Chapter 145

If not for stimulation, what joy would there be in living this long life?

"There is the king of demons!"

"The beasts of the Black Forest have come out!"

People howled noisily like beasts stabbed in the throat.

"Prepare for battle!"

"Arjio is here! Aim for him!"

"Kill the wicked beast!"

The tearing sound of steel, trembling with rage and fear and excitement.

"Do not allow him to enter!"

"Kill Arjio, guh...!!"

Death cries leaked through the claws thrust in. Faint vibrations through vocal cords, warm blood. Tearing hide.

Vibrations shook my whole body. Wind brushed my skin. Red covered my eyes. When I put strength in my feet and kicked off the ground, the world shook, and I danced with the things that bared their teeth at me, sang, chattered, cheered...

Who would keep me company today? Who would take my life? Yes, let us see it together, my friends. What blood shall we use to paint what picture now?

"M-Monster..."

"..."

Ah, really.

"... Ha."

Arjio loved the battlefield.

"..."

Jio woke from sleep.

"... Oh..."

He was impressed.

"It was better than I thought."

"Mrr."

"If it's this kind of thrill, then it is rather...?"

To be honest, Jio had been suspicious of "Arjio's" tastes.

As Seo Jio, and as Giovanni, the existing Jio was not someone who enjoyed combat. To begin with, he was not the type to particularly enjoy conflict, nor did he have especially active hobbies.

But the higher his Assimilation Rate rose, the more Jio came to realize.

"It wasn't that he enjoyed conflict."

It was simply that Arjio...

"He liked clashing head-on without restraint."

"Mrow?"

"... Now that I say it, I do wonder what the difference is."

With red hair, Jio giggled. He hugged Dana.

"But being able to be faithful to your instincts... seems far, far more enjoyable than I thought."

Jio recalled the dream he had just had.

It did not stop at conflict and antagonism. It was throwing one's body and soul into it. It was not enjoying slaughter, but playing joyfully together with the things on the battlefield. That place was like a blank canvas where it did not matter if it was dirtied with blood or if dissonance rang out.

In the dream, Arjio painted. He met the gazes looking at him, answered when his opponent roared, and among them, he saved the most delicious food for last...

"..."

Playing like that was also rather...

"... Appealing."

Jio's eyes curved into a vivid smile.

He wanted to sink once more into that full, rapturous ecstasy of casting aside all human propriety and reason.

"Good morning."

"Good morning, my diligent friend."

Black Cloak asked.

"Did you sleep well overnight?"

"Ah..."

He had not exactly slept well.

'How could anyone sleep well after hearing talk about the Demon King and whatever else?'

Ju-hyeon had been unable to collect himself after the bombshell Black Cloak had dropped last night.

And yet Black Cloak himself seemed to have slept very well, but being jerked around by the absurd remarks of a vast mystery was apparently a human species trait, so Ju-hyeon had not slept at all. It was because he had heard a story he could not handle.

"..."

But he was not so out of his mind that he would complain about that openly.

"... Yes, well."

"Is that so?"

"I slept well."

Ju-hyeon smiled awkwardly.

"You're red today."

"Did you not say you liked this color best?"

"I did think that you, as you are now, express your emotions clearly, so you are easy to talk to."

"Honesty to the point of discomfort has long been one of my virtues. Thank you for recognizing it."

"Haha..."

Ju-hyeon, who had been observing Arjio, asked carefully.

"You seem to be in a good mood."

"Because I had a good dream."

"What kind of dream was it?"

"A dream where people called me a monster."

"... That was a good dream?"

"It seems it was, at least to me."

Black Cloak's eyes narrowed like a fox's.

"Though it would not be one for you at all, would it?"

"It is true that with my limited understanding, it is hard to comprehend."

Ju-hyeon could not deny it.

"Does such an insult... not hurt you?"

"..."

"..."

A moment later, Ju-hyeon's face flushed bright red.

"I'm sorry."

"No, that certainly is a surprising perspective."

"I'm sorry...!"

Ju-hyeon knew perfectly well it was a stupid thing to say. Black Cloak was none other than an evil god.

What evil god would be hurt by the infamy piled upon him? Even if he were not an evil god but a traditional god of providence, what humans babbled would not have much meaning.

'But.'

He could not let it pass like that.

"..."

"... Hmm."

Tilting his head, Arjio asked.

"You look as though you have a great deal to say."

"... Actually, I do."

"Then will you speak with me?"

"Would that not be rude?"

"A conversation with someone like you has value."

Black Cloak seated Ju-hyeon at the table, then took a seat across from him as well.

"I had originally meant to prepare a meal."

"I'm sorry it seems I delayed mealtime."

"You certainly have many things to be sorry for. It is fine to skip breakfast sometimes."

"Thank you for your consideration."

"That is much nicer to hear."

"..."

Arjio said that "thanks" were better than "apologies."

"..."

Strength entered Ju-hyeon's hands.

"Now then, let us have you speak. What are you holding in?"

"... What I say may make you uncomfortable."

"Usually, when someone says that, I do not find what follows especially uncomfortable."

"Then I can speak a little more comfortably."

"I will listen as much as you like."

"You call yourself..."

In an extremely cautious tone, Ju-hyeon continued.

"... Human."

There were far too many strange things about Black Cloak for him to be called an ordinary evil god.

"You say honesty is a virtue, so I will also speak honestly."

"I like such conversations very much."

"I do not know whether your claim to be human is a joke or sincere..."

"I have always been sincere, so this is unfortunate."

"Even taking that into account, you are an evil god unlike an evil god."

Ju-hyeon quietly took a deep breath, trying not to let it show. His fingertips trembled faintly with fear. He clenched his hands tight.

"I know you have been considerate of me all this time."

"That was thanks to my desire to make you my friend."

"If that had not been the case, would you have made things very difficult for me?"

"I have no such poor taste."

"If there is someone sick and suffering... how would you treat them?"

"Not very differently from now."

Arjio continued calmly.

"If they were wicked, I would pass them by. If they were good, I would offer them a meal. If they needed someone to talk to, I would ask for a conversation, and if they were lost, I would tell them where to go."

"... Why would you go that far for them?"

"Because to me, that is not such great consideration or mercy. I very much enjoy when someone eats my cooking deliciously, and I like seeing a good and polite person smile."

He said it as if none of it amounted to anything.

"There is no grand cause or conviction."

"... I am grateful precisely because of that."

Because consideration and mercy showed their greatest true worth when they were not grand.

"You really are kind."

If this was an evil god's ploy, Ju-hyeon must already be bewitched, but it would have been all right even if everything was a lie. Whatever the true intent was, if it was the gentle consideration he felt now, many more people would be comforted by it.

Ju-hyeon did not trust Black Cloak. Vast mysteries were beings humans could not fully interpret, so their mercy was not mercy and their love was not love. And yet, had we not lived receiving the affection of gods?

"What god would cook for a mere human? Would they wet their hands, stand before a fire, and spend that precious time? But you lowered that body of yours with ease."

"Are you not thinking too grandly over a single meal?"

"You have none of a god's arrogance, and none of an evil god's cruelty. You call yourself human and do not regard humans as insignificant beings. There is no malice, no murderous intent, only interest."

That was why it was strange.

"Who, and why, called you evil?"

"... People called me that."

"If you became an evil god merely amid false accusations and insults, is that your sin?"

"We all commit sins."

"At the very least, I know you are not someone who should be isolated in fear and contempt."

Though hesitant, Ju-hyeon continued.

"I think that you should not be treated as... the Demon King."

"..."

"... That way."

The end of his words trembled.

'He will surely be offended.'

After saying what he had wanted to say, Ju-hyeon worried that the other party might become angry.

To a god who pursued his own infamy to the point of saying absurd things about being the Demon King or whatnot, saying he was "unlike an evil god" had to be a great insult.

But unexpectedly, Black Cloak did not get angry.

"... Is that so?"

"..."

"I see."

He merely looked a little sad.

"Do you, too, think I am not qualified to be an evil god?"

"... No!"

Ju-hyeon, who had gone blank for a moment, hurriedly shook his head.

"No. I simply mean it is a difference in perspective. From a human perspective, that is not right!"

He felt awe and joy at the same time.

Amazingly, Arjio could be talked to. He was an evil god with whom it was possible to exchange opinions. There was no surging malice in him, only the purity of one who craved enjoyment.

From that, Ju-hyeon gained the will to talk. He gained some indefinable hope.

"Certainly, what I say may sound absurd to you. You may not understand it. But the dream you spoke of yesterday and said was good today ultimately means using Arjio, an innocent person, as a punching bag."

He knew gods had their own perspectives, but through his conversations with Black Cloak, Ju-hyeon had felt that he possessed a certain degree of self-awareness as a human. He was a god with quite human aspects.

Although Arjio was someone ill-suited to an evil god, he had obtained wicked divinity.

"I do not think this is... at the very least, a proper course of action."

"..."

"I properly understand what you want and what you are trying to do, but even so."

He said he wanted a desperate battle with heroes. That was probably sincere. But if, for that, the "person" called Arjio had to be denounced by the people of the world and falsely accused of all sorts of things, that was something that must not happen.

"Please don't make people commit sins."

"Commit sins?"

"You are trying to make ignorant people treat an innocent person as a sinner, are you not?"

"How is that a sin?"

Arjio asked.

"A wicked beast deserves to be treated as a sinner."

"No one should be treated as a sinner if they have not committed a sin."

"I can enjoy high-quality battles, and people can find somewhere to direct their resentment."

"Certainly, that may feel rational, but it is a bargain warped from the very foundation."

"Are there not many people in this world now who are looking for someone to resent?"

"Those many people have the right to be angry in the proper direction!"

Ju-hyeon grew a little desperate.

"After hearing what you said, I agonized over it the whole time. I thought up more ways than I could count to make you the Demon King and give countless people room to breathe. But in the end, what remains?"

"Well, countless people's room to breathe?"

"That is not actually room to breathe. If they turn the arrows of their resentment toward an innocent person and become comfortable, that is merely closer to the resignation they can feel because they are broken. They would feel comfortable because they had given up."

"What have they given up?"

"They have given up living as humans. They have given up the chance to become better. This is a world full of humans who are not worth consideration, but if there is not even the bare minimum of consideration, then for us..."

After hesitating, Ju-hyeon soon continued.

"Nothing remains."

Only beasts who could live only by condemning others would remain.

"I may be exaggerating too much. But you have that much influence."

"I think you overestimate me."

"At the very least, there is no Korean who does not know Black Cloak. That is proof."

Ju-hyeon pleaded.

"Please don't turn people capable of being human into beasts..."

"..."

Arjio was silent for a while.

Soon, he said,

"You are a hero."

Black Cloak pitied Ju-hyeon.

"How pitiful."

"... Excuse me?"

"..."

"..."

In the short silence, the evil god's hair was dyed black.

"Mm, I see..."

"Um..."

"I understand what you mean."

"... Were you offended?"

"No, it was a valid opinion."

His face was blunt, like someone who did not know how to make expressions. For a moment, Ju-hyeon wondered if he was angry, but there was no sign of that.

He merely continued speaking.

"Then let us find a compromise."

"A compromise...?"

"A compromise where people can remain human."

"Yes."

"And where it does not have to wound me."

"... Ah..."

A word he himself had spoken, yet had never imagined would come from that mouth. Black Cloak had said "wound."

Only after a long while did Ju-hyeon ask carefully.

"... When you were called an evil god, were you hurt?"

"It became a great weapon and tool for me."

The pitch-black evil god continued.

"But I was angry."

He spoke of his own pain like an adult reading a fairy tale.

"So I must have been hurt as well."

"... That is..."

"I do not know for certain, but perhaps I was."

Black Cloak said,

"Thank you for telling me."

"... I just..."

"Then shall we eat?"

"..."

Unable to do anything about his subtly twisted expression of bewilderment, Ju-hyeon soon nodded.

"... Let's do that."

For the life of him, he could not tell whether this was consideration or stubbornness.

He was such a strange god.