There Is No End Here — 15 (End)
At last, Hyungkesuni has finished the book!
Yahoo!
It would be more honest to call the thing a tower of thick paper than a book, but she set it down as a book, so a book it is.
"So what are you going to do now?"
I was hugging it, delighted, when Hyungkesuni asked me.
"Other people have to read it. That's what a book is for, isn't it?"
At my words she lowered her head, her face gone dark.
"Did everything turn out the way you wanted?"
Did it? Now I have to make the blessed read it, and remember.
No.
There isn't time.
One wrong step, and this book could burn whole.
I pushed Hyungkesuni aside and began driving the first page into my head with everything I had.
"You didn't spare it a glance while I was writing it. What's gotten into you all of a sudden?"
"I'm memorizing it before the book disappears."
I look at a page, close my eyes, and call it back. I can remember it without missing so much as a particle. So I could do this, too?
If I had truly run out of time, I would have had to bless Hyungkesuni herself just to make her remember. Of course, taking warmth and bestowing a blessing are separate acts, so it wouldn't break the promise. I said I would come at the end to collect everything, but in practice I don't take anything except warmth. If I don't take the warmth then, the promise is kept, for the time being. And since I can memorize the book myself, there will be no need to bless her.
As for why I am suddenly poring so hard over what Hyungkesuni wrote, it is because several priests of the Church of the Holy God have come to the king.
It isn't the funeral. Tisha's funeral ended yesterday, and an empty coffin was laid in the royal cemetery. The priests of the Church who had been there all went back, saying they would return on the matter of me. I thought it would take at least a week for them to reach headquarters and come again about me. I never imagined they would arrive today, the very next day.
And they are not only ordinary priests. There are heaps of those called paladins, and according to the king's memories most of the people there are exceedingly famous. They have swarmed in, thick and seething.
Right before the king's face they denounced the wicked god who stole Tisha after she had taken refuge in the Holy God's embrace. From the whispering of the other royals and nobles, what they are doing is profoundly rude. The moment they arrived, they drew out a letter from the pontiff of the Church of the Holy God and began shouting it in front of the king. The nobles murmur that this is far too disrespectful. Those who received my blessing are especially furious, and some even say the Church is treating the king as an underling. The priests insist the wicked god must be struck down at once, and demand that the god be handed over.
What do I do?
I don't think I'll have time to finish Hyungkesuni's book. I should have read it sooner. Regret comes far too late.
Afraid of missing something, I read with care, and at the same time I fix my attention on what is unfolding where the king stands now. Unexpectedly, rather than producing me at once, he asked them to explain why they call me a wicked god. I'm curious myself. What did they see that made them decide I was a god?
And this is what they said.
There was a revelation from God.
Yes. That is what they said. The god of the Church of the Holy God, they claim, personally told them to go to the Kingdom of Anselus and strike down the wicked god. The god himself.
So that's how it is. The god called the Holy God has named me a wicked god.
Kehehe.
Anyone willing to call me a god is no true god. There is no omnipotence here, only someone strong. Or, as these things so often turn out, a very good chance of some petty deity. A ghost counts as a god too, doesn't it?
Don't tell me. The barrier they threw up because they couldn't bear to lose Tisha shattered in an instant, and that is why they decided I was an enemy? And this time they mean to attack by using people?
Hmm.
It isn't a bad method. Setting them against each other is convenient. What would you do if you were hurt fighting in person? Divide, and rule. Don't lay a hand on it yourself. Stay safe. How cheap.
What should I do.
I was turning methods over when the king asked why the wicked god's blessing on Tisha had not vanished when she converted. A paladin stepped forward. A sin already committed, he said, cannot be treated as though it never was. The Holy God accepted Tisha, but the sin remains. The time has come to pay that sin, and he condemned the wicked god who passed the sin along as the worst of all.
The logic denies that their own god lacks the power, and makes me the bad one. Human logic. Yes — a kind of both-sides argument.
The wicked god is evil.
Tisha, who accepted the blessing, is evil too.
The only one who is right is the Holy God.
A sinner's words have no worth, so they will not be heard. They are all the same anyway. Simple. It isn't judging guilt purely by the incident. It is the art of dragging up what came before, and thinning the sin of the present with it.
"What's got you in such a hurry?"
Hyungkesuni asked from beside me. Ah, right. She doesn't know what is happening in the royal castle now. But the fact that I watch the world through the eyes of the blessed is something I ought to hide, if I can. How should I put it?
Ah, yes. This will do.
"People blessed by the Holy God have come to the royal castle."
I don't actually know whether the Holy God blessed them. But if I say it this way, won't she take it as something I sensed through spiritual power? At my words, Hyungkesuni turned her gaze toward the castle.
"If it's the Church of the Holy God, that figures. They move as viciously as the Yeongrang Theocracy. No — more viciously than that."
So she said, at my side.
Hehe. She believed me?
I'm too busy memorizing the paper to see what face she's wearing. A shame.
"Hey. If you're an Outer God, shouldn't trash like that be easy for you?"
That was what she asked then.
Where does she think I keep power like that?
Ah, right. The day I came back. Somehow I suppressed her with the people of the royal castle I could control, and I shattered her mana once. Seeing that deep blue-green energy returned now inside her chest, it seems the thing can regenerate. Anyway, she could well believe I have power enough to neutralize her.
"No, Hyungkesuni. I don't have power like that, and I have no thought of attacking them."
But it was chance. All of it was improvisation. I only did whatever happened to work. This time, though, I mean to step in a little more actively.
A faded man who truly hates gods whispers a single method. A way to kill a god. Of course, in a world where gods exist, it is close to impossible. But even at the worst, it can leave a great wound. He says I have already sown the seed. I only need to make it bloom. Take my blood, bring it into flower, and spread it wide.
Then I'll do it.
I am very interested in screwing a god over.
Far from where my body is now, the king asks that paladin whether this is the will of god. The paladin says the god will judge. Which is to say: what he spoke was his own thought, the god will pass judgment later, and you are to obey our command. Rude words, but in the Kingdom of Anselus it is not so strange a thing. Faith in the Church of the Holy God runs so deep through the whole country that the Holy God's word stands higher than the kingdom itself. The will of a few nobles and the king alone cannot stop them.
Knowing that is why I am memorizing the book in such a rush. Ah — of course I didn't think all of this up myself. I heard it in the murmuring of the nobles who received my blessing, gathered together. I only have to listen to what other people have thought. If they only thought it, I couldn't know. But if someone was beside them and they put it into words, I can overhear.
Just as those nobles expected, the paladin bore down on the king in a loud voice. With a thoroughly unpleasant look, the king conceded. His face was frozen hard as a mask, of course, but he isn't skilled enough to hide his biological signals. He told them he would bring the wicked god, and he ordered his men to fetch me.
Ugh. The mansion I'm in sits out on the outskirts, so it will take them time to get here, but they'll arrive soon enough. No matter how fast I read, getting through more than half would already be pushing it. I'd better put my back into it.
Then something strange snagged in my sight.
The ones who received my blessing suddenly began rushing toward me. Saying they had to arrive before the people the king had ordered, they came for the mansion on horseback, and before long they filled the house with footsteps. At the sound of those urgent steps a frightened Hyungkesuni leveled her staff toward the entrance, and three of the blessed threw the door open and ran to me.
"You must flee, this very moment!"
"The Church of the Holy God is coming to seize you!"
"They mean to malign you as a wicked god and kill you!"
They ought to be older by now, grave and composed, and yet they cry out as urgently as boys.
"Yes. I know."
At that, Hyungkesuni looks at me in surprise, and a faint smile is caught on her face. That isn't fear. It is a face that says, plain as anything, serves you right. I must have tormented her a great deal.
"But if I run, all of you will be in danger."
Hyungkesuni looks at me as if asking what on earth I've swallowed.
It's all right. I have a plan.
"So please read this in my place. I was the one who ought to have read it, but if the three of you divide it, you'll finish quickly."
I held out the sheaf of paper I had been reading. They look at me, afraid.
"What is this, exactly?"
"A method this witch wrote for calling me."
Yes. I leave myself a way out in advance, saying Hyungkesuni wrote it because she thought there might be a cruel method that uses Sacrifices. At that, their faces brighten. Because they think they will be able to call me back? They'll have a hard time seeing me, though.
"Once you've read it from beginning to end, if the method is wicked, please don't use it."
Because that is what I am going to say.
Hyungkesuni, listening beside me, looks at me as if she is watching something dreadful. I know. It must look as though I've suddenly started acting kind. But do you know? Tragedy spreads like a plague. If I mean to use a method that will put a god in difficulty from here on, I have to lay the groundwork first. There must be no contradiction in what I have done.
From beyond the mansion I heard the people coming on the king's orders, and I go out to welcome them. I am stepping outside so no harm will come to the ones clutching the paper in this house. I called each of them by name, one after another, and then I said this.
"Please read the book."
They nod, moved. I left them and made for the entrance.
"Hyungkesuni. Come with me."
She follows without questioning me. I called her because I was afraid she might do something to those three, and she came along with a purity that bordered on foolish.
"What are you thinking?"
The moment we shut the door and stepped outside, Hyungkesuni asked me.
"I mean to go like this, and die."
At least this body of no known identity will come to an end.
"Ha. What's this. Now you mean to die playing at being a good god? If you end completely in this world, that suits me fine."
Instead of putting it any other way, I said this.
Yes. Nothing comes to an end. From now on I will loose the poison, and the people left behind will memorize the method of summoning, hard, in my place. Hyungkesuni doesn't seem to have understood; her face turns puzzled. That's fine. Rather than leave her to worry, I'll turn her interest somewhere else.
"So you're free now, Hyungkesuni. But if you want to watch me die, come with me."
I have to buy time at least until the ones left behind have read every page. Watching the person who has tormented her all this while die — Hyungkesuni would enjoy that, wouldn't she?
"Yeah. All right."
She took the bait.
So I smiled, and went with her to meet the people who had come from the royal house.
Now it is time to go screw a god over.