“Ahahaha! What an idiot!”
A complex look grew on Park Seung-Hyun’s face as he watched Grace, who was cackling while watching a comedy film.
She was brazen beyond belief, acting as if nothing at all had happened. Yet, when he’d locked her out of his room, causing her to scream and plead not to be abandoned, he’d heard genuine childish terror and painful desperation in her voice. Despite the dramatic difference between the two behaviors, he was sure of it.
“So it’s... really only been a day or two since she was born?”
Only then did he realize his wish wasn't just some sweet, romantic fantasy that could be completed with the snap of a finger.
Grace was a homunculus with earnest and proper emotions, created by Neltarid with help from Davey. Essentially, she was no different from a person, just that her birth wasn’t exactly traditional.
Her personality was one thing. The most important was Park Seung-Hyun essentially being the only person in the entire world for Grace, the naive and inexperienced newborn.
Park Seung-Hyun finally decided to call out, “Hey. Kid.”
She looked like a fresh-faced teenager, too old to call a little girl, but she still acted like an inexperienced child.
She responded, “Call me Grace.”
“Let's eat.” Seung-Hyun approached and set the delivered food on the table. “You're living here now.”
She showed an uncharacteristic nervousness and insecurity, murmuring, “Are you sure you want me to stay here with you?”
“What if I say no?”
Grace flinched at that, holding a chicken leg. Her lips were smiling, but her eyes were twitching wildly.
Finally getting the reaction he wanted, Park Seung-Hyun smirked and chuckled, “Heh. Just kidding, you silly goose. Eat.”
She pouted, chiding, “Seung-Hyun, your temper's really awful.”
“You were born to be by my side, right?”
She nodded, happily stuffing her face with the chicken. “Uh-huh.”
Such a bizarre meet-cute with a wish-powered partner was something Seung-Hyun only ever read about in novels or movies, yet he had ultimately been the one who started it.
She was just like him—lonely beyond belief. Their tastes were similar, so they could surely become good friends.
What others thought no longer mattered; he’d already told everyone she was a homunculus. It was beyond strange, but who really cared at the end of the day?
“Then it’s decided! Welcome, Grace. Thanks for being born.” Seung-Hyun made sure to appreciate Grace, who'd been born to ease his loneliness.
Her eyes went wide. His words had hit her hard, like a ton of bricks. She sheepishly responded, “Umm. Honestly, I was scared.”
“Scared?”
“Now that I see you, you’re a really good person.”
“You don't have to say that kind of ridiculous stuff. Just know that if you mess up, I'll kick you out.”
She nodded at his hollow laugh.
Grace wasn't a simple robot. She was a bespoke emotional being, the feelings having been breathed into her by the God of Earth himself. She was wholly unique, one of a kind across all worlds.
“At least while you're by my side, I’ll take care of you,” he promised her.
“Umm. Neltarid said that if I ate too much, you’d turn into a penniless bum.”
Though, Seung-Hyun didn't think Neltarid would've used the harsh word bum.
“Yeah, try to eat a little less.”
The size of her appetite was unbelievable.
Even the Gourmet Research Society, which Evangeline said was famous in Heins, didn't obsess over food portions so much.
Seung-Hyun just burst out laughing at the ridiculousness.
* * *
“I'm bored,” Grace complained. “Seung-Hyun, aren't you going to stream like before?”
“I announced I was taking a few days off to rest. It's for the best, anyway. I need to buy you some clothes and daily necessities.” After a moment of thought, he asked, “Do you have anything you absolutely need?”
Grace thought for a second, then her eyes sparked. “I want the sword the legendary hero uses, human.”
“So you don't need anything else. That means I just need to buy you some simple clothes. Outerwear isn't a problem, but buying underwear too is just... hmm.”
A few people popped into his head. First was Evangline, one of his closest friends and the easiest to contact. He shot her a text, eager to get her help. It wasn't long before he got a response.
- Streaming.
“Jerk.”
Next, he tried Willow. The crystal ball she had given him so that he could use it for questions about Grace replied in a similar manner.
- Busy. Later.
Although, she at least showed some effort. She had doubled the word count of Evangeline’s rejection.
“Both sisters are just the worst... and asking Super Ribbon is a bit much.”
For some reason, all the people he knew were connected to Tionis one way or another.
“My life is seriously weird.”
Since he couldn't just buy cheap low-quality stuff for Grace, he turned on his smartphone and checked his bank balance. Thanks to his habit of saving everything to prepare for the future, his current living expenses were tight.
He figured that if they just cut back a little on food, they could last for about a month. Then his eyes went wide.
“Huh?”
He blinked in surprise, and then rubbed his eyes. When he opened them again, exhaustion washed over his face. “Wow, I really spent a lot, eh? Should I dip into my savings account or something?”
He only had about one million won[1] left in his bank account. Most of his assets were in fixed-term savings, so that was the only disposable cash he had at the moment.
Grace, who was sprawled on the couch like a total sloth, picked her teeth with a toothpick and asked, “Why?”
“I'm broke...”
“In what? Money? Oh. Lord Neltarid gave me something for my living expenses before sending me over. They said the church would buy it for cash.”
Saying that, she sat up. Then, she immediately flopped back down.
“Ugh. Too lazy... But I'm not hungry anyway. I'm just gonna sleep.”
Her hair flopped down with her, as if it were alive. It was definitely the kind of responsive hair one would only see in cartoons.
“Hey, hey! Don't sleep, get up! We gotta go out and do those errands!”
“Forget it. I know you don't wanna go out either. Let's just stay home, okay?” she persuaded.
“If we go out, I'll buy you the pasta you like.”
Her eyes narrowed, not entirely convinced. “Just for something like that, you expect me to...”
Seung-Hyun immediately upped the ante. “Brick oven pizza.”
“Umm...”
“Plus the pork ribs you said you wanted to try.”
No matter if she was a homunculus, he couldn't stand seeing her wear only one oversized t-shirt anymore.
Grace sneered, relenting and saying, “I'll let you win this one time.”
She then suddenly jumped up and shoved her hand under her oversized t-shirt, abruptly pulling something out of her stomach area.
Park Seung-Hyun was stunned by what she’d retrieved. “Holy shit, that sculpture looks sacred and expensive as hell! Can we really sell it?”
“Uh-huh. If we take this to the priests, they’ll buy it right away, no questions asked. He called it something special. What was it again...? Ummmm, I think it’s a sacred item?”
Park Seung-Hyun wasn't sure how to go about even using it. “But how do we sell this? The main church is too far from here...”
That was when it happened.
Whum! Whum!!!
He heard a phone vibrate, his head tilting in curiosity. Then, a strand of Grace’s ankle-length hair slowly lifted on its own.
It slipped beneath her oversized t-shirt from behind and began searching for something. As she lay sprawled on her stomach, it looked as though her hair had come to life, writhing across her back.
Seung-Hyun had never seen anything like it. “What are you looking for?”
“Something else Lord Neltarid gave me.”
“How much stuff did you even get?”
“I shoved all sorts of things inside me. My slimy compartment is just too convenient.”
“Ugh. The way you say that...”
“I'm a slime-type homunculus, bro. I can store a ton of stuff inside my body with no problem. Anyway, where is it...”
Even moving her finger was too much of a hassle, so her hair continued doing the work for her. It eventually retrieved the vibrating smartphone before swiping the screen to accept the call.
“You can touch screens with your hair?”
“He said I can do it with any part of my body because of some special qeality. No one else can, though.” She finally brought the phone to her ear, answering, “Umm. Who is this? No, no, no marketers please. Not interested.”
Seung-Hyun put on a blank look as she hung up. Given how casually she had been, he couldn’t help but frown and ask. “Who was that? Some scammer?”
“Dunno. She said she was the Saintess Agatha...”
“Call her back, you punk!!”
* * *
“I have received your revelation, Lord Neltarid. I rate it highly, but I still rate the flying squirrel lowly.”
After offering a quiet prayer, she got up to carry out his revelation.
The Church of Neltarid had taken root across the world. Worried it might've gone astray, Agatha had begun checking on it from every possible angle.
She turned to the side, calling out, “Archbishop, could you get a car ready?”
“A car, Saintess?”
“Yes.”
While the Church of Neltarid hadn't been established for a long time, with the church being dedicated to a known and confirmed god, its influence was beyond imagination.
“May I ask where you're heading?”
“God gave me a revelation. Lord Neltarid sent down a sacred item imbued with his power, and has ordered us to retrieve it... for a fair price.”
The archbishop was confused. “A sacred item...?”
The term sacred item felt strange. After all, the Church of Neltarid didn't have a very long and storied history. There weren’t even centuries, let alone millennia, of activities that would create relics like with other religions. Moreover, the church had suffered a major disaster and lost many keepsakes.
Fortunately, some records of scriptures; commandments Neltarid had arranged in the early days; and mysterious, hidden miracles known in historical records remained. Nonetheless, the significant losses could still be felt when assessing the contents of their vaults.
“It's a sculpture blessed by God,” Agatha informed him. “I was told its mere presence can bring Lord Neltarid's blessing to the entire surrounding area. I'll know more once I see it.”
The Archbishop accepted the explanation and nodded, as there was no reason for Agatha to suddenly lie.
“It's a good thing I'm in Korea right now, meaning I can coordinate with you. I'll give you the location, so please leave immediately. And please, retrieve it with the utmost respect.”
“Understood, Saintess.”
Saintess. It was a title that sounded cringe to address Agatha with, yet as a pure child with true stigmata, she possessed the qualifications in both name and reality.
Adjusting her pure white robe and hat, which looked a little too heavy for a child to wear, Agatha looked glum. “I just wanna take this off and walk around when I want.”
Naturally, her movements would shock a lot of people. Even the movements of a pope in an unconfirmed religion would be front-page news, so when the saintess of a living god moved, it was bound to cause a commotion.
She was, after all, called the “Saintess who brought miracles.”
She was far from pleased to have such considerations and obligations restraining her movements and freedom.
Putting it from her mind, she dialed the unique twenty-digit number Neltarid had given her in the revelation, eager to speak to the sacred item’s owner. “What a weird number.”
Surprisingly, despite the abnormally long number, the call actually connected. Then, when she heard a sluggish voice answer the phone, she cleared her throat and prepared to greet her as respectfully as possible. The revelation said Grace was a being Neltarid had created himself, so purely by status, Grace was superior to her own position.
She began, “I apologize for contacting you first. This is Agatha, the Saintess of the Church of Neltarid...”
The voice on the other end of the line immediately cut her off.
- Umm. Who is this? No, no, no marketers. Not interested.
Beep.
She went blank for a second, head tilted in confusion. She called again, yet this time, someone else greeted her.
“Nice to meet you. I'm Agatha, the Saintess of the Church of Neltarid. I apologize for calling so suddenly, but...”
Seung-Hyun similarly cut her off. “Agh! Saintess! I’m sorry about that just now!”
Until then, no one, no matter how young, had ever abruptly interrupted her. Except for her teacher, of course.
She couldn’t help but make a long face.
1. ~$671 USD ☜
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