Feeling the faintly trembling hand, Ban stopped thinking with downcast eyes and raised his head to meet Orma’s gaze.
Does fear transmit too? Ban was also feeling the terror that Orma felt.
However, what Ban felt was a different kind of fear from Orma’s. If he feared his own death that would come someday, he could just make Orma into an existence that ‘could die.’ But the more they traveled, the more Ban stayed by his side, the more Orma became closer to a perfect existence. He was afraid that he would ultimately become a lonely and solitary being, afraid that he himself would make Orma that way.
As depressing thoughts continued, Ban finally stopped thinking while regulating his breathing.
Whether one dies or not is beyond one’s own will. If one is mortal, one must accept the fate that will come someday.
“…Orma-nim, do you remember what I said to you at first?”
“At first?”
“Didn’t I promise that I would absolutely never leave you lonely?”
“…How?”
“Somehow.”
At the promise declared resolutely, Orma burst out laughing. Both Ban and Orma knew there wasn’t really a method. Yet it was both ridiculous and commendable that he boldly made such a promise.
But Ban didn’t stop there and grabbed Orma’s hand firmly while saying:
“Mark me with your seal.”
“I said I don’t want to.”
“If you don’t want to leave it on my skin, you can engrave it in my eyes. Right, wouldn’t eyes be fine? If you engrave it very small on the iris, it probably won’t be very visible.”
“…”
Sometimes when you’re like this, you seem out of your mind. Orma thought that to himself and stared blankly at Ban.
Whatever had stimulated Ban so much, his blazing eyes seemed closer to competitive spirit than any noble conviction. In fact, just as Orma thought, Ban was burning with arbitrarily strange competitive spirit.
‘Damn Orma. Let’s see if you win or I win. Even thinking of all the hardships I’ve gone through, I’ll absolutely make sure you don’t fall apart when I die.’
A method? There’s no good method that comes to mind right away. But well, if I really can’t turn Orma back into a human, couldn’t I somehow extend and keep extending my lifespan until he’s okay? I’ll find a method. After all, isn’t this a fantasy game world, so wouldn’t there be such tricks? Besides, Orma seemed to have power not only over darkness but also to maintain and preserve things, so utilize that ability or something… Anyway!
Ban’s appearance, burning with fighting spirit while privately vowing to mobilize every possible means to make sure he never whines about being lonely again, was very suitable to be seen as an ‘Orma-obsessed crazy gong,’ just like a comment that had once appeared in the game community.
Flustered by that enthusiasm, Orma eventually looked at Ban with slightly tired eyes and slowly raised his hand to stroke near Ban’s right eye. As whitish golden mist seemed to rise up, it soon melted away and disappeared into Ban’s eye. Though he felt nothing, along with a clear notification sound of ding, a status window appeared to inform Ban of his condition.
[Your God is watching over you. He is detecting your existence.]
“…I’ll only respond when I’m curious about where you are.”
“Understood. Thank you.”
What on earth is there to be thankful for? Watching his own Apostle full of completely incomprehensible conviction was frightening. Just looking at this appearance, it would be fine to call him a fanatic. Well, if he had been normal, he wouldn’t have boldly shouted that he’d come charging into hell to become an Evil God’s Apostle.
Orma recalled Ban from the past, quickly accepted it, and carefully touched his own seal planted in Ban’s eye. Then a faint golden light reflected in the eyes that had been like a clear morning sky without a single cloud, changing to a mysterious color. Neither sky blue nor gold… the subtle hue in between resembled the eye color Orma had when he was human. Sparkling depending on the light and angle, becoming sky blue, gold, and a peridot color mixing the two, it completely captivated Orma.
…Beautiful. I shouldn’t touch the seal when others are around, so no one but me can see it.
Thinking that way, Orma seemed to have forgotten the reason he engraved the seal on Ban in the first place.
* * *
“…Sniff sniff, now I can smell the sea very strongly!”
“I can smell it too. It seems we’ve almost reached Gillia.”
At other times, only Jaena would have chattered alone with sparkling eyes, but actually this time Ban was also a bit excited.
Ban, who was reincarnated into the game world, spent all his childhood and adolescence in the temple. He hadn’t started traveling the world for long, and even that was mostly places related to disasters.
Siol? Despite being called the City of Water, all the water in the waterways had dried up due to the disaster. Not only that? Blue Tears were disgustingly clustered and blooming in the underground waterways, and Banan infected by them turned pretty fish flowers into disgusting fish monsters, didn’t she!
Though the waterways and fountains were filled with water just before leaving Siol, unfortunately Banan was sculpting Orma’s form with water, so he was too busy hurriedly trying to hide that appearance and couldn’t properly sightseeing.
Without ever having proper tourism and moving busily, what about the Black Wildwood he went to find Jaena when he was kidnapped? It was no different from a complete mountain hell. If someone liked seeing that dark space crammed like a forest with acrid smoke, a sea of flames, and black grass up to the waist everywhere, one would truly have to question their taste.
But… Gillia is different! No matter how much the world’s water dries up due to the disaster from sunlight, would the sea dry up? The vast sea and the large city with a trade port handling major movement between continents—Gillia unexpectedly didn’t stand out much in the game.
Well, since he moved centered around disasters and Orma in the game, already destroyed cities or places where destruction was progressing were the stages where major battles took place. That meaning soon meant that Gillia belonged to relatively peaceful neighborhoods, and since destruction had progressed much less than the game’s point in time, it meant there would be almost no suffering from getting involved in strange incidents in Gillia.
Then, wouldn’t I finally be able to comfortably sightsee this world’s beautiful cities at ease? Especially since for Ban in this life, it would be his first time seeing the sea. The sea scent he was smelling after a long time, or actually for the first time in his life, made even Ban extremely excited. Not long after, when unique architectural styles began to appear, Jaena started chattering with a bright smile.
“You know, Ban-gong? When I came from Bion to Gillia, what surprised me most was the transparent lighthouse in Gillia!”
“Transparent lighthouse? There’s such a thing? How is that possible?”
“Aha, have you never been to Gillia either, Ban-gong? Since Ban-gong has very extensive knowledge, I thought you knew! Ahem, then I shall personally explain. Gillia’s lighthouse is not shaped like a building.”
There’s something even Ban doesn’t know! Excited, Jaena cutely boasted and explained Gillia’s special lighthouse. Even Orma, who would normally scold him for being noisy, read the expectation in Ban’s eyes, thought it was cute, and quietly kept his mouth shut.
“Gillia’s lighthouse is shaped like a very, very huge soap bubble! It’s a transparent round sphere, and its size is comparable to the moon!”
“…The moon?”
“Was the moon too much? Hmm, then it’s a bit smaller than that! Hehe, those transparent lighthouses are floating here and there in Gillia, and when ships come in, those lighthouses fill with water! And at night, the entire lighthouse sparkles with light, and thanks to that, they say you can easily find the port from afar.”
“How interesting. I’m very much looking forward to being able to see it when we go to Gillia.”
Now it finally feels like we’ve entered a fantasy world. Of course it was like that before too, but previously it was closer to dark fantasy, shall we say. Orma looked at the equally excited Ban with curious eyes and said:
“Is that so interesting? Do you want it?”
“What would I do with a lighthouse? I don’t want it, but I do look forward to seeing it in person.”
“‘Gillia’… Ah, I remember. I wondered why it was familiar…”
“Do you know Gillia?”
Does that mean it’s a region that remained the same even while Orma was stuck in hell for a long time? Then it must be a region boasting very long tradition!
But Orma, who seemed to have recalled something, soon made a sour expression and muttered:
“That transparent lighthouse, I think it was a magic tool I gave to someone…”
“What? Who did you give it to?”
“…Well, it would be the noble ruling that place.”
Even though it was something he himself did, Orma made an uneasy expression.
Was he now regretting giving a magic tool to someone? But who did he say he gave it to? Ban tilted his head, but Orma didn’t open his mouth any further.
Soon after not much time passed, the large transparent lighthouse that Jaena had explained began to show itself in the distance.
