Chapter 19
Chapter 19
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: City of Original Sin (1)
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The earliest memory Joseph could recall from his childhood was the damp, musty feel of the shared bedding.
In one of the cramped compartments like chicken coops, he always fell asleep cradled in his father's sturdy arms. It was far from comfortable, but the steady breathing and heartbeat of the adult he could rely on more than anything gave young Joseph a warm sense of security.
A compartment over, in another equally tight bed, he could see his mother and little sister Yoanna sleeping, sharing their warmth with each other.
That was the image of "home" in Joseph's memory.
The most common form of communal housing for the back-alley residents.
A single narrow room divided by partitions like iron bars, where a dozen or so people slept crammed in like luggage.
A breeding ground of poverty where even one family couldn't claim a single square yard all to themselves.
But strangely, those memories weren't entirely dark for Joseph. Life wasn't abundant, but his parents were there. They always cherished young Joseph and Yoanna, doing everything they could to keep their children from going hungry.
Even in that deficient environment, he felt their clear love, and that alone made the world bearable. At least back then.
Then one day, it happened. His parents, who had gone out to work early at dawn as usual, didn't return that night. Nor the next day, or the day after. Whether they were worn out by reality and chose not to come back, or met with some tragic accident that prevented them from returning, Joseph still didn't know.
".........."
All that remained in Joseph's world now was his young little sister.
As he dazedly changed her clothes in place of their vanished parents, an old phrase echoed in his ears like a distant memory.
'Joseph, you're the big brother now, so you have to always protect your little sister. It's a promise between men, got it?'
Gently patting the back of his little sister, who whimpered and sobbed from hunger, Joseph accepted the weight of life placed on his shoulders from that day on. He was no longer just a child. He had become her sole protector and provider.
From then on, Joseph took to the streets. He couldn't let Yoanna starve. He had to do something, anything.
"Hey, stop right there-!!"
"Tch!"
Clumsy pickpocketing, petty theft for survival to stave off hunger.
His unskilled attempts were quickly found out, and when caught, he couldn't escape the adults' beatings.
On those days, he returned home with his whole body throbbing in pain. But the moment he met the round, innocent eyes of his young sister waiting for him on the bed, the exhaustion and hurt of the day vanished like a mirage.
"Big brother-"
The sense of responsibility to protect that little child. That was the only reason keeping Joseph alive.
"Yoanna, you don't have to worry about a thing. Got it?"
As he grew a bit wiser and stronger, Joseph started working as a mercenary.
More like odd jobs than proper mercenary work, but thanks to his natural instincts and dexterity, he could earn enough for basic living expenses.
Joseph scrimped and saved that money to send Yoanna to school.
Unlike him, his sister was incredibly smart.
"Yoanna's grades are excellent again this semester. A little more effort, and she'll qualify for a scholarship."
If she got a proper education, she alone could escape this wretched back alley and live in a brighter world someday. He believed that.
It was the one hope Joseph clung to amid his grueling reality.
But misfortune struck without warning.
Just like when his parents vanished in an instant during his childhood.
One morning, Yoanna couldn't get out of bed.
"B... big brother.... my legs....."
She had been fine as usual the night before. Now she clutched her legs, stiff as wooden logs, tears welling in her eyes.
The hospital they rushed to diagnosed it as "muscular atrophy of unknown origin." No cure, they said. The nervous system itself was dying, so even cybernetic implants wouldn't help; she'd still be unable to move.
At those words, Joseph's world shattered.
Unable to move, Yoanna's body weakened rapidly. What would happen to a child who couldn't even make it to the bathroom on her own? Joseph quit his mercenary work to care for her full-time. They couldn't afford a caregiver.
But with him—their sole breadwinner—stopping work, their savings vanished in no time.
Soon they couldn't even afford proper meals, surviving on cheap calorie crackers packed only with bare-minimum nutrients. Even those were woefully insufficient.
"Brother, aren't you eating?"
"Huh? Oh.... I ate outside earlier! Don't worry."
He put on a brave front in front of his sister, but in truth, he'd gone all day without food. They had so little left, barely enough to last three days. Watching her grow thinner and paler despite his careful rationing, Joseph sank into deep sorrow.
On a day when hope was fading, he spotted a poster on a rundown wall near their lodging.
[Lost souls, come to the One Heart Society. The Cult Leader will heal all your pains!]
A typical cult recruitment pitch he would've ignored. But that day, Joseph couldn't tear himself away. Was it the prolonged hunger? Or sheer desperation?
At the location on the poster, One Heart Society members were handing out calorie crackers as "free meals." Joseph took them like a man possessed and devoured them ravenously. Their sermons buzzed in his ears.
"God loves you all!"
Joseph approached a portly pastor giving the fervent sermon.
And hesitantly asked,
"Excuse me, my sister's sick. Could... could you take care of her here?"
The pastor scowled at first.
"What do you think this is, a nursing home?"
He started to snap curtly, but noticing Joseph's sturdy build and tough demeanor—not that of an ordinary slum-dweller—he changed his expression.
"Ahem, are you ex-mercenary by any chance?"
".....Yes."
"Hoho, then welcome! We've needed a brother who can handle heavy work like you."
In exchange for caring for Yoanna at their facilities, the pastor demanded "service to the church" from Joseph.
At first, it was simple labor: facility repairs, hauling supplies.
Volunteer work or odd jobs, nothing new from his back-alley mercenary days. Joseph did as told without complaint. The food from the church and the "sisters" looking after Yoanna meant he could work again—a relief in itself.
One day, the Cult Leader himself sought out Joseph.
Praising his faith, he dangled the promise of a miracle to demand deeper loyalty.
"Your earnest pleas have reached heaven. I'll specially pray for your sister's miraculous healing. But miracles require greater faith and devotion.... How about taking on more faithful duties for the church?"
From then on, the Cult Leader assigned Joseph the role of "enforcer."
Threatening believers demanding refunds, beating and intimidating those suspicious of the Leader to silence rumors.
Joseph wrestled with doubts if this was right, but with nowhere else to go, he endured.
And above all, when he saw his sister again... her words gave him hope.
"Brother, I feel less pain today. My legs are starting to move a bit! Must be thanks to the Cult Leader's prayers!"
Did miracles truly exist?
Doubts melted away like snow at the sight of his sister's radiant smile, blooming after years.
From then on, he threw himself into his "believer" role. Sometimes he even prayed sincerely to God.
'Please save our siblings.'
Soon, under the banner of "protecting the faithful brothers," Joseph was deployed in turf wars with rival groups. He fought gangs to extort protection money from businesses. Cloaked as church work, it was no different from mobster thuggery.
But Joseph rationalized it all as for his sister and the innocent faithful.
As the church grew, clashes with local gangs intensified. The Cult Leader demanded more power from Joseph, who underwent combat implant procedures as ordered. The pain of body reconstruction was beyond imagination, but he endured for Yoanna.
One day, an implant surgeon he knew from outside the church gasped at Joseph's state.
"You.... are you insane? That's beyond most soldiers' modification rates. They at least get proper maintenance, but you..... you'll die for real. I'm not kidding."
Serious warning, but Joseph no longer cared.
If his only sister could smile again, stand on her own two legs, run to him and hug him....
He could pay any price.
"............."
Around then, Joseph was thrown into the church's dirtiest jobs. Atrocities too vile to speak of. Doubts peaked, but he was in too deep. No way back.
Only family kept him going.
The rare visits allowed, her beaming smile toward him—his sole hope.
"Brother!"
"You doing okay?"
"Yeah! The sisters here take such good care of me."
Those words were consolation beyond anything. No matter the filth he saw, he could bear it.
One day, Joseph stumbled upon a stash of drugs in the Cult Leader's secret safehouse. The Leader, noticing, panicked and glossed over it, but Joseph looked the other way.
For Yoanna.
He had to cling to her improving condition.
But—
One visit day, Yoanna in the meeting room was unusually rosy-cheeked.
Brighter and more energetic than ever.
"Brother!"
"My Yoanna looks extra lively today. That happy to see me?"
"Yeah! And.... when you come, the sisters give me this happy medicine!"
"....What?"
Joseph's mind went blank. Medicine? What medicine?
"It makes all the pain go away, and I feel great. They said to take it when I miss you."
Yoanna smiled innocently, showing a small pill. It was the drugs Joseph had found before.... No healing. Just numbing the pain temporarily, making her feel good on drugs.
She wasn't getting better. She was just high and giggling.
In that instant, Joseph's world collapsed.
Nothing had changed. No hope from the start. Yoanna was just slowly dying.
He thought he'd done his absolute best to protect her.
'Then.... what the hell was all this for....'
All those filthy deeds, gnawing away at his own life.
Something irreversible snapped in Joseph's mind.
With his life's pillar gone, the horrific side effects of extreme body mods kicked in.
Uncontrollable rage impulse. Cybernetic Rage.
"......."
When he came to, Joseph stood alone in the chapel's center.
'Why am I here....?'
The metallic stench of blood assaulted his nose, and a horrific slaughter lay before him.
Mangled corpses littered the chapel floor. At the center, himself drenched in blood.
His hands still warm with flesh and bone fragments.
'No way, all this.... I did this....?'
A wave of nausea twisted his gut.
Fragments of the madness that had ruled him moments ago surfaced in his dazed mind.
Hatred for the deceitful Cult Leader. Rage exploding, destroying everything around.
It started as revenge. But that didn't explain it. He'd crossed a line.
The middle-aged woman's terrified face, begging mercy beside the Leader.
The old man huddled under a chair, sobbing, unable to flee.
Ordinary, pitiful people like him, desperate, fooled by the Leader's lies, praying fervently to God.
They were someone's precious parents, beloved children.
Maybe someone's only brother or sister.
And he'd killed them all. With these two hands....
'No.....'
Even the worst scene he didn't want to recall surfaced. A child under ten, wailing for its mother in the chaos. Even before that innocent, his gun barrel spat fire mercilessly.
Yes, cybernetic addiction side effect. Combat aids damaged nerves over time, finally uncontrollable. In the madness, he wasn't himself. No control.
But that didn't change the fact he'd massacred innocents.
No excuses. This was Joseph's doing.
Realizing it was irreversible, he stared at his hands.
Sticky blood drying.
These madman's hands that stole countless lives.
Hands that might one day brutally kill even his beloved Yoanna.
A chill of terror gripped his nape.
The realization he'd stepped into an inescapable hell hit hard.
His head throbbed like it would split, heart pounding to burst. He felt like he'd go mad.
"Ah, aaah....."
Meaningless groans leaked from his throat. Covered in blood and flesh, Joseph collapsed fully onto the chapel floor.
Right then.
A gentle voice echoed through the chapel.
"Do you regret it?"
Joseph's limp eyes turned toward the voice.
A stranger woman stood there. Unrealistically beautiful. Silver hair like purest snow, eyes clear and blue as the sky. Like the angels from the Bible he'd read upon first entering the church.
An angel descended to judge his horrific sins.
In his dazed mind, Joseph thought so, without question. Guilt and despair filled him; no room for doubt. Only her question—"Do you regret it?"—echoed.
'Regret?'
Joseph nodded blankly. Failing his only sister, falling for the Leader's pathetic lies, and.... killing innocents with these hands. All regrets.
The woman asked again.
"If it truly wasn't your will, can you prove it?"
Prove?
Joseph pondered, then looked at his hand. The blade on his broken cybernetic wrist from the fight. A sharp stub protruded about a foot.
Without hesitation, he pressed it to his throat. Cold metal touched skin.
Yes, this was proof. The sin of taking innocent lives could only be atoned with his own.
The monster with nowhere to return would judge itself.
He closed his eyes and pressed. Warm blood trickled down his neck.
Ssssh—
Red liquid soaked his front rapidly.
Before pain, strange liberation came, then deep sorrow.
Hot tears streamed down his cheeks.
Strength drained from his body; he slowly slumped into the pooling blood. His body cooled swiftly.
'Sorry. Yoanna. Everyone. Mom, Dad..... This is all.....'
In fading consciousness, Joseph repeated inwardly.
A life full of mistakes. If reborn, he never wanted to live like this.
If God existed, please forgive and save this sinful soul.
As if answering his final wish, a warm, dazzling light approached his dimming mind.
Like his mother's embrace, the last from childhood memories.
That radiance gently enveloped his cooling body.