The Goddess's Glorious Misunderstanding
The real problem was that I didn't have a suitable partner either. Honestly, the thought of just dragging a few of the kids along under my homeroom teacher authority did cross my mind. But that would've been pathetic beyond words, so I decided against it. "I'm fine, really." "Don't give me that crap and hit the books, kid. Even if you're fine, I'm not." Ping. That was what Hayeon said — but I couldn't actually bring her along, of course. I mean, it was a party club, for one. Nine times out of ten, there'd be alcohol. A minor, at something like that? A dress might have actually suited her, come to think of it. 'The girls all look decent enough, after all.' Even so, bringing Hayeon was still an act of self-destruction. You'd have to be out of your mind to haul her into what might be the enemy's home base. Same went for Jihee. Yoonha's personality couldn't stand the whole party atmosphere to begin with. By process of elimination, that left Yeeun, maybe. But even granting that— 'I couldn't really bring her anyway.' Setting aside all those reasons, midterms were coming up. Sure, worrying about something like midterms at a time like this might have looked laughable, but on this point, Choi Seungjun and I actually agreed. No — he insisted on getting *actively* involved. Should we be keeping our distance from the students now that the real fight was about to begin? When I asked, he answered with the exact opposite. It was a markedly different response compared to what he'd said before about never letting the students get dragged into this fight. He had his own reasons, of course, and they weren't unreasonable. "Right, well. Honestly, from Hayeon's perspective, that whole incident was just a moment. So keeping our distance won't mean much anyway. The other side will make their move on her simply because she's in that class." I had to nod at that, reluctantly. And yet. "Doesn't it rub you the wrong way? They're still kids." "We do it anyway." Forcing children into a fight like this from the very start still didn't sit well with me... In response to that sentiment, Choi Seungjun cut through it flatly. "Too late. Have you forgotten the entire reason this Academy was founded in the first place?" With that, I had nothing left to say. Right. Before anyone could argue about dragging them in or keeping them out — we were already the bastards fielding child soldiers. It wasn't wrong. Now that their objective — the Third Great Cataclysm — had been exposed, the movements of that organization were no longer anyone else's business, not even to the students. The Academy existed, first and foremost, to raise the next generation of hunters in preparation for that very cataclysm. Which meant it was a problem that came before any talk of them being "students." Well, look at me. Just another rotten adult. "Granted, no reason to go poking at wounds that haven't formed yet. But the ones who already know? There's no need to shield them from it. And better yet — turn those children into usable fighting strength as quickly as possible." That exchange with Choi Seungjun, delivered in a somewhat wearied tone as he leaned back into the sofa, was still vivid before my eyes. "You understand, this fight will be a long one." "Well. Half a year in, and all we've managed is one loose thread." "Exactly. So we need to think on a wider scale." The Academy's curriculum ran a total of three years. Starting from E-rank baseline, students were expected to climb one rank per year, targeting B-rank by graduation. In other words— "That much, at least, we can expect of them, no?" "Hey, don't underestimate them. At worst, every one of those kids has the makings of an A-rank." "I'll look forward to it." ...And that was the gist of it. Naturally. "Oh my, it suits you *so* well~" "Hmph. That is only natural, given how splendid bon-in's own form is." "Huh? Oh — yes, of course." Thanks to all that, I'd landed in this situation. But whatever excuses I might have had, the club wasn't about to accommodate any of them. Which is to say — the requirement of bringing a female companion remained firmly in place. And the list of women whose contact information I actually had was, frankly, microscopic. Can't be helped. I'm a lifelong single, after all. To be completely honest, I'd even briefly considered asking Seoa's mother. But Seoa, same as before, couldn't afford to be away from her post at the same time as me. Which left, among the women within my reach, those who could handle a party like this without incident. Adding the final criterion — someone whose death I could afford — there was really only one candidate left. Not a person, strictly speaking. She wasn't even just a monster — she was an avatar, on top of everything. And yet. In front of the fitting room. Watching the self-proclaimed goddess giddily racking up charges on the card Choi Seungjun had handed over for the dress code, I couldn't help but sigh.
And at that very moment. The goddess Tiamat was in the finest mood she'd enjoyed in recent memory. Part of it, naturally, was the temperament characteristic of the figures of Mesopotamian myth — beings who adored wine and festivals. The thought of being fitted for a new dress had her heart fluttering, too. But far greater than that was the fact that Park Woochan had asked her to attend a party as his partner. 'Fufu, that man, honestly.' With a smile of pure, worldly contentment, the goddess changed in and out of dresses inside the fitting room. Perhaps it was thanks to those words — money is no object — which were, in a certain sense, the very words women most longed to hear from a man. Tiamat was already cycling through dresses at a rate that would easily reach ten. Of course, Park Woochan had only said that because he'd been parroting, word for word, what Choi Seungjun told him when he handed over the card. But Tiamat, knowing nothing of those circumstances, could only interpret it one way: a declaration that he would empty his wallet for her sake. 'He must be so desperate to see bon-in in a dress that he's lost all composure!' ...Which brings us to a point that demands clarification around now. A fact that would have been obvious in an instant to any telepath present. Namely — the goddess Tiamat was laboring under one magnificent misunderstanding. 'And yet, for all his gruffness, what passionate courtship! Fufufu. So the man is a man after all, in the end.' The goddess Tiamat. Goddess of Mesopotamian myth, mother goddess of wisdom. The being who birthed countless gods — and their great adversary. The great Mother of Gods was convinced that Park Woochan had fallen for her...!! A stirring of commotion, a ripple of whispers. Had Park Woochan known, this misunderstanding would have been enough to make him foam at the mouth. But here, in fairness to the goddess's honor, let us first examine the situation from her perspective. Bluntly put — even if her delusions couldn't be entirely denied, she had her own brand of reasonable grounds. As far as Tiamat knew, Park Woochan suffered from a crippling case of monsterphobia. So severe that he'd once deduced the true identities of the Constellations for no reason other than that he despised monsters. Even Tiamat had never in her long existence seen a monster-hater of that caliber — that's how extreme it was. And recently, that same Park Woochan had been put through an ordeal at her hands that defied description. Why hide it? It was the Kim Minchul incident. To her, her parting with Minchul had been a tragedy. But it was also an undeniable fact that, to Park Woochan, the whole affair had been nothing but a colossal inconvenience...!! And so. In the immediate aftermath of everything being resolved, Tiamat had fully expected him to rage at her. It was the obvious conclusion. Somehow or other, a life-or-death duel with an S-rank hunter had broken out; a child he knew had been kidnapped... Any ordinary person would have blown their top. But Park Woochan did not. On the contrary — at the very end, he'd even gone so far as to comfort her. "For what it's worth, I never actually disliked you." ...From Tiamat's vantage point, what else could she conclude but that he had helped her out of some personal fondness? He hadn't even demanded anything in return. (Though for Park Woochan's part, he was probably in a good mood purely because he'd gotten to carve up an S-rank monster at the end. It would have been hard to stand there grinning after killing a woman's son in front of her, no matter how you sliced it.) But either way— For Tiamat, it was the perfect setup for a misunderstanding. Setting aside his hatred of monsters as a category, he held goodwill toward her as an individual. He'd never once said he *liked* her — but under circumstances like those, anything of the sort was bound to sound like a covert confession. That suspicion grew even fatter over summer break. Because none other than Park Woochan himself had been the one to suggest a trip to the sea...!! 'He wants to see it, does he?!' He wanted to see this goddess's swimsuit, did he?! This time, there truly was no other way to read it. (Granted, thanks to running into that Yo-ho swarm at the Namhae branch, she hadn't gotten to lounge about on the beach.) In the first place, Park Woochan had invited Tiamat out of guilt for killing her son before her very eyes. But. Grief aside — since she regarded the entire Kim Minchul affair as an inconvenience inflicted *on* him, she never saw it. And now, that same man had named her as his partner for a social party? From where the goddess stood, that made three times running. At this point, holding not suspicion but conviction would hardly be strange...!! A small detail, but even Park Woochan had never been crass enough to say to her face, "I'm inviting you because there's literally no one else to invite." Monster or not, that was simply a matter of manners. (Never mind that Park Woochan was precisely the type for whom manners went flying out the window the moment a monster appeared. But that was neither here nor there.) And so the goddess's misunderstanding was currently accelerating at full throttle. Yes, she had heard that this party might be a gathering of that suspicious secret organization. But by the time it reached her ears, even that registered as nothing more than a pretext. An excuse. Choi Seungjun's card only added another stroke to the picture. Come on — if this were truly an assault on that organization, why on earth would there be any need to be fitted for dresses? And "money is no object," no less? 'This can only be a secret tryst!!' It was not. And yet. Blissfully ignorant of all these facts, Tiamat simply wore a faint smile. "Ahh, dear me. Is there any beauty so sinful as this one...?" With a look of gentle helplessness, the crimson-haired beauty shook her head before the fitting room mirror. That wistful, melancholy expression, she felt, was truly devastating. "Goodness — it was not some unknown beauty after all. It was me..." "Truly, what a wicked, wicked woman I am." And with those words, Tiamat sighed once more. She was self-admiring at maximum capacity. And by this point, even without a telepath, there was one fact anyone could piece together. Roughly twenty years since she'd descended to the mortal world. The goddess Tiamat was soaring high on the delusion that she was, at last, receiving proper courtship. With her usual narcissism deepening to pathological levels on the side. To state it plainly: Tiamat did not dislike being worshipped. She was a goddess, after all. Better yet — goddess or not, any sentient being takes pleasure in being waited upon hand and foot. The only reason she'd recently been shunning those who worshipped her indiscriminately was entirely because of Kim Minchul. The same logic applied to why she'd viewed Park Woochan favorably. But trauma aside, if you judged by pure preference — being venerated simply felt better. Easy for her to say. In all seriousness, after witnessing Park Woochan's everyday conduct, who in their right mind would think, *ah, here is a man worthy of divine grace*? Honestly, when he'd suddenly convulsed, hacked off his own horn, and bolted that first time, she'd thought him a shameless little wretch of the highest order. The reason she shoved the severed horn into his face every time she greeted him at the top floors of the Association where her true body resided was, in fact, precisely because of that. That's just how the human heart works. Well — not that she was human. And now, with even her Kim Minchul trauma resolved, she had no reason to refuse the goodwill directed her way. Perhaps it was simply that the circumstances made any comparison with Minchul impossible. Tiamat was, admittedly, the sort whose worldview considered even incest perfectly acceptable — but even she had standards. Just as a homosexual does not harbor romantic feelings for every single member of the same sex. To put it precisely: Minchul had, for her, always been family. Never a lover. In that sense, the goodwill Park Woochan sent her way wasn't half bad. The man had, after all, been bristling at her with drawn blades until quite recently. 'This, I simply cannot let pass~' ...It was an utterly undignified spectacle, yes — but in a certain sense, it was also a glimpse of true goddessly majesty. At the very least, she had not fallen victim to the swaying-bridge effect — she could say, with complete sincerity, that he was the first ever to treat her this way. Though even granting her all that credit, there was no doing anything about her habit of swallowing whole any horseshoe set before her. Call it the fruit of twenty full years of adapting to South Korea. The mother goddess of Mesopotamian myth swallowed her horseshoes with a flair all her own. "And to think, there were even maidens who had fallen for that boy..." For instance — certain other students. Two of them in particular. One was that girl called Shin Seoa, who had long declared herself Park Woochan's first disciple. The other was that girl called Ja Hayeon, who had not yet gained any clear self-awareness of it but who depended on him in every conceivable way. And yet. 'The one who has truly stolen that man's heart is... neither of them, but bon-in herself...' How sad. Forgive them. Her heart ached with pity beyond measure. Because—! Because she was simply beautiful, that was all. What tragedy under heaven could compare? Being a woman like me is truly, truly such a hardship. And so. It was a good hour or more after all that clowning before Tiamat finally settled on a dress.