Chapter 200
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 200
Cha Yi-sol was moved to a place that was truly safe.
“??”
This place alone felt like a different world.
“It’s really bright in here.”
“The other parts of the temple weren’t that dark.”
“No, they were dark.”
“As I’ve said before, please either use honorifics or speak casually. Just pick one…”
“Then, Eun-ha.”
“Straight to casual speech, I see. Fine, what is it?”
“You can speak casually to me too, Eun-ha.”
“I refuse,” Iser grimaced. “I have no desire to grow close with a human.”
“But I want to get close to you…”
“That’s your problem.”
“I figured,” Cha Yi-sol nodded. “You’ve been like that since we first met.”
“…Was it that obvious?”
“Yeah.”
Eun-ha’s eyes had always been cold.
“But I was glad, because it didn’t seem like you only hated me.”
“Why would you be glad about that?”
“Because you hated everyone else, too. That means something must have happened in the past to make you hate people.”
“You have a strange knack for being perceptive about the weirdest things…”
“Why do you hate people?”
“……”
Iser smiled. “I even hate that kind of ignorant prying.”
“Yeah, but why?”
“Because they took away what was most precious to me.”
“That’s Gio-hyung, right?”
“Yes.”
I had dreamed of becoming a Priest of the Sun while looking up to him.
“That is why I tried to kill you, Cha Yi-sol.”
He simply couldn’t stomach the revulsion he felt.
“But now, you have become the first believer of the Black Cloak. No matter what happens, I will never be able to harm you.”
“Is there a reason for that?”
“Because I once wanted to be where you are…”
“My place?”
“In the embrace of the Sun.”
Under the sky that Giovanni would one day shape when he became Pope. Upon the earth he would bless.
“I wanted to live as my teacher’s sole disciple.”
It had seemed like a predetermined fate, a future that would naturally arrive as long as he enjoyed his sweet daily life without any major incidents. There were so many reasons for it to happen.
“But humans trampled all over that dream.”
“……”
“…And my teacher, too…”
Iser knew.
“……”
“……”
He knew all too well that, on that day, he had devoured his living teacher.
“…There is nothing I find more hideous than myself. I hate my sister, who piled up horrific corpses along my path; I hate the Priests of the Sun, who locked my teacher and me in a water tank; and I hate the humans, who were too busy pointing fingers in their ignorance. But I do not hate any of them as much as I hate myself.”
Iser asked, “What do you think?”
“I don’t know what you’re asking.”
“What do I look like to you?”
“Eun-ha?”
“That’s just like you.”
But he was not Eun-ha. He was certainly not the Milky Way, as his name suggested. One could not compare him to the jewels of the night sky, which could only be glimpsed once all the lights on earth had been extinguished.
“Do you like this room?”
“It doesn’t seem dangerous.”
“I put some effort into it.”
The room, filled with plush dolls, was completely round without a single sharp corner. The lighting was so warm and bright that it was hard to believe this was a Deep Sea dungeon, carrying a gentle energy reminiscent of a spring afternoon nap.
“I modeled it after my teacher’s cabin.”
“Ah, that place is great. There’s lots of delicious food, too.”
Cha Yi-sol said, munching on the dried fruit Iser had handed him, “But it’s different from there…”
The cozy, warm temperature certainly resembled Gio’s cabin, but something was off. It felt damp and unpleasant, like the persistent hum of a fluorescent light buzzing in one’s ear.
“Instead of making me want to nap, it feels like it’s going to drive me crazy.”
“You have a peculiar way of phrasing things.”
“Hey,” Cha Yi-sol said. “I want to be friends with you.”
“……”
“Whoa, your face…”
“…Please stop being so disgusting.” Iser wiped his mouth as if fighting back nausea. He barely managed to reply, his face pale. “Forcing yourself on someone who has refused you is a form of violence.”
“But haven’t you been plenty violent yourself, Eun-ha…?”
“So you do know how to talk back. But you are wrong. First of all, you shouldn’t even think of acting as if we are the same kind of existence.”
Iser was firm. “Especially if you are my teacher’s third disciple.”
“……”
Cha Yi-sol pouted. “Gio-hyung isn’t my teacher, though.”
“Consider it an honor to be his disciple.”
“We’re friends.”
“How dare you?”
“About Gio-hyung,” the boy asked. “What happens if his roots are moved?”
“…He will return to the sea.”
That was the final hope the mermaids could harbor.
“Though it will likely be difficult.”
Gio had always done only what he wanted.
This time would be no different.
* * *
Giovanni took in the world around him.
“……”
He looked down at his hands.
“…Hmm…”
They were young.
How old am I?
He felt about thirteen.
He was in a bustling marketplace. He wore shabby clothes, unbefitting a noble’s son. The young Giovanni had truly loved going out into the world dressed like this.
“Saint.”
“I am not a saint.”
“Yes, Priest…”
“What is the matter?”
“You healed my son last time.”
“It was nothing. It was merely my own selfishness.”
“Please, take this.”
An old man with deep wrinkles handed him an apple and disappeared into the crowd.
“……”
It was a round, unblemished, beautifully ripe red apple.
“…It’s delicious.”
The old man was growing a small apple tree in his yard. Since it was a young tree, it didn’t bear much fruit, nor could it hold them for long. This glossy apple was incredibly precious.
I like it.
He felt pleased.
“Little Saint.”
“I am not a saint.”
“Yes, Little Priest. It’s a hot day, isn’t it?”
“The Sun seems to be in an especially good mood today.”
“You bestowed a blessing upon my daughter, allowing her to give birth without any trouble.”
“That was thanks to your daughter’s own strength, not me. It is indeed a cause for celebration.”
“Please, take this water. It is very hot today.”
The water handed to him by the elderly woman was cool. She must have just brought it up from where she kept it chilled deep in her yard. Seeing him pass by, she had hurried back and forth to that deep, cool place on this sweltering day.
It was something to be grateful for.
“How refreshing.”
The water in the ceramic cup smelled of a cool forest. It had surely been drawn from a high-quality well, meticulously managed to keep out dust and insects.
“Excuse me, Saint.”
“I am not a saint.”
“Ah, I see. But you treated my leg before, didn’t you?”
“I remember. Was it a broken bone?”
“I wanted to repay you, so I brought some honey from home.”
“I did that because I wanted to. No repayment is necessary.”
“But the Saint must eat plenty of sweet and delicious things.”
“Why is that?”
“Because you are someone who is fully entitled to do so.”
“……”
Honey trickled into the bowl.
“…Thank you.”
People called him a saint.
They called him the son sent by the Sun. They said God had manifested in this small body. They said his smile was sunshine and his footsteps were destiny.
But if that were true, wouldn’t that make him something other than human?
Why?
He was human.
I am merely living as I wish.
Yet people always projected meaning onto him.
Giovanni kept walking. He walked and walked. A familiar village appeared. Warm sunlight, carrying the scent of summer, fell upon the land and the sea. Gio realized he was looking at the sea.
This was the sea. The edge of the earth. The dazzlingly beautiful sea of his village.
“……”
The wind caressed him, making him turn around without thinking.
“……”
It was the sea.
He looked forward again.
“……”
It was the sea.
“…Have I come too far?”
Before he knew it, his feet were floating above the surface of the water. It felt like it would be incredibly refreshing to plunge right in.
The sunlight was intensely hot, and there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky. The surface of the sea touching Gio’s bare feet was so cool that he felt a momentary ecstasy.
I feel like I fell in here once before.
He felt as though if he went inside, a small, beautiful mermaid princess would welcome him.
“……”
“Teacher.”
A young mermaid reached out her hand.
“Isn’t it hot?”
“Where did the land I was standing on go?”
“It’s gone now. I devoured all of it.”
“How old am I?”
“I believe it’s been over thirty years since you were born.”
“And you, Aria?”
“I don’t remember.”
The mermaid, who had now become the sea, withdrew her outstretched hand. As if her young appearance had been a mere mirage, a beautiful woman whispered, “Too much time has passed.”
Her voice was calm and sweet.
“It has been so long. We could have taken a shorter path.”
“Was it greed?”
“You could call it that.”
In the mermaid who had become the master of the sea, no trace of the small, fragile successor remained. She was no longer a child; she was a villain who had to take responsibility for everything she had done, and she was also the vast sea itself.
“Paint a picture for me, Teacher.”
“What kind of picture should I paint?”
“Paint me. Or my brother would be fine, too.”
“This sea is truly beautiful.”
“I truly loved the sea you used to paint.”
“Why is that?”
“Because I could feel life in it…”
Before he knew it, the mermaid had feet and stood upon the surface of the water. Standing straight, she was only slightly shorter than Giovanni. Aria leaned in and lightly embraced him.
“Do you know? When we hug like this, I can hear your heartbeat.”
“I cannot hear it very well.”
“That’s right. You’re dead, Teacher.”
She asked innocently, “Why did you do that?”
Poor thing.
“You could have just run away. Surely.”
“I would have been caught while running.”
“That would have been better. Don’t you think dying together would have been less horrific than this?”
“I didn’t think of any of it as horrific.”
Even the mermaids’ evil deeds were the same. Regardless of the weight of their sins, he understood their choices. It was all bound to happen.
“Because, as you all say, I am already dead.”
“…Your body is cold,” Aria asked, her head still resting on his chest. “Did you fall into the sea?”
“I did.”
“Weren’t you cold?”
“I was very cold.”
“You resent humans, don’t you?”
“I resent them, and I pity them.”
“It must have hurt.”
“It was painful.”
The sensation of saltwater filling the gaps between torn flesh and broken bones was not pleasant at all. The shackles binding his legs squeezed as if they would sever his ankles. Giovanni had wanted to writhe in agony, but lacking the strength, he had simply floated in the water tank like a dead ornamental fish.
“I just didn’t know that, of all people, Iser would be the one to enter that place…”
That was what hurt the most.
“I am grateful to Iser.”
“Why?”
“That child killed me.”
“Why didn’t you die before then?”
“I wanted to see you all.”
Quite some time seemed to have passed. How much had they grown? What kinds of expressions did they wear now? Were they going hungry because they couldn’t get along with humans? Were they immersing themselves in strange research again? Were they suffering from deep wounds?
“In the end, I couldn’t even see Iser’s face from inside the tank.”
His eyes had hurt too much to see.
“But I was glad to hear his voice.”
“Didn’t it hurt when you were being devoured?”
“To be honest, the lightheadedness was so overwhelming that the pain barely registered.”
When he thought about why the Sun had kept him alive for so long…
“It was to let me hear that child’s voice.”
That voice, at least, had reached his ears. It was only because mermaids could speak even in the deep sea.
“Shouldn’t I be grateful to the Sun for at least that much?”
“…Teacher, you are far too optimistic…”
“It feels like my chest is getting wet. Is it just my imagination?”
“It must be your imagination.”
Aria wept sorrowfully.
“Mermaids don’t cry.”
They couldn’t cry.
“After all, this is a dream.”
“May I call you Aria?”
“…I am merely her lingering thought.”
“So you are indeed a fragment of her.”
“You really… have a way with words, don’t you?”
“What is she doing now?”
“Struggling desperately, no doubt.”
“Do you want me to stay here?”
“…Haha…”
An awkward laugh.
“……”
“……”
The mermaid could not bring herself to ask him to stay.
“I see.”
And Gio, too, did not say that he would return.