I Became the Evil God’s Apostle 18

Whether he knew that Ban’s face, who had been quietly listening to the story, had hardened or not, Orma burst out angrily and shouted.

“Stop spouting nonsense and shut up!”

He glared fiercely at the dragon, asking how long he was going to tell disgusting old stories. Only then did the dragon realize he had been tactless and scratched his cheek to express his embarrassment, but Orma pressed him as if fed up.

“Herna? You know it’s not like Serka didn’t forcibly pair us up. She’s Serka’s puppet, and the human over there is my apostle, so don’t put them on the same level.”

“Huh? Apostle? You said apostle?”

It seemed there was a secret related to Herna that Ban didn’t know about, but for now, it seemed better to calm down the extremely irritated Orma. Ban gave an awkward smile and first greeted the dragon.

“…Hello. My name is Ban, and I serve Orma-nim.”

“Ban, apostle… O-oh… Orma’s apostle…”

The dragon’s eyes sparkled as he circled around Ban. As if something was so fascinating, he muttered strange exclamations like “Oh, I see. Wow…,” then soon grabbed both of Ban’s hands and shook them up and down excitedly, saying.

“Please take good care of Orma!”

“Haha…”

Well, just because you ask me to take good care of Orma-nim doesn’t mean there’s anything I can do about it. Ban’s eyes wavered, lost, but the dragon didn’t care and smiled cheerfully while rambling on again about Orma.

“Even when I kept telling him he couldn’t die, he wouldn’t listen, and in the end, he crawled into Hell on his own two feet and stayed stuck there! Unable to accept that he had become a god, he spent hundreds of years there…”

“Gail, shut up and just guide us to the vault.”

Orma, whose patience had worn thin, pulled the dragon, Gail, away from Ban with fierce eyes. Gail tilted his head, wondering why they suddenly wanted to go to the vault, but soon obediently moved his feet. Orma walked in front of Ban as if escorting him, eyes blazing in case Gail said something strange again.

Well, even if it were Ban, if a friend he met after a long time brought up not-so-pleasant past events, he would tell them to please shut up. They’re definitely friends, it seems. Considering that Orma stopped at this level.

“Wait, don’t tell me this isn’t sand but gold dust?”

“Oh, beastman kid! You can tell! Isn’t it pretty?”

Gold dust? At Jaena’s words, Ban paused and closely observed the sand that fell down and gracefully returned to its place again. It certainly sparkled far too much for sand, and it didn’t have that stuffy smell characteristic of sand. The saying that dragons like things that shine and sparkle wasn’t entirely false, as Gail began bragging to Jaena with great pride.

“This is gold taken from Muhwi’s temple, ground finely like sand into powder. It was all my idea! Isn’t it truly beautiful how it sparkles when it catches the light?”

“…Taking credit using my gold.”

“Ah, this here is a garden made by crafting jewels like flowers, you know? I’ve cast a spell so dust doesn’t accumulate and I’m managing it—you won’t see a sight like this anywhere else in the world!”

“Arbitrarily processing my jewels.”

Orma sharply interjected from behind, but Gail pretended not to hear and excitedly grabbed the wide-eyed Jaena’s hand and guided him around various parts of the island. As Gail said, it was a rare and beautiful sight you couldn’t see anywhere else in the world, but since Orma seemed to be in such low spirits, Ban couldn’t enjoy the scenery and stole glances at Orma.

And at that moment, his eyes met Orma’s. Orma, who instantly erased the expression that said he wanted to leave this place immediately, looked at Ban with an expressionless face, then paused for a moment, plucked one of the jewel flowers Gail was bragging about, and held it out. At the jewel flower beautifully crafted into a petal shape with sky-blue chloris that closely resembled his eye color, a faint smile spread across Ban’s slightly tense face.

A god giving jewel flowers as gifts to his apostle… Isn’t that very romantic? Orma has such a kind side?

“Thank you.”

Orma, who had been quietly watching the thanks delivered with a smile, spoke with a relaxed face as if he had never been irritated.

“Right, this is better.”

“What?”

“I take back what I said about not opening your eyes like that. Just stay like this instead.”

What on earth does that mean? Ban didn’t understand a word of what Orma said, but since Orma nodded with satisfaction, he only felt relieved thinking, ‘My god seems to be in a good mood… That’s fortunate.’ While Orma and Ban were sharing smiles, Gail, who had reached the front of a cave that looked like it might hide a magic lamp, pointed inside and said.

“I’ve disabled the intrusion prevention alarm magic. I wondered why you came here, but you must have wanted to give a gift to your pretty and kind apostle?”

Gail giggled and teased him saying it wasn’t like him, but Orma answered by shrugging his shoulders instead. As if he had no intention of continuing to tease Orma, Gail tactfully withdrew, saying he would give Jaena, who was looking around excitedly unable to hide his excitement, a proper tour of the island.

Huh? Only after being left alone together like that did Ban notice something was strange. Wasn’t this exactly the situation where you excitedly tease a friend who brought a new lover, then withdraw to let the two be alone? No… it must be his imagination.

Ban fiddled with the jewel flower Orma had given him and looked beyond the cave. Just how mountain-high were the treasures piled up—even from outside, he could see something inside the cave sparkling differently depending on the angle. It wasn’t for nothing that Ban had endured embarrassment to extort… no, request money from Orma. Even with such an enormous fortune piled up, he had no intention of using it and was indifferent.

“I thought you’d like it, but why that expression?”

“What? I’m feeling good right now though.”

He pulled up the corners of his mouth to smile, but did it not register in Orma-nim’s eyes? Orma rather frowned, then turned his head sharply and entered the cave first.

The cave itself wasn’t that large in size, but as soon as they entered, they could see gold coins piled up like toys. To put it bluntly, they were heaped so high that you could even swim in them, causing Ban’s mouth to fall open involuntarily.

“Wow…”

“Take it all. So there’s no need to come here again, annoying as it is.”

“Haha… Thank you, but even if I take an armful, it seems like a scale where it wouldn’t even be noticeable.”

At times like this, the inventory function in games is good—what a shame. At Ban’s words, Orma made a “Hmm…” sound while looking around inside, then started rummaging through and touching this and that.

“About these things, most of them are close to an inheritance.”

“An inheritance?”

“Right. Don’t you call the fortune your parents left behind an inheritance?”

Come to think of it, the game only started with the content that the hero Orma had become a demigod by coveting what belonged to the gods. It didn’t tell them anything at all about the detailed background of who Orma was or what kind of person he had been. Since the original Orma was an ordinary human, he must have had parents too.

Orma’s face reflected in the faint ray of light in the dark cave was outstandingly beautiful like a sculpture. He couldn’t easily tear his gaze away from that handsome face that lacked nothing anywhere. Ban, who had been imprinting that image in his eyes as if stealing glances, carefully opened his mouth.

“…May I ask what your original eye color was?”

At that question, Orma laughed with a strange expression as if it was troublesome. The eyes dyed gold as proof of being a god were both his sore spot and shame. He had never once thought he wanted to become like this. If anyone else asked, Orma would have raged asking why they were curious about such a thing, but strangely, to Ban, he could tell him with a comfortable heart as if giving confession.

“Green.”

Green. Ban was curious about that eye color. He tried to imagine adding green eyes to Orma’s current appearance on his own, but perhaps because the shock of the vividly gleaming golden eyes was too great, he couldn’t easily imagine it. Was it a deep green? Or was it mixed with yellow and close to chartreuse?

Meanwhile, Orma, who had been rummaging through this and that in the corner of the cave, approached Ban, took his hand, and placed a ring on his pretty, snow-white fingers. It was a ring set with peridot that boasted top-grade quality at a glance. Looking at the beautiful ring that even Ban, who had no greed for material things, was momentarily tempted by, Orma giggled and said.

“It was exactly that color.”

“…It’s beautiful.”

At times like this, he regretted his lack of eloquence. He felt like he could say something cooler, but the only words that came out of his mouth were just saying it was beautiful. Even so, Orma was satisfied, curving his eyes.

“Take it and sell it, that thing will be expensive.”

“May I keep it? I don’t want to sell this.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s beautiful.”

Because it’s beautiful. It was truly a monotonous and insincere statement, but Orma just shrugged his shoulders.

He felt a bit embarrassed, but it wasn’t too bad. The sight of Ban looking at the ring that resembled his eye color when he was human as if it were something precious, smiling.