chapter 188

Chapter 188

“I’ll show you a special skill.”

“All of a sudden?”

After finishing his meal, Gio ran out to the shore.

“Ta-da.”

“...”

“The miracle of Moses.”

“Cover it back up.”

“If not now, then when?”

“Do it at home.”

At Juhyeon’s words, aghast at the sea being split in half, Gio obediently complied. The beach near the pension, with more stone and rock than sand, was quite deep. Gio flopped down right on top of it.

“I don’t have any other special skill I’ve thought up.”

“I think what you’re doing right now already counts as a special skill.”

“Can’t all hunters do this?”

“No way. Hunters aren’t water striders.”

“Am I a water strider?”

“You look even more like one since you’re lying down.”

“Then I will lie down for a while. It’s comfortable.”

“Mm...”

Juhyeon, sitting on a rock near where Gio was lying, looked around as if worried.

“It’s gotten very dark—will you be all right?”

“If you are worried because it is dark around us, there is a way.”

“Wait a moment.”

“Please speak.”

“What are you planning to do right now?”

“I was going to bring out the water birds.”

“Ah, the water birds.”

Thinking of that small, harmless bird, Juhyeon smiled with a relieved face.

“My apologies. I tend to worry a lot.”

“We were being considerate of each other, so what is there to apologize for?”

And Gio sat down on the sea.

“...?”

Juhyeon blinked.

“You sat down?”

“Yes, I sat down.”

“I know you’re an unusual case in many ways, Mr. Gio, but this is also...”

“Is it fascinating?”

“Yes.”

“I am as well.”

“...I see!”

Lately, he seemed to have become fairly adept, but he was still a portrait clumsy at imitating humans. Just forcing humans and himself onto the same plane didn’t make him look like he was empathizing.

“How do you plan to bring out the water birds now?”

“They are already here.”

“...”

Something entered Juhyeon’s field of view.

“Ah.”

For some reason, he could see something like small flowers or fruit drifting beside Gio’s feet, which had become translucent.

It was so dark, and it was under the water, so it was hard to see clearly, but that was definitely a trace of the “water birds.”

“They were already here. Since when?”

“They have been here since I dipped my feet in.”

“Aha...”

“Ms. Juhyeon, come up here too.”

“I’ll fall in.”

“I will help you.”

“...Excuse me.”

Splash.

Juhyeon did not fall into the sea.

“This feels strange.”

He was walking on the surface of the water. Even though he was unawakened.

“Up here, I can see the water birds better.”

“Can you see them moving among themselves?”

“Yes, quite a lot came—more than I thought.”

“They are children who live in flocks.”

“Even so, it isn’t bright yet...”

“It will become bright soon.”

Sitting on the surface of the water, Gio swished the leg he had put into the sea.

“If they make this place their nest.”

Only then did the water birds cluster together and emit light.

“...”

“That will do.”

It was as if a light had been switched on in the sea.

“...It’s like there are fireflies in the ocean.”

“Have you ever seen fireflies?”

“They’re an extinct insect, so I’ve never seen them spread out naturally like this, but separate from that, I’ve participated in restoration research, so I know what they look like.”

“There are more extinct species than I thought. It makes me feel sad.”

“If you saw it in person, would it feel like this?”

“I thought it was like a bioluminescent jellyfish.”

“That could be as well.”

A calm smile rose on Juhyeon’s face.

“It’s golden.”

“I have never seen any color other than this either.”

“They must like it here.”

A color you could only appreciate on the terrace of Gio’s cabin, with the cool spring breeze of the night blowing in. The golden light the water birds gave off when they clustered was an indicator of their happiness.

“...It’s magnificent.”

The sea rippled in gold.

A mesmerizing light, as if the sun made of gold had been melted down and its rays contained. It was so beautiful, as if the universe were held beneath the sea.

When he lightly splashed the water, the water birds inside made cute movements.

“They’re cute, too.”

“That is the outstanding part of my children.”

“It looks that way.”

Being unawakened, Juhyeon could not accurately count the water birds in the water. So all he could see was a feast of all kinds of flowers, fruit, and jewels, but even that was enough to feel the water birds’ affection.

They liked this sea.

“If you think about it, it’s like they came on the trip with us...”

On Juhyeon’s hands, on his retina, on the rugged rocks around him, golden water-scales shimmered.

“They will be even happier because they are with family.”

“I think so too.”

“It’s very bright.”

Even though he was on the chilly sea, his whole body grew languid, as if touched by spring sunlight.

“...”

“Ms. Juhyeon.”

Gio called his friend.

“You must not go too far in.”

“...Ah.”

“Because you cannot breathe in the water.”

Only then did Juhyeon realize that he had put his arm too deep into the sea.

“...”

Juhyeon turned to Gio.

“...Isn’t this kind of dangerous?”

“My children are not dangerous.”

“This is that thing, isn’t it—water ghosts.”

“Aren’t water ghosts spirits that pull people into the water?”

“I understand there are also spirits that tempt you to come in.”

“Earth has become quite frightening.”

“...Even something too beautiful is a problem.”

With an awkward smile, Juhyeon sat down cross-legged on the water’s surface. Letting out a short sigh, he pressed his forehead with his fingers.

Just now, he had been entranced by the water birds’ ecstatic light.

‘The fact that I’m unawakened probably played a part too.’

If it were Yoo Seongun, he probably wouldn’t be entranced this easily.

“In places with many civilians, could you refrain from calling these friends?”

“Even if I do not call them, the water birds can find the house they want.”

“...Wait, that sounds like you’re saying they already leaked somewhere else. Is that right?”

“Since it is living water, it would be correct to say it leaked.”

“Where did they go?”

“They likely went into the pictures I drew.”

“Into the pictures...”

“There are not many places, so you do not need to worry.”

Gio reassured Juhyeon.

“They will not be clustered this much, either.”

“...Then will it be less entrancing?”

“It is embarrassing to call deep appreciation ‘being entranced,’ but it will be about the level of simply being pretty to look at.”

“That is a relief, but...”

“They likely went to the Void or the Four-Legged Rainforest.”

“Why to a conquered dungeon... No, can’t you tell me things like that ahead of time?”

“I will keep it in mind.”

Gio looked beneath the surface.

“You can see a similar sight in the ‘Nation of the Deep Sea’ as well.”

“That’s also a place you called Giovanni’s hometown, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, there you can appreciate a Milky Way floating above your head rather than below.”

“A Milky Way... what would that feel like?”

“A Milky Way made by the life of the sea.”

Giovanni laughed as he raked through the golden sea.

“I will invite you there soon.”

“...”

At the affection and pride held in that voice, Juhyeon nodded.

“I look forward to it.”

Truly, a pitiful person.

* * *

“What was Giovanni’s world like?”

At Yoo Seongun’s question, asked while looking at the golden sea from afar, Aria turned to him.

“Now you ask that?”

“Because it’s now, there are things I can ask, too.”

“That is a point that makes some sense.”

Aria nodded.

“It’s been a long time since I talked about that person...”

“I asked you to tell me about his hometown, not about him.”

“Shut up and listen, administrator of the structure. The world I knew was only Giovanni.”

“Then that makes sense again.”

These mermaids had a certain blind side to them.

“How far can you tell me?”

“As long as you are under the teacher’s protection, I can tell you as far as you wish.”

“That is... astonishing affection.”

Yoo Seongun, looking at Gio and Juhyeon on the coastal cliff, asked,

“In that world, what kind of existence was Giovanni?”

“You seemed like you’d gotten a rough sense already.”

Even so, Aria explained readily.

“He was truly... the saint of the century. To the people of the world, he was the son of god manifested among filthy humans; to his neighbors, a wonderful friend and adult who devoted his entire life; and within the order, a precious genius who could uphold their face.”

Aria continued calmly.

“And yet he died so easily.”

“Humans are all like that. You cannot expect eternity.”

“That is why there is a disgusting and repulsive side.”

It was like feeling killing intent upon seeing a bug crawl onto a bed.

“Now then, are you curious about the way he was executed as well?”

“If you tell me, I’ll listen gratefully.”

“First was torture on land. Just enough to barely maintain his form...”

“And after that?”

“They threw him into a huge tank filled with seawater.”

Aria was looking not at the golden sea, but at Yoo Seongun.

“And then they bound him with chains so he couldn’t come out, and sealed the entrance.”

“Why did they do that?”

“The priests of the sun said that if he were truly the son of the sun, he would survive even in a cold tank.”

“And the result?”

“He lived.”

Giovanni did not die in the tank for over four months.

“And even so, they did not take him out.”

Some among them came to believe Giovanni truly was the son of the sun, and some insisted he had received help from the sea’s divinity. No matter what they thought, in the end, they feared Giovanni’s existence deeply.

“If he truly was a child of the sun, they had treated him so harshly there was no way to take it back, and if he was a child of the sea, then he would be a monster worse than a mermaid... so they said they had to kill him immediately before he took revenge on humans.”

The problem was not only revenge.

“Public sentiment would have been a problem too.”

“It’s a religious group—why is public sentiment coming up?”

“Because it was an order with power stronger than the kings of each nation.”

Giovanni had once been the perfect son of the sun, loved by everyone in the world. If it was revealed that he was truly the child of divinity, it was certain that even the Sun Church could not bear it.

“They say even within the order, skeptical opinion was rampant—how could it not be?”

“So how did the Sun Church respond?”

“They used my pitiful younger brother who was captured around then.”

They locked him in the tank with Giovanni after torturing him while starving him.

“They likely intended to stage a disgusting scene and quell that skepticism.”

But Iser endured, and Giovanni did not die to the end under divine protection. The priests of the sun, who felt that like a kind of revelation, could not endure their fear and poured medicine into the tank.

“Thanks to that, my younger brother, blinded by appetite, ate Giovanni.”

“But wouldn’t Giovanni have been affected by the medicine too? If it was poured into the tank...”

“Even then, Giovanni seemed to have had no particular reaction.”

Only then did Aria take in Gio, seated on the sea’s surface.

“So he must have eaten my teacher, thinking he was dead.”

Iser, that is.

It wasn’t that Iser, drunk on medicine, immediately tried to fill his belly. But perhaps the last line broke at the sight of him slumped like a corpse. In the end, Iser ate Giovanni.

“...Does your younger brother know that too? In the first place, did he really eat him without knowing?”

“Who knows?”

Aria had never asked about that point.

“After making things that way, the priests must have felt they had moved farther from divine punishment, so they stole away Gio’s remaining corpse and used it to run the order. What do you think they used it for?”

“...I’ve heard of something called a basram flower.”

“You’ve hit it exactly.”

A panacea of the century that withers unless touched by the sun’s hand filled with love. Gio’s corpse, which had received the greatest love of the sun, was used to grow that flower.

“That’s why it took so long to find Gio.”

“Where did you find him, then?”

“We found him in the pope’s residence.”

“Oh, impressive.”

“And even so, the sun did not deliver punishment.”

The deep sea was the same.

“So I decided to deliver it instead.”

Neither the deep sea that gave birth to her, nor the sun her younger brother served, delivered divine punishment upon these filthy believers. In the end, Aria made herself into the deep sea and caused the whole world to be submerged in the ocean.

“I know I committed a sin. I know it was pointless venting too.”

“But you’re not an evil god, you’re not a monster either.”

“Divinity can’t be obtained so easily just because you vent your anger a few times.”

“Gio seems to obtain it quite easily, though...”

“Comparing me to my teacher is only embarrassing.”

“From what I hear, it doesn’t sound like you really regret that venting.”

Yoo Seongun asked.

“Why are you bringing this up?”

“At first, I didn’t even think of it as a sin.”

But after reuniting with teacher, she learned it was a sin.

“I lost.”

She didn’t regret it, but even that alone showed that the mermaids had been influenced by Giovanni. Since their teacher said it was a sin, they had no choice but to recognize it as such.

“The only time my life was heaven was in my young days with my teacher.”

“So?”

“...Gio told me to take responsibility.”

“Then will he forgive you?”

“No way.”

That was not Giovanni’s part to begin with. He would think so too.

“Just...”

Aria smiled.

“The time to choose has come, that’s all.”

Now, which hell she would walk.

(To be continued in the next episode)