Chapter 117
“…….”
The word 당신 could also mean 'you,' and between spouses it could also mean 'dear.' Looking at the woman's blushing face in front of Ian, it was obvious which meaning she'd used without needing to think too hard about it.
Naturally, Ian wasn't a married man. He had no memory of marrying a woman like this, either. Memory confusion? He'd already confirmed long ago that there was no such thing.
So Ian simply stared silently at the pure white woman and let out a long sigh. He decided to take what she'd said as simply meaning 'you.'
In any case, it wasn't particularly important right now.
“...An Outer God...?”
Ian asked cautiously.
A woman with eyes close to ash gray. Hiding her right eye behind pure white hair and wearing a negligee that left her chest fully exposed, she stared at Ian and sat up.
“Yes.”
It was an immediate answer. She reached out and touched Ian's cheek, tilting her head slightly.
“I'm your Outer God.”
“...Reconstruction of All Things?”
“That's what a lot of people call me. My true name is ■■■■.”
Noise crackled in her voice as she spoke her name. Ian frowned and pushed her hand away.
“I can't recognize the name.”
“...■■■■. You can't hear it?”
“I can't.”
In response to Ian's answer, her expression darkened a little. She took Ian's hand, brought it to her lips, and exhaled. Her hot breath tickled his fingers.
“I guess you're not there yet. I was hoping for a little more, so that's disappointing.”
“...Does hearing a name require conditions too?”
“So you won't go mad from hearing it. It's a safety measure I put in place.”
She let go of Ian's hand and stepped down from the bed. The thin negligee, lit by the light pouring in through the window, faintly revealed her skin. Ian felt needlessly embarrassed, rubbed at the corners of his eyes, and got up to follow her.
“Then what should I call you? Can I just keep calling you Reconstruction of All Things?”
“Isn't that too long? Just... hmm, call me Lea. If you shorten my true name, that's the sort of feel it has.”
Lea.
A name too human for an Outer God.
No, not just the name. Her behavior and way of speaking right now were also very subdued and ordinary for an unknown godlike being in the universe.
But Ian felt no familiarity from it. Rather, he felt a discomfort he couldn't quite explain.
It was as if... something was wearing a human mask and desperately trying to act human.
“…….”
He didn't think the emotion itself was false. If anything, there were certainly parts of it that felt natural.
Red cheeks and ears, for one. Eyes that averted their gaze a little at a time. Fingers that fidgeted.
There were more human traits than he'd expected. But perhaps because her expression hardly changed from blank, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. Maybe it was because her face was too beautiful to seem human.
‘...Whatever it is, I guess it doesn't matter.’
Come to think of it, trying to understand an Outer God from a human perspective was absurd. Just as an ant could spend its whole life racking its brain and still never understand human thought, a human could study for a lifetime and still never understand an Outer God's mind. It was easier to just brush it off as a phenomenon.
‘As long as it doesn't do me any harm, that's fine.’
Thinking that, Ian turned to look at Reconstruction of All Things, Lea. By then she was already wearing a dress instead of the pure white negligee.
“Then I'll call you Lea.”
“…….”
Lea didn't answer. Instead, she stared at Ian, then walked right up to him. Her bare white feet trampled the marble.
“Once more.”
She said that while looking up at Ian.
There was a strong hyacinth fragrance in her breath. It was also packed with heat.
“Please say it one more time.”
“...Lea?”
“...Once more.”
She let out a long breath. Though Ian looked displeased, he went along with her request. It wasn't a difficult favor.
“Lea.”
“…….”
“Uh, um... Lea.”
“…….”
“........Lea?”
“...Haa.”
“...Lea, just how long are you going to—”
“Just once more by my ear, one last time...”
“...Lea.”
“Ahh.”
She trembled with a blank expression. Her toes wriggled strangely, and her fingers stretched from six to seven before returning to five.
It was a grotesque sight, but Ian didn't bother to point it out. Instead, he stepped back and looked around.
“…….”
The space was white all around. The ceiling, floor, and walls were all painted pure white, as if they had been built from marble.
In a good sense it was beautiful; in a bad sense it was the kind of room that could drive someone insane. Since even the bed was white and there wasn't a single other piece of furniture, it only made that feeling stronger.
At least there was a window. If there hadn't been one, he would have wanted to leave here immediately.
‘Is that thing outside... a garden?’
Ian narrowed his eyes, staring past Lea at the scenery outside the window.
A lush garden spread out beyond the window.
White hydrangeas, red roses, golden marigolds and tulips, forget-me-nots, lilies, and more. Flowers of every color beautifully embroidered the green garden. The most numerous among them were the pure-white hyacinths.
Compared with the room, the garden was truly beautiful. The only flaw, if there was one, was that something other than the sun floated in the sky. Surprisingly, the sky was white instead of blue.
“...It feels a little silly to ask now, but where is this?”
Ian asked.
“Ah.”
Only then did Lea notice that Ian's gaze was directed at the garden.
“Do you want to take a look around?”
“...Look around?”
“Yes.”
It was an offer he had no reason to refuse. When Ian nodded, Lea took his hand.
The next moment, the two of them were seated at a tea table in the garden.
“...Huh.”
There had been no warning at all. He hadn't felt a thing, and there was no sensation of his vision warping or his insides twisting. He just blinked, and then he was here. At the absurdity of it, Ian let out a dry laugh.
The only things around them were flowers. The pure white house was nowhere to be seen. Not even a trace of it could be found.
“This is my home.”
Trickle.
Lea said as she poured blue tea into Ian's teacup.
“I suppose the closest familiar term for you would be, hmm... a nebula.”
“...A nebula.”
“An unnamed nebula. A tiny fissure at its center. This is such a place.”
Blue tea gave off a sweet fragrance. Lea handed Ian a cake piled high with fruit, and she took one with no topping at all, then set her fork in place. A blue butterfly landed on Lea's shoulder before flying away again.
“It's a place humans couldn't even hope to find. Rest assured.”
“...That actually makes me less at ease. You're still sending me back, right?”
“As I said, I won't do anything you dislike.”
She gave an awkward smile, as if she were forcing herself to imitate one.
“Once this conversation is over, I'll send you back. For now, just talk to me casually.”
“…….”
“I'm sure you have a lot of questions.”
Just as she said.
Ian met Lea's gaze as she stared at him, let out a long sigh, and drank the tea.
The tea tasted like ordinary green tea.
“...First of all, when I go back, will Earth be all right?”
“Yes. I reconstructed the timeline.”
She answered in a flat tone, as if it were nothing.
“It'll return to the time when you were moving in with that woman. Since I dealt with the god dwelling in the moon, the bugs on the far side of the moon that were fleeing from it won't be going to Earth either.”
“...So you killed the Outer God on the moon?”
“Because it was weak.”
Snap.
Lea snapped her fingers. The Hand of Re-Creation was then summoned from the void.
“The gap in rank between an Outer God that can make grimoires and one that can't is bigger than you can imagine. One gesture from me would be enough to kill them all. I just didn't because it would have been annoying.”
“…….”
“But that bastard—'the Song of Melancholy'—dared to try to steal your grimoire without knowing its place. It probably intended to devour the grimoire and aim for promotion. Stupid bastard. It probably thought I'd just sit there and watch.”
“…….”
“So I killed it. It begged me to spare it, but I didn't even want to hear its voice, so I erased it completely.”
Slurp.
She took a sip of tea. For having killed a god, her demeanor was far too calm.
“There probably won't be any more idiots charging recklessly into Earth now. I revealed my true form and made it look like I was protecting you, so any sane one should keep its distance on its own.”
“You seem to be quite powerful.”
“Embarrassingly so, yes. I've devoured hundreds, maybe thousands of Outer Gods by now. Some of the alchemy you use is modeled after the powers of the Outer Gods I've absorbed.”
“...Really?”
“Yes. There will probably be some new alchemical items related to the 'Song of Melancholy' that I just absorbed too, so keep that in mind. More importantly, you.”
Clink.
Lea set down her teacup and stared at Ian.
“You've been speaking far too stiffly since earlier.”
“…….”
“I understand that being on guard is unavoidable for a human. But I've shown sincerity too, so shouldn't you show some in return? I'm speaking in human language, and I'm even using honorifics because being polite supposedly makes me more likable. If your replies are that stiff, then even I don't feel very good about it.”
“...Then.”
“Speak casually, like a married couple would.”
Lea emphasized the word 'married couple.' Ian hesitated for a moment, then let out a sigh and nodded.
“All right. Then—”
“Don't use honorifics.”
“…….”
“…….”
“...Okay. Then talking like this should be fine, right?”
“That's much better.”
Lea slightly curved up the corners of her lips.
That expression was rather natural.