Ch.160Closed-Door Training Is Dangerous (3)

After everyone had left, it is said that Rama set out on his journey alone.

“That’s when I thought about it. What if I became the king of the underworld myself?”

“…Is that a normal thought to have in that situation?”

After hearing that, I was convinced. This guy wasn’t normal either.

His way of thinking was on a completely different level from ordinary people. Indeed, it was the kind of thinking befitting the master of Gildeon, who had dug up a hero from national founding myths and turned him into his undead.

“At first, it might have been just a childish tantrum. But I surprisingly had talent for it, and eventually reached an absurdly high level as a necromancer.”

Certainly, without that level of skill, he couldn’t have trained an exceptional necromancer like Gildeon.

When I nodded, Rama continued.

“But because of that, I came to understand. That I could not fill the king’s vacant throne.”

“Because you lacked talent?”

“That too, but fundamentally, I was not the right vessel.”

That aligned with what Shin Doyun had said earlier. He too had mentioned that suitable candidates for the plan couldn’t be chosen based on strength alone.

“After that, I simply wandered the world looking for talented individuals. Having reached enlightenment, I was free from aging, and I continued my journey for years without stopping.”

That must be how he came to find Gildeon.

“That child possessed the qualities of a king more than anyone else I had ever seen. With more time and a little push, he might have been able to sit on the throne.”

But Gildeon had already died without regrets, returning to dust.

And in doing so, he had entrusted Rama to me.

“Perhaps that child intuitively realized it too. That you were the person I had been looking for.”

“……”

“Come with me to the underworld of planet Thebe and sit on that throne. Become the true king of the underworld, protect the planet, and set things right.”

In other words, Rama had judged me to be worthy of being the master of the underworld.

Perhaps, as she said, if I became the king of the underworld, it might be possible to break the vessel and obtain divine status.

“But isn’t Thebe already destroyed?”

“Pardon?”

“A high-ranking deity attacked and took everything—land and all.”

Serejia, who was beside me, nodded sadly at those words.

Now, protecting the planet or adjusting its principles meant nothing. The entire planet had been taken away.

“H-how could this be……”

Rama seemed shocked and remained frozen for a while, unable to speak.

Having wandered his entire life trying to set the planet’s laws right, only to have that purpose disappear overnight—it was understandable.

Whoosh.

Crack!

Whoosh.

Boom!

“Y-you’re right. I cannot open the gate to the underworld. What on earth happened while I was asleep……”

“Of course it won’t work. This isn’t Thebe; it’s a different planet.”

It was truly pitiful, but thanks to this, all questions were answered. I had wondered why a deity present on Earth was absent only on Thebe—it turned out that position had been vacant from the beginning.

“I’m a deity too, you know.”

“How can you say that so casually? You couldn’t do anything and lost your own home……”

I glared at Serejia with irritation, but Rama reacted to our conversation.

“Are you saying you’re a deity of Thebe? That’s impossible.”

“…When you put it that way, it makes me feel quite insignificant.”

“That’s not what I meant. From the beginning, planet Thebe had only one deity—the king of the underworld. No other deities could exist.”

At those words, Serejia tilted her head. Come to think of it, I seemed to have heard something similar from Shin Doyun.

“Didn’t he say the concept of demigods felt strange?”

“……”

That’s right.

He had said it made no sense for a deity, who should be complete, to take on an incomplete form.

“…Then am I not even a deity at all?”

With her confidence shaken, Serejia fiddled with her hair with a gloomy expression.

From what I’d heard before, Serejia also had no memory of her birth. She just existed on Thebe as a demigod from some point.

After I shared this information, Rama’s lips moved as if in realization.

“I understand now. You are a stand-in.”

“A stand-in?”

“Due to the prolonged absence of the deity who should govern the planet, a temporary agent was selected.”

After pondering this, Serejia responded.

“…That might be true. The only intuition given to me was that I somehow needed to adjust the principles of the planet.”

That’s why Serejia had created the position of Adjuster and had been protecting Thebe with them all along.

“…So what changes with this information?”

“Yes, it changes things. Being a stand-in means she holds legitimate authority.”

In other words, by passing that authority to me, a different form of power transfer would be possible.

“But it’s likely still an incomplete form. It would be better to somehow return to Thebe and perform the ritual…”

“That seems difficult. We can’t create a dimensional portal from here.”

It wouldn’t be impossible with Shin Doyun’s help, but returning from the other side would also require materials and time.

We didn’t have that luxury right now.

“I can’t think of any other method.”

“…Then we’re doomed.”

In the end, with our hope vanished, we just sat in silence inside the curtain.

We tried to think of other methods afterward, but none were feasible.

“Why did you have to impose such restrictions…”

“S-shut up. It’s over if we don’t get results anyway.”

According to the restrictions I had already imposed, we couldn’t leave this place unless we found a clue for growth.

If I forcibly broke it, I would lose a significant amount of power as a consequence. Obviously, I couldn’t do that.

Whoosh.

With no other ideas coming to mind, I took out the seal of the underworld and fiddled with it in one hand to clear my thoughts.

Then I practiced releasing power by opening and closing the gate to the underworld.

Watching this, Rama tilted his head and suddenly stood up.

“…How did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“The gate to the underworld. It shouldn’t be possible to open it right now.”

Rama explained that what the people of Thebe called the underworld was literally the dwelling place of the deity governing the planet, and naturally, it was a space connected to Thebe.

“So on Earth, a different planet, you might be able to use the power of the seal itself, but opening the gate to the underworld should be impossible.”

“…It opened just fine though?”

“That’s not the usual case, at least.”

From the beginning, I didn’t quite understand Rama’s explanation.

According to her, Thebe’s underworld wasn’t the final destination for departing souls but simply a space like the deity’s home?

But Charon, the ferryman of the afterlife, was there, as was Cerberus, the guardian of hell.

‘Then isn’t that the afterlife?’

But soon, I was able to find something odd about it.

‘Wait, isn’t their presence strange to begin with?’

Honestly, I had thought about it once. Why did Charon and Cerberus, whom I knew from Earth’s mythology, also exist on Thebe?

I had assumed it was because all afterlives were the same, but now it seemed that wasn’t the case.

“You call them by those names. They are the gatekeepers who protect the deity’s dwelling and the will of the planet. I’ve heard their abilities and forms constantly change according to the king’s will.”

In other words, they took on those forms because that was my perception of the afterlife.

“From the situation, it seems a direct connection to the underworld has already been established to some extent.”

“Then…”

“Yes, I think it’s possible. If I use the power of my clan as an attendant, we can certainly move to the underworld.”

Finally, the answer was complete.

Without hesitation, Rama nodded and began chanting a long incantation in front of the gate to the underworld that I had opened.

Then, the scene beyond the gate, which had been just fog, began to reveal itself, and gradually, a sense of connection between the two spaces was felt.

Whoosh.

Crackle.

We slowly walked toward the completed passage.

Swish.

“…I feel an incredible chill.”

“Given the nature of the place, it’s unavoidable. But as the acting agent, you shouldn’t have major issues.”

Despite various twists and turns, we finally reached the underworld of planet Thebe.

And what appeared before me was a truly massive throne.