Ch.156Report on the Downfall of Diligence (21)

Kain was dumbfounded. Hans had arbitrarily decided that the cause of the unwarranted abuse he received as a child was because he was of “great bloodline.”

That wasn’t all. Looking back, his behavior had been off somehow. One could dismiss his deliberately giving up his seat to a man named Jakob as merely scheming behind the scenes.

But the “persecution” he claimed to have received “in his homeland in the wasteland” clearly wasn’t something he had experienced himself, was it?

“The massacre, the story about suffering from sand in that shabby house in the wasteland—none of that happened to you. Those are stories from before your grandfather’s grandfather, your grandmother’s grandmother. You couldn’t possibly have experienced them!”

“I didn’t experience them personally. But the hatred I’ve embraced and the destiny I’ve accepted! That resentment! That bitterness! It’s all so vivid! They are me, and I am them!”

“You are not them! You’re not their successor either!”

“Ah.” Hans’s eyes sparkled, as if he’d just heard something amusing.

“Really? Then let me ask you. Why did the Pope invoke old matters to launch the Crusades, and why did the Emperor stir people up about taking revenge for what happened to the pagans? Were all those emperors mad too? They didn’t experience those things either.”

His mangled finger pointed at Kain.

“Look at Arianne! If her mother hadn’t been captured as a prisoner during the war, at least she wouldn’t have been born without knowing who her father was. What about those war orphans from the Children’s Crusade? Do you have to experience something to understand it? No. In this world, there are people whose very existence is rooted in hatred and pain. I am one of them!”

“So teaching hatred to those children was the right thing to do? Teaching them the doctrine of Black Phoenix Faith that preaches revenge, hatred, and retribution?”

“I liberated those children. Just as Arius liberated me,” Hans muttered.

“Liberation. Liberation. That feeling of happiness is beyond words.”

“What liberation are you talking about? How did you liberate them?”

“I ‘taught’ them what meaning there is in this cursed fate. I liberated those children from their anguish. All those children… each and every one of those beautiful children.”

Hans stretched out his hand, as if trying to grasp the stars in the night sky.

“The reason those children were so persecuted. The reason they wander the world. The reason they were cast into suffering! It’s hatred. It’s to spread hatred! That’s those children’s destiny. That’s the fate they were born with!

Love? Is love the only thing that should be spread throughout the world? Do you expect ‘love’ to come from children who grew up receiving nothing but hatred and contempt? Don’t be ridiculous. Even lunatics know that plants need water and fertilizer to grow! Why doesn’t this apply to people?

All those children received, all they planted was hatred and contempt. Is it a sin to nurture that? Is it a sin to give back to the world what we received from it? The world hates us, so why shouldn’t we hate it back!”

Hans burst into tears. But he seemed unaware of it. His mouth continued to spout words as if receiving a revelation. It was as if he had a separate heart just for his mouth.

Until then, Maria had remained silent. Her heart ached for the suffering of the unfortunate, and she was angry at the cruelty of the wicked. She suddenly interjected.

“The shelter.”

Hans looked up at Maria with his tear-stained face. There was a certain bitterness on Maria’s face.

“The shelter you established. Jakob and Grace managed it, but you were actually the one who founded it. I know it was created for less than noble reasons. But it was excellent, and people were receiving good care there. It was definitely a good facility.”

Hans was taken aback.

He hadn’t imagined hearing such words at all. Criticism or mockery was more within his range of expectations. But the shelter?

Maria explained gently, as if to a child.

“I don’t know how you lived. I don’t believe in inheritance or whatever. But I saw that shelter with my own eyes. It was far from hatred and contempt.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Don’t you understand? You could have chosen differently. You could have created something better. I’m not talking about possibilities. I’m speaking based on that shelter you created.

And inheritance? Yes, plants certainly reap what they sow. But people aren’t like that. People can create things they never had. They can create what they aspire to. That’s the power of humanity.

But you had both the power and ability to do that, yet you threw it all away. Your own life along with the lives of others, and now you’ve come this far.”

Hans remained silent at Maria’s reproach.

Kain realized this was Hans’s blind spot. His unfortunate circumstances might not have been his choice. But becoming a con artist was his own decision.

He established the shelter for his own selfish interests. But the shelter itself was a good deed and clearly did good for the world.

Goodness and evil, intention and coincidence, connection and causality were strangely mixed and intertwined. In that mixture, Hans only saw the wrong things and picked up only the wrong things.

He didn’t even try to see the other side. No, he probably couldn’t even imagine it. He likely couldn’t see that there could be another path from the beginning.

Then what remains is the question.

Why did he choose this path?

“Why? Why did you do it? I understand you lived a life full of hatred. But there was no reason for you to live such a complicated double life.

You even bribed the order. The knights who attacked me and my companions at the Monastery of St. Georgios were knights bribed by you. Why did you attack us? Was it to save Count Bördem and your priest?”

“No. They had to be killed. If they were transported to Magdeburg, those fools would surely have confessed everything.

I first heard about you from Emmaus. I heard there was a trio going around stirring things up from the knightly order.

But I didn’t take you seriously. Since the Pope was going to proclaim us as ‘saints,’ I just thought you were operatives moving in secret, and the real trouble was elsewhere.”

“The Knight of the Scabbard?”

“Yes. That guy. He’s stealing our share. Just when the fruits of what we’ve sown for ten years were finally about to appear. That damned guy…! He appears wherever the fruits ripen and takes everything!”

“What fruits! Speak so I can understand!”

“Ask him yourself.”

Hans burst into laughter and pointed at the night sky. Kain looked up. Something strange was embedded in the center of the bright moon.

* * * * *

Someone who didn’t know better might have thought there was a hole in the moon. If they watched a little longer, they might have seen black blood flowing from the hole.

Something like black smoke fell to the ground, cutting through the light. There was no sound. It just writhed and squirmed, taking form.

Eventually, it changed into a familiar shape.

“Hans the Diligence. I’ve come to claim my share.”

A metallic voice echoed from within the steel armor. Hans twisted his body. But he couldn’t move even a finger joint.

“Haven’t you ‘diligently’ taken our share already? What more do you want to take now?”

“I must take you.”

The knight raised his scabbard.

Almost simultaneously, Kain and Maria stepped in front of Hans. The Knight of the Scabbard tilted his head, then looked at Kain and Maria in turn.

“You two again.”

“Maria. Can you handle Hans?”

Kain whispered. Maria nodded and stepped back. Kain gripped the Imperial Sword firmly and stepped forward.

“Step aside.”

The knight threatened, but Kain didn’t budge. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Looking into another world was still burdensome, but he could glimpse parts of it.

The world seen through closed eyes was desolate beyond measure. A world of black, white, and gray. Hans was stained bright red, and Maria blazed with white fire.

On the moon, as white as the sun, was a pitch-black dragon with its mouth open, and on the ground stood a man in armor.

It was similar to what he saw with his eyes open, but there were clear differences. A faint light leaked from the man. It came from the scabbard he was holding.

Between the scabbard and the sword guard, there was an unmistakable light. But it was fainter than a dandelion’s fluff.

Kain looked at Hans again. Something like a crown of thorns rested on his head.

It dug into Hans’s forehead, bleeding downward and igniting black fire upward. Even if he wanted to ignore it, he couldn’t ignore the heat. Like a beacon had been lit.

“You move according to hatred, don’t you?”

Kain asked. The knight said nothing. Kain shared more of his speculation.

“I don’t know the exact principle, but using Black Phoenix magic leaves a mark like that. You approach that fire. Riding that ominous thing in the sky. You must have been quite busy. The power of the Black Phoenix is growing stronger, and each time, you ‘guide them into the scabbard and load them onto that vessel.'”

The knight still said nothing.

“Truly diligent.”

“…Step aside.”

“No. I cannot.”

Kain raised his sword. He matched the knight’s eye level.

“The man behind me has committed unforgivable sins. So I intend to make his sins known to the world. The sin of throwing his own life into the gutter. The sin of blinding himself with hatred and becoming blind. I will drag him to court and show him there was another path. And the same goes for you.”

“You don’t know me.”

“That’s why I came. Laios.”

The knight swung his scabbard.

A fierce and violent gale blew. Shadows burning with black fire, mouths agape, poured into Kain. Just touching them with a fingertip made him feel like something was boiling.

‘Just kill him. Who is he? Who is this bastard that you’re being dragged around like this? Go and beat him to death!’

But Kain ignored the whispers. Knowing this hatred wasn’t his own, he simply let it flow past. He lightly swung his sword to ‘gather’ them and ‘sent them up’ high into the sky.

“You…” There was clear bewilderment in the knight’s voice. Kain gave a bitter smile.

“I was going to ask if that was your name. But I guess there’s no need. Laios. The spiritual pillar of the Children’s Crusade.

You were a bit older than the other kids, but you were still a child. You had a lover who came with you from your homeland. You followed her to the end of the wasteland to protect her.”

“Stop.”

“Your lover’s name was Ismene.”

“Stop!”

“Just as you’re still alive, she’s still alive too. You know what the other heroes did to her. And you know the Demon King has awakened again.”

“I said stop!”

Something like a sob mixed in. Rage that shook the ground mixed in. But Kain saw it. He saw the texture that inevitably showed through even in the shadows of hatred and pain. The hatred he had shot away told him that.

And Kain needed to know. Because he needed to know, he asked the painful question. The answer was already there, so it wasn’t that he was asking because he didn’t know, but it was more like confirmation.

He had to do it.

“Ismene has awakened as the Demon King. She awakened you. Because she loves you. And you love her too.”

The knight’s form disappeared.

In that precarious moment, Kain swung his sword. It wasn’t to cut, but rather to deflect and evade.