“I think it might be the most beautiful form of death.”

“...”

Ju-hyeon, who had been listening all along, took a sip of coffee and nodded.

“You can be a little unsettling sometimes, Seongun.”

“Honestly, I am aware of that.”

“How should I put it? Your eyes light up at the sight of something grotesque and incomprehensible... It's that sort of unpleasantness...”

“That's a pretty specific aversion.”

Yu Seongun was no stranger to such reactions, so he simply let it pass.

“Don't you have any romantic notions like that, Ju-hyeon?”

“Has anything in this conversation warranted the word ‘romantic’?”

“Something like which afterlife you'd choose, if you had the choice...”

“However I look at it, that's not a subject I'd call romantic.”

Despite his groaning, Ju-hyeon gave the question a sincere answer.

“I'm not sure. I'm not strong like you all, nor do I have any particularly impressive powers. I'm too busy thinking about tomorrow to spare any thought for what comes after death.”

“But you have Jio by your side.”

“I'll think about that when the time comes. Having gone to the trouble of being born, wouldn't it be a terrible waste to live just looking forward to the day you die? There's so much more you can do while you're alive.”

“Should I call that earnest, or somber...?”

“I'd call it ordinary.”

Naturally, only the living could dream of the future.

“Things might be a little different for Jio, of course.”

But that was a truly exceptional case. He meant ordinary, unremarkable people like himself.

“It might be different for people with no will to do anything, but there's a lot I want to do. And none of it is something I'd want to hand over to someone likely to outlive me. I can't help being preoccupied with living the life ahead of me.”

“It's just a hypothetical.”

Yu Seongun smiled. He seemed in a good mood, perhaps because he'd just seen Black Cloak's masterpiece.

“We're allowed a little idle chatter, aren't we?”

“That's fair enough.”

If it was nothing more than a passing joke.

“... Hmm...”

Still, who could say?

“... Nothing definite comes to mind. I imagine things will probably go as Jio wishes. He's given me a gift, so if I'm lucky, I might end up in the ‘white frame.’”

“That one, then. I thought so.”

“Don't take it too seriously. You never know what the future holds. What about you, Seongun? Which afterlife do you think you'll end up in?”

“Most likely, I'll go to sleep in my snowfield.”

“By snowfield, you mean...”

“The Garden I serve.”

With Jio's help, he might be able to rest somewhere warmer. But setting that aside, this was the answer that fit both the realistic possibilities and his own preferences.

“Gardeners usually end their lives in their own Gardens.”

“And then carry on with another life, was it?”

“More precisely, we turn into a sculpture of something, a tree, a flower... One of the things that make up the Garden. I think calling that ‘life’ is a bit of a stretch.”

“I think I've heard that's why Gardeners consider dying as a human the greatest luxury. Is that right?”

“You remember well.”

There were exceptions, of course, such as the healer Jeong Youngwon, who wished to become part of the Garden she served. But Yu Seongun, at least, did not. Having been born human, he honestly hoped to remain human when he died.

“In a world like this, even death can't follow the natural order...”

“Well, it is a world where evil gods run rampant.”

Ju-hyeon smiled awkwardly.

“I nearly brought about a disaster myself.”

“Ah, right. Can you talk comfortably about Sankalut now?”

“I was never that uncomfortable with it.”

A calamity inflicted by a Divinity felt more like a natural disaster than an incident. They might imitate humans, but they could never be called human. It would have been absurd for Ju-hyeon, who could do nothing but endure, to resent them.

“Put simply, I was unlucky.”

“Most people can't think that way, you know.”

Yu Seongun rubbed his neck.

'This one isn't exactly ordinary either.'

Not clinging to life or death was generally a trait of priests, but it was also a qualification for sainthood.

'If serving a god rid everyone of their attachment to life, the religious world wouldn't be nearly so complicated. Humans are humans in the end. Their vessels have limits.'

However he looked at it, Ju-hyeon seemed to be becoming an ever closer friend of Jio's, and it left him with a peculiar feeling. An apostle by the name of ‘close friend,’ that is.

“...”

Yu Seongun gave an easygoing smile.

“... Come to think of it, I wonder how that fellow Sankalut is doing these days. Surely Jio didn't destroy him completely with that exorcism, or whatever it was, back then.”

“I haven't heard anything of the sort...”

“Neither have I.”

The evil god Sankalut was an important research subject kept at the Association's lab. If he had truly been annihilated, the lab couldn't possibly have stayed this quiet. Even Yu Seongun, who had been keeping an ear out, had heard nothing.

'More importantly, a Divinity wouldn't die that easily.'

Even Divinities found it difficult to kill one another, and were often all but forced to coexist. Just look at Earth. Why else would Providence and Imbalance, so incompatible in temperament, remain shoulder to shoulder in this cramped dimension?

“Well, of course, I suppose Jio might be able to...”

“It would probably be quicker to ask Jio himself about that.”

“What will you do if Sankalut still exists? Will you stand back again rather than accept Jio's help?”

“No.”

“Huh...?”

Turning toward Ju-hyeon at the unexpected response, he saw him grinning.

“Jio is already helping me with that. He did when he comforted me at our first meeting, and when I ate the porridge he made me in his warm cabin. The snow-white gravestone he made for me this time was more of the same.”

He had tried so hard to reject that immense kindness, to decline it, to pretend not to see it, only to accept it in the end. That was why.

“That's why I wasn't surprised. Even when he told me he'd created that magnificent work for me, I could simply be grateful. I'd already received miracles like that many times before.”

“Miracles, huh.”

“Of course they're miracles. Who would want to reach out to an ordinary loser like me? And with no greed or jealousy, just a pure desire to be friends.”

“... An opportunity like that won't come twice in a lifetime.”

“Jio is such a kind person.”

Ju-hyeon didn't much like accepting help from others. Not only had there been no one around he could turn to, but even when he had asked for help, he had never once received what he wanted.

Yet the first to help him had been that wicked Divinity called Arjio. He was still helping Ju-hyeon now, and matters concerning Sankalut were no exception.

“If Jio gives me the opportunity, I intend to have a conversation.”

“A conversation...? I'm not sure that's safe. You're Unawakened.”

“I make fairly frequent use of being Unawakened as a shield, but I don't want to hide behind it even at a time like this. I have responsibilities to shoulder, and Jio is helping me with so much.”

“That's a pretty bold response.”

“It's all right.”

Ju-hyeon trusted his friend named Jio.

“Even if I can't give back as much as I've received, I should at least show basic courtesy. That's what a relationship is.”

He probably wouldn't be able to repay all of Jio's kindness even by the day he died. But he needed to recognize just how great an opportunity, how much help, he had been given. And he needed to behave accordingly.

“I don't want to become arrogant, but I'm not an idiot who turns a blind eye to kindness either. The reason I refused Jio's help so often was that I'm just an ordinary human, someone who would inevitably change if miracles came too easily.”

“Sorry, but you're not ordinary at all.”

Yu Seongun's remark was casually ignored.

“If I can speak with the wicked Divinity named Sankalut, I'd like to.”

“And do what?”

“Bring things to an end.”

Like the mermaids who, despite basking in their sweet reality, had ultimately taken ‘responsibility.’

“There's nothing to gain from dragging my story out too long either. As I keep saying, I'm an ordinary human.”

“...”

“Do you have a story you need to end too, Seongun?”

“... How could a Gardener have anything like that?”

Yu Seongun gave a rare, troubled smile.

“I'm the Garden's property.”

If he had a story to end, it belonged to the Garden. It could never belong to Yu Seongun. Before he was human, he was a Gardener, a slave to The Root.

“I'll live like this all my life, buried in mysteries...”

“Why did you become a Gardener?”

“Because I wanted to live.”

“I see.”

Ju-hyeon nodded.

“So did I.”

“We're alike, then.”

Both had ended up here because they could not have survived any other way.

* * *

“Sankalut?”

Jio tilted his head.

“You wish to speak with him?”

“Yes. Only if it's possible, of course...”

“Of course it's possible. All I would do is call him forth, but if that is enough for you.”

“Of course it is.”

Since when was summoning a Divinity easy? Well, an evil god might be relatively easy to summon, but one would have to pay a price often enough. Opportunities to interact with an evil god so safely were exceedingly rare.

Jio rested a hand on his chin.

“Then it would be best to have your conversation at my house.”

And so Jio invited Ju-hyeon and Yu Seongun over.

“Wait, why me?”

“Have a meal while you're here too, Seongun.”

“You're really not trying to turn me into a pig, are you?”

“You seem to have lost a lot of weight. Perhaps this raid took a heavy toll on your mind and body...”

“Looking at me with that sad face doesn't make it any more convincing.”

He had lost a mere 0.4 kilograms.

“I'm a Hunter who relies on speed. Keep feeding me like this, and even I'll have to gain weight. Then it'll affect my career...”

“Aha. So it is fine as long as you don't gain weight?”

“This is why you can't let your guard down around mysteries for even a second. Bring me a contract. A contract! Let's spell out our positions carefully, from A to Z.”

“This is the trouble with experienced Curators.”

“You're getting more wicked by the day, aren't you?”

Well, not that it mattered.

“Just make it an ordinary meal, please.”

“I believe I have always served ordinary meals.”

“Even if you have no conscience, there should be a limit.”

“Tch...”

“Now you're even clicking your tongue at me.”

Then Jio brought a blanket.

“A blanket?”

“Yes. This is rather sudden, but...”

“Well, the suddenness is part of what's surprising, but...”

“You looked cold.”

“Never mind how you knew that, this obviously isn't a blanket. Whose hide is this? Why is it so soft and warm? Can anything be this warm? Oh, it is warm...?”

Ju-hyeon smiled wryly as Yu Seongun gradually succumbed to the soft golden fur.

“So this is how a human beguiled by a mystery ends up.”

“Who gave you permission to decide my ending?”

“That's not very convincing when you're completely entranced by a pelt.”

“Do you have any idea how cold the snowfield is...?!”

Jio nodded at the sight of Yu Seongun clutching the fur. His characteristically impassive face was unchanged, but the reaction all but said, “I knew you'd love it.”

“I was worried because you looked cold.”

“Did I look that cold...?”

Ju-hyeon shook his head at the question.

“... No. I feel rather bad saying this, but I didn't notice at all until Jio mentioned it. I thought you seemed no different from usual, but seeing you now, you really must have been cold...”

“No need to apologize. Not knowing is normal.”

Abruptly declared abnormal, Jio pointed to himself, his confusion practically marked by ‘??’.

“Am I not normal?”

“By the standards of an average human, no, I suppose not.”

“True, it would be difficult to call a portrait a normal human. You may praise how special I am.”

Jio was quick to accept it.

“Guests in my home must always be at peace.”

“Isn't that frightening in its own way?”

“You can use that as your blanket tonight.”

“Now this is hospitality.”

“Thank you.”

Jio was immensely pleased.