Chapter 197
Chapter 197
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 197
Chapter Title: Well-fed Hypocrisy and Hungry Goodness (1)
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“Well then, I will take this child so he can be properly punished. You two may go.”
Damian turned to Oh-jin and Ha-eun with a faint smile.
“You’re not going to help him?”
Oh-jin asked, his eyes sunken and deep as he stared at the man.
“If you’re Cheonseonseong, you should more than have the ability to help.”
“…So you knew who I was.”
“You’re so famous it would be strange not to know.”
Next to Oh-jin, who nodded nonchalantly, Ha-eun stared at Damian with a shocked expression.
“Ch-Cheonseonseong? Th-then, aren’t you one of the Seven Stars?”
Ha-eun looked flustered, as if she hadn’t expected it at all.
Then again, contrary to the grand title of Seven Stars, Damian’s appearance was utterly ordinary.
People often failed to recognize celebrities with distinct features in person, so it was only natural not to recognize someone with a face as common as Damian’s.
“Yes, that is correct. Providing this child with financial aid would not be difficult for me.”
Damian nodded.
However, he continued in a low voice.
“Even so, I cannot help a sinner out of mere pity. If I did, what would that make of the others who live diligently without committing crimes?”
He was right.
Excessively so.
“There are many good people in this world groaning in pain. To help this child would be an insult to them.”
“I see.”
Oh-jin nodded.
His words were so full of righteous principle that there was no room for rebuttal.
‘So this is the Sword of Justice.’
Upright without a single speck of dust.
Righteous without a single flaw.
He was not swayed by human sentiment, but rather followed his convictions to the letter.
More than the pain, the despair, the cries of the weak.
What mattered to him was the absolute value of ‘goodness’.
“I understand perfectly.”
Oh-jin let out a smirk and turned away.
“Then I’ll leave the boy in your care.”
“Yes.”
Leaving Damian behind, he pulled Ha-eun’s arm.
“W-Wait a minute, Oh-jin!”
Ha-eun followed him with a flustered look.
“Are you just going to leave him like that?! It’s obvious what’ll happen if he gets dragged away by the police!”
From Oh-jin’s perspective, he couldn’t care less what happened to a boy whose name he didn’t even know.
But for the kind-hearted Ha-eun, the life of a boy she’d just met seemed quite important.
And.
If it was important to her, then it was important to Oh-jin.
“I’ll ask Isabella to contact the police later. I’ll also look into it separately and make sure he gets money for the medicine.”
“Ah… th-thank you.”
Ha-eun, her head hot with anger, hadn’t thought of that method and nodded with an awkward expression.
She glanced back at Damian dragging the boy away and narrowed her eyes.
“Anyway, you said that guy was Cheonseonseong?”
“Yeah. He should be.”
“They call him the Sword of Justice or whatever, but he’s just a damn stiff, that one.”
“Well… he wasn’t exactly wrong.”
Just excessively righteous.
There was nothing to criticize about Damian’s actions themselves.
After all, having a sick mother couldn’t justify stealing someone else’s wallet.
“That’s true, but.”
Ha-eun scratched her head, looking frustrated.
“From an outsider’s perspective, what we’re doing might seem hypocritical.”
Shielding a criminal out of cheap pity could be called hypocrisy, and there’d be no arguing it.
However.
“At least, I think well-fed hypocrisy is better than hungry goodness.”
Hungry goodness can’t save anyone.
But well-fed hypocrisy can save at least one person.
Even if it isn’t ‘just’.
It was better than no one being saved at all.
“…That’s so like you.”
Ha-eun smirked and lightly ruffled Oh-jin’s hair.
“This is why I like my Oh-jin, you know?”
“I get it, so let’s just hurry up and find a bar.”
“Okay.”
Oh-jin led Ha-eun toward a bar.
***
After drinking heartily with Ha-eun, Oh-jin returned to the mansion.
While Ha-eun went in to wash up first, Oh-jin took a light stroll outside the mansion to clear his head from the alcohol.
“Hm?”
A familiar figure caught Oh-jin’s eye as he walked.
“Isabella?”
It was Isabella, whom he hadn’t even seen for several days.
“Ah… Mr. Oh-jin?”
Isabella, who was sitting on a bench in the garden, turned her head upon spotting him.
Her face was so steeped in deep fatigue that it was clearly visible even in the middle of the night.
“Are you okay? You look exhausted.”
“I’m fine.”
Isabella offered a faint smile and shifted slightly on the bench to make room for Oh-jin.
Sitting next to her, he studied her complexion.
Despite her words, she looked anything but fine.
‘Is the curse getting worse?’
And this was in the middle of the night, not during the day when the sun was out.
Her condition seemed more serious than he had thought.
“I heard you went sightseeing in the city with Ms. Ha-eun today.”
“Huh? Who told you?”
“Hehe. No matter how busy I am, I’m kept informed of your every move, you know?”
Isabella said with a bright smile, then continued.
“I should have been the one to guide you… I apologize.”
“No, it’s fine. More importantly, how’s work?”
With such a major incident, cleaning up the aftermath must not have been easy.
“Dismissing my uncle, Guilford… gathering the bereaved families to apologize… it’s been hectic.”
“It’s not all your responsibility.”
The incident at San Fruttuoso was a disaster, like an earthquake or a typhoon.
At least, that’s how it was known to the public.
It was one thing for Guilford to be punished for negligence, but it made no sense for Isabella, who was just there for a visit, to take all the responsibility.
“Still, I am the next head of the Colagrande family.”
“Being from a noble family isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
“With power comes responsibility.”
Isabella looked up at the night sky with a bitter smile.
“I’m sorry. I invited you here, and then something like this happened.”
“It’s fine. I’m getting some good rest.”
“…Thank you.”
Isabella gently placed her hand on the back of Oh-jin’s and smiled faintly.
“It’s late, so you should go in and rest. You’ve barely slept these past few days, haven’t you?”
Oh-jin said, looking at Isabella, who was as limp as a blanched bean sprout.
Isabella nodded and stood up.
“Yes. Will you be staying out a little longer, Mr. Oh-jin?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I’ll head in first to rest.”
Isabella walked away.
Left alone, Oh-jin sat on the bench and looked up at the night sky.
*Trrrring.*
Just then, Oh-jin’s smartphone rang.
‘Right, it should be about time for a call.’
It went without saying.
Oh-jin hadn’t just been playing around for the past week.
He had entrusted a reliable informant with investigating the source of the Sacred Relic fragment he’d found in the cracks of the collapsed underwater cave.
“Hello.”
-This is Lanzoni.
Paolo Lanzoni.
He was the informant who had helped him once before when he came to Rome looking for Isabella.
“What happened with the investigation I requested?”
-It took some effort, but… I found it.
Oh-jin’s eyes glinted sharply.
“Where did the Sacred Relic come from?”
-The Colagrande family.
“…Excuse me?”
The Sacred Relic that caused the Dragon Vein to rampage belonged to the Colagrande family?
-I’m certain. The records were almost completely erased, but… it is indeed an explosive-type Sacred Relic that the Colagrande family acquired themselves in the past.
“……”
If that was the case, did it mean that the Colagrande family was responsible for making the Dragon Vein rampage, causing thousands, tens of thousands of monsters to pour out of the gate?
‘Why?’
He couldn’t understand.
It might make sense if the location was managed by a rival family.
But what kind of madman would plant and detonate a bomb in their own front yard?
-Mr. Oh-jin?
“Ah, yes. Thank you. I’ll send the payment your way later.”
-Yes. Understood.
*Click.*
The call ended.
Oh-jin closed his eyes and sank into thought.
If the Dragon Vein’s rampage was staged by the Colagrande family…
‘It wasn’t Isabella’s doing.’
There was no reason for her to cause the Dragon Vein to rampage while her own condition was worsening to the point where the curse’s effects lingered even in the middle of the night.
“…Wait a minute.”
As Oh-jin continued his train of thought, his brow furrowed.
‘When did Isabella’s condition get so bad?’
On the first day, when he had eavesdropped on her conversation with Roberto, she had definitely said she ‘gets better at night’.
But what about her condition now?
The sun had set long ago, yet she looked even worse than when he’d seen her on the beach that first day.
‘She used her power.’
To stop the surging tide of monsters, she had used the Stigma of Geomeorijari.
And she did it in broad daylight, when she was most vulnerable to the curse.
“Ha.”
A dry laugh escaped Oh-jin’s lips.
“Right… so that’s what happened.”
He covered his face with his hands and bit his lip.
-The hope that one day… like a miracle, all the resentment and misunderstandings will be resolved, and we might be able to go back to how things were.
The night the moon had risen high.
Her words, spoken with a sorrowful smile, echoed in his mind.
“Looks like you can’t… go back to how things were.”
Oh-jin muttered with a sigh.
Even though he knew.
Even though he had expected it.
There was a bitter taste in his mouth.
“Tsk.”
He clicked his tongue and rose to his feet.
Now that he knew who had caused the Dragon Vein to rampage, it was time to move.
‘The mastermind.’
Concealing his presence, he entered the mansion.
He had already familiarized himself with the mansion’s layout over the past week.
Without hesitation, Oh-jin headed toward the room of Isabella’s father and the current head of the Colagrande family, Paulo Colagrande.
Standing before the firmly shut door, he activated the Stigma of Sanyanggaejari.
‘Hm?’
Paulo should have been in his room at this hour, but there was a suspicious lack of sound.
‘Is it blocked by some kind of barrier?’
Oh-jin reached out a hand and lightly touched the door.
Just as he thought, a regular flow of mana enveloped Paulo’s door.
‘I’ll have to break through the barrier first.’
It wasn’t a difficult task.
Oh-jin used Transformation to turn part of his body into liquid.
The liquid flowed through the small gap under the door.
If the barrier on the door was meant to keep sounds from leaking out, a simple method like this would be enough to bypass it.
“I apologize for summoning you so late at night.”
“Not at all. Evil does not rest, and neither should we. In fact, it took me some time to shake off my tail.”
“Haha. I’m glad to hear it.”
Besides Paulo, there was another person in the room.
A person with a voice very familiar to Oh-jin.
“Is this all the information you have on the witch?”
“Yes. The witch uses our family’s center to pretend she’s protecting the gypsies, while secretly and cruelly draining their blood.”
“…What a filthy hypocrite.”
Damian gripped the sword at his waist, his eyes burning with deep anger.
“I will execute her at once.”
“No. It would be best to wait until tomorrow.”
Paulo’s eyes gleamed as a foul smile played on his lips.
“Tomorrow, when the sun is at its highest. At the time when that witch is at her weakest… let us carry out the execution.”
“Understood. I shall return tomorrow, then.”
Oh-jin, who had been leaning against the door eavesdropping on their conversation, turned and moved away before Damian could come out.
*Thud, thud.*
Walking down the dark corridor, he let the corners of his mouth lift into a smirk.
‘A filthy hypocrite, you say.’
Isabella’s filthy hypocrisy created homes for thousands, tens of thousands.
‘In that case.’
Who has your clean goodness saved?