Today, I left the Fleur domain early in the morning and visited the Ariel Temple in the Randel Kingdom with Her Highness the Princess.

It was quite a long journey, so I barely ate and went straight to bed after washing up, exhausted. However, breaking the rule that everything that breathes during the day should close its eyes when night comes, I kept tossing and turning.

‘Now I remember why I’m here.’

That’s because at the temple, I happened to see the priests carrying out a statue on a cart, and I felt as if an invisible glass curtain inside me was breaking, with countless memories and information pouring into my mind.

And those memories and information were from the distant past, which was my previous life, my first life.

It was from the time when there were still only 12 representatives of God.

* * *

“Father… Why do you not answer me?”

On a night when dawn was burning a deep blue.

I wept, prostrate on the cold floor, watching as all the feathers fell out of one of my wings and disappeared.

“Not once have I ever doubted you, Father.”

I believed that if I devoted my heart, you would answer, but there was no response.

“I always thought that what you did was right.”

Only emptiness made the emotions I was feeling now more palpable.

It was so devastating that it felt as if a balloon with sharp thorns was expanding somewhere inside my body, pricking my entire body with its pointed ends.

“But now, I don’t understand anything.”

I muttered, painfully parting my lips.

In the silence, I slowly raised my body from its prostrate position and looked up at the dim sky. A few strands of my long, disheveled hair covered my face. The cold sensation touching my knees only intensified God’s indifference in ignoring my plea.

“That you do not answer me, that you have destroyed paradise…”

For some reason, it made me choke up with sorrow and indignation rose within me.

“I cannot understand any of it! You loved paradise more than anyone!”

At last, a tear streamed down from my empty eyes.

“If you were going to abandon paradise so easily, you should never have created it in the first place!”

It was something I shouldn’t have done. If another angel had seen it, they would have fainted at the audacity.

But I roared like a fierce beast I had once seen, shouting and pounding the ground several times with my clenched fists. Although I couldn’t bring myself to think of defeating God, I raised a banner of rebellion because I hated Him so much.

Who would have thought that I, who had been taught from birth to absolutely obey God and believed it to be the natural order, would end up like this?

“We are not your disposable items, Father.”

Soon, I hung my head low, drained.

Deviating from something I had believed in so firmly, turning my back on it, was terribly frightening.

Because it instantly took over my body and mind, making me desolate and twisting my insides.

“I have never abandoned you.”

But suddenly, as a voice resonated from the sky and the air vibrated, the surrounding environment changed in an instant.

“My beloved son.”

A large ripple of blue light and white lines of stardust flowed through the area, and what had been the ground until just moments ago became Father’s enormous hand.

I was somehow on the palm of the Creator’s hand.

“When the time comes, you will understand my will.”

“Once again, Father, you tell me the same thing.”

For a brief moment, I had hoped when He didn’t turn away and showed His face, but it quickly led to disappointment. Even if Father’s words were not wrong, they were not enough to bring me back when my heart had already turned away.

“I am tired of waiting without promise.”

And once again, all sorts of negative emotions that an angel should never harbor towards God boiled like lava in my mind. Resentment, hatred, dislike – all things that would have a bad influence on an angel and eat away at oneself, causing loss of strength.

“So…”

After a moment, I stood up, grasping the discarded spear, my face still a mess. Staggering and barely able to walk straight, I continued with difficulty.

“From now on, I will act on what I believe.”

God would not respond anyway. No matter how much I jumped up and down, Father would never give a different answer.

“I respect your choice.”

I inwardly sneered at Father. It all seemed like hypocrisy, speaking as if bestowing mercy and understanding.

At this, more emotion was put into the hand holding the spear, and the sound of the spear tip scratching echoed in my ears. With each step I took, more feathers fell.

It was as if it was telling me that I would soon meet a miserable end.

‘Then farewell, Father.’

My wings are almost gone. I can feel my back becoming lighter, not heavier. Along with this, I felt the strength gradually leaving my body. At the edge of my vision, I could see the dim sky beyond Father’s palm.

Thud-.

So when the last feather fell out and my wings disappeared without a trace, I felt my vision distort.

Then I dropped.

‘I will recreate paradise.’

I don’t know where the spear I lost while falling went. I looked at my empty hands and then slowly closed my eyelids. My long hair that had reached below my waist gradually shortened, and I felt cold air on the nape of my neck.

‘Even if it’s impossible.’

I probably will never be able to set foot on God’s land again, according to the unwritten law.

The doors of the sanctuary never open to the fallen, and because I was reborn as a fallen being, no longer an angel, by abandoning my faith.

Having lost my wings like that, I could never ascend to the sky again.

Along with this, my yellow eyes that had a green tinge became dull and took on an intense red color.

Afterwards, as my consciousness gradually blurred, I felt hope rather than sadness. Thinking about how to cultivate the future that would come after this death, strangely, my heart felt lighter than before, and in the last moment, I closed my eyes peacefully.

* * *

In the distant past.

When my faith in Father was still intact, I arrived at the sanctuary beyond the sky as usual, having been summoned.

“Father, did you call for me?”

“Yes.”

I carefully folded my wings and knelt on one knee, bowing my head with reverence, and Father told me to stand up again.

“You need to go to paradise on my behalf.”

“You mean where you planted the World Tree, Father?”

I tilted my head slightly.

“Yes. I recently made a friend for the World Tree.”

Was it my imagination that His tone became a bit gentler? Father summoned a small box from His bosom with a slightly excited voice.

“Go and deliver this to that child. I forgot while creating the world that child wanted.”

A splendid box floating above Father’s enormous hand.

“Tell them that what’s contained in that box will remain unchanged for eternity, so handle it with care.”

“Yes.”

I reverently received the box that naturally floated towards me, looking at Father who had His hands behind His back.

‘I should deliver this quickly and go eat corn.’

I moved right away after that. Paradise was not far from the sanctuary, so I arrived soon, and I flew around the skies of paradise once, searching for the one Father mentioned.

‘There they are.’

Then I spotted a human with purple hair playing with a young dragon in a field mixed with white and yellow flowers.

“Fetch!”

“Kyut!”

Since they were playing near the World Tree, I was certain without needing to confirm. As soon as I was sure this woman was the primordial human, I immediately changed direction and descended.

Whoosh-.

“Greetings, Paradise.”

However, it would be too much to continue calling the World Tree’s friend, who didn’t even have an exact name, the primordial human. So, thinking that this woman who gave the most noble and beautiful impression was no different from this paradise itself, I called her ‘Paradise’.

“Oh? What brings a representative of God here? Did God send you to nag again?”

“Ah, no, that’s not it.”

I wondered if she had met other angels before me, as the human with purple hair didn’t find me unfamiliar.

“Father has something He wants me to deliver to you.”

Why is she sighing? I was puzzled inside, but outwardly I smiled.

And for the first time, I looked closely into the eyes of the human who was said to be the World Tree’s friend.

Perhaps because of my tendency to be more honest with emotions and have stronger curiosity compared to other angels, or maybe because I felt drawn in the moment our faces met, I kept looking, feeling as if I was being sucked into those mysterious purple eyes.

“Kyuut, kyuuuu!”

“I’m in the middle of a conversation right now. I’ll play with you more later.”

What snapped me back to reality was the baby dragon that suddenly started crying while jumping up and down.

“This child must be the dragon you tamed recently.”

“Yes. I treated its injuries, and now it’s staying here.”

I smiled gently, having been taught to treat young creatures warmly. Soon, I tried to pet it as a sign of friendliness, but perhaps scared of my hand coming close, it bit my finger hard not long after.

“Oh my! You shouldn’t bite!”

The beautiful woman like Paradise said “Jiji-ya, Jiji” to the young dragon, taken aback. Seeing her at a loss what to do as she saw the small arc of blood, she might have been a bit dumbfounded.

“I’m fine.”

“But the blood is flowing freely? Follow me, I’ll treat it.”

The startled primordial human first scolded the baby dragon. I thought it was my fault and said it was okay, but Paradise insisted on healing the wound and took me to her dwelling.

It would heal naturally over time anyway, but seeing that she didn’t know this characteristic, it seemed the primordial human had only received gifts from angels without building separate friendships.

“Wounds from dragon bites don’t heal with ordinary ointments. But with the stardust God made for me, it’s no problem.”

The baby dragon, sulking after being scolded, landed on a large cushion after circling in the air, and I marveled at seeing the powder Paradise sprinkled on the wound area emit light.

“Indeed, the effect is immediate.”

“That’s right. More importantly, where’s the item you said you’d give me?”

I was amazed looking at my healed finger, then suddenly remembered Father’s request and quickly took out the gift.

“Here it is. Please accept it.”

I didn’t forget to convey the precautions afterward.

“Father said that what’s contained in this box will remain unchanged for eternity, so handle it with care.”

“It’s a special box, isn’t it?”

The World Tree’s friend was very pleased and placed the box on her palm, examining it from various angles.

“By the way, aren’t you leaving?”

Eventually, heading towards the sofa, she sat down crossing her legs and played with the baby dragon that flew to her, then looked up at me with an expression that seemed to say, your job is done, so why are you still in my house?

“I, I was just about to leave.”

At that moment, feeling embarrassed for the first time, I hurriedly went outside, leaving behind words of thanks for treating me.

After that, as the twelfth representative, I visited Paradise several more times on Father’s behalf.

“Father told me to bring this to you.”

“Oh, I see.”

In the process, we became acquainted, and unexpectedly, I learned how to befriend the young dragon as well.

Moreover, while mingling with the human of Paradise and the dragon, I realized that I had an outstanding talent for cooking. It was just out of boredom, and what I did by chance to endure the tedium led to unexpected results.

In any case, I found it not bad at all and became interested, so I displayed my excellent housekeeping skills every time I visited Paradise.

There was nothing more refreshing than seeing the sparkling marble.

“The corn you eat after working like an ox is really the best.”

On days when I got tired of cooking and cleaning, I went out to the fields to harvest crops. It was also quite fun to eat boiled corn while hiding among the reeds.

Doing various activities like this while fulfilling the mission given by Father always left me tired.

But I had no complaints because the change in my monotonous daily life was quite nice.

Sometimes when Paradise treated me as an excellent domestic helper rather than the twelfth representative, it felt strange, but even that soon sank to the bottom of the sea with the thought of ‘what does it matter?’

“Demons have invaded Paradise!”

However, one day, when I visited Paradise after a long absence due to other missions.

I immediately ran over when I saw the World Tree’s friend surrounded by demons wearing black robes with small wings at the usual meeting place.

Swish-.

At this moment, thinking that something terrible had happened to the being Father cherished, I felt like my heart was dropping.

“Why are demons here?”

When I asked urgently, Paradise was at a loss. I looked ahead again and thought.

‘Even if Paradise is at the midpoint between heaven and underground, these guys shouldn’t have been able to invade so easily.’

The demons who had been quiet for a while were climbing up again, so I wondered if someone had found a weak point in the boundary and opened the door.

“If you don’t want your horns cut off, it would be best to leave quietly.”

After first checking if the World Tree’s friend was injured anywhere, I threatened the demons by extending my sharp spear towards them.

“Hey, wait! Are you going to fight them?”

“Yes, is there a problem?”

Meanwhile, the primordial human looked at me strangely as I was about to face off alone against three or four demons, and broke out in a cold sweat.

“They just came because they want to be friends with me. They’re guests I invited!”