The day before, Bae Seo-Gyeong received the moon from the Evil God.

“I will soon become very angry.”

His words and tone were as gentle as someone soothing a young child.

“When that time comes, how could I possibly remember you? I will be swept up in fury and make countless foolish decisions. So I entrust this noble moon to you. I trust that you will fulfill your duty and return it.”

“...Is this... truly... what a teacher says...?”

Bae Seo-Gyeong gently embraced the moon.

“.......”

It was indeed noble.

Cold and round. Even while holding it, it didn’t feel like she was truly holding it. The only reason she could embrace the moon with her inadequate vessel was surely due to the Evil God’s mercy.

“...Ah...”

Bae Seo-Gyeong hugged the moon like she would her own daughter.

“...For a long time, I wished to see you, Teacher. I asked countless times why you wouldn’t take me with you. Yet no answer ever came, and I could only collapse again and again.”

“Now your teacher lies within your arms. You are the bishop of the Moon Sect. You must protect that cold house and lead your family down the right path. Tell me, what do you desire?”

“To lead them. To guide my poor family on the right path.”

“I’m curious what path you consider to be right.”

“What more does this cold house need? What I want is family, love, and warmth. I won’t let anyone leave alone.”

My beloved rotting wines...

“We will make the world aware of our sins, and pay for them by becoming stars in the sky.”

That was all she wished for.

Bae Seo-Gyeong smiled with joy and accepted a chance she didn’t deserve.

***

RUMMBLLLE...!!

The sky collapsed.

“We’ve all gathered here today for the Saintess.”

A star fell.

“Can you remember that this sparkling thing is your own sibling? Ah, how beautiful. This is truly the path the Moon Sect should have walked. What greater honor exists in this vast world than for a sinner to become a star in the heavens?”

That star soon reached the small moon on the ground — the Saintess.

“Your family has been forged into something so precious!”

“The form of family I desired... was never a star!!”

CRAAACK—! CRACKKK!!

The Saintess twisted the sharp trajectory of the stars using the power of her nebula.

“I never wished for stars! I only wanted to become a small moonstone! I never meant to sacrifice you! If harming my family was the cost, how could I ever have desired to become the moon?!”

The fallen star was absorbed into her universe.

‘It’s overwhelming.’

Aram was still just a human. Though her vessel was slightly larger, she could never be called divine. Naturally, wielding the power of the universe was too much for her. Even holding these countless stars had its limits.

‘But not a single one can be lost.’

The Moon Sect, already silent, fell into an even deeper stillness. All priests remaining in reality had fallen asleep. The result of their slumber... was these brilliant stars. It was unbearably cruel.

If Aram were to miss even one, or injure even one, her family would never be able to return to their original forms. That was not what Aram wished. She stretched her universe with all her might.

“How could you blame it on me so cowardly...! You should’ve told me sooner! That you were tormented by such piercing loneliness! That the Evil God’s whispers were so sweet because of all your groaning nights!!”

“It’s true I was tempted by the Evil God, but Saintess, I, too, did everything I could...! Look at this tiny vessel! Look at this pitiful form of mine! I could never become the moon in the sky or a piece of the universe! This was the best I could do!!”

“Then why—why did I have to do my best for something I never even wished for?! You could’ve said something! I’m your daughter. Your family, your friend. Your companion...!!”

A choked sob burst out.

“Why didn’t you tell me!!”

Just as much as Bae Seo-Gyeong loved her, Aram loved her mother.

“That too... is my sin, my sin. I got drunk on the affection you gave me and failed to see reality. I admired you, and that admiration became a harm. My blind devotion to you made me blind, because I relied on you!!”

The stars continued to fall.

It was a breathtaking sight. Shooting stars were called the corpses of stars — and this was exactly that.

Her family had become stars and were falling to the earth. Into the abyss below. There might still be life beneath that pitch-black lake...

Her family was being buried beneath a lake filled only with cold knowledge and wisdom.

“Why do you claim the sin is yours alone? I’m a member of the Moon Sect too, no longer that scrawny, starving child you brought home that day!”

“If this is all said to be for the Saintess, then it is an immense arrogance and sin. This is for you, and also for me — and to replace this rotting water. Saintess, look. Don’t you know the sins we’ve committed here...!”

“How can fleeing be atonement for sin!!”

“This isn’t atonement! Look at me. Do you truly not understand what I wanted and why I ended up like this? It was all my selfishness! All my inadequacy! This is nothing but a tantrum, an outburst born from the Evil God’s mercy!!”

Bae Seo-Gyeong shouted too, full of sorrow.

“Because I didn’t want to leave the moon alone anymore!!”

She had lost too many family members.

Ah, she should not have done that. Back then, Bae Seo-Gyeong was young, and foolish. With little wisdom and a small vessel, she could only thank the saints who were absorbed into the moon. But over time, she came to understand—

Humans can never shake divine power.

“All of it, all of it...!”

“Please, stop!!”

“It was all just meaningless death!!”

Bae Seo-Gyeong raged at herself.

“I drove them all to pitiful deaths!!”

Though she could never become the moon, Bae Seo-Gyeong was the young priest who received the moon’s love second only to the Saintess. She had the authority and the means. Yet she simply watched as the saints died.

“But not anymore. Not anymore. I’ve learned how to become a star. I borrowed the Evil God’s wisdom. Your universe is so small right now, but it will grow vast. It won’t take long. That’s what scared me.”

Even now—look.

“You still carry endless potential.”

“I never wanted that...!!”

“Aram, please. You were always so cold...!!”

It’s cowardly, but yes—she should’ve desperately stopped it back then. She shouldn’t have brought that bright child into the Moon Sect. At the very least, she should never have made her a Saintess.

“I know how deeply you feel loneliness. I saw you that day, trembling alone on the street in the winter. And still, you looked at the world with eyes full of affection... and I gave you this revolting fate...”

A child who deserved so much more love from the world.

“We’ll be the stars ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ above the sky, so look at the world. Use your brilliant eyes to look at it. You’ve just now received a great opportunity. A good teacher, a chance at a new life, and now the chance to learn those precious emotions we once scorned.”

“You’re right. I wanted that. I realized that even base, shallow joy is a precious emotion that makes us human! I remembered the joy of eating a delicious meal — it had been so long! I’d forgotten everything, I had!”

KWAAAAH—!!

Aram widened her universe with tears.

“But in that place... there was also the joy you once gave me!!”

My family, my foolish loved ones.

“How can it be a sin that I wanted to hear my family’s stories after all that neglect? Mother, please, my beloved and respected mother. You loved these people too. Becoming stars — how lonely, how dreadful!”

“But we need a fitting hell. And if your star becomes it, then that would be the most luxurious hell of all. Yes, it’s luxurious. We’re indulging in a splendor beyond our means. But what else can we do? In the Evil God’s mercy, we’ve been granted salvation!!”

Bae Seo-Gyeong reached out with both hands and summoned the stars.

“We will never be allowed such a beautiful hell again!!”

The stars clustered, collided, and shattered — their fragments clouding the Saintess’s vision. All the stars of the universe scattered and shone with such brilliance it could only be called art.

“Please, help me be trapped in this beautiful hell. And you, remain in the mortal world to learn more. If you do, even if you become the moon one day, you’ll be less lonely. We will fill the void. We sinners — your sinners...!!”

“I will become the moon─!!”

Aram screamed, her voice like a broken cry, from amidst the shattered stars.

Silence fell.

“.......”

“.......”

The world stopped.

She held onto her universe.

“...Ah, haha... hahahaha...”

Bae Seo-Gyeong, watching the scene, collapsed onto the surface of the pitch-black lake. Her legs gave out.

“...It’s beautiful.”

The stars she had flung and broken settled peacefully into the universe. As if lying in an observatory gazing at the night sky — it was tranquil, serene, and mysterious.

It couldn’t even compare to the night sky she had created.

“This sky... I wanted to make this.”

A night sky full of peace. She wanted to make such a world.

“.......”

“Does this look like hell to you?”

“...To my wretched eyes, it looks like heaven.”

“Does this look like a place for your atonement?”

“This is a work of art. There’s no space here for my feet.”

“Then why do you wish to become a star?”

“Because I have no path...”

What she saw was nothing but aged sin, and before her lay a cliff. That’s why she thanked the Evil God’s mercy. Even if she were to be trapped in a cold, lonely ice star, he had shown her the way.

“I wanted to be a good bishop, a good sister, a good parent.”

From Bae Seo-Gyeong’s eyes, now tainted like the Evil God’s, golden tears fell.

“...I already knew back then that I couldn’t. So I prayed to the Evil God. And he gave me the moon. But in the end, I was a small vessel. Even holding divinity in my arms, all I could do was mimic a poor night sky compared to the Saintess...”

The Saintess expanded, expanded, and expanded her universe. She embraced even the pitiful night sky that Bae Seo-Gyeong had crafted. Then, so she would no longer tremble in cold and loneliness, she held it close.

The stars nestled in the mysterious universe looked so comfortable.

“.......”

“...The path...”

Perhaps because she had forcibly widened her vessel — Aram broke into a cold sweat and breathed in labored gasps. It was because she had desperately ensured not a single family member sank beneath the lake.

Aram, who had shouted louder than she ever had in her life, spoke with a hoarse voice.

“I... I can become the path.”

That, Aram realized, was the path a saint must walk.

Aram sat beside her mother on the surface of the lake. Then she plunged both hands into the water. When she stood again, in her hands was the white moon Bae Seo-Gyeong had locked away.

Aram spoke.

“...What is a human’s role? What is the value of mystery? How can the world truly progress? As Mother said, there’s still so much I don’t know, so much I must learn.”

In that small hand, the moon shone brightly.

“But the human role is to endlessly search for the path, the value of mystery lies in how fate and nature question us, and the world progresses through that never-ending struggle.”

The moon gently rose from Aram’s hand.

“This is the conviction I hold.”

And also, malice.

“This is the world I must embrace tightly.”

“.......”

“I will become the moon. But I will not be consumed. The moon, as a library of knowledge, is a collection of data — not our teacher. I will hold this and see the world.”

“...Aram...”

“I know. It will be hard. Without the Evil God’s mercy, I couldn’t even hold the moon now. But look, Mother.”

Aram raised the moon in her hands.

“...It’s warm.”

Unlike the dragons of the Black Forest, the noble saints who had offered themselves were faintly warming the moon.

“It wasn’t just a meaningless death. The saints you sent away, Mother — they were still in here, warming the moon. They endured the cold and loneliness and never lost their warmth.”

“.......”

“It’s just that we lacked the know-how. It was a failure of method — an inevitable deficiency. So I, who am not yet lacking, will carry the moon. I will become the teacher of my siblings.”

Between punishment and learning, Aram chose learning.

“Since we sinned in ignorance, we must repay with knowledge... right?”

Aram crawled forward through tears to her mother.

“I’ll take responsibility. That’s what I’ve decided. We’ll all take responsibility. We were walking a dreadful path that might have created an Evil God — but we haven’t reached that point yet. I’ll take away and protect all the cold and loneliness of the saints inside this.”

“...That’s... too hard a path...”

“There were surely easier, more comfortable paths. But there’s no guarantee they’re the right ones. How can atonement through death and annihilation be the only right path? We’ll walk a path different from the Evil God who punished through rage. I’ll help — so help me.”

“...But...”

“Mother, please. Lift the moon.”

Aram, crawling on her knees, placed the moon into Bae Seo-Gyeong’s trembling hands. Her small hands and her mother’s wrinkled ones held the radiant moon together. It was light, and dazzling.

Bae Seo-Gyeong absentmindedly caressed it. She had held it before — and yet, strangely...

“.......”

She felt warmth.

“...Ah...”

And cried, clear and silent.

***

A man wrapped in bandages was watching the scene.

“.......”

What his feet touched turned to gold, then melted away — becoming pitch-black poison. Wearing a ram’s skull, he bled golden blood as he limped into the darkness.

His bare footsteps made no sound.

『...My second hand is empty.』

Only his voice lingered in the poison-stained air.

『Now, what shall I hear next...』

A deer followed him.