Chapter 244

Chapter 244

“You finally popped the balloon!”

Bisavol smiled brightly.

“It was bound to happen someday.”

“Did you expect it?”

“Of course. It would’ve been harder not to know.”

They were people who had lived almost their entire lives without being able to do what they wanted. There was a high chance they didn’t even know what they wanted. And those citizens were being given ‘a happy dream with no side effects.’

It was enough to make them lose their heads, ignoring even the government’s words.

“You’re more positive than I imagined.”

“My, my. I’m always watching over my son. So that no matter when or where you put on another performance, I can capture it with these two eyes.”

“So how do you like this performance, Father?”

“Of course!”

He looked to be in quite a good mood.

Argio sprawled on the long sofa in the guildmaster’s office and looked up at him. Bisavol, leaning on his cane, looked down at Argio. Those lemon-yellow eyes shone with a tenacious light.

“Hmm.”

I like those eyes.

At that thought of Argio’s, Seo Gio and Giovanni showed a reflexive rejection, but Argio ignored them. He liked people this fanatically passionate. People like that always set off at least one incident.

“Good, I’m in a better mood now. I’ll grant you the chance to converse with this precious body.”

“Oh my, thank you.”

Bisavol did not bother moving to sit across from him.

“I was impressed.”

That was his first line.

“That’s right, this world is terribly boring. Everyone is busy scraping together something that resembles happiness—not happiness itself—without even knowing what’s truly precious to them, just because they want to survive somehow. And yet they still suffer on their own.”

“Because they don’t know any other way to live.”

“Exactly. They don’t know how to do anything but endure. What a ridiculous world. They force themselves into a mold and live out their precious lives without knowing what they like, what they hate, what they want to do, what they don’t want to do—nothing.”

“Was it boring?”

“Ah, it was so boring. If it had at least turned into a complete mess, it might have been fun to watch, but it wasn’t even that. Soldiers crawling around, barely dragging themselves along as they force down their grievances...”

“A tamed person can’t possibly rebel.”

“Right, because they can’t be rewarded.”

Bisavol’s lips curved thinly.

“But now you have rewarded them.”

The Black Cloak gives gifts to good people.

“Look at the world the Black Cloak created! Those unlucky, empty-headed moneybags have started thinking. The slum drifters who used to tremble, afraid of being crushed, have begun to summon something called courage.”

“I’ll give you a gift.”

“That was where it began.”

Citizens who only knew how to live suppressed learned how to be brave. They began stepping forward instead of hiding. They were at least putting one foot in. The current situation was connected to that, too.

“After learning good, they’re learning evil.”

At Bisavol’s words, Argio laughed.

“Are you trying to say I caused an accident?”

“An accident? Didn’t I just say it? This is a performance.”

Everything is nothing more than a single play, planned in advance.

“Those who accepted good because of the Black Cloak will seek a better path even if they learn evil. Those who had no interest in the Black Cloak, or who felt aversion toward him, will use this opportunity to learn evil first.”

Even so, Gio would not allow this performance to create wicked people.

“In the end, Argio, I know that you too are a mystery who loves heroes and affirms good.”

“You think that even though I’m an evil god?”

“Of course! You simply love enjoyment too much, don’t you? Argio—the cruel beast—who loves righteous, forthright anger more than anything in the world. You do not reject the weak.”

“You know me fairly well.”

“Because my eyes are good.”

They were eyes he could boast of even before a divine being.

“In the end, everything will get better. Yes, this is how the world should be to be fun! What enjoyment is there in living like a machine, with both goodness and wickedness all suppressed? Watching people get swept along with no sense of self, like a pack of rats in a filthy alley, truly disgusts me.”

“So in the end, you too are seeking your own enjoyment?”

“A collective of humans with no change is nothing but something that is used and thrown away endlessly. Where is the value in that process? Without good and evil, there is no change, no backlash, no conflict. If, on this occasion, you teach them well... Teacher Seo Gio.”

At the sight of the Black Cloak returned to black hair, Bisavol’s eyes curved like crescents.

“How much more fun will the world become?”

“...”

Gio, who had been looking up at him, went hm, and then said.

“I wondered where that expression came from.”

“Expression?”

“The face you’re smiling with right now.”

“Ah, right.”

Bisavol straightened his back and chortled.

“My curators will probably smile like this.”

That smile that outsiders sometimes find chilling. Its original was Bisavol himself. It wasn’t intentional, but at some point the curators started to resemble that expression. He liked it quite a bit, so he simply left it and was enjoying it.

“By the way, you don’t deny being called ‘teacher,’ I see?”

“I am a teacher.”

“Even now, when your school has become ruins?”

“It seems you know about me.”

“If I knew your name and even your face, did you think I wouldn’t investigate? Since it was your status from before the Great Catastrophe, it was quite a struggle to confirm, but I was able to hear some very small stories.”

“Whom did you hear them from?”

“From the people who were your students?”

After a moment, Gio said.

“So they were alive.”

“Of course. But it seems you haven’t gone to seek them out separately.”

“I’ve been thinking it over.”

“May I ask what you were thinking over?”

“What I should do.”

Whether I should count myself as dead, or as living. Whether they would fear me if I appeared suddenly. Whether it would be right to show myself, or better not to.

“I still don’t have an answer.”

So I left it buried for a while.

“Guildmaster Bisavol, you may not know this well, but I can be pathetic like this too.”

“I was impressed by your thoughtful side.”

“You often indulge in burdensome words and actions.”

“And yet, you were the one who came all the way to my room, weren’t you? Isn’t that right, my son?”

“That’s true as well.”

When Gio swept his hair back, it turned red in an instant.

“I quite like teaching people something, Father.”

“So you mean to educate the Republic of Korea? That sounds very entertaining—I like it.”

“While experiencing the Moon Lady Religion this time, I realized something.”

“May I hear it?”

“That people of the present age are practically newborns.”

He stroked his chin.

“They don’t even know the most basic things. Not knowing what you want is commonplace. How to get angry, how to cry, how to laugh, how to sing, how to eat, how to fall asleep, how to walk, how to see, how to hear... There are even many who have forgotten how to breathe.”

It wasn’t like that in my time.

“So I’m teaching them, step by step. It doesn’t seem like something you’d worry about, but you needn’t worry. Those who learned from the Black Cloak the value of interacting with people will stand firm even when the evil god Argio appears.”

“You seem to know that, yet I wasn’t worried in the slightest.”

“I meant you should at least pretend.”

“Would it mean anything?”

At last, Bisavol sat down on the sofa across from him.

“So why did you come looking for me?”

“Because I wanted to see those eyes again.”

“Ah, your eyes?”

“Yes.”

Gio’s golden eyes stared into Bisavol’s.

“How did you come to obtain them?”

“My, my—no comment.”

“And are you getting along well with those eyes?”

“Of course! We’ve become a terribly affectionate pair.”

“And how do I appear in them?”

“Hmm, well. Let’s see...”

Bisavol answered as though he were thinking it over.

“Ah, how could this be.”

“So what is it?”

“You look like a winged beast to me.”

“You saw it accurately.”

Argio laughed.

“I’m glad your eyes are still fine.”

He had been going to help if they were in pain, but it seemed they were doing fine on their own.

* * *

“The ‘Amusement Park of Dreams’ is indeed a dungeon.”

The bishop of the Moon Lady Religion explained.

“According to the information gathered so far, it seems there truly is a huge space in the form of an amusement park. Judging by the condition that ‘after receiving a flyer, you write what you want, put it under your pillow, and fall asleep, you can enter’... its type has been identified as a virtual dungeon.”

It was a format where, once a certain condition was met, participants were pulled into the dungeon.

“Because this condition cannot be fulfilled unless one satisfies it oneself, there is no coercion. However, if you consider how strongly the merit of ‘you can safely do anything you want in a dream’ will appeal to citizens exhausted by reality... it is not a matter we can be so reassured about.”

“Is the time it takes to wake up getting any longer?”

“There has been no such news in particular.”

The Moon Lady Religion is an order that maintains a close relationship with the Association. When incidents like this occurred, they would receive shared information and become allies to think it through together. After returning from a brief briefing at the Association, the bishop spoke to the Moon Lady Religion’s fellow brothers.

“The scale is far too large to be an individual or group skill. There are also standardized spaces. Please check the materials we have handed out for more details. What we must do is understand the structure of this dungeon, ‘Amusement Park of Dreams.’”

In other words, they were lab rats.

“Any method is fine, as long as it is within a range you can accept and that won’t cause major problems. As with the previous ‘Country of the Deep Sea,’ I will be waiting for the brothers’ active research and reports of results.”

“Then may we use the method shown on this flyer as is? The easiest and fastest way would, of course, be to experience it directly. The report also says there haven’t been any special side effects so far...”

“If it is something that threatens health and life, please report and request beforehand before attempting it. Otherwise, you may proceed as usual. I ask that you conduct your research discreetly so it does not become a social issue.”

“Understood.”

The Moon Lady Religion was, for the most part, in an excited mood. To them, dungeons and monsters were nothing more than interesting research topics. And a virtual dungeon with such kind conditions—there was plenty of value in researching it.

Among them, their benefactor, Hunter Seo Gio, smiled awkwardly.

“I would like it if you all didn’t do anything too dangerous.”

“Saint, do not worry. If it truly seems like we are going to die, we will pray to our teacher...”

“If you pray, will the Moon Lady save you?”

“Before I die, she will surely hear of my admirable achievements.”

“I really don’t usually say things like this, but please do it while holding yourselves back.”

“This is all for humanity’s future...”

“Please.”

“Yes, sir.”

The bishop cleared her throat and awkwardly cut in.

“This situation must be rather uncomfortable for you, Hunter Seo Gio.”

“The Collection Merchant is similar in not cherishing my body either, but perhaps because they consider the guildmaster, they don’t do anything dangerous beyond a certain point. I’m still not used to it. Everyone here is smart, and yet...”

“Their brains simply run well; it is not an order where people that brilliant gather. Still, they are children who always keep conditions once set, so you need not worry too much.”

“It seems you are worrying more than I am, Bishop.”

“...”

A beat later, she asked.

“...Ah, me?”

“You haven’t looked well lately.”

“I think it’s because I’ve been sleeping poorly.”

“Are you having nightmares?”

“No, rather than that...”

After hesitating, the bishop answered.

“It feels like I’m only dozing.”

Recently, she had been dreaming of an evil god.

(Continued in the next part)