Chapter 428: The Seven Heavenly Virtues (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 428: The Seven Heavenly Virtues (5)
After packing my bags and leaving the hotel, I saw a line of buses and limousines parked along the road. They were vehicles provided by the Chinese government for our return to Beijing.
The Hunters were given custom-made buses with seats that rivaled first class, while the representatives from each nation—the Saintess, Han Ju-hee, and Son Si-woo—were provided with limousines.
“Hunter Kim Do-jin, this way, please.”
The lady-in-waiting who had relayed the Saintess's invitation earlier called to me from the front of the lead limousine.
“You can give me your luggage and get in.”
“Thanks.”
“Of course.”
I handed her my small suitcase and stepped inside the car. She was sitting in a seat far more spacious than any normal vehicle, and she greeted me.
“Welcome.”
The interior was pleasant and cozy. It was also completely private, partitioned off from the driver's seat.
I could see why she wanted to talk to me on the way to Beijing. No one could eavesdrop on us inside a moving car.
“Pardon me.”
As I sat down next to her, she suddenly congratulated me.
“Congratulations.”
I was confused about what she was congratulating me for, so she elaborated.
“You just became an S-rank, didn't you?”
“…How did you know?”
I hadn't told anyone yet, wanting it to be a surprise. How did she find out?
“Let's just say I could feel it.”
“Ah…”
Her senses must be far sharper than most people's. I hadn't said anything, but I also hadn't bothered to conceal my aura. Someone with keen senses could have easily deduced it from the change in my presence.
“The youngest S-rank Hunter… I have high hopes for your future.”
“With the Saintess's expectations, I suppose I'll have to work even harder.”
We continued with some light small talk, the atmosphere pleasant as I responded to her praise.
Then, the limousine, which had been parked, finally started moving toward Beijing.
The distance was considerable, but the journey would take two to three hours at most. We had taken public roads on the way here for secrecy, but on the return trip, we would be speeding along an exclusive, clear highway all the way to Beijing.
That meant we didn't have as much time to talk as I'd thought.
As if she knew this as well, the moment our limousine pulled onto the quiet, exclusive highway, she changed the subject entirely.
“Hunter Kim Do-jin.”
“Yes, Saintess.”
“To be honest, I'm still hesitant about whether it's right to tell you this.”
Her voice, seeping through her veil, was laced with a thick layer of anxiety.
What in the world is she trying to say?
I did my best to hide my curiosity and waited for her to continue. The Saintess spoke again.
“You asked me once if I could read people's minds.”
“…I did.”
“I can't read minds. However, I can read something similar.”
She took a breath and continued.
“I can see a person's disposition. Good and evil… and the countless emotions intertwined with them. I use that to make deductions. For instance, 'Ah, this person must be thinking this right now.'”
“So… the rumors about you are at least partially true.”
I didn't know where they'd started, but there had been a rumor circulating about the Saintess for a while—that her eyes could discern the good and evil within a person.
“Yes, that's right.”
“I see.”
A chill ran down my spine.
I couldn't help but wonder: in her eyes, which side did I fall on?
As if reading my mind, she answered.
“Hunter Kim Do-jin… you are a very unusual person.”
“…I am?”
“Yes. The soul I see in you is slowly being stained black.”
A soul being stained black… That doesn't sound like the color of a good person.
“…Are you saying I'm evil?”
The Saintess shook her head.
“It's still difficult to make a definitive judgment. You haven't reached the stage of an evil person whose soul is completely black. I can only… speculate.”
I could feel her gaze fixed on my face from behind her veil.
“I speculate that some emotion or desire, something beyond the bounds of common sense, is surging within you, and that you are fighting to resist it.”
“……”
Her answer was too ambiguous to be called either right or wrong.
The first part was correct. It was true that ever since I'd gotten this body, I had crossed the lines of common sense for the sake of my own freedom and to obtain what I wanted.
But the second part was wrong.
I had never once tried to fight those feelings.
Of course, I tried to restrain any excessive greed, but calling that 'fighting' felt like a stretch.
“That was why I specifically requested you as my escort.”
“……”
“I was curious about what kind of person you were.”
I knew it. I'd felt like I was being tested several times during the escort mission. So that was why.
I asked her, “So, what kind of person did you find me to be, Saintess?”
She replied in a calm tone.
“A person with an indomitable will.”
She didn't stop there.
“Someone who could be a great boon to the world if good, but a great threat if evil.”
“……”
“So I decided. If you were being consumed by evil, I would set you right. If you were fighting the evil within you, I would help you win.”
What the hell?
“…It sounds like either way, you want to make sure I stay firmly in the realm of good. Am I hearing you correctly?”
“Yes, that's right.”
“Uh, well.”
…That's a strange conclusion. Normally in a situation like this, wouldn't you eliminate someone who seems destined for evil and extend a hand to someone who's good?
“I understand your confusion. But that is the conclusion I have reached.”
A question popped into my head. “…What exactly led you to that conclusion?”
She answered immediately.
“If you were an irredeemable villain, or even had the potential to be one, you wouldn't have wrecked your body fighting Lu Bu for the sake of a business deal.”
“…Ah.”
“Nor would you have rushed in, ready to accept any condition just to save a single life.”
She had a point, but I felt strange.
I was being told, ‘You’re still a good person,’ so why did I feel so unsettled?
“I still don't know if you're good or evil. But I became certain of one thing while watching you during this operation.”
“And what's that?”
“That you're an altruistic person who always looks after their comrades.”
Well… she's not wrong. But her answers all felt like they were missing something.
I was debating whether to correct her or just let her continue with her misunderstanding when she spoke again.
“There's something I must tell a person like you.”
“Please, go on.”
The Saintess opened her mouth, her tone becoming incredibly grave.
“There is a faction of evil that threatens the world from the shadows, hidden from sight.”
The shadows. A faction of evil.
The thought of Hexagram naturally came to mind, and she continued.
“Hexagram, which you dragged into the light, is merely one part of it. The true root lies elsewhere.”
Her words made me frown.
“A root… you say?”
A root of evil that surpasses Hexagram? Just thinking about those bastards is enough to give me a headache, and now there's something even worse?
She nodded cautiously and continued her explanation.
“Hunter Kim Do-jin, have you ever heard the term 'Seven Deadly Sins'?”
For a moment, I thought I was hearing things.
It felt like my heart had just dropped to the floor with a thud.
Thankfully, it was still in my chest, but its beat began to quicken. I forced a calm expression to hide my reaction and spoke.
“…The Seven Deadly Sins, you mean.”
“Pride, Avarice, Envy, Wrath, Lust, Sloth… and Greed.”
“……”
“The seven sinful emotions defined in the holy scriptures that lead humans to sin.”
The blood rushed faster through my veins.
“There are individuals who have been granted the title of Apostle by the very source of these sins. They are despicable beings who seek to stain the world with sin and turn it into a paradise for sinners.”
I struggled to remain calm.
The fact that she knew about the Seven Deadly Sins was astonishing.
However, after a moment's thought, I realized the situation wasn't threatening to me in the slightest.
The very fact that she was explaining the term 'Seven Deadly Sins' to me meant she didn't know.
She didn't know that I was an Apostle chosen by Gula, the Goddess of Greed—one of the Sins.
No.
For her to be telling me something so critical meant more than just her not knowing my identity. It meant she had completely ruled me out as a suspect. It meant she trusted me.
She clasped her hands to her chest and spoke again.
“I… We were born to fight them and protect the world.”
I focused on the word she'd used.
She had clearly said ‘we’.
Which meant…
“‘We’ means… you're not alone, Saintess.”
“Yes, that's right. Just as they were chosen by sin, we were chosen by God.”
She took a moment to compose herself, then continued.
“Humility, Charity, Kindness, Patience, Chastity, Diligence… and Temperance.”
As I mulled over the words she listed, I noticed something. Each one was the complete opposite of the Seven Deadly Sins she'd mentioned before.
I knew the term for them, too. It was a word I'd come across while researching the Sins.
What was it again?
I dredged up the hazy memory and finally managed to voice it.
“The Seven Heavenly Virtues…?”
She nodded, as if I'd given the right answer.
“That's right. I am the Apostle chosen by Caritas, the Goddess of Charity.”
It was finally starting to make sense—the source of her healing abilities, which were on a completely different level from anyone else's.
I felt as if I had successfully peeled back a layer of the enigma that was the Saintess.
A thrill ran through me at grasping a secret no one else knew, but at the same time, a considerable shock rattled my mind.
If she was right, the Seven Heavenly Virtues and the Seven Deadly Sins saw each other as enemies.
So why the hell were the Apostles of the Sins so busy fighting each other when they should have been hunting down the Apostles of the Virtues?
I was still trying to wrap my head around their incomprehensible behavior when she spoke again.
“Can you guess… why I've confided all this in you, Hunter Kim Do-jin?”
She reached her hand out to me.
“Please. Help me… help us, Hunter Kim Do-jin.”
It seems the world is spinning in a very interesting way.
No.
Maybe it's just going insane.