Honorary Apostle (2)
"Yes, Mr. Kim Min-su. Your player registration is complete. Your player ID will be delivered to the address you provided within two business days."
"Ah, thank you."
"As explained, you are free to use all facilities provided to players. All other benefits will take effect immediately. However, please note that if you fail to fulfill the obligation to enter the Tower at least once a month, these benefits will be suspended."
"Got it."
"Of course, there's no need to push yourself into dangerous high floors. We ask that you climb the Tower safely within the limits of your abilities. Have you ever entered the Tower or made a contract with a constellation?"
"Uh... no. I haven't."
"Hey, that makes it sound weird! It wasn't even a normal apostle contract!"
"Pardon?"
"Ah, sorry. Just talking to myself."
"...Haha, yes. I suppose that means you haven't climbed the Tower, so you haven't received education either?"
"Yes, that's right."
"We recommend taking the education course before entering the Tower. Completing it will grant you the D-rank that marks the true start of a player. Shall I proceed with registration?"
"Yes, please."
"The next scheduled player education session is... next Saturday. I'll register you for that day."
"Thank you."
Min-su thanked the female staff member and stood up.
"Yeah. I figured player registration would involve mana measurements and all sorts of weird procedures, but it wrapped up surprisingly fast."
Thanks to a machine that detected players simply by measuring mana flow in the body, Min-su completed the registration without any hassle.
"It feels a bit anticlimactic, though."
He'd secretly hoped for something more dramatic. Like, 'What!? An S-rank summoning ability player!?' Or 'The summon's rank is immeasurable!! We can't let this player slip away!' Since he'd summoned a god, maybe something like that could happen. But reality wasn't like fiction.
"Probably better that it didn't."
Of course, Min-su lacked the confidence to handle the attention that would draw. As a fresh player, his rank was E. After education, it would automatically rise to D.
"...I'm not an apostle, I'm an Honorary Apostle."
The day before, Min-su had received a slightly special apostle contract offer from the [Dark Lord] he'd summoned into reality. Not a regular apostle contract, but an Honorary Apostle one. It was a contract with zero burden on him.
Typically, apostles receive compensation and authority from their contracted constellation and follow orders. A constellation can contract multiple apostles, but an apostle can only bind to one. A de facto lord-vassal relationship. It might seem unequal, but given constellations' transcendent status, most players were desperate to contract one.
In contrast, the [Dark Lord]'s Honorary Apostle offer was different. No lord-vassal bond. No need to obey orders, and no restrictions on contracting other constellations. While regular apostles become vassals or servants for rewards, Honorary Apostles just receive one-sided benefits. Gain for the apostle, loss for the constellation. That was the Honorary Apostle dynamic.
"Stop twisting it weirdly. And why would I abandon you, Goddess?"
When Min-su showed reluctance toward a regular apostle contract, the [Dark Lord] offered Honorary Apostle status instead. A blessing granting a god's grace without constraints. Min-su had no reason to refuse.
"Thank you, Goddess. I'll... use this power wisely."
Jet-black mana swirled up Min-su's arm. The power of the [Dark Lord], once wielded by Idaine, the hero who defended Korea in the past. Now, that dark authority was his.
"From here? Hmm... Shall we check out the Tower? I hear the lower floors aren't too dangerous."
Min-su chuckled and replied.
"Deal. If you teach me how to handle this power in the Tower, I'll throw in kimchi too."
A god's help for just one bowl of ramen. If pre-awakening me heard this, I wouldn't have believed it.
Back home, Min-su immediately started boiling ramen. With a bit of cooldown left on his summoning ability, he planned to eat heartily before climbing the Tower with the [Dark Lord].
"Here? Even more?"
It was already over the recommended amount. Adding more water? Because of that ramen two days ago...?
He'd been startled encountering her and overdid the water. Unforgivable by his standards, but her first ramen must have made the bland taste appealing.
...It's really not.
Looks like he'd need to boil two separate servings instead of one double. Once the ramen was ready, the summoning cooldown perfectly ended. For his third summon, Min-su activated it casually.
Vmmm!
Space tore open, and poof! The [Dark Lord] popped out. Now accustomed after three summons, she landed gracefully without falling on her butt.
The goddess, now in her beautiful and divine form. As she descended with otherworldly beauty, Min-su unconsciously swallowed. Even if she was used to it, a god's advent inspired reverence.
"Ooh, ramen!"
Of course, the mood vanished the instant she lit up and lunged for the ramen.
...That good, huh?
Despite her clumsy moments, the miracle at the memorial and power granted proved she was a true god. Yet here she was, grinning over mere ramen.
Is she just playing along with me?
Min-su couldn't yet fathom how blessed it was for a constellation to descend to Earth.
Somewhere in the heavens.
"Good work on the investigation. You may rest now."
The woman with twintails, who had been commanding her apostle, crossed her arms in thought.
No matter how I look at it, that was a trace of divinity.
The anomalous flower overgrowth her apostle witnessed. It screamed divine intervention. No player ability or apostle authority could produce that.
A god had intervened.
But a god exerting power on Earth? Impossible.
Even transcendent constellations had limits. Not native to Earth, they couldn't leave the Tower without apostles. Without them, they couldn't even observe Earth, let alone act.
Only through apostles—hands and feet of constellations—could they influence it.
But that flower field. Not apostle work.
To create such a miracle required a god's direct presence and divinity expenditure.
All Earth's gods should be extinct... Wait.
The fairy queen's eyes widened.
Did one of us go to Earth?
If a constellation had gone to Earth, it fit perfectly. Everything made sense.
...
Even transcendent gods at the Tower's pinnacle were effectively imprisoned. Unlike mortals, divine beings were bound by countless restrictions.
Players and apostles envied constellations, but constellations yearned for mortals' freedom—to wander, eat delicious food, play without restraint.
If... if there's a way for me to go to Earth myself.
She'd pay any price—fortune, divinity, authority—to learn it. And if someone on Earth enabled it?
She'd beg for the companion seat, possible only once in a constellation's life, above even Honorary Apostle.