Chapter 238

Chapter 238

Hunter Seo Gio did not express any intention of returning separately.

“Since we don’t know how the saintess’s situation will turn out, I think it would be best to watch over her at her side. If the Moon Lady Religion is alright with it, I would like to remain in the order and look after the saintess until she at least recovers to a minimum...”

“If you would do that, it would be an honor for us, the Moon Lady Religion. If Hunter Seo Gio is here, the saintess will surely regain stability quickly as well. Rather, it was something we wanted to ask first.”

The bishop, who had come to find Gio lying in his sickbed, asked.

“More than that... how is your body?”

“I’m fine.”

“I hear that kind of thing very often.”

“Aha, you hear it often.”

“The Moon Lady Religion is full of foolish people.”

She skillfully held back a sigh.

“Even though they’re not fine at all, they insist they’re fine and snap back. Even if they don’t act that insolent, there are truly many brothers who try to slip past it with little tricks.”

“I really did say it because I’m fine, though...”

“Even if you had been affiliated with the Moon Lady Religion, Hunter Seo Gio, you would surely have adapted well.”

“That’s overpraising, considering you’re saying it to a tamer.”

“No, I meant it sincerely.”

He was born with the disposition of a priest.

“...”

That foolishness, too.

‘...There’s no way there was no strain after settling that much mystery.’

Hunter Seo Gio looked like a saint with a vessel so vast it was rare, but until the moment a human steps onto the path of divinity, a human is still human. The blood he had coughed up during their conversation was proof of that.

‘Unless there was no strain from the start, once he showed that, it’s an undeniable fact that it was greatly taxing. And even knowing that, for him to come out like this can only be described as foolishness.’

Above all, Hunter Seo Gio seemed quite skilled. Not only in handling mystery, but as a priest, and as a human being, he was skilled at dealing with people.

‘So is he overexerting himself even now?’

She couldn’t be sure.

‘Because he did not permit treatment.’

And the Moon Lady Religion was, always, an order that respected the individual’s opinion. As long as one possessed even the minimum intellect, they, mere small creatures, must respect the greatest diversity possible in order to reach the supreme realm.

‘Even if it becomes something that harms the priest himself... it is right to respect it.’

At least, here.

She recalled the report about the Collection Merchant’s reaction to the news of Hunter Seo Gio’s injury, but in the end the bishop decided not to dig deeper.

“Please accept this.”

“This is...?”

“A pass.”

He had done the Moon Lady Religion an enormous service.

“We will serve Hunter Seo Gio as our benefactor.”

“A benefactor... that doesn’t seem like a fitting word for an outsider like me who only stayed in the order for a few days.”

“In that short time, you have shown what you have done, haven’t you?”

The Moon Lady Religion always looked at results.

“We do not disregard the value of the process, but the most important thing is ‘what was accomplished.’ And Hunter Seo Gio, you have accomplished more than enough. The Moon Lady Religion could not resolve it for years... and you resolved it, for the first time.”

“...It had been years?”

“Because the meaning carried by the existence of a saintess is great, the Moon Lady Religion did its utmost to hide it so that information would not leak out. Now, even if we try to hide it, concealment has become impossible, but it has been four years this year since the saintess began suffering from the problem.”

“...”

Hunter Seo Gio, looking as if he were thinking, asked.

“How old is the saintess?”

“She is seventeen this year, but...”

The bishop gave a small laugh.

“You likely wouldn’t think she is, would you.”

The saintess stopped growing at fourteen.

“As I said just now, the problem began four years ago, when she was thirteen. Thanks to having an excellent vessel and character, the saintess ascended to sainthood at the rather young age of eight.”

“From what I hear, she certainly is young.”

“The position of a saint is not decided by age. Still, even taking that into account, it is true that she was young. All the more so when you consider that, on average, a saint is decided in the early teens, but...”

It couldn’t be helped.

“The Moon chose her.”

Her teacher chose her child.

“Do you know the characteristics of the Moon Lady Religion? Basically, we are disciples, not the Moon’s children. To us, who pursue knowledge and wisdom, the Moon often provides much help.”

“And the saintess is a child, not a disciple.”

“On the surface, yes. So...”

Is it alright to say this?

“...”

She had already finished 고민 and come to this place. Hesitation was worthless.

“...Hunter Seo Gio, what I am about to tell you now is the Moon Lady Religion’s utmost secret.”

“...I feel like we’ve become close too quickly, so I’m having trouble adapting right now...”

“That is the same for me.”

The bishop, too, was a Moon Lady Religion priest accustomed to the order’s closed traditions and culture. It was not easy for her, either, to reveal matters this deep to someone who, just a few days ago, had been a complete stranger and outsider.

However, she judged this to be right.

“It is no exaggeration to say that I served Hunter Seo Gio as the Moon Lady Religion’s benefactor in order to tell you this secret. There were many who opposed it, but... I persuaded them.”

The position of the Moon Lady Religion’s “benefactor” was not something one could easily obtain. It meant accepting an outsider as another fellow brother, as the same community, and also as a higher distribution.

“You likely cannot understand why we must go this far, Hunter Seo Gio. But when I saw you lead our saintess back here that day, I thought that it could not be anyone but you.”

“It’s burdensome.”

“Please endure it.”

In the end, it was Hunter Seo Gio who, bearing all those losses, performed a miracle. Even though the bishop tried to stop him. This meant Hunter Seo Gio, too, was willing to offer deep help.

“...If you had not performed such a miracle, I would not have been so greedy as to go this far, either.”

“Ah, am I being courted right now? I recall there were a few similar recruitments even in the Sun Religion.”

“Rather than that... I am forcing you.”

Certainly, the miracle Hunter Seo Gio displayed could be called an achievement befitting the position of “benefactor,” but even taking that into account, it was remarkably quick to reveal their true feelings. It was because she had seen his foolishness.

“The saintess is pitiable.”

“...”

“...That part is why I am doing this.”

“Do you want to use my compassion?”

“Yes.”

She did not know if she could hold him like this. But the saintess needed another saint, a guide. And Seo Gio, with great compassion, a wide vessel, and an easy willingness to hold goodwill, was perfect material.

‘That does not mean he is stupid... but because of that, it would be better to speak voluntarily. Bringing up the main point first and leaving the rest to judgment will be far more efficient.’

After composing herself again, she finally brought up the main point.

“A Moon Lady Religion saint, if luck is good, becomes the next generation’s Moon.”

“I think I’ve heard that story before.”

“You likely know it as becoming another Moon. That is, as a separate divinity.”

“Then I suppose that is not the case.”

“A Moon Lady Religion saint who has become divinity... gets eaten.”

That was the truth of the “Moon.”

“In effect, they are an offering.”

The bishop finally let out a hollow laugh. There was no longer an upright bishop there—only an old woman remained. Since she had decided to stimulate Hunter Seo Gio’s compassion and try to forge a paltry shackle, there was no longer a reason to hide her face.

“The ‘Moon’ we serve is an aggregation of countless pieces of information. As a divinity that contains the knowledge and wisdom of all dimensions, our teacher absorbs information he does not possess—or even information he already possesses. So...”

“‘How to communicate with humans’ as well. That’s why you serve the Moon as a teacher. Because he will bestow the knowledge and wisdom you want.”

“And by what means could that enormous divinity learn how to communicate with people?”

“By eating them.”

“That’s right.”

Of course, he could not eat all humans. If that were the case, the “Moon” could not have been acknowledged as a providential divinity in the first place. He was a traditional god who only gathered information.

So in the end, the wickedness was human.

“During the Great Catastrophe...”

“I’m listening.”

“...At that time, for the first time, there was a saint who became divinity.”

“I heard that as well.”

“Through that person, people realized.”

Ah.

“A saint, once becoming divinity, can be eaten by the Moon.”

To those who knew of the Moon’s existence, or served it, this was a tremendous blessing. That enormous being, regarded as a disaster-like existence, became even gentler and kinder, didn’t it?

The cold moon took on warmth.

“It is natural. The Moon absorbs all information of the saint who has become divinity. That means absorbing how that saint once treated humans, what they thought, and what posture they took as well.”

“So the Moon Lady Religion continues producing saints in order to make the Moon as kind as possible and obtain the wisdom you desire more easily? Since the more saints he absorbs, the closer to human he will become?”

“To summarize, yes. But please do not misunderstand—our teacher has no malice. All this evil karma is something we fellow brothers brought upon ourselves.”

They say divinity is destiny and nature. The Moon was the same. It merely exists as it is, but cultivating saints who need not have been made and offering them as sacrifices was entirely a human act.

“To make excuses in advance, all this is one of the matters we notify before joining. Those who cannot accept it are allowed to leave after their memories are erased.”

“Then all Moon Lady Religion priests entered after consenting to their own death.”

“That is correct. Among the brothers, there are those who joined with ease, thinking they would not become saints anyway, but most... strive desperately to become saints.”

“I’m curious about the reason.”

“Because if you become a saint, and thus become divinity, you can become the ‘Moon.’ Many brothers see it as not death, but another beginning.”

A vast storehouse in which the noble knowledge of all dimensions is gathered.

“We all gathered to enter within it.”

For various reasons, they became so.

“To become more perfect.”

“To me, it sounds like a frightening story.”

“And yet, for something you say is frightening, your face is quite calm.”

“There are stories I hear from time to time.”

“Is that so...”

Then this person, too, must not have lived through ordinary things.

“...The first saint of the Moon Lady Religion wished for our teacher to bestow information that could save Earth’s desolation... and made that choice by becoming a mystery that could be absorbed.”

And the Moon learned that saint’s mindset.

“Since then, it seems that when the Moon sees a ‘child’ who has become divinity, he judges that it is alright to absorb them. If the Moon Lady Religion had clung with all its might, we might have been able to change that structure, but we did not.”

“For the sake of supreme knowledge and wisdom?”

“That’s right.”

“You are confessing to me.”

“...”

A beat late, the bishop opened her mouth.

“...Forgive me. Because there was no one who would sit here and listen to this base excuse...”

“Do you cherish that child?”

“I regarded her as a daughter.”

“So that’s why you reacted that way.”

“What reaction did I show?”

“A face that looked like it did not matter whether the saintess lived or died, and that either way would be fine and would be disliked. It looked like contradictory emotions.”

“That is correct.”

Even if she thought, why did it have to be that child, she could not even imagine another saint besides her. And yet, to have grown attached was likely because she, too, had failed to become “perfect.”

“Therefore, I hold on to Hunter Seo Gio like this.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Make the saintess perfect.”

“Nothing can become that.”

Hunter Seo Gio, having said that, smiled.

“But I will help you.”

“...Thank you.”

Even that alone was beyond expectation.

“Hunter Seo Gio’s end, too... will not be so smooth, I suppose.”

Perhaps all saints are like that.

(To be continued in the next part)