By Zephyria 
The moment the words left his mouth and reached his own ears, Kim Si-baek flinched. …He had believed that he held only the desire to return to mak slecht in his heart, but his subconscious had already been imagining something else. He had been gradually soaked in his relationship with Tae-un, so subtly that he hadn’t even noticed it himself.
“…….”
However, the person more surprised than Kim Si-baek was Tae-un. He looked down at him blankly, with an expression that suggested he couldn’t comprehend what he had just heard.
Confused by the change in feelings he hadn’t known existed, Kim Si-baek gave a forced cough and lightly pushed Tae-un away.
“Fine, fine. I was too hasty. There’s still a long way to go with the quest anyway.”
Tae-un also caught his breath and pulled away. Then, with his eyebrows drooping in a disappointed slant, he wiped his hands with a tissue. His voice sounded quite sullen as he handed a tissue to Kim Si-baek.
“Since we’re doing this secretly to avoid the eyes of minors, it feels like a married couple having sex after putting the kids to sleep, which is actually kind of nice… but since it always stops halfway, it also feels like we’re a sexless couple…”
“What do you mean ‘couple’ when you’re a kid who says he won’t even date me?”
“If you ask me to, Hyung, I won’t just pretend to date you; I’ll pretend to marry you too.”
“Just pretending, even though you have no intention of actually doing it?”
Tae-un glossed over the question with a laugh and gave Kim Si-baek a quick peck on the forehead. Suppressing the urge to rub the spot where his lips had touched, Kim Si-baek wiped the semen off his stomach. He’d have to wash his clothes later.
“Still, isn’t this the kind of partner you wanted?”
“Less of a fuck-buddy and more of a handjob partner. Calling it a ‘hand-partner’ sounds weird, though.”
“I told you not to use such foul language.”
After getting a smack on the thigh for blabbing slang, Tae-un hugged him and rolled over on the bed.
“Un-ah, go wash up first.”
“Wait a second. What’s the harm in taking our time washing? It’s just me and you, Hyung.”
He then grabbed the remote he had forgotten earlier and pressed a button. On the smoothly gliding bed, Tae-un buried his face in the crook of Kim Si-baek’s neck. The sensation of skin that hadn’t yet cooled brushing against him was ticklish and languid.
Thump. Thump.
As if responding, his heart began to beat rapidly again. Swallowing the anxiety that began to spread languidly along with the sound of his heartbeat, Kim Si-baek stroked Tae-un’s hair. It was soft and felt good.
So much so that he didn’t want to let go.
Meanwhile, with his face buried in Kim Si-baek’s neck, Tae-un squeezed his eyes shut. His heart began to pound violently a moment later.
‘…Hyung is staying here instead of returning?’
It was a fantasy so sweet and ecstatic that just thinking about it felt as if his brain were melting—something he had never once imagined.
He wouldn’t have to go crazy with anxiety over whether someone more deeply engraved in Kim Si-baek’s soul would appear once he returned to mak slecht; he would only need to be faithful by his side. Days where he could fully enjoy the joy of Kim Si-baek choosing him.
At the same time, this fantasy was a vain delusion that could never possibly come true.
〈Thus it is decreed, on the 7777th day, I shall surely bring that person back.〉
The voice of Chaos he had heard in the past echoed in his mind. A fear as deep as despair revived. The vain delusion of himself being in Kim Si-baek’s future did not surface again.
✽ ✽ ✽
In mak slecht, everything of Kim Si-baek exists except for one thing. And on Earth, there is the only thing that was excluded. Was it just one thing, or was it everything except that one thing?
That was the meaning the choice between the two worlds held for Kim Si-baek.
Tae-un was an incomparably heavy presence to him. However, the divine power that proved his own identity, including Biyendwe, and the future he had come to dream of in mak slecht were also heavy for Kim Si-baek.
Even as he reminisced about the past and future he left behind in mak slecht, the scales of his heart kept tipping toward Tae-un. Kim Si-baek smiled bitterly. The regret he had intuited the day he decided to acknowledge and accept the desire within him was exactly this.
A regret named Tae-un had been engraved upon the steadfast goal of returning to mak slecht. Right now, it was merely overlaid as a wavering of the heart, but he had a feeling it would eventually become a massive tremor that he wouldn’t be able to control.
Knowing he would regret it, he had still made his own choice. If the path to return to mak slecht opened before his eyes, what would he choose then…
‘…I don’t know.’
Kim Si-baek let out a groan and flopped onto the bed. Since he didn’t even know when the quest would end, he wanted to be faithful to the present for now. To the present where he shared mutual desires with Tae-un.
Fortunately, Biyendwe was dozing, so his troubled inner thoughts weren’t discovered. And Biyendwe, who had been awake for a while but couldn’t speak due to the serious atmosphere, flinched at the apostle’s inner thoughts and hurriedly stopped reading the surface psychology.
‘Was Si-baek worrying about wanting to stay on Earth?’
The period during which Kim Si-baek was his apostle was only a fraction of the time Biyendwe had been conscious as a god. However, that fraction of time was a period that richly colored the young god’s perception.
While it is not rare for a god to have a special attachment to their first apostle and grand warrior, Biyendwe’s affection was exceptionally strong, as he had been with Kim Si-baek from the very first step of making his divine name known. His siblings, Death and Rest, reproached him, asking why he behaved like a child acting spoiled toward a human, but Biyendwe remained steadfast. What was the problem with a child relying on an adult?
But if Kim Si-baek did not return to mak slecht, what should he do? He wasn’t upset by the struggle of the apostle he trusted. Because over the passing years, he had come to understand very well what Tae-un meant to him. Such a struggle would have always been an inevitable accompaniment.
In his honest heart, he wanted to follow Kim Si-baek around forever.
Hearing the faint echo of his sister’s scolding—that this was why he couldn’t achieve growth—Biyendwe shook his head to clear it.
“Are you awake?”
Then, pretending he had heard nothing, Biyendwe flew to Kim Si-baek and perched on his chest. The touch of the hand gently stroking his feathers was warm and comforting as usual.
✽ ✽ ✽
The world was bustling with a Christmas atmosphere, but Kim Si-baek was busy with other matters. He searched for traces of magical energy at the convenience store where Edokus had worked, but he only discovered that a trace so minuscule remained that even he or his avatar could not detect it.
One thing became clear: Edokus had become so weak on Earth that he couldn’t even secure a seed bearer. If he caused another incident like the one at the amusement park, Kim Si-baek would have to take action personally, and knowing his face was a significant advantage.
If so, the ones to be wary of were the Servants of Chaos born on Earth.
‘As expected, should I craft a sacred relic to track magical energy?’
To be precise, it was a sacred relic that maximized efficiency through magic. Apostles and grand warriors can detect magical energy more skillfully than ordinary priests, but since they possess human bodies, there are limits. To overcome these limits, priests had collaborated with mages, and sacred relics or magical tools for detecting and tracking magical energy had been precisely refined.
However, the reason Kim Si-baek hadn’t thought of using such means until now was that he was ignorant of magic, and the development of magic on Earth was lagging behind.
The basic requirement for a mage is the ability to precisely emit and control magical power. Since the foundation of magic is the same, the formulas derived from it were not significantly different between the two worlds. However, the stages beyond that were worlds apart. Earth’s magic had barely reached the stage of using magical beast by-products or minerals as reagent materials.
He hadn’t thought about it until now, but since the presence of the Servants of Chaos was now certain, he felt he should craft one even if the performance was lacking.
[Death and Beauty asks how this is possible when there are no materials to be procured, even if your god assists with magnificent, superior, and genius magical knowledge.]
“Well… I’ll write down the necessary materials first, so please call them for me.”
Thus, with a list densely written on paper, he went to find Tae-un at the office.
“You need materials for a new spell? Take whatever you want from the lab. I’ll tell them to refill whatever is missing.”
“I first need one magic stone from an S-class magical beast, but is there a raid schedule?”
“I’ll give you one that I—no, that our guild hunted.”
“Also, since I’m crafting a sacred relic, I need pure materials untainted by magical energy. Do you have things like these?”
Tae-un, who had taken the paper casually, widened his eyes, and as confusion began to ripple through him, Kim Si-baek subtly avoided his gaze. Even for Tae-un, these would be hard to find…