Ch.102Did you only learn to lie after death?

# 1.

Love.

After feeling warmth for the first time in her life, the next emotion Ria felt was sadness.

“Wake up, Grandma… Hmm? Open your eyes. We were supposed to go for a walk together.”

Even as she said this, she knew.

That Grandma had already left this world and would never return.

That her current actions were born from emotional attachment rather than reason, and such lingering feelings were an unnecessary waste of time in life.

Yet she couldn’t stop herself.

-Smile, my child. Be happy for the rest of your life.

The memory of her grandmother wishing only for her happiness even on the brink of death lingered.

-I love you, my child.

The magnitude of the love she had been given was too overwhelming to bear.

“We were supposed to… go for a walk…”

Ria clutched the hand that had become like an old tree trunk from raising her, and wept.

How many days passed like that?

After collecting the bodies of her grandmother and all the villagers, Ria set fire to the entire village to give them a funeral.

Flames that seemed to devour the sky.

Under that massive inferno, the third emotion Ria felt was rage.

“…I’ll kill them.”

No matter how many,

No matter how strong.

“Everyone connected to Grandma’s… and the village’s deaths, I’ll find them all and kill them without exception.”

The village survivors who were lucky enough to live and the dozens of Inquisitors.

It was clearly an unwinnable fight, but Ria eventually found a way.

Because evil hearts are the source of power used by demons, and unfortunately—or perhaps fortunately—the evil Ria was born with was pure evil itself.

【Fate repeats itself.】

【The <God of the Vanished World> reaches out to character – <Ria??>.】

【Essence – <Evil> awakens.】

She awakened the Evil that only a few among demons could use.

And so began her revenge.

She wandered throughout the Empire gathering information, and learned that her targets were the group of Inquisitors known as <Punishment>.

‘The leader of Punishment has disappeared for some reason. Now is the perfect time to strike.’

After completing her preparations, Ria immediately went after them and began her revenge.

To state the result first: she succeeded.

“W-wait!! We are apostles of God—!!”

“So am I.”

*Slash!*

“Damn it!! There’s only one of her!! Attack all at once, you idiots!!”

“Th-the holy power is going berserk!!”

“Aaaaargh!! P-please spare me!!”

Having lost their leader, who had been their strongest force, they were nothing but a disorganized rabble, and no match for Ria who had surpassed S-rank through Evil.

And so, in just half a day.

<Punishment>, who at that time were making another village their sacrificial lamb, all lost their lives except for their missing leader.

The final emotion she felt while looking at the bodies lining the road was emptiness.

No matter how impossible a revenge she had accomplished single-handedly, her grandmother and the villagers would never return.

“……”

After completing her revenge, Ria left the village and wandered from place to place for several years.

Love,

Sadness,

Rage,

Emptiness.

When even these four emotions that had repeated daily began to fade once more.

“Huh…?”

Someone who recognized Ria from afar hurriedly ran to her and grabbed her.

“It’s you, isn’t it?”

“…?”

“From back then! You saved our village from those corrupt Inquisitors!”

Belatedly, Ria learned that the woman was a nun.

“Don’t worry. I’ll keep it a secret forever. So if you have nowhere to go, please stay for a while.”

Since she had been wandering anyway, Ria accepted her offer.

Ria had closed her heart.

Yet the young nun visited her every day, talking and chattering away.

They say that wounds of the heart caused by people can ultimately only be healed by people.

“Ria!”

“…Don’t run. You’ll get hurt.”

Ria recovered from her sadness, rage, and emptiness by directly and indirectly feeling their love.

After they had grown somewhat close, Ria asked the young nun whom she had first met:

“After nearly being killed by God’s messengers, why do you still serve God?”

“That was the fault of those who betrayed their purpose, not the Goddess’s fault.”

“But God just watched it happen.”

At Ria’s sharp words, the young nun thought for a moment before whispering softly:

“Actually, I believe in the Goddess, but I believe in myself even more.”

“What does that mean?”

“Since both good and evil were created by the Goddess, I believe I am good, not evil.”

At her innocent and bright answer, Ria hesitated with a dark expression before asking:

“Then… a human created from evil is destined to remain evil until the end?”

The emotionlessness she was born with.

A monster who couldn’t even cry for her grandmother as she died, only asking questions.

A being who awakened Evil through a contract with an unknown entity called the God of the Vanished World, and killed dozens in the name of revenge.

The young nun immediately nodded.

“That might be true.”

Though she had expected it, her heart ached.

She felt disgusted with herself, inherently evil and unable to change due to her innate nature.

But as if reading her thoughts, the young nun added, addressing Ria:

“If that’s what Ria believes.”

“…What?”

“I told you. I believe in the Goddess, but I believe in myself more. If that’s what you believe, then that’s what your world is. But… if you don’t want to believe that…”

Taking one step closer to Ria, she took both of Ria’s hands in hers and continued:

“Just believe what you want to believe. Then that will become your world.”

At the young nun’s pure, clear smile, Ria unconsciously muttered:

“Easy for you to say.”

“Yes. Words are easy. That’s why we prove it through our actions and gradually come to believe.”

Their eyes met.

Glimpsing the love she had forgotten in those eyes, Ria became a nun.

What is faith?

How many things in the world change merely by believing and praying?

Ria began to act, following the young nun’s example.

Free meals for the homeless,

Running an orphanage,

Hours of prayer each day.

Living each day through goodness rather than Evil, the faint smile of the old woman that she had forgotten for so long returned to Ria.

What Ria believed in was always herself.

Not conforming to what she was born as, but growing through realization and action.

“Thank you all for everything.”

“Sister Ria… Will you come back someday? No, will we meet again?”

“Yes. If that’s what you believe.”

“…You’ve grown stronger.”

“I’ll write. Take care.”

No longer wavering, she became a traveling nun and set out on her journey, eventually settling in a village where she established an orphanage.

She spent all her savings to build the facility and secured sponsors to establish a foundation.

She wandered the back alleys to bring in orphans, and in her somewhat clumsy way, returned the love she had received to the children.

One,

Two,

Three…

As the number of children grew, so did her confidence in her beliefs.

It was then that she heard a rumor.

-In the sewers beneath the village, they say there’s a monster that eats live rats.

A rumor that sounded somehow familiar, yet subtly different.

“Sister Ria?! Where are you suddenly going?!”

“For a walk!”

Ria immediately rushed out of the orphanage and headed for the back alleys.

She worried she might miss him if it took too long to find him, but the moment she entered, she knew.

“You crazy bastard!”

“Blasphemous wretch!”

“Call the Inquisitors!”

There he is.

“Ugh, blegh…!!”

“Get out!! Go to another village!!”

“You monster…!!”

There, where the commotion was happening, was the child she needed to meet.

As Ria strode through the crowd, several people grabbed her.

“What? A nun?”

“Shh! Get back! That boy isn’t someone a nun should take in!”

“It’s fine, please step aside everyone.”

At Ria’s unwavering attitude, those who had grabbed her asked:

“Sister, are you really going to be okay?”

“This is my faith.”

“…Damn it, do as you please then.”

People stepped back and chose to be bystanders, just as they always had.

And so she arrived before the child.

The boy with the same jet-black hair and eyes as her looked up at Ria with an expressionless face and asked:

“Am I… strange?”

The same question she had once asked the old woman.

If she hadn’t experienced so many things, if she hadn’t gained insight through the young nun, she might have answered “yes” without any emotion.

Instead of answering hastily, Ria wore a faint smile, embraced the boy, and whispered:

“You’re not strange at all.”

Because that’s what I believe.

And because I’ve acted accordingly.

“You are… not strange.”

Ria could say it with confidence.

That day,

Pedro received comfort for the first time in his life.

That day,

Ria came to fully believe in herself.

# 2.

The meeting of two people.

Pedro, who had been watching the situation as a third party like a reader of a book, was finally able to take form and move around.

-Say hello, everyone. This is Pedro, our new addition.

-Hello, Pedro!

-Hey, do you have any food?

-Waaah?

Ria’s memories continued to flow as if he were invisible.

“What a waste of time.”

As the expressionless Pedro was about to leave this place,

Ria, who had been moving within the memory, reached out and grabbed Pedro’s arm.

“[I’m disappointed, Pedro. Seems you didn’t want to see me?]”

“What is this situation?”

“[Ahaha… I asked you first.]”

“So, what is this situation?”

“[…Alright, I’ll tell you.]”

With a faint smile and after a moment’s thought, Ria answered with a bright voice:

“[Soon, the sealed memories will begin. Depending on what choice you make after seeing them, this world might be destroyed.]”

Pedro remained expressionless.

Upon hearing this unexpected and tremendous news, he asked with a rather serious expression:

“Did you learn only to lie while you were dead?”

“…you think?”

.

.

.

【The <God of the Vanished World> announces that the wager has begun.】

【After subject – <Ria???> reaches her conclusion, several endings may be added by the chooser – <Pedro(Ex-)>.】