The Clams of Edelon
Though it hadn't been intentional, the Cha family they had somehow reunited with seemed surprisingly at peace, even after being kidnapped by the merfolk.
"If you get scared over something like that, you can't make it as a hunter…."
Since Cha Ah-ra was F-class, she found people more terrifying than monsters. Compared to all the trash she'd met so far, the merfolk had been downright polite.
"I had a great time too. Next time you see Eun-ha, can you call me? I want to be friends with the tall Eun-ha. We said we'd be friends, but then he took my partner away."
Cha I-sol's thick nerves were already the stuff of legend.
"…Yeah, well, raising kids like these…."
Cha Eun-hyeok, who could see monsters no one else could, was just as unflappable.
If his siblings had suffered any real mental or physical harm from the incident, he wouldn't have been this calm. But both of them seemed fine, so there was no point fretting over it.
Yu Seong-un took the Cha family's reaction in stride, as if it were perfectly ordinary.
"That kind of indifference is an important virtue for modern people."
"……."
"The Cha family will last a long time. They've got strong survival instincts."
Survival instincts, not just life skills… Once again, Seo Ji-oh found himself deeply cowed by the terrifying realities of his homeland.
These days, not panicking even when you get kidnapped is considered a modern virtue.
Even if there had been no direct harm, a kidnapping was still a kidnapping.
What on earth do hunters see and how do they live that they don't even flinch when a precious little brother gets kidnapped? What kind of modern life makes a child victim start talking about making friends, while their guardian just shrugs and says it's fine?
Thirty-one years ago, this would have been pure chaos. Someone would have grabbed Ji-oh by the collar without hesitation, and the whole mess would have made the evening news.
Yet Ji-oh's collar remained perfectly intact, and according to Yu Seong-un, the story hadn't even made the news.
What a terrifying world.
He felt the urge to feed these people who kept living so stoutly in such a world five or six good meals, but at least the Cha family was safe and sound.
To be honest, the bulgogi had looked incredibly tempting, but barging into a cozy family dinner without any warning would have been rude, so his conscience sent him back into the portrait. Ji-oh praised himself for being such a good boy.
"……."
Ta-da.
"Feels like something got skipped."
"Mrrrow."
"Dana's cute, so it's fine."
Cute Dana provided all the narrative justification the omission needed.
"Sniiiff."
"Myaang."
Ji-oh buried his face in Dana's belly and inhaled. At first Dana had stared at him with pure bewilderment—Has this one lost his mind?—but she had grown used to his eccentricities and now seemed to accept it as Dad's just crazy.
Released a moment later, Dana immediately padded over to the teddy bear.
"You two are still getting along so well."
"Kkuu…."
"She feels like a granddaughter, you say."
"Kku."
"Yes, Father. That makes perfect sense."
One grandfather, one dad, and two little ones—they had become a proper little family with its own lineage.
"Hmm…."
If they added the two merfolk friends, they would even have the perfect neighbors.
"……."
He had even told them how to get here, yet the merfolk still showed no sign of visiting Ji-oh's cabin.
We're right next door, kids.
They had made such a fuss about how happy they were to see their teacher again. They were this close—why weren't they coming over?
"If you're going to be neighbors, shouldn't you at least show up on moving day with a tray of rice cakes?"
The warehouse that held Breathing Sea, one of the works Ji-oh had painted, remained silent. Staring at the wooden stairs no one ever descended, Ji-oh turned to the teddy bear.
"Do you think Aria and Iser still need more time to think?"
"Kku-kku-kku."
"It's been quite a while and they still haven't thought about coming over to our house. Since Breathing Sea and the Abyssal Kingdom are connected now, visiting should be easy…."
The System had announced that some tutorial or other was finished. Ji-oh's painting Breathing Sea and the merfolk dungeon Abyssal Kingdom had been linked; when he checked, his painting was hanging right there in the temple.
Even so, he hadn't seen the merfolk.
"Looking at it that way, I can't help suspecting they're just afraid of getting scolded and are staying away."
In Ji-oh's mind, the merfolk siblings were like children who refused to come home because they didn't want to be told off.
"They've gotten more spoiled while I wasn't looking."
"Kkureuk?"
Honey briefly wondered whether that had really been spoiling, then abandoned the thought as mealtime drew near.
Honey gently pecked the crown of Ji-oh's head, not hard enough to hurt, to announce that its stomach was empty.
"Kkung-kkung-kkung…."
"Are you hungry?"
"Kkuk."
"Then we should eat."
Having inherited both the hands and heart of a grandmother from the mountain valleys of Gangwon-do, Seo Ji-oh could not bear the sight of his child going hungry.
"Hmm."
After a brief moment of thought, Ji-oh turned to the teddy bear.
"Father, do you like clams?"
"Kku…?"
"Of course, you've never tried them."
"Kku."
What priest would have been bold enough to offer clams of all things as a sacrifice? Back then, clams hadn't even been considered a particularly precious ingredient.
…There were famous specialty clams that sold well, but even so, they weren't valuable or rare enough to place on an altar…
Before meeting Ji-oh, the Sun God had never even possessed an appetite. Even though he had ruled a world where sun and sea were close, the odds that he had ever tasted a clam were exactly zero.
"To think we never even let you try those delicious clams—isn't that pure blasphemy and heresy?"
"…Kkuu…."
"This son of yours cannot tolerate such filial impiety. I should have presented the delicacies of the sea long ago. I deeply regret it. Just wait a little and I will serve you grilled clams and tomato stew, the pride of the Edelon region."
"Kku."
"Calm down? I wasn't excited in the first place."
Ji-oh gathered his things and set off for Breathing Sea.
"I still remember exactly where Edelon Village was. And even if I don't go looking for that exact spot, the clams I want should be everywhere. Just wait a bit—I'll dig some up and be right back."
Honey stuck close to his side. The creature he had made always wished to remain by its parent's side and to keep a form that matched his tastes.
"Kkuru-ruru-ruk."
"Will you help me?"
"Kkur."
And Ji-oh liked things that were kind and well-mannered. Honey could help its creator with anything—so long as it didn't ruin this cute, lovable appearance.
Thus the clam-hunting expedition was formed.
A true pig knows how to eat anything deliciously, but it must also know how to savor fine food.
"In that sense, I can call myself a true pig."
"Kkureuk."
"Yes, you too. A pig without stubbornness isn't a real pig."
Against all odds, Ji-oh managed to find Edelon Village, the place where he had lived in this ruined world. It was thanks to Honey, who had grown large enough to carry him through the air.
"So this is how hunters feel when they clear a dungeon."
It was a little different, but it was fun, so it didn't matter. He felt thoroughly pleased with himself.
"It's been a long time since I was here."
"Kkuk?"
"Ah, wait—maybe I shouldn't say 'a long time'?"
"Kkur…."
"Well, since both of us are me, it shouldn't matter."
Ji-oh's hair had already turned platinum blond.
"What a sentimental little countryside village."
There was no sign of people.
The shoreline stretched shallow and long; just beyond it, green grass grew. Nestled among the grass, the small houses still displayed the white brick walls and orange roofs that followed Edelon's old traditions.
"……."
Seaweed swayed in the corroded windows of houses that had long since flooded and been abandoned.
"…It's strange that the village still keeps its shape even after becoming this deep an abyss. If something like this happened on Earth, the houses would have collapsed and crumbled completely."
"Kkurrrrrr?"
"A place that was once real to me has turned into something out of a fairy tale. It feels strange. Now fish and jellyfish live here instead of people."
It was an eerie and beautiful sight.
"And the light is so faint."
Strictly speaking, the teddy bear in Ji-oh's cabin was something like the Sun God's soul. The light that could be called his empty body—or perhaps the remains of it—had grown even weaker, illuminating the sea floor only dimly.
"The darkness is thicker than before, isn't it?"
"Kkururuk."
"Like this, it really feels like night has fallen."
"Kkur."
"And there are stars."
When he lifted his head, something sparkled and drifted here and there through the deep sea.
"It looks like the Milky Way."
It was a school of jellyfish that glowed with their own light.
With their small, round bodies they formed a long, river-like ribbon and drifted very slowly.
Thanks to that dense cluster of light—the kind you only ever see in the middle of a desert with no other illumination—he could still see ahead even in this dark abyss.
The empty, enchanted beauty was breathtaking.
"I never saw jellyfish like these when Father was here and the sea was bright. Now that it's dark, I get to see them…."
"Kkurruk."
"Hmm."
Giovanni thought.
"If we turned this into a tourist attraction, it would sell really well."
Yes—this priest had long since lost any sense of poetry. Even looking at his ruined hometown, the only words that came out were business ideas.
"Yu Seong-un said the Collector's Guild bought up every single entry permit for the Abyssal Kingdom. If we can just solve the monster problem, wouldn't this make a fantastic tourist spot? The fact that you can breathe inside the sea is already novel enough, isn't it?"
"Kkung…."
"We could even control the brightness. If we make the day and night themes different, there'd be more to see. Since I inherited Father's qualifications as the Sun God, I should be able to manage that much… Isn't this a pretty solid business idea?"
Ji-oh's hair had turned black again.
"We'll think about all of that after we're full."
"Kkurrrrrrrrruk."
Honey agreed with passionate intensity.
"Kkuruk? Kkurruk?"
"Where are the clams, you ask?"
Ji-oh looked around.
"It's all completely underwater now, so I wonder if anything's still the same… but looking at how the shoreline and the village still keep their shape, that place should be fine too."
"Kkuk?"
"There's a special place for digging clams. An underground cavern on the east side of the village. I don't know the exact principle, but… there's mudflat there."
And there had been so many clams.
"Clams can live in all sorts of places. Some hide in sandy beaches, some hide in mudflats, and some even live in fresh water instead of the sea. The type changes a lot depending on where they live, of course…."
Ji-oh started walking toward the underground cavern he remembered.
"For the record, there are no clams on Edelon Village's beach. Maybe because it isn't that wide. So the people of Edelon usually caught fish out at sea and dug clams in the cavern to sell."
The cavern wasn't far.
"This is the entrance."
When he gently pushed aside the seaweed hanging like a curtain, a rough stone staircase appeared, as if someone had carved it out of solid rock. The entrance was dark, but Honey, glowing with warm light, made a separate lamp unnecessary.
"Let's go down."
"Kkurruk."
"But…."
Ji-oh looked at Honey.
"If you want to go down, you really ought to shrink your body."
"Kkuk?"
"You're too big."
From carrying Ji-oh all this way and from drinking in so much seawater, Honey had swollen larger than Ji-oh himself.
"You're still cute like this, but digging clams together would be impossible. As you can see, the entrance to the cavern isn't that wide, so you'd better adjust, son."
"Kkurr…."
Honey accepted the logic and shrank. The sudden change in water pressure from the released seawater nearly swept Ji-oh away; his father was light even underwater.
The path leading underground was neither very wide nor very narrow. A grown man could pass with a little room to spare, and the tunnel stretched on for quite a while.
"See those hollows carved into the walls? They used to put lamps in there to light the way. Ah, look—there they are. I didn't expect the remains of the lamps to still be here."
"Kkureuk, kkururuk."
"…Even mossy glass shards count as collectibles that suit your taste? Well, time has worn the sharp edges down, so a rounded piece of glass like this shouldn't be dangerous."
While he watched Honey quietly pocket a glass shard, Ji-oh arrived at the underground cavern before he knew it.
"……."
An endlessly high ceiling, and seawater that filled it all the way to the top.
"…No, wait."
He stuck out his tongue and tasted the water.
"Hmm. Not salty."
"Kkung-kkung?"
"It's fresh water."
Ji-oh nodded.
"This place was closer to a spring where fresh water wells up…."
People who lived by the sea always struggled to find water, but Edelon Village had been different. Thanks to the endless fresh water that sprang from this wide cavern, they could use as much as they wanted.
"I think some process purified the seawater once so that drinkable water filled the cavern. Clean water without any limestone—it was the pride of the village."
Ji-oh set his foot on the cavern floor.
"And this is the mudflat."
The fresh water in this cavern, which rose and fell like the tides, had come and gone like seawater and created this pure white mudflat. The clams hidden between the ridges had been so delicious and high-quality that they became Edelon's specialty product.
"And sometimes I would bring the merfolk here too…."
"……."
"…and we'd have noisy little clam hunts together."
Still black-haired, Ji-oh took in the sight of a child standing in the middle of the cavern.
"Aria."
"It's been a long time."
"It has."
He still wore Seo Ji-oh's form, yet for a fleeting moment Giovanni's gentle smile drifted across his face and then vanished.
"It's been a long time."
A merfolk in the shape of a child.
It was the appearance from a very long time ago—the one Giovanni remembered.