Then it was time to eat.

"What? All of a sudden?"

"I believe I've asked you more than ten times whether you're hungry."

"... I'm sorry. I've had a lot on my mind..."

"I can assure you that you'll think better after eating."

"..."

Ater sighed.

"... Thank you."

"Not at all."

Jio beamed. At last, he could turn this scrawny thing into a pig.

* * *

"Oh?"

Yu Seongun blinked at the frame, which had appeared for the first time in a while.

"What brings you out into the hallway?"

"I thought you were passing by, Mr. Yu Seongun."

"Me? I'm finally back."

After a long stretch of overtime, he'd barely managed to make it home.

"Have you been getting some good rest at the cabin too?"

"No, I've been in the 'Animal Kingdom' lately."

"Oh, come to think of it, I think Ju-hyeon mentioned you were making friends there."

"That's right. For now, I'm building a dungeon."

"... Aha. A dungeon."

After a moment of silence, Yu Seongun nodded.

'So there was a reason he was out in the hallway.'

It was time for a hallway meeting.

* * *

The usual members assembled for the hallway meeting, and Yu Seongun was the first to speak.

"So what exactly do you mean, you're building a dungeon? If you're planning to cause trouble that's guaranteed to need cleaning up later, you have to tell me so I can prepare."

"He looks genuinely desperate..."

At Ju-hyeon's mutter, Sankalut tilted its head where it hung around his neck.

"A dungeon?"

"Yes, a dungeon."

"I once had one of those myself."

"As far as I know, it still hasn't been destroyed."

"I was driven out of that home, and now I'm here. Humans are wicked. I want to go home. Do you feel the same, Mr. Jio?"

"Home is a wonderful thing."

Ju-hyeon asked, "So just what kind of dungeon are you making? You've already painted dungeons... or things like them. The 'Breathing Sea,' the 'City of Emptiness,' the 'diary.'"

"This will be quite different."

"Different how, exactly?"

"I've built a Demon King's castle there."

Arjio smiled, his face brimming with happiness, and Yu Seongun fell silent.

"..."

Yes, he'd known this day would come eventually.

"... I was prepared for this."

"Are you crying?"

"Never seen a Curator cry before?"

"I recall seeing you cry last time, Mr. Yu Seongun."

"I seem to remember you being the cause then too. Don't you remember that part?"

"I do."

"Of course you do..."

Yu Seongun dragged up a sigh from the very depths of his belly and asked, "So that's what we're talking about? A Demon King's castle?"

"I'm glad you've understood."

Jio gave him two thumbs up.

"I had a thought once."

"You could stand to think less."

"I want notoriety. But it's fair to say that 'Arjio' has done almost nothing wrong in practical terms. At least, I believe you all said that was how you saw it. Didn't you?"

"Oh, please..."

"So I tried to build a new evil reputation to make living as 'Arjio' easier, but Ju-hyeon objected vehemently. He said that would lead both sides into sin."

"Nice."

Yu Seongun and Ju-hyeon bumped fists.

"I knew I could count on you, Ju-hyeon."

"I don't think we're in the clear yet, but that ranks among the top five things I've done right in my life."

"Not number one? That's a surprise."

Jio said, "There's an even bigger surprise still to come."

"Right. I'm fairly sure you promised to restrain yourself, so hearing that you've gone and built an entire Demon King's castle has already sent my heart plummeting to the Earth's inner core. Go ahead."

"I'm going to become a Demon King."

"... I see!"

Ju-hyeon smiled, his features composed.

"Why don't you come over here so we can have another little talk?"

"Calm down, Ju-hyeon. I certainly haven't ignored what you told me last time. I genuinely think you made a very valid point."

"And?"

"So I decided to bring in the evil god Arjio."

"..."

A moment later, Ju-hyeon realized what Jio was getting at.

"... You mean you're going to use your existing notoriety rather than force yourself to build a new evil reputation? Since it is true that you were active as an evil god in another dimension?"

More precisely, he seemed to mean using the evil deeds of 'the evil god Arjio,' who had a record of actually causing trouble, rather than those of 'Arjio,' who had been falsely accused of all manner of things.

Jio confirmed it.

"I like how well you understand me, Ju-hyeon."

"I didn't want to understand you quite this well."

Yu Seongun looked at Ju-hyeon with a wistful smile.

"I won't see you out."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"If you're already understanding him this well, it must mean you're about ready to leave the category of human behind. When you become a bishop, make sure you still acknowledge my greetings."

"It's not that bad, and I have no intention of letting it get that far. But if it does, I swear I won't let you off the hook. Let's see how well you get on after abandoning a comrade."

"I may not look it, but I serve the Snowfield. Keeping two households would be a bit much."

"Surely you know that having a mouth doesn't mean you can say whatever you please?"

Ju-hyeon turned back to Jio with another composed smile.

"As I understand it, much of the evil god Arjio's reputation was exaggerated. Even if he did far worse things than the human Arjio, you said a lot of things were tacked on without your say as that reputation spread."

"... It's not as though I did nothing."

"Why the delayed response? Doesn't that mean even you know there's something off about this?"

"In any case, it doesn't change the fact that this wicked Divinity fucked up the world."

"And I'm telling you, how that happened is highly questionable."

"Our evil god did bad things too, I tell you."

True, humans had falsely blamed him for a great deal, but an evil god was called an evil god for a reason. 'Arjio,' the pure wrath formed from the vengeful souls of saints, had cursed the world and committed massacres.

"Of course, the plague, the Demon King's army, cannibalism, and so on weren't my doing."

"See?"

"Still, even discounting all that talk of misfortune and calamity that used me as an excuse, 'the evil god Arjio' was a tremendous slaughterer in his own right. That, at least, will never change."

The Arjio before them now was closer to an individual who had shaken off all those hate-filled, vengeful souls. Even so, he could not deny having once shared their body.

"Those really are my sins, my evil deeds."

So this wasn't false advertising.

"It may not be one hundred percent, but this product is a good eighty-one percent full."

"Isn't that a slightly questionable definition of full?"

"These days, eighty-one percent is excellent value for a product."

"Well, I mean, sure..."

Yu Seongun's expression turned peculiar. He wasn't sure an eighty-one-percent pure evil-god content was anything to celebrate. It might please Arjio, with all his talk of notoriety and Demon Kings, but it was a decidedly bizarre sensibility.

Ju-hyeon seemed to share the thought; he was rubbing his face. Sankalut asked, "Are you afraid?"

"Yes."

"This seems a little different."

"It feels like leaving a child unattended by the water..."

"..."

"This definitely counts as fear."

Without a word, Sankalut draped itself around Ju-hyeon's neck again like an ordinary python. It couldn't understand what this sturdy vessel was talking about. It would have to ask for an interpretation later.

Entirely unconcerned with Sankalut's reaction, Ju-hyeon lowered his hand from his face and looked up.

"... You really did understand and accept what I said, right?"

"Oh, of course."

As Ju-hyeon had said before, what had once happened in the 'Animal Kingdom' certainly wasn't desirable. If falsely accusing innocent people and making them out to be monsters more vicious than they truly were had been right, all those blameless saints would never have been scorned and reborn as an evil god of wrath.

"Making Earth follow the same path would be excessively wicked."

"I'm truly glad you think so."

Unable to make any sense of their conversation, Sankalut stared into space with round eyes. What exactly was excessively wicked, and what was there to be glad about? It would have to ask for an interpretation of this too.

Unconcerned, Jio continued his explanation.

"But I still want to enjoy quality combat. You might call it pleasure without responsibility, but haven't I brought in a solid historical basis rather than a falsely advertised product precisely to shoulder that minimum of responsibility?"

"Right. And built a dungeon?"

Yu Seongun smiled with his usual unflappability.

"What exactly do you want to do with this dungeon?"

"A religious war..."

"Wait. Stop right there."

He folded his arms and closed his eyes.

"Mr. Yu Seongun?"

"..."

"..."

"... All right. I've sorted it out."

His face full of resignation, Yu Seongun delivered a clear answer.

"You're determined to bring Earth crashing down, are you?"

"Oh, come now. Why put it like that?"

Arjio cackled.

"There's no need to worry."

"About what, exactly?"

"Earth now has a dependable pillar to support it."

"Don't tell me you mean yourself."

"Right on the first guess. To be precise, Black Cloak will fulfill that role."

"It's lovely to see so much self-love."

"That is rather like me."

Arjio was an evil god of wrath, war, and pain. For him to grow dull in peace was unthinkable. Ultimately, he wanted war between himself and beings of rare worth.

But Jio knew that was a rather selfish thing to do. Nor did Arjio want to behave like the petty people he despised. So Jio had to compromise.

"Something that lets me cause a little trouble without harming Earth, myself, or those around me. Something where even a minor initial incident could have its damage greatly exaggerated, raising my notoriety. And something that could also create an opportunity to fight people with the makings of champions..."

"And no matter how you look at it, religion's your only option?"

"I can't very well orchestrate everything from beginning to end, can I?"

Even if he tried, he would be so clumsy that he was bound to be exposed halfway through. No, bound to fail. Even the god of death had said that although Arjio was born an evil god, he wasn't cut out to be evil.

"So I thought—"

"Oh, I get it. I get it. You want to draw on your old notoriety and pick a fight with Earth."

"I determined there was no problem with it. As a god, I can tell you that blasphemy is no big deal. I already know several religions on Earth that would never tolerate an evil god of wrath and greed like me."

"You go on and on about being human when it suits you, but now you're a god again? Well, I understand what you mean. There's the Sun Cult, for one, and the Moon Cult..."

"So we'll bring in 'the evil god Arjio's' notoriety and mount a campaign to defeat him. It will be a justified campaign. The fighting will take place in the 'Animal Kingdom,' another dimension, so Earth won't suffer any damage."

"... Hunters get assigned to dungeons all the time once they're known to be dangerous, anyway."

"But left at that, we'd likely get a crowd of nobodies. That's not what I want. What I want is to fight 'heroes.'"

"Heroes..."

Yu Seongun looked at Ju-hyeon, who gave him a firm smile.

"Why are you looking at me?"

"We've got a hero right here, recognized by both our Jio and the Guild Master."

"Excuse me, can't you see I'm Unawakened? Right now, one wrong breath from any of you could kill me. Your first thought should be protecting a fragile civilian."

"You don't sound all that fragile. You're very brave for someone Unawakened, Ju-hyeon."

In any case, Yu Seongun nodded.

"So you want to give it a religious slant."

"Yes. Their devotion is blind."

They knew how to feel pure wrath.

"I want that unseeing, blind devotion."

A battle of true wrath.

"Because that is the reason I exist."

"... Would it be hard to feel satisfied just fighting in the dungeon you've already built? Surely you don't mean to see it through to the end like the mermaids. A Divinity couldn't die that way, either."

Sankalut alone was proof enough: for all the humans' desperate efforts, sealing it had been the best they could manage. Mortals could not kill immortals. That was the natural order, the way of things.

"I just don't know what sort of ending you want."

"I've never seen an end. What I see now is merely the process. As you said, Mr. Yu Seongun, I'm an immortal being, aren't I?"

"... Then what will you do once this war you want is over?"

"I think I'll rest for a while."

There was more to the present Jio than 'Arjio.' There was Seo Jio, thoroughly drained by extroverted activities, and Giovanni, who deeply disapproved of bloodshed.

"So if I do have a goal... yes."

There was only one end he needed to reach through this process.

"I want complete assimilation with 'Arjio.'"

"What, are you going to pass on in peace?"

"Ahahaha...! You could say it's quite similar to that."

As the Arjio he was now, he hoped to bring the 'evil god's' war to an end.

* * *

(To be continued)