A World Where Sky and Sea Meet
Long ago, there were two merfolk who called each other family.
The older sister wished to analyze the limits of humankind; the younger brother wished to learn their culture.
Among them, the younger brother, Iser, prayed for a day when humans and merfolk might live side by side. It was a wildly fanciful wish for an age drowning in mutual terror and contempt between the two races. The merfolk knew that well enough.
"A world where sky and sea are joined… What a magnificent wish."
The one who said so was the first human Iser had ever met.
Long golden hair that curved like waves. Blue eyes heavy with wisdom. The man who always favored white clothing introduced himself as both a priest and a doctor.
"Just hearing it lifts the spirit."
"…"
He had been born with a color no merfolk could help but follow with their eyes.
Merfolk revered white humans.
"…Humans are lovely creatures, but fickle ones. Is it still too much to hope such a day will come?"
"I will not say it will be easy. Humans and merfolk differ in so many ways."
He offered realistic counsel.
"Even among themselves, humans fail to understand one another and end up hating. How much worse, then, the strife between human and merfolk?"
Then he added, gently,
"But if more people come to share thoughts like yours, Iser, that day will arrive someday."
"…"
"In the end, it is a matter of perception. I believe hatred is an emotion that can be overcome as soon as one truly understands the other."
"…Hearing you say that has brought me great joy."
It was a dreamlike conversation.
"I love the sun. I think it is as splendid as humans themselves — each of them carrying their own beautiful colors through a brief life."
"I was under the impression that merfolk serve the god of the sea. And yet you say you love the sun."
"That is true. Of course I serve the god of the deep… but sunlight is warm and mild. It has a dignity different from the abyss."
"I understand what you mean. From time to time, falling asleep beneath the sun feels wonderful."
"That is a hard thing to do in the sea."
Iser longed for the land.
"That is why I want all the more to take in the lives of humans with my own eyes."
"As a son of the sun, I affirm your courage, Iser."
"Thank you for not rejecting the children of the deep."
With the help of the human named Giovanni, the merfolk siblings pretended to be human. The sister nurtured her dream of becoming a doctor; the brother, his dream of becoming a priest.
"You serve the god of the deep, yet you still wish to become a priest of the sun?"
"I am not an apostle of the deep, so I am not forsaking my duty. And more than that — if I serve both gods, would the day of their union not come sooner?"
"A simple thought, and a fine one. May the Sun look upon your heart, accept you as family, and grant you Her holy power."
Giovanni was the only one who never condemned Iser's impossible dream.
He was kind and tender. A little mischievous, too — he would toss playful remarks at Iser and his sister — and as both priest and physician, he was competent enough to stay up night after night saving countless lives.
Sometimes he said silly things, and sometimes he became shameless enough to leave one speechless…
"I want to become like Gio."
"Then you will have to study medicine diligently as well, will you not?"
"Th-that is not what I meant. I do not want to see blood."
Giovanni was a man worthy of respect.
Even in an age overflowing with conflict and condemnation, he alone remained always at peace — cheerful, gentle.
"There is blood that flows even within peace and mercy, Iser."
"…"
In a time when everything was upheaval, only Giovanni stayed fixed in place.
"Teacher… you will stay here, won't you?"
"I cannot."
The only thing the siblings truly feared was Giovanni's lifespan.
"I am human, so I will die far sooner than you merfolk."
"We already know that well."
"So I cannot clearly promise that I will remain at your side forever."
"…"
"But apart from that, I will promise that everything else will remain the same. No matter how the age's strife and suffering rage, the human that I am will not change."
"…Even though you are human and not merfolk, you can say that?"
"Even if I die someday, I am certain that whenever you remember me, I will still be the same."
Parting from him would be terribly sad — yet even this brief exchange was enough to comfort Iser.
"Can you promise that even after your body returns to the earth, you will still be the same human you are now?"
"Be at ease, Iser. You are my fine student — how could I ever go against that expectation?"
"Thank you for quieting such a foolish worry. Watching humans leave and change again and again must have hurt my heart."
"I understand that feeling. As a human myself, I often feel bitterness toward the way the world moves."
"I am so glad it was not only me. That I am not alone…"
He wished that Giovanni would not easily corrupt or collapse the way other humans did.
But soon enough, Iser regretted it.
"…"
"Run."
Why did I ever make him promise that?
If only he had made a selfish choice like any other human, things might have been better.
"G-Giovanni…"
"Never come back here, do you understand? This place is neither home nor school anymore."
"Gio, wait—"
"Don't think of saving me. You are still young. You have no reason to suffer merely for the tide of an age."
"…Teacher…"
"Promise me."
If only you had turned selfish.
"There's someone who hid merfolk here! There's a traitor!"
If only you had been unable to endure the terror of a future promised only pain and death.
"Over here! Set this place on fire! Burn them with those horrible merfolk!!"
"Drag that traitor out at once!! Raising merfolk — how disgusting…!"
"Why in the world did you hide merfolk? You, who have saved so many human lives!"
If you had abandoned us and fled, or betrayed us — how much easier would this wicked heart of mine have been…
"They have not committed sins great enough to deserve your wrath. They are only children."
"He must have gone mad, calling monsters like merfolk children. He is a traitor to humanity!!"
"If that is enough to end this village's nightmare, then call me so."
"You hypocrite…! Putting on that kind face and playing at good deeds while raising merfolk behind our backs!!"
"I hope that someday this relationship of suffering will reach a peaceful end."
Giovanni remained noble to the last.
"…"
Even when I was locked in that narrow tank built from human cruelty.
Even when the hunger was so vicious my organs felt as if they were melting, and I drove my sharp fangs into that rotting, festering flesh.
You were still gentle.
"…"
Why is it so cold?
"…"
"Are you okay?"
A human child asked him.
Only when that young face entered his vision did the merfolk realize he had woken from a wicked dream.
"Your expression was really bad."
"…I must have had a nightmare."
"Yeah? Should I tell the priest?"
"It is not that serious a problem."
With a smiling face, he refused the kindness.
I do not want human help right after a dream like that.
Why had he suddenly dreamed of Giovanni?
Because I am in the Sun God's embrace…? Or because of that human named Seo Ji-oh I saw yesterday?
The merfolk rolled his pearl-colored eyes and recalled the man he had seen at the venue. The figure cloaked entirely in a black mantle had certainly possessed a striking presence.
Around that man alone, everything had been as still as if every living thing had died. Mana had shrunk back as if gauging a sovereign's temper, and the air itself had contracted, flowing in silence.
The man was probably a hunter so strong he could no longer properly be called human.
Of all names, it had to be Ji-oh…
No — perhaps it was never about the name at all.
"…"
It was unpleasant.
That he had seen the image of his noble teacher in some fickle, selfish human.
It disgusted him even more than the way he himself was now, wearing a human disguise and joining his sister's slaughter…
"…"
"Eun-ha, does your head hurt?"
"…A little."
Don't be kind to me.
"You'll feel better soon, though."
Please, just be horrible.
There is no chance I will ever extend mercy toward humans again at this point.
No matter what he did, Iser hated humans.
Selfish humans were hateful because they dragged up that day's terrible nightmare; selfless humans were hateful because they dared to ape his teacher.
A merfolk's rage was not something a single lifetime could erase.
In the end, before pain and death, they are vulgar creatures that thrash about like mere insects.
The mere fact that one of them had spoken to him was enough to be repulsive.
"…"
Even so, he smiled.
It was the greatest kindness this wicked merfolk was capable of.
"Sorry. Did I wake you?"
"No? It wasn't that. I just wasn't used to the sleeping place…"
"Then we can sleep together now."
"Yeah. Thanks."
"Nothing to thank me for."
Even though he was sick of himself for blindly hating an entire race and joining his sister's massacre, he could not stop.
Iser looked at the human child lying comfortably beside him and twisted his lips.
"…"
Just as much as my teacher.
Exactly that much.
I hope everyone dies horribly.
Me, and all of you.
The day of the main ceremony.
"Huh?"
The procession of priests had begun.
"That's it, right?"
"Yeah, the priestly procession."
"Everyone looks so young — must be the initiation."
"About time the Sun Temple held an initiation."
"Wow, look how cute the kids are."
Eight in the evening. Held around the hour when most office workers left for home, the event drew plenty of onlookers. Initiations were usually conducted in the late afternoon so that they might receive the god's gaze.
"Young as they are, they're still priests — that sacred feeling is something else."
"Just watching them feels purifying. Is it because it's the Sun Temple? It's warm, too."
"Should we call a few more people? You never know — someone might get chosen today."
Even if gods had grown more familiar since before the Great Cataclysm, their majesty remained intact. People were excited at the chance that one of these young priests might be embraced by the divine in a miracle before their eyes.
Even without such calculating motives, the priestly procession was more than enough to gather stares. Censers swaying like bells, and — as befit the Sun Temple — the symbols of the sun held in the hands of the priest candidates.
"Ah… it's warm…"
"The Sun Temple, all right."
On a day this bitterly cold, the mild and majestic solar procession stirred a feeling all its own.
"…Wow…"
"…"
It was the same for Yu Seong-un and Ji-oh's party.
"I haven't seen many initiations, so I didn't really have a sense for them — so this is what they're like."
"You haven't seen them often?"
"Initiations aren't held all the time… and you have to consider the date and everything."
Among the weaker faiths, there were places that might hold such a ceremony once a decade, if that.
"Especially preparing a lavish initiation like the one we're looking at takes a fair amount of capital. Initiations for faiths without money or influence aren't this grand. They more or less just pray at the temple and call it done."
So an event like this was a rather fine spectacle. For city-dwelling citizens, it was quite a special occasion.
"They're starting to head into the temple. We've already got seats reserved, so let's go in ahead."
Yu Seong-un glanced back at Ji-oh.
"If we wait any longer, too many spectators will pile up and finding our seats will be a pain."
"Understood."
"Is the crowd too much for you? Last time you came out, you didn't seem to enjoy the noise much either."
Even though the previous outing had ended safely, Yu Seong-un still knew very little about the Portrait of Ji-oh.
He never knew which sudden detail might become a trigger and provoke an aggressive response.
Casualties of that scale, the guildmaster would brush off without a second thought — he'd even be delighted that something entertaining had turned up to watch… which is all the more reason I have to stay careful.
Bi Sa-beol was kind only to his collection pieces; objectively, he could hardly be called a good man. And Yu Seong-un himself, thinking this, would only feel a bitter twinge if people died and leave it at that.
Around then, the artwork spoke.
"I am a little tired, but not enough to warrant your concern."
"…Right. That's a relief, then."
As expected, a work with formidable patience.
Still, I should stay alert.
As the procession gradually entered the temple and the crowd began to settle, the priest who had stood at the very front set the incense he was carrying upon the altar and brought the priest candidates to a halt.
Like a choir conductor, he gestured and arranged the young priests.
"…Goddess who lights heaven and earth with gentle radiance, send down Your fire upon this place where Your servants have gathered today. These young priests are like new shoots grown in the wake of Your light…"
Kang Seo-dam, the priest who had recited the prayer announcing the initiation, soon brought it to a close.
"Receive the small light."
"Receive the small light."
After finishing the Sun Temple's prayer, Kang Seo-dam bowed his head to the altar, then turned and bowed once more to the priest candidates standing in their places, each holding the symbol of the sun.
Confirming that the candidates bowed in return, Kang Seo-dam spoke.
"This is the temple of the sun, yet the sun is never forced upon the priest candidates. You will learn, with the aid of the Goddess of the Sun, how to face the gods and how to become Their servants. May today's initiation become the means by which you gain another set of parents."
Ting—
Kang Seo-dam rang a silver bell and continued.
"Before you cultivate the body and spirit to serve new parents, the priest candidates will first take time to give thanks for the bonds of the secular world. Until the closing ceremony begins, please exchange your greetings."
The initiation was divided into Parts One and Two, and between them was a kind of intermission so that candidates could spend time with their families. Not every religion did this, but the Sun Temple's initiation did.
Thanks to prior instruction, the priest candidates all moved toward their respective places.
"Mom, Mom…!!"
"Oppa, I'm a priest now!"
"This outfit is so cool!"
Some vanished at a quick trot to spend time with their families; others headed off to rest in the waiting room.
"…"
He, too, had been about to move in order to rest.
"…?"
Into Kang Seo-dam's eyes came a priest candidate who, for some reason, was only lingering in place, going nowhere.
…That was the child named Eun-ha, wasn't it?
The boy with striking blue-green hair that somehow called the sea to mind. His holy power itself carried a strong, cool aura, as if he truly leaned in that direction.
I know he is a Carnation child with no family to speak with separately. Why is he just standing there?
He could not afford to manage even a single priest under his charge carelessly. Kang Seo-dam looked around.
Who is he looking at right now?
Following the child's gaze, he found a black-haired priest candidate being hugged by his family.
That child is…
The name had been Cha I-sol, if he recalled correctly.
"…Ah."
The black mantle was among them as well.
The one I saw last time.
Kang Seo-dam remembered how that figure had merely observed the previous event and then departed cleanly, in a manner unbefitting a god.
The initiation itself is rather long. If he has shown himself again today, is it after all to receive a new believer?
Watching with that question in mind, he saw that Eun-ha's gaze was fixed upon the black mantle.
"…"
Perhaps he wanted to slip into that little group.
Well, that side is especially bustling. For a Carnation child, it would be natural enough to feel envy.
Fortunately, before long Cha I-sol dragged Eun-ha over. Quick on the uptake, he was naturally introducing his partner to his family.
Kang Seo-dam watched carefully in case that consideration might bruise the boy's pride, but Eun-ha's mood as he was pulled along did not seem all that bad.
"…That should be fine now."
The black mantle, too, seemed like a god with a high degree of understanding toward humans, so there would likely be no great problem.
Only then did Kang Seo-dam move his feet to take his rest as well.
(To be continued)