One Thousand Six Hundred Forty-Three
He had tried so hard.
Iser was too steadfast, too selfless, to hate humanity overnight. Again and again he reached out to them.
Not that he meant to excuse himself by saying he had done enough. No—he did not want to congratulate himself over something so meager. And yet…
“…….”
It had truly been fine.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“H-hyaaak…! A-a mermaid…!!”
Being met with contempt and loathing even after saving a life was painful, but he could endure it.
“I can treat you.”
“Don’t lie. How is anyone supposed to trust a mermaid?”
“But…”
“Touch me and I’ll kill you.”
“…….”
Having the care he offered with all his heart trampled without a second thought—that, too, was fine.
“A mermaid? Isn’t that a monster?”
“…….”
“I heard they eat people. Wow, that’s disgusting.”
Being condemned not for any crime he had committed, but for the simple fact of what he was—he could bear that, in his own way.
“…….”
“…….”
“Iser.”
His sister called to him.
“Giovanni has been brought to trial.”
“…He’s a priest of the Sun of high renown. Shouldn’t he be all right? They’re on the same side, aren’t they?”
“They’ll put him to death as a traitor. You heard them yourself—a traitor to mankind.”
“But Teacher has… he has saved so many people.”
“What a magnificent stretch of logic. When have humans ever cared about that?”
“I don’t understand. Did no one speak for him?”
“They’re condemning him for hiding mermaids. It’s no different from what we saw that day.”
“Why would no one…”
“Humans are such fascinating creatures, aren’t they? You never know how fickle they’ll be.”
“…Why…”
“One moment they’re praising Gio’s character and power and calling him a son of God—and the next, the moment that light is shared with the sea, they’re clamoring that he’s a disgrace to humanity.”
He had been the only one who affirmed the sea. A noble being who told them mermaids and humans were no different, who waited with him for the day sky and sea would become one.
Iser knew how vast a mercy his teacher had poured out at his side, how much love and affection he had given. A man who had cherished his patients in earnest and respected his friends.
“…That’s impossible…”
That all of it had been denied.
And by his own kind, no less.
Even for a mermaid of great patience, that was too much. He could not endure it. It was not fine. He could not bear it.
We mourned and sorted through our grief for years because we could not bear even his natural death—and you would kill him with your own hands? Treat him so hideously?
“…….”
Does his suffering not sadden you?
“I intend to try an experiment.”
“…….”
“Do you still think well of humans? Do you still consider them changeable but lovely creatures?”
“…No…”
“Then do you trust them? Trust that goodwill will be returned with goodwill, that you can turn your back to them?”
“…I don’t think so.”
“If you’ve settled that, then return to the sea with me.”
His sister whispered sweetly.
“You know as well as I do that we cannot move people with a single glance or a single touch the way Giovanni could. A mermaid’s cold hand on a creature of the sun would only make them shudder.”
She was right.
“And that is why we can give them pain.”
“Pain…”
That was right, too.
“My little brother, Iser.”
“…Yes, Sister.”
“Will you come with me?”
So Iser decided to endure just one more time.
“No.”
It was not for the humans.
“I will find another way.”
It was for Giovanni, who had loved everything in the world to the very end.
“It’s already too soft a path to choose. Humans and mermaids have begun a war. And it will be a baser, crueler war than you can even imagine.”
“I know.”
“If that is your choice, I ought to respect it. Do your utmost until you have no regrets left, Iser.”
“…Thank you.”
A very sad truth: Giovanni was not the sort of man who would dream of revenge after being betrayed by humans.
So to torment humans and pile up notoriety in my teacher’s name would only be to betray him a second time.
He did not want to use that noble man as an excuse to throw a base tantrum the way humans did.
“…….”
After that, Iser endured dozens, hundreds of times more.
In the middle of the war he saved an innocent child. The mermaids could not understand their eccentric kin and simply ignored him; the humans, for their part, hung a preposterous false charge on him and attacked.
“One.”
He pulled a pregnant woman who had fallen into the sea up onto land. But she thrashed so hard to escape the mermaid’s cold hands that she drowned, and the humans who watched screamed that mermaids were now eating even expectant mothers.
“Two.”
He pretended not to see a soldier squirming so uselessly he was not even worth attacking. He had not wanted to see blood—but a month later the man sought him out and poured abuse and blows on 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; whatever he did was treated as filth, and his infamy only grew. Humans poisoned the sea. A child died. He treated a wound. A knife went into his side…
“…….”
And one day, when he counted them up—
“…One thousand six hundred forty-three.”
It had already passed a thousand.
“…Ah… uh…”
On the last day he counted, Iser ate his teacher.
“…Hnn… heh-heh-heh…”
His whole body throbbed.
“Hha… aaaaa…! Aagh…!!”
He was hungry.
His stomach was so, so hungry.
“AAAAAAAAAAGH—!!!”
“…….”
Even though it was evening, the light was as bright as midday.
Just like the midnight sun.
That polar phenomenon people said you sometimes saw—nights when the sun never set.
This is the romantic city of Seoul. Dopamine overflowing…
Ji-oh savored the hammering of his heart as he watched the procession of temple priests.
The second half of the ceremony was far more lavish than the first. Where the first half had emphasized the solemnity particular to religious folk, the second half felt like a true “event.”
Clusters of light glittered everywhere; the priests’ white robes fluttered. There was so much to look at that his eyes almost spun.
“How is it? Worth watching?”
“I like it very much.”
“Glad to hear it.”
Yu Seong-un wore his usual light smile.
“The event runs long—I was wondering if you’d be all right.”
“I am a little tired, it’s true…”
Once he got back to the cabin, he fully intended to hole up for a week.
He had been wearing down bit by bit from the moment he stepped outside, and by now Ji-oh’s stamina had been scraped to the bottom for a long while.
“But it’s an event worth seeing.”
“Is that the influence of the god you’re supporting, I wonder?”
In other words: did hosting the Sun God make him fond of the Church of the Sun’s ceremonies?
“It might be.”
Not as comfortable as his own home, but as comfortable as a friend’s.
“…….”
“Ji-oh?”
“…I was thinking of some old friends for a moment.”
Are those brats even still alive after thirty-one years?
I wonder how the kids are doing, too.
It was something he thought about now and then, but being outside this long inevitably brought back the people he had known thirty-one years ago.
The elders in that mountain village in Gangwon-do were already old, so I’m not expecting much there.
But the students he had taught—he might at least be able to get a rough idea of how they were.
“…….”
Yeah, but what if I get dragged off to a lab for that…?
In movies, one careless moment of nostalgia is usually what dumps a person’s life off a cliff. Who’s to say that won’t be me?
Evolving from a human into a haunted portrait was, judging by the reactions Yu Seong-un sometimes let slip, clearly a very big deal even in this hellish Korea.
Ji-oh resolved once again to shut up and stay put.
If we’re meant to meet, we’ll meet without me forcing it.
He thought that while filled with dreams and hope.
“Ah… looks like they’re wrapping up.”
“It was quite long.”
“Initiation ceremonies like this are also a chance for a church to show its power.”
Especially the Church of the Sun, which boasted a considerable following in Seoul—they would have wanted to put on a display this splendid.
And there was that unpleasant disappearance case recently, too.
Thinking that, Yu Seong-un glanced sideways at Ji-oh.
…No matter how I look at it, that incident seems connected to this guy, but…
Ji-oh truly looked as if he felt nothing at all.
Either Ji-oh genuinely doesn’t know, or he knows and just doesn’t feel much about it. Either way fits his peculiar nature well enough that it only confuses me more.
They were watching the ceremony wind down when it happened.
“…….”
A sudden instinct.
…What is that?
It was cold.
Not the glacier.
As a Gardener, he knew the essence of auras.
He felt the crushing pressure of nature that could crumple a human body, and the coppery scent of blood that rose from it.
Then this is…
Cold, damp, and darkly oppressive.
The sea?
Yu Seong-un recognized it at once as the power of the sea.
It was not a sensation one could ever feel naturally. Instinctively he searched for the source.
“Ah…”
When his eyes met those of blue-haired Eun-ha, Yu Seong-un felt a lurch of disaster.
“Damn.”
Krrrk—…!!!
“I let my guard down too much.”
A piercingly blue aura surged in.
It was nothing like drifting mist. It carried a vicious hunger to snatch life at once, and a savagery that could rake human terror with sharp claws.
He grasped the situation immediately.
“A virtual dungeon.”
With Yu Seong-un’s swift judgment, the entire temple was dyed blue.
“■■■■■—…!!!!!”
A noise so loud it hurt the ears tore through the air, as if giant claws were gouging the marble pillars.
With a grinding scrape against the eardrums, the whole world warped into chaos like shattering glass, and white-foamed waves greedily swallowed people.
“…….”
Yu Seong-un’s usually unruffled face crumpled.
…I can’t predict the casualties, but one thing’s certain.
Overtime again today.
“Haa…”
Kwaduk—!!
“I’m already exhausted.”
Yu Seong-un formed an ice spear and drove it into the floor.
I mustn’t get swept far away.
Judgment complete as a veteran hunter, he braced himself on the spear planted in the ground.
In the fierce cold and the shockwaves, Yu Seong-un turned toward the portrait.
“Ji-oh, careful…!”
And there—
“…….”
“…….”
—was a vast eye.
Yu Seong-un felt a crushing silence, as if time itself had stopped.
What is that?
An eye?
“…….”
It resembled nature, yet he could not tell whether it belonged to the sun or the sea.
Fragments of light, broken into pieces, scattered and glittered; they pulsed and flashed in confusion, casting the illusion of a deep wave of unknowable depth. Yu Seong-un could not tear his gaze from the portrait as it was swept by the wave.
There, inside it, was the sea. A pure white sea distorted by light. And that sea spoke.
The voice was like nature itself.
Why did it sound like a god’s judgment?
He held it in his eyes and still could not perceive it. He thought he heard the sound of sunlight pouring down. He heard the sound of warmth. The waves mixed with it, then hid their teeth and drew back.
Only afterward did Yu Seong-un recover enough of his senses to notice anything at all.
“…….”
Sound returned; time began to move again, free of the hush.
The fierce noise that had tormented his ears and the tinnitus like a dead man’s stubbornness both vanished, and the waves that had been as ferocious as an abyssal monster died back into stillness…
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
The scenery of the world had changed.
“Ah…”
A blood-reeking, bone-chilling cold. Yu Seong-un looked around.
He could see people.
“…W-where is this…?”
“A dungeon? Shit, is this a dungeon?”
“I-is there a hunter here?!”
This place, where people who had only just come to their senses were shouting in confusion, was unmistakably a dungeon.
“…….”
Yu Seong-un took in the cavernous space, shadowed like deep blue dusk.
In a pupil so vast the ceiling could not be seen, water-scales of unknown origin shimmered with a sickening light. His gaze then fell on the blue water-pillars standing throughout the cavern.
A groan escaped him of its own accord.
“…Aigoo…”
Chimerae of forms that looked nearly aquatic were crammed in everywhere.
“We’re in trouble.”
The entry had felt ominous enough—and the dungeon’s difficulty looked considerably high.
For a typical virtual dungeon, there are far too many people dragged in.
Yu Seong-un clung to his returning reason by a thread and assessed the situation with cold clarity.
So-called “virtual dungeons” forcibly dragged people who met certain conditions into another dimension and made them play a game. The number of participants and the absurdity of the game revealed the capacity of that dungeon’s master.
And counting only the ordinary people gathered in this cavern, there’s nearly twenty… There may be more pulled in elsewhere, so it’s excessive any way you look at it. I can tell how hard this dungeon’s master has been grinding his teeth and preparing.
And as an A-class hunter belonging to the Collector Guild—one of Korea’s three great guilds—Yu Seong-un had a duty to protect these people and clear the raid.
“…….”
With this rabble of civilians, no less.
As expected of an A-class hunter.
Watching Yu Seong-un grasp and organize the situation in an instant with such cold composure, Eun-ha—Iser—felt a private flicker of admiration.
By Earth’s standards, hunters from B-class upward began to gradually diverge from ordinary human ways of thinking. At A-class, there was even less to say.
I heard he wasn’t a particularly famous public figure.
He was not someone to be dismissed after all.
But…
In a situation like this, what could a single hunter possibly do?
Burdened with this many liabilities, the best he can manage is to die with the civilians or choose to run to save his own life. That is how foolish humans are.
From the shadows of the cavern, far from the uproar, Iser took in the humans thrashing in terror.
“S-save me! I don’t want to die here…!!”
“Where is this? Where is this? Excuse me, so where exactly…”
“Kyaaaaah…!! Th-there’s a monster! There’s a monster!!”
It was exhausting to listen to.
…They can’t do anything but scream. True idiots, the lot of them.
The squawking noise brought the familiar displeasure he felt dozens of times a day. A faded hatred of humans.
“…….”
In this affair, Iser’s role was only to open the door—nothing more.
…If the previous agent hadn’t vanished so suddenly, I would never have had to step in.
Opening a deep-sea gate inside the Sun Temple, of all places, required fairly seasoned skill.
Which is why I had already recruited and trained one of the humans for it.
Somehow that man had been killed by some mysterious powerhouse, and everything had tangled.
The day of execution was almost upon them. And in that moment, the only one who could open the gate was Iser himself…
Nothing about this pleases me.
Even that brief time mixed among humans had left neither body nor mind intact.
As I thought—this is a species one must never associate with for long. I feel their incompetence rubbing off on me.
He wanted to finish this work as soon as possible and sink into the silent sea.
“Hunter! You’re a hunter, right? How are you going to take responsibility for this!!”
“What… what does this have to do with me? Stop spouting nonsense about responsibility!!”
“Where are the priests? Shit, where did all the priests go!!”
“Y-you candidate priests… you’re priests too, right? Huh? You are priests, right?”
“Somebody help! What even is this situation!!”
How was anyone supposed to set their heart on creatures that raved so basely?
“…….”
This place was one of the paths Earth’s humans called “dungeons,” located rather far toward the end.
…Too far to go back to the entrance, and the conditions for finding an exit are poor, so most of them will die here. Even if I don’t lift a finger myself, that’s certainly what will happen.
As he was thinking of wrapping things up that way, the man in the black cloak suddenly came to mind.
The Sun God named Ji-oh.
“…Haa…”
In a situation where every human had been scattered to random positions, he felt stupid for unconsciously tracking that man’s location.
He was going to kill them all anyway—why do something so foolish?
Right. Finish it quickly.
Any individuals left intact would have the honor of becoming specimens for his sister’s experiments.
Asking for ownership of one of them might not be such a bad idea either.
“…Well then.”
He stepped one pace forward out of the shadow.
Staff in hand, about to do a “monster’s” work—
“…….”
Ah.
…A presence?
Iser looked back.
“…….”
At some point, the black cloak was standing right behind him.
“……!”
Impossible.
I confirmed he wasn’t here.
Even if the other party was something that held divinity, this was unexpected for a mermaid who could kill even gods.
Was I too careless?
Iser stepped back. Perhaps because he wore a child’s body, the pressure he felt from the black cloak was strangely intense.
A body that large moving should have drawn a reaction from someone among the humans—yet no one so much as glanced toward the black cloak and Iser.
Why?
At that ineffable sense of wrongness, Iser bared sharp teeth. The same fangs that had torn his teacher’s body.
“You—what in the world…!”
“Iser.”
“…….”
…What?
“…….”
“Ah, Iser…”
He spoke the name.
“…….”
A call as low as a corpse’s.
Iser stopped.
…He called my name.
Like a fish touched by ice water, he froze rigid and could not move.
The man, tall as a thick wall, bent down and stroked the child’s cheek—and in an instant that small body seemed to be swallowed by the shadow.
The pitch-black cloak fell like a curtain and completely enfolded Iser like a waterfall.
How…
And so the mermaid in a child’s body could see the face of the one looking down at him.
“Were you cold?”
“…….”
“Did it hurt very much?”
“…….”
“You must have been lonely and afraid…”
Someone who resembled sunlight scattered across the sea.
“…….”
That warm platinum hair, and eyes like brilliant waves.
Those distant blue eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“…….”
“I’m so sorry.”
He was crying.
“…Ah…”
Giovanni.
His teacher, who had met the most wretched death in the world, now stood before him as a corpse—and was weeping.
Ji-oh lost consciousness.
(To be continued)