The cabin after all the guests had left.
“What is a god?”
When Gio asked the “sky,” the sparkling night sky blinked its eyes. In the way it swished its tail and pricked up its ears, he could see its blind devotion to him, but no answer came.
He had not asked because he expected an answer, either.
“Hmm. I wonder….”
The stars studding the “sky” joined together and glimmered with curiosity. Gray stars resembling pearls. Gio narrowed his eyes at the behavior of the Milky Way as it fluttered with a will of its own.
It did seem as though it wanted to say something….
‘I might be imagining it.’
He still could not tell.
“What do you think, Father?”
“Kku?”
“Once again, you did not demand that I conduct myself as a Divinity.”
“Kkuu….”
The teddy bear furrowed his brow as if to say, “It isn’t as though I particularly expected divine conduct from the red-haired you.” Nevertheless, he earnestly joined his son in contemplating the matter and offered an answer.
“Kku? Kkukkuu.”
“An observer in the capacity of nature?”
“Kku.”
“True. You were the Sun, after all.”
Unless the Sun was shining down upon the world, there was no occasion for it to descend to the earth.
“That would be a calamity.”
Gio hugged the soft teddy bear. Dana, who had been quietly watching the two of them, approached and coiled around them as if embracing them. Wondering what was happening, Honey briefly poked his head out of Gio’s hood, then slipped back inside.
That natural sequence of events pleased Gio immensely, but the concern still remained. He had a very long time ahead of him.
“……”
He needed something he could use as a reference.
“Gio Hyung!”
“Have you been well?”
Gio lightly lifted Cha Yisol into an embrace when the boy came racing over. He then noticed Priest Kang Seodam, who had also come to greet him, and Cha Yisol’s partner, Novice Priest Iruda.
Giovanni smiled gently and asked after them.
“Have there been…