“Freia, weren’t you scared at all when jumping into the lake? You’ve never swum either.”

“It’s called a lake, but this isn’t even real water, so what’s there to be afraid of?”

Freia shrugged. It seemed less about swimming ability and more about personality. Snow gathered her courage and ran toward the lake, only to stop with a shriek.

“I can’t do it. I really can’t…”

“Then you can just stay here with me.”

Snow’s face fell. That was just in the shape of a lake, not even a real lake. Despite knowing this, she was still afraid. Her feet wouldn’t touch the bottom. If she fell in, she would sink straight down.

Snow lay down by the lakeside and slowly dipped her hand into the water. Now when Snow touched the lake, nothing terrible happened to the world. The calamity had completely ended, and the emotional residue remaining within Snow had been completely cleared. That’s why she had resolved to return. Because everyone was waiting.

Snow took a deep breath and submerged her entire face in the lake. Then she opened her eyes slightly.

“…!”

It was an endless, bottomless darkness. Snow pulled her face out in terror.

Freia, watching from the side, let out a deflated laugh.

“When you fall in, did you feel that sensation of entering water?”

“Not at all. Once you actually jump in, it won’t be scary at all. Trust me.”

At that moment, Arianne’s image was reflected in the lake. She was holding a newborn baby, handing it to the birth mother, and then looking up at the sky without even thinking to wipe the blood from her hands. “Snow,” Arianne called her in her heart. That voice of her heart reached Snow through the lake.

Martadia’s image was also reflected. With oracles no longer coming down and the saint gone, the temple’s position had become increasingly precarious. Now people who truly didn’t believe in God were gradually emerging. In fact, this was all arranged by the real “God,” so it was inevitable.

Martadia didn’t find this regrettable. She accepted the change. She thought that perhaps she would be the last Ceres. She always lived with Snow’s final whispered words engraved in her heart.

Just before putting her to sleep, Snow, feeling sorry for Martadia who was blaming herself for doubting the Goddess, whispered as God into her ear:

“There will be no more revelations to the earth, so from now on, it will be a world where humans must find their own way.”

Martadia knew that this was a revelation that had come to her in some form. She decided to live according to the revelation. If she had truly become Ceres because she doubted God, then that too was the Goddess’s will, and she would live accordingly. That’s what she resolved.

Though she was remarkably free of greed, she had just one wish she wanted to fulfill.

Before dying, she wanted to see the saint again. Such a simple yet seemingly impossible wish.

Seeing the images of precious people reflected in Snow’s glass-like eyes, Freia smiled as if she couldn’t help it.

“No matter how scared you are, no matter how frightened you feel, you must return, right? You can’t just leave them be.”

Snow nodded. It was touching. So deeply touching that she felt she could pierce her own chest again and again if that’s what it took to meet them.

“Look at the pond. There’s one more big reason why you need to return.”

Snow looked at the pond again.

Elios was there.

After Snow fell asleep, he acted as if she were truly his entire life. While Arianne and Martadia, though suffering, had begun to find their own paths and move forward little by little, he alone remained frozen at the moment Snow collapsed, unable to move on at all. And so now, he had become the biggest reason why Snow needed to return.

“Snow,” the Elios in the pond called out desperately. Though Snow knew she couldn’t reach him, she still answered, “Yes, Elios.”

The first thing he did after the calamity ended was to hide Snow in a secluded mansion on the outskirts of the capital. He visited the mansion every night and wept before the limp Snow. Yet every morning, he would go to the imperial palace with dark-circled eyes and mechanically handle the aftermath of various incidents, like a wound-up doll moving mechanically, to the point of being pitiful.

By now, it would be fair to say that he alone in the empire still remained in the middle of that raging calamity.

Jumping into the pond was nothing. If there was a guarantee that he could meet Snow, Elios wouldn’t hesitate even if he had to jump into lava instead of water.

“It seems you’ve made up your mind now.”

Freia said in an excessively cheerful tone. Snow nodded. Freia took Snow’s hand.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be by your side. Since we’re jumping in together, not alone, it won’t be scary.”

About this, Snow just kept her mouth tightly shut. Though they would jump in together, they couldn’t stay together until the end. The moment they jump into the pond, they would truly become complete human souls and go their separate ways. Snow would return to her sleeping body, and Freia, without a physical body, would either be reincarnated or cross over to the world of the dead.

The two were originally one being. Snow had already had sufficient conversation with Freia and had agreed to understand and accept what would happen after Freia jumped into the pond. Nevertheless, her heart ached as if it were being torn apart.

Freia squeezed Snow’s hand tightly. When Snow looked at her questioningly, Freia smiled brightly. Her smiling eyes were filled with tears. Only then did Snow realize that Freia was also heartbroken about this farewell, just as much as she was. Freia spoke gently but firmly.

“Snow. If I get reincarnated, I’ll definitely come to your era.”

“…Then, perhaps we’ll meet again.”

Snow’s voice trembled. Freia smiled even more happily, her eyes crinkling at the corners. But eventually, a few tears fell from her eyes.

“Yes. We’ll be able to meet again. Although I’ll lose my current memories and become a completely different person, you’ll still be able to recognize me. You, of all people, will definitely recognize me.”

Freia was confident.

“Snow. If we meet again, even if I don’t recognize you, please just tell me ‘well done.’ Imagine how much effort I must have made to meet you again, to be born in the era where you exist.”

Snow, choked with emotion and holding back tears, could only nod.

If they became complete humans, they would never return to the Garden of Beginning again. This place would remain an eternally empty, desolate garden.

It’s a boundary between this world and the afterlife, a place only God could enter and leave. Once Snow dies when her lifespan ends, there will be no one left who remembers this garden.

“Snow. You should smile.”

Freia said. A white face biting its lips was reflected on the lake’s surface. Snow forced the corners of her mouth to lift.

“Freia, thank you.”

Snow said. Instead of answering, Freia just smiled brightly. For Snow, that was more than enough of an answer.

Finally, the two jumped into the lake, holding hands tightly.

There wasn’t even a small splash sound.

The surface of the lake that swallowed the two was just quiet.

And so it remained quiet forever.

Forever.

♣ ♣ ♣

Birds chirped loudly. God was not only the God of humans but also of all things in the world. Instinctively realizing that this God had now become a completely ordinary living being, they blessed that path one last time.

This is the last time.

No matter what Snow does from now on, birds will never chirp abnormally again. She no longer has the power to change the weather, nor can she perform miracles as a saint. She was truly an ordinary human.

“El, ios.”

Snow stumbled over Elios’s name. There was a back, much broader and firmer than what she had seen in the pond, the back of a full-fledged young man. El. She called once more. He slowly turned his head. She could clearly see the infinite waves of emotion in his eyes, crumbling as if they couldn’t withstand the pressure. Though his eyes looked precarious, as if they might overflow at any moment, his body couldn’t move at all.

“Good… good morning.”

Snow said this and then thought that it probably wasn’t morning right now. Elios still gave no answer. Like a time bomb that might suddenly explode at any moment, Elios just stood there silently.

“I tried… to come back as quickly as possible, but I’m sorry it took so long…”

Snow said slowly. He slowly stretched out his hand, his fingertips twitching a few times, then hurriedly rushed forward and embraced Snow tightly. Only then did what had been brimming seem to burst and flow.

She couldn’t breathe. Not just her breath, but her chest, her heart felt tightly constricted. Though she had seen this future dozens of times in the pond, facing it now felt new.

Elios. Snow was finally in Elios’s arms.

It was not just warm but hot. She could vividly hear him breathing heavily, groaning, and occasionally swallowing dry saliva, unable to say anything. His back, now large enough to completely cover her, his slightly calmer and darker atmosphere, his arms that had become firmer with more muscle, his palm pulling her toward him. The familiar scent of his skin.

‘I’m back. Ah, really.’

Snow knew what would happen next. Soon Elios would kiss her.

Now, starting with Snow’s awakening, everything was flowing as she had seen in the pond. Snow had spent a very long time in the Garden of Beginning and had seen all possible futures that could happen.

Snow knew how to avoid all dangers, how luck and happiness would come. She even knew exactly when and how she would die.

After memorizing all those futures over and over again, she had made a decision.

Snow tightly closed her eyes and pressed her lips to his before Elios could kiss her. She felt Elios stiffen in surprise. This was different from what she had seen in the pond. In the pond’s scene, Elios had kissed her first.

It was a very small difference, but she knew the consequences of this action would not be small at all.

Snow had just created a future that originally didn’t exist. Only now, having just returned to the world, could she easily twist the future. As a new event was added, the futures Snow had seen in the pond would twist and intertwine, becoming something completely different from the original.

That’s how time and events work. Tiny differences cause enormous changes.

All the futures Snow had so diligently observed through the pond had been overturned. Now there was no way to know dangers in advance and prepare for them, no way to surely grasp approaching good fortune.

But she was satisfied. She thought this was how it should be.

God existed alone in solitude, but Snow is different. She exists together with Elios, Martadia, Arianne, and many other people. This is the ending God had so desired. They will form relationships with each other, exchange emotions, laugh together, cry together, and live.