Chapter 257

Her teacher had saved her from suffering and treated her as an equal. Aram had discovered that this dependable man, to whom she owed so much, was more than a mere saint.

Yet she was not particularly surprised.

“Somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought this might be the case.”

“Oh, dear. Did you now?”

“Miracles don't come easily, do they?”

This was one of the possibilities she had anticipated.

“Even an engineered miracle wouldn't come easily. For a human entangled in all manner of mysteries and fates, like me, to receive a genuine miracle... is almost unthinkable.”

“And you readily accept reality, imagining every possible worst-case scenario.”

“Even so, an engineered miracle coming to me is still something I ought to be grateful for. It is still a miracle of value. All that remains is to learn what you want from me, Teacher.”

“I'm sorry, but...” The evil god grinned. “I am not your teacher.”

“... How different are you?”

“By about 0.01% of all the mystery in the world?”

“Isn't that an enormous amount...?”

“That depends on how you look at it.”

“... As difficult as ever. Mere knowledge cannot calculate fate...”

“But you can accomplish something similar.”

That was what it meant to be a hero or a saint.

“Now, I believe you are finally ready to hear me out.”

Ater, who had been watching the proceedings with a look of utter exasperation, spoke.

“... Only because we've realized we have no other option.”

“A fine attitude.”

“Another word for it is resignation.”

“A wise decision.”

“A decision, perhaps. As for wise...”

The evil god had suddenly appeared and begun reshaping the world in earnest. Clearly, he had something he wanted to accomplish. In the process, Ater had been resurrected, and now even a saintess from another dimension had arrived.

“Under the circumstances, what could we conclude except that we had been assigned some role?”

It was far too blatant to miss.

“Above all, you took great pains to keep us from feeling ill will toward you. You weren't merely pretending to be kind. You showed us sides of yourself so inoffensive that we could scarcely see you as an evil god.”

It wasn't merely a matter of putting on a meek facade. According to the saintess, not a single person in reality had died from addiction to the dreams. There had been virtually no actual harm.

The evil god smiled, prompting him to continue.

“And?”

“... I thought that whatever you required of me or this little saint, it would at least be something we could bear. It might be a trick, but at the very least, your proposals would have to be convincing enough to fool us in our present state.”

“Quite right.”

The evil god asked, “Do you know the tale of the dragon?”

“... That seems so unrelated that I have no idea why you bring it up.”

“Our saintess should know it, after spending these past few days exploring the amusement park.”

Aram hesitated, then answered.

“... A dragon is a god's representative, born from nature, and cannot return to the earth without its Divinity's permission. They say its life is so long and arduous that it spreads knowledge of how to kill it throughout the world.”

Many similar tales had been found in other dimensions. Beings whose lives were too long, who lived for eternity, had no choice but to weave the fate called death for themselves.

“What am I to make of your bringing this up now...?”

“I think you already know.”

“...”

Clutching her pillow, Aram nodded at last.

“... Should I kill you, Teacher?”

“Didn't I tell you I'm not your teacher?”

“You're at least a similar being.”

“That I am.”

Jio did not deny that much.

“Thank you. You seem to have understood.”

To that end, Arjio had been all the more open about his intentions. He had whispered to Ater to draw him into this play that wasn't quite a play, and prodded Aram into taking an active part.

“You needn't necessarily kill me. But ‘we’ have remained here far too long. Isn't it time to scrub away those old stains and make a new home?”

“And to bring out this ‘we’ you speak of, Teacher, we'll have to open the evil god's tomb. Only then will the stains be fully exposed. But there's no guarantee this isn't some wicked trick of an evil god.”

“Of course, I may simply be whispering all this to free myself completely from the seal. Aram, my little friend. Do you need time to think?”

“Yes. I need time to think.”

“Of course. As much as you like.”

“...”

After hesitating, Aram took the evil god's—Arjio's—hand.

“... Teacher.”

“How sweet you are.”

The wicked Divinity smiled, bending his large frame down to her.

“He is not here.”

The saint of mercy could not reveal himself here.

“...”

“?”

“... Give him back...”

“Hmm?”

“Give me back my teacher, you treacherous Demon King!!!”

“Ahahahahahahaha!!!”

Arjio laughed with unbridled glee.

* * *

The evil god left, saying he would give them time to think. Only Ater and Aram remained.

“...”

Of the two sitting there in a daze, Ater was the first to speak.

“... That was brave of you.”

“... Given how things were going, I didn't think he'd get angry over something like that...”

“Even so, I would call it brave.”

“Was I a little too brave?”

“There was a touch of that, but I would have tried grabbing him by the collar myself.”

“The saint who grabbed an evil god by the collar... That has a nice ring to it. Even the Sun Cult priests who dislike the Moon Cult would be impressed.”

“An achievement worthy of applause from every saint, I imagine.”

“Though I only managed it because he let me...”

In any case.

“Now I have one more reason to join this campaign against the Demon King.”

“Because the Demon King deceived you, Saintess?”

“No. When a god deceives a human, you can hardly call it deception. We don't call the arrival of a fate we knew nothing about a trick, do we?”

“True, someone of your standing wouldn't grow angry over a mere twist of fate. What, then?”

“My teacher is inside the evil god. I don't know whether he's trapped, asleep, or simply sharing...”

“...”

Sitting there listlessly, Ater asked, “... He once told me something about that. He said there were three ‘Jios’ together within him. Distinct beings sharing one body.”

“... Was one of them named Seo Jio?”

“Yes. I naturally assumed that this ‘Jio’ was a mystery of the same nature as the evil god. But judging by your reaction, Saintess, that doesn't seem to be the case.”

“He is nothing of the sort.”

Emotion welled up in Aram. She felt inexplicably sorrowful.

“Why did my teacher have to end up with a being like that...!”

“I really don't think he belongs to you, Saintess, but yes, well.”

“Do thorns sprout on your tongue if you don't speak your mind?”

“Something like that.”

“Shall I purify you in my capacity as saintess?”

“I'll decline.”

It would very likely be torture in the name of purification.

“... What sort of person was Seo Jio?”

“He always smiled at me.”

“I'm sorry, but I believe the same could be said of the evil god Arjio.”

“There are different kinds of smiles. His isn't the kind you're thinking of, Mr. Ater.”

“Does he smile more gently?”

“His smile is full of sunshine.”

“... Then every bit of mercy I received must have come from him.”

Ater readily accepted this.

“He brought warmth to these broken ruins, which don't even have electricity. He quite literally made sunlight enter a sealed space. I wondered how that was possible...”

“My teacher is bound to a solar Divinity as family.”

“You mean he is a saint as well?”

“He never explicitly admitted it, but he was tacitly recognized as one. If sunlight entered this cursed dungeon, that would be my teacher's power.”

She wasn't disparaging it. That was simply the truth: these ruins really were cursed. There was a reason she had specifically entered them within the vast Black Forest. She had felt there might be something special here.

“I believe he is also the reason the ‘Arjio’ you met was so much kinder and better at imitating humans than the one in the historical records. Sharing one body would have made it easy for them to imitate one another and learn from each other.”

Aram's face contorted again.

“I don't understand how that is even possible. I thought my teacher was unmistakably human, however large his vessel. He is a saint, after all, so of course... he must be human...”

“You mean you don't understand how a saint contracted to the god of the sun could share a body with an evil god. I see. But I have heard of similar cases on occasion.”

“You've come across information like that?”

“To be precise, I've only heard rumors or read records of them...”

Ater continued his explanation uncertainly.

“You know well, Saintess, that a saint's capacity is immense beyond comparison with that of an ordinary human. There were many such people in my dimension's history. And with that capacity, they could contain all manner of things within their bodies... as I understand it.”

“...”

After a long silence, the saintess nodded.

“... That makes sense.”

“I'm glad to hear it.”

“It isn't uncommon for saints to take unclean things into their vessels and slowly purify them. It's no different from using a human as a purification device, so the practice has long been banned in the country where I live...”

“I'm all the more relieved to hear it's banned. Even in the final chapters of human history that I remember, saints were often put to such use. They served as sealing orbs to contain demons.”

“How could anyone be so barbaric?”

Though she might have been a little confused about the names, Aram instinctively sensed that ‘Giovanni’ and ‘Arjio’ were different beings. Her teacher would never condone evil, so there was only one answer left.

“Then my teacher must have volunteered to sacrifice himself to seal away evil...”

“I can't rule out the possibility. There have been numerous precedents.”

“My teacher was already famous for his self-sacrifice in the cause of righteousness.”

“Self-sacrifice in the cause of righteousness?”

“Giving one's life to do what is right.”

“That is... unfortunate.”

“He must have discovered the evil god Arjio's existence and begun sharing his body to purify him.”

It wasn't such an inaccurate guess. Arjio was currently in the process of becoming one with Jio's Portrait.

If he became one with what the evil god called a ‘happy pig’ and a ‘saint of mercy,’ his wickedness would naturally be diluted. That process was underway even now.

Ater looked utterly weary.

“Did my calling Arjio's name in the middle of that process bring all this about?”

“I... can't rule that out either...”

“Then my sin is grave, and I must take responsibility.”

“... This concerns my teacher. I will take responsibility as well.”

She did not want to lose her kind benefactor.

“Fortunately, several things have worked in our favor. Thanks to my teacher being with him, the present evil god has learned mercy. He understands the value of kindness.”

“And the final saint, who became the evil god's dominant personality, did not enjoy indiscriminate wrath or the innocent blood it spilled. Though many records describe his cruelty toward those who attacked him and his love of war and battle themselves...”

“That is why the evil god is planning his own ‘end.’ He must want a chance to unleash his wrath with justification, to enjoy one more proper battle. That would be the ending he has chosen. No, I don't know whether it would truly be the end. In any case.”

So much was easy enough to surmise, but...

“... Can we really believe this? There's no guarantee the evil god isn't deceiving us into opening the sealing door. If he is, we would be dishonoring the sacrifices you and your companions made.”

“Even if he is sincere, there are still many problems. Once Arjio becomes a complete ‘evil god,’ he may have no reason left. Even if he does, it will bode ill. I know all too well what that treacherous Demon King is...”

A lie would be a problem. So would the truth.

“That is why the most important question now is whether the evil god knows ‘forgiveness.’”

If he knew forgiveness, whether it was a lie or the truth would cease to matter.

“The evil god is creating a battlefield. He used you, Saintess, to provoke the religious community. From what you've told me, your priests and the priests around them must be extremely... on edge over the Demon King's abduction of a saintess.”

“I'm well aware of how fanatical religious people can be. That's why I wanted to at least send word that I hadn't been kidnapped, but for some reason, no one from my country has appeared in this dungeon since. And frankly, at this point, calling it a kidnapping hardly seems like a misunderstanding.”

“What is happening isn't as terrible as they imagine, but that alone won't calm the agitated priests. And this isn't limited to religious people.”

“Yes. It was already a national disaster. The Amusement Park of Dreams alone was enough for that. I'm sure it won't just be the Moon Cult... Other Hunters will come as well. We can no longer deny that this place has become a battlefield.”

“If war is going to break out here in the end, if that is what the evil god intends...”

“... Then perhaps...”

Aram gave a hollow laugh.

“Opening the hornet's nest ourselves wouldn't be such a bad choice.”

Countless elite soldiers would come swarming in to deal with that nest. They could either miss their chance and let the dungeon be left clumsily half-destroyed, or root out the evil god altogether. If it had to be done, the latter was better.

“That treacherous Demon King. He must have planned this far ahead.”

“It seems we never had a choice to begin with.”

“Still, I don't like having to follow his calculations to the letter.”

“Such spirit, as expected of a saint. I don't know what you're thinking, but I'll follow your lead.”

“Thank you for your steadfast support.”

A being on the level of an evil god could hardly fail to know what she was thinking. But his plan was already clear. If she stepped outside its bounds, perhaps she could crack that brazen facade a little.

'Fine, I admit it. The present Arjio isn't so evil.'

The harm Aram had suffered at his hands so far could hardly be called great. But that only left her with a heap of petty grudges.

The crime of daring to restrict her teacher's movements. The crime of abruptly kidnapping Aram and transporting her into a dungeon. And the grave crime of sending the people of the world and her family into slumber. She also disliked how he had revealed the identity her teacher had kept so carefully hidden, without a care for his wishes.

Under the circumstances, she was far too irritated to simply do everything that obnoxious evil god wanted.

'Just you wait.'

She would avenge her family and her teacher herself.

Aram crumpled the pillow in her arms, grinding her teeth.

* * *

“... That's not really what's happening.”

In the peaceful cabin, Jio blinked as he washed fist-sized strawberries with his father.

“My new student seems to have misunderstood something.”

“Coo?”

“No, I don't think it will be bad for me at all. But it is rather embarrassing.”

“Coo, coo, coo...”

“It is amusing.”