Apostle Candidate (1)
"Are you, by any chance, an 'Earthling'?"
Eunhyeon didn't answer Yuria's question right away. He just stared at her blankly.
It was a question he never could have imagined hearing.
He hadn't expected the word "Earth" to ever come out of someone from the Arkena Continent.
Why did Yuria know about Earth's existence?
A flurry of thoughts raced through his mind, but for now, Eunhyeon decided to answer her question.
"Yes, that's right."
"I knew it..."
"You're not an Earthling yourself, Princess. But the fact that you're casually mentioning 'Earth' right now means..."
Eunhyeon considered two possibilities.
"Either you've met someone in the kingdom like me, who introduced themselves as an ancient from Earth, or you're an Earthling deep down inside."
Yuria's shoulders twitched as if he'd hit the nail on the head, then went rigid.
Watching her—the princess of a nation acting with such reckless independence and irresponsibility—he'd already considered various possibilities. Helena the consort's words came back to him: she hated political marriages and acted immaturely.
A woman who seemed to despise the constraints of her status, yearning for freedom, and had run away on a whim.
Her inexplicable, idiosyncratic behavior.
He voiced the two most likely explanations. He was almost certain it was the first one; the second seemed absurd. But among the possibilities, it was the next most plausible after the first.
What surprised him was Yuria's reaction—she flinched in shock not at the first, but at the second.
'No way? For real?'
Up until then, Eunhyeon had been half-doubting, but seeing Yuria's face seriously shaken turned his guess into growing certainty.
"Princess. You were reincarnated from 'Earth' into this world, weren't you?"
"Eek...!"
Her small groan confirmed it.
"H-how did you...?"
She looked utterly shocked that Eunhyeon had so easily uncovered a secret she'd never told anyone.
'This is a first for me...'
The reason Eunhyeon had immediately thought of these possibilities was Verdandi's prior explanation from the Goddess's Throne.
[And the other gods, taking your case as an example, are planning to take on promising humans as apostles too.]
A god granting their power to a human and taking them as an apostle.
This new plan among the gods stemmed from the Norns—the three goddesses of fate—who had first attempted it and succeeded with Eunhyeon.
So he'd anticipated eventually encountering another apostle of a god like himself.
'Goddess.'
Eunhyeon quietly called out to his goddess.
[Hmm, I can't tell. No divine power is detectable. But one thing's certain—she's no apostle.]
He'd asked just in case, but her response dashed that hope, leaving Eunhyeon puzzled.
Was it mere coincidence that this woman had appeared right around the time of his resurrection?
Yuria's body housed the memories and soul of an Earthling.
From Verdandi, he'd learned that human souls go to the underworld upon death, settle all karma from their past life, and reincarnate into a new one without retaining memories.
But Princess Yuria? She'd reincarnated fully intact with her past life's memories.
'Was there a mistake in the reincarnation process? Or did the gods forcibly implant her soul into the princess's body?'
[No, it's not a soul settled into a living body. The reincarnation was successful, and it's truly her own soul. So... she must have suddenly recalled her past life's memories. It looks like one of the gods forcibly awakened the past life memories engraved in her soul.]
'Why would they do that?'
[That's...]
Verdandi, hovering over Eunhyeon's left shoulder, frowned and hesitated to speak.
But seeing his puzzled gaze, she sighed and opened her mouth as if she had no choice.
[It's a complicated story.]
Eunhyeon nodded, sensing it wasn't something she could explain simply, and invoked his power.
Thought Acceleration
The world around Eunhyeon seemed to freeze in place.
With his ability to freely manipulate time's flow on his own body, real time barely passed a second, but his perceived time stretched to several minutes as his thoughts accelerated to their limit.
This created a window where a human and goddess could converse freely, undisturbed by the flow of time.
Verdandi slowly began to speak.
[Before reviving the child, the gods gathered for several meetings. Though his efforts averted the fated 'Downworld's Destruction,' that very prevention twisted all fates into a new future where destruction hadn't existed—sparking changes everywhere. And so, a new 'Downworld's Destruction' future was born.]
Eunhyeon listened quietly to Verdandi's words, though he'd heard parts of this before.
[We debated endlessly how to avert this reborn 'Downworld's Destruction.' In that process, one god who had greatly twisted fate to save the Downworld mentioned the child's name—and that started it all.]
"We already have a successful precedent. How about taking humans as apostles, raising them, and tasking them with preventing the Downworld's destruction?"
"But we've only tried it once—and succeeded once. No guarantee it'll work again."
"Besides, there's no suitable candidate in the current Downworld. And now, aside from Vesta and the six other goddesses working on world restoration, the rest of us lack recognition to intervene."
"What about summoning humans from other timelines?"
"Other timelines?"
"The human the Norns' three sisters took as an apostle, Eunhyeon—he was brought from when the Downworld had that 'Earth' civilization, right? Why not do the same and fetch someone from that past civilization?"
"Interfering with timelines is taboo."
"There are ways besides direct summoning. For example, forcibly awakening past life memories from 'Earth' engraved in the souls of already-reincarnated humans."
"Hmm..."
At first skeptical, the other gods gradually warmed to the one goddess's proposal.
"So we'll make them apostles by awakening those memories?"
"Of course not. We observe first. It's just a test with humans of similar origins to that 'Eunhyeon.' Blindly making apostles and wasting divine power would be foolish, no?"
"Not a bad idea."
'...So, lacking suitable talent among current Arkena humans, they're testing if reincarnates with awakened Earth memories can become viable apostles?'
[Exactly.]
'This plan to create reincarnates with Earth memories stemmed from me—the successful case—being one?'
[Yes.]
'...Talk about a nuisance.'
His indirect contribution to this mess left Eunhyeon with a complicated expression.
[I have no face to show... It looks like we're foisting our duties onto humans...]
'No, I'm not blaming you, Goddess. I'm fine. With danger looming over the human world, it's not irrelevant to us either. At least, I feel deep gratitude for the power you've bestowed upon me. But...'
He felt a twinge of pity for humans suddenly recalling past lives without warning, thrust into confusion.
They were like lab rats in the gods' whims, guinea pigs for divine experiments.
If they failed the apostle test, these "reincarnates" created by the gods might be discarded like trash.
Failed experiments get disposed of.
'In other words, Princess Yuria is a victim too—forcibly awakened to past memories and used in the gods' experiment...'
Eunhyeon sighed and nodded.
'Alright, I understand the gods' situation. Thank you for telling me, Goddess.'
He felt anew how fortunate he was to be an apostle of the Norns, including Verdandi—not those treating humans like test subjects.
He still recalled her worried gaze at their first meeting, urging him repeatedly to reconsider if he was sure.
[Th-that memory from back then... forget it.]
Reading his thoughts, Verdandi waved her hands shyly. Eunhyeon just smiled at his goddess.
With the talk done, he released Thought Acceleration.
"Y-you died on Earth and reincarnated here too?"
"Huh...?"
Eunhyeon didn't respond immediately, not grasping what she meant at first. But he soon realized Yuria was under a major misconception.
Not bothering to correct her, he nodded vaguely, affirming her words.
"Yeah. Seems like I'm in the same boat as you, Princess."
"Haaa... Thank goodness. I'm not the only one dropped into this world..."
She'd clearly been bottling up her secret, and now, relieved, she let out a big breath.
Evidently, she hadn't realized this place was once "Earth," destroyed once and reborn into a new world.
Feeling a strange kinship with someone in the same situation, she savored the relief of unburdening her heart. Her face lit up with genuine joy.
Eunhyeon thought it was understandable she'd misunderstand.
[You're not telling her the truth?]
'If I spill the gods' plans now, she might resent it. And I'm not even sure she'd believe it.'
Anything less than being called crazy would be lucky.
People need time and effort to accept stories beyond their comprehension.
The gods' existence, the predestined "world's end," provisional apostle candidates selected to test if they can play the role of averting it.
Would Yuria just go, "Ah, I see," to such a grand tale right now?
He'd bet the fire boar meat he'd just acquired that she'd 100% deny reality and laugh at him.
[No, I doubt she'd take it even if you offered...]
'Anyway, relaying your story right now doesn't seem wise.'
Looking at Yuria, now completely at ease with him, Eunhyeon asked,
"But that doesn't explain how you knew about the Arkys Great Labyrinth."
"Huh? You haven't read Fate-Pioneering Märchen?"
"What's that?"
"Wait, aren't you Korean? It was pretty famous in Korea."
"No idea."
"Wha? Then how did you know about the Arkys Great Labyrinth?"
"Is the Arkys Great Labyrinth connected to that novel?"
"...What are you talking about?"
Now Yuria looked even more baffled, staring at him like he was the weird one.
"This world. It's the world from the novel."
"Pardon?"
"I mean! This world is the one in the novel Fate-Pioneering Märchen!"
"What...?"
For perhaps the first time in his life, Eunhyeon wore a utterly dumbfounded expression as he echoed her words—the most absurd thing he'd ever heard.