chapter 228

Chapter 228

Juhyeon, having heard the story, spoke with a strange expression.

“...Wouldn’t it be less if you tried softening your way of speaking a little?”

“My way of speaking has always been like this—what can I do about it?”

“So that’s why, you should, somehow... do something about it.”

That’s why Juhyeon always said this, wasn’t it?

“These darn divinities need to go to a speech academy.”

“I think I’m on the better side when it comes to speaking.”

“You know that’s not the issue. When you speak, Mr. Gio, there’s always something vague and ominous about it. Regardless of whether your intentions are good or bad, it’s separate from that—it’s just a bit unsettling, I guess.”

“Hm, then as Giovanni?”

“When you’re Giovanni, it’s a bit better, but even then it doesn’t really feel ordinary or clear. All three Gios give off an enormous sense of distance in the way they speak.”

As Seo Gio, he was like an ominous evil spirit clumsily imitating a human, and as Giovanni, he felt like a sacred being whose very nature was on a different level from birth. As for Argio, there was no need to even mention it.

“No, why is there no need to mention it.”

“I held back because I thought you might pretend to be hurt if I said it.”

Argio really did feel like an evil god.

‘Even I flinched pretty hard when I first met him.’

It was completely different from the ominousness of Seo Gio that welled up from a bizarre silence. That sweet voice that seemed to seep into your ears and brain was no different from a devil’s, and those golden eyes that held you were like a predator’s watching prey, making him unconsciously step back.

‘A typical evil god who seeks only self-centered pleasure...’

He could understand how the animal family beyond the frame felt.

“Even if you just spoke like you do now, you’d be halfway there. You talk far too excessively like an evil god, so they can’t easily shake off their fear. Just do something about your way of speaking.”

“Not ‘like an evil god’—I’m just an evil god, though.”

And this wasn’t something he could help.

“This is beyond my control, too.”

“I don’t understand—why?”

“I get filtered. I think you could call it filtering.”

“...?”

Filtering?

“What... filtering? Do you mean your speech and behavior are forcibly corrected, is that what you’re saying, Mr. Gio? So even in front of those poor animal friends, you can’t help but speak like that?”

“You understood well.”

“Why on earth?”

“It’s the same context as how the ‘Black Cloak’ you can meet through a frame is unusually blunt and ominous. It took me quite a while, too, before I could feel the difference in that gap.”

It was something he had learned long ago by running into staff from the Collection Merchant.

“Perhaps because I’m a portrait, it seems that if I don’t go through a certain kind of management, problems arise in various areas—atmosphere, tone, and so on. That was the case no matter which Gio I came out as.”

If he was refined through the frame that could be called the central one—‘Gio’s Portrait’—then not only that whole matter of “dignity” and whatnot, but even his tone and atmosphere were softened considerably.

Even taking that into account, there were still many parts you could call “fitting for a ghost story,” but it was better than doing nothing.

“But if I end up moving directly from this cabin, or if I’m stuck as-is inside a frame and greet someone, it becomes different. I turn into a more typical, stereotyped ‘Gio.’ I can’t even properly feel the incongruity myself, you know.”

“So that’s why you call it filtering...”

It was absurd.

“Why does something like that happen?”

“Because I’m a portrait?”

“Can’t you do something about that?”

“It doesn’t seem like it will be easy.”

“My goodness.”

Juhyeon started to feel sorry for Gio.

‘...It’s even more pitiful because it really does seem related to the identity of being a portrait.’

Isn’t that what a portrait is? Fundamentally, it’s a painting that captures someone’s most ideal image.

In other words, Juhyeon thought that because those Gios had been taxidermied—preserved in the form or perception of some moment—this kind of “filtering” happened.

“...”

At the same time, it was awkward.

“Then it really does sound difficult.”

“I suppose it does, doesn’t it?”

“Um, then... do you have any intention of becoming a merciful ruler?”

“An evil god?”

“At the very least, it doesn’t seem like you can become a merciful friend to them, Mr. Gio. You may want an equal relationship, but no matter how much their fear is washed away, reverence will remain.”

“I’ll leave that, too, as one of the pleasures of the future.”

Gio, who had been criticized by his friends for being hasty, decided to give himself enough reflection and try to have some leeway.

It was only that Juhyeon and Yoo Seongun, in particular, were deep and overthinking enough to feel pressured that they “had to define relationships and existence.” Gio had no intention of forcing that onto his animal friends as well.

If it was fun, that was enough—both for him and for those around him.

“Couldn’t one be a vassal and a friend, and a friend and a family member as well?”

“As expected, Mr. Gio, you’re subtly quite greedy.”

“If you can have something, it’s only natural that it’s better to have it.”

That was even more so for Argio.

“...”

“Looks like you have something you want to say.”

“That’s dopamine addiction.”

“Ahem. Quiet.”

How dare you degrade sacred socializing into mere chemical secretions.

* * *

There were those who were once called heroes.

All the beasts of the world had become monsters and attacked everything human, and so humans had to live amid hunger and chaos. Groaning under a plague that gnawed away at flesh and soul, people desperately begged the strongest among them.

“Please kill that cruel beast.”

“Ah, heroes sent down by the gods...”

“Please, we beg you. End this war.”

There were countless sacrifices.

They were called by the fine-sounding name of “hero,” but in the end they were nothing more than humans. They screamed in pain and had nightmares in fear. It was not rare for conflicts among heroes to spread until they killed one another.

Above all, they learned the truth.

“...This is real?”

“I-it’s a ploy by the Demon King to deceive us. Don’t be fooled, everyone.”

“But... you know too. This isn’t some kind of fabrication.”

The wicked divinity they had regarded as an evil god was, in fact, a monster born from human ignorance and selfishness. Everything was brought about by humans themselves. Not knowing the saint was a saint, not knowing the last chance was a chance, they burned down the forest—and so all these calamities began.

“What do we do...?”

“...I, I... I don’t think this is right.”

The heroes fell into confusion.

“Then why are we heroes?”

Because they were people who, by being ordinarily good, had trudged and struggled their way to this place.

They had come this far with a single conviction: to save the world, my family and friends. Though those driven to the edge could not become perfect “heroes,” precisely because of that, they still had the reason to distinguish what was right and what was wrong.

“This makes no sense. From the start, the wrong was on us. Even the fact that beasts began speaking in human language came from the greed of humans in the past... and it’s the same now.”

“What did we even come all this way for? We shed so much blood and had nightmares, and came this far... just to protect those vile humans who shoved us into a dead end? Why in the world?”

“Hideous. Truly hideous. I don’t think I can fight anymore. If this is a creature and a world where we can only live by repeating such filthy sins, then it would be better for it to collapse just like this!”

And there were also those who clenched their teeth.

“How can you call that words? How did we come this far? What do the great wrongs some people in the past committed have to do with us?”

“Have you forgotten our role? We suffered through all that hardship and came this far to make the world, somehow, better than it is now! It’s true that humans of the past committed sins, but why can’t you see that the fallen saint is committing an even greater sin!”

“Even if we can only live by repeating sins, only a few need to commit those sins. The culprits and us can bear it, can’t we? It isn’t right for even people with no sin at all to die!”

It became a long conflict, but in the end the conclusion was one.

“...”

“...We seal the evil god, and everything after that is the story.”

First, they had to stop the immediate calamity.

“You all came here because there was something you wanted to protect. Family, friends, lovers. Even if we learned a dirty, vile truth, the reason we’re here... in the end, was for ourselves.”

And so the heroes finally succeeded in sealing the evil god, but—

“...Something’s wrong.”

“The beasts’ curse isn’t ending.”

“The plague is still the same...!”

Someone shouted.

“Of course it is—this entire calamity was started by humans in the first place!!”

The most fundamental cause lay in the primordial essence that made up this world; the second cause was that humans had wantonly burned the saint who had been blocking that horrific essence; and the final cause was humans who could not even distinguish between beginning and process, and pinned all causes and responsibility on the “evil god.”

“But, but...! Even if it’s true that it was our human sin that turned the saint into a fallen divinity, in the end the evil god Argio also spread countless calamities! He incited the beasts and carried out a great massacre! You all know that too!”

“That’s a story that’s useless for anything! Open your eyes wide and properly check the stories of the ruins! Argio was only added to the process—he was not the primordial cause! Even if you seal him, there’s no way you can scoop up the calamity humans already brought about!”

“Then why did we have to die and get hurt and suffer like that!!!”

A despairing scream filled with grief let anger swallow them.

They had already sealed Argio, who had been called the evil god of pain and rage, yet now even among the heroes before the grave of the evil god whose end had come, conflict was breaking out.

Was there any calamity more terrible than that?

“...”

“...”

Even so, it was true that they had sealed the evil god, so—

“...Let’s go back to the village.”

“We have to report to the court.”

“At least the evil god has been sealed, so the massacres he caused will be stopped.”

“We did at least that much.”

Though there were many calamities left unhandled, and mountains of bleak matters, they had sealed Argio, who had been committing massacres. That alone would make the world easier to live in.

But even that was different from what they expected.

“They say Argio appeared in Jibia Village!”

“What are you talking about? We definitely sealed the evil god...!”

“They say there was an enormous massacre!”

“That can’t be...!”

Those countless massacres—

“...”

“We have to go right now—maybe the seal was broken!”

“I’m the mage who led the sealing.”

“But...!”

“If it was broken, there’s no way I wouldn’t know.”

All those countless massacres and wars they had believed were Argio’s doing were, entirely, the results produced by humans who used the cruel evil god as an excuse to rage as they pleased and indulge their greed. Even if not all of them, quite a lot of wars were like that.

“Now it’s all meaningless.”

The heroes felt hollow.

“If I’d known it would be like this, I wouldn’t have sealed him. I wouldn’t have sealed the evil god while going through those sacrifices and hardships. I would have just let this world burn down entirely...”

“...Don’t say that. There were many problems that happened while using Argio as an excuse, but there were also many villages he ruined directly, by his own hand. We stopped the bigger problem.”

“...I, I don’t know anymore.”

And the rage of the people, born from calamities that still remained, turned toward the heroes.

“You said you sealed the evil god!”

“They must have lied. They must have been tricked by the evil god!”

“No, they might have become the evil god’s underlings. You shameless things...!”

“We have to burn them all!!”

Fear also turned toward them.

“Now everything has collapsed—they’ll come to kill us.”

“I knew something was strange from the start. Look—how could that power and ability possibly be human?”

“They’re monsters too, for sure. We have to kill them in advance so we don’t invite disaster!!”

There were heroes who resisted, but in the end they died. No matter how strong their power and ability, they were still ordinary humans. Shocked and shattered by the betrayal of the humans they had wanted to protect, they collapsed.

And even more heroes chose to flee and evade. They tried hiding as if they had never been “heroes,” and even if they were chased the whole time, they wandered from place to place, moving again and again.

“...”

But all of them were caught.

“...Ha...”

All but one.

It was thanks to having slipped into hiding in the evil god’s grave, but because he had been a fairly famous “hero,” the man was discovered in the end as well. It was because people who suspected him of being an evil god’s underling formed a subjugation force and came to the evil god’s grave.

“So you were here after all, you wicked follower of a vile evil god...!”

“Kill him! He’ll become the seed of the evil god—kill him!!”

“He’s a seditious element spreading vain nonsense!!”

That was the man’s last chance to die, but—

“No, this is a perfectly good position.”

“Elder Councilor...! Are you going to let this one live?”

“He has use. Bring all the materials we caught before.”

“Surely you don’t mean...”

“We will write a new history here.”

The “materials,” including him, became pillars of a “new world.”

“With these monster-like things, stealing a god’s authority won’t be impossible...”

And so the man was trapped inside a crown-shaped coffin modeled after a goddess. Perhaps he was not the only one who ended up like that, but caught between tentacles and blades that tore through blood vessels and shaved off flesh, he could not properly form any judgment at all.

“Kuaaaaaaah...! Aaaah!! Aaaahhhhhhh!!!”

“Looks like you still have the strength to scream—an excellent reaction. This time, we can truly succeed.”

“Kuaaaaaaaaaaah...!!”

“Seal it tightly, so that even after a very long time passes, it can never break out.”

“Please, please stop...!!”

“We... from this moment, will kill the god. And let us create a new paradise.”

“Ghk...! Gkhhhh...”

In a mind growing hazy from pain and hatred, the man thought.

‘In the end, everything will fail.’

It was a world that was a complete mess from beginning to end, and even the life that made up that world was a confused world. Whatever they planned to do by using the materials—“heroes” including him—they would not succeed.

And so darkness came.

“...”

Time passed.

“...”

And passed again.

“...Kkh...”

...Why can’t I die?

Trapped in a crown of thorns, the man shed tears of blood.

* * *

In the end, he called the evil god.

(To be continued in the next part)