chapter 214

Chapter 214

“I think it might be the most beautiful form of death.”

“...”

Juhyeon, who had been listening all along, sipped his coffee and nodded.

“Mr. Yoo Seongun can be kind of unpleasant sometimes.”

“If I’m honest, I am aware that’s the case.”

“It’s like... seeing some bizarre, hard-to-understand something and having your eyes sparkle... that kind of unpleasantness...”

“You’re pretty specifically grossed out.”

This wasn’t the first day he’d seen reactions like that, so Yoo Seongun just let it slide.

“Don’t you have anything like that, Mr. Juhyeon? That kind of romance.”

“Has there been anything in the topic we’re talking about that would warrant the word ‘romance’?”

“Like... if you could choose an afterlife, which afterlife you’d go to, that kind of...”

“No matter how I think about it, that’s not a topic where romance comes up.”

Even while groaning, Juhyeon answered diligently.

“Honestly, I don’t know. I’m not strong like you all, and I don’t have any particularly amazing authority either. I’m busy enough just thinking about tomorrow—do I really have the leisure to think about after I’m dead?”

“But you have Gio by your side.”

“That’s something to think about when the time comes. Isn’t it too much of a waste to be born and then live only looking forward to the day you’ll die? When you’re alive, you can do far more than that.”

“Should I call it serious, or heavy...”

“I think it’s normal, though.”

It was only natural that only the living can dream of the future.

“Mr. Gio is a little different, but.”

That was a truly exceptional case—and ordinarily, if you were just an unremarkable common person like Juhyeon.

“Unless you’re someone with no will at all, I have a lot of things I want to do. They aren’t things I’d want to hand off to someone who’ll probably live longer than me, either, so I have no choice but to be busy just living what’s ahead.”

“I’m just making a hypothetical.”

Yoo Seongun smiled faintly. Maybe because he’d just gone to see the Black Cloak’s masterpiece, he looked to be in a good mood.

“Can’t we at least chat about some trivial small talk?”

“That isn’t wrong, I guess.”

If it was just a passing joke, then.

“...Mm...”

But, well.

“...Nothing comes to mind right away. It’ll probably just go the way Mr. Gio wants. Since he gave me a gift, if I’m lucky, I might end up going toward the ‘White Frame.’”

“Figures it’d be that one.”

“Don’t think about it too seriously. You never know what a person’s future will be. So then, Mr. Yoo Seongun, which afterlife do you think you’ll end up going to?”

“The highest-probability one is probably falling asleep inside my snowfield.”

“Snowfield meaning...”

“The garden I serve.”

If Gio helped, he might fall asleep in a warmer place than that, but separate from that, if you considered realistic possibility and Yoo Seongun’s personal tastes, this was the right answer.

“Gardeners usually end their lives in their own garden.”

“And you said they continue another life?”

“More precisely, it’s that you turn into a sculpture of something, or a tree, or a flower... one element that composes that garden. I think calling that ‘life’ is a bit of a stretch.”

“That’s why I heard that gardeners consider ending their life as a human to be the greatest luxury. Is that right?”

“You remember well.”

Of course, there were exceptions like Healer Jung Yeongwon, who wanted to belong to the garden she served. But at least Yoo Seongun wasn’t like that. Since he was born human, the truth was he wanted to be human when he died too.

“In a world like this, even death can’t follow the natural order...”

“It’s a world where evil gods are rampant.”

Juhyeon smiled awkwardly.

“I almost caused trouble myself.”

“Ah, right. Has Sancalut become a topic you can talk about comfortably now?”

“Even before, it wasn’t uncomfortable to that extent.”

When you call it a disaster descended from divinity, it felt closer to a calamity than an incident. Even if they can imitate humans, they can never be called human, so for Juhyeon—who could do nothing but endure—to resent it would be a ridiculous thing.

“To put it simply, I was unlucky.”

“Most people can’t even think like that.”

Yoo Seongun rubbed at his throat.

‘This one isn’t normal either.’

Not being attached to life and death was usually a priest’s trait, but it was also a condition of sainthood.

‘If serving a god made everyone lose their lingering attachment to life, today’s religious circles wouldn’t have gotten this complicated. In the end, a human is human—there are limits to the vessel.’

No matter how he thought about it, it felt strange that Juhyeon was gradually becoming Gio’s very close friend—meaning, an apostle under the name ‘very close friend.’

“...”

Yoo Seongun smiled mildly.

“...Come to think of it, I don’t know how that gentleman Sancalut has been doing lately. It can’t be that he got completely wrecked just because Gio exorcised him or something, right?”

“I haven’t heard anything like that...”

“Me neither.”

The evil god Sancalut was important material kept in the Association’s research institute. If something like that had truly been destroyed, the research institute wouldn’t have stayed this quiet. Even Yoo Seongun, who kept his ear to the ground, hadn’t heard anything.

‘More than anything, divinity wouldn’t die that easily.’

Even divinities found it difficult to kill one another, so they often ended up forced into coexistence. Even Earth right now—why would providence and imbalance, which don’t get along, be linking arms and staying in this narrow dimension?

“Well, of course, if it’s Gio, it feels like he could do it...”

“That part would probably be faster to ask Mr. Gio directly.”

“If Sancalut still exists, what will you do? Will you once again take a step back without receiving Gio’s help?”

“No.”

“Hm...?”

At the unexpected answer, Yoo Seongun turned to Juhyeon and saw him smiling.

“I am already receiving help from Mr. Gio about that. It was the same when I first met him and received comfort from him, and when I ate the porridge he made for me himself in the warm cabin. The new pure-white tombstone he made this time was the same context, too.”

He struggled to refuse that enormous goodwill, to decline it, to pretend not to see it, and in the end, he did that.

That was why.

“So I wasn’t surprised. Even when Mr. Gio said he drew that grand work for me, I could only be grateful. Because I’ve received miracles like that many times before.”

“A miracle.”

“Yes, a miracle. Who would want to reach out a hand to an ordinary loser like me? And to do so without greed or jealousy, with only a pure will of wanting to be friends.”

“...That chance won’t come again in life.”

“Mr. Gio is truly a kind person.”

Juhyeon didn’t really like receiving help from others. Up to now, he had nowhere to borrow a hand from, and even if he asked for help, not once had he gotten what he wanted back.

But the one who first helped him was that wicked divinity called Argio. He was still helping Juhyeon even now, and it was the same with matters related to Sancalut.

“If Mr. Gio gives me the chance, I intend to talk.”

“Talk...? I’m not sure that’s okay, since Mr. Juhyeon is unawakened.”

“I make pretty heavy use of the shield called being unawakened, but I don’t want to hide behind it even at times like this. I have responsibilities I must bear, and Mr. Gio is helping with many things.”

“That’s quite a bold reaction.”

“It’s okay.”

Juhyeon trusted his friend named Gio.

“Even if I can’t return as much as I received, I should at least keep minimum etiquette. That’s what relationships are.”

Even until he dies, Juhyeon would never be able to repay all the grace he received from Gio. But he needed to know just how big an opportunity and help he’d received. And it was right to take the proper stance.

“I don’t want to be an arrogant person. I’m not the kind of fool who turns my eyes away even from grace I received. The reason I refused Mr. Gio’s help was because I’m only a normal human who will end up changing if I obtain miracles too easily.”

“Sorry, but you’re not normal at all.”

Yoo Seongun’s words were lightly ignored.

“If I can have a conversation with the wicked divinity named Sancalut, I want to do it.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I have to end it.”

Like the mermaids who, even while being happy in sweet reality, ultimately bore ‘responsibility.’

“There’s nothing good about dragging my story out too long. Like I keep saying, I’m a normal human.”

“...”

“Mr. Yoo Seongun, do you have a story you need to end too?”

“...There’s no way a gardener would have something like that.”

Yoo Seongun wore a rare awkward smile.

“I’m the garden’s property.”

If there was a story he had to end, it would be the garden’s, not Yoo Seongun’s. Because before being human, he was a gardener, and a slave of the Origin.

“I’ll probably live like this my whole life, buried in mystery...”

“Why did you become a gardener?”

“To live.”

“I see.”

Juhyeon nodded.

“I was the same.”

“Then we’re similar.”

Both of them had come here in the end because they couldn’t live unless they lived like this.

* * *

“Sancalut?”

Gio tilted his head.

“You want to have a conversation with him?”

“Yes, if it’s possible, of course...”

“Of course it’s possible. I will only summon him, but if you’re satisfied with that, then.”

“Of course I’ll be satisfied.”

When is it easy to summon divinity? Well, if it’s an evil god it might be relatively easy, but you would still have to pay the price without fail. Cases where you could interact with an evil god this safely were extremely rare.

Gio propped his chin.

“Then it would be best for you to have that conversation at my house.”

And so Gio called Juhyeon and Yoo Seongun.

“Wait, why me?”

“Since you’re here anyway, Mr. Yoo Seongun, please eat a meal before you go.”

“You’re not really planning to turn me into a pig, are you?”

“You seem to have been drained a lot in mind and body from this raid...”

“You’re looking at me with such a sad face that it has zero persuasive power.”

He’d lost only 0.4 kilograms.

“I’m a hunter whose speed matters. If you keep feeding me like this, even I’ll have no choice but to gain weight. Then it’ll affect my career too...”

“Ah-ha, then you just must not gain weight?”

“This is why you can’t relax for even a moment around mysteries. Bring the contract. The contract. Let’s carefully organize our position from A to Z.”

“This is why an experienced curator is—”

“You’re getting more wicked by the day?”

Well, whatever.

“Please, a normal meal.”

“I believe I have always set a normal table.”

“If you have no conscience, you still can’t have *this* little conscience.”

“Tsk...”

“Now you’re actually clicking your tongue.”

And Gio brought a blanket.

“A blanket?”

“Yes. It’s sudden, but...”

“Okay, it’s sudden, so I am surprised, but.”

“You looked cold.”

“How you knew that aside, this isn’t a blanket no matter how you look at it. Whose hide is this? Why is it so soft and warm? How can it be this warm? Ah, it’s warm...?”

Watching Yoo Seongun slowly sink into the soft golden fur, Juhyeon smiled bitterly.

“Is this the end of a human bewitched by mystery.”

“Who decided the ending for you.”

“You saying that while completely bewitched by fur hide has no persuasive power.”

“Do you know the cold of the snowfield?!”

At the sight of Yoo Seongun hugging the fur tightly, Gio nodded. His usual expressionless face remained the same, but the reaction practically said, ‘I knew you would like it.’

“I was worried because you looked cold.”

“Did I really look that cold...?”

At Yoo Seongun’s question, Juhyeon shook his head.

“...No. I’m sorry, but I didn’t notice at all until Mr. Gio said it. I thought there was no difference from usual, but looking now, it seems you really were cold...”

“You don’t need to be sorry. Not noticing is normal.”

Gio, who had suddenly become abnormal, pointed at himself with a ‘??’ question.

“Am I not normal?”

“By the standard of an average human, you probably aren’t.”

“Well, a portrait can’t exactly be called a normal human. You may praise my specialness.”

Gio’s acceptance was quick.

“Guests who come to my house must always be at peace.”

“Isn’t that scary in its own way?”

“Please use the blanket as that today.”

“This house treats its guests well.”

“Thank you.”

Gio looked very satisfied.

“It is nice to have friends visit after so long.”

This is why I prepared the gourmet road.

(To be continued in the next episode)