If it were the world he used to live in, talking about gods wouldn’t have changed anything—there’d be no way to confirm a single thing. But this place was different. It was a world born from human imagination. His noona didn’t even go to church.
In fantasy novels, gods are often portrayed like humans. Sometimes, they’re even weaker than humans. Killing a god had become so common, it wasn’t even worth putting in the title anymore.
‘Then this time…’
“Are you scared?”
Cain asked abruptly. Seeing Satin deep in thought, he must’ve assumed he was afraid. Satin was about to say no, but paused.
‘Is it really okay for me not to be scared right now?’
At the moment, Satin didn’t fully understand what kind of situation he was in. He’d thought casually that it was fine as long as he could save his own life—but was that really true? Maybe the flawed god simply hadn’t noticed his existence yet. What if that god was planning to erase him just to put the story back on track?
‘No… there’s no need to be afraid. Not necessarily.’
Death is something many people fear, but sometimes, death can carry as much weight and meaning as life.
‘If I have to disappear for Noona’s masterpiece to be complete, then wouldn’t that be a meaningful death?’
Noona had loved Satin the most, but after Part 1, she never brought him back. The character Satin had fulfilled his role and then vanished. Noona was someone who knew very clearly what needed to be done—and what must not be done.
‘The one who has to carry the story forward isn’t me—it’s him.’
And likewise, the one who should receive the reward at the end of the story.
As Satin stared at him intently, Cain tilted his head slightly.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Seeing his calm, carefree face, Satin suddenly felt uneasy. Cain had no sense of duty about becoming a hero—was that really okay?
“Cain, what if… to get rid of that thing, someone had to be erased again? Like last time—what if that smoke only disappears when someone ceases to exist?”
“What do you mean, ‘what if’?”
“I mean—would you go look for the cause of it?”
Cain gave a thoughtful “Hmm…” and hesitated, but before he could answer, Rita cut in.
“Of course we would! We have to!”
“I wasn’t asking you. I was talking to him.”
Cain sounded annoyed, but Rita didn’t care in the slightest. She even pouted, her lips forming a triangle as if she were the one being slighted.
“You’re not coming with us? I thought we were on the same side.”
“…I am coming. But it’s not because of your sense of justice or anything.”
“Then what is it?”
Thanks to Rita blurting out the exact question Satin had been about to ask, he just quietly waited for Cain’s answer.
Cain frowned, falling silent for a moment, then finally mumbled,
“…Because.”
His voice was so quiet that no one heard. Rita blinked and asked, “What?”
Cain, unusually flustered, repeated himself a little louder.
“I want to make a wish to the High Priest.”
It was almost poetic in its irony. The original Satin had been the first villain. It wouldn’t be wrong to call him the story’s starting point. And yet now, Satin had become its endpoint. Because of him, Cain was walking the path of the protagonist.
‘Is this really how it’s supposed to be? Can it even be like this?’
***
As they entered Redwood, Satin thought back to when he first met Rita. She had been furious because the temple refused to listen to her claims that she had found traces of Black Magic.
Satin worried that maybe the Redwood officials wouldn’t take the story about the strange smoke seriously either. But thankfully, that wasn’t the case. Rita insisted she would go to the government office alone.
‘Looks like she plans to reveal her identity.’
Edward, who already seemed to know who she was, immediately agreed. Satin simply nodded along. Cain didn’t even look like he had any intention of going with her in the first place.
While Rita was away at the office, the three remaining men grabbed a late lunch nearby. Originally, they’d planned to have a quick meal on the way to Redwood, but unexpected events had gotten in the way.
Cain, who had been looking sour the entire time, only relaxed once they were inside the restaurant. He didn’t seem especially hungry though. Instead, he kept a close watch on whether Satin was eating properly.
‘What are you, my mother bird or something…’
Now really wasn’t the time to be worrying about meals, and yet because of Cain, Satin felt deflated. Then again, maybe it was for the best. At least it helped ease the tension a bit.
After finishing a quick meal and while waiting for Rita to return, Edward let out a sigh and said,
“It’s possible a Demon God really is about to descend.”
Up until now, Edward had only half-believed Rita’s claims. But it seemed he was finally starting to take them seriously.
“Even if it’s not a Demon God, something ominous is definitely trying to break through.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”
Satin glanced at them, then nodded in agreement with a serious expression.
“What do you think the purpose is this time? Are they really trying to hurt people again?”
“Hard to say…”
Back in Dark Age, the Demon King that Satin had summoned to avenge his master came with the intent to kill. There probably wasn’t any long-winded justification for why people had to die. Readers wouldn’t have demanded it either.
In older stories, if not in modern ones, the Demon King was always the natural antagonist to humankind. The same went for the Demon God who came after.
But whether the same rules applied here was uncertain. Events similar to Dark Age were happening, yes—but they were only similar, not identical.
‘The person has changed—so should the target still be the same?’
The one who summoned the Demon King wasn’t Satin this time—it was Cain. The one who defeated the Demon King wasn’t Cain either. After some strange trial, the Demon King had simply disappeared. So was the Demon God really here to hurt people?
Satin, who’d read plenty of fantasy novels, had tried to rationalize it with things like “external compulsion” and whatnot—but was there actually anything like that? What if, in truth, nothing ever needed to be done at all?
While Satin and Edward were both lost in thought, Cain muttered disinterestedly,
“Do we really need to know its goal? If we kill it, that’s the end of it anyway.”
“If we understand the enemy’s goal, we might be able to minimize casualties. Or even reach a resolution without fighting.”
“Isn’t that like carrying a bag of money around to catch a thief?”
“No one would call it foolish if you could stop a war with money.”
“Assuming it even is a war—we don’t know that yet.”
During the Demon King’s castle incident, the people who collapsed with sleep sickness all ended up unharmed. There was a chance the black smoke might be the same. If so, the smoke could just be bait to make the story feel more urgent.
In that case, there would be no need to investigate the Demon God’s intentions. Just barging in might be the fastest solution. After all, whatever it was—it was likely waiting for them.
“What do you think, Mr. Satin?”
Suddenly having the question turned on him, Satin straightened up in surprise.
“Huh? About what?”
“Do you also think it’s fine as long as we kill it?”
“Uh… well…”
Satin didn’t answer right away and scratched the back of his neck to buy time. He couldn’t keep dodging forever, though, so he eventually gave voice to what he’d been thinking.
“What if… the point is to get killed?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like with the Demon King subjugation. If this time it’s just on a bigger scale, then maybe having people show up to kill it is exactly what it wants.”
“But this time is a bit different, isn’t it? We’re seeing monsters appear and all.”
“Yeah, but… if you think of it as just a clumsy publicity stunt or something…”
The thought amused him, and Satin shrugged with a slight chuckle. Edward didn’t seem particularly convinced, but he didn’t press further either. In the end, none of them really knew the answer.
Right then, Rita returned. She had gone into the government office alone, but now someone was following behind her. Though dressed plainly, the person’s sharp, rigid posture made it clear they weren’t ordinary.
Edward stood, ready to greet her, then looked past her shoulder and asked,
“Who’s that with you?”
Rita gave an awkward smile.
“Let’s just say… the person who’s going to escort us to the capital.”
That was enough for Satin to guess who it was.
‘A knight, huh.’
Rita had said before that the government office’s knights were practically royal knights in status. Since Rita had revealed her identity, the office probably couldn’t just wave them off and send them away casually.
“I see. Sounds like the office understands how urgent the situation is. This must be their way of telling us to report directly to the capital.”
Edward jumped in with an explanation, as if worried Satin might find the situation suspicious. Touched by the effort, Satin simply nodded along and pretended to understand.
Rita glanced at Cain, who hadn’t reacted to any of it, and spoke.
“They even lent us a carriage, so we can head out right away. Is everyone ready to go?”
“Of course.”
“Yeah, nothing else to take care of anyway.”
As he replied, Satin looked over at Cain, who nodded as well. From the faint smile on Cain’s face, it seemed like he found the whole thing a little amusing.
‘Well, of course.’
Satin had known from the beginning that Rita was a princess. Edward had only found out when she told him directly, and Cain had a rough idea that her identity wasn’t ordinary. In other words, everyone knew Rita’s secret. And yet, they were all pretending not to—it was no wonder he found it amusing.
“Then let’s get moving.”
Rita was the first to leave the shop, following the knight. Just as she said, a carriage was waiting in front of the building. The man seated at the driver’s bench straightened up quickly when he saw Rita emerge. He, too, looked like a knight.
Rita didn’t even glance in his direction and instead turned to hurry the group along.
“Come on, everyone—let’s get in.”
