Evil Gods Don’t Save People

"Adam."

The priest was looking at Him with eyes full of pity, as if it was the destined fate.

"Ha, haha-"

The corners the Fool's mouth moved up uncontrollably, forming a distorted smile.

"Hahahahaha!"

He bent over in laughter.

"I see. So it was all in the plan. Since that I am deemed a failure, you are discarding me."

The Fool understood why He hadn't helped Him maintain His sanity.

His eyes swirling with madness, he declared, "But you haven't won, Adam. I am going to live."

The Fool looked at the priest, who watched Him with eyes full of pity, and sneered.

The Ancient Sun God, no, even before the Ancient Sun God perished, His compatriot was no more.

To Him, the Lord of Mysteries was merely a necessary sacrifice.

Because there was still time for a new Lord of Mysteries to be born.

Because He wouldn't be able to carry out that role anymore.

And in a sense, the Fool knew that Adam was right, so He hated it even more.

So the Fool laughed, mocking His own fate like a clown.

In a way, didn't that make him no different from Medici?

The Fool recalled the sacrificial rituals in the past.

The corpses.

The despair.

He finally opened his eyes.

He didn't know why he was thinking of all this now.

Was it due to the recent prayer when nobody should have remembered his name?

"Woof!"

The Fool looked down in surprise.

There was a hound, its entire body covered in short black fur and the ends of its mouth extending to the back of its head.

It was a hound of Fulgrim, a unique creature of the spirit world and Keeper of Sefirah Castle.

It stayed a distance away from Him, hesitating to approach but also looking as if it wanted to comfort its master.

Meanwhile, the Fool was still staring at the dog in astonishment.

The hound had entered Sefirah Castle, its body fine as if nothing had ever been wrong; only two missing balls of dark-red burning flames in its eye sockets betraying a hint of the previous wounds it had suffered.

Slowly, the hound took a step and paused, asking for permission while trembling in fear.

Why had it entered Sefirah Castle?

It had been so long…

"…Woof?"

The Fool stared at the hound, still in front of him.

Then, he stretched out his hand.

Recognizing the sign, the hound hesitatingly took a few steps forward and reached the god, looking up at its master.

"You are not alone, my lord."

He should have felt less alone.

Even after everything that happened, the hound had gone back to him in the end.

Moreover, it was still alive after all this time, so it was an existence that would never leave.

Yet.

Yet…

The Fool simply patted the hound with an impassive face, while the latter tilted its head while wondering what was wrong.

Loneliness had never been the problem.

It only started it.

The gray fog covered the Fool's eyes thickly as He stared at the dog in silence.

Then, He pulled up His lips into a smile, a bright smile like one of a clown.

Yeah, shouldn't I be happy?

***

"Honorable Mr. Fool, if I were to find out Qilangos's true intention and the very important and magical item that he intends to obtain, please allow me to recite your name and inform you through the ritual."

The Fool considered it for a moment, glancing toward Mr. Hanged Man.

"Only recite my name if you are in grave danger."

That was a refusal.

Alger was disappointed but bowed his head, thanking Mr. Fool for His answer.

The majestic palace was silent for a few seconds before Audrey spoke, "I need the complete pituitary gland of a Rainbow Salamander."

The Hanged Man Alger nodded slightly as if he was contemplating.

"I don't have it. To be honest, I've only seen this creature in textbooks." The Sun, Derrick, heard the term automatically translated to him as Phantom Netherdrake.

At that moment, Alger looked at The Fool, then retracted his gaze. He then looked opposite him and said in thought, "I might have a way of obtaining the complete pituitary gland of the Rainbow Salamander."

The Fool completely ignored the two, having zoned out.

Meanwhile, the Sun was lost for the majority of what they said.

"…Does the near-extinction of the Rainbow Salamander mean that the Spectator pathway will be severed soon?"

Oh, Miss Justice, that's not something you want to know.

"No, there will definitely be substitute materials." Alger gave a definite answer.

"What substitute materials are there?" Audrey's eyes brightened as she asked.

Alger shook his head, replying without revealing certain profound truths, "I don't know. Perhaps the members of the Psychology Alchemists might know."

"Then how can you be so sure that there will be substitute ingredients?" Audrey didn't understand.

The Fool crossed his hands, debating whether he should tell them certain truths of the world.

Alger laughed and said, "You will understand in time. Or do you have something to trade for the information right now?"

"I guess I'll wait." Audrey pouted and sighed. She also dismissed the idea of asking Mr. Fool.

Yes, maybe he shouldn't disclose the existence of cannibalism just yet.

Mr. Fool took pity upon these mortal souls and kept silent, all the while Mr. Sun was wondering if they really didn't know something so simple or if he had misunderstood what they were talking about.

***

In the real world, Mr. Hanged Man's hunt on Qilangos went relatively well.

After some twists and turns, the pirate was eventually killed by the official Beyonders—though not by Alger—and Creeping Hunger was retrieved by the Church of the Lord of Storms.

However, due to investigations from the official Beyonders, Mr. Hanged Man and Miss Justice asked for leave from the gathering.

Thus, Mr. Fool was alone with Mr. Sun right now.

The Fool looked at Derrick, standing straight like a nervous student, and leaned back in his seat.

He didn't know how to start a conversation. What was he supposed to say?

He didn't hesitate as much as now even when solving crisis with high-level existences in the past. How curious.

Stuck with a strange dilemma, the Fool pondered on what he should do, feeling the teenager's increasing nervousness as time passed.

Maybe he shouldn't drag it out any longer. The Sun was going to follow in the Hanged Man's footsteps and also get a heart attack at this rate.

The Fool finally broke the silence.

"…Well, why don't you tell me more about the City of Silver?"

Breathing out a sigh of relief, the Sun nodded and began his story, not knowing that the Fool was only listening with one ear.

"The City of Silver has existed ever since the omnipotent and omniscient God, the Lord that created everything forsook this land. No, it existed before that, but it was called the Kingdom of Silver."

'Ancient Sun God, will your existence haunt me even through the mouth of Tarot Club members?'

For a god that was supposed to be dead, He was almost as present as Roselle.

Well, technically, He was as approximately alive as Him, it's just that Roselle was stuck in His mausoleum and hadn't really resurrected.

Gods and their masochistic tendencies to make people stab Them in the back and kill Them, only to resurrect later.

Decide if you want to die or live for once! This isn't some kind of drama.

The Sun continued to recite what he knew, unaware that the god in front of him was already distracted.

Anyway, since before, the Fool was receiving some kind of bad feeling from fate, as if someone was writing over it.

Leonard Mitchell———

And his spiritual intuition was usually not wrong.

——This is reasonable.