After hearing the story, Ju-hyeon spoke with an odd expression.

"... Wouldn't it help if you softened the way you talk a little?"

"This is simply how I speak. What am I to do?"

"That's what I mean. I think you need to... do something about it."

Wasn't this precisely why Ju-hyeon was always saying it?

"These damn Divinities need public-speaking classes."

"I consider myself quite well-spoken."

"You know that's not the problem. There's always something vague and ominous about the way you talk, Jio. Whether your intentions are good or bad, it's still a little unsettling."

"Hmm. And as Giovanni?"

"You're a little better as Giovanni, but I wouldn't call that particularly normal or straightforward either. All three Jios sound incredibly distant."

As Seo Jio, he was like an ominous evil spirit making a clumsy imitation of a human. As Giovanni, he felt like a sacred being fundamentally different from birth. Arjio, in particular, went without saying.

"Now, why does that go without saying?"

"I refrained because I thought you'd pretend to be hurt if I told you."

Arjio really did seem like an evil god.

'I was pretty startled when I first met him, too.'

It was entirely different from Seo Jio's ominousness, which welled up from an uncanny stillness. His sweet voice seemed to seep into Ju-hyeon's ears and lodge in his brain, no different from a devil's. Those golden eyes holding his image belonged to a predator watching its prey, making him involuntarily shrink back.

'The very image of a typical evil god, pursuing nothing but his own pleasure...'

He could understand how the animal family beyond the frame felt.

"Just talking the way you are now would get you halfway there. You lay the evil-god act on so thick that they can't easily shake off their fear. Please, do something about the way you talk."

"It isn't an 'act.' I am an evil god."

And this wasn't something he could help.

"It's beyond even my control."

"I don't understand. Why?"

"Because I get filtered. I think 'filtering' would be the word for it."

"...?"

Filtering?

"What... filtering? Are you saying your speech and behavior get forcibly modified? So you have no choice but to talk that way even in front of those poor animal friends?"

"You've understood correctly."

"But why?"

"It's the same reason the 'Black Cloak' you meet through a frame is particularly curt and ominous. It took me quite some time to notice the difference myself."

It was something he had learned through his encounters with Collector's employees.

"Perhaps because I'm a portrait, it seems that without certain adjustments, problems arise with my air, my tone, and various other things. It was the same whichever Jio I appeared as."

Passing through the frame called Jio's Portrait, which could be considered his central doorway, to put himself in order considerably softened not only that infernal stature or whatever it was, but also his speech and the air he exuded. Even then, there were apparently plenty of things about him worthy of a horror story, but it was better than nothing.

"But it's a different matter when I travel directly from this cabin, or greet someone while still confined to a frame. I become a more stereotypical, rigidly defined 'Jio.' And I can't even properly sense that something is off."

"So that's why you call it filtering..."

It was absurd.

"Why on earth does that happen?"

"Because I'm a portrait?"

"Can't you do anything about it?"

"I don't think it would be easy."

"Good heavens."

Ju-hyeon began to feel sorry for Jio.

'... It's even sadder because it really does seem connected to his identity as a portrait.'

Wasn't that what a portrait was? Fundamentally, a painting preserving someone's most ideal image.

In short, Ju-hyeon suspected that the Jios were being "filtered" that way because they had been frozen as they had appeared—or been perceived—at a particular moment.

"..."

At the same time, he was at a loss.

"Then this really does sound difficult."

"It does, doesn't it?"

"Hmm, would you consider just... being a benevolent sovereign?"

"An evil god?"

"Because I don't think you can be a benevolent friend to them, at least. You might want an equal relationship, but however much their fear fades, their awe will remain."

"I'll leave that as another pleasure to look forward to."

After his friends had pointed out his impatience, Jio had reflected sufficiently and decided to take his time.

It was only because Ju-hyeon and Yu Seongun were particularly deep and busy thinkers that they felt pressured to define relationships and existence. He had no intention of imposing that on his animal friends, too.

As long as everyone enjoyed themselves, that was enough. Himself and those around him alike.

"Can't someone be both a subject and a friend, or a friend and family?"

"You really are surprisingly greedy, Jio."

"Naturally, if something can be had, it's better to have it."

That was all the more true for Arjio.

"..."

"You look as though you have something to say."

"That's dopamine addiction."

"Now, now. Quiet."

How dare he reduce the sacred act of socializing to mere chemical secretions?

* * *

There had once been people called heroes.

Every beast in the world had become a monster and attacked everything humanity possessed, forcing humans to live in hunger and chaos. Groaning under a plague that ate away at flesh and soul, people desperately implored the strongest among them.

["Please, kill that cruel beast."]

["Oh, heroes sent by God..."]

["Please, we beg you. End this war."]

There were countless sacrifices.

For all the fine-sounding title of hero, they were only human. They screamed in pain and had nightmares born of fear. It was not even rare for conflicts among the heroes to escalate until they killed one another.

Above all, they learned the truth.

["... This is real?"]

["Th-the Demon King must be trying to trick us. Don't fall for it, everyone."]

["But... you know it, too. This isn't fabricated."]

The wicked Divinity they had regarded as an evil god was actually a monster born of human ignorance and selfishness. Humanity had brought everything upon itself. Not recognizing a saint for what he was, nor their final chance for what it was, they had burned the forest, setting all these calamities in motion.

["What do we do...?"]

["... I-I... I really don't think this is right."]

The heroes were thrown into confusion.

["How does that make us heroes?"]

Because these were people whose ordinary goodness had driven them to struggle all the way here.

They had come this far with the sole conviction of saving the world, their families, and their friends. Driven to the brink, they could not be perfect "heroes," but precisely because of that, they still retained the reason to distinguish right from wrong.

["This makes no sense. We were in the wrong from the start. Even the beasts beginning to speak human language was a result of human greed in the past... and the same is true now."]

["What did we come all this way for? We shed all that blood and endured those nightmares just to protect the wretched people who pushed us into this death trap...? Why?"]

["It's horrific. Truly horrific. I don't think I can fight anymore. If this is a species and a world that can only survive by repeating such vile sins, it would be better to let it all collapse!"]

Others gritted their teeth.

["Do you hear yourself? After everything it took to get here? Whatever people in the past did to make things this bad, however terrible their crimes, what does that have to do with us?"]

["Have you forgotten our role? We suffered all the way here to make the world better than it is now, however we could! Yes, people committed sins in the past, but why can't you see that the fallen saint is committing greater ones?"]

["Even if survival means repeating those sins, only a few need to commit them. The original perpetrators and we can bear that burden. It isn't right for innocent people to die, too!"]

The conflict dragged on, but there was only one conclusion in the end.

["..."]

["... We seal the evil god. Everything else comes afterward."]

First, they had to stop the immediate calamity.

["We all came here because we had something to protect. Family, friends, lovers. Even after learning this filthy, despicable truth, we're here... for ourselves, in the end."]

And so the heroes finally succeeded in sealing the evil god, but...

["... Something's wrong."]

["The beasts' curse isn't ending."]

["The plague hasn't changed either...!"]

Someone shouted.

["Of course it hasn't! Humans started all these calamities in the first place!!"]

The most fundamental cause lay in the primordial essence that constituted this world. The second was their wanton burning of the saint who had held that terrible essence at bay. The final cause lay with humans who could not even distinguish the beginning from what followed, and laid all the blame and responsibility at the feet of the "evil god."

["But, but...! Even if it was our human sin that turned the saint into a fallen Divinity, the evil god Arjio still spread countless calamities himself! He incited the beasts and committed massacres! We all know that!"]

["That is utterly beside the point! Open your eyes and properly examine the account in the ruins! Arjio was an addition along the way, not the original cause! Sealing him could never undo the calamity humans had already brought about!"]

["Then why the hell did we have to die and get hurt and suffer like that?!!!"]

That anguished scream let rage consume them.

They had already sealed Arjio, known as the evil god of pain and wrath, yet even now, with it all over, conflict was erupting among the heroes before his tomb.

Wasn't that the most terrible calamity of all?

["..."]

["..."]

Still, the fact remained that they had sealed the evil god.

["... Let's return to the village."]

["We need to report to the court."]

["At least the evil god is sealed, so that should stop the massacres he causes."]

["We accomplished that much."]

Many calamities remained unresolved, and a mountain of daunting tasks lay ahead, but they had sealed the murderous Arjio. That alone would make the world considerably easier to live in.

Yet even that did not go as expected.

["They say Arjio appeared in Zibia Village!"]

["What are you talking about? We definitely sealed the evil god...!"]

["There was an enormous massacre!"]

["That's impossible...!"]

All those countless massacres...

["..."]

["We have to go right now. The seal might have broken!"]

["I'm the mage who led the sealing."]

["But...!"]

["There's no way I wouldn't know if it had broken."]

All those many, many massacres and wars they had believed to be Arjio's work were the products of humans who used the cruel evil god as an excuse to indulge their anger and greed. Even if not all of them, a considerable number of the wars had been.

["It's all meaningless now."]

The heroes were left hollow.

["If I'd known this would happen, I wouldn't have sealed him. I wouldn't have endured all that sacrifice and suffering to seal the evil god. I'd have let him burn this whole world down instead..."]

["... Don't say that. Plenty of things happened with Arjio used as an excuse, but there were also plenty of villages he personally led the destruction of. We prevented something worse."]

["... I... I don't know anymore."]

People's anger at the unabated calamities also turned toward the heroes.

["You said you sealed the evil god!"]

["They must have lied! The evil god must have deceived them!"]

["No, they may have become his minions. Shameless bastards...!"]

["We have to burn them all!!"]

Fear turned toward them, too.

["Everything has fallen apart now. They'll come to kill us."]

["I thought something was strange from the start. Look. What part of that strength and those abilities is human?"]

["They must be monsters, too! We must kill them first to avert disaster!!"]

Some heroes resisted, but they died in the end. However great their strength and abilities, they were ultimately ordinary humans. Shocked by the betrayal of the people they had sought to protect, they crumbled.

Even more heroes chose flight and avoidance. Some tried hiding, pretending they had never been "heroes." Others moved from place to place, constantly pursued.

["..."]

But they were all caught.

["... Ha..."]

Except for one.

He had escaped by hiding in the evil god's tomb, but having been a fairly famous "hero," the man was eventually discovered as well. People who suspected him of being the evil god's minion had assembled a punitive force and come to the tomb.

["I knew you were here, you wicked follower of the evil god...!"]

["Kill him! He'll become the seed of another evil god! Kill him!!"]

["He's a subversive spreading nonsense!!"]

That had been the man's last chance to die, but...

["No. This happens to be the perfect location."]

["Chief Elder...! You're going to let him live?"]

["He has his uses. Bring all the materials we captured earlier."]

["You don't mean..."]

["Here, we will write a new history."]

The "materials," himself included, ended up becoming pillars of a "new world."

["Using these monstrous bastards, even stealing a god's powers isn't impossible..."]

And so the man was trapped in a coffin fashioned in the image of a goddess. He probably wasn't the only one to suffer that fate, but wedged among tentacles and blades that burrowed through his veins and sliced his flesh, he could no longer judge anything clearly.

["Aaaaargh...! Aaaagh!! Aaaaaaaaaagh!!!"]

["Still enough strength left to scream, I see. An excellent response. This time, we really might succeed."]

["Aaaaaaaaaaargh...!!"]

["Seal him tightly. Make sure he can never break out, no matter how much time passes."]

["Please, please stop...!!"]

["We will now... kill a god. And then let us create a new paradise."]

["Urgh...! Uuurgh..."]

Through a mind growing hazy with pain and hatred, the man thought:

'It will all fail in the end.'

This world was a mess from beginning to end, and even the life that constituted it was in disarray. He did not know what they intended to do with the materials—the "heroes," himself included—but they would not succeed.

Then darkness came.

"..."

Time passed.

"..."

And even as more passed...

"... Urk..."

... Why couldn't he die?

Trapped in the thorned coffin, the man wept tears of blood.

* * *

At last, he called upon the evil god.

(To be continued)