Even in the historic Seonghwangcheong, there are few who have received the title of 'Heaven.' Much less for a saintess. In Seonghwangcheong, which serves the heavenly gods, Heaven is the sacred space where gods dwell. A mere insignificant being of the earth could never dare to usurp the name of Heaven.
Yet she was the Saintess of Heaven. None questioned or raised objections.
She was made so. The Saintess of Heaven was determined from the very beginning.
The Saintess of Heaven, Meiel. Even within the veiled Seonghwangcheong, she is a presence shrouded in mystery, known only by that title. A saintess closest to the first saintess, where merely hearing her voice is a blessing.
Though Meiel was not present in this space, she watched over us as if she were.
"Sister Yegeucheria. Creating awkward situations is your hobby, but this time you have chosen a truly troublesome person. 'That' is not a being that distinguishes good and evil as you think."
Before Yegeucheria could reply, Meiel continued.
"I know. You probably don't distinguish that either. Because you believed until your death that no matter how evil a being, they can repent and spread goodness. But, Sister Yegeucheria. You who know how good humans can become, you would also know how evil they can become."
What's that? Did she see Yegeucheria's death in the future?
Her way of speaking is as if she has already heard the answer and seen the outcome. Is it because she is a saintess who sees the future? It's unknowable. Because that thing, which does not actually exist in this space, cannot have its thoughts read by me.
Yegeucheria, seemingly accustomed to this strange manner of speaking, replied.
"Then, does that not mean he too is a human who can repent? No matter how wretched and vile a human, if they listen to my words and follow my teachings, they can stand beside the heavenly gods. It was written in the gospel. As it was, the first saintess blessed all people. She believed even evildoers would become good if they received her teaching."
"Yes. I liked that about you, too. But I could not like all of you. Because you irresponsibly watched after throwing a difficult problem at humans before they were ready. Goodness and savagery are different, Sister Yegeucheria. There are things you must not do even if you can do everything."
As if there was nothing more to say, Meiel cut off her words and turned her head toward me.
"King of Humans. The reason you sought me out is to ask about the King of Dogs, I presume."
"How did you know... Are you really a prophet?"
I can read minds, but how does a saintess who hasn't even met me until now know a question I haven't yet asked?
They say regressors are unfair, but actually, limited to this iteration, the regressor isn't that unfair. He simply knows events that will happen in the future, and even those can change due to variables.
But in this world, there are prophets. And those prophets hold and twist fate itself.
Meiel spoke with certainty, as if knowing the answer.
"To give you the conclusion first, your guess is correct. The King of Dogs, having become perfect and flawless, is a being ordained by the first saintess. A saint... no, I should say a saintly dog. Either way, truly monumental."
That it is an ordained being means the first saintess foresaw that existence from the distant past. Just like all the other saintesses.
"As I thought. So it was you people who made Aji and Penril that way."
"'Made' is not an appropriate word. The first saintess saw this scene in that long future, and it is merely being realized according to the natural order. In the end, it is history and civilization that make something."
Prophets who see the future do not maneuver in secret. They see the tangled web of cause and effect and make only slight adjustments so that future arrives. Their intentions are diluted through thousands upon thousands of links, and their influence spreads across all humanity.
So no one can hold them accountable. They are those who see the backs of a deck of cards. They have seen in advance which card will turn and to whom it will be given. They skillfully manipulate the order, giving their allies the strongest hand and ruining the enemy's made hands, but from the receiving end, it's hard to tell.
It's a scam. Compared to me, who at best reads others' minds and sees their hands, they are worse. Because to them, this isn't even a game. Someone needs to arrest them.
While I grumbled internally at the unfairness, Meiel continued speaking.
"A dog is a beast, yet submissive, loyal, and most of all, weak. Far weaker than a wolf. Unless it's a hunting dog, it neither harms humans nor has the strength to. The first saintess saw traces of norms in the dog. She saw that if the beastly savagery of the wolf was stripped from that dog, making it flawless, it would become an eternal pillar of this order."
"Strip away savagery? How do you strip away nature?"
"Humans possess a wicked nature. Petty jealousy, vulgar envy, base desires. They are born with an innate evil that seeks to fulfill their desires even at the cost of harming others. Yet most endure and suppress that evil. Having learned goodness and norms from order, they conflict, agonize, and overcome that evil and desire."
Meiel looked beyond, toward where Aji was, and spoke.
"And so the King of Dogs fought continuously against the King of Wolves, his own evil nature, and ultimately seized victory. Thanks to that, the King of Dogs became flawless. A promise was fulfilled, an eternal promise was made. The King of Dogs has now become a bulwark that humans can trust and rely upon."
It is as I expected.
Dogs and wolves are originally one. But over long years, domesticated by human hands, dogs changed too much from wolves. It's not strange that different kings emerged.
But there was no reason for the two to fight each other. Beasts don't fight in that way.
"Humans distinguished dogs from wolves, but it was the first saintess who distinguished the King of Dogs and the King of Wolves and made them fight each other?"
Meiel did not affirm, but did not particularly deny it.
"It was going to be so, and so it was set."
"Just to make a friend for humans? That seems too grand a thing for that."
"Of course, it is not only for that reason. It is for a greater discipline and order. Though even if I explain it to you now, you wouldn't understand..."
'Even if I explain it to you now, you wouldn't understand,' huh. Hey, meet me. Right now, let me read your mind. Then I could fully understand.
...But I must never, ever show that I'm using mind-reading. The moment I do, that fact will be 'read' by them. They will avoid meeting me even more stubbornly, and it will become virtually impossible to meet.
The moment I, who possesses mind-reading, read the future they have seen, I will be able to play the game on an equal footing with them.
I have to wait until the regressor takes me to Seongsan Yulrim. Sigh. What would be good to say here? I need to choose words that won't arouse suspicion if possible. It's troublesome since I can't read thoughts.
It was then. The regressor, who had been silent, spoke.
"You mean killing the King of Sin that will exist in all futures, right? I know that much. You can just tell me. About the Great Rule."
'I've heard this several times since the 8th iteration. Mentioning the King of Sin lets us skip unnecessary procedures, so I'll say it in advance.'
Even the Saintess of Heaven seemed to hesitate for a moment, as if she hadn't foreseen the regressor's actions.
In this aspect, he's a fitting regressor. He said he received help from Seonghwangcheong until now, right? I don't know how much information he shared, but it seems Seonghwangcheong has shared considerable information with the regressor. Thanks to that, we can proceed with the discussion quickly.
Meiel looked at the regressor with a somewhat sorrowful expression.
"...My last hope. Do you intend to help the King of Humans?"
"I'm not exactly helping Hyuze. We're just getting what we both want. Wouldn't it be good if everyone joined forces to stop the King of Sin?"
"That's idealistic. But that will ruin everything. It's a path closer to despair than hope."
"But it might work out well, can't it?"
"That is throwing oneself into flimsy optimism. It's no different from standing still, believing a pouring landslide will avoid you. The King of Humans is a savage being who contains even evil nature itself, and the King of Beasts. 'He' is an enemy we must deal with."
"That's not true. Hyuze may be extreme, but he's not an evil being. He can sufficiently help me and you."
'Meiel helped me many times, and granted me blessings many times, but in the end, she failed to prevent destruction. I need to find another way. If I can't block the sin and can't kill the King of Sin. It seems good to use Hyuze to prevent the King of Sin from appearing at all.'
The goodwill I've built up until now doesn't seem to have been in vain. I'm moved, regressor. For thinking of me that way.
With a voice that felt sad even in its illusory form, Meiel clasped her hands and prayed.
"...And that is why you are bound to be my first despair. Ah, first saintess who blessed me. How could you bless me and yet..."
The saintess's reverent prayer continued for quite a long time. When I was starting to feel restless, Meiel composed herself again and spoke.
"For order and norms to stand upright, a promise is needed. A promise that the other will not harm me. A promise that what is mine will have its safety guaranteed. A promise that order will protect me. And, above all."
Meiel continued, for some reason glaring at me.
"A promise that if I break the order and scatter evil, I will be trapped in the shackles of sin and punished for eternity. Goodness met with answer, evil with punishment. With such faith, humans can endure without destroying each other."
"But there is no such promise, is there?"
"There is a promise. Like the laws, morals, and norms that uphold order in this world."
Meiel, who answered immediately, soon let out a small sigh.
"However, yes. You're right. As you say, human promises are trifling and petty. Without eyes to watch over sin and the power to mete out punishment, a promise is a frail thing that can be thrown away at any time. A weak, vulgar, and easily shattered promise becomes doubt against the promise itself."
She doesn't seem to be a fanatic who only follows the will of the heavenly gods just because she is a saintess. Well, she can't help but be.
The Saintess of Foresight, Yuel, became a cynic after seeing and being worn down by all sorts of human ugliness. A saintess who sees what cannot be seen could not fall into groundless fanaticism. They have seen and shouldered too much for that.
"We need a more fundamental promise. An immutable and truthful contract, of a different class from the vulgar promises humans make with their tongues and fingers. An absolutely unchanging covenant made by a conceptual being staking its very concept. The King of Dogs... was a test of whether such a covenant could exist."
A conceptual being is the embodiment of the concept itself. The personality of a conceptual being does not change.
Of course, it's not absolute. If the concept itself changes, the conceptual being changes too. Just as the wolf became a dog through domestication and became the King of Dogs.
"The King of Dogs fought against his own evil nature and finally forged it. Now no beast will feel hostility or fear toward the King of Dogs. For the King of Dogs has become a being that represents and speaks for the gentleness and mercy of beasts."
Beasts have a gentle side. That too is a natural principle. A predator has no reason to hunt when its stomach is full. Because it must eat later when hungry. Prey form herds and mingle well with other beasts. To reduce the probability of being chosen when a predator comes.
Aji became the embodiment of that aspect. Thanks to that, he isn't attacked by other beasts.
"In short, you're saying you succeeded in reshaping the King of Beasts to your taste? Hmm. Then, you could try the same with the King of Humans. Maybe you already have."
"Your question... Ah, I see. You, having realized the existence of the King of Sin, suspect that even he is a being ordained by the first saintess."
What. How did she really know?
It is a question I would ask. But to know that and bring it up immediately is strange. It's as if she saw the conclusion in advance and is answering me.
They say she's a prophet, but there has been no true prophet since the first saintess. In fact, even Yuel and Pereuel, whom I met, only possessed abilities akin to fragments of prophecy.
But it seemed like the Saintess of the Sky had plucked out only the largest fragment. It was clear she could see the future at a level equal, or nearly similar, to the first Saintess.
"King of humans. But your thoughts are wrong. Even if it is the King of Sin who brings humanity to ruin, even if we encouraged the birth of the King of Sin, it cannot be our responsibility."
Was she evading responsibility? Yet Meiel looked too dignified to call it evasion. Rather.
"Because sin belongs to humanity."
It seemed as though responsibility was running away from her, and she wanted to chase after it and catch it. With a cold, sneering face, Meiel continued.
"It is not the King of Sin who destroys the world. It is the sin of humanity. The King of Sin, like all other conceptual beings, is merely a proxy for that…."
The Wolf King can antagonize humans. But he cannot annihilate them.
Because, fundamentally, the wolves are now weaker than humans. You cannot accomplish what you lack the ability to do.
But the King of Sin, who acts as proxy for sin, possesses the power to annihilate humanity.
And sin is part of humanity.
That means.
"Everything begins when humans get their hands on the power of the demon god. When they use power beyond their station to kill other humans. And when they realize that this power is not so special, that everyone can obtain it by following the same steps. At that moment, humanity's future ends. An eternal night descends upon the world, the infinitely spreading branches severed all at once, all of humanity falling asleep, never to dream again. That is how the apocalypse arrives."
One day, you open your eyes and see nothing.
Not because your eyes are closed, not because the lights have gone out. There is simply nothing. No light, no sensation, no pain. The future that flowed like a river, shone like stars, stretched out like branches—all of it vanishes, and the eyes that saw the future reflect nothing, as if struck blind. A terrifyingly void apocalypse arrives.
That was the future Meiel had seen.
I wasn't reading her mind with telepathy, yet it was as if the future Meiel had 'seen' played out before my eyes. It wasn't an illusion. The regressor, Yegcheria, and I all 'saw' a fragment of the apocalypse she described.
Her dark pupils reflecting emptiness, Meiel glared at me with eyes full of endless void and despair.
"That is why you must not exist, King of Humans. A mere King of Beasts like you cannot overcome this. You cannot endure the swelling malice of humans growing day by day. You cannot stop humans who, reaching the demonic, lay their hands on forbidden knowledge that destroys even their own foundations."
What is this?
My biological instincts sound an alarm. An irresistible force seems to crush down on me. Something, something is hostile toward me.
But I feel nothing.
No killing intent, no power. Meiel is not in this space. I, who possess telepathy, know that better.
Yet my beast's instincts tell me. I could die.
Without her being present here, I could die? What is this? This sensation as if the entire world is rejecting me?
"Rather, you would affirm them. Instead of saving those dying on the slope rolling down into the abyss, you would see them off with a smile. So long as the enemy of humans is human, your existence is utterly useless. Better to just disappear…."
"Stop it, Meiel. Hyuz has lost all his strength."
At that moment, the strange aura I felt from Meiel vanished instantly.
I wondered if she held back her power because of the regressor, but it didn't sit right. As if the future rejecting me reversed the moment the regressor intervened.
Come to think of it, the Saintess of Causality said that the regressor's causality is twisted. Could the regressor be a hidden card to deal with prophets?
Meiel spoke resentfully toward the regressor.
"…Sei. Did you see hope in him? But you know as well, don't you? Even having lost his power, he is dangerous."
"Killing him really doesn't do much good, does it? Hyuz doesn't have the ability to do anything. He's weak and gets swept up easily. In that case, we just have to hold onto him so he doesn't get swept up that way."
The regressor, who had replied lightly, suddenly clapped her hands as if she just remembered something.
"Ah, right. Besides that, I have something to say. I want to go to Sacred Mountain Yulrim. I promised to take Hyuz to Yulrim if he helped with this matter."
"You drive me to despair in many ways. The human king to Sacred Mountain Yulrim. That land is…."
The regressor seemed accustomed, as if this was not her first such request. Unreasonable demands are usually ignored, but perhaps Meiel, the greatest and most blessed saintess, could not do so.
Now appearing resigned, Meiel clasped her hands together and closed her eyes.
"But though you are my first despair, you are also my final hope. Sei, I shall bless you, staking my threadlike hope. However, there is one condition."
"A condition? Why?"
'Before, she granted anything without conditions.'
A thought that would make Meiel explode if she heard it, but there's no way she would.
"In the land of the ancient Ten Thousand Nations, a slumbering ancient evil is about to awaken. A dark and terrible evil that brought fear and chaos to this world in the distant, savage age. So, Sei. If you defeat 'it,' that remnant of savagery. And if your thoughts about savagery do not change through the process… I shall guide you to Sacred Mountain Yulrim."
"Ah, that? Can I do it alone?"
"It should not be difficult. For I shall bless you."
Holding both hands tightly together, Meiel closed her eyes and prayed for the regressor.
"My final hope. And O savagery. The first Saintess who blessed me, and the lofty heavenly gods who protect her. Your devout child prays for their boundless glory and blessing."
Meiel's voice grew gradually louder. At first it was merely a murmur, then it swelled to a shout, then spread as a thunderous roar that filled the chapel. In the end, it became not even noise, but a force that seemed to crack the world itself, spreading throughout existence.
[May a damnable blessing be before you all.]
And the world clicked into place. With a metallic sound, a click as if some massive bridle was being fitted together, my ears caught the alien noise.
The regressor and I received the Saintess's blessing.