The Second Sin (2)
Every Sin had sensed its own destiny from the very moment of its birth.
The Sin of Pride, Super.
Destined to spend her entire life elevating herself above all others. To deceive and sow chaos among friend and foe alike. To desecrate the uniqueness of those who stood like gods and claim an equal place beside them—or surpass them entirely. At times, to destroy a nation outright, or to seize it and crush it at her whim.
That was the fate Super had been born to carry.
She could never belong anywhere, never feel kinship with anyone. Loneliness was her constant companion.
And then, for the first time, someone appeared who made her feel that kinship.
Wrath—bound by the same frame of “Sin.”
A being condemned to live her whole life inside an unquenchable blaze of rage.
What is this kid?
Yet Super felt only confusion.
Astonishingly—
Why can’t I feel anything?
From the Sin of Wrath, she could sense none of the fury that should have been roaring like wildfire.
“You… how can you be like this…?”
Super stammered, so shaken she could barely form the words. She had every right to be.
Puppets born without strings, yet moving of their own free will, possessing selves of their own—what could be more astonishing than that? Especially when one had been born a scarecrow just like them.
“I… I only ever followed my fate…”
“A fateful encounter found me,” Lapis answered in a calm, even voice.
“A tiny, precious foreign object jammed itself into the gears of destiny.”
“A for…eign object? Isn’t that a bad thing?”
“Depends how you look at it. But for us? No. You know that, don’t you?”
The same fate, yet different.
Both of them had been destined to be swept away by fate until even their selves were lost. And both of them had broken free of that compulsion.
The thought settled in Super’s mind.
In the next instant she launched herself forward.
She latched on hard!
“How?! Please—tell me how!”
She clung to Lapis’s leg.
Fate?
A pretty word for something that simply ignored Super’s individual self and forced her to live according to a script, whether she wanted it or not.
A mutant born from the union of fallen heretics and ancient power. Twisted from the very start—so of course she could only cling like this.
“You want me to tell you?”
“Yes, yes. You know what kind of fate I—what kind of fate we—were born into.”
“Yeah. I know it far too well.”
Well enough that it was almost a problem.
“All right. I’ll tell you.”
Lapis pointed a straight finger at the carriage.
“Believe in him.”
“……Belief? Just believe and that’s it? That’s all?”
Super’s face twisted.
“Are you messing with me right now?”
“No. I’m telling you the thing that actually worked for me.”
“Believe in what? A god?”
“No. The savior who rewrote my fate.”
“A savior?”
“Yeah.”
Truthfully, Lapis hadn’t believed right away either. She had wondered why he showed her such kindness, why he kept giving her such delicious things. But once the impulse of Wrath began to fade, and the moment she met another Sin under the guise of coincidence, she became certain.
He truly was the one who would save her from this fate.
At the same time a small doubt stirred.
Why had he come looking for this child?
If he had decided Lapis was useless and was hunting for another Sin’s fate instead… if he abandoned Lapis right here…
Just imagining it made her chest ache as though it had been hollowed out.
The first person she had ever chosen to rely on. Her family. The desire not to lose him. All of it tangled together into the present moment.
“All… for the sake… of the god…”
Drake hung in midair, dying pitifully.
In this instant Lapis, too, wanted to cling to faith the way that foolish believer did—faith under the name of belief.
Faith…
What was faith?
It was belief.
Only the object of that belief happened to be a “god.”
Then what defined a “god”?
Omnipotent power?
No.
Gods were neither omnipotent nor competent enough to watch over everyone.
In other words, faith was simply a kind of belief—a word for fanatical belief. The meaning could change depending on what you called it.
In that case… couldn’t Lapis also be said to have faith in Evan?
Even if Evan was not a god?
Yeah. That feels right.
Lapis thought so, and clenched the hand she had pressed over her heart.
All for the sake of the god.
She liked the ring of it.
Only she would leave out the word “god.”
To Lapis, gods held no value at all.
All of this…
Something that could not even be compared to a god.
The one tiny, precious foreign object that could jam itself into a life that rolled forward like clockwork gears.
She attached his name to it.
For Evan’s sake.
Ah.
Yes.
This was it.
A short resonance.
It sent a small ripple through Lapis’s heart, which had been filled only with Wrath.
Yes.
This was it.
A smile curved her lips.
Grinning, the smile settled on her mouth as naturally as breathing.
“Come on. Repeat after me.”
Lapis took Super’s hands in both of hers.
The pressure radiating from her entire body made Super grip Lapis’s hands tightly without realizing it.
“All of this… is for Evan.”
Lapis whispered the words softly.
“Hehe. All done, Evan!”
Inside the carriage, Evan stared out the window with complicated feelings.
Outside was a blood-soaked mess. The heretics lay sprawled in broken heaps, every one of them maimed.
I never told her to go this far…
For heretics, maiming wasn’t that big a deal. Their god was the sort of trash that made recovery easy as long as they had faith and sacrifices. At this level they would just crawl into some hole and hide. They were experts at running away.
Arthur wouldn’t bother stepping in either. His Aura Hole was still incomplete; he would wait until it fully recovered or at least stabilized.
In other words, this could be considered a partial normalization of the story.
“Hehe. Did good, right?”
“……You did well.”
He ought to praise her at least.
He ruffled her hair. Lapis beamed as if she loved it and hugged Evan’s leg tightly.
“…….”
Super watched the scene, her expression rotting by the second. She looked exactly like someone who had just witnessed their best friend cooing over a lover.
“……Untie me already.”
Super held out both hands. Rope was wound tightly around her wrists.
Evan regarded them for a moment.
Should he untie her or not?
Tch. Still a bit dangerous, isn’t she?
Lapis was basically a rabbit now. A murder-rabbit whose eyes went dead sometimes, but fine as long as she didn’t get angry.
Super, though?
He had no idea.
Ira awakened and drowned a kingdom in blood, but Super’s whole thing was dominating a kingdom. In the end she even tried to surpass divine authority itself and fell—that was nearly all the information he had.
And even then she never really used any unique personal ability.
It felt like she had just cherry-picked the best powers from various sources and slapped them together. No consistency.
Would it be the same now?
“You ought to untie me right this second.”
Super whispered in a low, strangely magnetic voice.
“Then I’ll give you power.”
“……Power?”
“Yeah. Don’t you want to rule the world? With the two of us and our fates, it’s more than possible.”
Rule the world?
“I’ll make you a mighty ruler. How about it?”
Become an absolute alpha male, was that it?
Hmm. Not interested.
Evan felt no pull at all.
Why?
I’m already an absolute alpha male.
Surviving more than a year in this brutal world. That made him a man among men. Honestly he might even be on par with Bear Grylls himself.
Well, he still couldn’t eat bugs raw, but…
“I have no interest in such things.”
“What?”
Evan answered in a completely flat voice that made it clear he felt not the slightest temptation.
“Honor, power, money—none of it interests me.”
Money was the only thing that held any mild appeal. But he already had plenty. His allowance was generous. No need to dance to some little kid’s tune.
“What are you saying? You’re not tempted at all?”
“Correct.”
“Impossible. No one can have that little desire…”
Mid-sentence Super’s eyes went round.
He hadn’t noticed before, but a strange pattern was etched into her pupils. The shape itself wasn’t clear—more like looking through a mosaic filter.
Weird.
In a world where magic, monsters, and gods all existed for real, mosaic-patterned eyes were only mildly interesting.
While Evan stared straight into them, Super’s hands began to tremble.
“……Impossible.”
“?”
“I can’t read anything…?”
“Read what, exactly?”
“Y-you. You’re not some kind of doll, are you?”
“What kind of—”
A doll? That was a pretty rude thing to say to a person.
Wait… does she mean I’m that good-looking?
In that case, fair enough.
“Then why can’t I read a single thing…? Huh?”
Super’s eyes flew wide and she shuddered hard.
“You… where are you looking right now…?”
“At your eyes.”
Hmm. A compliment would probably help here.
“They’re quite beautiful.”
“!!”
Super jerked as if she had been electrocuted.
“Th… you… uh…”
She stammered. This was a side of her that never appeared even in the game. Was it because she was still young? A completely unfamiliar sight. Maybe she was just young like Lapis. She was so tense she kept fumbling her words.
He should probably help her relax a little.
To stay this calm even in front of a Sin…
Yep. Absolute alpha male confirmed.
Evan felt quietly proud of himself and opened his mouth.
“What is your name?”
“……Super.”
“I am Evan. If it isn’t too forward of me, may I ask how you came to be here?”
“……Just by chance.”
“I see.”
She clearly didn’t want to talk about it. He didn’t press. No point in needlessly upsetting her.
It definitely wasn’t because he was scared. He was simply respecting her personal thoughts. Respect.
Suddenly Super bit her lip hard and asked,
“……You didn’t pull some kind of trick on me, did you?”
“?”
Evan looked at her as if she were spouting nonsense. His golems and potions were all sitting quietly. What kind of trick?
Don’t tell me she’s getting some weird idea…
Evan’s tastes did not run to little kids like this.
Lapis approached with an almost leisurely expression and patted Super’s shoulder.
“Super. Calm down. I was right, wasn’t I?”
“But…”
“You don’t feel any impulses right now, do you?”
“…….”
Pride, and Wrath.
He didn’t know what those felt like, but apparently the impulses sometimes subsided.
“You can have this peace.”
“……That’s…”
“So come play with us. Okay?”
Lapis beamed like a little child and swung Super’s hands back and forth.
“You must have had a hard time.”
Evan answered half-heartedly, not particularly caring whether Super came along or not.
“Do as you please. Follow wherever your heart leads.”
“……As I please?”
“Yes.”
He had planned to say goodbye and part ways from the start. That was why he told her to do whatever she wanted.
“You are free.”
Crack!
He Understood the rope’s material and Disassembled it, making the bindings vanish. Super watched for a moment, then nodded.
Wait—why?
“……Fine. Cross-verification is necessary, after all. All right.”
“Yay! Hehe. Evan! You wanted to bring this kid along, right?”
No, I didn’t.
Meeting one Sin under the guise of coincidence was already enough with Lapis. Collecting more Sins? He wasn’t some actual mastermind—why would he gather them?
From the looks of it, most of the Sins were young. If he collected them all it would basically be an orphanage…
Wait. An orphanage?
Not bad, actually?
Call it an orphanage, but in reality it would be a place that protected them so they wouldn’t get hurt or awaken as Sins. Maybe it would even make conquering this world easier.
There was a reason to prepare. Once might be coincidence, but twice was inevitability, and three times was destiny—or so the saying went. Preparing couldn’t hurt.
If things went well, he might take one step closer to a safer world.
Not a bad idea.
A good idea, even.
He had money, so he would go check it out.
“……Let’s get moving for now.”
“Okay! Super, want some of this?”
“Get that grass away from me.”
“Grass…? But it’s delicious.”
Lapis and Super bickered. Watching them felt oddly like watching friends, and Evan felt a quiet pride. It didn’t show much on his face, though.
Ah, right.
One more thing.
“Number Four. Toss out a few high-grade potions.”
Clink! Clink!
It would be inconvenient if they died, so he kindly threw a few potions their way. That should be enough for them to survive on their own.
Rumble.
The carriage started moving again.
“Dolf.”
Evan asked quietly,
“How much money do I currently have?”
“Pardon? Enough to buy roughly one mansion, I’d say!”
Good.
Decision made.
“But why the money, Young Master?”
“I intend to establish an orphanage.”
A place where Sins might stay in the future.
Evan swallowed the rest of the thought. It was better if he alone knew any plans beyond that.
A few days later, Evan returned to the ducal estate.
The first thing he felt upon returning was just how fast rumors traveled in this world.
A strange rumor was spreading through the Alcarte territory.
“……There’s a rumor going around that I came back early because I was dissatisfied with the supply of experimental subjects?”
“Yes…”
What kind of nonsense was this?
Bluebeard the Count, was this how he repaid him? Evan had even spared the man’s life!
I’m disappointed in you, Blue Count!
Maybe he should just go set that beard on fire.
Evan was grinding his teeth over the ridiculous rumor when—
“Evan, Evan!”
“……I really want to burn every last carrot.”
Lapis, who had been forcibly pushing a vegetarian diet on Super, pointed out the window.
“There’s a huge carriage coming!”
……Oh, for the love of— good heavens.
This time Evan’s shock was visible even on his face.
The head of House Alcarte.
The true power behind the underworld.
Evan’s father.
Duke Alcarte was returning to the mansion after several months away.