NOTICE: Many of the novels have been removed because they might cause violations, which we were not aware of earlier.
Episode 57
“Oh, let’s go see the initiation ceremony.”
“Shall I take a quick look and go?”
“It was already cold, so this is good.”
“What church is this event held at?”
“It seems to be the Solar Church….”
“The Sun Bridge is worth seeing.”
In any religious initiation ceremony, onlookers are not prohibited, even if they are not related to the ceremony. This is because the more members of the initiation ceremony there are, the higher the possibility of God coming.
“Thanks to that, we got a spot too.”
“There are more people than I thought.”
“It is difficult to receive God’s attention when only one or two people gather.”
Of course, there are cases like Geo.
‘Not all gods are like you.’
Even though Geo’s identity had not yet been confirmed, it was certain that he was the subject of some divine being. There was no reason to deny the fact, it was just that the confusion had been compounded by the added elements.
The Cha family had already moved to the event staff seats. Yoo Seong-woon, who had been scanning the scene, offered Geo a seat. It was a table that was a good distance away from the noisy crowd.
“Shall we sit here?”
“great.”
Perhaps it was too much of a hassle or a burden to be so close to humans. Geo sat down in the seat that Yoo Seong-un had given him as if he was happy to see him.
Thanks to that, it was easy to talk.
‘… Most of them are civilians, not hunters, so they probably won’t be able to hear the conversation being held here.’
Yoo Seong-un, who had moistened his throat with the water on the table, opened his mouth.
“Can you handle divinity?”
“When you say divinity, are you talking about the authority of God?”
“You could say it’s similar. Or, what should I say… you could say it’s like a certificate.”
“Ah, so it’s a certificate.”
“also…?”
I was puzzled for a moment, but soon Yoo Seong-un added.
“It’s not strange to express it like that. You could think of it as a divine license.”
Divinity is different from what is commonly referred to as holy power.
The power that humans chosen by God can use with His help is called divine power, and divinity refers to the divinity itself that a god possesses and the power derived from it. They were guys on completely different levels.
“… … .”
Geo said, as if remembering something.
“If you were talking about a certificate, yes, I have one.”
“… You received it?”
“I was the only believer.”
“… … .”
Yoo Seong-un realized it instinctively.
‘… Is this a story related to the blond, blue-eyed Geo I saw at Cheonggyecheon before?’
When Geo’s personality changed significantly, I guessed that his appearance would also change. I still vividly remember Geo’s hair turning platinum like fallen leaves that changed color when he put his feet in water.
‘But since it’s particularly associated with water, I thought it would be a god of the sea, or a river or a pond, or something like that…’
It was quite interesting that the sun came out out of nowhere. If Bisabal had been here, he would have felt the same way. I wonder what the story was.
“Getting a license from God? That’s amazing. It’s something that doesn’t usually happen.”
He exclaimed as if it was nothing, but as far as Yoo Seong-un knew, it was something that never happened. No god would give his status to a mere human.
‘Why would anyone do something that would cause suffering to both humans and gods?’
But Geo’s voice was still blunt and businesslike.
“You said you didn’t want to be alone anymore.”
“…The sun god before you?”
“As I was the only believer, I spent a lot of time with him, eating with him, talking with him… I felt like he was afraid of being alone like before.”
“… … .”
“Then he gave me this certificate. He said he wanted to share what I see and hear, and that it was partly a gift. Even though it’s called a certificate, it doesn’t seem to be something tangible.”
Yoo Seong-un licked his lips.
‘Should I say that… the previous Sun God is too weak, or should I say that Geo is amazing… .’
It’s probably the latter.
Usually, gods are unique beings and don’t feel lonely when they are alone, but perhaps Geo made god feel that way during the process of their interaction.
That’s right, Geo is great.
‘Besides, if he was a normal person, he wouldn’t have burdened me with that in the first place.’
If you think about it in the same context, it would be correct to say that since Geo was a being close to godhood from the beginning, the sun god recognized him as an equal being, felt lonely, and gave him godhood as a gift.
“… … .”
By doing so, it will become even more impossible to know the true identity of Geo.
If the sun god judged him to be equal, then that simply meant he was a different kind of god. At the very least, he was of a higher rank than them, capable of holding divinity.
How should I define that?
‘What the hell are you doing?’
The more I dig, the more I find myself wondering what’s going on, so I really wish someone would organize this into one story.
* * *
The pre-briefing session proceeded quickly.
“It doesn’t take as long as I thought.”
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“Is the schedule tight?”
“That may be the case, we need time to educate the prospective priests.”
Simple hierarchy. Definition of a priest. How should such a priest behave, what virtues are necessary….
After a brief explanation of the priesthood, the story of the initiation ceremony followed. The main content was about the education and benefits that the prospective priests would receive.
“After speaking with all the families, the prospective priests will follow me. Those prospective priests without guardians can come to me first.”
As the dark blond priest spoke, several children approached him, timidly. A thick-faced priest who looked like he came out of a fantasy movie was leading the children. He had a distinctive Western face line and curly hair.
In Korea today, it is easy to find Western-style faces like that, but the atmosphere was different because he was a priest. Geo’s gaze, which was observing the general priest, turned to the children below him.
“I guess those kids didn’t come with their own families.”
“Well… although family is the most common form of human organization, in this day and age there are more cases of humans not being organized as blood-related groups.”
Yoo Seong-un nodded as if he knew what Geo was curious about.
Geo, whose knowledge of humans is vague, knows that ‘humans form family communities’, but there are always exceptions.
“Do you see how most of those kids are particularly unclean?”
“okay.”
“They are probably the Carnation children who have awakened as priests.”
“What is a carnation eye?”
“Should we call him an orphan who actively seeks out a guardian?”
On the outskirts of the city, there are the poor, fourth-class citizens, and there are quite a few children who are intentionally abandoned. There is even a saying that it is a trash can where people are thrown away.
“Among them, the Carnation Children are children who advertise on the streets to find guardians who will take them in.”
“Do you promote yourself?”
“Yes. A child who wants someone to take him/her is holding a flower. A child who is a little better off is holding a real carnation. If not, they can fold the flower out of tissue paper or paper or something… As long as it’s old-fashioned, the meaning will be conveyed.”
The so-called ‘Carnation Child’ was a culture that was created right after the great disaster when there were many orphans.
“A great disaster occurred in the spring, and after that came Parents’ Day… a day when children would give their parents carnations as gifts. So, carnations were made to commemorate their deceased parents, but there was no one to give them to.”
Adults who felt sorry for this situation began to take away the children holding colored paper carnations one by one.
The clever orphans who saw this folded carnations that they had no intention of making and took them out onto the street, and this became the beginning of ‘Carnation Kids’.
“Actually, I don’t know either. It happened one or two generations before me… .”
“okay.”
“Anyway, starting from there, even now, orphans who want to be adopted prepare carnations in that way. They fold carnations with tissue paper or colored paper, pick flowers from the street, or work hard to earn money to buy a single carnation… It means, ‘Please take me.’”
“It seems like they didn’t go through proper adoption procedures, so isn’t there a risk of them being abandoned again?”
“Why wouldn’t it be there? It’s one of the social problems that’s even in elementary school textbooks. When the Carnation Child culture first came into being, there was a lot of noise for a while because there were so many children who were abandoned like that. There’s no way things have gotten any better now.”
No one seriously considers adopting a carnation child.
“The same goes for Carnation Eye herself. She might have adopted him out of pity right after the catastrophe and wanted to treat him like family, but now it’s just… hiring him as a free worker? That’s more like it.”
“… … .”
I don’t know why I always hear such surprising news when I come to this place.
‘The world has become a lot more scary.’
If I did well, I felt like I could open my eyes and cut my nose. Physically.
“But isn’t it possible that those children are not Carnation Children but simply orphans?”
“Even if you awaken as a priest, the only ones in charge at the temple are usually the Carnation Children.”
“Why?”
“Because they have a good workforce?”
“… … .”
Where have children’s rights gone?
“… Don’t look at me like that. It’s scary when you criticize with your gaze. In the first place, fourth-class citizens who have been neglected without any special poverty relief policies are not easily hired by regular companies. It may be different if they are working in back-alley production.”
“Is it difficult for a 4th class citizen to get a regular job?”
“In the first place, 4th class citizens had a bad reputation of being ‘vermin who came to the city without the ability to handle it and settled down.’ Not all of them are like that, but they usually don’t have the will to work.”
“… … .”
“Even if you pay them a fair price, their efficiency is low and they are not well-received by the citizens, so unless they want to be criticized by customers, no place will want to hire them. The perception of 4th-class citizens is that bad. It’s because they are protected by the city without making any proper efforts.”
Companies that employ fourth-class citizens are viewed negatively by the citizens. Why give a chance to these slackers who just sit around doing nothing and try to share in the city’s benefits?
“In the same vein, usually, a child from the slums who manifests as a priest is not necessarily accepted by the temple. The chances of being chosen by the god are low, and there is no way to afford to take care of a child from the slums while receiving negative reviews… That’s the context, I guess.”
“Your calculations are solid.”
“Carnation Children are different from other 4th class citizens in that their will to work can be confirmed through ‘carnations’, and since they are still young, the public’s gaze is not entirely negative. If they have already been chosen by God, then it may be different, but if there is an orphan who has simply awakened, there is a high probability that they are a Carnation Child.”
“… … .”
Geo made up his mind.
‘I just have to watch the initiation ceremony and then jump back into the frame.’
This world is so harsh. I couldn’t live because I was so scared and cried.
It’s not that I don’t feel sympathy, but Geo was just an adult who had grown old enough to decide to break through this social atmosphere on his own.
Geo looked around, wishing the world would become warmer. It was intended to distract his mind, but he found himself feeling at ease sooner than he had expected.
“… … .”
“Why? Is there something in common since we are from the same sun god lineage?”
“I was thinking that it was warm and felt good.”
I don’t know why, but I felt welcome.
“Especially that statue….”
“… … .”
“… … ?”
It seems as if my eyes met with a statue in the shape of a goddess.
Geo blinked his eyes twice.
‘What is this? Is it a ghost story?’
His judgment was quick.
‘Nothing happened.’
I decided to pretend I saw something strange.
“Your appearance is nice.”
“I think there was a gap just now, but I’ll just let it slide. I don’t want to get involved in the affairs of the gods as a mere human being.”
“thank you.”
Although he did not understand Geo’s burden, as a mere human, Yoo Seong-un clenched his teeth and avoided the miracle that was right in front of him. After all, he was a member of the collector’s guild.
Yoo Seong-un also saw it clearly. It was the open gaze that poured out when Geo praised the atmosphere of the temple and the beauty of the statue. Yoo Seong-un had never felt such a direct gaze from a god.
‘Please, make this miracle happen when I’m not around.’
I didn’t want to get involved in anything.
“It seems like our dear Cha family is also talking, why don’t you join in?”
“great.”
So the two of them pretended not to notice the gaze of the god with their whole body, but the priest who served her could not do so.
There was a priest who was looking at the two with wide eyes as they headed towards the Cha family.
‘You’re done.’
Yoo Seong-un had that thought without realizing it.
The dark blond priest was clearly the high priest who presided over this event. If he was going to appear at such an event, he must have been one of the priests who served the bishop closely.
In other words, it means that he is a person who cannot help but know where the sun god’s gaze is directed.
“… … .”
“… … .”
There was a strange tension in the air.
“… … .”
The blond priest nodded faintly, as if he had noticed something. Perhaps because of his strong impression, it was a particularly sacred gesture.
Yoo Seong-un realized the meaning of the bow.
‘You’ve caught my eye.’
It seemed that he had realized that Geo had divinity.
“Geo.”
“Yes, go ahead. I’m listening.”
“Should I go back now?”
“If it is a problem that can be resolved then so be it.”
“Probably not…?”
Yoo Seong-un wanted to leave work.