The Goddess Descends
Late into the night.
Lying in bed, I stared intently at my phone.
Church of… Prosperity…
I was looking up the Church of Prosperity — the organization that had taken Jo Juhyeon away.
"Hmm…"
True to its name, the Church of Prosperity was a religious order centered on the Goddess of Prosperity. Among the many faiths in the world, it was the only one large enough that you could find congregations even out in the countryside — yet its public image was that of a quiet, unobtrusive religion that simply existed.
Until a short while ago, that was how I had thought of it too.
How did the Church of Prosperity end up taking Jo Juhyeon?
It was the police who had brought the unconscious Jo Juhyeon to the emergency room. More precisely, the Awakened Special Unit under police jurisdiction. I had watched with my own eyes as they fitted her with specialized mana-suppression gear.
Even if she was still a student, they wouldn't have released her before the investigation was finished. Which meant the Church of Prosperity had taken custody of Jo Juhyeon from the police.
A religious group had walked off with an Awakened suspected of mana doping who had injured people — instead of the police.
Are they operating on some separate track?
Ironically, I — who had received a direct revelation from the very being the Church of Prosperity worshipped — knew almost nothing about them. The Goddess of Prosperity, who had first appeared so long ago, had never shown herself again after that.
Well, goddesses always did have a habit of showing up only when they needed something. Still, the fact that she had nothing to say to me — someone who, in a broad sense, shared her purpose — was strange. I was a former Hero, after all.
…Nothing useful.
In the end, after digging through everything the internet had on the Church of Prosperity, I came away empty-handed. Whether they censored their own information or not, only the most ordinary, sanitized content turned up.
This is exactly why you shouldn't get mixed up with goddesses.
Having rediscovered that hard-won truth, I put my phone away and quietly closed my eyes.
The Demon King's forces have started moving… so a Hero should start appearing soon enough.
And then Cheon Seo-hui's face rose in my mind — the way she had looked when Jo Juhyeon nearly tore her apart in that berserk frenzy. That expression of pure despair, eyes squeezed shut in resignation.
…I can't put this off any longer.
One way or another, I had to make her stronger.
A dark night.
Perhaps because she had wandered the streets so late, Cheon Seo-hui was having a nightmare for the first time in a long while.
"Ah. The weather's so nice."
In the dream, she sat side by side with Han Dohyeon on a green hill overlooking a landscape she had never seen before…
Is it just me?
Somehow, he looked different from the man she knew. The hairstyle, the youthful face — if the real Han Dohyeon was a mature adult, the one sitting before her looked like a fresh-faced college student.
He's handsome even like this.
Seo-hui found herself gazing absently at the dream-version of Dohyeon…
"Hm?"
Noticing her stare, Dohyeon offered a warm smile and spoke lightly.
"What? Got something to say?"
He reached out and gave her cheek a gentle pinch, his eyes dripping with affection.
"Heh. Who did you get those looks from, being this cute?"
It was the look of a man so in love he could barely stand it.
"Heh heh…"
The scene changed.
A street that looked like something out of a medieval fantasy game. Seo-hui walked along hand in hand with Dohyeon, her small fingers wrapped tightly around his.
It's warm.
Feeling the quiet heat from his rough hand, she hurried her short legs to keep up — and then:
"Oh. Yeonjeong!"
As if on cue, they ran into Yeonjeong, who happened to be passing by.
"Where are you headed?"
"Just over to the knight order for a bit. …Where's Yubin?"
"Ah. She stepped out to visit the Mage Tower."
Yeonjeong, dressed like a game character herself and looking just as young, chatted cheerfully with Dohyeon — then spotted Seo-hui and bent down with a gentle greeting.
"Hi there."
She smiled brightly as she said it, but something unnameable lived in her eyes. Something almost impossible to put into words.
Something that looked like contempt.
…That feels awful.
Similar scenes kept following one after another.
"What the — why are you two coming out of there?"
"W-what do you mean?"
"W-we didn't come out together! We just… ran into each other here by chance?"
Passing the entrance to an inn district, she encountered Jeong Cheol and Im Semi — faces she had never seen before, yet somehow familiar. And then:
"Hello, Black Knight!"
"Hey there, Lord Black Knight! Take one of these!"
People on the street greeted Dohyeon without hesitation, freely offering him food. The Dohyeon of the dream was someone the whole world seemed to welcome.
…He's kind of cool.
Then the scene shifted again.
A dark night filled with the soft chirping of birds.
"…Mm…"
Sensing her body being rocked, Seo-hui slowly opened her eyes. She was being carried through a thicket in the arms of an unknown woman, the undergrowth whispering past them.
"……?"
"Awake, are you?"
Noticing she had woken, the woman patted her back with practiced ease.
"Go back to sleep a little longer."
The woman's touch reminded Seo-hui of her mother's hands from childhood, and she buried her face without thinking against the woman's full chest.
And then the scene changed once more.
A tremendous roar thundered in her ears.
"Yubin!!!"
When the noise faded and she opened her eyes, Seo-hui found herself cradled in Dohyeon's arms.
……Huh?
For reasons she couldn't explain, her body was so heavy she couldn't move a single finger.
"N-no…! No!!!!"
Dohyeon sobbed as he clutched her tight, wailing as if he had lost the person he loved most in the world.
My body……
As her consciousness began to blur, Seo-hui desperately rolled her half-lidded eyes. She could see Jeong Cheol and Im Semi turning their faces away, wiping tears — and then…
"……."
Her gaze met the eyes of the woman looking down at her.
Choi Yeonjeong.
She was staring down with an indifferent expression.
Choi… Yeon…
Soon even the strength to breathe left her, and Seo-hui let go of the consciousness she had been clinging to——
"Hah…!"
Seo-hui's eyes flew open. She threw off the covers and sat bolt upright.
"…Hah… hah…"
For a long moment she gasped for air, glancing wildly around, until she finally realized she was in her own bedroom.
It had been a nightmare.
What the hell was that…
Only then did she notice her entire body was soaked in cold sweat. She let out a long breath and climbed out of bed.
…What kind of dream even was that?
Sitting on the floor, she tried to piece together the fragments still lingering in her memory — a ruined, unfamiliar place that looked like a battlefield; Dohyeon weeping in grief; herself dying in his arms.
…I'm really starting to have the weirdest dreams.
Seo-hui dismissed it as nothing more than a bizarre nightmare her own mind had cooked up, and let it go.
But the human heart never moved as easily as words suggested.
Perhaps because of that dream of dying in Dohyeon's arms, Seo-hui — already sinking into a deep swamp — began to sink even deeper.
"Did you see Teacher Dohyeon's interview yesterday?"
"Of course! God, I want to date Teacher Dohyeon so bad."
His name floated through every corner of the Academy, and that made it worse. Every time she heard it, the reality that he didn't like her back tightened around her throat.
A sinful man kind to everyone. And the idiot who had fallen for that sinful man of her own free will.
Whenever she strained to wring some scrap of possibility from his every word and gesture, Choi Yeonjeong would appear before long and smash the whole board to pieces.
"Think you could beat Choi Yeonjeong?"
"Would you? She's gorgeous. Big chest. Filthy rich on top of it. How the hell do you compete with that?"
"She's actually broken…"
Choi Yeonjeong's mere existence prodded at Seo-hui's inferiority complex. Looks. Social standing. Even her closeness with Dohyeon.
Choi Yeonjeong. Choi Yeonjeong.
Every single element drove into her like a blade, gouging away at her self-worth.
Choi Yeonjeong again.
Before long, just hearing the name was enough to stress her out.
That damn Choi Yeonjeong!
Even for someone who had endured every kind of hardship life could throw at her, this relentless, malicious pressure was something new.
…Just ignore her. Don't think about it. She's got nothing to do with me.
So she tried to erase Choi Yeonjeong from her mind entirely — but the world refused to leave her alone.
"Yeonjeong's outfit on Instagram today was so pretty."
"Which one?"
Even walking down the hallway.
"I think I just saw Han Dohyeon and Choi Yeonjeong heading out for lunch?"
"What, does this Academy think it's a dating spot or something?"
Even eating in the cafeteria.
Even in the bathroom, she couldn't escape the talk.
"I saw Choi Yeonjeong at the training grounds earlier."
"From the Archery Department?"
"Yeah. It was unreal… How does she even take care of herself like that?"
The indirect torment came from every direction without pause, and her already frayed nerves grew sharper by the day. Those raw nerves turned inward, chewing on her flesh, feeding her inferiority and self-loathing until they hollowed out her heart.
She had fallen into an endlessly repeating, terrible dilemma.
"……."
At last, worn down by the unending stress, Seo-hui stared blankly at the ceiling. The morning alarm blared, urging her to get up and wash — but she couldn't bring herself to move.
She just wanted to lie still. To rest without thinking about anything at all.
After firing off a halfhearted text to her homeroom teacher, Seo-hui stayed right where she was under the covers.
And then, at some point, her mind began conjuring Dohyeon of its own accord. She could escape Choi Yeonjeong hell, but she could never escape Han Dohyeon hell.
…Teacher…
Seo-hui picked up her phone and stared quietly at Dohyeon's contact.
If I called him right now… would he come?
He probably would — even if he had to steal time from his lunch break. And if not then, he'd definitely come by in the afternoon. If she said she was sick, he might bring her porridge, or come over and cook something delicious himself. He might even blow on each spoonful and feed it to her carefully.
And then she would get her hopes up for no reason, crash back into reality, and suffer alone all over again. Just like she always had.
"……."
Seo-hui quietly set the phone down.
A moment later:
"…Hic…"
She covered her eyes with a thin arm.
"Hup…"
Because she was so pathetic.
"…Hnn…"
Because she couldn't do this or that — could only suffer alone — and that made her feel like such a fool.
"…Hh…"
And just as that unspoken sorrow finally broke through everything she had been holding back—
A strange, alien mana brushed across her skin.
"…!?"
Startled, Seo-hui cut off her tears at once, sat up, and looked toward the source of the mana…
"Greetings."
There, floating in the middle of her room, was a mysterious woman wreathed in a shimmering halo.
"I am the Goddess of Prosperity."
"……?"
"Cheon Seo-hui. I have come to you in person with a single request."
She looked down at the bewildered, uncomprehending Seo-hui and spoke in a low, measured voice.
At last, the time had come.