Dusk (BL Light Novel)

Question marks started popping up here and there in the chat window. Just like me, there were quite a few people who couldn’t keep up with the conclusion that had seemingly come out of nowhere. But Retaking didn’t seem particularly bothered by their reactions and continued his explanation without pause.
— “So, what would happen if Abrea, a Holy ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) Guardian, crossed over to the Aitetas faction? Well, first of all, he would no longer be a Holy Guardian. Just like Priests, Holy Guardians fight by borrowing power from the gods. If he no longer believes in a god, he can’t use divine power to cast skills, right?”
Well, that made sense. I nodded slightly to myself. Dusk wasn’t the kind of game that would arbitrarily divide its mana system into "divine power" and "mental power" unless it was for lore reasons. If someone was no longer a believer, it wouldn’t make sense for them to continue using god-given power.

— “And in this situation, where it’s highly likely that Abrea will stop believing in the gods and even abandon the title of Holy Guardian—this little one showed up only in the Holy Guardian’s hidden story.”
Retaking pointed his cursor at the glowing figure that had flown around in front of the giant glass gate when Jopsal arrived.
— “From now on, let’s call this one an angel, just for convenience. I’m going to talk a bit about angels now.”

Jopsal had become an angel.
— “I mentioned earlier, as the first hypothesis, that a new race might be added. But the more I think about it, the more I realize this angel is too small to be a new playable race. And they’re humanoid, like the gods or the Shin-Ah Tribe. Ah, I’m sure there are plenty of people here who haven’t seen the official concept art of the gods, so let me show you.”
With practiced ease, Retaking pulled up the Dusk homepage and brought up the concept art of the gods on the stream.

Roughly sketched, the Twelve out of Thirteen Gods each had their own appearance and aura, but all of them shared a human form with butterfly or moth wings like the Shin-Ah Tribe. Gods one through six, the patron deities of the Jeopa race, were based on butterflies. Gods seven through twelve, who represented the Bia, were based on moths. The contrast was obvious.
The customizable Bia characters had to look good so more players would choose them, meaning they were a compromise—not based directly on moths, but blending in the beauty of butterflies. That’s why, just by looking at their wings, it was often hard to tell if they were meant to be butterflies or moths. But the gods, who only appeared in stories and didn’t need to satisfy player aesthetics, had wings that clearly resembled real moths.
— “There’s no official art for the so-called ‘Zeroth God’ of ‘Contract’ no matter how hard I search, but… anyway, aside from the gods, the only humanoid race in Dusk’s lore is the Shin-Ah Tribe. The Eunsuh Tribe, for instance, is an animal-type race. The biggest distinction between these two races is whether or not they have a direct connection to the gods.

So, going by what we’ve just discussed—this angel, which is neither animal nor insect-type but completely humanoid, is likely a race close to the divine. In other words, a race with godlike powers. At the very least, they’d have a direct or indirect connection to the gods, like the Shin-Ah Tribe.”
While I was listening, I started wondering: what if this angel was just another version of the Shin-Ah Tribe created by the gods? At that exact moment, someone in chat asked a similar question, and Retaking, reading it aloud in a mumble, spun his mug slowly in his hands.
— “I don’t think so. If it were a second Shin-Ah Tribe created by the gods, it’d be way too sudden. Like your parents suddenly showing up one day, belly completely flat up until now, and saying ‘Here’s your new sibling!’ Wouldn’t that be confusing? We’ve had no foreshadowing at all of a new race being introduced.”

He had a point. If your mom showed up one day with a new baby after being completely slim the day before, you’d be shocked. I mean, you’d probably just assume the kid was adopted or something, but still.
— “But what if this angel is a living witness—a testament that ‘the god is not absolute’—and came specifically to seek out Abrea?”
If Abrea ends up denying the absolute nature of the god, then he would turn away from his faith. Especially if it’s Abrea. No one else would turn so easily, but he was a character who, due to past trauma, was the only Bia priest known to question the divine—and sometimes even seemed to hate the god more than Aitetas. Just as Retaking suggested, it was entirely possible Abrea might desert or be excommunicated and join the anti-divine faction.

That thought made me let out a quiet oh. Watching the story unfold, I’d only wondered whether that glowing blob might be a monster we’d fight in a dungeon. Meanwhile, Retaking had considered all of this.
— “So if Abrea ends up leaving Witeraheat, that opens the door for a new class to be added—one that branches off from Holy Guardian. Or maybe they’ll create an entirely new faction, and the game will become a three-way power struggle.
Either way, we’re due for a new class sometime soon, right? Like a swordsman class that doesn’t rely on divine power, or maybe this angel grants them power in place of the god, creating something like a magic swordsman class.”
Or, he added, it might just turn out I’m wrong and Abrea becomes a Warrior of Aitetas instead of leading to a new class.

With that final note, Retaking launched the game, now that the patch had long since finished. His seminar titled “Predicting the Direction of Dusk’s Upcoming Major Update via the Latest Hidden Story” seemed to be wrapping up.
I’d been so focused on Retaking’s stream that I hadn’t noticed my game had finished patching too. I finally clicked into the login screen and selected my Honeybread character. From the time, it looked like ten minutes had passed since the patch ended.
I planned to complete the new quest and enter the dungeon right away, so I muted the stream where Retaking was casually chatting and answering viewer questions. If I missed anything important, I could always rewatch the VOD later.

[Guild] Guild Master Honeybread has logged in.
[Guild] Ceylontea: o/
[Guild] Ceylontea: wow, late much?
[Guild] soloist: hiiii~!~!
[Guild] Honeybread: o/
[Guild] Honeybread: hey solo, long time
Solo had logged on—he’d said he was busy with concert prep lately.
Solo was a cellist in his university’s orchestra, so whenever concert season rolled around, he barely had time to log in. I usually got updates about how he was doing through Moon Seonhwa. Despite his busy schedule, whenever he did have time, he ranked top 1 or 2 on the Priest leaderboard.

[Guild] Ceylontea: I was gonna do the new dungeon with you,
[Guild] Ceylontea: but then I saw Solo log in and changed my mind lol
[Guild] Honeybread: lol who said I wanted to go with you?
Clearly trying to rile me up, so I brushed him off. If they’re going together, they should just do it quietly.
I opened the main quest tab and teleported to Ateliena Wisha Outpost, where Abrea was waiting. After watching the familiar loading screen, I arrived at the outpost just as a new string of guild chat appeared.

[Guild] soloist: lol
[Guild] soloist: LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
[Guild] Ceylontea: lol
[Guild] Ceylontea: who are you going with then?
[Guild] Honeybread: randmatch (*random matching)
[Guild] Ceylontea: sigh, friendless loser
[Guild] Honeybread: you don’t know about the classic “first-run = random match” rule?
[Guild] Ceylontea: I don’t—'cause I have TONS of friends ><
[Guild] Honeybread: k
[Guild] Ceylontea: k
I was planning on running it with randoms anyway, but now I was annoyed. I’ve got plenty of people in my friends list, you know. Grumbling inwardly, I opened the list—…most were students or office workers, so not many were online at this hour, but still. A full list is a full list.
Trying to forget what Seonhwa had said, I hit the record button to start capturing footage. Retaking had asked me for it yesterday.

Even though I would’ve said yes just from the request alone, Retaking had apparently assumed I’d want something in return, and had spammed me with hearts and pleading emojis before I could even answer. I don’t know what kind of person he thinks I am, but… it was kind of healing, honestly.
Once I confirmed the recording was working fine, I made my way toward the central fountain where Abrea was waiting. For once, he was wearing a scruffy-looking robe pulled all the way over his head—and the moment I approached, he immediately spoke to me as if he’d been waiting.