Three years had passed since one of the most dynamic years in Amon’s life.
The year when Sonia’s talent was discovered, Amon’s talent was revealed, and they tangled with the possessed Jimmy and the psychotic gorilla.
Three years since that year, which, by any standard, had enough incidents to be shared on a radio show in this chaotic world.
During those years, Amon and Sonia gradually prepared for their upcoming graduation.
“Thank you for everything, Master.”
“Are you leaving?”
“Yes.”
“Think about my offer again.”
“Thank you, but we want to see more of the world.”
Before their departure from the orphanage, Amon and Sonia decided to close up the swordsmanship dojo.
Hearing the news that they were leaving, their master, regretful, offered them a position as assistant instructor along with room and board, but the two politely declined.
In their hearts, they wished to continue their training quietly at the dojo.
But they were orphans.
They had no one to support them from behind, and no connections to rely on.
Now, it was time for them to carve out their own path.
…That was the surface reason.
The bigger reason was that both of them were wielders of divine power.
Amon knew all too well how far this world would go to secure someone with divine power.
They could not stay at the dojo any longer.
Though it was a fairly large dojo by city standards, it wouldn’t be strange if a corporation sent a squad of ninjas after two divine power wielders.
This was something neither Sonia nor Amon wanted.
Thus, they had no choice but to say their polite goodbyes to their master.
***
As he saw them off for the last time, their master earnestly reminded them once more.
“Yes. There’s no need to obsess over fame, just survive for a long time. You remember what I always say, right?”
“The strong don’t survive,” Amon answered.
“The survivors are strong, right?” Sonia added.
They responded in unison, almost like they were reciting a lesson.
Their master no longer cared about promoting himself through their success.
He had no interest in proving his teachings to the world through them.
He only wanted his disciples to survive for a long time and live happy lives.
In a materialistic world like this, such love was invaluable beyond any monetary measure.
Amon and Sonia bowed deeply to their master, honoring him until the very end.
From that point on, the two of them gradually tidied up their relationships with everyone they had been indebted to, aside from their master.
It wasn’t that they were disregarding anyone, but Amon and Sonia simply lived in a different world now.
To be precise, their very existence was akin to poison for ordinary people.
Just being around them meant that others could be harmed.
With heavy hearts, Amon and Sonia bid their farewells, trying their best to hide their sadness.
“What’s so special about divine power anyway…”
Sonia muttered somberly.
She already knew her secret.
With only a year left until graduation, the headmaster had revealed the truth about divine power to Sonia.
The plan had been to keep it a secret until graduation, but her talent was so brilliant that it couldn’t be hidden that long.
Her talent was so overwhelmingly bright that even she could sense her own strangeness, so the headmaster had no choice but to tell her the truth.
Fortunately, Amon and the headmaster’s moral teachings had not gone to waste.
Despite realizing her talent, Sonia did not become arrogant.
Instead, she reminded herself of how blessed she was and resolved to remain humble.
The headmaster, moved by her admirable attitude, couldn’t help but smile a motherly smile.
***
‘But how did you know?’
As a side note, there was a time when the headmaster questioned Amon for his lackluster reaction after learning the secret.
Somehow, he managed to avoid giving a clear answer.
In any case, the two lived with the secret for a year.
Now, they had to end their relationships with others before the secret came out.
Ordinarily, one might feel proud of their uniqueness and willingly sever ties, but Sonia was too sentimental for that.
When it came time to say goodbye, her throat would tighten, and she couldn’t find the words to speak.
So, Amon would step in and calmly handle the farewells in her place.
Sonia couldn’t help but wonder at how composed Amon always seemed.
“Doesn’t this bother you at all?”
To her question, Amon responded with his usual warm smile.
“Of course, it bothers me. I’m sad that we have to cut ties with people because of this divine power. And it makes me upset that this is the world we live in.”
“Then why do you seem so calm about it?”
“Because I believe this won’t last forever.”
Amon’s eyes shone brighter than neon lights as he spoke.
“Someday, when I rise to a position where no one can interfere with my relationships, when the world becomes a little more bearable to live in, we’ll be able to come back.”
Sonia couldn’t respond to Amon’s confident words.
Sometimes, he had this unshakable certainty about the future that was overwhelming.
‘You’re going to shine brighter than anyone! I guarantee it!’
How many children in the orphanage had been captivated by the beauty of the hope Amon showed to those who were just surviving?
Sonia had been one of them.
No matter how long it took, Amon’s promises always came true.
No one believed him when he declared that he would make the dull orphanage more lively, yet by the time he was about to graduate, the atmosphere of the place had brightened so much that it was incomparable to ten years ago.
That’s why, this time too, Sonia had no choice but to believe Amon’s declaration.
More than just believing, she found herself, at some point, convinced.
Somewhere along the way, she realized that she had resolved to follow Amon and witness the bright future he would create.
She couldn’t wait to see that future.
As her thoughts reached this point, the gloom that had overtaken her vanished, and she returned to her usual self, eagerly talking about dreams.
“Then, I guess we’ll have to work even harder in the priest’s class this afternoon if we want to achieve that dream.”
On their way back to the orphanage, Sonia’s words were met with Amon’s nod of agreement.
After the headmaster’s revelation about divine power, the two had begun formal training to control it.
Their instructor was the squinting priest, the same one who had come to the orphanage to exorcise Jimmy’s evil spirit, and who continued to visit to check on their silver bracelets.
That squinting priest.
The priest, seeing this as a chance to earn some favor, readily agreed to teach them.
Under his guidance, the two learned how to handle their divine power, and within less than a year, they reached the level where they could skillfully conceal it.
Sonia didn’t mind the priest, who continued to stay connected with them even after the training.
“At first, I thought he was a bad person because of his appearance, but it turns out he’s a good guy,” she commented.
Amon responded with a smile.
At a glance, it seemed to signify agreement.
But inside, he was thinking otherwise.
‘Of course, anyone would be kind while they’re trying to win you over.’
In this world, appearances and even actions couldn’t be trusted.
The only thing you could truly rely on was yourself.
Just because the priest was kind to them now didn’t mean he was a good person.
He was simply a good person to them in this situation.
Ah, as for Sonia, she was always trustworthy, so she was an exception to this rule.
‘Although he does seem like a rather complicated adult.’
Amon had seen the mark of the Vatican’s Inquisition on the priest, so he was sure the man wasn’t entirely clean.
However, since the priest showed kindness to everyone he met, he couldn’t simply label him as a villain or a hypocrite either.
Unable to define such a complex person in one word, Amon just responded to Sonia’s evaluation with a smile.
***
As they continued walking toward the orphanage where the priest awaited them, Sonia brought up a new topic.
“So, where are we going to go?”
“Hmm…”
Though her sentence was incomplete and vague, Amon understood her intent.
She was asking where they would go after graduation.
Ever since a year before their graduation, as if it were an open secret that they possessed divine power, they had been receiving offers from various groups.
The government was one of the candidates, but given the way civil servants worked, the harder they worked and the more honest they were, the harder their lives became, so they had ruled that out.
After filtering through many candidates, they had narrowed their options down to two: a corporation or the Vatican.
With a corporation, the money was guaranteed.
The more effort they put into their work, the more they were rewarded, making it very motivating.
They even promised to support the orphanage.
However, much like the government, if they couldn’t turn a blind eye to corruption, it would be a miserable place to work—possibly even worse than the government.
On the other hand, the Vatican offered less money but more stability.
Despite the decline in religious influence in this world, the Vatican remained a powerful organization, largely because of the unusual number of divine power wielders it had produced and gathered over the years.
To give you an idea of how powerful they were, even if they weren’t on par with the top-tier megacorps, they could still hold their own against the lower-tier ones.
And despite its flaws, a religious organization like the Vatican wasn’t easily swayed by corporations, and corruption wasn’t the worst it could be.
In fact, if one wished, they could use the church’s teachings to wipe out corruption right in front of them.
The problem was the lower income, but for Amon and Sonia, who weren’t particularly greedy, it was a perfect fit.
However, there was one reason Sonia couldn’t easily choose the Vatican.
“What does serving the Mother have to do with marriage?”
It was the issue of marriage.
According to the Vatican’s doctrine, its clergy were forbidden to marry.
When Sonia first heard this, she was baffled by how absurd it sounded.
Amon, too, had tilted his head in disbelief when he heard it, muttering, ‘That can’t be right…’
But there was no changing a tradition that had lasted for over a thousand years.
When Amon heard about the doctrine, he scoffed.
“In a place with the highest concentration of orphanages in the world, no less.”
Ironically, the Vatican was the region with the highest percentage of orphans in the world.
There was a running joke in the city that if a devout nun started gaining weight, she’d disappear the next day, only to reappear about eight months later.
As a result, there were more orphans in the Vatican than children with parents, and the adoption rate was suspiciously high.
The priests would claim that adopting children was an act of faith, but Amon couldn’t help but sneer at them.
***
Returning to the topic, the reason Amon and Sonia were hesitant about the Vatican was this doctrine.
Amon was repelled by its hypocritical rules, and Sonia disliked them for her own reasons.
Yet, the downsides of the other two options were also significant, making it difficult to remove the Vatican from consideration.
For months now, the two of them had been unable to make a decision between the three choices.
“If nothing else works out, we could always go freelance as a duo of mercenaries.”
Sonia suggested, and Amon nodded.
Though they were considering mercenary work as a last resort, it was truly the final option.
As confident as Amon was in his talent and future, the idea of becoming a mercenary felt far too unstable.
Being a mercenary was dangerous, uncertain, and grueling work.
Still, it wasn’t a path they couldn’t take.
“A duo where I take the front and you take the back… that sounds pretty strong.”
Just imagining such a future brought a smile to Amon’s face.
[Mainly in the gamer sense.]
Seeing Amon’s satisfied grin, Sonia mirrored his bright smile.
At some point, the two of them began to envision mercenary life as an escape and painted a future around it.
“We’d probably get scammed a few times as rookies, huh?”
“We should be more worried about getting scammed out of our room first.”
“What should we do about the room? Should we get two separate rooms, or just one with separate beds?”
“The latter.”
“Living together?”
“Any problems with that?”
“Of course not.”
Even though they hadn’t decided on the mercenary life yet, the thought of facing any hardship together with a childhood friend made them feel like they could overcome anything.
And so, the two of them continued to paint a hopeful future together, their happy imaginings lasting until someone stepped in their way.
“…Jimmy?”
Jimmy, who had graduated years ago, suddenly appeared before them.
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