Mermaids were children of the sea.

The sea was part of them, and they, too, were part of the sea.

Among them, Aria and Iser possessed the authority to interact and communicate with seas of other dimensions as well.

And through that sea, Iser caught a familiar scent.

The trace of a small, delicate child that somehow resembled sunlight...

"..."

"Oh! It's Eunha!"

"... I am Iser."

At Cha Yisol's cheerful greeting, Iser was so dumbfounded that he asked.

"What are you doing?"

"We were doing practical training, sir!"

"Practical training for prospective priests of the Sun Cult should involve many people together, so why are only the two of you left?"

"They all ran off!"

"Hah..."

At the sight of him letting out a deep sigh, Iru-da, who had been standing beside Cha Yi-sol, flinched.

Iser, who had suddenly been put in the position of having to mind a human hatchling's feelings, spoke in a miserable mood.

"From what I can see, your fellow prospective priests seem to have fled after leaving only you two behind."

"And judging by the fact that the only blood scent here belongs to you two, it seems they essentially intended to put you in trouble on purpose."

"You're using really hard words."

"I would appreciate it if you decided whether you are going to speak politely or casually."

"To summarize, I am saying that it seems the two of you are being ostracized or bullied."

"I understand Korea has an expression called being an outcast."

"Right, it's super cheap of them."

"So it isn't as if you don't know."

Iser swung his mermaid hand and drove back the dungeon's sea.

He had come because a familiar scent had drifted from the sea connected to Earth, only to find this happening.

They could have been seriously injured if things had gone wrong.

'Then Teacher would have been sad.'

He did not want that.

'This one may become Giovanni's first apostle.'

If it would help Jio in any way, there was no reason not to do it.

Iser looked along the now-calm shore of the dungeon.

It was a dimension where space had been twisted considerably.

"Do prospective priests not have a separate priest guiding them?"

"This practical training was one we were doing by ourselves."

"Even so, given the nature of the Sun Cult in Korea, there should be personnel watching."

"Th-that's... is that how it is?"

Instead of the stammering Cha Yi-sol, Iru-da opened her mouth.

"... Even if they were not guiding us directly, there should be a priest stationed here in case of any major accident."

"But recently, they had to develop an A-class dungeon, so there were not many priests left."

"Are you saying that because there were too few personnel available, there were also few priests assigned to the dungeon practical training?"

"In that Sun Cult, which was swarming with humans?"

"Well, true, the scent of humans is faint in this sea."

"There do not seem to be very many humans here."

"It is true that the order has many priests, but there are not many teachers among them who look after prospective priests."

"Of those, at most two probably came, and since they had to manage the prospective priests scattered all over the place, I think they simply failed to think of us."

Cha Yi-sol grumbled.

"It's because we're too good."

"... There is probably some of that too."

Across the entire cohort of the Sun Cult, the Cha Yisol and Iru-da pair, who possessed talent that could be counted on one hand, were often evaluated as so-called "children who did not need attention."

That meant the accompanying priests would also be watching mainly the ones at greater risk of injury.

Iser thought.

'How barbaric.'

Regardless of dimension, religious circles had blind or unreasonable sides to them.

It was as though they believed every matter in the world could be solved with faith alone.

They were nothing but fools.

'... Or perhaps something more higher-dimensional adjusted the frame of fate...'

The thought briefly crossed his mind, but this was not Iser's specialty.

He once again recalled the reason he had personally stepped forward here.

"You are acting recklessly."

"If you die, Black Cloak will be sad, you know?"

"Oh, is hyung doing well?"

"I am not some informant."

"If you need to know, it would be best to contact him directly."

Making his displeasure abundantly clear, Iser disappeared through the sea just as he had first appeared.

Iru-da, who had been holding her breath in front of the humanoid monster that had appeared out of nowhere, finally let out a great breath.

"... Haaaa..."

"What's wrong?"

"Were you scared?"

"You'd have to be out of your mind not to be scared."

"Wh-what about me...?"

"Then what about me?"

"Sometimes you do seem a little out of your mind."

"I was a crazy bastard?!"

"Be quiet for a second."

Iru-da, who had reflexively covered Cha Yisol's mouth, corrected herself.

"Ah, no."

"Just explain the situation right now."

"Uh... a monster friend I know appeared and helped us when we were in danger."

"Do you really think that is a perfect explanation?"

"If there's anything else you're curious about, you can ask anytime!"

"This is what I was most curious about."

Iru-da asked.

"Are you close with monsters?"

"Are you a trainer?"

"I Awakened as a priest, remember?"

"Then where on earth does your confidence come from, acting friendly and laughing with monsters?"

"Eunha doesn't really like me, so I don't think we're close."

"I meant, why are you acting so friendly when it could be dangerous?"

"I thought we were on good enough terms to have that much of a conversation!"

"Cha Yisol's friendliness strikes again..."

It was a cheerfully innocent sociability that gave her a headache.

A monster had come to save humans, of all things.

"... And there is something else I am curious about."

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Are you really going to become Black Cloak's priest?"

"All of a sudden...?"

"That mermaid we just met said something with that kind of nuance."

The mermaid had clearly said, "If you die, Black Cloak will be sad."

"I'm asking if he has marked you as his own believer."

"I don't think that's it..."

Cha Yisol tilted his head.

"I just want to do that!"

"You..."

"If you end up summoning Black Cloak, make sure you call me."

"Got it?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah, I said I would before."

"Trust me."

"I don't."

Iru-da really liked this cheerful innocence of Cha Yisol's, but the story changed if it put him in danger.

'Cha Yisol isn't the kind of guy who would think of something else behind my back, but sometimes he acts before he thinks, and it makes the hearts of the people watching him drop.'

Iru-da had to protect Cha Yisol, who had a strong talent for being a pushover.

"Ah, my aching bones..."

"What are aching bones?"

"The muscles and joints in your body."

"Why are you calling them?"

"It means my whole body hurts."

"Ooh..."

"..."

Unlike Cha Yisol, who remained stubbornly the same as usual, Iru-da was on the verge of vomiting up her rage.

'... How dare those pieces of shit.'

They ran off and left me and Cha Yisol behind?

She had never imagined that after everything, she would be stabbed in the back by humans and receive help from a monster.

'I don't know why that mermaid helped us in the first place, but if this is the result created by Cha Yisol's insane friendliness... that means it really is a miracle that we're this unharmed.'

It had been plainly obvious that even the monster, who was thoroughly displeased by the fact that he had helped humans, was mocking the state of the Sun Cult as if he found it absurd.

'I would laugh too.'

The Sun Cult was not some common cult, and for all its faults, it was a massive religious order representing Seoul.

No matter how busy they had become because of the A-class dungeon, to manage prospective priests like this was absurd.

"..."

No, even this could be part of political maneuvering.

"... This is fucking awful..."

"Why is it fucking awful?"

"I was wrong to say that, so you don't use words like that."

"You mean don't swear?"

"Got it."

"But why, really?"

"Because the more I think about it, the more I feel like I was too careless."

There was no guarantee that religious circles were clean and upright.

If anything, modern priests who held blind and arrogant faith cultivated even more political tendencies within their closed environments.

'Even though Mother clearly warned me, I let things get this bad. How pathetic.'

There were two ways to secure power in religious circles.

Receive an incredible amount of love from divinity, or pull off incredible political maneuvering.

Without either one, it was difficult even to gain a voice.

'I can't be the only one who knows how to use my head.'

A priest who had nothing but talent and nothing else was bound to wither easily under severe vigilance.

That was even more true during the prospective priest period, when they were immature in many ways.

She should have navigated that well.

"To think they would try to crush our spirits like this..."

"Whose spirit got crushed?"

"It looks like our peers are determined to crush our spirits."

Iru-da laughed hollowly.

"No, to be precise, they were probably aiming for me."

Cha Yisol had a personality that basically made it hard for people to hate him, and objectively speaking, he was highly cooperative.

At first glance, he even had the air of a pushover, so there was no need to go out of their way to keep him in check and build bad blood with him.

But simply because he was paired with Iru-da, he had ended up being targeted alongside her.

"Exactly what kind of trick did they pull...?"

"Did they buy off the priests?"

"Or they may simply have worked together to draw the teachers' attention away."

"Our pair are students who normally do not need attention..."

"Can you summarize that for me?"

"I can't really summarize this either."

Even if Iru-da had a strong mature side, she was still only a prospective priest.

She had heard a lot and knew a lot, but she had no experience.

She had been aware that her peers disliked her, but this was unexpected.

They had truly crossed the line.

"..."

"... Should we get treated first?"

"Let's."

Iru-da deliberately did not ask, "Do you regret pairing with me?"

Cha Yisol was not the kind of person who would regret that sort of thing.

But she could not help feeling sorry toward her precious natural treasure.

'If he had not paired with me, he would not have ended up in such trouble.'

'No, if only I had looked around a little more carefully and behaved better...'

No matter how she thought about it, this incident was intelligent.

It seemed like a few sharp-minded peers had gathered and plotted this while the order was in chaos because of the dungeon development.

Or perhaps one person had been determined and received support.

'Otherwise, there is no way things would have gotten this far.'

The order was not the sort to abandon precious prospective priests until they suffered serious injuries from monsters and became unable to fight.

At least, the Sun Cult she knew was like that.

And yet, if things had turned out this way...

Sure enough, the priest who came looking for the two of them belatedly was horrified.

"Wh-what in the world happened here...!"

"Are you all right?!"

"The other team members suddenly left the area, leaving our pair behind."

"So..."

"No, I definitely put measures in place...?"

"Why was there no contact at all...?"

Before the practical training, the guiding priest had said, "You will enter without our help," but yes, there was no way that was actually true.

It seemed magical measures had been put in place so that if a problem occurred, the priests would be contacted.

'If things still ended up like this, then someone really was bought off, or they spent that much money.'

Among the prospective priests, there were children in difficult circumstances like carnation children, but there were also many children with Grade 1 citizenship living in the city, like Iru-da.

They would have grown up in environments closely connected to Hunters or the order, so the range of tricks they could pull would also be wide.

'Even so, this was too much.'

The one who did this probably also accepted a great loss while hoping Iru-da would take a fatal blow.

Even so, it was not something that could be easily overlooked.

As though he had grasped the seriousness of the situation, the guiding priest's expression hardened as well.

"This incident is my mistake and the order's."

"We would like to contact your guardians and offer an apology and compensation, and as for that... ha..."

"May we discuss this part after the two of you have finished receiving treatment?"

"Yes, let's do that."

"I truly have no excuse."

"I apologize once again."

"Because this was practical training among prospective priests, I should have paid more attention."

"While I was watching the other children, I neglected such precious talents... no, I am sorry."

"Let us move to the treatment room immediately."

As if he did not want to keep spouting meaningless nonsense in front of children, the guiding priest quickly moved the two of them to the treatment room.

And Iru-da saw it.

"..."

"..."

One of their peers was glaring at the two of them with a very dissatisfied face.

'... That bastard?'

Iru-da vowed revenge.

The hallway meeting after returning from Jeju Island.

"... Things can go that far?"

At Ju-hyeon's words, Yu Seongun smiled awkwardly.

"Political games in religious circles tend to be fairly fierce."

"Even so, this is about prospective priests."

"The younger someone is, the more people there are who target their inexperienced gaps."

There had always been a war of nerves between priests, but even taking that into account, this incident was rather large.

Kang Seodam, who had been overwhelmed by the A-class dungeon development, had learned of the situation belatedly and contacted Yu Seongun.

He looked at Jio and said.

"Priest Kang Seodam said he was truly sorry to you."

"He said he was sorry to the people directly involved in this incident as well, and that because it was a class he managed, this happened when he failed to pay attention under the excuse of being busy..."

Above all, Cha Yisol wanted to become Black Cloak's priest, and Black Cloak also found Cha Yisol cute.

If they did not want to incur the anger of divinity, prostrating themselves in advance was a wise judgment.

"He says he will accept any punishment willingly."

"Why would I punish him?"

"I'll relay it like that."

Around then, Ju-hyeon asked once more.

"I asked earlier too, but do things usually... go that far?"

"Hm?"

"Doesn't this mean someone broke the device meant to protect the prospective priests' basic safety?"

"No matter how it was practical training without a direct guide, there should have been quite a few personnel watching from the rear."

"If it was to that extent, it seems less like the tricks of an individual child and more like adult help would have been necessary..."

"Ah, that part."

"The incident is too big to say they did it simply because they hated a peer."

"That is true, but..."

Yu Seongun rubbed his neck.

"The world is originally like that, isn't it?"

For even a single speck of power, people tried to trample others regardless of age or gender.

It was a world where one could protect what was theirs only by living so desperately and meanly, and where people believed that was wisdom.

"Why act surprised now?"

"... True, I am hardly in a position to talk when I was driven out by those political games."

"But it is true that the method was quite bold for their age."

"It feels like there is more to the story that we don't know..."

"It isn't as if we can know every conspiracy in the world."

"So the word conspiracy came up after all."

"You can call it a scheme instead."

Jio nodded.

"It certainly seems she is hated by the other children."

"Who?"

"Ah, the prospective priest named Iru-da?"

"Yes, I had similar situations several times when I was young too."

Giovanni also knew well the blind devotion priests possessed.

He had not merely been injured.

He had drunk poison that burned his organs, been pushed off a cliff, and been falsely accused of being an evil demon.

The reasons they did such things were varied.

Because they did not want to see him showing off.

Because they wanted to crush his spirit, make him docile, and use him.

Because they wanted to eliminate Giovanni in advance, since he would inevitably rise to a high position.

"This case likely had the same context."

"People who claim to serve a god, honestly..."

"At times, it was internal unrest, and at times, they joined hands with outside forces."

"I wonder which it will be this time."

"Maybe there was some other huge conspiracy?"

"Who knows."

"Rather than a huge conspiracy..."

Jio tilted his head.

"It may have been a tantrum."

"What kind of damn tantrum is this vicious?"

"Indeed."

The red jewel in the research lab drooped once again.

"Lord Sankalut...!"

"■..."

He wanted to go home, but it really was not easy.