By Zephyria 
The name that escaped those tender lips was not his own. His shoulders instinctively hunched, and anxiety seized his pounding heart. As expected, the man must have mistaken him for someone else and saved him by error. There was no way anyone would come to rescue him from that semi-basement room. What if he was put back inside? Would he die alone…?
The man, seeing the child’s face suddenly turn pale, clicked his tongue belatedly.
“Sorry. That’s not your name right now.”
After a small cough, he whispered the name again.
“Young-ah. Soo-young-ah.”
It was awkward, as if he were pronouncing something very unfamiliar, but the low words were steeped in a longing so deep that even the immature emotions of a child could sense it. The child’s lips parted slightly. That was right. It was definitely his name.
The man stroked the child’s head again. Unlike the unfamiliarity of calling his name, this gesture was incredibly familiar.
“I heard that in Gyeongsang-do, people use the last syllable of a name as a nickname. That’s why you remembered your name as being only one syllable. Though I only found that out after I had already given you a new one-syllable name.”
“…?”
“Young-ah. Even though you forgot your name, you never forgot the memory of your parents calling you with love.”
The man gave a hearty laugh to the child, who tilted his head in confusion, not understanding what he was talking about.
“You will go through many hardships in the future. And in the process, you might make the wrong choices.”
Kim Si-baek had seen this small child succumb to despair and break himself, seen him take his own life, and seen him carve open his younger brother’s chest. Even though he had prepared himself to some extent, the sight of him killing his brother was as shocking as the sight of his suicide.
No matter how out of his mind he had been, that act was clearly murder, a sin. But how could he possibly condemn him? Every one of Tae-un’s actions stemmed from him. Even if the whole world condemned the boy, he alone had to share that burden.
“Anyone can make mistakes, so it’s okay. It’s okay to wander down the wrong path. When that happens, I’ll be by your side, worrying with you and wandering with you.”
Though the words remained cryptic, the child listened in silence. It was partly due to an instinctive intuition that this man would never do anything to harm him, but above all, it was because the arms holding him were incredibly sturdy and warm. The warmth of another person, which he thought he would never encounter again, embraced the child.
“So, just as you didn’t forget the memory of your parents loving you, please don’t forget the sincerity of my love for you.”
He still didn’t understand what it meant. But one thing was certain. No matter what happened in the future, he would never forget this warmth that saved him—for the rest of his life.
The man gave a strained smile, pressing his face against the child’s gaunt cheek as the child nodded. Enveloped in a halo of light, the child took one last look at the man. He memorized the smile he had never forgotten, even at the end of a death that felt like eternity.
When the light completely enveloped and permeated the child’s body, Kim Si-baek had returned to the Id Portal. The moment he returned, the weight in his arms vanished, leaving a void that made him unconsciously touch his arms. He had thought holding the young Tae-un was a vision shown by Chaos, but the lingering sensation of weight after returning to the Id Portal felt closer to reality.
Kim Si-baek asked, half-doubting.
“Un-i hasn’t… become a child again, has he?”
After a brief pause, the sound of laughter echoed.
「Our apostle has finally overcome his fate. Although we can no longer take the apostle to mak slecht as a complete follower according to our will, one of our objectives has been achieved, so how could we not be pleased? Thus, as the child wished, we have returned him to the moment just before our observation reached him. From your perspective, he may be called a pure human, devoid of magical energy.」
“….”
「Young apostle of god. You have succeeded.」
As Kim Si-baek pondered the meaning of those words, his eyes widened. While he was confused by the reality that Tae-un had actually become a child, Chaos spoke in a voice that seemed to be measuring something distant.
「Those we mold do not evolve, unlike you humans. To not evolve is to simply settle in the present, which means there is no will to walk toward a future better than the now. Do you know what value the future humans dream of holds for us?」
“….”
「Even humans who dreamed, once they became followers, forgot their own futures and heart’s desires and were eroded by us, but the apostle was different. The apostle remembered you until the end and, despite his exuviation, returned to being human. The future you offered, as the center of the apostle, was very beautiful. As beautiful as the apostle’s victory over fate.」
The presence of Chaos began to fade rapidly. Kim Si-baek intuited that the collapse of the Id Portal was imminent.
「The apostle and you have given us possibility. The followers we mold anew in mak slecht will be different from those of the past. Are you not worried?」
Kim Si-baek smiled bitterly.
“It is a future that cannot exist for me. You are conducting a meaningless experiment.”
「True enough.」
Beyond the exit of the Id Portal, which had appeared in the meantime, the rooftop of the orphanage was faintly visible. Before crossing the portal, Kim Si-baek asked one last thing.
“Will Un-i age at the same rate as an ordinary human?”
He felt a presence that seemed to be wearing a calculating smile.
「Leave it as an expectation of an uncertain future. Is it not a privilege of humans to move toward a future they cannot observe?」
Chaos answered ambiguously, but for some reason, Kim Si-baek had a feeling that Tae-un’s time would fast-forward. Since Tae-un had returned to being human through his feelings for Kim Si-baek even after becoming an Apostle of Chaos, he would likely wish to escape the body of an immature child and become an adult as quickly as possible.
Kim Si-baek took one last look at the mental landscape created by Tae-un’s distorted past and then turned around. Tae-un was outside. Along with a new future that had not existed before, but would now stretch out endlessly before them.
✽ ✽ ✽
Outside the orphanage, Nasluik paced around extremely anxiously. Gloiuken, who had just finished sweeping away a wave of magical beasts that had approached the orphanage, checked his sibling’s expression.
“Why do you look like that?”
“…I feel like His Excellency might decide to stay in this world.”
Gloiuken patted the shoulder of his younger sibling, who was showing signs of lingering anxiety.
“My dear sibling, even if His Excellency decides to remain here, the fact that he cherished and cared for you will not change.”
“I know that, but…”
Despite the sister’s comforting words, Nasluik’s expression did not brighten. Even Biyendwe, who was pretending to be composed while preening its feathers atop Gloiuken’s head, was equally anxious. The young god, who had been with the apostle since the first steps of announcing his divine name, had never imagined his absence.
‘I want to stay with Si-baek… would that be okay?’
After some time had passed, filled only with their mutual anxiety, the energy that had been hovering over the rooftop suddenly cleared, and Kim Si-baek appeared.
“Your Excellency!”
Gloiuken quickly scooped up Nasluik with one arm and leaped in a single bound to the rooftop of the orphanage. Kim Si-baek, who had been staring into the air defenselessly, flinched in surprise. Then, looking at them, he wore a soft but firm smile.
From that smile, Gloiuken could tell what decision he had made. Only then did the rift behind Kim Si-baek come into view—a small rift similar to the one that had swallowed Kim Si-baek in mak slecht.
“I will not be able to serve you until the end.”
Kim Si-baek patted the back of Nasluik, who was clinging to him and sobbing loudly, and bowed his head to Biyendwe. Biyendwe’s eyes widened as the anxiety he had feared became reality. Just as something was about to come out of the beak that was slowly clicking, Kim Si-baek’s finger gently stopped it.
“You must not say such things.”
Biyendwe, who had been about to say that he would also remain on Earth, shut its beak at Kim Si-baek’s dissuasion, as if the man had read his mind. The calm voice clearly brought to the surface the conflict that had been disturbing his heart. It was a conflict that Biyendwe had vaguely felt but ignored because of his greed to stay with the apostle.