“What are you doing?”

At the young, pure question tinged with a little sadness and worry, Aria flinched, then answered a moment later.

“You could say I’m moving his roots.”

“People have roots too...?”

“Every being has roots.”

Even inanimate objects did.

“Why? Does Brother Cha Yisol want to come to the sea too?”

“I like myself the way I am.”

“What a pity. If you came, Giovanni would have returned much more comfortably...”

“Why do you say he’s returning?”

“Perhaps because you’re a baby human, you ask so many questions.”

“If you don’t like it, I’ll stay quiet.”

“You know your place too...”

Aria trailed off, refining the System as she continued.

“He was someone who should have been in this sea to begin with.”

This should have been his “home.”

“It was only stolen from him.”

“Who stole it?”

“Fate.”

That wretched fate had made them this way.

“...”

“Is hyung in pain?”

“... It isn’t something painful.”

As proof, Jio’s face, submerged in the seawater, was as peaceful as someone asleep.

“I merely returned this person to the place where he belongs.”

“Is this where Jio hyung was supposed to be?”

Cha Yisol murmured with a sad face.

“It’s too cold here. There are lots of sparkly things, but it’s too big, there are no friends, and it’s quiet... and that chair Jio hyung is sitting on doesn’t look soft at all.”

“But that chair held the honor of an age.”

“If you sit on it for a long time, it looks so hard your butt would hurt.”

“You say things similar to Giovanni.”

He, too, had often had such odd ideas. He would say the Sun Cult’s buildings had so many glittering things that they made his eyes tired, or that this vast and enormous temple was so lonely it was no place for people to live...

“Is this truly the first apostle Teacher chose?”

“You said you were jealous of that, noona. Is it a good thing?”

“If we look at only that one thing, well, I’m not sure.”

She spoke as someone who had once been the student who received all of Giovanni’s affection.

“This person is so special that he cannot be ordinary for even a single moment. He has to be swept up in every kind of tragedy and praise, or else be at the very center of it himself.”

“...”

“But... he is also so ordinary it makes you yawn. He was like that in quite a few ways. Loving someone like that, and being loved by them, is a truly difficult thing.”

Before she knew it, Aria was looking at the pope’s room, now filled with seawater.

“Isn’t it beautiful?”

“What is?”

“It looks perfect.”

It was the place that should rightfully have gone to Giovanni.

“All that glory and honor should have been his...”

How wonderful it would have been if Jio had been the master of that throne back when this temple was not as cold as it was now, back when the Sun had not collapsed beneath a mermaid’s hatred. Then the sea and sky truly would have become one.

And if so, her wretched younger sibling would not have had to suffer either.

“...”

“... Um.”

Cha Yisol asked carefully.

“Why do roots have to go back to their original place?”

“Are you asking why I’m tormenting Jio like this?”

“Plants get repotted too, into bigger places...”

“First, the pot called Earth doesn’t look very good.”

Aria folded down a finger as she spoke.

“Second, I simply want to die with Teacher.”

“That really... sounds... incredibly burdensome.”

“Teacher said that as well. You really are alike, the two of you.”

Strangely enough, there was no tension.

“After seeing Giovanni like that, is that all you have to say?”

“...”

Cha Yisol turned his head and looked at Jio, bound in the middle of the room filled with seawater.

He truly looked as though he were asleep. Even without a smile, his calm face brought peace to whoever saw it, and swallowed along with the seawater that had eaten every sound, he was terribly still.

The jeweled chains binding him shone transparently...

“Just...”

Cha Yisol had felt something similar somewhere before.

“I think it’s like when you climb a tall mountain.”

“I’m curious what you mean by that.”

“When you reach the top and look down.”

It was like the moment when the whole world came into view at once and he thought, “It’s amazing,” or “It’s pretty.” With Cha Yisol’s young vocabulary, he still could not explain that feeling. It was simply like a masterpiece painted by nature.

And that was why it made him sad.

“Jio hyung is a person, so why is he like that?”

“I made him that way.”

“That’s... a little different.”

“... Perhaps it is.”

Aria was the same.

“Every time this happens, my heart drops.”

You led us as a human, yet the one they had reunited with was no longer human. That often brought Aria a strange pain.

“Now, come here. If you touch that seawater, a small child like you will die easily.”

Aria bent down and tapped the small jewel on the necklace hidden inside Cha Yisol’s priestly robe.

“If you get hurt, won’t your lovely friend be sad?”

“...”

“Do not worry. So long as Giovanni is there, I will not harm you or make you suffer.”

“... I’m suffering right now.”

“After seeing Teacher trapped there?”

How kind.

“I hope that kindness devours you someday.”

Just like Giovanni.

That was the greatest blessing and advice Aria could give.

“...”

“...”

Cha Yisol took Aria’s hand and walked.

‘... I came because I wanted to help Jio hyung and the others.’

If he had not been stubborn when told to leave, things would have been better for both of them, but in the end, he had caused trouble.

‘He did tell me it was fine because it would have turned out this way anyway.’

And he knew that was sincere and true, but the fact remained that Cha Yisol’s presence had made Jio’s position even more disadvantageous. He could not help falling into thought.

He wanted to be of help somehow.

‘What can I do?’

Right now, he could not even stay by Jio’s side and chatter so he would not be bored. He had followed along thinking Jio would be fighting on the coastal front, and had never imagined he would already be in the dungeon.

‘Iru-da and the teachers must be really worried too. This isn’t like the village, where it was okay to move around recklessly. If I had thought a little more before acting...’

Cha Yisol suddenly recalled the soft, fluffy Sun that had sent him here.

“...”

Everything a god does has a reason.

Mm, I see. Cha Yisol smiled brightly.

“... Why are you smiling?”

“They say good fortune comes if you smile.”

“Well, that was not particularly true for me.”

“Isn’t that because you’re from a different world than me?”

“Perhaps it is.”

Aria asked.

“Are you finished thinking?”

“Yes!”

“Then I suppose it’s about time to lock you up.”

“What?”

Cha Yisol narrowed his eyes.

“You promised Jio hyung...”

“Yes, I promised not to kill you immediately.”

“You said you wouldn’t make me suffer.”

“That is why I will only lock you up.”

“Adults are so unfair.”

“It is wisdom built through years of experience.”

And from the corridor on the opposite side, Iser appeared.

“Sister, are you going to the sea?”

“Yes, so I leave this child to you.”

“Where should I put him?”

“Somewhere he won’t get hurt.”

Aria glanced down at Cha Yisol.

“... Put him somewhere he won’t suffer.”

Her cold but gentle touch fell away.

“It seems the humans have been rampaging in the sea, so now I must go.”

“It is difficult to move the entirety of Earth’s sea from the outside.”

“Do you think I do not know that? You must fill the gap created by my manifestation on Earth.”

“I will deal with the humans who enter this place.”

“Yes, no different from usual.”

Aria walked down the temple corridor just like that.

“Monsters have the path of monsters.”

She did not know what would happen, but after a brief sweet dream, the ending had approached.

“I have done plenty of waiting.”

“... Understood.”

A miracle had come to her.

Now it was time to go meet it herself.

Kang Seodam was left speechless.

“...”

“... Hic, ugh...”

“... Sister Iru-da?”

“Cha, Cha Yisol...”

“Why are you here?”

He looked at the brothers of the Sun Cult who had come with Iru-da with eyes as sharp as a drawn blade.

“Did you drag a prospective priest to this battlefield?”

“N-no! We really tried not to bring her...!”

“Even if the child insisted, you should have stopped her. That is the role of an escort!”

“She was crying like she would stop breathing, so we brought her with a condition.”

“What condition?”

“That if Priest Kang Seodam refused, she would go back...”

“...”

At the sight of his colleagues pushing their duty onto him at the very end, Kang Seodam clenched his teeth. Veins stood out on his face, but he could not bring himself to raise his voice in front of a crying child, and in the end he let out a faint sigh.

He looked down at Iru-da’s tearful face. He thought he had seen quite a few sides of her by now, but this was a first. Even if her thinking was mature, a child was still a child.

‘That is why she absolutely must not be here.’

Kang Seodam bent at the waist.

“Sister Iru-da, I heard you came because you were worried about your partner.”

“... Sniff, they said he was, he was taken. So...”

“Could you not trust the other brothers and sisters here?”

To be honest, Iru-da was indeed someone who could be of help even in a situation like this. Cha Yisol, who was presumed to have been kidnapped by the mermaids, was the same. Their talents were great enough to surpass years of experience.

But Kang Seodam did not want such clean sprouts to be hurt here. Mentally or physically. Memories from childhood, no matter how one pretended otherwise, engraved themselves deep in the brain and did not peel away easily.

“I promise, I will bring Brother Cha Yisol back safely.”

“B-but...”

The tearful Iru-da trailed off for a long while, then sniffed once more and sharply lifted her eyes. She tried hard to control herself and judge wisely.

‘If I push emotionally, I won’t get what I want.’

She could not be sent back from here after going to all the trouble of persuading the priests and making it to the actual site. Yes, she had obtained what she truly wanted. She only had to do a little more.

“... As far as I know, there is no clause saying a prospective priest cannot be dispatched to the field. Rather, all the orders in Seoul are supposed to summon prospective priests as well in an emergency, aren’t they?”

“You studied.”

Kang Seodam was greatly enraged by the current reality, which did not care in the slightest about the human rights of young prospective priests. If they had made a relevant law or prepared a clause in advance, this troublesome thing would never have happened.

“That depends on the situation as well. It is true that this is an emergency, but that does not mean it is urgent enough to mobilize prospective priests. If anything, we should call the priests of the order. Prospective priests are personnel who must not be handled lightly.”

“But in every religion of providence, partners are regarded as one body. I have the right to act for my partner, and the duty as well. I checked several Sun Cult precedents in emergencies. My actions are fully within the Sun Cult’s rules.”

“Even so, mobilizing a prospective priest makes no sense. Most importantly, we cannot be certain that Brother Cha Yisol is truly in the ‘country of the deep sea.’ The timing of his disappearance was far too coincidental, that is all. There is no evidence, so using Sister Iru-da, who is a prospective priest...”

“I-I have evidence.”

Her hands failed to do their job and fumbled around her neck. She wanted to respond calmly and intelligently, but controlling her body was not easy. After several short attempts, Iru-da hurriedly pulled out a round jewel with trembling hands.

“...”

“It’s a resonance stone, this...”

Looking closely, not only her hands but the jewel itself was trembling.

“Ha.”

Kang Seodam let out a hollow laugh.

Resonance stones were twin gemstones, possessing the property of trembling in response to one another the closer the sibling stones came. These days, after being processed, they were used in various communication devices as well, but this was a pure raw stone itself.

“I shared it with my partner, Cha Yisol. I brought the certificate of quality too. A natural resonance stone that has undergone no processing or treatment whatsoever... may be lacking in function compared to other artifacts, but the one property of reacting near its sibling never changes.”

Kang Seodam furrowed his brow.

“The being holding the resonance stone right now could be a monster.”

“I-I gave this to him in the form of a necklace. The necklace cord is an artifact with the property of not coming off naturally. Unless his neck was cut... it should still be with him. Even if something like that truly happened, in any case, it can serve as grounds that Brother Cha Yisol is nearby.”

“Certainly, with grounds of this level, there is no reason not to search.”

After saying that, Kang Seodam only opened his mouth again a long while later.

“... I think I understand why you forced your way here even to this extent.”

“... You could have hidden the truth about the resonance stone under the pretext of protecting me.”

“That sounds quite unfair, but yes. We might actually have done that.”

There was no law, no rule anywhere saying not to mobilize prospective priests in a situation like this. It was simply not done because small, young things became burdens in such situations, and because it was ethically wrong.

‘Damn it.’

With all the justification prepared, it made no sense to refuse a priest who could fully do the work of one person. Among the priests who had brought Iru-da this far, there was surely someone who thought that way.

Perhaps made anxious by Kang Seodam’s silence, Iru-da began rummaging again and pulled out papers.

“These are the performance records I’ve received so far. Even when I went out for p-practical training, I produced sufficient results. They’re results no worse than those of formal priests, and my position is tank... so I don’t get hurt or die easily anywhere.”

“...”

“Look, I brought my medical records as well. The divinity I serve protects me. Undeservedly, thanks to the Sun Goddess casting her gaze down on me, against illness too, and o-other... my regenerative ability is good...”

“Stop.”

In the end, Kang Seodam could not hold back his sigh.

“You do not need to say that much.”

He could not bear to listen any longer to a child as small as Iru-da listing her own usefulness. Feeling disgust with this world once again, Kang Seodam spoke to the pale-faced Iru-da.

“Certainly, I no longer have any grounds to refuse Sister Iru-da’s cooperation. If you prepared this many materials even in such a chaotic situation, you likely will not be swept away by emotion and ruin matters, nor will you be greatly injured.”

“T-then...!”

“But there is something you must promise me.”

As though she knew without being told, Iru-da nodded. She was still trembling, but her expression was bright.

“I-I will absolutely not suffer a serious injury. If it becomes dangerous, I’ll make sure to use an escape stone. I won’t go around alone, and I’ll receive enough help from the other adults. I promise I won’t do anything reckless... I swear on the trust I’ve built with you, Teacher.”

She was a clever child.

“...”

“Please trust me, just this once... After this, I won’t be stubborn again.”

“... I trust Student Iru-da.”

He simply distrusted the world.

“May the blessing of the Sun be with you.”

“... Thank you...!”

If she had been even fifteen, he would have felt better than he did now, but Iru-da was a student far younger than that. Kang Seodam resented the world where he could not stop Iru-da simply because she was “young.”

And himself, who was part of that world.

“Ah, truly.”

The sea’s laughter rang out.

“How could you ruin your home like this?”

“...”

“Humans really are fickle.”

The figure formed of seawater and ice like jewels curved its eyes into deep crescents.

“Are they not, Hunter Yu Seongun?”

“I don’t want to hear that from a monster.”

Yu Seongun smiled back.

“Are you planning to fight directly now?”

“I cannot stand by and watch you ruin the sea any further.”

“Where did you leave our Hunter Seo Jio?”

“I am in the middle of moving his roots, away from this filthy Earth...”

“Ah, you must have been very busy with that. I’m surprised you managed to come out.”

“You may consider it an honor. Is it not a remarkable achievement for a human?”

“You’re very good at empty flattery.”

“Is that not a characteristic of humanoid monsters as you know them?”

“Yes, and I also know this conversation is meaningless.”

CLANG!

He raised his spear.

“Do you like the snowfield I made?”

“Ah, heavens.”

Aria burst into ringing laughter.

“It is utterly rapturous...!!”

RUMBLE...!

At the mermaid’s hatred, the icy sea heaved.

“... It was far too hot here, wasn’t it?”

The sea’s scream rang out.

“The ringing in my ears...!!”

“Ugh...?! What is this...!”

“Watch below the surface!!”

“A large number of monsters are approaching!”

“Right now, from inside the sea...”

Someone saw silhouettes beyond the ice.

“That is...!!”

“M-mermaids...?!”

A swarm of mermaids was emerging from the deep sea.