The Reason He Became So Cruel
"Ah... ahhh... Sister... ah..."
Roy felt a complex swirl of emotions at the sound of his sister's screams. There was the guilt of knowing she was suffering because of him, the regret that none of this would have happened if they hadn't entered the Black Market in the first place, and the bitter resentment of wondering why they had to be the ones to suffer such a fate.
"Stooop!!!!"
"No!! This is the time Roy dumped onto you!! Even if you tell me to stop, I won't!!!"
"Kyahhh!!!! Roy!!! Save me!!!"
Roy bowed his head, trying desperately not to hear Helen's screams.
"Sister... I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry... *sob*... I'm sorry..."
He shook his head violently, trying to escape the sound of his sister dying, offering apologies she couldn't possibly hear. Meanwhile, Helen, who was watching the scene, shed tears. She opened her mouth and screamed again. She was acting out her agony. She was giving the performance of a lifetime, just as she had been ordered.
'I'm sorry... Roy...'
What Jojun was currently tearing apart was a captured parasitic human. Jojun, who highly valued Helen's 'Crisis Detection' ability, had given her instructions before entering the room: act as if you are in as much pain as possible. Scream, pretend to be in agony. This was an order.
She shrieked as if she were being tortured and couldn't bear it any longer. There was no other way. As someone who had already become Jojun's slave, she could not refuse his orders. The structure of the command was such that even if she tried to resist, an agonizing pain would assault her, forcing her to scream.
"Stop!! Stooop!!!"
When it became Helen's turn to be 'tortured,' she shouted "stop" as ordered after a certain amount of time had passed. Then, Roy would curse his sister. He screamed at her, asking why she couldn't hold out. But when his own turn came, he would scream for it to stop, dumping the pain back onto his sister. In this way, Roy alone remained ignorant, apologizing, hating, and hurting. Alone, soaked in pain, sorrow, and rage, he began to break.
And finally, Roy took the last step.
"Kill me!!! Just kill me instead!!!! Kill her!!!!"
It meant he had completely abandoned his sister. In the end, Roy had succumbed, and he was in despair. Jojun sliced the throat of the parasitic human he had been tormenting. Roy, his eyes covered, wept silently at the sound of the flesh being torn.
"Here, take it. It's your sister's head."
Jojun tossed the parasitic human's head onto Roy's lap. At the weight of the heavy head, Roy wailed sorrowfully, snot running down his face. He sobbed that he was sorry, that he couldn't protect her. Roy mistook the head for Helen's, apologizing to his sister, saying he was sorry he couldn't hold out because it hurt too much. He even comforted the dead head, telling her it was lucky that the pain had ended thanks to him.
Roy collapsed. Helen felt a complex emotion watching him. She thought that if she had been in the same situation, she wouldn't have been able to endure it either. Sensing the fate that would soon befall Roy, Helen quietly closed her eyes. Her 'Crisis Detection' let out a scream that went beyond a mere warning, directed toward the abyss beginning to gather in Jojun's grasp.
Indikron smiled. For the finale, Jojun removed the blindfold from the weeping Roy.
"Huh?"
Roy couldn't understand the situation as he saw his sister standing there, looking perfectly fine and even dressed in new clothes.
"Ta-da! Look, Roy. Your sister actually abandoned you a long time ago. See? You can see her standing on two legs, right? She can walk and run now. In exchange for those legs, your sister sold you out."
Jojun lied without a hint of hesitation. Roy couldn't keep up with the rapidly changing situation. Jojun draped his arm over Helen's shoulder and pulled her close, as if she had already been conquered by him.
"W-wait... what does that..."
"Look down. Does that look like your sister's head?"
"Argh!! What is this... what on earth is..."
"Helen's screams were all an act from the start. She was never tortured. She handed you over to me and was just watching comfortably."
"N-no... no. That can't be. No!!! No!!!!! It's not true!!!! What kind of bullshit is this!!! Sister!!! Sisterrrr!!! Say something!!! What the hell is going on!!! Then why was I the one being tortured!! Sister, why!! Arghhhhh!!!!"
Roy's mental state shattered. He questioned why he had to suffer such a miserable fate. Jojun took off his welding mask, looked at the pathetic creature, and answered his question.
"Helen needed your screams to get those legs."
In truth, that wasn't necessary at all. Filling flesh was enough. Jojun simply wanted to stage a sister who abandoned her brother for her own legs. He thought it would be more effective.
"M-my screams...?"
"Yes, the screams of a human who made a contract with a devil. Honestly, why did you make a contract with a devil like an idiot?"
"W-wait... you needed the screams of a human who... c-contracted with a devil...? And out of all people... you chose me?"
"Because you're the only devil contractor I know. Sorry."
At Jojun's words, Roy couldn't close his mouth. He had voluntarily contracted with Paimon for his sister's sake. From his perspective, it was a sacrifice for her. He had even almost been killed for being a devil-possessed person the moment he returned to their base. Yet, his own sister had sold him out for the condition of getting legs. She had sold her own brother, of all people, because she needed the screams of a devil contractor.
"Fuuuuuuuck!!!!! Die!!!! Die!!! Just all of you die!!!!!"
In the end, Roy went half-mad, rampaging while covered in blood. Incoherent curses and words poured out of his mouth like a possessed man. Seeing this, Jojun felt the time had come.
'The cooking is perfectly finished. That took a long time...'
Feeling tired, he used Abyssal Maw. Soon, a massive darkness gathered behind Roy's back. It was a much larger mass than a standard Abyssal Maw. Just like when he had driven Han Taeyang to despair and offered him up, Indikron opened a gate to harvest Roy's body and soul personally.
"I offer this to you."
Jojun clasped his hands together and offered a prayer to Indikron. Soon, the maddened Roy was sucked into the chair and vanished beyond the abyss.
Hearing Indikron's satisfied voice, Jojun wiped the sweat from his forehead. Furthermore, at the promise to find Paimon—who deserved to die ten times over—Jojun wore a smile of triumph.
'Paimon, I'll definitely kill you when I get the chance. Still... torture is exhausting when it goes on this long. But I'm glad Indikron is satisfied...'
Massaging his stiff shoulders, Jojun approached Helen, who was bowing her head and weeping sorrowfully.
"It's all over now, so you go in too."
At Jojun's emotionless words, Helen, who had been weeping, lifted her head and glared at him with hateful eyes.
"Why... why did you have to... go this far. Why... tell me... why...?"
Helen was on the verge of losing her mind, the face of her brother who had died in madness burned into her brain. Because of that, she didn't even think about the possibility that she might be killed; she just poured out her negative emotions toward Jojun as they came to her.
Jojun listened to Helen's complaints with an expressionless face. Helen still had uses left, so he couldn't just cast her aside even if he was annoyed.
"Haa... fuck... what do you want me to do... I only did it because my God wished for it."
Jojun, who had been calmly taking Helen's outburst, muttered in a slightly irritated voice as her words dragged on. He was already exhausted, and Helen's constant whining was more than he could bear.
"What? God? You mean God wished for this...?"
"That's right. My God, who watches over me, protects me, and guards me. He wished for your brother's miserable death. And I promised to offer it. That's why I put on this show. So stop whining. No, who told you to get caught by me? And if you lose, you have no right to complain about whatever happens to you. Being weak is the sin. And you siblings didn't do anything for me, yet you're making such a fuss. I'm just doing this to make a living, too. Why should I empathize with your pain? Your brother's life isn't the only one that's precious."
Jojun has a fence. A fence he defined for himself. Jojun was a man prepared to break everything else to protect those inside that fence. And Roy and Helen were the wolves that threatened Jojun's fence. That was why Jojun thoroughly broke the wolves that threatened his fence. However, if they were useful, he was willing to make them slaves and keep them alive. Because it was an opportunity to build an even stronger fence. Helen was worth keeping alive.
But Roy, who couldn't even be made a slave because he was a devil contractor and whose abilities were below the threshold, was of little use. Moreover, since Indikron had even told him to offer him up, Jojun had simply done his best in his own way.
"You did such terrible torture just to make a living...? This... this is wrong... Do you think a God who wants the pain and screams of humans... is a normal God...?"
"Well. In my view, there isn't a single normal God in this world, not just the evil ones. Do you think the guys who use eight billion humans as chess pieces are normal? Evil gods or good gods, they're the same. They all agreed to kill billions. This isn't the time to argue about right and wrong. It's meaningless to question a God's morality. So I just followed the God who was kind to me. And that being wished for your brother's miserable death. What am I supposed to do here? I have to fulfill what is wished for."
"..."
"Whew... I understand your feelings well enough. But don't expect me to empathize. Empathizing with others' emotions and living a life full of humanity... is fucking exhausting. I'm tired just standing here, what are you expecting... Whew, just resign yourself. If you want to curse someone, regret crawling into the Black Market. From the moment you entered the Black Market and signed a contract with that cowardly devil bastard called Paimon, your fate was as good as sealed. Isn't it your fault for thinking you'd get through a devil contract safely?"
At Jojun's indifferent words, Helen was dumbfounded. Beyond anger or hatred, the man in front of her even seemed like a creature slightly different from a normal human. Currently, she was trying to shift all the blame onto Jojun because of the sorrow of losing her brother and the fact that she had been involved in his ruin. She felt that was the only way she could hold on. But that attempt failed. Helen just poured out her emotions toward Jojun.
"You... what on earth... are you. Are you even a person like me? After killing someone so cruelly... you... you psychopath. Trash. Crazy bastard. You son of a bitch..."
"I can't deny that. Because it's all true. But your brother, who died without being able to do anything even after signing a contract with a devil, is an even bigger idiot than a piece of trash psychopath like me. So if you don't want to die, stop blabbering and keep your mouth shut. Isn't your 'Crisis Detection' screaming right now? That if you keep blabbering, you'll die."
Helen couldn't say a word to Jojun's threat. Clearly, her 'Crisis Detection' had been telling her for a while. Not to touch him anymore. That nothing good would come of provoking him. Jojun left the room after leaving Helen, who was bowing her head without being able to answer, to Eila and Bella. The fishy scent of blood remained at the tip of his nose, which was slightly unpleasant.