Ban sighed in a small voice. An ominous premonition made the story to follow even more frightening. Orma stared for a moment at Ban, whose face had lost its color and whose mouth was slightly open, then began speaking again.
“To be honest, I half-listened to it. Gods are fickle, and among them, I’d heard that Banan was the most fickle.”
“…I see.”
“I didn’t understand why she was suddenly acting friendly now. Moreover, suddenly asking if I didn’t want to become a god. I politely answered Banan’s question with ‘I’ve never thought such a thing even once.'”
“Then how did she react?”
“She looked disappointed for a moment, but anyway, Banan nodded without saying much else and disappeared again. I thought the god was talking nonsense because the world was about to perish. Or she’d gone mad from fear.”
At his words spoken with a playfully raised corner of his mouth, Ban inwardly thought of Orma’s strong spirit. An ordinary human would have already gone mad long ago. Even just looking at what happened before he threw himself into Hell, weren’t they all the kind of things that someone with a normal mind couldn’t endure?
Hmm… It wasn’t something he was saying to worship and exalt Orma as his god, but certainly he was an extraordinary being. His indifferent and cruel way of thinking that didn’t care whether others lived or died, his fierce manner of speaking, and constantly spewing complaints—these were only because he was broken beyond repair now. The Orma from his days called a hero must have been brilliantly radiant, strong and kind.
Ban unknowingly began to imagine Orma from those days. And the more dazzling and magnificent that image was, the more his desire to return him to the Orma of that time swelled up.
“…Why are you suddenly looking at me like that?”
“How am I looking at you?”
“Somewhat burdensome… Why do you suddenly seem full of motivation?”
“I’ve always been full of motivation.”
“No, whenever Banan’s story comes up, you’d show with half-dead eyes that you didn’t want to get involved in troublesome matters, so why are you suddenly like this?”
Did I show it that much? Ban stiffened like a subordinate employee who had been caught by his superior making it obvious he didn’t want to work and received advice to “don’t make it so obvious.” However, since he had no particular tact, he rolled his eyes and smiled awkwardly as if telling him to continue the story. Orma slightly furrowed his brow, let out a small sigh, and began speaking again.
“Anyway, not wanting to become a god was the same back then too. Because I don’t believe in eternity.”
“Aren’t there many humans who dream of immortality? But the fact that Orma-nim didn’t want to become an eternally immortal being from the start… could it be because of Banan and Muhwi?”
“I can’t say it’s completely unrelated. But that wasn’t the decisive reason. Before Banan asked me if I wanted to become a god, there was already a being who made a similar proposal or promise. Who do you think it was?”
If what made Orma shudder enough to think “I don’t want to live forever” was before friction with Banan occurred. Hadn’t he calmly accepted his short lifespan while having a dragon who lived incomparably longer years than him as an adoptive father and friend?
So, the one who tried to tempt Orma must have been someone who didn’t know him well but thought it was a very “sweet” proposal to appease a human.
Ban slowly lowered his eyes and recalled the illustrations related to Orma he had seen in the game. Orma from the days when he was called a hero. On the other side of him, there was drawn a being confronting him…
“A demon?”
“That’s right.”
In the worldview of <MOX NOX>, there was certainly description about demons as well. However, after Orma, called the Evil God, became the final boss, they disappeared like the wind.
Even in the “holy scriptures” that the Serka Order sacredly preserved, content about demons wasn’t described as particularly important, and that was all because they believed Orma, called the “hero,” had defeated them all.
“Well, I’ll keep the boring story short. The demons all tried to appease me. Isn’t it strange that they didn’t try to kill me?”
“Could it be because they thought they could never defeat Orma-nim?”
“No, they thought I was the savior who would save them.”
“That’s a bit strange. Didn’t the god Serka first prophesy that Orma-nim was the hero who would save the world? But the demons also considered Orma-nim their savior?”
“Yeah, it’s unsettling. The demons all proposed that I destroy this world together with them and become the god of a ‘new world.'”
“New world…”
“While saying that, they tried to appease me, saying I could become eternal like them.”
To Orma, those words sounded very strange. Didn’t it sound like demons were “eternal” beings? Then where did these eternally immortal demons appear from, and where had they been locked away?
However, Orma also intuitively felt that the moment he resolved that curiosity, he would learn the secret of this world.
“Even now, strange things are happening in the world… calamities are occurring. I can’t assert that it’s unrelated to demons, but anyway, back then too, somehow that thought made me reluctant to become eternal.”
There’s an old saying that ignorance is bliss for a reason. With his innate intuition, Orma realized that if he got involved further, he would be dragged into an event so powerful that he couldn’t turn back.
However, in the end, he couldn’t escape from the board laid out by transcendent beings and became an excellent chess piece.
“Looking back on it… isn’t the ‘divine liquor’ strange? Why does such a thing exist? Liquor that turns humans into gods.”
At the question of whether such an absurd item wasn’t like something a swindler would deceive and sell as a miraculous medicine, Ban nodded his head.
In fact, the “divine liquor” that made Orma into a god was also a topic many users discussed in the game community. Those commonly called “story nerds” who explored and analyzed the stories in games would often infer hidden stories through brief sub-quests or Easter eggs, and the divine liquor was one of the subjects they explored.
Ban hadn’t given it much thought since it was his first time playing the game itself, but the content of the post he happened to discover and skim through was quite interesting. Although he didn’t read it in detail so he didn’t remember well, that post seemed to raise questions starting from who exactly created the divine liquor.
“As you must have noticed, the divine liquor was made by Banan.”
“Yes, but I did think it was strange. No matter how much she’s a god, for Banan to even have the power to turn humans into gods.”
“I think it was a poisoned chalice made for me from the beginning.”
“Poisoned chalice…?”
“Because even Banan herself didn’t know that something called divine liquor existed. But one day, she suddenly found out. That there was a method to turn humans into gods.”
“So, only Banan can brew the divine liquor… but Banan herself didn’t know the recipe for that liquor?”
Orma slowly raised the corner of his mouth to indicate affirmation. At the same time, Ban’s feelings became very complex and dizzy.
Who on earth told Banan about the divine liquor? Could it be those demons? No, that was also strange. No matter what, there’s no way Banan would immediately make the liquor as the demons told her…
“I didn’t know back then, but after being stuck in Hell and pondering for a long time, I suddenly thought this. Could it be that someone wanted me to become a god? And wasn’t Banan deceived by that someone?”
“Who is the subject Orma-nim suspects?”
“…Well, a being who could appease Banan.”
Then it wasn’t Muhwi. Since Banan unilaterally disliked Muhwi, even if he told her about the divine liquor, it was obvious she wouldn’t have listened.
Then… Serka?
“…I don’t know what you’ll think, but until now I knew what Banan was thinking about me. That’s why I hated it even more.”
He wished he could die without knowing that god’s true feelings. He wanted to remain only as a world-saving hero appearing in one line of human history books, and didn’t want the attention of a distant transcendent being. However, the god’s true feelings he finally learned were repulsively ugly to Orma.
“Banan-nim, Orma-nim…”
“Yeah, I know too. In fact, the one who couldn’t distinguish between dreams and reality wasn’t Muhwi but Banan. Banan was afraid of me. She was too afraid to love a human child who would live a short life and ultimately die.”
Banan’s cold distancing and dispassionate treatment of Orma was because she knew well that if she faced her son from her dream who would live a short life again, she would helplessly fall for him. She wouldn’t have wanted to give affection. She wouldn’t have wanted to love either.
But just like Orma, even for a god, chasing after the one thing they couldn’t have despite possessing countless things was the same. Someone who dug into such a weakness of Banan’s subtly told her the method to make divine liquor.
“Banan asked me if I didn’t want to become a god, and I refused. But she still went ahead and made the divine liquor.”
“Hmm…”
“As if she knew that someday I would inevitably drink it.”
Someone informed Banan, who had hidden her feelings of loving a human child out of fear of separation, about the existence of divine liquor. And Banan, ultimately ignoring Orma’s will that he didn’t want to become a god, wished for him to become a god like herself and remain by her side forever.
Did Banan know that greed would ultimately thoroughly break Orma? If she knew, did Banan regret that choice? Or did she still think it was “inevitable”?
Orma sneered and emptied all the remaining liquor. It was terribly tasteless. The human liquor that didn’t bring any intoxication instead clearly illuminated Orma’s mind and told him the answer.
That even if she returned to that time, Banan would turn him into this body neither human nor god but like a monster.
