly left speechless.

“...Ahem, well, in the end, it’s Teacher who decides.”

“No matter how I think, it seems it would be too great a discourtesy toward Mr. Juhyeon...”

“Rather than discourtesy, well. It would be a very meaningful gift bestowed by one who holds divinity.”

Humans sometimes walked a path of ascetic hardship, offering up their whole lives just to receive a single clause of a god’s voice, a single touch of a god’s hand. Receiving benefits of life and death from a mystery that ought to be revered was immense grace and mercy.

“And besides, as far as I know... mm.”

Iser, who had been focusing on the human-world incidents centered around Gio while pretending not to, organized his thoughts. Recalling the brown-skinned human he’d met before, he continued.

“It seems another wicked god was involved in the tragedy that happened to that human named Juhyeon. Since they are souls sacrificed to the machinations of such a wicked god, perhaps it is right that the merciful Sun should gather them.”

“I feel bad digging too deeply into his story, but. If the gift becomes burdensome, isn’t that a problem? Mr. Juhyeon would also find financial help extremely burdensome.”

“Most likely the previous Sun meant a gift concerning the human souls themselves, not a human rite like a funeral event. He was speaking of the essence, unlike what is seen.”

At that, the teddy bear nodded.

“Coo!”

“Please don’t act friendly.”

“Coo-coo-coo...”

“I don’t know why you’re laughing.”

Iser still hates the previous Sun. He looked at Gio.

“From what I learned from you, the Sun’s greatest love is to sow life on the earth, and when the time comes, gather it and keep it by the sunlight. The process by which souls are born and gathered.”

“I certainly said that.”

“Then you, too, Teacher, can do that. As far as I know, because Earth is drawing the attention of gods, the souls there have each gone into the hands of different gods.”

He smiled at his teacher.

“They would be happier to be accepted by Earth’s divinity than by a god of another dimension. I think the gift about funerals the previous Sun spoke of was likely referring to that.”

“I’m not someone who has the right to gather anyone.”

“From your perspective, Teacher, it would be closer to making more friends than gathering them. Since every god’s way of being involved in life and death is different, it would be fine to see it as a kind of social activity.”

“Hm, social activity.”

“Teacher, I understand what you hesitate over. You’re trying to follow etiquette and common sense as a human. But if you truly want to act even as a wicked god, you will also need an attitude that does not reject the role of divinity.”

Iser had heard that Argio wanted to enjoy life-and-death blood fights as a wicked god, and so wanted to become a Demon King. If so, he would need to adapt to the role and position as a god.

And the mermaid siblings also wanted Giovanni to become more whole. If he became completely separated from humans, might there not come a day he rejected humans?

“And more than anything.”

Hesitating briefly, Iser continued.

“Since when did you start caring about human standards...?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“No, it’s just, Teacher, you were like that before too.”

Iser recalled Giovanni, who had once been human.

“Even then, I don’t think you lived particularly ‘humanly.’”

“To describe my valiant life like that?”

“Valliant is... it felt more like you just went and did things without even needing courage.”

“I have never failed to keep basic etiquette.”

“When I think of the achievements you naturally detonated as if breathing...”

“Detonated achievements?”

“I can only think, why are you putting on airs now, of all times.”

“What do you take me for? A legendary serial pocket-stuffer?”

Giovanni was wronged again.

“Even I didn’t dig into someone else’s household affairs.”

“Well, I don’t know why Teacher is worrying this much.”

“What if Mr. Juhyeon gets burdened and runs away!”

“So that was the issue.”

It wasn’t that he was worried about a burdensome future from getting involved in someone’s gloomy past; he was worried the other party would run away, sick of excessive goodwill. Iser nodded with a sacred priest’s face, as if he knew it would be so.

“It is fine, Teacher.”

“What is fine?”

“It’s already too late.”

“Too late in what way?”

“As I said just now...”

Iser smiled bitterly.

“Mr. Juhyeon already doesn’t see you as an equal being, Teacher.”

“Damn it, I knew it.”

Giovanni’s face grew serious.

“I thought that might be the case because he kept finding me difficult...”

“Separate from truly considering you a friend, you are an object of reverence.”

“Even so, there may still be hope.”

“I don’t understand, so I ask: what hope is that?”

“The hope that we might become such close friends we could even push each other with our feet.”

“Oh, to push away a god with one’s feet—an irreverent remark that makes even a mermaid want to wash their ears.”

“Please refrain from over-meaning. What irreverence is there between friends.”

“If there is still such hope left, that itself would be a miracle.”

But Gio held firm. He didn’t know how to give up.

“I, Bartlan Giovanni, son of the Sun and symbol of miracles. There is nothing I cannot do.”

“I want to say no is no, but since you’re the type who really does it if you do it, I won’t assert it...”

Mermaid students learned through their human teacher that ‘Ah, humans truly have no limits.’ He was a craftsman who forged the impossible into the possible, and Iser learned the wisdom that ‘You must always leave possibility open.’

He always kept in mind the possibility that his teacher might return alive someday and scold them, and didn’t that actually happen? Iser thought that if Gio set his mind to it, he could do anything.

“Anyway, if Teacher’s burden is not that you’re getting involved in Mr. Juhyeon’s unfortunate circumstances, then I think it’s not much to worry about. That human won’t be able to interpret Teacher’s mercy as discourtesy or nuisance.”

Who would see a god’s mercy as a nuisance, not even a calamity. No matter how bold a human is, it would be close to impossible.

“He may suspect it is a wicked god’s test, but he will not think it is rude.”

“But my duty as a Confucian makes my heart uncomfortable.”

Giovanni, troubled, lowered those sorrow-filled eyes with a piteous look.

“One should not recklessly meddle in another’s affairs...”

“But if that person is inwardly craving salvation?”

“Then there is no duty for me not to step forward.”

It was a fast shift in stance, as if he’d been waiting.

“I truly wanted to keep each other’s lines like a Sun priest and a mature adult, but if Mr. Juhyeon truly wants help, then I truly can’t help it.”

“Everyone knows you were just waiting for someone to push you from behind.”

“Whew, you caught me. But a new friend made as a portrait is rarer than a hundred-year mountain ginseng. Since the other party is who he is, I couldn’t act rashly.”

Gio’s strength and weakness was that he didn’t think deeply.

“If Mr. Juhyeon had asked for help from the beginning, I would have helped without thinking.”

Honestly, for Gio, this was a lot of 고민.

And Gio gained courage. He’d been worrying that his fresh, warm new friend might be sick of the scale of an unordinary gift and run away, but if that wouldn’t happen, then there was nothing to hesitate over.

“If there’s someone who needs help, and that person is my friend, and I can give that help, then there’s no reason not to step forward. In truth, I know. Deep down, Mr. Juhyeon will be hoping for this versatile friend’s help.”

“Yes, I expected you to say that. As expected, you are like the smiling tyrant of the sea village who shoves mercy in first even if the other refuses when they look like they need help... no, the chosen son of the Sun.”

“It felt like I heard a title somewhat inappropriate for a student to call their teacher, but I’ll let it slide just this once. Anyway, I think I’ve got a rough sense of what gift I should give Mr. Juhyeon. First, I’ll ask Mr. Juhyeon for permission.”

Gio looked at his father.

“Assuming Dana wants it, Father.”

“Coo-coo-coo!”

“As you wished, I will gift that child lulupu juice.”

Just because he didn’t think deeply didn’t mean he knew nothing.

“And then let’s go make new friends.”

That was the course of the incident that made Yoo Seong-woon work overtime.

(To be continued in the next episode)