Hypocrite (3)
“No… I don’t.”
There was no way there could have been. If I’d even entertained that thought once, I wouldn’t have handled things this way.
This wasn’t a decision I’d made after weighing a dozen different possibilities.
“You have to think before you act. A pebble thrown for fun can still kill frogs. Hell, if I so much as cough, there are plenty of people who’d lose their heads for it.”
“……”
“You always have to think about exactly where you’re standing, and exactly how much shock your words will send through the world. People like us, especially. Ah, have a drink.”
“No… I’m not drinking, Vice Guild Master.”
“I just said that because I’d feel awkward if I were the only one getting drunk. I’ll formally request escort from the lord’s castle, so please just keep me company.”
“Then just a little….”
“Thanks for humoring me. Anyway, that’s what I’m saying. If I were in your shoes, Hyejin, I’d have made a much uglier mess of it. Someone as capable as you must have thought about doing the same, at least once.”
“What do you mean by that….”
“You know very well that internal whistleblowing alone doesn’t solve anything, don’t you? You deal with it properly from the inside out and then cut off the heads of Song Jungwook and the rest of your little colleagues. The guild would keep running normally, and none of the staff would have been harmed, so there’d be no problem.”
“……”
“Personally, I’m guessing you did think about that option once or twice.”
You’re not stupid.
“The reason you didn’t go that far was probably because you didn’t want conflict with your old comrades. You didn’t want to cut off their heads, but you wanted to keep your own conscience clean. So you chose internal whistleblowing as a compromise. Am I wrong? My delusion? I tried talking it through with you in all sorts of ways, but it didn’t work, so in the end you went with the last resort, didn’t you?”
A strange silence settled over the room.
It had been quiet already, but now it felt as if the whole hall had gone even stiller.
Jung Hayan, oblivious, was chewing away at her food while staring at Cho Hyejin, but the person in question was only sipping her liquor in silence.
Silence is an answer.
When I opened my mouth again, the reply came almost immediately.
“In the end, they abandoned you.”
“That’s not an appropriate way to put it.”
“No, I’m right. This is the first time I’ve ever seen someone called Song Jungwook from Small Rock, but I can pretty much guess what he’s like. Ah, and your friends from the tutorial too.”
“What….”
“They’re greedy people. The kind who never stop trying to climb higher. They probably don’t care much about conscience or morality. More money, more power, more wealth—that’s what people like that want.”
“That’s not something you can conclude so easily.”
“They’re very different from you. I’m sure they worked behind the scenes to push you out. First, by spreading ugly rumors in Castle Rock. Second, by asking other guilds and clans not to take you in. Being interrupted during their own event probably didn’t sit well with them.”
“I already… know things like that.”
“I heard all kinds of stories from here and there. That Cho Hyejin was the type who used her body to seize her current power, or that she frequently clashed with other guild members and so on. It’s really absurd, isn’t it? They’re still doing the same childish crap they did back in school. I’m not sure if they’re trying to play bully or what, but kids and adults are equally petty.”
“Those are just baseless rumors. I don’t even care about them.”
“A rumor packaged well enough can become the truth. In the end, because of those rumors, your position and reputation were both wrecked. How does it feel to have kindness repaid with betrayal?”
“I’m honestly not bothered by it. I expected this.”
“Then how do you feel about your own choice? About dodging conflict and ending up here, having solved nothing? People call that hypocrisy.”
“It’s not hypocrisy!”
Bang!
The things on the table went flying in all directions with the sound.
She was breathing hard, clearly agitated. It was a little sudden, but the fact that she reacted like that meant I’d probably hit the mark.
The one more startled than I was Jung Hayan.
She jumped to her feet at once, but when I gently took her hand, she sat back down with a thump.
“No one else, maybe, but you don’t have the right to say that, Vice Guild Master Lee Kiyoung. You’re the hypocrite.”
“Ah.”
“I’m not stupid. I know very well that the stories people tell about you and the real you are completely different.”
“You’re sharp.”
I didn’t think she’d realized…
“So?”
“What do you mean, so?”
“I understand what you’re trying to say, Hyejin. It’s true that I’m not exactly a saint. The businesses I run and the work I actually do all sit neatly on the edge of the law. So what do you want me to do about it?”
“That’s what real hypocrisy is, Vice Guild Master Lee Kiyoung.”
“I donate tens of thousands of gold to the Holy See every month.”
“……”
“That money gets distributed all over the Holy Empire and becomes a fund that helps struggling imperial believers and free citizens having trouble settling down.”
“That’s all?”
“Hardly. I also run a free soup kitchen in the slums of Lindel. You remember Manager Kim Miyoung from the guild, don’t you? Until not long ago, she was a destitute woman in the slums, surviving day to day by begging. She was raising two children while drowning in poverty. Who do you think pulled her out of that?”
“That’s….”
“And she isn’t the only one. Blue doesn’t discriminate when it comes to talent. Disabled people, single mothers, warriors carrying lasting injuries from battle—my order was that none of them should be turned away. Of course, it also benefits Blue, but that in itself is a massive social contribution.”
“How do you explain the fact that you’ve been manipulating the media in cooperation with large guilds?”
“You know more than I expected.”
“I just picked it up naturally. You see things you don’t want to see when you work in a guild.”
“Is there some law in the Holy Empire saying individuals can’t control the media?”
“The Holy Empire still doesn’t fully understand the very concept of media that you created, Lee Kiyoung. To them, media is just a bulletin. Most people don’t understand the seriousness of what you’re doing right now.”
She was pretty sharp. No, really sharp.
“Vice Guild Master, this is a matter of basic common sense. What you’re doing now is wrong.”
“Hmm. Then why is it that you won’t say anything about the problems within the Holy Empire itself?”
“What are you talking about….”
“Why are you turning a blind eye to aristocratic privilege and monarchy, systems that believe fate is decided from birth? If you think about it, aren’t those just as unacceptable by Earth’s standards as you said before?”
“That’s because their lives….”
“If you really wanted to uphold morality, shouldn’t you be starting a French Revolution here and now? Lady Marlin might even be saying, ‘If there’s no bread, just eat cake.’ She might not give a damn about the slums in Castle Rock at all. Why don’t you lead the people and build a guillotine while you’re at it?”
“That’s… sophistry.”
“I’m aware of that to some extent. Yes, it is sophistry. But in a situation like this, sophistry is only natural. The boundaries of the law itself are incredibly vague to begin with. Whether to follow the common sense of Earth or the common sense of this continent is something all free citizens struggle with.”
“That’s sophistry too.”
“If you try to act according to your individual conscience, there are far too many overlapping value systems to account for. Just take the death penalty, for example. Isn’t burning criminals alive unethical? Ito Souta, that Japanese man, was accused of demon worship and drowned inside a statue stuffed with holy water. Isn’t that unethical?”
“……”
“The death penalty itself is unethical. And yet, here, things like that happen all the time. So let’s think about it again. Who’s more hypocritical?”
“That’s sophistry….”
“Me, living within the law’s boundaries and contributing to this society. Or you, Hyejin, who ran away in the form of an internal whistleblower because you were afraid of clashing with your comrades. Which of us is more of a hypocrite?”
“……”
“I’m not trying to win an argument here, Hyejin.”
“It doesn’t look that way to me. Anyone can see that you’re picking a fight with me, Vice Guild Master.”
“This is the sort of conversation and debate that often comes up over drinks. Let’s just think of it as an exchange of opinions. I’m not poisoning you and then pretending to give you medicine, though to be honest, you don’t look all that bad to me, Hyejin. Having the conviction to defend your own beliefs is admirable.”
“If you’re just making fun of me….”
“No. I’m not making fun of you. You’re more the kind of person who fits Hyunsung than me, but I admire people who stick to that sort of path. The upright ones.”
“You sure have a funny way of saying that.”
“My role is to help the upright stay unbroken.”
“Vice Guild Master Lee Kiyoung….”
“I’m a useful man. Ah, let’s steer this back around and talk about Song Jungwook again. If, hypothetically, they’re still involved in illegal monster trading and the slave trade involving other races, and if I had a way to cut off their heads, what would you do?”
Her expression turned serious.
“I think I could take revenge for you.”
She really did look serious.
Cho Hyejin usually had a face like stone, but now she genuinely seemed to be considering a lot of things.
And the kind of thoughts she was having were obvious.
I already knew what choice she’d make. By this point, crying for revenge didn’t suit Cho Hyejin at all.
“I don’t need help. Vice Guild Master should just… do the work of the Vice Guild Master.”
“Ah. I see.”
“I’m sorry, but I’d like to leave first. I’ll ask the knights in the lord’s castle to arrange an escort separately. I apologize.”
Cho Hyejin sprang to her feet, and I caught sight of her as she turned to leave.
Apparently she’d taken it very badly.
I hadn’t meant to make her feel bad, but I figured there was enough in what I’d said to leave a lot of things stabbing at her heart.
Hypocrite.
It’s a word that suits her pretty well. She probably knows it herself, too. That must be why her face is all twisted up.
She wants to enact justice, but she doesn’t want her comrades to go astray.
There probably isn’t another sucker like that anywhere. As Cho Hyejin started walking away, Jung Hayan casually opened her mouth.
“She’s such a selfish person. She says she’ll escort you and then leaves first….”
“Hm?”
“Hyejin!”
“Aah. Don’t hate her too much. She’s only like that because she’s so kind.”
“But still….”
“Besides, even if she’s acting that way now, by later she’s supposed to become a very close friend.”
“Huh?”
“Friends are supposed to become close after fighting, after all.”
[The unique quirk of Player Cho Hyejin has been identified.]
Flower Blooming in Friendship
That’s right. Friends are supposed to become close after fighting.
Friend!