Ch.9595. The Sin of Sloth

With her head bowed, she lowered it even deeper as she knelt down. Her greeting became a bow of apology toward Amon.

Although reality had turned into a happy ending, it didn’t justify what the priest and Mother Superior had tried to do.

The Mother Superior, who had been wrestling with guilt beside the priest, trembled as she prostrated herself on the floor. She managed to bow down despite her uncomfortable prosthetic hand that rattled as she moved.

A sobbing voice came from the prostrated Mother Superior.

“I’m sorry… I apologize…”

From the depths of her guilt, the Mother Superior begged with all her sincerity.

She had much to say, but didn’t know where to begin asking for forgiveness.

Moreover, Amon had used the money from selling the Higgjen Group to support the orphanage. While she had committed sins, Amon had shown grace.

That fact constricted her heart even more.

“I’m sorry… I apologize…”

The Mother Superior’s apologies began to sound almost like wailing.

She didn’t expect forgiveness.

She thought it might ease her mind if he would just punish her instead.

The Mother Superior was willing to accept any judgment from Amon.

However,

“Please stand up, Mother Superior.”

“I need to apologize… I…”

“Mother Superior. You fed and raised children who might have died alone in the rain. Without any reason. I was one of those children.”

“I’m sorry…”

“It’s alright.”

“I apologize…”

“I forgive you.”

Amon forgave the Mother Superior.

Trying to offer him as a sacrifice?

It never actually happened, so it was fine.

Hiding his Divine Power?

He had known about it all along.

Depriving him of opportunities to develop his talent?

He wouldn’t have had the chance to gain much with his young body anyway. And he had deliberately avoided seeking it out due to his own plans.

And…

‘Just feeding and sheltering me was more than enough.’

It was something to be grateful for, raising him without even receiving government support.

These incidents weren’t enough to tarnish the kindness she had shown him all these years.

So Amon forgave the Mother Superior.

He forgave the priest as well.

He forgave them completely.

The Mother Superior, having received Amon’s forgiveness, expressed her gratitude repeatedly as she rose to her feet.

“Thank you…”

Amon, wanting to lighten the damp atmosphere, made a joke to the two of them.

“So what should I call you two now? Father-in-law and Mother-in-law?”

Thanks to Amon’s joke, the atmosphere seemed to brighten considerably.

But a bomb exploded from an unexpected place.

“Why do you forgive so easily…?”

With that single sentence from Sonia, the atmosphere instantly deflated.

They had forgotten one fact.

While Amon was the primary victim in this incident, Sonia was no less a victim than Amon.

“Then what does that make me…?”

She had grown up as an orphan despite being right beside them.

That was disappointing, but she could have understood if she’d heard the reasons.

But when she learned that the Mother Superior had tried to offer Amon as a sacrifice, she couldn’t forgive them.

To her, Amon was closer to family than the Mother Superior and priest who had kept secrets from her all this time.

What did blood relations matter?

She valued the love of companionship far more than the love of birth.

Of course, she wasn’t dismissing the Mother Superior’s nurturing love. But who would call someone a parent when they tried to sell their child?

Yet the Mother Superior had tried to sell Amon.

At that point, the Mother Superior was excluded from Sonia’s concept of family.

The same went for the priest who had half-allowed it to happen.

That’s why she couldn’t forgive them.

But that wasn’t the only reason.

“I’m ashamed that your blood flows in my veins…”

Sonia looked at the two of them. It wasn’t the kind of look one would give to beloved parents.

It was the kind of look one would give to criminals.

Only then did the two realize Sonia’s misunderstanding.

‘Could it be…?’

When the term “demon” first came up, she had doubted but still trusted the Mother Superior.

But after hearing about all the wrongs she had committed, including trying to sell Amon, Sonia changed her mind.

The demon was just an excuse, and the Mother Superior was simply a cowardly human.

She had sinned as an archangel in the Vatican, committed evil deeds using demons as an excuse, and now pretended to be good.

But her nature hadn’t changed—as soon as things got difficult, she tried to sell Amon.

Now she pretended to be the victim, but her essential cowardice remained unchanged.

At least, that’s how Sonia interpreted it.

The Mother Superior tried to convince Sonia to clear up the misunderstanding.

“I’m sorry…”

“Instead of saying sorry, try to convince me why you did what you did back then.”

“I had no choice at the time…”

“That’s your problem!”

But to Sonia, it sounded like nothing but excuses.

“You always make excuses saying you had no choice instead of making decisions! That’s the problem!”

“…”

“Why do you always say such things and do nothing? Why do you always leave choices to others?”

The Mother Superior was speechless.

Because as Sonia pointed out, her life had always been tangled in this way.

The Mother Superior moved her lips to utter some excuse.

But Sonia spoke first.

“Things get this bad because you’re irresponsible! Since your time as an archangel! When the demon entered! And until now!”

“…”

Before Sonia’s anger, the Mother Superior couldn’t say anything.

Perhaps interpreting the Mother Superior’s silence in her own way, Sonia said irritably:

“That’s why you became the vessel for the demon of sloth.”

Crash!

Sonia’s final sentence was enough to break the Mother Superior.

Astaroth. The demon of sloth.

And sloth means not fulfilling one’s responsibilities or not thinking about the meaning of one’s actions.

That was how Sonia judged the Mother Superior.

The Mother Superior collapsed again at her harsh words.

But Sonia rose from her seat, looking at the fallen Mother Superior with cold eyes.

“I’m grateful for raising me. But… no matter how I think about it, I can’t consider you my mother.”

With that cold pronouncement, she left the office.

***

“Oh. What an interesting past. Quite fascinating.”

At Orobas’s voice, Sonia returned from the past to the present.

Where was she?

Ah, right. She had shown her past to the horse-headed demon…

“Ah.”

Orobas smiled as he looked at the sighing Sonia.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, I think I know where we should go next.”

“No…”

“We should go get Ms. Astaroth. However, since that priest is a bit troublesome, you’ll have to come along as a hostage.”

“I don’t want to…”

“Don’t worry. If necessary, you’ll become the new vessel.”

The horse-headed Orobas continued the conversation one-sidedly.

In their conversation, Sonia felt powerless.

She had remained silent to avoid giving information, but she couldn’t do anything.

She had spoken boldly to the Mother Superior, but she herself couldn’t do anything either.

She felt self-loathing.

Was this the demon’s power, or just her pure emotion?

She didn’t know.

Meanwhile, one sentence kept circling in her mind.

Ah, I want to give up everything.

The moment that sentence appeared in her mind, she felt self-loathing again.

Perhaps blood really does tell.

Orobas quietly savored Sonia’s expression, then brightened as if remembering something.

“Ah! Come to think of it, I was the one who trapped your mother and turned her into a demon! Hah~ I had completely forgotten about it since it was years ago.”

Sonia’s expression crumbled as if her world had collapsed upon hearing those words.

Seeing this, Orobas’s smile deepened.

‘I was right.’

He thought adding a little spice would deepen the flavor, and he was right.

As Orobas expected, she began to hate herself even more deeply.

She had pointed fingers at the Mother Superior for being irresponsible, but she herself couldn’t do anything in the same situation.

Should she forgive the Mother Superior? By what right? Now?

It was ridiculous that she could now understand the Mother Superior.

After criticizing her so harshly, it was disgusting to suddenly claim understanding when things became difficult for her.

Sonia gritted her teeth until they might break.

She wanted to bash her head against the wall.

Endless self-loathing, anger, and regret washed over her.

‘I should have forgiven her then…!’

She had been too young. Her thinking had been too narrow. She had been selfish and immature.

She regretted it repeatedly.

Come to think of it, demanding honesty from Amon and Kathy was also shameful.

It was no different from causing trouble for others using her own wounds as an excuse.

A tear streamed down her face amid her regrets.

‘In the end, I…’

Am no different from that woman.

Drip.

Her tear fell to the floor.

At that moment, suddenly a bright beam of light shone upon her.

Sonia followed the beam of light with her tear-soaked vision.

Following the light beam, she saw Amon through a hole in the broken wall.

She had thought she was separated from her companions, but they were only divided by a thick wall.

At that moment, by chance, her eyes met Amon’s through the small hole.

“Sonia! Ugh! Ah, damn it!”

Amon called her name, relieved to have found her.

Then he disappeared from the hole as he kicked away Naberius who was rushing at him.

Sonia moved her lips.

But she couldn’t speak for fear of interfering with Amon’s battle.

Save me. Please. Tell me it’s okay.

That short sentence couldn’t escape her throat.

Then, Amon shouted through the radio:

[Sonia. Thanks for hanging in there. I’ll be right there.]

“No, I…”

Seeming to guess something from Sonia’s tearful voice, Amon comforted her in a gentle voice.

[Remember what I said? Instead of saying sorry?]

While Sonia was trying to grasp the meaning, the hole in the wall widened from the impact of the battle.

As the hole in the wall grew larger, the beam of light leaking through became more intense.

The light connected Amon and Sonia without any apparent source of illumination.

Orobas quietly observed the beam of light, then suddenly shouted with veins bulging in his neck:

“Why! Why are you responding! Don’t be ridiculous! I cannot accept this!”

Orobas howled at the top of his lungs.

He cast aside all dignity and expressed his violent anger.

Even amid Orobas’s roaring, Amon’s radio transmission came through clearly to Sonia.

[Sonia. You don’t need to be sorry. You can rely on me anytime and thank me later.]

The moment she heard those words, Sonia understood.

Thank you instead of sorry.

That was Amon’s consideration.

“I’m sorry” is a plea for forgiveness.

It means you haven’t been forgiven yet and expresses fear about whether you can be forgiven.

And “thank you” is an acknowledgment of having been forgiven.

‘Ah…’

He had been waiting.

Until the moment she realized the virtue of forgiveness and tolerance.

He was ready to forgive everything she had done to him.

Her tears stopped.

She was overwhelmed with emotion, but now was not the time to cry.

“When all this is over… I’ll forgive mom…”

With that murmur, she staggered to her feet.

Orobas’s expression soured.

“Why!? Why now of all times!?”

Orobas hastily tried to gaslight her by bringing up her past.

But Sonia’s eyes didn’t lose their light at all.

A pure white halo appeared above her head.

Under the halo, she whispered:

“<Mater eleison>”

Simultaneously, Sonia spread wings made of light.