Chapter 402: Hellfire (End)

“This is the sun? It’s really warm.”

A hazy shadow appeared. The little girl in a filthy dress looked up at that blazing sun, happiness on her face.

She turned, curiously looking at the girl beside her, and asked:

“Don’t you think so?”

“I...”

Liya finally snapped out of her daze. She looked at the sun, then at the golden-haired man standing there alone. Her small face was full of helpless confusion.

“An Evil God’s Divine Favor? Muen? Why? I...”

Too many unexpected things had happened. Liya fell into bewilderment and chaos, to the point she didn’t even notice when the little girl at her side had appeared.

“Huh? He looks like he’s in a lot of pain.”

Rabbit seemed to notice something and murmured it as if to herself.

“Pain?”

Liya rose to her feet, her delicate body trembling.

She saw the golden-haired man standing in the sun’s shadow suddenly stagger, clutch his head in agony, and drop to one knee.

Veils of pitch-black mist—who knew whence they came—surged up like the mud sea that had drowned the suffering multitudes, swallowing him bit by bit.

“That’s... resentment?”

Liya’s heart thudded hard. The blood surging back to it left her limbs a little cold.

She recognized the source of that black mist.

It was the hatred generated by a million people in pain and despair, catalyzed by a certain power.

In other words, it was sin itself.

It was what a Saintess—who ought to stand in endless light—must never be tainted by.

It could drag one who stood in light down from on high and cast them into the abyss forever.

“Aren’t you going to do something?” Rabbit suddenly asked.

“I...”

Liya gripped the cold, dazzling crystal tight. She nodded in confusion, then shook her head, biting her lip.

“I don’t know what to do.”

What should she do?

Go forward as a Saintess candidate and flatten that man colluding with an Evil God with a single punch, stopping this inhuman massacre, so that all sin would be undone?

Or turn, as the Saintess whom her Knight served, and walk the bright avenue he had paved for her, ascend to the position she had always dreamed of—while letting her own Knight, on the road behind her, be spattered with blood?

Or...

The golden-haired figure was reflected in Liya’s eyes. With every spasm of his pain, she felt her own heart clutch in response.

Like being lost in a maze, unable to find the way.

“Will he die?” Rabbit asked.

“No. Definitely not.”

Liya spoke softly. “I believe in Muen. He’s stronger than anyone. My Knight would never fall in a place like this.”

“So you plan to do nothing?”

Rabbit cocked her head again.

“No... it’s not that I’ll do nothing, it’s just that Muen—Muen said...”

“What does he have to do with it?”

Rabbit looked at Liya in puzzlement. “Isn’t this your choice?”

“...”

Liya choked back words. Her lips, already drained of color, moved pale and faint.

Yes. This was a choice—her choice—and had nothing to do with anyone else.

“But... this choice—how am I supposed to make it?”

Liya felt a bit cold, so she hunched and hugged her own shoulders.

For a moment, it was as if she had gone back ten years—to that equally cold evening when she had just set foot on this path.

Back then, faced with the first major choice of her life, how had she answered?

Waves of memory rose. Liya saw her tiny self sitting before the campfire again, wiping at her tears over and over.

“I—I’m sorry, Lady Saintess.”

The little girl hiccuped as she cried. “I... in the end, I still didn’t have the courage to make up my mind.”

So... back then, I didn’t have the courage to choose?

Liya gave a self-mocking smile.

She ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) had thought that, after all she’d experienced lately, with Muen’s help, she had grown.

But in the end, at the critical moment, nothing had changed at all.

“No, Liya—you did very well.”

In the instant Liya drifted, the Saintess-teacher in her memory gently patted little Liya’s head.

“Haven’t you already made a choice?”

“Made one? But I...”

“Giggling, are you sure that’s what you think? Doesn’t little Liya know that your so-called abstention means that man’s punishment will proceed according to Church rules? And little Liya, who has thoroughly studied the canon, surely knows what the result will be under Church rules, no?”

“...”

The watching Liya blinked, then suddenly understood.

How could she have forgotten—there is no such option as ‘give up’ in reality.

Giving up is, in fact, leaning toward one of the options.

“Looks like little Liya even has a hidden black-bellied attribute,” the Saintess said with a soft laugh.

“Then am I... a little unworthy of my status?”

Little Liya suddenly lifted her head, eyes red. “As the future Saintess, isn’t this kind of behavior—”

“No.”

The Saintess replied, “The purpose of this lesson isn’t to teach you how to be a Saintess.”

“Eh? Then what is it?”

“What I want to teach you is how to be a good person.”

“How... to be a good person?”

Little Liya tilted her head in distress. Her small head seemed unable yet to grasp something so complex.

“Yes, little Liya.”

The Saintess spoke seriously. “To be a good person does not mean saving everyone. It means... saving the ones you want to save. As for those you don’t want to save—let them die.”

“B—but isn’t that contrary to the Saintess’s precepts?”

Little Liya faltered. Her brows drew together, as if her worldview had just taken a heavy blow. “A Saintess must be selfless, must be devoted. But this... this is selfish.”

“That is selfish.”

The Saintess rubbed Liya’s little head hard and sighed lightly.

“You always think too much. The higher you stand, the easier it is for certain things to blind you.”

“So at times like this, you must discard those complicated things—status, gains and losses, all the rules of this world.”

“You must make your choice as Liya, and only Liya. For a kind person, selfishness is not necessarily a bad thing.”

The Saintess suddenly bent down and asked earnestly:

“Answer me, little Liya—will you always be kind?”

“Of course!”

Little Liya’s brows arched high; her answer did not hesitate:

“I will always be that kind Liya!”

For ten years, day after day.

Every effort of Liya Angel was not a longing for the Saintess’s authority or the admiration of others.

It came... from her most simple kindness.

She wanted to save more people. That had never changed.

“Then...”

The Saintess’s lips curved.

Suddenly, the world shifted.

All the lingering shreds of memory vanished; reality returned.

Only the Saintess’s image seemed to linger before her eyes.

But the Saintess now was no longer the Saintess.

She slowly lifted her head, revealing a face... exactly the same as Liya’s.

Liya looked at Liya, and smiled:

“Then whatever the kindest Liya in this world wants to save at all costs—that must be the most precious treasure in this world, mustn’t it?”

...

The sun continued to burn the sinners’ souls.

Seeing Liya suddenly fall silent and dazed, Rabbit poked here and there with the pickaxe in her hands, scratched the ground, then scratched her head in agitation.

At last, she stomped her foot and said it:

“He said... he likes you!”

In the sudden, brief silence, Liya finally moved.

She turned her head slowly, then nodded hard, tears streaming down her face.

“Mm. Me too.”

...

...

“Black Book, save me!!!”

Upon learning the miserable outcome of being corroded by that resentment, Muen immediately pulled out his ultimate trump card.

“Black-la A-mon, you must have a way, right?!”

【......】

【Sorry. I can help—but only a little.】

“Help a little?”

Muen froze. “What does ‘a little’ mean?”

【I can fix your soul in place so that when you turn into a monster... you can barely keep a human shape.】

“What good is barely human-shaped!?”

Muen exploded. “That’s still a monster! A humanoid monster only makes it easier for the Church to tie me to a stake when they catch me, right?!”

【It is, after all, the resentment of a million lives, plus the seed left by the Evil God. Right now, you can basically only rely on your will to pull through.】

【However, perhaps...】

“Perhaps?”

The Black Book showed nothing more. It gave a faint shake and slipped back into the depths of Muen’s consciousness.

“Damn it!”

Muen was alarmed. “How are you this unreliable too?”

But he had no time to wonder whether the Black Book had been infected by that old loli’s habits, because the ultimate pain had already arrived.

An icy breath burrowed into his body, like standing in a nest of serpents.

Noisy whispers echoed at his ears, like a summons from hell.

Black mist surged. Muen felt as if the flesh beneath his skin had come alive; his meat began to writhe on its own.

This was the mutation brought by pollution. Before long, he saw a pitch-black eye split open on the back of his hand.

“Damn it!!”

Muen gritted his teeth and tore the eye off—flesh and all.

“I’m not becoming a monster—not even a humanoid one!!”

His own eyes had gone blood-red. He was relying on his will to resist the erosion.

But this was, after all, a million people’s resentment. Even if Elizabeth could help block part of it, even if the coolness radiating from the Black Book kept his mind markedly clear—

Muen still felt himself teetering. If not for the way his spirit and will had been tempered day and night within the Black Book until they were tough as iron, he would already have been ground to dregs and wholly transformed into a twisted monster.

Darkness still shrouded him. He could only bear it all in solitude. Though he himself had lit this sun, he could not share even a scrap of its warmth.

At this moment, Muen was like a man walking the brink of an abyss—step by step—sliding deeper... and deeper...

Until—

“Muen.”

Suddenly, a beam of light tore the abyssal darkness.

He heard a familiar voice.

And... a familiar warmth.

Even the cold and pain seemed to lessen. The pressure dropped at once.

The muddied crimson in Muen’s eyes slowly found clarity again. He lowered his head—and saw the girl thrown into his arms.

“Liya, you—”

Muen froze, then snapped in anger:

“Y-you—how are you here? Go! Go! Do you know what you’re doing?!”

“Mm. Of course I do.”

Liya nodded lightly. The crystal in her palm floated up. The dazzling crystal was now stained with filth.

“I’m here... to save you,” she said softly.

“Save? Do you even know what you’re saying?”

Muen gathered what little strength he had left and seized Liya by the shoulders.

“You were about to realize your wish—to become the Saintess. Why would you do this—I don’t need your salvation!”

“But...”

Gazing at that face now engraved into the deepest part of her soul, Liya said:

“I’ve already found my most precious thing. Protecting your precious things—that’s what you’ve always done too, right, Muen?”

“But you—”

“I know. I’ll be stained by this sin too.”

Liya hugged Muen even tighter and spoke without a trace of doubt:

“But I came to bear it with you. The Holy Light in me is spent; this is all I can do.”

“And...”

Liya pointed with her hand. “I didn’t come alone, you know.”

Muen lifted his head in realization and found that, at some unknown point, insubstantial silhouettes had gathered around him.

They were remnants of souls—those whom Muen and Liya had saved from endless suffering.

“Hey.”

The little girl in the filthy dress tilted her head and grinned.

“You were right. The sun really is very, very warm.”

“Rabbit...”

“Don’t be sad. This isn’t the time for that.”

Rabbit rose on tiptoe and patted Muen’s shoulder.

“For you, even I, a straight-shooter, twisted myself in circles for a long time. Go get ’em.”

Rabbit stepped forward, brushing past Muen.

More soul-remnants brushed past him.

In that instant, Muen heard their words.

“Thank you.”

“You... are not a sinner.”

The darkness split. Beams of light descended.

The brightest of them shone upon the man and woman in their embrace.

Muen watched those remnants smile and fade one by one. At last he drew a deep breath, turned, and bent toward that familiar, lovely face.

Under the bright sunlight, he could clearly see the feeling contained in those beautiful eyes.

After a moment of silence, Muen spoke, his voice hoarse:

“I... am a scumbag.”

“Mm.”

Liya burst into a laugh. “I knew that from the start.”

“I’m not a good person either.”

“Mm. You’re a bad egg.”

“I’m connected to an Evil God—you saw it, didn’t you? Those flames came from the Withering King.”

“Mm. I know.”

“I’m killing a million people.”

“Mm. I see it.”

“I’m not worth saving.”

“Mm. To others, maybe so.”

Liya stroked Muen’s face.

“But even if the entire world thinks you’re not worth saving—I will come to save you.”

“Because I am your Saintess—yours alone, one of a kind.”

“Just as you are my Knight.”

Liya threw her arms around Muen’s neck, rose on tiptoe, and pressed her fragrant lips to his.

“I like you, Muen.”

.........

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【Progress: 100%】

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End of volume.