But the god was not pleased.

He was saddened.

Because no living thing expressed the brilliant scenery that changed with the movement of light as ‘beauty.’

The god asked alone.

“Look at this. Isn’t it beautiful?”

Since there was no answer, the god answered himmself.

“It is beautiful.”

The god felt loneliness for the first time. He learned what desolation was. Paradoxically, beauty made the god feel empty.

The god thought.

If only there were beings who could share the beauty of the world with him.

That thought became a small pebble that caused ripples within the god. The amplitude of the ripples grew day by day, creating waves of desire.

The god decided.

Let me create beings who know beauty.

The god took pieces of the world’s beauty bit by bit to create beings resembling himself.

Those were humans.

“Look at this. Isn’t it beautiful?”

To the god’s question, humans who knew what beauty was answered the god’s gratitude and the world’s beauty through songs, murals, poetry, and sometimes dance.

The god was greatly amazed. Because humans had created another beauty that the god had never even imagined.

The god came to love humans deeply.

Humans also loved the god.

Light reached everywhere in the world, love existed, and laughter dwelt there. The beauty that filled every moment became blessings that gave birth to the god’s messengers from the heavenly realm, the ‘Rezel.’

The Rezel, born from human blessings, cared for the world together with the god.

Those were days filled with light.

Until humans learned of the ugliness that lay behind beauty.

It was natural for humans to learn of ugliness. Just as sparkling life was followed by rotting death.

Ugliness was dark and gloomy, dirty, and had a foul smell. Just as beauty led to blessings, ugliness became sin.

The beings born from the gathering of that sin were the ‘Desian.’

The Desian, who could only sustain their lives by corrupting humans, instinctively tempted humans and pushed them into the abyss of hell.

The world became a mess of sin.

Where there was light, darkness spread, and where there was happiness, misfortune followed. Where there was laughter, traces of tears appeared, and where there was peace, suffering overflowed.

Humans prayed in despair.

Screams mixed with resentment and pleading echoed through the heavens. However, the being called god, despite having created humans and the world, was not omnipotent.

Gredelme, the Rezel who governed love, said.

“We must eliminate humans.”

The god did not answer.

Gredelme’s calm voice continued.

“Humans are the crack in the world. Chaos awakened in the crack and the gates of hell opened. Therefore, O god, we must eliminate humans.”

The god still did not answer.

He simply taught humans the things he knew, one by one. At last, when he had taught everything and only one concept remained—*eternity*.

The god said to Gredelme.

“I have taught humans everything I could teach through you all. Finally, I want to teach them eternity.”

Gredelme calmly shook his head.

“Humans are beings who cannot know eternity.”

Gredelme’s words were not wrong.

Human life was like an instant compared to knowing eternity.

But the god smiled gently.

The moment Gredelme saw the god’s smile, he knew what he was about to become. Dry sadness reflected in Gredelme’s eyes as he loved the god.

The god said tenderly.

“I shall become an eternal being.”

An eternal being.

That meant becoming a being who would remain eternally silent. It meant existing everywhere in the world while existing nowhere. It was eternity and death at the same time.

Thus, the god taught eternity to the humans he loved with all his heart and became a silent being.

Time flowed relentlessly.

On a day when countless humans had been born and reached death, one beautiful Desian opened his eyes.

The Desian of Enchantment, Lu.

With one glance, one gesture from him, humans would be helplessly enchanted.

Yet Lu was not pleased at all. Far from being pleased, the more he used his power of enchantment, the more he felt something empty somewhere in his body.

It was the sensation of emptiness.

The emptiness that could not be filled with anything was even painful.

Unable to know the reason for the emptiness or how to fill it, he enchanted humans indiscriminately, trying to fill even a little of that hollow feeling.

This began to crack the previously balanced order between the mortal and heavenly realms.

The Rezel from the heavenly realm descended to the world to save humans who had lost their hearts to the Desian of Enchantment.

But no one listened to the Rezel. Instead, they were busy throwing stones and driving them away.

Eventually, one Rezel met death at the hands of a human who followed Lu.

Taking that incident as a trigger, the god’s first representative came.

A Rezel with lustrous light purple hair and platinum eyes, Gredelme.

“The heavenly realm has decided to seal you.”

Lu laughed.

“Until when?”

“Until your given life ends.”

That was not a particularly harsh punishment for a Desian of Enchantment who pursued pleasure and indulgence, sloth and ennui, aestheticism.

What was harsh was the emptiness that was hardly ever filled.

Lu answered.

“Well, as you wish.”

“As I wish?”

Gredelme, who had been quietly observing Lu, spoke.

“I, Gredelme, representative of the heavenly realm, want to give you an opportunity.”

“An opportunity. It would have to be appealing.”

Gredelme drew a smooth smile at the corner of his mouth.

“Beautiful yet empty Desian. Do you know what makes you empty?”

“……”

“Enchantment.”

“……”

“The reason you are empty is because you enchant humans. Humans enchanted by Desian are nothing but meaningless shells like marionettes.”

“……”

“So no matter how much they follow you, want you, and whisper that they love you, you can only feel empty.”

Because of enchantment.

Lu was born a Desian who enchanted.

If the instinct to sustain life and the existential reason were the cause of inevitable emptiness, then wasn’t living life itself a punishment?

When he laughed out loud because the reason for existence was ridiculous, Gredelme wore a faint smile.

“Beautiful yet empty Desian. I, Gredelme, know what can fill your emptiness.”

“What is that?”

“Blind love.”

That was something Lu had never coveted. Until now, he had easily obtained words of love from humans through his power of enchantment.

Gredelme continued.

“Only the blind love of a human who could sacrifice even their life for you can fill your emptiness.”

“……”

“Beautiful yet empty Desian. Aren’t you curious? Whether you could obtain blind love from a human without enchanting them. Whether your emptiness could be filled that way.”

Lu’s heart stirred.

If only he could fill the emptiness more harsh than punishment……

He wanted to covet blind love, to grasp it in his hands, to crave it.

“Really, can it fill the emptiness?”

“It can.”

“Blind love without enchantment…… is it beautiful?”

“Beautiful indeed.”

Lu was very pleased.

To be able to fill emptiness with something beautiful.

That such a thing existed in this world.

Then, Gredelme looked more closely into Lu’s eyes, deep as an abyss.

Soon he smiled slightly.

“Beautiful and empty Desian. You are a Desian who pursues pleasure and indulgence, sloth and ennui, and aestheticism. Among them, the foremost is probably.”

“Aestheticism.”

“That’s right. Desian who indulges in aestheticism above all else. I’ll tell you about the beauty of blind love, so answer my question.”

Gredelme asked in a whisper.

“What is most beautiful when it’s not mine?”

“……”

“Tragedy.”

“……”

“All the poetry and songs, stories that exist in the world are full of beautiful tragedy in their narratives. Like blind love. So, beautiful and empty Desian!”

A mad gleam flickered in Gredelme’s platinum eyes.

“Let us write a beautiful tragedy together.”

At that moment, Lu thought.

The Rezel standing face to face with him was a being who should be in hell, not the heavenly realm.

A being whose wings hidden behind his back would someday be broken or torn and fall to hell.

“A human loved by god.”

Gredelme continued, controlling his breath as if restraining his joy.

“Please show me the beautiful tragedy of loving a Desian unto death. Then I, Gredelme, will stake my fate and lift the punishment given to you.”

Why do you want to see a beautiful tragedy even at the cost of staking your fate?”

After a moment of silence, Gredelme answered.

“Because I don’t love god.”

“Because you don’t love god?”

“Because I don’t love god.”

That lie was the beginning of this story.

A story where one Rezel who had lost his god and gone mad planted a small hope in a Desian’s heart for the reason that he didn’t love god.

The small hope grew luxuriantly like the seedling the god had sprouted and consumed the heart. And the owner of that heart went mad.

Very quietly.

Hoping only for one human’s blind love.

***

Ratol still looked at Lu with a blank expression.

It was a fake he wouldn’t normally even glance at.

Watching him touch the cheap hair tie with that thing prominently embedded in it while laughing with apparent joy made him feel a chill and shiver slightly.

He was about to leave the bathroom without any nagging or anything, but stopped his steps abruptly.

Lu was Ratol’s master.

His one and only master, to whom he would gladly sacrifice his life if he could.

When he turned around, he saw his master leaning his head against the bathtub with his eyes languidly closed.