Orma stared blankly at Ban without hiding his bewilderment.
No, how? Setting aside how he managed to calm Banan down, what was with that face that looked oddly triumphant? At his appearance that even seemed somewhat proud, Orma hesitated for a moment before carefully opening his mouth.
“……Are you insane?”
He was fearless. No, he knew Ban was fearless, but his apostle was so fearless it was a problem. Ban blocking the waterspout with his body… well, Ban was unnecessarily overprotective of him, so that could be understood. Though the sight of him grinning with his body thoroughly soaked as if to prevent a single drop of water from splashing on Orma was extremely irritating, he could generously consider it praiseworthy.
But to approach a god who wasn’t in their right mind so closely—this wasn’t courage but recklessness. Was it because even though he was merely human, he could keep reviving so he wasn’t afraid of death? Though he did seem to feel pain…
Ban’s attitude was so calm that Orma couldn’t tell what he was thinking. But whether or not Ban knew of Orma’s complicated feelings, he only grumbled quietly.
“Not even praise, but asking if I’m crazy comes first—I’m hurt. Well, at least I didn’t offer the ring, so isn’t that fortunate? I only pretended.”
“……”
Or perhaps should he have returned it to Banan after all? Ban showed him his hand where he’d put the ring back in place, then glanced at him awkwardly as if embarrassed, but Orma shook his head.
“Who’s talking about that? ……Forget it, put her down now.”
“Put her down… Ah, you mean God Banan? Not yet. If she’s separated from me, she’ll regain consciousness, so I think I can only feel at ease after taking her outside to a safe location.”
As if the god was sleeping, Banan was obediently embraced in Ban’s arms with her eyes tightly shut. When Ban adjusted his hold on Banan and stood up to step back, Orma’s expression became strange.
Who was he holding and who was he being wary of? Annoyingly… Orma alternately looked at Banan and Ban with eyes blazing as if sparks would fly from them at any moment, then finally pressed his lips shut and turned his head sharply away.
By now, this level of reaction was cute enough to seem like coyness to Ban, so he roughly thought his god was finding everything in the world disagreeable again and coaxed him gently.
“Orma-nim, I know you’re uncomfortable with Banan-nim, but given the situation…”
“Be quiet.”
Yes sir.
Ban’s mouth automatically shut at his eerily low voice. It was a voice so full of emotion that he could feel how extremely irritated Orma was. Should he still be grateful that he hadn’t told him to shut up yet?
Just as his eyes met with Jaena’s, who was rolling his eyes and wearing an awkward smile, the sound of flapping wings came from somewhere. The faint sound gradually grew louder, then revealed a large presence as if approaching in swarms.
Just as Ban turned his head toward where the sound was coming from, faint clusters of light flew from somewhere dark and passed before him.
“Oh! Th-these birds… aren’t they the same birds from before?”
The black birds that had absorbed plenty of sunlight at Orma’s call appeared in the underground waterway, cutting through the wind. Even though the underground waterway was as large as an Earth stadium, when the birds appeared, the space that had been gloomily dark and unpleasant began to brighten as if dawn was breaking.
Jaena’s eyes sparkled at the mysterious sight and he hopped around, but Orma didn’t even glance at him and lightly waved his hand. Then, at that single gesture, the birds began shedding and dropping a layer of shadow. Plop—the shadows fell lightly like feathers.
The shadows, which looked like translucent and faint light at a glance, created a golden radiance the moment they touched the water and sank downward.
The light that didn’t extinguish despite touching water sparkled until it reached deep into the waterway that looked not just gloomy but black like ink, and the shadows that descended upon the Blue Tears immediately began burning with small flames.
Ban, who had been staring blankly at the sight, snapped to attention the moment smoke began rising and turned his head toward Jaena.
“……Jaena-ssi, hold your breath and cover your mouth so you don’t inhale the smoke.”
“Wh-what?”
“The smoke produced by the burning Blue Tears can’t be good for a human body.”
“But what about Ban-gong?”
“What are you even asking? He’ll say he’s fine again.”
At Orma’s grumbling, Ban smiled with a troubled face. Since he was holding Banan and couldn’t use his hands, he was just thinking of holding his breath…and that had been completely caught.
The more Ban became accustomed to Orma, the more Orma began to know Ban well too. Orma, who brilliantly saw through how the guy who was extreme toward others treated his own body as disposable, approached with large strides. Though his handsome face was hardened as if angry at first glance, it was an expression familiar to Ban.
Was he about to tell him to put Banan or whatever down right now and cover his own nose and mouth…
“Turn your head.”
“Yes? Why should I turn my… Mmph!”
You should have turned when told to. Orma muttered as such while turning Ban’s head and covered his nose and mouth with his large hand.
However, for something done so boldly, he carefully controlled his strength to leave a slight gap at the tip of the nose so Ban could breathe. At that consideration, faint breaths filled Orma’s hand, and he met eyes with his apostle who was staring at him with wide eyes.
If he didn’t go this far, Ban wouldn’t care about his own body. Of course, Orma knew the reason Ban acted this way was because he could revive and come back to life at any time. He already had a record of taking Ban’s life twice, after all.
Even so, Orma both liked and disliked his apostle who boldly threw his body away without showing even a hint of fear in those clear sky-blue eyes. Sometimes he wondered if Ban did this on purpose to get his attention. Then he should just ignore it, but like now, he ended up forcibly intervening somehow.
While Orma kept covering and staring at Ban’s face for a while, the surroundings gradually became acrid with smoke rising from the blazing flames. The birds that had shed their shadows left immediately while crying as if they had completed the mission given by their god, and the underground waterway became a chaotic space filled entirely with water and fire.
In the midst of all this, fortunately not a single flame had reached the core of the waterway.
When Jaena staggered over and grabbed Orma’s pants, sending desperate eyes conveying ‘I can’t take it anymore!’, Orma finally turned his gaze from Ban.
“This should be enough.”
With just those words, the shadows that had been deeply submerged in the water pooled throughout the waterway began swimming toward the surface again. After purifying all the water in the waterway with the sunlight they had absorbed, the shadows emerging onto land for their final task were still glowing like before.
Those shadows floated in the air, then clustered together and gradually increased in size. When they finally became something large and black, they poured black rain in all directions as if a water balloon had burst, suppressing the flames.
The flowers melted in the blazing fire, and even darker black rain flowed down through the acrid smoke… it was truly a bizarre sight. At a glance it looked grotesque, as if a calamity had occurred, but in reality wasn’t it preventing that very calamity? If someone who didn’t know the situation saw this, they might misunderstand that Orma was trying to destroy the world.
[Your god subdues the calamity and heals the world…
Current Status: Apostle of ‘Orma’ / Faith: 35 (Someone has noticed the miracle your god has wrought.)
Faith Level: 2
Faith Gauge: 1/12
▷ Witnessed divine authority +1]
A notification appeared that his faith had increased, but Ban didn’t have time to immediately check it in detail and organize his thoughts.
As soon as Orma made the black rain fall, he removed the hand covering Ban’s face and snatched up Jaena by the scruff of his neck to lift him. Then he began walking back the way they came without hesitation, even though it was dark with the smoke and the flames that had been blazing brightly extinguished. Ban, who had been standing awkwardly, only hurriedly followed behind after those golden eyes looked at him piercingly as if telling him to hurry up.
“……Ugh, uuugh……”
“What are you doing? You can breathe now.”
“Puha! You should have told me sooner! But Orma-nim! That black rain just now was so cool!”
“……”
“How do you do that? Is that also divine authority? Ah, and also what I’m curious about is that thing you mentioned earlier about being able to live forever……”
As Jaena’s chatter began, Orma shut his mouth with a sick look on his face. Regretting that he’d said Jaena could breathe, he held back the urge to throw Jaena into the waterway and began walking quickly. He did occasionally look back to see if Ban was following properly, but Ban seemed unbothered as he held Banan securely and simply walked matching his pace.
Seeing that pathetic sight made irritation surge up again, so he turned his head forward again… and when Jaena’s noisy chatter made him dazed again, he turned his head back to check on Ban. After repeating this several times, the end of the waterway finally came into view. As soon as Orma saw the sunlight shining outside, he put Jaena down as if throwing him, then turned his body completely toward Ban.
He was about to tell Ban to dump that annoying god, but what he saw was Banan whispering something to Ban with bright eyes.
