Chapter 63

I tried very hard.

Iser was too firm of heart and too altruistic to come to hate humans overnight.

He tried many times to approach humans.

It was not that I meant to use that as an excuse and say I had done enough.

Yes, I do not want to grow complacent over something so small, but...

"..."

It really was fine.

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

"A-Aaaagh...! A m-mermaid...!!"

It was sad to earn contempt and hatred even after saving someone's life, but he could endure it.

"I can treat you."

"Don't lie. How am I supposed to trust a mermaid's words?"

"But..."

"If you touch me, I'll kill you."

"..."

It was fine that the heart with which he had tried his best to be considerate was trampled on as if it were nothing.

"A mermaid? Isn't that a monster?"

"..."

"I heard they eat people. Wow, that's horrible."

Being condemned not for a crime he had committed, but for his very existence itself, was tolerable in its own way.

"..."

"..."

"Iser."

His elder sister called him.

"Giovanni has been put on trial."

"... He is a renowned priest of the sun, so will he not be all right? They are allies, are they not?"

"He will be put to death for being a traitor. You heard it too, didn't you? They called him a traitor to humanity."

"But Teacher... saved so many people all this time."

"What a magnificent stretch. Since when did humans ever care about such things?"

"I do not understand. Did no one speak up for him?"

"They say he hid mermaids, so he is being condemned instead. It is no different from what we saw that day."

"Why did no one..."

"Humans are such fascinating creatures, are they not? How very fickle they are."

"... Why..."

"They once praised Jio's character and ability and lauded him as the son of God, yet now that his light has been shared with the sea, they noisily call him a disgrace to humanity."

He was the only person who had affirmed the sea.

He was a noble being who said mermaids and humans were no different, and who had waited with him for the day when sky and sea would become one.

He knew, from at his side, just how immense the mercy his mentor had shown was, and how much love and affection he had poured out.

He had been someone who truly cherished his patients and respected his friends.

"... That makes no sense..."

All of that had been denied.

'And by humans like him, no less.'

That was too hard even for a patient mermaid.

He could not bear it, it was not fine, and he could not endure it.

We mourned and came to terms with even his natural death for years because even that felt too wasteful, so how can you kill him yourselves?

How can you be so horrible?

"..."

Does that person's pain not sadden you?

"I am thinking of conducting an experiment."

"..."

"Do you still like humans? Do you still think they are fickle but lovable creatures?"

"... No..."

"Then do you trust them? Do you believe they will return kindness with kindness, that you can entrust your back to them?"

"... I do not think so."

"If you have sorted it out, return to the sea with me."

His elder sister whispered sweetly.

"As you know, we cannot move people's hearts with a single glance or touch the way Giovanni could. To the creations of the sun, the cold touch of a mermaid would only be chilling."

She was right.

"And because of that, we can give them pain."

"Pain..."

That was also right.

"My younger brother, Iser."

"... Yes, Sister."

"Will you come with me?"

And so Iser decided to endure it just one more time.

"No."

It was not for the humans' sake.

"I will look for another way."

It was for Giovanni, who had loved everything in the world to the very end.

"Humans and mermaids have already begun a war for you to choose such a soft path. And it will be a war more vulgar and cruel than you can imagine."

"I know."

"If that is your choice, then I must respect it. Do your very best until you have no regrets left, Iser."

"... Thank you."

It was a very sad truth, but Giovanni was not the sort of person who would dream of revenge because humans had betrayed him.

'So tormenting humans and building up infamy for my mentor's sake would instead be a path that betrays him twice.'

He did not want to use that noble person as an excuse to vent his anger vulgarly like humans did.

"..."

Even after that, Iser endured dozens, hundreds of times.

He saved an innocent child during the war.

The mermaids did not understand their eccentric kin, but simply ignored him, while the humans instead framed Iser with an absurd accusation and attacked him.

"One."

He dragged a pregnant woman who had fallen into the sea onto land.

But the pregnant woman drowned while struggling not to be grabbed by a mermaid's cold hands, and when the humans saw it, they screamed that mermaids now even ate pregnant women.

"Two."

He pretended not to see a soldier floundering so pitifully he was not even worth attacking.

He did not want to see blood, but one month later, that soldier came looking for him and hurled attacks and abuse at him.

In the end, Iser had no choice but to see blood.

"Three..."

The humans he barely managed to befriend either died or had betrayal in mind, and whatever Iser did was considered filthy, raising his infamy.

Humans released poison into the sea.

A child died.

He treated a wound.

He was stabbed in the side...

"..."

And one day, when he counted.

"... One thousand six hundred forty-three."

It had already passed one thousand.

"... Ah, ugh..."

On the last day he counted the number, Iser ate his own mentor.

"... Huu, hehehe..."

His entire body throbbed.

"Hah, aaaaaah...! Aaaagh...!!"

He was hungry.

He was so, so hungry.

"Aaaaaaaaaaagh!"

* * *

"..."

Though it was evening, it was as bright as midday.

'It's just like the midnight sun.'

That phenomenon often seen in the polar regions, when the sun did not set even after night came.

'So this is the romantic city of Seoul. It's overflowing with dopamine...'

Jio thoroughly enjoyed the pounding of his heart as he watched the procession of priests from the temple.

The second part of the event was carried out far more splendidly than the first.

If the first part had emphasized the solemnity unique to religious people, the second part seemed to have a much stronger feeling of being a true "event."

Clusters of light glittered here and there, and the priests' white robes fluttered.

There was so much to see that it almost made his eyes dizzy.

"How is it? Worth watching?"

"I like it very much."

"I'm glad."

Yu Seongun gave his characteristic light smile.

"The event lasts a long time, so I wondered if you'd be all right."

"I am certainly a little tired, but..."

Once he returned to the cabin now, he did plan to shut himself in the house for a week.

Because he had started to tire little by little from the moment he stepped outside, Jio's stamina had long since hit rock bottom.

"Still, this is an event worth seeing."

"I guess that's the influence of the god you're supporting?"

He was asking whether Jio liked the Sun Cult Ceremony because he enshrined the Sun God.

"That may be so."

It did not feel as comfortable as his own home, but it felt as comfortable as a friend's house.

"..."

"Jio?"

"... I was thinking for a moment about old friends."

Were those bastards still alive after thirty-one years?

'I'm curious how the kids are doing, too.'

It was something he thought about from time to time, but now that he had been outside this long, he naturally thought of the people he had known thirty-one years ago.

'The elders in that mountain village in Gangwon-do were already old, so I am not getting my hopes up there.'

Still, he might be able to learn roughly how the students he had taught were doing.

"..."

No, but what if he did that and got dragged off to a laboratory?

'In movies, one moment of carelessness born from nostalgia usually shoves that person's life off a cliff, so is there any guarantee it wouldn't happen to me?'

Evolving from a human into a haunted portrait was, judging by Yu Seongun's reactions that occasionally showed, definitely an incredible thing even in this hellish Korea, no matter how he thought about it.

Jio once again resolved to just shut up and stay holed up.

'If we are fated to meet, we will meet even if I do not mean to.'

While thinking such thoughts full of dreams and hope.

"Ah... Looks like it's wrapping up soon."

"It was quite long."

"Induction ceremonies like this are also events meant to show off the religious order's prestige."

Especially for the Sun Cult, which boasted a fairly large following in Seoul, this level of splendor was probably necessary.

'There was also that unpleasant disappearance case recently.'

Thinking that, Yu Seongun glanced over at Jio.

'... No matter how I think about it, that incident seems connected to this guy...'

Jio truly seemed to feel nothing about it.

'Either Jio really knows nothing, or he knows and simply can't feel much emotion about it. Either way, with Jio's peculiar nature, there are aspects that make sense, which only makes it more confusing.'

They were watching the event draw to a close when it happened.

"..."

A momentary instinct.

'... What is this?'

It was cold.

'It isn't a glacier.'

Because he was a Gardener, he knew the essence of energies.

He smelled a natural pressure that crushed the human body and, seeping out from it, a fishy scent like blood.

'Then this is...'

A cold, damp, dark pressure.

'The sea?'

Yu Seongun soon realized it was the energy of the sea.

Was it not a sensation that could never be felt naturally?

Yu Seongun instinctively searched for the source.

"Ah..."

When his eyes met those of blue-haired "Eunha," Yu Seongun felt a sense of dismay.

"Oh, no."

RUMBLE...!

"Was I too careless?"

A chillingly deep-blue energy surged in.

That energy was not like swaying mist.

It had a viciousness that sought to seize life at once, and a savagery that called forth human fear with sharp claws.

He immediately grasped the situation.

"It's a Virtual Dungeon."

With Yu Seongun's quick judgment as the last thing, the entire temple was dyed blue.

ROOOOOAR...!

A noise loud enough to hurt the ears rose as if marble pillars were being scraped by enormous claws.

As it scraped at the eardrums with a grating sound, the whole world distorted in chaos as though shards of glass were bursting apart, and waves foaming white greedily devoured people.

"..."

Yu Seongun, whose expression was always calm, twisted his face into a mass of wrinkles.

'... I can't predict the damage, but there is at least one thing that's certain.'

He was working overtime again today.

"Phew..."

CRUNCH!

"I'm tired already."

Yu Seongun created an ice spear and drove it into the floor.

'I must not be swept far away.'

Having made his judgment as an experienced Hunter, Yu Seongun braced himself with the spear he had driven into the floor.

At the powerful cold and waves, Yu Seongun turned to the portrait.

"Jio, be careful...!"

And there.

"..."

"..."

There was a huge "eye."

Yu Seongun felt a terrible stillness, as if time had stopped.

What is that?

An eye?

"..."

It resembled nature, but he could not tell whether it belonged to the sun or the sea.

He saw an illusion in which scattered fragments of light sparkled in pieces, flickering chaotically as though pulsing, and illuminating deep waves whose depths could not be known.

Unable to take his eyes off it for even a moment, Yu Seongun looked at the portrait swept up in the waves.

There was a sea there, inside it.

It was a white sea distorted by light.

That sea spoke.

『Where the sun does not reach...』

That voice was like nature itself.

『I have come to the deep sea.』

Why did it sound like a god's judgment?

Even as it entered his eyes, he could not perceive it.

It was as if he could hear the sound of sunlight pouring down.

He heard the sound of warmth.

The waves mingled with it, then soon hid their teeth and curled in on themselves.

It was only after that that Yu Seongun regained enough awareness to notice anything at all.

"..."

Sound returned, and time escaped from stillness and began to flow.

The powerful noise that hurt his ears and the tinnitus like a dead man's obstinacy vanished, and the waves that had been ferocious like a monster of the abyss died down again and grew calm...

"..."

"..."

"..."

The scenery of the world had changed.

"Ah..."

A bloody, eerie chill.

Yu Seongun looked around.

He could see people.

"... Wh-where are we...?"

"A dungeon? Fuck, is this a dungeon?"

"I-is there a Hunter here?!"

This place, where people who had just come to their senses were noisily clamoring, was clearly a dungeon.

"..."

Yu Seongun took in the shadowy, dark-blue space.

The vast cavern, whose ceiling was impossible to see, was eerily lit by watery reflections of unknown origin.

Yu Seongun's gaze then reached the blue pillars of water standing throughout the cavern.

A sigh escaped him on its own.

"... Oh, for crying out loud..."

It was packed full of chimeras whose forms looked close to aquatic creatures.

"This is a problem."

For some reason it had felt ominous from the moment they entered, and the dungeon's difficulty looked quite high.

'There are far more people dragged in than would be normal for a typical Virtual Dungeon, too.'

Yu Seongun barely held on to his mind, which wanted to return home, and calmly assessed the situation he was in.

The so-called "Virtual Dungeon" forcibly dragged people who met arbitrary conditions into another dimension and made them play a game.

Judging from the number of participants and how bizarre the game was, one could tell the dungeon master's capabilities.

'And even just counting the ordinary people gathered in this cavern, there are close to twenty... There may be people dragged into other places as well, so in many ways, this is excessive. I can tell how hard this dungeon's master gritted their teeth and prepared.'

And as an A-class Hunter belonging to Collector, one of South Korea's top three guilds, Yu Seongun had a responsibility to protect these people and complete the strategy.

"..."

With this ragtag mob of citizens, that is.

* * *

'So he really is an A-class Hunter.'

At Yu Seongun's cool-headed appearance as he grasped and sorted out the situation in an instant, Eunha, Iser, inwardly admired him.

By Earth's standards, they said Hunters from B-class upward gradually departed from ordinary human standards starting with their way of thinking.

Then it went without saying for A-class, one class higher than that.

'I heard he was not such a famous public figure.'

Indeed, he was not to be underestimated.

'But...'

What could a mere single Hunter do in a situation like this?

'Since he has all this baggage with him, at best he will either die with the citizens or choose to flee to preserve his own life. That is what foolish beings called humans are.'

In the shadows of the cavern, far from the commotion, Iser took in the humans who were causing a terrified uproar.

"S-save me! I don't want to die here...!!"

"Where is this? Where is this? Excuse me, so where is this..."

"Aaaaaaagh...!! There are m-monsters! There are monsters here!!"

His ears grew tired.

'... Are they incapable of anything except screaming? They are absolute fools.'

The familiar displeasure he felt dozens of times a day welled up at the squawking noise.

It was a faded hatred toward humans.

"..."

Iser's role in this affair was to open the door, and that alone.

'... If my predecessor had not suddenly disappeared, I would not have needed to step forward.'

Opening a door to the deep sea in none other than the Temple of the Sun required quite a practiced technique.

'Because of that, we had already recruited and trained one of the humans in advance.'

For some reason, however, he had died at the hands of a mysterious powerhouse, and things had gotten tangled.

The day of execution was just around the corner.

And at that moment, the only one capable of opening the door was Iser.

'Nothing about this pleases me.'

After mixing among humans even for a short while, not a single part of his body or mind was intact.

'They truly are a race one must not associate with for long. It feels as if their incompetence is rubbing off on me.'

He wanted to finish this as quickly as possible and sink into the silent sea.

"Hunter, you're a Hunter, aren't you! How are you going to take responsibility for this!!"

"What...? What does this have to do with me? Don't spout nonsense about responsibility!!"

"The priests? Fuck, where did all the priests go!!"

"Th-the prospective priests are... priests too, right? Huh? You're priests, right?"

"Someone, please help us! What is happening?!"

How could one have affection for things that raved so vulgarly?

"..."

This was a place fairly late along one of the paths Earth's humans called "dungeons."

'... It is too far to return to the entrance, and the situation is not good for finding the exit, so most of them will likely die here. Even if I do not lay a hand on them, it will surely happen.'

As he was thinking of ending the matter that way, the man draped in a black cloak suddenly came to mind.

The Sun God named Jio.

"... Phew..."

With all the humans scattered in random locations, he felt stupid for unconsciously having tracked that man's location.

Why was he doing something so foolish when he was going to kill them all anyway?

'Yes, let's finish this quickly.'

If any individuals remained whole, they would be granted the honor of becoming his elder sister's test subjects.

Perhaps asking for ownership of one of them would not be so bad.

"... Then."

He took one step forward from the shadows.

And just as he gripped the staff in his hand and was about to do his work as a "monster."

"..."

Ah.

'... A presence?'

Iser turned around.

"..."

At some point, Black Cloak was standing directly behind him.

"...!"

Impossible.

'I confirmed that this person was not here.'

No matter if his opponent was something that contained divinity, for a mermaid capable of killing even a god, this was an unexpected situation.

'Was I too careless?'

Iser stepped backward.

Perhaps because he was in a child's body, he felt an oddly intense pressure from Black Cloak.

Since that large body had moved, it would have been right for at least one human to react, yet no one cast a glance toward Black Cloak and Iser.

'Why?'

At that indescribable sense of wrongness, Iser bared his sharp teeth.

They were fangs that had torn apart and eaten his mentor's body.

"What on earth are you...!"

"Iser."

"..."

... What?

"..."

"Ah, Iser..."

His name was called.

"..."

It was a call as low as a corpse.

Iser stopped.

'... He called my name.'

Like a fish touched by ice water, he froze stiff and could not move.

When the man, whose height was as great as a thick wall, bent down and stroked the child's cheek, it took only an instant for that small body to seem as though it were being swallowed by shadow.

The pitch-black cloak descended like a curtain and completely wrapped around Iser like a waterfall.

'How...'

Because of that, the mermaid in a child's body could see the face of the one looking down at him.

"Were you not cold?"

"..."

"Did it hurt very much?"

"..."

"It must have been lonely and frightening..."

A person who resembled sunlight scattered across the sea.

"..."

That warm platinum-blond hair, and eyes like brilliant waves.

Those distant blue eyes.

"I am sorry."

"..."

"I am sorry."

Were crying.

"... Ah..."

Giovanni.

My mentor, who had met the most miserable death in the world, was now a corpse, weeping before me.

* * *

Jio lost consciousness.