The Price of Repentance
To put it simply, the conclusion was this:
“Back in my prime, I tell you, I even sliced through the sky and the sea. It’s a shame I can’t show you that now.”
“...It’s fine if you don’t.”
“You don’t believe me, do you?”
“I do. I believe you.”
Jina believed my words so readily it felt almost anticlimactic. She didn’t believe in my god-tier feats, of course—she believed in the simple fact that I had actually been in another world.
“What else are you curious about?”
When I asked, Jina, who had been firing questions at me non-stop, suddenly went quiet. No, she looked like she was deep in thought. After a long, agonizing deliberation, her first words were:
“...You must have had a hard time.”
It was such a simple, plain comfort.
“You worked hard, Oppa.”
For a moment, I thought I’d misheard her. I was used to hearing words devoid of any consideration. After all, I was the first servant of Oranis. In that other world, there was no one who tried to understand me. Oranis was a god, so she was an exception.
“Huh?”
“I said you worked hard.”
Is this what it feels like to be understood by someone? At the sudden comfort, my chest, which had been frozen like stone for ten years, surged with a sudden, searing heat. I felt like crying. No, it wasn’t just tears—my nose started running, too.
“*Sniff*...!”
“A-ah, no, why are you crying!”
Jina seemed flustered by my reaction, jumping up from her seat in surprise.
“I didn’t even cry in the other world, but today, the tears just won’t stop. Come here!”
“Eek!”
I didn’t care if Jina was squirming in my arms; I hugged her tightly, pouring out ten years of longing and sorrow.
“Our Jina, what will Oppa do when you get married?”
“A-are you crazy? Married? Who’s getting married! Let go of me!”
That’s how it is with a younger sister ten years your junior. She was the one person who fit the description of ‘like a daughter’ perfectly.
“Let’s sleep while hugging like we used to!”
“No! I said no!”
As the wall between us crumbled, our relationship quickly recovered, leaping over the ten-year gap.
“I told you not to cling to me!”
I pulled away from the embarrassed Jina and wiped my nose.
“Anything else you’re curious about?”
“I’m not sure. Honestly, it’s still not a story that’s easy to believe...”
“That’s true.”
Having satisfied her curiosity about me to some extent, Jina now asked about Oranis.
“Then what kind of being is she? You said she’s a god, right?”
“Hmm, how should I put this?”
I scrambled to find an answer, but my head was filled with disorganized thoughts, and the words wouldn’t come out. What kind of being is a god? Is it even possible to give a clear answer to that? I just said what I felt.
“A crazy bitch? It’s such an abstract answer, I don’t know how else to explain it.”
“Huh?”
Jina’s eyes went wide at my response.
“If a human could define a god, then that wouldn’t be a god.”
I had answered as honestly as I could, but Jina looked like she didn’t understand at all.
“You said she’s a goddess, so isn’t she a woman?”
“She’s not exactly a woman. People in that world call her a benevolent goddess, so she just appears that way. Hmm, a god that exists through human perception? Strictly speaking, Oranis is just a fragment of a much greater existence.”
“...I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
In the end, Jina gave up on understanding. Since this was a realm that could never be understood without direct experience, I didn’t bother continuing the explanation.
In the meantime, Jina seemed to have collected her thoughts, and she asked in a low voice.
“...But the power of Judgment? Is that really okay? You could be wrong, or things could go wrong. There might be innocent people.”
As expected, to a rational modern person, a god is an incomprehensible existence. I had once struggled with the same concerns as Jina. Who would believe me if I just pointed at someone without any physical evidence and said, ‘That person is a sinner!’?
But after experiencing what Oranis was indirectly, I stopped worrying about that entirely.
“If a human judges, then of course that’s the case. But Insight isn’t me making a judgment. I’m just seeing the truth through a ‘window’ that Oranis lent me.”
Yes, Insight isn’t my judgment. It’s a system designed by Oranis, who watches over the entire universe, to align with my moral compass.
“What I see through Insight are clear figures and facts.”
“...But people can commit crimes out of necessity. To survive, or for their family.”
“Insight filters all of that out. Simply put, the sinners Insight shows me are just beings who deceive others and feel pleasure in it—they are beings who must be judged. Among those bastards who bullied you, was there anyone innocent?”
Jina lost her words and shut her mouth at my question.
“Let’s say one of the guys who bullied you had a twisted personality because of a broken home. Their circumstances might be pitiful, but committing a crime was ultimately their own decision. Insight considers all those circumstances and shows me only the facts.”
I continued without catching my breath.
“Insight calculates the victim’s pure prayer of despair and the perpetrator’s desperate prayer for survival simultaneously. That’s why, within the system of Judgment, an unfair situation can never happen. Ethical problems? That’s not for me to consider. I’m not a god; how would I know how to solve such complex problems?”
To put it bluntly, Insight is invincible, and I wasn’t taking any rebuttals. When I said that as if to drive the final nail in the coffin, Jina whispered in a small voice.
“Still, what if an innocent person comes out?”
“Tell them to pray sincerely if they’re innocent.”
I was just answering as honestly and gently as I could, but I have no idea why she was looking at me with that expression.
Afterward, Jina worried about more realistic problems. Like retaliation, or what would happen if they reported me to the police. Things like that.
But you see:
Modern people don’t easily believe in things that cannot be measured by the blade of their common sense and scientific reason. To people born in the age of reason, miracles are nothing more than unscientific nonsense.
“What if they report us...”
Even Jina, right now, was trying to deny the miracle by comparing it to her own common sense, even though I insisted that miracles were awesome.
Of course, I manifested the power of Judgment emotionally, but I wasn’t some idiot who acted without thinking about the consequences.
“If they report it, who’s going to believe them? The police? Their parents? Who would believe what those guys say?”
“...Then it’s fine.”
Jina finally shook her head at my words. I left the enlightened girl and kept rambling.
“Retaliation aside, Oppa took care of everything, so you don’t need to worry at all. By the way, Jina, when I first fell into the other world—”
“Oppa, I’m tired.”
I guess I was too excited on my own.
“Then a short adventure story would be better. When Oppa was in the other world—”
“I’m not a jobless bum like you, I’m a student, so I have to sleep!”
“What!”
Jina spat out that cutting remark and went to sleep, and I spent the night clutching my chest and sobbing.
“It’s noisy! If you’re going to cry, go outside!”
I suppose my little sister has hit puberty.
Park Geonwoo, who had escaped the abandoned building, rubbed his forehead roughly.
“Fuck! Fuck!”
He had just suffered something horrific. But he couldn’t find a single wound; instead, his body, which had been tortured, felt strangely overflowing with strength.
He was afraid. He felt like his heart was constantly hitting the floor. His legs were shaking. However, his pride wouldn’t allow him to just give in like a scared dog.
“That son of a bitch, I’ll tear him to pieces! Ah, fuck!”
CRASH!
Park Geonwoo trashed the surroundings. He threw bricks wherever he could and kicked the oil drums that had been left outside the building in a frenzy.
His friends, who used to follow him, couldn’t dare say anything at the sight of Park Geonwoo venting his rage. After all, Park Geonwoo was the center of their group and the best fighter among them.
“Hey, Geonwoo. Can’t we just go home? Please...”
“Shut up! I said shut up! I’m going to kill that bastard no matter what, and if any of you try to back out, you’re dead by my hands.”
But Park Geonwoo’s influence no longer worked on them.
“Fuck, I don’t want to! Do whatever you want, kill me or not. I’m going home. Fuck, fuck. I should have just stayed home today.”
“Hey, don’t you stand there? I said don’t go!”
Park Geonwoo screamed at his friends as they scattered quickly.
“Screw you, fuck. Don’t ever call me again. Don’t even pretend you know me.”
To those who had experienced the pain of their limbs being broken dozens of times, his threats weren’t even worth the name.
“Stand there! Fuck, can’t you hear me?”
As the group scattered in an instant, only two people remained by Park Geonwoo’s side. Park Geonwoo stared blankly at the remaining friends. One was an idiot. The other was an idiot, too. It was a total disaster, but he didn’t collapse until the end.
“Two is enough. Yeah, two is plenty. If the three of us report him, that bastard won’t be able to do anything.”
He was the victim. That conviction made Park Geonwoo, who had been crushed by fear, move his feet. But when he arrived at the nearby police substation to report it:
“I’m the victim! I’m telling you, I’m the victim!”
“What’s your parents’ phone number?”
The situation was strange. It was flowing in a direction completely different from Park Geonwoo’s expectations.
“Inspector Kim, isn’t this guy that guy?”
“Yes, that’s right. He’s a guy who habitually causes trouble in the neighborhood.”
“Looks like he did some drugs somewhere.”
He was being treated as a suspect, not a victim.
“Fuck, can’t you see the blood here! I’m telling you that girl’s Oppa did this!”
“Who told you to yell at the police? What’s that blood on your clothes? Where did you get that?”
Despite Park Geonwoo’s screams, the police’s reaction was cold.
“I’m telling you that girl’s Oppa really did it! Why won’t you believe me!”
“So, you’re saying he assaulted you mercilessly, then chanted a spell to heal your wounds, and after healing them, he assaulted you mercilessly again and healed them again?”
“That’s right! We bullied that girl— anyway, that’s right!”
“This guy really looks like he’s on drugs...”
Park Geonwoo was going crazy with frustration. He never dreamed that having a perfectly healthy body would become the decisive evidence that made them disbelieve his testimony.
“If you’re the victim, why didn’t the friends who followed you come into the substation?”
Inspector Kim sneered, pointing his chin at the entrance of the substation.
“That’s because those bastards are idiots...!”
“Officer Kim. Contact his parents immediately and take measures so he can undergo a drug test in the presence of a guardian. And bring in the guys who were outside earlier.”
“No! I’m the victim!”
BANG!
Park Geonwoo kicked a chair and ran out of the substation. The report had fallen through, and even the guys who had remained had abandoned him and run away.
‘Fuck, where should I go?’
He was running blindly at full speed to shake off the police, but he had nowhere to go. When he looked back, panting, the police who had been chasing him were nowhere to be seen.
‘Fuck, fuck! How did I end up like this...!’
After turning through the alleys several times, just as he was gasping for air—
“...Ha, fuck.”
When he came to his senses, he realized he had arrived at his own house. Park Geonwoo stared at the front door, hesitated for a moment, and then went inside.
‘What should I say?’
But contrary to Park Geonwoo’s concerns—
“...”
His parents looked away indifferently, even after seeing his clothes covered in blood. It was the indifference shown to a child they had already given up on, thinking he had gotten into another accident somewhere.
‘They don’t even say a word when their child comes home in this state?’
Park Geonwoo glared at his parents for a while, then went into his room without a word and threw his body onto the bed.
‘Fuck, what do I do...’
Perhaps because the day had been so exhausting, Park Geonwoo soon fell asleep. From that moment on, the true hell began.
“Hello?”
At the voice whispering as cunningly as a snake’s tongue, Park Geonwoo jumped up in surprise.
“W-what, what is this. Where am I!”
He was clearly sleeping, wasn’t he? That was when:
“Here? This is your dream, isn’t it?”
Before he could even look around, the devil stood right in front of his eyes. Light was shimmering behind his back. Like a halo.
“Didn’t I tell you that the power of a god isn’t child’s play? Man, you’re something else. Usually, if I break someone like that, they’d be crushed and repent, but you’re different.”
Park Geonwoo felt the blood in his entire body turn cold. This guy was a real devil. He couldn’t be anything else.
“P-please.”
“I was called a saint in that other world, yet you call me a devil.”
CRACK—!
“AAAAAAH!”
The horrific torture resumed. The pain of his limbs being torn off and his bones being crushed assaulted Park Geonwoo. He howled in agony.
“P-please stop. I was wrong about everything!”
“Don’t worry. I’ll judge you without breaking your mind. You should be grateful that I’m an expert. No one else can do this but me, you know?”
Right, this is a dream. The devil clearly said it was a dream, so if he died, he would wake up!
“Keep dying. Why don’t you try running away more?”
“Ah...”
It wasn’t. Death in the dream was just the beginning of new pain, and he couldn’t escape the devil in front of him. He had to repent. Realizing his mistakes was the only escape from this eternally repeating hell!
“...I was wrong.”
When he realized that fact late and sincerely repented for his sins—
“I told you. Because of you guys, my sister’s eyes were filled with tears of blood, and my heart was torn as much as those tears of blood. Come on, let’s repent. Since it’s a dream, I can even extend the time, isn’t that great?”
“I-I was wrong. I was wrong.”
All Park Geonwoo could do was repeat the same words like a worn-out record, his will broken, saying, ‘I was wrong.’