Chapter 152

Ju-hyeon volunteered to help prepare the meal, but he was rejected.

"You had better stay here."

"But I really feel ashamed just letting myself be fed..."

"If you wish to remain a member of the human species, please stay still."

"... Ah."

"Exactly."

Iser nodded, then went into the kitchen.

Aria gently escorted Ju-hyeon, who stood there looking dumbfounded, over to the sofa and gave him a brief explanation.

"Unless Teacher personally prepares and cooks it, it will be difficult for a human to consume."

"What happens if I eat ingredients Mr. Jio hasn't prepared and cooked...?"

"You would become one with this portrait. I assume you would not want that, gentleman."

"Would even simply preparing them be a problem?"

"Unfortunately, you have an exceedingly fragile body, so I think that would be difficult."

Aria smiled.

"It seems you want to do some sort of work, so why not set the table?"

"... Well, even I shouldn't have a problem putting out the utensils, right?"

"Nothing will change you over something as small as that, so you needn't worry."

"Thank you for the truly nourishing advice."

"Not at all."

As he watched Aria give a light nod and likewise go into the kitchen, Ju-hyeon inwardly rubbed at his suddenly chilled chest.

Whether it was an unbelievable coincidence or Jio's consideration, Ju-hyeon had never eaten unprocessed ingredients here.

'Come to think of it, everything I drank was in the form of tea or juice too.'

It seemed he had been in a fairly dangerous situation.

'Ingredients from dungeons are often harmless for humans to eat, so I let my guard down...'

Perhaps because this was the dungeon of Black Cloak, who was treated as a humanoid monster, Ju-hyeon had judged it by the standards of ordinary dungeons.

For someone like him, who knew nothing about the Root and the Garden, it was something he had no choice but to be careless about.

And naturally so, because in modern times, ingredients produced in dungeons had become useful food.

Thanks to their cheaper price compared to Earth-grown products, even ordinary middle-class households regularly used dungeon ingredients.

The same was true for Ju-hyeon.

"Hey, gentleman."

"Ah, yes."

"Would you care to enjoy some tea with me while the meal is being prepared?"

Aria came out of the kitchen and spoke while lifting the tea set on the tray.

"Jio made a new tea."

"By new tea, you mean..."

"It is a tea made of clusters of small flowers that resemble stars."

"I've tasted it before."

It was a flower Jio had brought one day, saying, "I tried growing it in the nest of waterbirds."

With a pleased expression, Ju-hyeon accepted the tray from Aria.

"It was a tea with a strong, nutty aroma."

"The people in the kitchen looked so busy that I simply brought it out."

"Is... is that all right?"

"He is not the sort of person who would get angry because I stole something to eat."

"So you did steal it."

Ju-hyeon felt strange hearing the words "I stole it" from the mouth of a humanoid monster.

Perhaps because she was a monster born from the race of mermaids, which were sometimes treated as a subspecies of humans, he found it newly surprising that she was aware she had stolen it.

'Not that I should show it.'

Ju-hyeon set the tea set on the table and brewed the tea.

"I heard from Mr. Jio that this is tea made from dried basram flowers."

"Basram flowers were cultivated in the world where I was born."

"So it was a famous enough flower tea to be cultivated."

"A single blossom was worth its own volume in gold."

"... Gold was expensive in that world too, right?"

Ju-hyeon asked with an awkward laugh.

"Why was it that expensive?"

"Because it was far too difficult to cultivate."

"What do you have to do to cultivate it?"

"They choose who raises them."

"They choose who raises them...?"

"Yes."

Aria laughed softly.

"Only a small number among the priests of the Sun could raise them in good health."

"A flower that only priests can cultivate... It certainly sounds fascinating."

"Basram flowers are grown through underwater cultivation in places where the energy of the sun is strongest."

"Underwater cultivation? Well, he did say he grew them in the nest of waterbirds. How unusual."

"At one time, basram flowers, in the pond at the deepest part of the Temple of the Sun..."

Aria trailed off, then continued a little belatedly.

"That was where they grew."

"The deepest part of the Temple of the Sun?"

Ju-hyeon imagined the situation.

"What position was the Sun Cult in at the time?"

"It was the religion that ruled the surface."

"Then these basram flowers must have been truly precious."

"They were treated as a medicinal elixir touched by the sun."

"..."

Ju-hyeon, who had been pouring the tea, stopped.

"... A medicinal elixir?"

"Yes, the highest-regarded medicinal elixir on the surface."

"Am I brewing tea with a medicinal elixir right now?"

"What is so surprising about that?"

Aria gave a neat smile.

"Everything you have eaten until now was probably that sort of thing."

"... Oh..."

POUR.

Ju-hyeon finished pouring the tea.

"All of a sudden, I feel uncomfortable drinking it."

"Teacher likely has no particular intention behind it, so you had better just drink."

"From the standpoint of a mere human, it is frightening."

"Drinking this will not bring about any great change to your identity as a human."

"If not a great change, will it bring about a small one?"

"You will become a very warm-bodied person."

"... Wild ginseng?"

"Perhaps something similar."

Aria took a sip of the tea Ju-hyeon had poured.

"Though it would be more effective than that."

"... The aroma really is nutty and nice..."

"It is exactly like the scent of well-ripened grain, isn't it?"

The mermaid's lips formed a gentle arc.

"Giovanni was the one among the priests of the Sun who held the warmest energy."

"..."

"The basram flowers he raised had the sweetest and gentlest fragrance in the world."

"... Could this be..."

"Though basram flowers can no longer grow in my dungeon."

Aria stroked the teacup, then soon continued speaking.

"Until their blossoms are harvested, basram flowers wither if even the slightest cold energy enters them. Only when those closest to the sun stand watch beside them constantly can they grow properly."

"They really are delicate flowers."

"My human teacher was the priest who made basram flowers bloom best. The Temple of the Sun wanted to call him back somehow and keep him within it. They needed him there to sell their medicinal elixirs."

"That is... a more worldly story than I expected."

"But Giovanni was too busy going out into the world to heal and comfort people. The temple must have been terribly anxious. There were also many who hated him for refusing to obey the sect's commands."

"Hmm..."

Ju-hyeon sipped the tea and asked,

"Were there no priests who cultivated the flowers privately?"

"Why would there not have been? It is just that most priests could not do it."

"Was cultivation really that difficult?"

"It was not something that could be done simply by filling the area with the energy of the sun."

"Then...?"

"They had to be loved."

Aria looked at the small blossoms floating inside the transparent tea set as if she found them adorable.

"They only grew when they were truly loved and cherished."

"... That is impressive."

Ju-hyeon nodded.

"And it takes a lot of care."

"That is why I said they were difficult to cultivate."

Soon, Aria let out a small laugh.

"Even so, there were priests who cultivated basram flowers privately. They did not possess enough energy of the sun, nor could they love mere flowers submerged in water, but in the end, they would still manage to cultivate a little."

"How was that possible?"

"Simple. They placed objects containing the energy of the sun in the cultivation room. The more such objects there were, the more the cultivation room would take on an energy similar to that of the Temple of the Sun. Let me see, for example, holy relics of the sun. The belongings of saints, and so on..."

"But would that fulfill the condition of 'love'?"

At Ju-hyeon's question, Aria set down her teacup.

"It did not."

"Then how...?"

"That is why another method was needed."

"What method was that?"

"They kept a priest's corpse there with them."

"..."

"Because of that, the temple pond was also used as the tomb of saints."

Ju-hyeon blinked and asked back.

"Pardon? They used corpses that way...?"

"I heard that it produced a result similar to 'love.'"

"... Why would that...?"

"It seems devotion offered by giving all of oneself as fertilizer was also counted as love."

Aria smiled.

"That is why basram flowers were also called 'corpse-eating flowers.'"

Compared to having the highest-ranking priests, full of the energy of the sun, raise them personally, using a few corpses of priests with moderately strong energy of the sun must have been far more cost-effective.

"In fact, it was an era when the corpses of Sun Cult priests were secretly sold."

"..."

"Of course, the quality was lower than flowers raised with genuine love."

"Uh..."

"But basram flowers raised even that way still had good effects."

Aria continued in a tone that made it sound like nothing important.

"In other words, they were medicinal elixirs with tremendous demand. They were precious enough that holy relics of the sun and even priests' corpses had to be used, and beyond their symbolic meaning, their practical effects were significant as well."

"... Could you tell me exactly what effects they have?"

"There are stories that they can even bring the dead back to life, and they warm the human body to the point that there are actually similar cases. The method of taking them was to dry them thoroughly in sunlight, grind them into powder, and mix that into water."

"At that point, wouldn't it just burn you...?"

"If it did, it would not have been treated as that precious. There are no side effects. It merely makes the body always warm at an ideal temperature, and thanks to that, one does not fall ill easily."

"..."

Ju-hyeon looked down at the teacup in his hand.

Then he looked back at Aria.

"Is it really all right for me to drink this?"

"You will not die."

"No, I think that is the problem."

"Do you wish to die?"

"Do not be tempted, please. I want to die as a human."

"I have heard that it extends one's lifespan."

"This flower does?"

"Well, I never heard of it being made into flower tea like this..."

"Ah..."

Ju-hyeon rolled his eyes and pondered.

"Would its effects be weaker if I drink it as tea?"

"Are you hoping the effect of flowers personally dried by the Sun God will be weaker?"

"... Wait a moment."

Ju-hyeon asked,

"The Sun God?"

"Oh dear, I suppose you did not know."

"Mr. Giovanni is...?"

"Do you see the teddy bear gentleman over there?"

"Oh."

Perhaps he had been helping with the kitchen work, because a teddy bear could be seen waving from inside.

"Yes, I believe he is Father..."

"He is the previous Sun God."

"Pardon?"

"Jio inherited that divinity."

"..."

At the sight of him turning pale, Aria smiled.

"Is that not good? Your friend is the Sun God. What could be more glorious than that?"

"It is certainly glorious, but no, even so... even so, this is..."

Ju-hyeon looked troubled.

"Far too much for me."

"The friend? Or this tea?"

"How am I supposed to repay this..."

"You are thinking of repaying a gift bestowed by a god."

"Th-that is one way to look at it, but..."

As if embarrassed by his own thoughts, Ju-hyeon flushed with a troubled expression.

"I cannot only receive."

"..."

"Mr. Jio is not an ordinary god, either."

"... Just a little..."

Aria's smile vanished, and she let out something like a deep sigh.

"You resemble my foolish younger brother."

"... I do?"

"Yes, just a little."

Aria soon showed him a gentle smile again.

"I wish my younger brother could have received a god's mercy at the right time, as you have."

The emotion contained in those words was so very complicated that Ju-hyeon dared not understand it.

"Then he would have become a peaceful priest, not a monster."

"... Do you regret it?"

"As you probably know well, if I regretted it, I would not be a monster."

"I suppose so."

Someone who had a dream, lingering attachment, daily life, or anything at all remaining could not become a monster.

Ju-hyeon knew that well.

"..."

That was why he could sense the end awaiting these mermaids.

The dinner that had been prepared was lamb skewers.

"Lamb skewers..."

"Do you dislike them?"

"Not really."

Ju-hyeon gave an awkward smile at the skewered meat, which looked well-marinated.

"This was golden sheep meat, right?"

"You remember well."

Jio smiled radiantly.

"It seems the lamb ribs you ate last time were to your taste."

"Th-that is true. It certainly was true, but..."

"Is there perhaps some problem? I will adjust it for you."

"..."

Soon, Ju-hyeon resigned himself.

"No, it looks delicious."

"I made it, so of course it does."

"Hahaha..."

'I need to move out soon.'

'I need to move out and live on normal food.'

The time while Dana was still wary of him was his last chance.

Ju-hyeon finished steeling himself to get a place on Earth again.

It was a unique, unexpected way of overcoming trauma.