Chapter 243

Chapter 243

These days, Gio was giving the saintess a variety of experiences.

“So this...?”

“Yes.”

Gio smiled brightly.

“Isn’t tteokbokki nice?”

“I heard it was sold often in Korea before the Great Catastrophe.”

“It breaks my heart that it doesn’t seem to sell well these days.”

“These days...? Hunter Seo Gio, how old are you, exactly?”

“That’s not important. What’s important is the tteokbokki in front of us.”

“Ah, yes.”

The bishop looked at the tteokbokki placed on the white dish.

“There wouldn’t have been rice cakes in our order.”

“I made them myself and procured them. I was worried because it’s been a while since I made rice cakes, but I’m glad it turned out well.”

At that, Saintess Aram’s eyes sparkled.

“It’s my first time eating tteokbokki.”

Gio went serious.

“Your first time?”

“Yes. Rice cakes are hard to come by, aren’t they?”

More than anything, the Moon Lady Religion wasn’t made up of people who put effort into gourmet food. Unless it itself was a research topic. To the Moon Lady Religion priests, food was nothing more than fuel. Luxuries like rice cakes didn’t come in often.

“If we wanted to order it, we probably could have. But there are many people who say that rather than spending money on ingredients, we should put more effort into collecting research materials...”

If even one person had said, “I want to eat this,” they would have brought it in. The Moon Lady Religion was absolutely not a poor, impoverished order. But not a single person had ever said such a thing.

Gio’s expression became deeply regretful.

“So that’s why the storeroom was always so meager...”

“Meager to that extent?”

The bishop was flustered. From the perspective of someone who managed the entire order, it had seemed adequate. The brothers and sisters in charge of cleaning and cooking hadn’t said anything either. A reaction like Hunter Seo Gio’s was rather unfamiliar.

But Gio already felt a sense of mission.

“Then shall we eat before the tteokbokki gets cold?”

He had to turn these boneheads blinded by research into pigs. That would be the shortcut to world peace.

“I’m embarrassed, but since it’s been a while since I made it, I don’t know if I captured the market atmosphere well.”

“Market atmosphere...?”

“Saintess seemed interested in the food culture from before the Great Catastrophe, so I chose street foods that were commonly eaten back then. Sweet tteokbokki with fried snacks, sundae, liver, things like that.”

“You really seem to know the food culture from before the Great Catastrophe well.”

They were foods hard to find these days.

“Did you study it separately?”

“In a sense, you could say that.”

Gio smiled as he thought,

‘It looks like these Moon Lady Religion people can’t even imagine any other case if it isn’t study.’

He just likes eating, is all.

If it were before the Great Catastrophe, they were the kind of people who all would have gotten into Harvard. There was probably also that Moon Lady Religion–specific sense of duty of ‘Let’s benefit the world with knowledge and wisdom.’ But no matter how you looked at it, it seemed more like they did it because studying was simply fun.

‘It wasn’t a closed culture for nothing.’

Geniuses could be like that. They found it hard to interact because everyone in the world was too stupid. How frustrating would it look to see people confirm something obvious by groping around with both hands and both feet.

Those geniuses gather and live shut in one neighborhood their whole lives. So these Moon Lady Religion people apply their own way of thinking to others as well. Going, ‘We’re like this, so you must be too,’ and so on.

‘Lack of social skills.’

You frogs in a well.

‘That the well was so big must have been poison instead.’

But don’t worry. Gio was already prepared to grab them by the scruff and drag them out into the world. Whether it fits or not, they have to get mixed up with the people of the world to learn what doesn’t fit.

“Does it suit your taste? I thought you weren’t used to spicy seasonings, so I made it as sweet as possible...”

“It’s spicy!!!”

“Oh, my.”

Aram jumped up and ran out, pouring bottled water into her mouth. Gio, who had been about to pour her sweet juice, hesitated. Then he set the neatly poured juice in front of the trembling bishop.

“I-I did make it sweet, but...”

“...Thank you...”

“I didn’t expect you to have this little immunity to spiciness.”

“I think it’s because we don’t really put spices in our diet within the order.”

“Why on earth?”

“Strong tastes and aromas interfere with thinking...”

“Why, though?”

Look at these pitiable lambs. They didn’t know any of the joy of gourmet food. He’d already thought, checking the food storeroom, ‘Uh, this is kind of serious,’ but this was too much.

‘...Has the average Korean threshold for spiciness gotten lower?’

Thinking about it, even making chili powder takes quite a bit of time and effort. An era where everything has become homemade. The process of growing peppers, picking them, drying them, removing the stems, taking out the seeds, and grinding them would all have been money too.

‘Demand and supply for spicy seasonings must definitely have decreased, but...’

The Collection Merchant was especially rich, but from Juhyeon’s stories, the food people commonly ate on a daily basis was almost like temple meals. Overall, opportunities to enjoy intense gourmet food had decreased.

“...Mmm...”

Still, the Moon Lady Religion was severe.

“I should have made it a little sweeter.”

“No, it was delicious enough.”

The bishop, who had calmly controlled the pain on her tongue from the start, fully recovered with a single cup of juice. Holding the juice cup dearly in both hands, she said,

“If it were any sweeter than this, the balance of the flavor would have been disturbed.”

“Thank you for understanding my intention.”

Aram, who returned to the table and received juice, turned pale.

“...Come to think of it, I think it was almost my first time eating something spicy.”

“In a Moon Lady Religion that values knowledge, what kind of atrocity is this?”

“No, I did know the taste itself. When you’re a prospective priest, you learn about your own body first, so of course you have experience with taste as well.”

“So it’s to let you govern yourselves well.”

“Yes. So I’ve felt a spicy sensation, but eating it as food...”

“So that’s where the ‘almost first time’ comes from.”

At the level of a newborn.

“If it’s too spicy, it might be fine to try some fried snacks. I like dipping fried snacks lightly into tteokbokki sauce. Then it’ll be much less spicy. The texture will get more interesting too.”

“Oh, sweet potato fries are delicious. Maybe because they’re sweet, it feels much less spicy. The batter is really crispy. The sweet potato inside crumbles moistly...”

“Right?”

To already be able to describe it like this—Aram really did have the qualities of a pig.

‘You recognized the true taste of sweet potato fries.’

For the record, the famine crop Gio liked most was sweet potato.

“...”

Watching that, the bishop asked.

“Saintess, does it suit your taste?”

“The more I eat it, the more addictive it is.”

“I’m glad you look happy.”

“...A-am I being too gluttonous?”

“Of course it’s not to the point you’d call it gluttony.”

But suddenly, the bishop had a thought.

“...Next time, shall we try dining out once?”

That they needed to experience more.

‘So I don’t really know what I want to do with this, but...’

Seeing the saintess living like a person makes her mind turn white.

She doesn’t know if this is a bad thing or a good thing. But if all choices are made by the saintess, then isn’t this not bad either? Hunter Seo Gio, who is also a saint, experiences whatever he feels like as well.

‘Yes, it’ll be fine.’

And yet her insides feel heavy.

“...”

It seemed she would need to offer a prayer to the Moon Lady.

* * *

“...My goodness.”

Yoo Seongun covered his mouth.

“What is this?”

“It’s the Moon Lady.”

“Why are you holding that?”

“A hostage.”

“Why...?”

“If the teacher who bestows knowledge is with me, they won’t do anything stupid.”

“...”

Hearing that, Yoo Seongun muttered.

“...You really do have villain vibes, for sure...”

“You saw well, my friend.”

Argio beyond the portrait smiled brightly.

“Say hello. This is my new friend, the Moon Lady.”

In Gio’s hand, a moon the size of a crystal orb shimmered. It was as if it were greeting Yoo Seongun. Yoo Seongun narrowed his eyes as he looked at the moon drawn in the portrait.

“Gio, I’m telling you because it seems like you’ve misunderstood something, but a friend is a relationship where trust is built by mutual consent.”

“I did not kidnap, threaten, or brainwash. I understand very well what you see me as, but I’ll tell you in advance that nothing as frightening as you’re thinking happened.”

Gio had only had a conversation with the Moon Lady.

“Isn’t it natural to become close by talking?”

“So a new sacred friend?”

“Yes. It felt like a gigantic AI born in space... it was very interesting that it decides its behavior and the amount of knowledge it will share based on countless data.”

“In that sense, it does seem like it has similarities with you too.”

“Similar to me?”

“You’re ultimately developing as you merge with the ‘Gio’ that suits you, aren’t you?”

Yoo Seongun thought,

‘Maybe because of that, his imitation of a human has become much more natural than before.’

Even with lies a providential divinity couldn’t tell, he’s now quite skilled.

“If you think about it that way, will this Moon Lady someday also become a divinity that can tell lies?”

“Hmm, people call that an evil god.”

“It’s the easiest and fastest way to traditionally distinguish a god and an evil god.”

“Isn’t it possible that we don’t know what this friend will become in the future?”

Gio grinned.

“I’m surprised you aren’t more surprised.”

“It’s just that I’m resigned, thinking ‘So you finally came to this point.’”

Don’t go kidnapping a divinity from someone else’s religion that even has an order in broad daylight.

‘Not that he’d listen if I said it.’

Ever since he talked about religious wars and whatnot, he had a bad feeling. He’s going to cause something huge. And it won’t be something that harms Earth, at least. So prepare your heart to do small cleanups.

“At least it’s fortunate it isn’t something that will become a rumor anywhere.”

“Is there such a thing as an existence that would become a rumor?”

“The Moon Lady Religion isn’t a divinity with a manifested body. Direct communication would be difficult unless it’s a saintess, and their one and only talent, the saintess, has been focusing on recovery lately, so she won’t even have the energy to notice whether the divinity is there or not...”

“I brought it to spread rumors, though?”

“...”

Yoo Seongun rummaged at his chest. Then he took out a candy and crunched it up.

“Yeah. So what are you going to do now?”

“Oh, dear. Did you just eat that candy in one second? You’ll get diabetes like that. You have to watch out for lifestyle diseases.”

“Don’t worry. It all gets burned off as calories before diabetes comes. So what are you going to do?”

“Rumors will start spreading that something is wrong with the Moon.”

“And then?”

“It’s time for my new friends to appear.”

Argio looked truly delighted.

“Do you like amusement parks?”

“...Well...”

Because it was a pleasing sight, Yoo Seongun grinned.

“I don’t dislike them.”

* * *

“...Huh?”

A man asked with a dumbfounded face.

“...What is this, exactly?”

“Promotion!”

“No, not that...”

“You definitely won’t regret it.”

“Uh, uhuh... uh...”

The man looked with a dubious expression at a woman in fox cosplay. Two ears sticking up and a fluffy tail. And a long, neat maid outfit with absolutely no exposure.

‘That’s kind of niche.’

The man looked down at the flyer again.

We invite you to the amusement park of dreams!

In this harsh world, aren’t you tired?

Do you have a dream you want to achieve, but gave up after hitting reality?

Do you want to rest, but have been putting it off because you’re busy?

Then come to us!

Here, there is everything you want!

Imagine yourself spending money lavishly.

Imagine yourself surrounded by cute animals.

Imagine yourself healthy all over, imagine yourself with wings, flying through the sky.

Any other bizarre and absurd dream you want is fine as well.

We will give you the free dream of liberation from your boring daily life!

All you have to do is very simple.

First, before you sleep, put a note under your pillow with the dream you want written on it.

Second, no matter what happens, enjoy the dream as much as possible!

That’s all you need to do!

For the one who dreams, there is a world!

“...Excuse me, so what is this really...”

When the man lifted his head, the strange fox maid was nowhere to be seen.

“...Huh?”

What was that? A hunter?

‘Or a monster...?’

But a monster wouldn’t be handing out flyers to humans. Thinking it was just a hunter who chose a somewhat unusual promotion, the man calmed his startled heart.

You could occasionally run into such ridiculous flyers in any old alleyway.

‘The conditions and all that are really weird—maybe it’s some kind of service using their skill. The world’s really gotten better; hunters even run businesses with their skills...’

There were more than enough hunters who did business using intangible skills. So the man didn’t suspect it too much. It was suspicious, so he wouldn’t try it himself, but receiving such an offer wasn’t rare.

And a few days later, at a coworker’s suggestion, the man ended up doing what the flyer said.

“...”

The man’s eyes bulged with excitement.

“...R-really... it’s real.”

His mouth split wide.

“This is insane.”

After a few more days passed, the government issued a safety notice to citizens. It was a notice that the dungeon ‘Amusement Park of Dreams’ was spreading, so they should not make contact rashly and should keep their distance.

The citizens didn’t listen.

(To be continued in the next part)