Chapter 550: Mixed Fates (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 550: Mixed Fates (4)
Words I couldn’t believe I was hearing came from his lips.
“You… became… an Apostle of the Seven Deadly Sins?”
“…Yes.”
His head nodded heavily.
She had heard as much from the members of the Raid Team and the Volunteer Group who had braved death alongside him.
That Kim Do-jin had awakened during the battle, and that his energy felt ominous.
That while he had played a major role in everyone returning alive… something had felt off.
She had planned to ask him about it once the situation was somewhat resolved.
Her mind descended into utter chaos.
“I-If this is a joke, please stop.”
She prayed it was.
That it was just a joke.
That he was just trying to lighten the heavy atmosphere.
But he wasn’t.
“……”
Kim Do-jin said nothing, only staring at her with a heavy gaze.
And that made the truth hit even harder.
There was no lie in his words.
She couldn’t believe it.
“H-How… just why…”
The Kim Do-jin reflected in her eyes hadn’t changed much.
A man of both light and shadow.
In other words, he was righteous, but he also knew how to look out for his own interests.
That was what made him seem so human, so trustworthy. That image of him remained perfectly intact.
But to suddenly become an Apostle of the Seven Deadly Sins…
She couldn’t begin to fathom it.
Just what could have happened in that place to cause such a sudden change?
So, she asked.
“Tell me. What happened back then?”
Everything, without leaving a single detail out.
However, there wasn’t much Kim Do-jin could say.
To be precise, he thought he shouldn’t say much.
‘Right now, a few condensed words are better than a lengthy explanation.’
A long explanation was a double-edged sword.
While a grand narrative could establish plausibility, it could also create loopholes by trying to incorporate too much.
“There’s not much to tell, really. It all happened in an instant. However…”
He had to convey it briefly but clearly.
Why he was chosen by the Seven Deadly Sins.
And the reason he accepted that power.
There was only one reason that could make her understand.
“The Goddess of Greed told me. She said she felt an incredibly intense desire from me…”
“An intense desire…?”
Seeing the bitter smile on his face, she realized.
A battlefield where they were pushed to the brink of death.
There was only one intense desire he could have exuded in that place.
“You wanted to save… your comrades.”
Kim Do-jin nodded slowly.
“Yes, that’s right. But… that’s not all.”
“……”
“I wanted to live, too. That might have been the biggest reason.”
Greed, by its very definition, is the coveting of desire.
Kim Do-jin framed his reason for becoming the Apostle of Greed around his comrades.
“I wanted to live, and I wanted to save them. Even if it meant accepting the power of the Seven Deadly Sins that came to me at that moment.”
He clenched his fist.
“The chance we gained by sacrificing even Francis’s life… I absolutely did not want to let it go.”
These words were sincere, which made the acting all the easier.
“So I accepted it.”
It was the best card he could play.
He accepted it to save his comrades.
At the same time, it was a question.
‘Can you blame me, who sacrificed myself to save my comrades?’
…so it went.
At first, he had only planned to hide his power.
But now, he’d had a change of heart.
‘Make them accept me, Kim Do-jin, the Apostle of Greed.’
Now that he had revealed his power in front of his comrades, he was bound to be questioned someday.
Rather than worrying about when he’d be found out, this was better.
‘I need the Guardians.’
That feeling had become more desperate after facing another Apostle of Greed like himself.
That bastard was strong.
And among the Apostles he hadn’t met yet, there had to be some who were even stronger.
The Twilight Guild’s strength alone wasn’t enough to face such powerful enemies.
Even if it were possible, the more the merrier. The more cards you have, the better.
That’s why he was pushing this.
He was muscling his way in, creating a space for an Apostle of the Seven Deadly Sins to breathe within the Guardians.
“I see… so Greed works in such a way…”
The Saintess was lost in thought.
It was a puzzle.
Everyone there would have wanted to save their comrades and themselves.
No matter that they had gathered for world peace, who among them would want to die?
‘But why…’
Why did Greed choose Kim Do-jin, and no one else?
Was it simply because his talent was the most outstanding?
‘No, that’s not it.’
That reason couldn’t be ruled out, but it wouldn’t be the main one.
Then what could it be?
Looking up at Kim Do-jin, she soon found the answer.
‘She must have known, too.’
That among all the people gathered there, the only one who would accept her power was Kim Do-jin.
Francis and the Saintess were cautious, and then some, when accepting comrades.
They were noble people, prepared to sacrifice their very bodies for peace.
Because of that, they also had a somewhat single-minded disposition.
If the Goddess of Greed had made her offer to someone else, how would they have reacted?
‘They would have hesitated, or refused.’
Either way, the result would have been the same.
In that urgent situation, with death at their doorstep.
Whether they hesitated or refused, their comrades would have all been dead by the time they decided.
And if the future had unfolded with such an ending, how would things have turned out?
The Guardians would have suffered damage incomparable to what they faced now.
The Apostle of Greed who survived there would have brought about an even greater disaster.
Thinking of it this way, his choice was excellent.
She could even feel a sense of noble sacrifice.
However.
‘But can he truly remain unchanged?’
She knew it too.
That human desire in itself cannot be a sin.
And also that desire begets more desire, endlessly swelling.
The desires of an ordinary person, no matter how large they grow, cannot threaten the world.
But the man before her was extraordinary.
No, a genius beyond what the word ‘extraordinary’ could express.
What would happen if someone like him began to let his desires swell?
‘Perhaps, before that happens…’
She shuddered at the terrible thought, an ugly idea surfacing before she quickly shook her head.
‘No, no.’
She couldn’t do that.
She couldn’t punish someone who had committed no crime out of fear for a future that hadn’t arrived.
And that made it all the more vexing.
‘Then what on earth should I do…?’
Should she banish him from the Guardians?
Or… should she just keep him by her side like this?
Or perhaps…
“Haaa…”
A deep sigh escaped her, speaking volumes of her inner turmoil.
Kim Do-jin looked down at her, seeing right through the chaos in her mind.
‘She must be conflicted.’
Leaving him be, casting him out, or nipping the bud in advance.
None of those would be an easy choice for her.
For him, it was the best possible situation.
But.
‘It’s still not enough.’
Just one more step.
So, how?
‘Appealing to her to trust me is a poor tactic.’
Appealing to emotion with empty words, asking for trust, could instead arouse suspicion.
In a situation like this, he had to go the opposite way.
“Saintess.”
“…Yes, go on.”
“I… am honestly afraid.”
“What is it that you fear so much?”
He answered her question.
“I accepted this power to save my comrades. I don’t regret that choice one bit. But…”
He used his mana to block some of the blood vessels in his arm.
Just as his arm began to go numb and slowly start convulsing, he spoke.
“I’m afraid of becoming intoxicated by this power and turning into something other than who I am now.”
“Hunter Kim Do-jin…”
He voiced his own doubt.
He did it himself, before she could.
He continued, smiling bitterly.
“It was always true to some extent, but now I’ve become someone who fits in with this group even less.”
“That’s not necessarily—!”
“No. You know it too, Saintess. That I’m not such a righteous person.”
“……”
The Saintess fell silent, unable to find the words.
He stated his ambition to her.
“I want to try using this power… righteously.”
Greatly surprised, the Saintess asked, “The power of Greed… you mean?”
“Yes. The thought suddenly occurred to me. That power itself has no sin. If there’s a problem…”
“…it’s up to the person who wields it… I suppose.”
Just as Kim Do-jin had learned from Gula, the Saintess now learned from Kim Do-jin’s words.
‘Hunter Kim Do-jin is right.’
Power itself doesn’t determine sin.
Good and evil are decided only by the intentions of the one who uses that power.
The power of Greed was the same.
If used for one’s own petty desires, it would surely be a sin, but what if it were the opposite?
If that greed were instead directed toward a righteous path.
The power of the Seven Deadly Sins would naturally weaken, and in turn, their own power would grow stronger.
However.
‘Is such a thing possible?’
A young man in his twenties.
Someone with such extraordinary abilities.
Was it truly possible for him to suppress his own greed?
Kim Do-jin drove into that crack of doubt.
“I won’t be able to cut off all my desires like a monk. I was born an ordinary person, so I like money, I like women… and I like delicious food.”
So.
“Please help me, Saintess. So that my desires do not stray down the wrong path.”
“Ah…”
Seeing her flustered expression, he drove the final nail in.
“If I ever become a monster, you may take my life yourself.”
She could feel it.
The resolve vowing never to change.
And at the same time, the desire struggling to live.
Seeing this, she gave a bitter smile.
‘You don’t change, even in a situation like this.’
He was always like this.
A person who readily agreed with the Guardians’ justice while also thoroughly securing his own profits.
Because of that, she had been very confused at first.
She couldn’t tell which side was his true self, so she couldn’t bring herself to trust him.
But now she knew.
‘Both sides are the man named Kim Do-jin.’
That’s just the kind of person he was.
That’s why he was dangerous, but at the same time, maybe he wouldn’t fall too deeply to one side.
‘Even if that’s not the case, I have to embrace him.’
She belatedly remembered.
Regardless of whether it was possible or not, he was a comrade.
One who had already proven himself by overcoming the brink of death several times.
She didn’t want to lead a group that would abandon a comrade without a second thought.
And so, she made her decision.
“I will help you, Hunter Kim Do-jin.”
As much as she was able.
So that he would not fall into the pit of desire and become corrupted.
“So, will you continue to be with us, just as you have been, Hunter Kim Do-jin?”
He struggled to suppress the twitching corner of his mouth.
‘I did it.’
He cheered inwardly.
He had finally succeeded in digging into the opening in her heart.
Her personality, endlessly soft when it came to her comrades.
Targeting that had been the key.
‘There’s still a long way to go. But…’
He had finally grasped it.
The chance to change the Saintess, and by extension, this entire organization, to his liking.
He wasn’t hoping for anything grand.
A sharp knife to carve out the Seven Deadly Sins—all except for himself—from this world.
That was all he needed.
If there was one more thing…
‘I wonder.’
The face beyond the veil.
Was the Saintess, who craved affection from a human and not a god, any different from other women, or was she the same?
Hiding his base greed deep within his gut so she wouldn’t notice, he tossed out a light joke.
“If I keep going on like this, I don’t know when I might die.”
She responded in kind with a joke of her own.
“Oh my… then would you like to die now?”
“Hahaha, what a joke.”
“Huhu.”
“……”
It is a joke, right?