Chapter 266

Chapter 266

The god molded humans and beasts into one world, yet since their words could reach one another, the balance went awry. Language meant wisdom, and each busied themselves hating the other. And so the god repaired the world.

“...”

He raised humans and lowered beasts. He stole the authority of that wisdom and confined it to a single point; there, trees grew thick. The god shaped flesh from those trees and broke His own bones to raise a foundation; His blood flowed, and a bright red dragon was born.

“...”

The god spoke. My child, gentle lamb that you are, guard the world I have made. You are the lion I cherish most, so accept my will. Do not make what is mine afraid. Following His will, the dragon took human form and at times became a beast, guarding the world.

“...”

Since the god did not take it in, there was no end to that life. The dragon went to the forest and killed itself. That blood, vast as the sea, covered the forest and pooled, gradually rotting into poison. Thus the forest was dyed black; the god grew angry, sent a new lion, and cursed that mission.

“...”

From that day on, whenever dragons needed death, they went to the forest and killed themselves. The forest became a tomb and benefited the world. The dragon offered itself for the world the god loved. They became part of the forest and fulfilled their mission.

“...”

Poison pools in the forest and preserves the dragon’s mission, and the world is filled with peace.

Therefore, offer dragons to the forest; do not forget—offer beasts in human form to the forest as well. Only then do dragons bring peace. If you do not offer sacrifices, peace will grow distant. Humans, humans. Offer the god’s messenger, and you will continue the age of humans.

The dragon exists for you, so offer up that enormous body.

“...You call this kind of thing a fairy tale.”

Ather—the royal librarian—returned that worn-out old book to the deep underground. Though it took the shape of a fairy-tale book, it was filled with a lost language, making it anything but easy to decipher.

“Did a dragon really exist...?”

He, who wished to master all manner of knowledge, had studied dragons as well. Yet it was only absurd stories like this. The cult leader said dragons had truly existed, but there were no proper surviving records anywhere.

“...”

Why was he the only one who spoke of dragons?

“...Hmm.”

At the time, it was something Ather could not know.

He brushed the dust from his hands and climbed down from the tall library chair. He returned the ladder-long chair to where it had been. After extinguishing every flame he had lit in the dark library full of old books, he shut the door tightly and returned to the library above ground.

It was a story from when a greatsword-wielding librarian of common birth stayed in the royal library.

* * *

“...”

After hearing everything, the Moon Lady Religion priest fell silent.

“...So, the current evil god...”

“The current evil god is a monster that became a scapegoat over long generations.”

“...That...”

The Moon Lady Religion moved its lips.

“...It’s no different from us at all.”

At those words, like a groan, the hunters turned to him with startled eyes. Only Seo Seohui, who had been able to guess the Moon Lady Religion’s situation, swallowed a sigh. But the Moon Lady Religion priest, looking blank as if he had lost his reason, could not even react to that.

“It’s the same as our Moon Lady Religion.”

At first, it must have been a mission. Even if a god had molded it, the dragon too would have tended the world with a devoted heart. It would have become part of the forest like that. But in the end, its conclusion was the destruction of the world and the birth of an evil god.

If so, would not the Moon Lady Religion someday end up molding an evil god as well?

“...”

“...We took pride in our mission. Not only I, the saint of this generation, but all the saints before me must have been the same. I can know it—because I was truly happy.”

As Aram brushed the ruins’ record, she continued speaking.

“Even if it was right, I realized here that it can never be called the right direction. It will take far too long for a small warm stone like me to warm the Moon.”

“...In the meantime, a tragedy like this will happen again.”

“It is our arrogance. We dared to look down on divinity. They are unchanging beings and the concept of immortality to mere trifles—how could we ever become a great existence to them?”

It was a tradition where even the dragon, child of that mystery, had fallen. The end of a Moon Lady Religion that held such a tradition was obvious. Aram met the eyes of the priest staring at her in a daze.

“So this is not the subjugation of a fallen dragon, but a requiem for abandoned children. I remained here for that, and now I need your help.”

“...What should I do...?”

“Think. What do you think we should do?”

“...”

“I am going, from this moment, to meet my teacher, the Moon.”

Aram clasped the elder’s hand and pressed her forehead to it as if in a brief prayer.

“Do what you must do.”

“...I, I don’t know. What must I do? I am such an immature being.”

“We are all born immature, and we often meet our end immature. Even if we burn this short life and try to embrace all knowledge, we cannot. I accepted that, and now I think it is your turn.”

“But the Moon Lady Religion is... able to be permitted anything...”

“Within that scope of permission, there is no evil custom that creates an evil god. It was a contradiction. So think. Agonize endlessly and find a path. That will be the meaning of our human lives.”

“Ah, I, I...”

“...”

“...”

After hesitating for a long time, the elder turned to the hunters who had been watching the situation. Some were wary of the Moon Lady Religion, and others looked on as if pitying them. Only then did the elder realize.

A tradition that made people wear such expressions could not possibly be right.

“...I will do my best to find a path.”

“That is enough.”

“May I dare to illuminate the path you will walk?”

“It would be more than I can be grateful for.”

When Aram turned to Seo Seohui, he smiled and asked,

“I think I can help as well.”

“...Thank you.”

Humans cannot kill divinity.

But if it is a matter of divinity and divinity, it was possible.

‘...Mr. Argio knew that, and created a situation like this.’

Nowhere in that vast Demon King’s castle, with its countless hands, was there a Moon being held captive. Nor was it anywhere within the ruins as broad as a village. Aram felt that her teacher was not within the dream.

“...”

Aram wished this was not a battle between god and god.

“...It seems it’s time to wake from the dream.”

And so Aram, after a very long time, woke from sleep.

When she opened her eyes, it was the Moon Lady Religion’s bedroom.

* * *

“...”

Aram sat up in the soft bed.

In her arms, she was holding the pillow she had lost at some point. A pillow stuffed full of soft feathers. A slightly worn one—it was one her adoptive mother had bought her when she first came to the Moon Lady Religion.

Back then, when she had nothing, how happy she had been even with this single warm pillow...

“...Bishop.”

Her voice echoed emptily through her room.

“Where could you be.”

Leaving the pillow neatly on the bed, Aram started moving. The injuries she had suffered and the dust that had clung to her as she ran through the amusement park and the forest had vanished as if they had been a dream. For some reason, it felt bitter.

She slowly walked through the Moon Lady Religion, now quiet.

“...”

Everyone was asleep.

‘...Yes, I thought this would happen.’

She had heard that at some point, support from the Moon Lady Religion in reality had been cut off. That could not happen without something going wrong. And if it had become reality, then it needed a clear cause.

Before long, Aram’s steps reached the Moon Lady Religion’s communal prayer hall.

“...Bishop.”

“...”

“...Mother...”

“...Saintess.”

On a pitch-black lake where the moon did not rise, a woman sat holding the Moon.

“Have you come to find me.”

“Yes.”

“The saintess is truly clever.”

She praised the saintess, who had come to find her in a single stride. The round Moon within her gave off a faint light and nestled like a sleeping child. Stroking it and staring at it, the bishop never looked at Aram.

“When I first saw the saintess in that snowy alley, I felt it. This child wants to see more. She is curious about the world. The moment I saw those bright eyes, I knew where the saintess belonged.”

“...”

“And yet I... did not expect the saintess to sit in the saintess’s seat. Perhaps I wished for it. As bishop of the Moon Lady Religion, the birth of a saint is a welcome thing. But was it not dreadful—how that void truly pained me...”

Her voice was gentle, but a mess.

“It hurt so much. There were so many saints known to the world, and saints unknown as well. All of them passed me by. Again and again I thought: you should have taken me. That I, ah, I... should have died in their place.”

The bishop shoved the Moon she was holding down beneath the lake. Under the black water, the faintly glowing Moon slowly sank and vanished.

“...”

“...Saintess.”

“I have never, not even once!!”

Aram shouted.

“Ever thought that you sacrificed me!!!”

If there was sin, it was my sin. If it was your sin, then it was everyone’s sin. If you would rot away, unable to endure the suffering of those sacrificed lives, how could you have only watched?

You should have screamed at least once. You should have said it hurt.

“...No matter that you are the bishop, you cannot insult my choice.”

“My sin is truly great, truly great. Even knowing all that truth and learning many things, the saintess still is not angered that I call you ‘saintess.’”

“I like this seat. It is a seat I climbed to myself, and a seat I built much upon. If I fail, I should be the one to fail. If I must suffer, that too is my choice.”

“Saintess.”

“Mother, I have the right to challenge.”

Even if it is foolish and perilous beyond measure.

“There is value in me, by my own will, to try everything.”

That was human value.

“We... have never fought even once, have we?”

“Because I did not wish to.”

“I made a friend. A royal librarian named Ather, and he was truly irritating. He only said the right things, and I learned then that even while speaking the truth, you can still make someone angry.”

“...What are you trying to say?”

“It’s fine to fight. People have to feel rage. Getting angry is natural. It is one of the few precious methods that can measure the existence of differing opinions.”

A weapon, and a fortress.

“If we do not get angry, by what method can we contend with each other’s thoughts?”

Some are right, some are not, and there are countless who are right yet wrong. Aram and the bishop were no more than one of those common gray figures. They had to get angry.

“Be angry at me, Mother.”

“Saintess.”

“And tell me your story.”

“...”

“...I...”

The saintess, teary-eyed, smiling, lifted her hand and drew a universe out from her dark pupils.

The two were now in the universe.

“...Not once have I ever heard Mother’s thoughts.”

Chasing mystical knowledge, she had missed the closest knowledge.

It was a past that meant Aram, too, was a sinner.

* * *

“...”

Watching the universe shimmer like a nebula, the bishop, Bae Seogyeong, blinked.

“...It truly is beautiful.”

My story.

That was not important. The story of a mere bishop, not even the cult leader of the Moon Lady Religion, was something that had no use anywhere—knowledge without value, so to speak. She did not want to waste Aram’s time, who had to carry on her short life with it.

Even so, if she wished to hear it, she had to tell it.

“The moon looked lonely.”

She filled her eyes with her child, white as snow, like the moon.

“That was the beginning. Once, I believed I would naturally become the Moon, and yet I failed at everything. And so the family and friends by my side left. I still remember them. This memory is so vivid... and what is more, every one of them was kind and gentle.”

In a prayer hall draped in the universe’s aurora, Bae Seogyeong continued her confession.

“From then on, I continued my research. Making stars beside the Moon. So that even those without qualification can reach this terribly dark universe. So that the Moon will not be lonely. Beside it, whispering the hearts of humans together with the saints who became the Moon... and so, to make it...”

No—truthfully,

“...In truth, I simply could not endure the suffering. The Moon’s life is so long, and the age of humans is short—how could we ever make the Moon into a person with only us? Yes, I knew it was an inevitable failure. I tried to deny it by becoming a star, but it was truly difficult.”

No matter what knowledge and wisdom she used, she could not become a star.

“But now it is different. The god of dreams lent me wisdom.”

“He is not something like divinity of dreams.”

“But to me, he was the god of dreams. He recognized my dream, whispered a greater dream, and even told me the path—if that one is not the god of dreams, then what is he?”

“So you put all the Moon Lady Religion’s brothers to sleep.”

“No. They are still awake. Of course. Saintess.”

Looking at Aram, shining like the moon, Bae Seogyeong said,

“Look around you.”

In the mysteriously shimmering universe, “stars” twinkled.

“They are your stars.”

“...”

Aram twisted her lips.

“...I do not want them.”

“Then you must get angry.”

“I was waiting.”

“I was not...”

Bae Seogyeong could not understand. They wanted it themselves, and they are the eternal family that will guard your side.

“Aren’t these stars beautiful?”

Why would you be angry?

A meteor shower fell toward the moon.

(Continued in the next part)