chapter 203

Chapter 203

On the boundless sea in a dream.

“...Teacher.”

The mermaid cried.

“I love you.”

“...”

Giovanni did too. He loved these small, foolish mermaids.

He loved them so much that he did not grant forgiveness. He knew these dreadful, cruel mermaids well. They were once again committing sins and massacring innocent lives.

Fools who truly believed that was “taking responsibility.”

“...Yes...”

His inborn specialness had kept him removed from all the fates of the world, but no matter how special he was, could it ever compare to the time we cultivated together? In the end, Giovanni—no more than a human—decided to reach out his hand.

“...In the end, I suppose I have to drag you to hell with my own hands.”

A mere priest laughed.

“How can you be this stupid.”

And then he cried.

He did not regret it, but that did not mean the pain was soothed. Even though he always loved and gave with all his might, Giovanni had to die a dreadful death.

And now, he has to take in with his own eyes the sins committed by the disciples he once cherished.

“I don’t think I lived such a misguided life that I should have to face this kind of evil...”

* * *

“Priest...!”

“Brother Cha Isol!”

Kang Seodam saw Cha Isol trapped inside a barrier.

“It’s something I kept wanting to ask even as we searched, but why on earth are you here?!”

“I’m sorry, how do you write a statement of circumstances?!”

“As an apprentice priest, Brother Cha Isol can still make do with a reflection letter!”

“I don’t know, so please teach me how to write it when we go back...!!”

“I will!!”

It was driving him mad.

“Is there anyone who can analyze this barrier? Before another monster comes, we have to take Priest Cha Isol and get out of here!”

“I have a skill—please step aside for a moment!”

The hunter quickly analyzed the barrier’s components and structure. With a dumbfounded face, he turned to the Sun Church priests.

“This is the sun?!”

“No, what are you talking about?”

“It’s the sun—both the components and the structure...!”

“If that were the case, there’s no way we wouldn’t have recognized it...?!”

“B-but it really is...!”

Kang Seodam accepted reality quickly.

“It’s refusing to be read by us.”

“For the sun to reject the sun’s children is impossible!”

“Isn’t that impossible thing happening right now? Stop spouting nonsense and accept reality! Are you going to disgrace yourselves in front of an apprentice priest!!!”

“Hiiik...”

“Listen carefully—we dismantle the barrier before the monster comes!!”

At Kang Seodam’s face like an evil spirit, the priests who were about to argue shrank their shoulders. Kang Seodam was famous as a senior who drew a clear line between public and private matters, hated stupid or incompetent priests, and didn’t even treat them like people.

“E-even if so, if we can’t read it, how are we supposed to—!”

“Shut up and move aside, you worm-like bastards! Stop wasting time and at least provide cover!!”

“Y-yes, yes sir!!!”

Watching the priests guard the entrance in perfect unison, the hunters who had come along were impressed.

“Scary.”

“Uh, scary...”

No—they cowered.

‘I heard the religious world is strict top-to-bottom, but...’

‘I’m glad I didn’t awaken as a priest.’

‘So that’s Priest Kang Seodam’s face when he’s angry—holy shit.’

They separated out the manpower that wouldn’t help dismantle the barrier, then took positions between the priests. They were hunters who had studied how to cooperate with priests in moments like this.

Only after Kang Seodam and the hunters tore their hair out did they finally解除 the barrier.

“Brother Cha Isol, come here.”

“Huuung, teacheeeer...!”

“I’ll ask what happened after we get out to a safe place. We can’t bring Brother Cha Isol up to land immediately right now, so follow us safely—did you hear me? Safely. We move safely. Understood?”

“Yes, I’m sorry...!”

“The teachers’ guilt for failing to manage an apprentice priest is also great, so—no. Like I said earlier, we’ll talk about that later. Right now, we have to quickly join the other team and proceed with the raid.”

Kang Seodam, whose temper had flared from the countless monsters they’d faced on the way here, took a deep breath. With his usual cooled reason, he asked Cha Isol.

“Do you know where Hunter Seo Gio is? Or that mermaid hunter named Iser...”

“I know where Hyung Gio is!”

“That’s good. Exactly where is he and what state is he in?”

“He’s tied up in the very center of the pope’s room, together with seawater!”

“My god.”

The other hunters were aghast too.

“N-no. Why in the world...?!”

“More importantly, why the pope’s room of all places?!”

“What kind of special treatment is this...?”

“Isn’t this too vicious to call special treatment?!”

“I-I mean, I’m dumbfounded too...”

Come to think of it, the mermaids had a record of kidnapping Hunter Seo Gio using civilian hostages. Seeing them “store” Cha Isol separately like this, they might truly have intended to do something to the Black Cloak’s apostles.

‘Well, they’re talents too valuable to just kill.’

‘Considering that the Black Cloak’s frame used to hang inside the temple sometimes, there really might’ve been some kind of relationship. This is worth investigating.’

‘Are the mermaids on bad terms with the Black Cloak...?’

In the oddly disorderly atmosphere, Kang Seodam let out a deep sigh and coordinated the people.

“Apprentice Priest Cha Isol says he knows the location of the room where Hunter Seo Gio is confined. It would be best to move there immediately. We don’t know what interference we’ll face along the way, so everyone stay alert.”

“Yes, leader.”

“Understood.”

While moving like that, they ran into the hunters who had split into two teams and reunited again.

“What, why are you here?!”

“We roughly finished grasping the story and came back.”

“Ah-ha, then...”

“There was nowhere else left to check!”

In the meantime, there had been truly ridiculous monsters and traps.

“Pig-human priests tried to eat us...!”

“You too?”

“There was also something like a sweet scent stretching out a hand from inside a pond.”

“Maybe there was a charm skill—we lost three there...”

“There were undead chasing us with farm tools too.”

“Ah, that one’s really disgusting.”

“There were also guys charging at us saying they were hungry...”

“That was in a previous dungeon too.”

“These new mobs are insane, seriously.”

But even after wandering around like that, they couldn’t find the “heart.”

“In the worst case, the boss monster might be the dungeon’s heart itself.”

“But the boss monster is already assimilated with the sea...”

“Damn it, what do we do in a case like this? Evaporate it with fire and kill it?”

“If you do that, it’ll never end.”

“Even if you evaporate it, it just rises into the sky as water vapor.”

“This is why liquid-type monsters are such a pain.”

“I’d rather it just be a slime...”

“At least they have a core.”

Most liquid-type monsters had a core in their bodies, and if you broke it, they died. But the sea, and a mermaid assimilated with the sea—how in the world were you supposed to deal with that?

“First, let’s confirm whether it even has a core.”

If there truly was no way to kill it, that would be the realm of divinity. But none of the priests felt anything here of that stature. At most, it was a monster—there was no way it would have no method of being killed.

“We can sort it out step by step.”

“It’s true, but I can’t help feeling anxious.”

“Hey, don’t say heavy stuff like that.”

“It’s true we’re in a tough situation, isn’t it?”

And the moment they arrived at the pope’s room—

“...”

“...That.”

Someone spoke at the same time.

“Isn’t that Hunter Seo Gio?”

“Isn’t that a mermaid...?”

At that, Iser—the mermaid leaning against his teacher’s knee—opened his eyes.

“...”

Those eyes wavered with intense hatred.

“Uninvited guests.”

“...What did you do to Hunter Seo Gio?”

“I’m moving his roots to where he should be.”

“Where he should be?”

“To the sea.”

Wooooong—...

The water filling the room resonated.

“He’s coming to the sea.”

So they were kneeling and begging.

“This Earth is too small a flowerpot for him.”

“That isn’t for a mermaid like you to decide.”

“Of course. But since when have humans followed only providence?”

“There is such a thing as a minimum line.”

“Then what about my teacher?”

Why did my noble human teacher die like that?

“I hate you.”

“Ha, did we kill your teacher?”

“I hate your short lives.”

Slosh—!

A staff adorned with countless golden ornaments was gripped in the mermaid’s hand.

“I hate... that you humans are one of the children of providence.”

They were proof of providence and a trace of deception. That was the most fundamental reason humans became the mermaid’s outlet for anger.

Yes, it’s unreasonable.

‘But it’s fine.’

From the beginning, he had never planned to win. The mermaids had already finished the story by “taking responsibility” like that. This was merely a play to head toward the end.

Iser laughed.

“I put in a great deal of effort to welcome you all. I dressed up the temple in an even more beautiful and luxurious form, and for the audience who would be curious about the story, I brought out the pigs I had treasured and treasured.”

“A story of monsters...”

“Were you satisfied? No, I know you weren’t. Humans are greedy—you have no end.”

Flutter—.

Iser’s ears began to change from human to mermaid.

Like mysterious silk, his long ears blended with the mermaid’s hair—clear sky-blue—until they were indistinguishable; his teeth sharpened, and his pupils shone even more pearly.

Only after a long tail like a water dragon’s emerged did the staff grow lushly.

“Look.”

Fwoooosh—!!

The golden staff took the shape of a tree and grew.

“A sun has grown in the deep sea.”

It began to wrap the entire temple, emitting an entrancing light like the sun.

“So I, too...”

“...Ha.”

“...will greet you as the sun.”

Shrrrk—.

Iser, too, was soon dyed gold.

“Ah, right...”

Two horns like branches grew from his forehead.

“That’s it.”

The mermaid who had cast off the cold deep-sea light in an instant asked,

“Is your sun merciful?”

“At least more than you.”

“Then go ahead—pray.”

“Beg you to spare us?”

“No.”

He smiled darkly.

“Pray that you’ll live.”

All the suns of the many dimensions that have sunk into the sea until now—

In the end, ‘who’ ate them?

* * *

Yoo Seongun thought.

“...”

Was Giovanni human?

‘Yes.’

He had been human—‘once.’

So had Seo Gio, the odd art teacher of South Korea, and so had Demon King Argio, who survived the rainforest overgrown with poisonous plants. They lived in human bodies inhumanly, and in the end, became not human.

Is it wrong to view him as a work?

‘But I’m already treating him in the way he wants, aren’t I?’

Gio liked that human called Yoo Seongun.

‘That’s right.’

It was possible because the portrait he cherished, “Gio,” was extremely generous and well-disposed. A mere gardener didn’t know what to do with himself, moved to tears by even a fragment of gaze granted by the Eye of the Origin.

Yoo Seongun was doing well. He was both a gardener and a curator. He was fulfilling his duty. Gio didn’t get angry at that—he enjoyed it.

Then, suddenly, his thoughts jumped elsewhere.

“...”

If I treat Gio as human, will he dislike it?

‘...No, that’s not it, but...’

He knew that wasn’t it because of the case of Juhyeon.

‘But I’m not doing something wrong, am I?’

This was the posture Yoo Seongun wanted, and an attitude Gio didn’t dislike. In a situation where everyone could be satisfied, a curator treating a work like a work could never be called a sin. Why would it be?

Even as her whole body was split and burst apart by countless hunters, the mermaid was still looking down at Yoo Seongun. Between a throne made of huge waves and sculptures made of ice, the princess declared neatly,

“Arrogant thing.”

“I admit it.”

“You’re no different from your master.”

“Of course we resemble our guild master...”

“Disgustingly selfish.”

“Humans are originally like that.”

It was a way of speaking that would only stoke the mermaid’s hatred, but it couldn’t be helped.

“Because it’s true.”

Only after defining humans like that could he steady himself, even a little.

“...”

“...”

On the battlefield where a ringing sounded and glaciers shattered, Yoo Seongun’s eyes widened.

“...Ah.”

Was Gio human?

What was a human, in the first place...?

(To be continued in the next episode)