By Zephyria 
Lunch consisted of street food from a food truck brought by one of the group members.
[Death and Beauty says that the apostle’s younger brother hasn’t said a word, and it’s suffocating.]
[Death and Beauty evaluates that the apostle’s younger brother is good at cleaning.]
[Death and Beauty conveys that the apostle’s younger brother is convenient because he doesn’t need a ladder to decorate the Christmas tree, and that the nun likes it.]
Judging by the constant divine utterances sent by Biyendwe, who had taken refuge with Tae-un because Mung-i kept trying to put him in its mouth, it seemed Tae-un was doing a good job. Even though he had gone so far as to take a day off to follow along, only to be mobilized for menial chores, leaving him no time to be close to Kim Si-baek.
As they were finishing up and eating late with the people who had worked at the food truck, Sister Hyo-ju Agnes approached to help.
“You’ve worked hard. Do you go on volunteer trips often?”
“……Not really.”
“I thought you seemed familiar with this kind of work, but I guess not.”
Hyo-ju Agnes continued to speak with a gentle, smiling face, even to Kim Si-baek, who avoided her gaze out of agitation.
“By the way, Hunter-nim, do I resemble someone you know that much?”
“Pardon?”
“I get the feeling that you find my face somewhat burdensome.”
“…….”
“I don’t know who it is, but what if we really are the same person?”
Eventually, Kim Si-baek stopped his hands and looked into Hyo-ju Agnes’s playful face. If his complex emotions were visible enough for others to notice, it might be better to just shake them off completely.
“Where is your hometown?”
“Guri, Gyeonggi-do. I’m also a Seoul refugee. As it happened, I had come to Seoul with my mother to play on the day of the Great Cataclysm, and that’s how I became a Seoul refugee.”
Her hometown was not Haenam. It was a natural result, yet for some reason, he felt a sense of deflation.
“Then you aren’t. That person’s hometown is Haenam. ……Probably.”
Hyo-ju Agnes clapped her hands in surprise.
“Wow, how interesting. I’m not, but my mother’s hometown is Haenam.”
Since there was no custom in mak slecht of designating the birth of a god or a similar being as a holiday, Biyendwe found the Christmas atmosphere utterly fascinating. Although, while admiring the orphanage’s Christmas decorations, he couldn’t stray more than a meter away before fluttering back to Tae-un’s shoulder.
“…….”
The sight of a baby crow repeatedly flying up and returning to his shoulder would normally be quite irritating, but Tae-un performed all sorts of chores without a single change in expression.
If Biyendwe couldn’t frequently send divine utterances to Kim Si-baek, or if there weren’t the prayers of a believer offered to him, Biyendwe would have been crushed long ago by the suffocating, heavy silence.
[God of Death and Beauty, please make it so I can at least get on the cancellation waiting list for the fine dining restaurant at the HJ Hotel this Christmas. The steak there is fucking delicious. The chef is someone who won first place in a cooking competition program; I suggested to Tae-un hyung that we scout that person for our guild’s cafeteria, but I got shot down. I heard you’re volunteering at the orphanage with hyung today, so please coax hyung into bringing that chef to the cafeteria next year.]
It was a prayer filled with personal greed. It seemed Lee Han-gyeol, the only believer other than his apostle, was also diligently enjoying the Christmas atmosphere.
Biyendwe thought this was just right. A faith as light as a joke, one that did not rely too heavily on him. It was an appropriate faith to offer to a god who must one day return.
‘But does this fellow not eat?’
Biyendwe peeked around from Tae-un’s shoulder. Tae-un always ate with Kim Si-baek, and would sit beside him munching whenever there were snacks, but Biyendwe had never once seen him put anything in his mouth when they were apart.
It was the same now. Despite doing physical labor, he didn’t even drink a sip of water. Did he not even feel thirsty?
‘Anyway, the more I look, the more it feels unsettling.’
Perhaps because it was his first time staring intently at Tae-un’s face from such a close distance, the left side of his neck caught his attention. Specifically, the trace of magical energy that stretched out like a tattoo.
As Biyendwe observed closely, wanting to analyze this trace further, he suddenly felt a gaze and looked up. At some point, pitch-black three-hundred eyes were looking down at him.
Indifferent and cold.
Dark and deep, as if he could crunch up and swallow a young god right then and there.
An intimidation that creaked, incomparable to the heavy, silent air that had stifled him until now. However, before the young god could clearly perceive that pressure, Sister Benedicta’s voice followed.
“Un-ah! Were you still working? Goodness. You should eat first. Hurry up and go have a meal before it’s too late!”
From the shoulder of Tae-un, who was being forcibly pushed out the door, Biyendwe rubbed his chest, which was pounding for no reason. What on earth was that feeling just now, that almost-touching sensation?
Tae-un withdrew the gaze that had imprisoned Biyendwe.
The baby crow, lost in deep thought, seemed to have completely forgotten his interest in the trace of magical energy. If he had continued to pay attention and noticed something strange, he would have had to be killed, as Chaos had warned in the past.
He didn’t want to do that. Because Kim Si-baek would be devastated.
He silently moved toward the food truck. Kim Si-baek would be there. Probably with her.
Frowning as he scanned the area, Tae-un simply closed his eyes. Following his divine power was more accurate and faster than judging with the naked eye.
His vision was still deteriorating, little by little. It wasn’t because Kim Si-baek, who treated him, was unskilled. What doctor could treat a patient who deceives them about their symptoms? Tae-un only hoped that the remaining time would be sufficient.
Beyond the quiet darkness spreading across his retinas, he felt a divine power shining like light. It was Kim Si-baek. The blinding brilliance was like a single ray of light reflecting in the deep sea.
Tae-un’s consciousness was nailed to the dazzling beauty. Like a deep-sea fish, grotesquely twisted by the pressure of the abyss and with degenerated eyes, lured by the ecstatic sunlight and swimming toward the surface without even knowing its body was melting, he chased the radiance of the divine power.
Ah.
Tae-un barely managed to exhale. The faint aura of another divine power approaching the beautiful divine power held onto his reason just before it melted away. It was incomparably dimmer than Kim Si-baek’s, but it was an undeniable divine power. A sign of a priest with faithful belief on this earth who had not yet manifested. It was her.
When he opened his eyes, he glimpsed a figure he presumed to be Sister Hyo-ju Agnes next to Kim Si-baek. Tae-un became curious. How would he accept this new shackle?
“……You say your mother’s hometown is Haenam?”
“Yes! She left Haenam when she was young and couldn’t return due to circumstances, but she missed it all her life. That’s why she gave my secular name, Hae-ryeong, the character ‘Hae’ for ‘sea’.”
Whether he had unconsciously tensed up upon hearing the word Haenam, a low groan escaped him at her following words. It wasn’t his mother. His mother did not miss her hometown.
Hyo-ju Agnes, who had no way of knowing his psychological state, did not stop chatting even while her hands worked diligently.
“But on the other hand, she also hated it terribly. I guess this is what they call a love-hate relationship… She hated the sea so much that she even avoided fish.”
〈I hate the smell of the sea and the fishy scent I smelled until I was sick of it long ago, so Mom still hates fish. It’s a relief my sons love tonkatsu, right?〉
The voice of his mother, who had held and patted him on some night long ago, echoed dizzily, overlapping with her voice.
“Actually, my mother remarried. I’ve never met them, but I have half-brothers, and she said she gave them names based on the traces of her hometown she remembered, one by one. The arborvitae that could be seen anywhere in the village, the clouds hanging on the horizon, and then me and my younger brother, who are the sea.”
“…….”
“Oh dear. I’ve been chatting too much about useless things, haven’t I? I don’t usually tell these stories to people I’ve just met, but for some reason, my tongue gets loose when I’m with you, Hunter-nim. Maybe it’s because I feel comfortable.”
Kim Si-baek and Kim Si-woon.
His vision blurred. This was a story he had never heard from his mother. The meaning of the names—realized only after his younger brother had died—made his mind feel empty, yet as if he had been struck by a powerful blow.
Kim Si-baek barely managed to part his lips, hoping his voice would not tremble.
“Is your mother… also in Daejeon?”