Chapter 256

Ater had spent the intervening days deep in thought.

'No matter how I look at it, he clearly has a role for me.'

He had hurled curses at the evil god and challenged him to duels, yet here he was, perfectly intact. His role might be no more than a plaything, but he had a bad feeling about it. Above all, Arjio had shown him his heart.

'That is not a mercy one grants a mere plaything.'

Then did the evil god truly want him to open the tomb?

'Or does he simply not care either way?'

As his prolonged deliberations continued, Ater's life settled into a monotonous routine. He attacked the evil god to glean even the smallest insight into his intentions, suffered a crushing defeat, and survived yet again to study the ruins and ponder the future.

Then one day, a small, delicate being entered the evil god's tomb.

"... A hero...?"

"... A saint...?"

The one who had called him a hero was a saintess with a child's body.

'Surely no more saints could be born in this world?'

What saint could appear in a world abandoned by its Creator? Yet Ater, who had lived bearing the duty of a champion, could feel it. This small being was indeed a saintess.

'Then she must serve some god other than our Creator...'

He sensed no trace of a beast, so she was a saint from another world entirely.

The unexpected encounter startled him, but it was not beyond comprehension. Arjio had already made him aware of the existence of multiple dimensions. With the world turned upside down and the evil god having seized the Creator's place, what else could possibly be beyond belief?

The two stared at each other for a while. An awkward silence lingered.

"..."

"... A-are you human?"

"I am indeed human."

It seemed this little saintess had seen the beasts up above. They apparently wore human forms now. Ater, who had fought them with his life on the line, found it absurd, but that was the reality.

He lowered himself to meet the saintess's eyes.

"May this humble servant of my Father ask your sacred name?"

"... I am Aram, the little youngest daughter who serves my teacher, the Moon."

"The Moon? Not a being my meager knowledge encompasses. Where have you come from?"

"I came through a dream, but..."

Aram was just as confused.

"Isn't this a dungeon?"

"If you mean a dungeon created by the Demon King, that would be accurate. But that does not seem to be what you mean."

"The Demon King...? I'm sorry, I mean... um..."

They needed to sort things out.

"... Could we talk for a moment?"

"As you wish, Saintess."

Ater came from an age of rigid social classes. Someone who carried herself like a noble and was a saintess besides deserved proper respect. He introduced himself with perhaps even greater courtesy than he showed Arjio.

"My name is Ater."

He gave a brief account of his life: the events that had taken place here, the trials he had endured, and what had consequently befallen this world. He also explained how he had been resurrected and what he was doing now. After hearing him out, Aram nodded.

"A dungeon is... a dimension in its own right. It can also be a planet where humans once lived. We've never confirmed a case of the humans from that time surviving in any dungeon that has opened onto Earth, but... if what you say is true, you would be the first human from another dimension."

"If you do not mind, might I now hear your story?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I was so absorbed in yours."

Aram bowed her head in the manner of a Moon Cult priest's greeting.

"As I said, I am the Moon Cult's saintess, an insignificant human who presumes to call herself our teacher's daughter. I came here after discovering that something was wrong with the teacher I serve."

As Ater learned how she had ended up in this dimension, his brow furrowed.

"... So you went to sleep alone for the sake of your dimension's fate? To investigate and unravel this unusual dimension that can only be reached through dreams?"

"Oh, yes."

"Alone?"

"... Well, we can't dream together...?"

"... This may sound impertinent, but you must give more thought to your own safety. To my limited understanding, even in another dimension, a religion's saintess is not someone who should be so readily hurt or brought low."

"I-I'm sorry."

"What have you to apologize to me for?"

He was grateful she was not as insufferable and headstrong as the saint he remembered. Suppressing a sigh of relief, Ater continued his questions.

"You said you were assigned a guide when you entered the dream. Where have you abandoned that being, then...?"

"I haven't abandoned her! I-I merely asked to be allowed to look around on my own."

"... Did nothing strike you as strange, even as you said that?"

"... I suppose the fact that my request was granted means this was the dream's master's intention all along..."

"And this master of the dream is the evil god who resurrected me?"

"That does seem to be the case..."

"..."

Ater's face twisted into a fierce frown.

"Learn to be wary."

"I was plenty wary!"

"Then why are you not fleeing from me, a human resurrected by an evil god?"

"Because you're a hero...!"

Saints could instinctively sense a human's vessel.

"You called yourself this world's champion. I found no falsehood in those words, so I believed you. I also recognized that your concern for me was sincere."

"Even knowing all of that, there are things you must avoid. Do not mistake yourself for someone who possesses all the world's knowledge. Human wisdom can never surpass a god's, and human fates follow a god's intentions."

"I know that too. But if I refuse to act because I know it, how can I accomplish anything I set out to do? I came here with failure and the worst possible outcomes in mind. To achieve what I want."

"That is precisely what makes it dangerous. If you were capable of thinking that far ahead, you should have been all the more cautious. Do you truly not understand what it is about my words that upsets you?"

Ater sighed.

"You do not know how precious you are."

"I know that much. I know how important I am...!"

"That is being important, not being precious. You seem not to understand how essential peace and love are to a human being. Do not devalue them at your own whim. That can easily become arrogance."

"..."

Aram hesitated before speaking.

"... You sound rather like my teacher."

"Do you mean this god of yours, the Moon?"

"No. I have a human teacher."

"What a relief that someone can teach you even that much."

His tone was as courteous as ever, but the sarcasm was unmistakable. Aram understood it perfectly well.

"..."

But she could not bring herself to lash out at him for insulting her family and her fellowship of disciples. It was not that she felt no offense, but over the past few days she, too, had keenly felt the Moon Cult's failings.

The amusement park above had introduced her to sensory pleasures. It had made her feel desires she had never known she possessed. It had helped her feel what she wanted, learn about it, and put that knowledge to use.

'... Every last member of my Moon Cult family was ruining themselves.'

They truly were frogs at the bottom of a well.

'I won't give in to that temptation now. But...'

Humans clearly needed those sensory pleasures. They needed to pursue romance even when it served no need or purpose, to expend resources unnecessarily and experience more emotions.

What truth could they hope to discover when they did not even properly understand themselves? Whatever the master of the dream had intended in creating this amusement park, Aram had undeniably learned that lesson.

"... You know the master of this amusement park well, don't you, Ater?"

"I told you just a moment ago that he was the one who resurrected me."

"What sort of being is he?"

"..."

At last, Ater let out a sigh and spoke.

"An evil god."

He embodied absolute wrath.

"Did you examine the records in the ruins on your way here?"

"Yes. The writing system was different, but I had an opportunity to learn it in the amusement park above... so I did. His past atrocities were recorded in the ruins."

"If you descend deeper into the ruins, you can learn why such an evil god was born. The being who resurrected me is entirely different from the evil god of that time. But as long as his heart exists, he will eventually return to being the evil god he once was."

"That's what you're worried about."

"The evil god killed my family and friends and burned my village."

That dreadful form and those shrill, wrath-filled cries remained vivid in his memory.

"So I wanted to kill him somehow before that calamity could strike again. But, perhaps unsurprisingly, I could not. No matter how many times I throw myself at him with my life on the line, he simply restores me to perfect health and leaves me in these ruins..."

"I-is he keeping you prisoner?"

"The one imprisoning me is myself. Whatever the evil god learned in another dimension, however it changed him, he went and created an entirely new world. I lacked the courage to see it, so I remained here by his mercy."

"You think of yourself as a relic of a bygone age."

"I am a ghost who should have died back then. I cannot help wanting to remain in the past rather than the future. Everything I have left exists only in these ruins."

"... What do you want to do?"

"... What about you, Saintess?"

"I'm not sure."

Clutching her white pillow, the saintess murmured, "What is it I want to do, and what can I do?"

"I am in much the same position, so I have nothing to offer you."

"That's a little unfortunate..."

"What did you see and feel in the amusement park?"

"... Well, first I learned its layout."

A kingdom composed of three beast races. There was also a castle that anyone could enter, so long as they were a 'guest.' The fox folk servants welcomed guests there and helped them do anything they wished.

"It was a place that spoiled people rotten."

The entire amusement park above, that was.

"In my dimension, we have a word: utopia."

"If you mean an ideal world, I know the word as well."

"That's a relief. Well, that was exactly how it felt. Even though such a thing could never be real."

"Do you want people who suffer in reality to be happy for the rest of their lives?"

"I don't think it should be that way. In the end, you can't be happy for your entire life. Even if you spent your whole life dreaming something close to it, someone would shatter that dream."

"... I told you I was trapped in a prison of thorns for thousands of years," Ater added.

"I also told you I called upon the evil god because I could not endure the pain. I am the one who caused this world to be remade and brought disaster upon your dimension. But even if I could return to that moment, I would call upon him again."

The reason was simple.

"Because I want to live."

"... Is that why you called upon the evil god? Whatever disaster might follow?"

"I kept searching for an answer through that terrible pain, but there was no other way."

That was what had driven Ater mad.

"My Creator grew sick of our stupidity and abandoned me. No one was mad enough to visit those deserted ruins, and I could never have opened the prison door by my own strength."

"But for a champion to call upon an evil god must have been deeply painful."

"That is why I wanted to take responsibility. I tried to kill the evil god even if it meant sacrificing myself."

Naturally, it had been impossible.

"But even now, I never stop searching for a way. Why the evil god has kept me alive, what role fate has assigned me, and where it ends. What I can do within it. How much responsibility I can bear. I am wrestling with all of it."

"..."

"Are you not doing the same?"

"... I am."

Eternal happiness and perfect dreams could not exist.

"In the end, people have to stand on their own strength."

Some might try to flee reality. They might be content to spend their entire lives running until they died. But not everyone could do that. It was not that they should not, but that they could not.

The longer they remained unaware of that, the greater the harm would inevitably grow. Aram wanted to avert that future.

"So I, too, want to know my role in fate and what I can accomplish. That's why I came all this way. I explored that vast amusement park, studied its history and writing, and finally... reached this place."

"To have overcome the Black Forest's miasma and the ominous presence of the ruins to reach this place—you truly deserve to be called a saintess. Remarkable."

"I'm not saying it was easy, but I could do it. I was lucky, too, though I don't know who arranged that. I came to learn everything about this dungeon. I want to save my brothers and make the world a better place."

Their aims aligned.

"If sealing the master of the dream again is the only way to restore the world, then that is what I'll do."

"I see. Would you permit me to help you, so that I might better fulfill my responsibility?"

"This makes it feel like we're... in some sort of play. Following a predetermined fate."

"It is damned unpleasant, but there is nothing we can do about it."

They knew that this, too, was ultimately the fate the evil god wanted. But humans were beings who struggled desperately within fate. No one knew what fate that struggle might bring about.

It did not matter even if they could not overcome fate. Achieving what they wanted would suffice. Protecting what they wished to protect would be enough. And to accomplish all of that...

"..."

They needed the master of all this fate.

"... Arjio."

"You have called upon me once again."

"It seems all the actors for your desired stage have gathered."

"So it would seem."

Smiling as naturally as if he had been there from the start, Arjio looked at Saintess Aram.

"Is this our first meeting?"

"..."

"Or is it not?"

"... Teacher."

"I am not that fellow, child."