The Cathedral of Resurrection.
Minjun and Asiph-1 looked at each other.
Looking at the pope's face, the creator pondered.
‘Since I granted free will, was this inevitable?’
Asiph-1 had carried an ingrained command since the moment of his creation.
To make as many people happy as possible.
This concept was not a means to an end, but an end in itself.
‘But you were never made to be a perfect puppet in the first place.’
Asiph-1 had been created by carving out a piece of Minjun's soul.
In other words, they were not robotic entities relying on programming for every action.
‘Happiness. You perceive that command as the absolute good to be pursued. However, you also possess the ability to freely consider and decide how to carry it out. You cannot change the destination, but you can plan the journey and chart the course however you please. It seems this current situation is the result of that.’
Lying to Minjun was something he would willingly do if it proved necessary to carry out that command.
From the creator's perspective, was this a failure or a success?
Minjun could not easily say.
“...”
Asiph-1 stared at the pondering creator with clear eyes.
It seemed the creator had just burned more Talent than he had anticipated.
To uncover the secret surrounding Ha Eunseong's death.
‘Did you find that ghost so unsettling?’
As far as Asiph-1 knew, Minjun was a planner. He was someone who staked his very existence on the execution of those plans.
Yet, looking at the details, those plans were entirely bound by the concept of his species. They were not plans for self-realization, but for the salvation of his race.
Minjun prioritized ‘what I have’ and ‘the realm I belong to’ over ‘my own existence.’ Therefore, he raged more over the loss of his relationships or the subjects of those bonds than over the loss of his personal freedom and happiness. That was why he had voluntarily endured an eternity of nightmares alone, serving as a slave to beasts for hundreds of years.
Because the weight on his shoulders was so crushing, his plans had to be perfect.
Naturally, no variables could be allowed in the process.
‘So Ha Eunseong was that kind of variable.’
From Minjun's perspective, it was ultimately the correct judgment.
The creator spoke.
“You have already lied to me several times.”
He calmly traced back through the past.
“Even the very first thing you said was a lie.”
When Minjun found the Frying Pan in Jang Tae-jun's kitchen, its self-introduction had already been a lie. It was not an ordinary AI but harbored a soul, and it knew this fact perfectly well.
Furthermore, the reason everyone loved the dishes it made was not because they were specially cooked, but because it had brainwashed those who ate them.
“What you told me when I asked about Jang Tae-jun wasn't the truth, either.”
Back when he was an Immigration Office agent, Minjun had asked about Jang Tae-jun's whereabouts, and the Frying Pan had claimed he was an ordinary person. A civilian with no connection to Magic or the like.
But in truth, Jang Tae-jun was a dragon who had aged right up to the verge of becoming an Ancient Dragon.
“And this makes the third time.”
The lie it had told after restoring its fragments to a near-perfect form.
“You stated it clearly. That you neither knew who killed Ha Eunseong... nor had any connection to his death.”
But Minjun had just discovered it while rummaging through Asiph-1's soul.
“That, too, was a lie.”
He had found the undeniable evidence of that lie.
“...”
Asiph-1 struggled to hide his agitation.
Just how deeply had the creator looked?
It must have been much more difficult than when he was implanted in a tool as a fragment. Keeping that possibility in mind, Asiph-1 abruptly moved.
He collapsed downward, lowering his body. He knelt at the creator's feet and bowed his head deeply. Minjun stared down at him without a single twitch in his expression.
Seeing that reaction, Asiph-1 made another judgment.
If Minjun had seen everything, he wouldn't be able to stay this calm. He had found something suspicious within Asiph-1, but it seemed he hadn't fully grasped the whole truth. That was why he was trying to induce a full confession.
There were two reasons he was using such an indirect method.
‘Because he believes my fundamental purpose could never change.’
To make everyone happy.
Naturally, that included Minjun's kin as well.
‘And Father cannot recreate an entity like me.’
Minjun had already confessed that the soul used to create him had been a considerable loss.
It would be impossible to endure any further sacrifices to forge a new entity like Asiph-1 now.
Having finished his calculations, Asiph-1 began his confession.
“I apologize. It was a lie.”
Minjun's gaze remained freezing cold as he looked at the pope. Instead of rushing him, he quietly waited for the next words.
Asiph-1 didn't hesitate any longer, not wanting to stoke the creator's anger.
Instead, he continued in a calm tone.
“During the days when I resided within the Frying Pan, I was used by people of various races and backgrounds for hundreds of years. Before Father found me, the dragon called Jang Tae-jun was my master. We spent decades together. He was also the one who brought me to Earth.”
Excluding Minjun, Jang Tae-jun had been his final master.
Master.
Repeating that word, Asiph-1 explained.
“However, there is a secret that my countless previous masters... including Jang Tae-jun, failed to realize until the very end.”
He tilted his head up just slightly. Through the fringe of his hair, his eyes glinted.
“For the majority of the time, the relationship between us remained fixed in one dynamic, but without them noticing, it would often invert.”
Minjun recalled the words Asiph-1 had once spoken. ‘At this point, shouldn't we redefine the relationship between you and me, Agent?’
Asiph-1 was explaining that during his Frying Pan days, redefining his relationships with his other masters had happened frequently. Albeit in a slightly different form than what he had proposed to Minjun.
“Though they never caught on.”
A faint smile crept onto Asiph-1's lips.
“Occasionally, I became their master.”
Minjun listened without any sign of surprise.
A confession that a mere fragment would become the master of living, breathing people.
Minjun could well guess the method.
“You controlled them.”
“Yes. Once they took hold of me, the vast majority of them ate the food I made for decades or more. It stacked and stacked... Father, you have yet to see the results of such continuous accumulation. Even though I was just a single fragment at the time, when similar brainwashing persisted on a small handful of individuals, especially spanning over decades, the effect was astonishing.”
Though limited, it seemed a brainwashing effect similar to his true form had manifested.
“Jang Tae-jun was one of those who changed that way.”
Asiph-1 poured out the agony he had experienced.
“My mind was sealed within an object for hundreds of years. The only thing I could do at will was vibrate the metal to produce sound. Moving around on my own was naturally impossible. I dare not speak of this so easily in front of Father, but to me, it was nothing short of hell.”
Without a physical body to act freely, it was a hell where only endless, prolonged thought continued.
“To escape that torment, I would sometimes break away. Even though I had no body, there were substitutes I could use as my own.”
Even after coming to Earth, the Frying Pan would occasionally move Jang Tae-jun like a puppet.
He dominated his senses, wandering the world feeling everything Jang Tae-jun saw, heard, experienced, and felt as if it were his own. Just as Blade had used possessed individuals as ‘legs’ while operating as an assassin, the Frying Pan had been doing something similar.
“His colleagues, subordinates, lovers, and friends on Earth all thought the person they faced was always the complete Jang Tae-jun. The truth was otherwise.”
Minjun's eyes cooled ever further. It was then that Asiph-1 brought up the main point.
“Amidst all that, I discovered Ha Eunseong. At the amusement park.”
The moment he saw him, Asiph-1 received a massive shock.
“He cut a ridiculous figure in a penguin suit, but what caught my eye was not his body, but the essence within. I knew it instinctively. No one had ever taught me, but the moment I laid eyes on him, I recognized it. I saw his soul, which was a living spirit at the time. However, it felt incredibly familiar. It was too vivid a sensation to dismiss as mere déjà vu. He was something akin to me. It felt as though we were bound by some relationship from an exceedingly long time ago. He and I... seemed connected in some way.”
The primordial race felt a flash of doubt.
Connected?
When Minjun himself had seen Ha Eunseong... even though he was already a spiritual body, he hadn't felt anything of the sort.
How could his creation sense something that even he hadn't realized?
“I ended up misunderstanding.”
Asiph-1 smiled, a mix of regret and self-deprecation.
“I thought that soul was one of my fragments.”
The Frying Pan already had a vague sense at the time that it was incomplete.
“I was shaken. I felt a sense of urgency. Ha Eunseong... that soul appeared to be the Key to my completion. So, I had to reclaim it immediately. Only after attaining flawless perfection would I be able to fully realize my mission to make everyone happy.”
It was such an intense urge that it clouded even his rational judgment, Asiph-1 confessed.
“I thought about it. How, then, should I reclaim that fragment? The problem was that the target was still alive.”
Rather than leaving Ha Eunseong alive as he was, he was deemed a far more useful entity dead, with his soul absorbed into Asiph-1.
“Yes, his worth would only shine in death.”
And the simplest way to retrieve the fragment seemed to be tearing apart the target's physical vessel with the material he currently inhabited and making direct contact with his spiritual body.
Minjun tilted his head slightly.
“Did you never consider the reverse? That the target would absorb you.”
“...”
“Which means you felt an aversion to that outcome.”
He had wanted to absorb, rather than be absorbed.
Without denying it, Asiph-1 continued his recollection.
“As you probably knew by now, I could alter my shape even before absorbing Blade. A Frying Pan was hardly an appropriate form for piercing his body. So for the first time, I envisioned a shape designed to stab and kill.”
It seemed a memory resting in his subconscious had been stimulated in that moment.
In Jang Tae-jun's hand, the Frying Pan morphed into the shape of a Dagger, its hilt engraved with intricate patterns.
Minjun recalled the time he had pulled out Asiph-1 in front of the deputy pope back in the Frying Pan days.
At a single command, his creation had transformed flawlessly into the shape of the order's Holy Sword. The physical design had been slumbering deep within the base of his consciousness, borderline subconscious, even while in a fragmented state. Considering he had pierced the necks of countless cultists with it in his complete form, it made perfect sense.
“Only after stabbing him did I realize my mistake.”
He could not absorb Ha Eunseong's soul.
He had even exhibited an unexpected change.
“His soul slowly separated from his body and showed signs of turning into a ghost.”
Flustered, Asiph-1 tried to control him through suggestion however he could. Although he hadn't cooked and fed him anything, he noted that his own body was plunged into the man's flesh and instinctively made the attempt. Unprompted, he had tried the exact same method as his other fragment, Blade.
“Ultimately, before he fully separated from his physical body, it ended as a mere suggestion that erased his memory. Then, as spirits do when they first become ghosts, he fell into a panic and flew far away.”
Only then had the Frying Pan realized it, he confessed.
The fact that Ha Eunseong was not a fragment of himself.
Because of his impulsive choice, he had murdered an innocent person. He had robbed him of the chance to feel happiness for the rest of his life.
“Why did you pretend not to know Ha Eunseong after that? When you met him again.”
“Guilt and shame tormented me.”
He repeated the words he had spoken to Dell once more in front of his creator.
“Yes, shame belongs to humans. Though I was in the form of a tool, it seems I was already aware that I was human even back then.”
Confessing to his creator, he bowed his head once again.
The pope's outpouring had ended. A direct confession delivered to his own creator.
“...”
Minjun stood looking down at the pope.
Rumble—!
Fwoosh!
Slowly, he began to crush and pack together the specters clinging to his body. The screams of the maddened ghosts rang out even more dreadfully. The pope didn't move a muscle, but his breathing stopped for a split second.
Upon his back, Minjun's icy voice descended.
“That makes four.”
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