Secret History (6)
"Wh-what?"
Kenis was thoroughly flustered by the sudden question from the god. The stars drifting about and playfully poking her cheeks had already been disorienting enough, yet the god who had been speaking with Antonio abruptly turned the question upon her.
Moreover, Great Priest Antonio was still prostrate over there, sobbing his heart out. Surely the god was inquiring about how to deal with Great Priest Antonio.
The god pressed Kenis for an answer. Flustered, she stammered in a flurry.
"Th-that! I-I— um...!"
It would have been a lie to claim she felt no sense of betrayal toward the Pantheon for concealing the truth about her mother. When she first heard Demonic's words, she had agonized over it for a long time.
Disappointment and betrayal toward the Pantheon, sorrow, regret, resentment... every sort of negative emotion had torn through her mind.
But—
Those who remained in the Pantheon now were the ones who had stood against Rofinus. Everyone who had shared Rofinus's will had either become dew upon the execution ground or ended their lives dangling from fleeting ropes.
Antonio and his company had nothing to do with that horrific human sacrifice.
It's galling that they put on airs while bargaining with Father over the aftermath they should have handled properly in the first place...
On that score she fully intended to negotiate personally with the Pantheon's leadership and extract a proper price. She was grateful they had fed, clothed, and raised her since childhood, yet wrong was still wrong.
Great Priest Antonio has committed no sin.
After Kenis became a hero, Antonio was the one who never stinted on advice and aided her in every material and spiritual way. His nature was so kind and pure that she harbored not the slightest ill will toward him.
How pure was Antonio's character? The children of the Holy City called him Grandpa and followed him about.
Having settled her thoughts, Kenis swallowed hard and lifted her head. Countless lights swam without rest, forming one vast shape.
Shaaa—
Some flickered like fireflies, some plummeted like meteors, some spun in endless circles. Every multicolored star was part of a single enormous will. And at the highest point shone two dazzling stars. Those had to be the god's eyes, or something very like them.
"G-God! I... I believe Great Priest Antonio bears no sin whatsoever!"
Kugugugu—
Hearing Kenis's cry, the god slowly bent his vast body and drew near before her. Two stars like suns fixed their gaze upon her. Flames twisted their tails and leapt from the stellar surfaces; searing heat washed over her.
The sun that had come close enough to touch if she merely reached out asked her once more.
"Th-that is..."
"..."
Kenis pondered the god's words deeply. Why had she decided Antonio bore no sin?
Simply because she was close to him? Because his nature was pure? Or because he had helped her in so many ways?
...
None of those.
Kenis did not resent Antonio.
"...I have already forgiven him."
Because she believed he need not sacrifice himself by shouldering the original sin of the Pantheon.
She had forgiven Antonio for trying to bear every sin in the Pantheon's stead.
It was not Antonio who had done wrong, and there was no reason he should carry it all.
That was all.
Kugugu—
Hearing Kenis's answer, the god slowly moved his enormous body away from her. Then he kept silence.
Had her reply displeased him?
A flicker of anxiety entered Kenis's eyes.
How much time passed like that? Enough for Antonio, who had been wailing mindlessly, to compose himself and rise.
The god slowly turned his head. At the end of that quiet gaze stood Antonio, shakily rising to his feet.
"Y-yes! O one who saves the world with light! Your servant is here!"
"Ah, ah...!"
"I will keep it in mind again and again..."
Antonio's head lowered until it touched the floor as he knelt. Since the god had declared he would not question their sins, what greater covenant could there be?
Shaaa—
A cluster of starlight drifted near and lightly enfolded Kenis and Antonio. Stars gathered as if surrounding them, then seven stars soared high into the heavens.
"Kyaa!"
"Hooo...!"
The seven stars that shot into the lofty firmament climbed all the way to the faintly glowing edge of the sky. And then—
Paaat!
The seven stars settled into the shape of an eye. Like a giant's eye plucked out and set into the heavens, it looked for all the world like the eye of the sky itself.
"S-stars..."
"Is that an eye?"
Kenis and Antonio craned their necks to gaze at the constellation above. The twinkling pattern shone among the countless stars, asserting its presence with quiet pride.
It was merely a few new starlights risen among the many, yet the eye constellation somehow revealed its form with unmistakable clarity.
"A constellation! A constellation! It's shaped like an eye!!"
"G-God! How can this old man's fleeting body bear such excessive glory! Please, take it back!"
The eye-shaped constellation glittering in that lofty sky was a symbol.
A covenant sealed in the name of the god.
A sign that so long as that star shone, the covenant would be kept.
As a cleric, as a human being, could one enjoy greater glory than this?
Kuuung—!
Stars gathered in a circle and enfolded Kenis and Antonio. Then zzzeok— a sound of something tearing rang out on every side. It was like cloth ripping, or like thin stone being crushed.
"Kyaa, uwaaaat!!"
"Heueot!!"
Falling.
Even though stars wrapped them completely, they felt themselves plummeting from a great height. Every organ seemed to surge upward; at the sudden drop they flailed instinctively.
A fall that felt close to eternity continued.
Tataat.
"Heu, heuaa..."
"Ugh, uek!"
The instant their feet touched the ground, the stars that had wrapped them scattered like mist and vanished. Yet Kenis and Antonio, still reeling from extreme motion sickness, never even noticed the star cluster disappearing.
"Over there! The Hero and the Great Priest have returned!"
"They answered the god's summons and came back!"
"What a glorious moment this is! Inspiration—inspiration is rising in me! The stars are singing to me!"
On the ground, where a great uproar had broken out at the sudden event, cheers rose toward Kenis and Antonio.
The sky had collapsed, a star cluster had descended and carried the Hero and Great Priest into the heavens, and they had returned once more as stars!
Was this not a scene straight from myth?
Those who had witnessed a mythical moment with their own eyes screamed until their throats tore, shouting and singing the greatness of the god—beyond the arena, until the sound resounded throughout the whole world.
Twinkle.
Quietly and loftily watching that commotion from high above were the seven stars.
Looking down upon the earth, they seemed to smile softly with their eyes.
"Whew—"
After safely returning Kenis and the old man to their original place, I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead. When I got carried away for a moment and decided to make a constellation, I had wondered whether it would even work.
It actually worked?
Still, as someone who is nominally a god, promising not to send them to hell... it felt a bit plain to just say the words, so I wondered if there was something more, and what came to mind was a constellation.
In the Greek and Roman mythology that was recommended reading back in elementary school, the gods would casually create constellations all the time. Trying it myself, it looked pretty cool and wasn't a bad idea at all.
I think I finally get why Zeus and Hera kept making constellations whenever the mood struck them.
The sight of the stars rising and forming a constellation had been quite the spectacle. I should try it again sometime.
"Heu, heua— G-Great... One..."
"Ah! Kenelm!"
Plop.
Kenelm, who had been concentrating hard with her eyes closed, collapsed onto the spot with a powerless sound. She was soaked in sweat as if she had just finished intense exercise; her skin showed faintly through the damp fabric.
"No... ahem! A-are you all right?"
"Yes, Great One. I am fine, hoo— I am fine."
"Why are you sweating so much?"
"I concentrated a little..."
Kenelm's face as she wiped her sweat while still sitting was quite pale. Her skin had always been on the fair side, but it was never usually this corpse-like deathly white.
"Your face is awfully pale. Are you sure you're okay?"
"Ugh, uuk... s-sorry—"
Kenelm turned her head as if about to dry-heave, then a wet thudding sound of something being vomited reached me. What I glimpsed was red like blood.
She was vomiting blood.
"What—what's wrong with you!"
"G-Great One— kuhp! Forcibly bringing you here, uuk!"
Red blood kept flowing from Kenelm's covered mouth. She was vomiting so much that one had to wonder whether a human body could even produce that volume. Not knowing how to help, I could only stamp my feet around her in useless panic.
"I-is there anything I can do?! How can a person throw up this much blood!"
"Euup!!"
"Ah! If it's because you brought me here, then if I just go back! That should fix it, right!"
"Th-that's true, but— euuk!!"
"Then hurry and send me back! Quickly!!"
"That..."
Even as blood dribbled from her mouth, Kenelm was still agonizing over something. While vomiting mouthfuls of blood, what on earth was she fretting about? It was pure frustration.
"Hurry, hurry!"
"Then... excuse me."
Zzeok— zzeojeok!
When Kenelm gestured over the black sea, a crack opened in the empty air, and beyond it a familiar landscape appeared.
A small bed, a modest desk, a computer. My one-room apartment.
"Great, kuuk! One! The con-constellation— is! For now, an unreasonable mi-racle... the cost— uuup!"
"I get it, so stop talking, stop! It gets worse every time you speak."
Even in that moment Kenelm kept vomiting blood, so I hurried my steps through the crack.
"Kenelm! We'll definitely talk again later!"
"...Yes. Definitely again."
Jjik—!
The sensation of crossing the crack felt like tearing through an invisible sheet of transparent vinyl. There was a slight resistance, yet I pushed through easily.
Tsupat!
No sooner had I set foot inside the room after crossing than the hole that had grown in the air vanished—as if it had never existed at all.
A silence so absolute it felt almost frightening wrapped around me.
Car horns from far away, the chirping of birds, the neighbor's washing machine spinning.
Those everyday noises somehow seemed to insist that everything until a moment ago had been nothing but a dream.
...I really feel like I've become Alice.
A feeling as though I had just woken from a chaotic dream. Just as the thought rose that maybe everything had been my own delusion and fantasy—
Buung—!
The phone in my back pocket vibrated, announcing its presence. I pulled it out out of habit and checked. One text message had arrived.
"...Huh?"
One hundred seventy-nine thousand five hundred won I had never spent had just been charged. Wondering if it was some new scam, I stared at the screen for a moment—then suddenly recalled the words Kenelm had desperately shouted even while vomiting blood.
Constellation... unreasonable miracle... cost... Ha. So this is the price for performing a miracle that isn't possible yet?
I had shot seven stars into the sky for roughly a hundred eighty thousand won.
Staring blankly at the balance that had vanished in an instant, a snicker of laughter slipped out.
"...This is a real bargain, isn't it?"
This was truly a steal.