Weakness Is a Sin
Even so, as he hurled himself at Giovanni Vantero, he had shouted it over and over to Seo Rin. Run!
“Ah…!”
Ugly! Weakness is a sin!
In the lives of ordinary humans, weakness is never ugliness—only something pitiful. But right now Seo Rin was ugly. The weakness that kept him from protecting even a precious friend from his own position was a sin! He had finally seen the ugliness of himself, content to wallow in that weakness.
Ah, yes. If only he had kept his reason, he could have escaped Giovanni’s hands. At the very least he would never have killed Hyuk-jin with his own hands.
The fact that he had not even managed to run properly filled him with such self-loathing and revulsion that Seo Rin burned with rage.
“I’ll kill him….”
For the first time, killing intent rose from Seo Rin’s chest.
Giovanni Vantero…. That bastard alone he could never forgive! His own weakness had been a problem, true, but the one who had created the entire situation was that vampire son of a bitch. Because Seo Rin was a child of Lilith, he coveted him? So he had attacked the younger sister to draw Han Se-gun out, then tampered with Hyuk-jin’s body so the friend would attack him, and finally stepped in himself to harm Seo Rin!
“Ugh…!”
His teeth ground together of their own accord.
Seo Rin picked up a practice gun from beside the training ground and aimed at the target. Against vampires you needed close-combat skill, yes, but you also had to know how to shoot. The basic idea of “pull the trigger and hit” would never work against vampires who appeared and vanished like ghosts.
You had to reach the level of trick-shot mastery where you could hit them even firing behind your back, to the side, while doing aerial flips, or without looking at all—just like Han Se-gun—or you could never face vampires!
“You bastards!”
Seo Rin raised the practice gun fitted with a laser sight that opened and closed in tandem with the trigger and fired at the targets.
At the counter of a grotesque shop cluttered with occult merchandise, a young woman adjusted her tie. Beside her, a green-haired young man in an apron was washing dishes himself.
He gently rinsed a porcelain teacup under warm water, then lifted the coffee pot and poured. When the fragrant aroma of coffee filled the air, he stripped off the apron, hung it beside the counter, and vaulted lightly over it. The height was nothing to sneeze at, yet he cleared it as lightly as a cat. Every motion overflowed with agile grace.
“Se-gun, you really do have terrible taste.”
Kim Seong-hui—master of Arjuna and the one who had taught Han Se-gun magic—looked at him. The green-haired youth, Han Se-gun, who had been pouring syrup and milk into his coffee and dumping on a mountain of cinnamon, glanced up.
“What?”
“I just don’t think you needed to show him that footage. If you do that, won’t Seo Rin turn into a revenge-obsessed ghost too? Just like you.”
“You think it happens that easily?”
Se-gun let out a sigh and brought the cup to his lips. It was hard to say about himself, but going completely mad with hatred was no simple thing.
Besides, Seo Rin’s nature was kind and earnest; even if hatred drove him to the brink, he would never break as thoroughly as Se-gun had. Wasn’t he the modest kid whose dream had been to earn money for his family? For someone like that to end up like Se-gun? Even if that entire family were slaughtered, it simply would not happen.
This latest incident was the same. He had killed Hyuk-jin with his own hands, yes, but Seo Rin had a clear target for his hatred in Giovanni Vantero. Once he took his revenge on that bastard, Seo Rin would still live with the guilt and the wounds—but he would never become like Se-gun.
He was different from Han Se-gun, the Beast who had lost a family he had never truly loved, who had no object for revenge and so poured his homeless hatred and self-loathing onto every vampire he could find.
“But if Seo Rin becomes like Se-gun… that would be wonderful. Heeheehee.”
Kim Seong-hui kept laughing to herself as if lost in some strange fantasy. Han Se-gun felt an uneasy prickle and stared at her. Just what was she imagining?
“A suit with a vest, no overcoat, and this armband. With the heterochromia it would look absolutely perfect, wouldn’t it? Ah, better yet—should I just buy the clothes and dress him myself? What do you think?”
“Why are you asking me that….”
Se-gun stared at his master, dumbfounded. As always, he had no idea what went on inside this woman’s head. Still—terrible taste? He turned her words over in his mind.
“Honestly, part of why I showed him was because I wanted the kid to get his act together… but also because hiding the truth just pissed me off. If we just glossed over it, wouldn’t Hyuk-jin be the pitiful one?”
“P-pitiful? Se-gun just said that? W-wait a second—”
Kim Seong-hui’s eyes went wide; a moment later she produced a digital recorder. She pointed the microphone at Se-gun and smiled.
“Say that part again? Emphasize the ‘pitiful.’”
“Uh, Master?”
“Come on, hurry.”
She urged him. What on earth was she planning? Record his voice, edit it, and make some kind of transcript?
“Forget it. What are you even doing?”
Han Se-gun set his cup on the table as he spoke. Was the idea of him feeling pity for someone really that astonishing?
“Feeling pity is one thing… but in the end the kid was a lycanthrope. Once his usefulness was over he had to be put down. And even though I left it alone so it would spur Seo Rin on, the fact that he attacked Seo Rin was entirely of his own will. Pitiful or not, if he’d survived I would have had to kill him with my own hands.”
Yes. Se-gun would have killed him without the slightest hesitation. Kim Seong-hui leaned against the counter and watched Han Se-gun with open interest.
“So, is Seo Rin working hard?”
“Yeah. Honestly he’s way better than I was back then. Before I became a vampire hunter I trained for over a year, and every enemy I fought was small fry. But Seo Rin—even accounting for him being a lycanthrope—was up against someone like Giovanni Vantero. Of course he lost.”
Coldly speaking, it had been an opponent far too heavy for a complete novice. Impossible to handle, even. Against high-class vampires who casually used teleportation, special bloodline abilities, and sorcery, no amount of polished martial arts or marksmanship would let you win.
You had to build experience through endless combat against supernatural enemies. Kim Seong-hui seemed to share the thought; she poked Se-gun’s cheek with a finger.
“You were wrong this time too, Se-gun. You fell for Giovanni Vantero’s trick, didn’t you? So don’t push Seo Rin too hard.”
“I know I was wrong. I was stupid. But when exactly did I ever push Seo Rin around?”
Han Se-gun said it and rose from his seat.
Se-gun finished that day’s patrol and headed home only after dawn. Patrol or not, vampires had become nearly impossible to find in Seoul. Ever since Juk-yo and Chang-woon had fallen in Korea, the countless vampires that had been loosed across the country had mostly been cleaned up. What remained were only the likes of the Damned now led by Jinma Maria, or Esprit. Those bastards were hard to catch and not easily taken down even when you attacked them.
Se-gun parked his motorcycle in the garage and went inside. Sensing his return, Seo Rin climbed up from the basement.
“You’re back?”
Seo Rin spoke while soaked in sweat. He had clearly thrown himself into training nonstop from the moment Se-gun left until now. With all that blood rushing to his head it was only natural, but training was not something that succeeded just because you stupidly worked yourself to the bone.
“Training hard is fine, but you need to match your nutrition and rest to your body’s cycle. Push yourself for no reason and you’ll wreck yourself.”
“That’s why I took that supplement you eat, hyung. It was pretty good.”
“……That so?”
Se-gun looked at Seo Rin, who answered with his usual blunt expression. The face was stiffer than normal. Well, only a few days had passed since he learned Hyuk-jin was dead. Even the most carefree guy would not have pulled himself together already.
“Give me your hand.”
When Han Se-gun said it, Seo Rin stared blankly as if wondering why, then held out his hand. Se-gun took it and checked his condition. For someone who had been out cold for days, his color was good and his body was in solid shape. Child of Lilith or whatever—this kid’s physique really was something else.
“There’s something I’m curious about, though.”
Seo Rin suddenly threw a question at Se-gun.
“What?”
“How can other lycanthropes fight vampires?”
“Huh?”
He could not grasp the point of the question. Was he asking why lycanthropes and vampires were enemies? Seo Rin seemed to realize his question had been unclear and asked again.
“Giovanni Vantero… a guy like that is so strong I honestly don’t think you could ever beat him in hand-to-hand combat or anything. So how do lycanthropes fight vampires like that? By transforming at will?”
“Beats me. I don’t know the details, but Giovanni Vantero is a Successor. They’re vampires Tetra Anax created to eliminate Jinma who refuse to obey and to forge new Jinma. Among vampires you can honestly call them top-tier. Any ordinary lycanthrope would die to him—just like any ordinary vampire would die to a lycanthrope on your level.”
In practice, when they had matched Seo Rin against vampires the results had been different… but if there were a high-class lycanthrope equal to Seo Rin, that one would pop vampire skulls as easily as opening a soda-can tab. Vampires had bloodline abilities; lycanthropes each had their own unique powers as well. Of course Seo Rin, who could not even transform at will, had no hope of using such abilities.
“Then if you fought him, hyung, what would you do?”
“I’ve got magic, and projecting spatial movement into an attack has limits too. That bastard’s spatial movement isn’t an absolute technique either. If you have the mental strength to endure the invasion, you won’t get cleanly sliced just from a single touch like last time.”
Se-gun answered and headed for the shower.
“You should stop pushing yourself and get some sleep too. No matter how much your heart is racing ahead, right now you’re broken. Walk around with a heart like that and you’ll only become a beast.”
“Like you, hyung?”
Seo Rin asked it suddenly. Yeah, maybe so. The moment you killed your friend with your own hands you became a fine monster. You could say you had joined the ranks of monsters. An unavoidable fact. But that alone would never make you someone like Se-gun.
“You can’t become me. I can’t become you either. Don’t think useless thoughts, Seo Rin.”
Se-gun declared it flatly and shut the door.
When he closed his eyes he dreamed nightmares. The fight from that day played over and over inside his skull. First Hyuk-jin lunged at Seo Rin and choked him. Hatred for Seo Rin, the complex of never being able to surpass him, and resentment that he had even hidden his true nature from Hyuk-jin himself—all mixed together.
Lycanthrope? What the hell is that supposed to mean? Why vanish so easily without even a single word of consultation? We’re friends, right? Real, precious friends, right?
Then Seo Rin’s neck snapped. The merciless attack was pure Hyuk-jin. But… Seo Rin did not die from something like that. He rose and counterattacked. Once you aimed for a life there was no room for forgiveness.
And in the end Seo Rin killed Hyuk-jin. This was no longer the form of a human. A fight between monsters lusting for each other’s lives. A brutal slaughter unfolding inside the civilized society of the twenty-first century.
“Hah… hah… hah….”
Seo Rin bolted upright from the bed and looked at his hands. Thick nails like razor blades or paper knives, and pure-white fur sprouting.
“Hah… damn it! God damn it!”
Seo Rin kicked free of the bed, ran to the bathroom, and stared into the mirror. His face had not transformed yet, but his insides throbbed and the blood under his skin surged violently.
Transformation… was this transformation? Yet Seo Rin could not control the power. He felt as if simply changing would bring relief, but the instant the image of Hyuk-jin dying replayed in his mind, nausea surged up.
Ah… I really was… a monster.
Not simply strong or regenerative—he had been a truly savage monster. And without realizing it he had only been thrilled that the work was easy, that he possessed outstanding abilities.
He collapsed right there onto the bathroom floor.
Se-gun found Seo Rin collapsed in the bathroom and hauled him up. He had hoped the kid would sleep a little, yet this was the result. Well, when Se-gun himself first lost his family to vampires he had been unable to sleep either. That was probably why he had thrown himself even harder into vampire-hunter training. When he moved his body roughly, stray thoughts could not form.
Only the thoughts that he was tired, that it was hard, that it hurt. And then that pain began to feel like punishment for his own sins, so it actually made him glad and gave him even more strength. In other words it was self-harm that let him feel he had paid his dues—an escape from guilt.
As someone strict with himself, Se-gun could not stand even that side of himself, so he repeated harsh self-condemnation. That austere, ascetic life had given him the power to hunt vampires.
Would Seo Rin end up the same way? The thought somehow left a bad taste in his mouth. This kid is different from me. He’s not the type to become that. Se-gun made the vow and pulled him to his feet.
“Oh, for crying out loud. I was trying to get some sleep—what are you doing?”
He carried Seo Rin and tossed him back into his room. When he hit the bed, Seo Rin came to his senses.
“I… I’m….”
“Hm?”
“I finally understand too well that I’m not human.”
“You only just figured that out? You’re talking nonsense, so I guess you’re not dead yet.”
Se-gun said it and started to leave the room. Then Seo Rin, still lying on his side, muttered.
“No. It’s not that… Even if the vampires stop coming after me, I can’t go back to Yeong-eun or Dad. How is a monster like this supposed to walk around among people like nothing’s wrong?”