Ahem. Once upon a time, there lived a very arrogant and greedy king! The king had piled up countless amounts of gold in his palace, but it still wasn’t enough, so he constantly coveted others’ possessions. Then one day, the king learned about a demon who possessed tremendous treasure.
“……What does this story have to do with me?”
“Just listen!”
Anyway, the king proposed a wager to the demon. If the demon survived the sacred flames blooming in Muhwi God’s temple for one week, it would be the demon’s victory and he could take all the king’s treasure. But if the demon didn’t survive…….
“He planned to take all the treasure the demon had. Thinking the demon would die.”
“That’s right! As expected, Ban-gong knows well.”
Anyway, the demon accepted the wager with the king and walked into the sacred flames on his own feet and began burning his body. The king smiled broadly, thinking he had both exterminated the demon and obtained tremendous treasure.
But lo and behold, after one week, wasn’t that demon still alive? He walked out perfectly fine from the blazing flames and sneered, “How boring, Hell would be better.”
“……That’s about me, isn’t it? I’m the demon?”
“You catch on quick.”
“It’s not that I catch on quick, that’s something I experienced!”
Hmm hmm, anyway, the king lost the wager with the demon, but didn’t acknowledge his defeat and instead pressed charges, accusing the demon of playing tricks and scheming. Moreover, how could this be! Wasn’t the demon’s identity actually a sinner who coveted divine power, and a hero who had broken down and gone mad?!
“You want to die?”
No, that’s how the story has been passed down…… Orma, don’t think the story your believer is telling you is about yourself, just listen thinking ‘I see!’
Anyway, the king immediately bound the demon and sent him to Serka Temple, held a divine trial at the temple to imprison the demon in Hell, and the incident seemed to come to an end.
“What happened after that? I don’t know.”
Of course you wouldn’t know since you were locked in Hell! Anyway, from now on is the important part!
The king cheerfully tried to take all the demon’s wealth. But suddenly, Muhwi God’s hammer flew down, and wasn’t divine punishment delivered?
“……What?”
Muhwi had been watching the entire wager between the king and the demon, so for a fair result, he said he would take all the king’s wealth on behalf of the demon. He sternly declared that when the demon returns to the surface, he would return the king’s treasure to the demon.
That very day the kingdom fell, and the palace where the king had piled up gold became Muhwi God’s temple today!
“I’ve heard this story before too. Muhwi God governs not only martial arts but also etiquette, promises, contracts, and so on. Isn’t it because of his very strict nature that such a story has been passed down?”
“But how does that become a story about Muhwi being my father?”
“……Isn’t Muhwi the God of Fire? So people speculated there might be a connection in how the demon survived even in the blazing sacred flames, and how he suddenly got involved in the demon’s affairs.”
“You should only talk nonsense to a certain degree……”
Though Orma grumbled, Ban looked at Jaena with an ambiguous smile.
Jaena’s hometown, the region where many beastmen gathered and lived, was close to ‘Yeru’ where Muhwi’s temple was located. Beastmen were generally belligerent, hunted according to instinct, and worshipped martial arts, among other things deeply related to what Muhwi governed. Most of them believed in and followed Muhwi, so it wasn’t strange for such a legend to be passed down, but…….
If there was a problem, it was that Orma’s father really did seem to be Muhwi. The story Jaena just told seemed to refer to that brief anecdote of ‘trying all sorts of things wanting to die’ exchanged during the written conversation with Gail, and judging from Orma’s reaction, it seemed to have actually happened.
Then Muhwi’s intervention in Orma’s affairs would also be true. Of course, Orma’s father would ultimately be Muhwi not as a god but when he played around as a human, but seeing how Orma provokingly brought up that name earlier in front of Banan saying he should just burn everything, their relationship seemed as complicated and subtle as with Banan.
“Tsk, then Orma-nim, you tell us.”
“What?”
“About Orma-nim’s father! So strange stories won’t circulate.”
“……I don’t know.”
“How can that be!”
“He died before I was born, so I don’t know!”
“……Ah, was that it?”
Jaena’s attitude quickly changed and became servile. Orma had clenched his fist, annoyed by the awkwardly smiling face, but soon turned his head, strength leaving him when he saw Ban’s face quietly looking at him with a calm expression.
“Shall we go in and rest now? You must be tired since there were many nerve-wracking things today.”
“As if I’d be tired. You keep treating me like glass, but you take care of yourself.”
“Hmm…… I’m not tired at all. Rather, I’m thinking it would be good to work my body for about an hour and work up a sweat since I have some leisure time for the first time in a while.”
After being reincarnated in this place and entering the temple, he had never skipped sword training, but since starting the journey, he rarely had time, which was regrettable. However, at Ban’s words, Orma looked him over carefully with a strange expression and said,
“You…… when did you find out that you revive even if you die?”
“Since I was young.”
It was embarrassing, but at first he couldn’t believe he had been reincarnated in this world and just thought it was a dream. It was probably when he was six or seven years old. One day, thinking ‘Why am I not waking from the dream?’
Ban thought perhaps if he died, he might wake from the dream. Thought soon led to action.
He stole a kitchen knife from the temple kitchen and without hesitation stabbed it into his heart. He knew the location of vital points well, but perhaps because he was still young and lacked muscle strength, it didn’t lead to instant death.
……He remembered it hurt quite a bit. Seeing how he died only after some time passed, the cause of death seemed to be excessive bleeding, but still, Ban didn’t wake from the dream and return to his original world.
Instead, a system message appeared with a choice asking if he wanted to revive. Was he still trapped in the game world? While bewildered, he eventually pressed ‘yes’ and accepted revival. Because he was curious if he would really revive. And the body that came back to life was perfectly fine as if nothing had happened.
Ban went to the stream, submerged his body soaked with his own blood, then deceived the priests with the excuse that he had fallen into the water. That night, when no one knew he had died and come back to life, Ban buried his face in his bed pillow and acknowledged it. That he couldn’t escape this world through death.
Perhaps the only way to leave this place was…… Orma? From the beginning, all of this might have happened because he chose the option to save Orma.
So…… Orma, Orma…….
Ban began planning to save Orma while staying up all night with open eyes. Calamity, apocalypse, Hell, sacrifice…… What he should do after pulling him out of Hell, how he should persuade him, how to make him ‘happy’ so he wouldn’t think of suicide.
Ban, who had been absorbed in all those things, finally completely forgot why he had tried to save Orma. Things that could be trivial like returning to Earth or this being just a game world were no longer important. Now only his salvation had become the purpose of his life.
……Of course, there was no need to honestly tell Orma all these things. He lacked the eloquence to speak so cleverly yet coherently in the first place. Having finished his brief recollection, Ban tilted his head while looking at Orma, who seemed lost in thought like himself.
“What’s wrong?”
“Then that means you, when you were young, died once.”
“……Mm.”
Having nothing to say, he rolled his eyes around. Fortunately, Jaena had already finished his meal and gone up to his room. He thought Orma would ask how he died, but contrary to expectations, Orma seemed to care more about a different point.
“And yet you aged and grew. Regardless of revival……”
Orma stopped mid-sentence. As if discovering a part he hadn’t thought of, he kept mulling it over and gradually became gloomy.
……Is it so sad that I age? More than me? Feeling uncomfortable, Ban carefully pulled Orma’s hand and made him poke his cheek. Blank eyes were looking at him as if asking ‘What are you doing again?’
Ban answered in as serious a voice as possible.
“Don’t worry. Even when I get old, my skin will be firm.”
“What?”
“Look, didn’t Banan God bestow the blessing of skin care.”
“Ha……”
Even in one’s 60s or 70s, to have bouncy skin. When he imagined it, that seemed a bit creepy, but would it be okay? If he asked her to take back the blessing when the time came, would Banan take it back? How impudent to reject a god’s blessing, I’ll take a womb instead…… what if she said that?
“You’re really annoying.”
Why are you smiling when you say you’re annoyed? Ban tilted his head, unable to understand his god’s deep meaning.
