Chapter 05 …
Layers of loose white muslin draped and pooled around him. Wrapped in a robe of pure, radiant white, a young man lay slouched with his chin propped at an angle. He opened his mouth stupidly, then closed it again. His face wore the expression of someone who had just heard something utterly absurd. Staring blankly at the angel, he tapped his ear as if wondering whether he had misheard, then blinked innocently, as though asking her to say it once more.
The angel’s expression did not waver in the slightest.
“No.”
Unable to help himself, he spoke first, his tone sulky.
“It’s not my fault the seal came undone again, is it…? Every time I said I’d go down there, you told me to just watch and wait. Now you say this—how am I supposed to deal with that?”
“If an ordinary human could release it simply by opening it, then how shoddily was it sealed in the first place….”
“I clearly stamped it with a proper sigil and sealed it.”
“Then why do you try so hard to evade your duty?”
“It isn’t my duty. This is the result of humans’ futile desires. It’s only right that they resolve it themselves.”
With a thoroughly fed-up tone, the young man snapped back, pressed his lips to his palm, and let out a soft puff of a sigh. He clearly wanted to hear no more, but the elegant archangel Gabriel paid him no heed. Without mercy, she kicked away the chair Solomon had been sitting on.
With a sharp cry, Solomon tumbled over, only managing to stagger back to his feet some time later. He glared at Gabriel as if to ask whether she had gone too far, but she did not even blink. Waving a hand through the air, Solomon righted the chair and flopped back down onto it.
“Please think about it, Gabriel. You didn’t bring me to the heavens just to make me do something like that, did you? If that had been the case, you’d have sent me long ago.”
“It’s not even worth considering. Go down at once.”
“Well, I sealed it properly, sigil and all, and just to be safe, I even sank it in a Babylonian pond. And whoever pulled it out—why on earth would they open something with someone else’s seal engraved on it?”
“So you admit you sealed it in a way an ordinary human could open? Go down.”
“Of course.”
Solomon once again rested his chin in his hand, curt and weary. A faintly tired look crossed his face as platinum-blond hair shimmered softly at his fingertips, sunlight scattering through it.
“The authority I was granted was to seal away evil and guide good—not to oppress ordinary humans. Making mistakes, thinking wrongly, heading down the wrong path… I’ve already had more than enough of that in my lifetime.”
This time his reply was flat, stripped of all playfulness. Gabriel offered no rebuttal. After gazing down at Solomon with an indifferent look, she tilted her head a beat later.
Her splendid golden hair fell in soft waves. Her waxen face, as always, was beautiful beyond anything seen on earth—and just as merciless. As she looked at Solomon, Gabriel carefully chose her words.
In truth, this was not the first time they had spoken on this subject. Long ago, Solomon himself had volunteered to resolve the problem, only for Gabriel to stop him.
But in recent times, Gabriel had begun once more to demand that Solomon—long dead—descend to the mortal realm and play the role of a troubleshooter. Solomon, who had long since withdrawn from earthly affairs, insisted it was beyond him.
Indeed, for one already dead to descend into the world of the living was not something accomplished by intent alone. As Solomon said, it was also something humanity ought to purify on its own. Yet Gabriel, as always, could not simply stand by and watch human suffering. If Solomon truly refused, she would have to find another way.
Nor could she simply leave Solomon as he was. Lately, Gabriel found herself regretting a past choice—something she had never once regretted before.
“Very well, Solomon. In truth, I have already found another way.”
“What?”
Solomon asked uneasily, sensing something ominous, but Gabriel answered with her usual calm composure.
“As you say, you are already dead, and there are many problems with having you descend into the human world as the bearer of divine will. That logic is sound, and I cannot refute it.”
“That… you’re saying this in a very unsettling way.”
“And so, I selected a proxy. Your successor.”
At those words, Solomon’s face went deathly pale. With a clatter, he leapt to his feet—a rare sight in this abstract realm where clouds and sunlight drifted endlessly. He grabbed Gabriel’s hands in panic, checking them, but she held nothing.
With a bloodless face, Solomon stared into Gabriel’s clear blue eyes. He had already reached a conclusion and was nearly certain of it, yet he tried desperately to deny reality. With fervent eyes, he silently begged her to deny it.
But Gabriel, as she always had, showed no hesitation in betraying his expectations. She offered neither denial nor explanation—only continued to gaze at him in silence. Solomon was the one who finally cried out.
“Have you lost your mind? If that falls into human hands—!”
“You were human once as well. You committed sins equal to that, and as a result, your descendants suffered for generations. And yet you were summoned here and treated as an equal among angels because, in the end, you understood the Father’s will—and because you could never truly abandon Him.”
Gabriel stated this quietly, firmly.
“Humans are always placed before the right choice. The day they push their own backs into the light. You know this.”
“If you expect another human to meet the same end as me, that is a grave misjudgment. Humans are greedy creatures, ruled by trivial emotions. Do you truly not know how a human holding the Ring would be destroyed? You know what unbearable power, excessive desire, and unaccountable knowledge do to a human soul. And after watching me fall apart, you still chose this?”
“I entrusted it to one who gives no cause for such concern.”
“In this age, was there anyone comparable to me? I found none when I looked—yet you managed to find one? Don’t speak nonsense.”
Solomon spat the words out, trembling. His pale silver eyes shook violently, gleaming like polished metal. It was rare for him to show such agitation. Gabriel lowered her gaze with quiet grace.
Solomon, though a blessed descendant, loved the unfortunate more than those above him. Because of this, he often strayed from God’s will, and eventually, as a leader of humans rather than a child of God, he defied Him.
That was not inherently wrong. Solomon was, in many ways, an ideal apostle—innately kind and compassionate. But his heart was too fragile.
His ideology was never evil, yet it was often rebellious. He did more than what was asked of him—and in the end, he reached the wrong path.
He loved humans, demons, and all pitiable beings of the world. To love the pitiable is, for the exalted, a salvation that comes with suffering and pain. For Solomon, it was suffering and pain—and yet, in the end, salvation.
Watching Solomon react exactly as she had expected, Gabriel closed her eyes. She offered no further reply. In truth, she already knew how Solomon would act next.
Staring at Gabriel’s beautiful face, Solomon irritably swept up the hem of his robe. One could not descend to the mortal world wearing divine vestments. He would have to reconstitute clothing in a spiritual form. As he cast aside the layers of fabric trailing to the floor, Gabriel whispered:
“You needn’t worry so much, Solomon.”
“You’ve already thrown the Ring into human hands—how could I not worry? Even if it’s meaningless to someone who doesn’t know the holy name, the one who performs an improper summoning becomes a living sacrifice to demons…”
“It has been safely possessed by that human for over ten years.”
Solomon froze.
His hands, which had been unfastening the buttons of the thin coats he now wore, hovered uselessly in the air. Gabriel added softly:
“And I am confident that human will not make improper demands of the Ring in the future either.”
Solomon turned back to her, looking utterly stunned.
Gabriel understood his heart well. Solomon’s Ring was never meant for humans to possess. When humans gained access to the wisdom and truth of all worlds, they were typically consumed by greed, squandered their talents in twisted ways, and ultimately faced divine judgment.
Solomon himself had grown arrogant and presumptuous. He had wielded the promised authority as he pleased. Though he later regretted it deeply, even he had a history of misuse.
Solomon parted his lips, then straightened himself and faced Gabriel. She spoke gently, as if soothing him.
“A soul of iron resolve, unmoved by desire or passion—not even by the simplest wish. Exceptionally rational and composed. Well-suited for negotiation and cooperation. There may have been some flaw when the soul was assigned, but because of that, it was ideal to entrust with the Ring and observe.”
“No matter how you put it… ten years ago?”
Solomon asked hollowly. Gabriel adjusted her sleeves and replied calmly.
“At the time, the Ring’s owner was seven years old.”
“You placed such immense power on a seven-year-old child?”
“That child was special. Do not misunderstand.”
“No matter how special a human may be—”
“In case of unforeseen circumstances, I stationed a fallen angel on the ground. A well-known one, even to you. To linger nearby, isolate the child from corruption, and intervene before any serious trouble arose. Heaven is not as cruel to humans as you believe, Solomon. They too are precious seeds and descendants our Father placed beside us. I have always pitied something. And there is one more misunderstanding.”
Solomon showed little inclination to revise his harsh view of Gabriel, but she did not mind.
“It was not a boy. It was a girl.”
“A girl…”
Solomon’s expression turned strange.
“A maiden who receives God’s will? That’s rare. Then perhaps like that child, Jeanne—”
“She differs from that child, but yes. And since you do not reject women outright, try to get along with her.”
Solomon’s face twisted in dismay. He had once been plagued by over a thousand wives. Relationships without love. Children whose faces he did not know. Emotions with nowhere to go.
In his later years, that nearly led him to commit a grave sin. It would be wrong to say the root of all problems lay with Solomon alone—but things truly went awry when he took on far more than he could bear.
No one else’s fault. No—his own.
Solomon trembled. He regretted everything—from the moment of his birth, to the moment he accepted power, and everything connected to that era. He wanted, at last, to withdraw from it all.
“Why a girl? I lack confidence. Surely you don’t realize how troublesome and exhausting a child with immature convictions or misguided affection can be—”
“It will be you who is troublesome.”
Gabriel declared without hesitation.
“Do not underestimate the cool rationality I selected with such care.”
Solomon shook his head in frustration, unable to understand her, but it would not take long for the one once called a wise king to grasp the meaning of her words.
Before long, a magical tale would begin—of a girl with an unmoving heart, and seventy-two demons.
A lonely one on earth whispered into the darkness.
O lonely ones who dwell in the dark—no longer tremble in that frozen abyss.
Come to me now, and become light.
