I Became the Apostle of an Evil God Chapter 18

Whether Orma noticed that Van’s expression had stiffened during their conversation or not, he snapped fiercely, raising his voice.

“Stop spouting nonsense and shut the hell up!”

He glared murderously at the dragon, as if asking exactly how long it intended to keep bringing up that nauseating past. Only then did the dragon realize it had been acting completely oblivious. It scratched its cheek to express its embarrassment, but Orma kept pressing him, thoroughly disgusted.

“Herna? You know full well that Serca forced her onto me. She was just Serca’s puppet, and the human over there is my apostle, so don’t you dare put them on the same level.”

“Oh? An apostle? He’s your apostle?”

It seemed there was some hidden secret regarding Herna that Van didn’t know about, but for now, he figured it would be best to calm the heavily irritated Orma down. Offering an awkward smile, Van stepped forward to greet the dragon first.

“…Hello. My name is Van, and I serve sir Orma.”

“Van, an apostle… Oh, ohhh… Orma’s apostle…”

The dragon’s eyes sparkled as it began circling around Van. Finding it utterly fascinating, it murmured strange exclamations like, “Oh, I see. Wow…” before suddenly grabbing both of Van’s hands and shaking them up and down excitedly.

“Please take good care of Orma!”

“Haha…”

Well, even if you ask me to take good care of him, it’s not like I can actually control what he does. Van’s eyes darted around helplessly, but the dragon didn’t care in the slightest. Beaming with a wide grin, it went right back to rambling on about Orma.

“Even though I told him countless times that he couldn’t die, he just wouldn’t listen, and he ended up crawling into hell on his own two feet to rot! Unable to accept the fact that he had become a god, he stayed down there for hundreds of years…”

“Gale, shut up and just lead us to the vault.”

His patience completely depleted, Orma stepped in with a menacing look and pried the dragon, Gale, away from Van. Gale tilted his head in confusion, wondering why they were suddenly visiting the vault, but he soon complied and led the way. Orma stood right in front of Van, his eyes blazing with vigilance to ensure Gale wouldn’t blurt out any more strange things, walking as if shielding his apostle.

Then again, Van could understand. If a friend he hadn’t seen in a long time started bringing up a deeply unpleasant past, he would also tell them to please shut their mouth. They definitely seemed like genuine friends, considering Orma had let him off this easily.

“Wait a minute, could this actually be gold dust instead of sand, man?”

“Oh, beastkin brat! You recognize it! Beautiful, isn’t it?”

Gold dust? At Jaena’s words, Van paused and carefully observed the sand that was falling into the void before billowing beautifully back up into place. Sure enough, it sparkled far too intensely to be ordinary sand, and it lacked the characteristic dusty odor. Proving that the rumor about dragons loving bright and sparkly things wasn’t a lie at all, Gale began boasting to Jaena with immense pride.

“This is actual gold taken from Muhwi’s temple, finely ground up like sand. It was all my idea! Doesn’t it look absolutely stunning the way it catches the light and sparkles?”

“…Taking credit using my gold.”

“Ah, and over here is a garden made by processing gemstones into the shapes of flowers. I’ve kept it maintained with a dust-repelling spell. I bet you’ve never seen a sight like this anywhere else in the world!”

“Processing my gemstones however you pleased.”

From behind, Orma threw sharp barbs at him one after another, but Gale pretended not to hear. Utterly thrilled, he took the wide-eyed Jaena by the hand and began guiding him all over the island. Just as Gale said, it was a rare and magnificent sight that couldn’t be found anywhere else in the world, but since Orma’s mood seemed incredibly sour, Van couldn’t bring himself to enjoy the scenery and subtly walked on eggshells around him.

And at that exact moment, his eyes met Orma’s. Instantly erasing the expression that made it look like he wanted to flee the place immediately, Orma stared blankly at Van with a expressionless face. He paused for a moment, walked over to pluck one of the gemstone flowers Gale had been bragging about, and held it out to him. It was a sky-blue chloris flower, beautifully crafted to resemble real petals, perfectly matching the deity’s eye color. Seeing it, a faint smile spread across the slightly tense face of Van.

A god who gifts a gemstone flower to his apostle… That was incredibly romantic. Did Orma actually possess such a gentle side?

“Thank you.”

Watching the grateful response accompanied by a smile, the irritation vanished from Orma’s face, and his expression softened as he spoke.

“Yeah, this is much better.”

“Pardon?”

“I take back what I said about not looking at me with those eyes. Just keep looking at me like that instead.”

What on earth does that mean? Van didn’t understand a single word of what Orma was implying, but since Orma nodded with an intensely satisfied look, he simply felt relieved, thinking, ‘My god seems to have cheered up… Thank goodness.’ While Orma and Van shared a smile, Gale, who had arrived in front of a cave that looked as though a magic lamp might be hidden inside, pointed into the entrance and spoke.

“I’ve deactivated the alarm magic meant to keep intruders out. I was wondering why you came all the way here, but I guess you wanted to give a gift to your pretty and sweet apostle.”

Gale snickered and teased him, saying it was entirely unlike him, but Orma merely responded with a shrug of his shoulders. Having no intention of teasing Orma indefinitely, Gale tactfully excused himself, stating that he was going to give Jaena—who was looking around restlessly, unable to hide his excitement—a proper tour of the island.

Huh? It was only after the two of them were left entirely alone that Van noticed something felt a bit off. Didn’t this look exactly like a friend who had hilariously teased a buddy for bringing a new partner around, only to gracefully back out so they could be alone? No… it was probably just his imagination.

Van fiddled with the gemstone flower Orma had handed him as he peered past the cave entrance. Exactly how mountains of treasure had been piled up inside? Even from the outside, he could see something flashing inside the cave, catching the light differently depending on the angle. It wasn’t as though Van had swallowed his pride to extort… no, ask Orma for money for no reason. It was because the deity possessed such an astronomical fortune yet remained entirely indifferent, having no intention of ever spending it.

“I thought you’d be thrilled, so why the face?”

“Pardon? I’m actually in a very good mood right now.”

He pulled the corners of his lips up to offer a smile, but it seemed it didn’t meet Orma’s standards. If anything, Orma scowled, whipped his head around, and marched into the cave first.

The cave itself wasn’t particularly massive, but the moment they stepped inside, they were greeted by piles of gold coins stacked high like toys. Frankly speaking, the pile was so deep that one could practically swim inside it, causing Van’s mouth to drop open completely on its own.

“Wow…”

“Take it all. So we never have to come back to this tedious place again.”

“Haha… Thank you, sir, but this scale is so immense that even if I took an armful, it wouldn’t even make a dent.”

In times like this, a game inventory function would be incredibly useful. What a shame. At Van’s words, Orma let out a short, thoughtful “Hmm…” as he scanned the interior, before stepping forward to rummage through various items.

“Most of these things, you see, are closer to an inheritance.”

“An inheritance, sir?”

“Yeah. Don’t people refer to assets left behind by parents as an inheritance?”

Come to think of it, the game had merely opened with the premise that the hero Orma had coveted a god’s property and became a fallen deity. It hadn’t provided a single shred of detailed background regarding who Orma truly was or what kind of person he had been. Since the original Orma had been an ordinary human, he naturally must have had parents.

Reflected by the faint beams of light cutting through the dark cave, Orma’s face looked exceptionally sharp, like a flawless sculpture. Van found it difficult to tear his eyes away from the thoroughly handsome face that lacked any imperfections. Grabbing the sight to engrave it into his memory as if stealing a glance, Van carefully opened his mouth.

“…May I ask what your original eye color was, sir?”

At that question, Orma let out a complicated smile, looking rather troubled. His eyes, dyed gold as proof of his godhood, were both his sore spot and his shame. He had never once desired to become like this. If anyone else had asked, Orma would have thrown a fit, demanding to know why they were curious about such a thing—but strangely enough, with Van, he felt a sense of ease, as if he could confess it comfortably.

“Green.”

Green. Van found himself deeply curious about that color. He tried to imagine Orma’s current appearance while arbitrarily adding green eyes to the image, but perhaps because the impact of the vividly flashing golden eyes was too grand, it didn’t come easily to mind. Was it a deep green? Or did it lean closer to a light yellowish-green?

While Van was lost in thought, Orma, who had been rummaging through a corner of the cave, approached him. He took Van’s hand and slipped a ring onto his fair, pretty finger. Even at a glance, it was a ring embedded with a peridot of the absolute highest quality. Staring at the incredibly beautiful ring, which momentarily tempted even the typically unmaterialistic Van, Orma let out a chuckle and spoke.

“It was exactly that color.”

“…It’s beautiful.”

At times like this, he lamented his lack of eloquence. He felt as though he should be able to say something far grander, yet the only word that escaped his mouth was a mere declaration that it was beautiful. Even so, Orma curved his eyes in a highly satisfied smile.

“Take it and sell it. It’ll fetch a high price.”

“Am I allowed to keep it, sir? I don’t want to sell this one.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s beautiful.”

Because it was beautiful. It was an incredibly simple and effortless response, but Orma merely shrugged his shoulders.

While it felt a bit embarrassing, the sensation wasn’t bad at all. Seeing Van gaze down at the ring that resembled his eye color from when he was human, smiling as if handling a precious treasure, Orma found the sight deeply comforting.