Chapter 234

Chapter 234

And mealtime drew near.

“Huh? All of a sudden?”

“I feel like I’ve asked you more than ten times whether you’re hungry.”

“...I’m sorry. I had too many thoughts...”

“I can confidently say that if you eat, you’ll be able to think better.”

“...”

Ater let out a sigh.

“...Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Gio smiled brightly.

Only now can I turn this skinny thing into a pig.

* * *

“Oh?”

Yoo Seongun blinked as he looked at the frame that had appeared for the first time in a while.

“What brings you out into the hallway?”

“I thought Mr. Yoo Seongun was passing by.”

“Me? I came back after a long time.”

After a long stretch of overtime, he had barely been able to return home.

“You’ve been resting well in the cabin lately too?”

“No, recently I’ve been in the ‘Animal Kingdom.’”

“Ah, come to think of it, I think Juhyeon said you were making friends over there.”

“That’s right. For now, I’m making a dungeon.”

“...Aha, a dungeon.”

Yoo Seongun, who had fallen silent, soon nodded.

‘So there was a reason you were out in the hallway.’

It was time for a hallway meeting to be held.

* * *

As always, the members of the hallway meeting gathered, and Yoo Seongun asked first.

“So what do you mean you’re making a dungeon? If you’re planning to cause an incident where the future guarantees I’ll have to clean it up, you need to tell me so I can prepare.”

“You look really desperate...”

At Juhyeon’s mutter, Sancalute hanging around his neck tilted its head.

“A dungeon?”

“Yes, a dungeon.”

“I once possessed one as well.”

“I heard it still hasn’t been destroyed.”

“I was driven out of that house and am now here. Humans are wicked. I want to go home. Do you feel the same, Mr. Gio?”

“Hometown is truly a good thing.”

At that, Juhyeon asked,

“So what kind of dungeon are you making exactly? Mr. Gio, you’ve already drawn something like a dungeon before... ‘The Breathing Sea’ and ‘The City of Void,’ and the ‘Diary,’ too.”

“It will be very different from those.”

“What exactly will be different?”

“I built a Demon King’s castle there.”

When Argio smiled with a face full of happiness, Yoo Seongun fell silent.

“...”

Yeah, I did think a day like this would come someday.

“...I was prepared.”

“Are you crying?”

“First time seeing the Curator cry?”

“I recall I saw Mr. Yoo Seongun crying last time as well.”

“And you don’t remember the cause was you back then too?”

“I remember.”

“I figured...”

Letting out a deep sigh from his dantian, Yoo Seongun asked.

“So you mean that, then? A Demon King’s castle?”

“I’m happy you seem to have understood well.”

Gio raised both thumbs.

“I once thought.”

“You could think less.”

“I want infamy. But it would not be wrong to say that ‘Argio’ has, in substance, committed almost no misdeeds—at least, you said that’s the case from your perspective. Isn’t that so?”

“Ah, please...”

“And so, in order to live more comfortably as ‘Argio,’ I tried to create new infamy, but Mr. Juhyeon strongly opposed it. You said it would be a path where both sides commit sins.”

“Nice.”

Yoo Seongun and Juhyeon bumped fists.

“I trusted you, Mr. Juhyeon.”

“It may not be time to feel at ease yet, but it was within the top five best things I’ve done since being born.”

“Not first place? That’s surprising.”

Then Gio said,

“There is something even more surprising left.”

“Right, I think you said you’d restrain yourself, but with you saying you went and built a Demon King’s castle, my heart has already dropped to Earth’s inner core. Go on.”

“I will become the Demon King.”

“...I see!”

Juhyeon smiled with a neat face.

“Shall you come here and talk with me once more?”

“Calm yourself, Mr. Juhyeon. It is not that I ignored what you said last time. I truly think what you said then was valid.”

“So?”

“I decided to bring in the evil god Argio.”

“...”

Juhyeon soon realized what Gio was trying to say.

“...Rather than forcibly building new infamy... you mean you’ll make use of infamy that already existed? Since it is true that you acted as an evil god in another dimension?”

More precisely, it seemed he meant he would not use the evil deeds of ‘Argio’ who had been saddled with all sorts of false charges, but instead borrow the evil deeds of ‘Evil God Argio,’ who had an actual record of doing the deed.

Gio affirmed it.

“I like that I communicate well with you, Mr. Juhyeon.”

“I don’t want to communicate this well?”

Yoo Seongun smiled faintly and looked at Juhyeon.

“I won’t go far.”

“You’re not going anywhere.”

“Seeing how well the conversation’s already flowing, it must mean it’s about time you slowly stepped out of the category of ‘human.’ Later, if you become a bishop, make sure you accept my greeting.”

“It’s not that kind of situation, and I have no intention of going that far, but if it comes to that, I certainly won’t leave Mr. Yoo Seongun alone. Let’s see how well you live after abandoning your colleague.”

“I may look like this, but I’m someone who serves Snowfield, so keeping two households would be a bit tough.”

“You do know that having a mouth doesn’t mean you can say anything you want, right?”

Juhyeon smiled neatly again and turned to Gio.

“I understand that the infamy of Evil God Argio was inflated in large part. You said that even if he did far worse things than Human Argio, in the process of his infamy spreading, all sorts of things were forcibly added.”

“...I did not do nothing at all.”

“Why are you reacting a beat late? Doesn’t that mean you do have something that pricks at you?”

“Anyway, the fact that this wicked divinity made a mess of the world does not change.”

“I’m saying the process is very suspicious, though?”

“Our evil godling did do wrong, I’m telling you.”

It was true that humans had pinned a lot of it on him, but why would an evil god be an evil god? ‘Argio,’ pure rage made from the gathering of saints’ vengeful spirits, cursed the world and committed massacres.

“Of course, the parts about the epidemic, the Demon King’s army, cannibalism, and so on are not things I did.”

“See?”

“Still, if you exclude the parts where people blamed me and called it misfortune and disaster, ‘Evil God Argio’ was also a tremendous butcher. That much will not change.”

Although Argio before them now was close to an individual who had shaken off all those saints’ vengeful spirits bound up in hatred, he could not deny the fact that they had once worn the same body.

“That is indeed a sin I committed, and indeed an evil deed.”

So this was not false advertising.

“Even if it isn’t 100%, it’s a product filled to about 81%.”

“Isn’t that filled kind of ambiguously?”

“In this day and age, 81% is an extremely profitable product.”

“No, well, that is true, but...”

Not knowing whether one should be happy about an evil-god content purity of 81%, Yoo Seongun’s expression became strange. It might be something to rejoice over for Argio, with all that talk of infamy and Demon Kings, but it was a very odd sensibility.

Juhyeon seemed to be thinking similarly, rubbing his face. Sancalute asked.

“Are you afraid?”

“Yes.”

“It is a little different.”

“It feels like I left a child by the water’s edge...”

“...”

“This is definitely fear.”

Sancalute, silent, drooped around Juhyeon’s neck again like an ordinary python. He could not understand what this sturdy vessel was even saying. It seemed he would have to ask for an interpretation later.

Regardless of Sancalute’s reaction, which was none of his concern, Juhyeon took his hand away and raised his head.

“...You did properly understand and accept what I said, right?”

“Ah, of course.”

As Juhyeon had said before, it certainly did not seem desirable what had happened once in the ‘Animal Kingdom.’

If it had truly been right to pin false charges on an innocent person and drive them into becoming a monster more brutal than the truth, then so many saints, despite being innocent, would not have been despised and reborn as a rageful evil god.

“Making Earth follow the same path is far too wicked.”

“I’m truly relieved you think so.”

At the conversation between the two, Sancalute could not understand at all and stared at empty air with round eyes. He had no idea what was “far too wicked,” and what was therefore “a relief.” It seemed he would have to ask for an interpretation of that too.

Unrelated to that, Gio continued explaining.

“However, I still wish to enjoy high-quality battle. You could call it irresponsible pleasure, but in order to bear at least that minimum responsibility, have I not brought in a history with solid grounds, rather than a false listing?”

“Yeah, and you’re making a dungeon too?”

As always, Yoo Seongun smiled placidly.

“So what exactly do you want to do by making that dungeon?”

“A religious war—”

“Wait, stop right there.”

He folded his arms and closed his eyes.

“Mr. Yoo Seongun?”

“...”

“...”

“...Alright, I’ve整理ed it.”

With resignation filling his face, Yoo Seongun gave a crisp answer.

“So you’re determined to bring this Earth down at last?”

“Come on, why do you speak like that.”

Argio chuckled as he laughed.

“You need not worry.”

“Worry about what, exactly?”

“In the current Earth, there is a reliable pillar.”

“You’re saying that pillar is you?”

“Exactly right. More precisely, the Black Cloak will take on that role.”

“Seeing all that self-love is really nice.”

“I’m a bit like that.”

Argio was an evil god of rage and war, and pain. It made no sense for him to grow dull in peace. In the end, he wanted war with beings of rare value, like himself.

But Gio knew that was rather sly behavior. He also did not want to do the same thing as the petty cowards Argio despised. So Gio had to compromise.

“An act where I can cause a slight incident, yet ensure there is no damage to Earth, myself, and those around me. Acts where, even if the incident itself is shallow, the damage can be massively inflated to heighten infamy. And yet can create an environment for battle with heroic material...”

“No matter how you think about it, it’s religion?”

“From start to finish, can I really go around making trouble?”

If he did, it would be clumsy and he’d be exposed in the middle—no, it was obvious he would fail. Even the God of Death had said that though Argio was born an evil god, he was not material suited to becoming evil.

“So I thought.”

“Ah, I get it, I get it. You’re saying you’ll pull in your old infamy and pick a fight with Earth.”

“I judged there would be no problem. I know because I am a god—blasphemy, that’s nothing much. I already know several religions on Earth that absolutely will not tolerate an evil god of rage and greed like myself.”

“When it suits you, you go on and on about being human, and at times like this you’re a god again? Well, I understand what you’re saying. There’s the Sun Religion, and the Moon Lady Religion...”

“So we draw in the infamy of ‘Evil God Argio’ and proceed with a subjugation campaign. This is a valid subjugation. The battle will take place in another dimension, the ‘Animal Kingdom,’ so it isn’t something that would damage Earth.”

“...If it’s known as a dangerous dungeon, it’s common enough for hunters to be assigned.”

“But if we leave it at that, there’s a high chance some riffraff will come. That is not what I want. What I want is battle with ‘heroes.’”

“Heroes...”

Yoo Seongun looked at Juhyeon. Juhyeon gave a firm smile.

“Why are you looking at me?”

“There’s a hero recognized by our Gio and the guildmaster right here.”

“I’m sorry, but can’t you see I’m unawakened? If I even breathe wrong, I die right now. You should be thinking first about protecting fragile civilians like me.”

“From the way you talk, you don’t seem that fragile. For an unawakened person, Mr. Juhyeon is pretty brave.”

Anyway, Yoo Seongun nodded.

“So you’re saying you’ll dress it in religious colors.”

“Yes. They are blind.”

They could be purely enraged.

“I want that blind devotion.”

A true battle of rage.

“Because that is the meaning of my existence.”

“...Is it hard to be satisfied with just using the dungeon you’ve already made to fight? You’re not going to say you’ll see it through to the end like the mermaids, are you? Divinity won’t die that way either.”

Even with Sancalute, humans had struggled desperately and the best they could do was seal him. Mortals could not kill the immortal. That was the natural order and the providence.

“I don’t know what kind of ending you want.”

“I have never seen the end. What I see now is merely the process. As Mr. Yoo Seongun said, am I not an immortal being?”

“...Then when the war you want ends, what will you do?”

“For a while, I believe I will rest.”

The current Gio did not have only ‘Argio.’ There was also Seo Gio, drained of energy by outward activity, and Giovanni, who found the sight of blood extremely disagreeable.

“So if you say there is a purpose, then yes.”

There was only one end he had to see through this process.

“I desire complete assimilation with ‘Argio.’”

“What, are you attaining nirvana?”

“Ahaha...! You could say it is quite similar to that.”

He hoped he could, as the current Argio, finish the war of the ‘evil god.’

* * *

Argio’s Quest

Control of the Evil God (1/1)

Rain on the Parched Forest (1/2)

Today’s Status_‘Animal Kingdom’

“Come at me, all of you o(｀ᾥ´)o”

Today’s Status_‘Diary’

“Another peaceful day today! ✧⁺⸜(•⌄•)⸝⁺✧”

(Continued in the next part)