Chapter 48
Chapter 48
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: Injection of Plain Facts
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* * *
"Ugh... ughhh..."
An utterly dark and dim space.
The man who had raised his voice to argue with the bandit gang's leader, Ophelia Translente, regained his senses and slowly rose to his feet.
"Where... is this?"
Just as he realized he had been swept away by a gale-like wind and dragged somewhere—
He looked around after coming to his senses and noticed that his comrades, who had been sucked in with him, were nowhere to be seen.
"H-Hey! Where is everyone?"
He didn't even know what he was standing on, but he wandered around the surface beneath his feet anyway, searching—
Not a single comrade in sight, not even a trace of a person.
The leader stopped searching and quickly racked his brain.
'What is this? Magic? But Ophelia should be a knight. Of course, that doesn't mean knights can't use magic...'
No, maybe it wasn't the knight who did something. Wasn't it some animal that suddenly appeared?
He wanted to sort his thoughts out slowly like that—
Unfortunately.
<[Starting the injection of compressed plain facts for the misguided unbeliever.]>
"?!'
He was not given any time to think leisurely.
"W-Wait a second...!!"
—KABOOM!!
Along with an enormous roar, the ground beneath his feet rose up.
It kept going up, and up even more—then, it began rolling forward like a cylinder.
It was an extremely bizarre sight. Who could seriously imagine that whatever he was standing on could turn into a pillar shape?
"Wh-What...?"
If he turned his head slightly—
'!!!'
Somehow, thorns had sprouted densely across the bottom below.
If he fell there... he'd die!
The sudden terror of death made the man's mind go completely blank.
What the hell was this situation?
What kind of place was this space he had fallen into?
Where did those thorns come from, and where had all his comrades gone?
He didn't even have time to think about that before the pillar began to rotate.
"Huh? Huhh...?"
The man barely avoided falling and walked forward.
At first, walking solved it... but the pillar's movement speed gradually increased.
'No... no...!'
The man started running in the opposite direction of the pillar's rotation.
If he stopped even once... he'd fall and get impaled on the thorns, dying!
For now, he had to run. Regardless of anything else, to survive!
And so—
The endless run began.
* * *
How much time had passed since then?
"Hah, hah... hah...!"
No matter how much he ran, the pillar showed no signs of stopping.
The man squeezed out every last bit of strength in his body and barely pushed forward.
The one fortunate thing was that the pillar's speed didn't increase beyond a certain point.
If only.
If it had kept accelerating, he might not have clung to any lingering hopes.
Because of the belief that he could somehow manage, he had no choice but to wring out even the strength he had as a baby and press on.
"What... do you want... from me...!!"
He spat out complaints from his mouth, but the man kept running and running and running.
The instinct of a living being that didn't want to die, the human will that refused to die unjustly in a place like this without reason.
Harboring those two feelings, he kept running and running and running.
He ran so hard that he thought he'd never put this much effort into anything since he was born.
But... as time passed, the man instinctively knew.
'This pillar... will never stop.'
Tears of injustice began to well up in his eyes.
He realized this pillar would never stop.
It would keep spinning until he fell.
He could just give up, but because of the instinct to survive he mentioned earlier, he kept moving forward.
'Damn it... damn it...! Why the hell...!'
The thought that he must have done something wrong flashed briefly—
But even in this situation, the man couldn't fully entertain that idea.
Hadn't he been a bandit?
Hadn't he threatened passing women with a sword and extorted their goods?
Even if it was to survive, he knew there were other ways, slower but honest paths to live, yet he hadn't taken them.
'So... this is... the price for my sins...?'
Because he had been a bandit, he had to keep spinning here forever.
All he could do was repeat this endlessly, or... fall to his death?
'Damn it...!!!'
He knew.
He had no intention of claiming he was clean.
He wasn't about to beg for forgiveness now, saying it was because life was hard.
It was just that a plague had hit his region hard.
Just that his father, the first victim, got him isolated even from the villagers.
A grudge had formed because he couldn't properly avenge his mother, beaten to death with clubs by the villagers for their own safety.
Ironically, because he was isolated, he alone survived while the villagers all died of the disease.
He started resenting the world after getting slapped hard for stealing food—
Various excuses floated in his mind, and suddenly tears poured out.
He had no intention of begging for sympathy with such stories.
Absolutely, absolutely... he wouldn't reflect.
If God really existed.
If it was a being that shared plain facts with everyone, as the religious fanatics claimed, then why was his life like this... he didn't want to say that anymore!!
"You think... saying sorry... like that... will do...?!!!"
A burst of clarity.
The man's running speed momentarily surged.
In response, the pillar, which had been spinning at a steady speed, began rotating even faster.
"Uwaa... aaah... aaaaaaaaah!!!!!!"
The man screamed.
It was the process of accepting that he would ultimately meet his end.
He wouldn't kneel to any god.
No matter what...!!
"Aaaaaaaaah!!!"
And then, his legs gave out, and he fell right there—
Falling from the pillar.
Toward the spread of thorns, endlessly, endlessly...
—Thud!
"Ugh...!"
Pain hit him.
But it was a different kind of pain than he had imagined.
It felt more like the pain from slamming hard into something... not like cuts or lacerations.
"...Huh?"
The man slowly got up and looked down.
...The floor.
There was a transparent floor that let him see the thorns spread out menacingly below.
'What...?'
There was a floor?
From the beginning... he wouldn't have died even if he fell?
Just as that thought reached him.
—One line.
"!!!"
The voice he heard first echoed in his head again.
—You didn't kill anyone. You didn't cross that one line. Thus, God did not cross it either.
"What... did you... say...?"
—If you had killed someone, you might have met a slightly different end—
But since you didn't, God took that into account.
"God...?"
At that moment.
The intense tension gripping his body suddenly released.
God knew he hadn't committed murder?
God... had been watching him...?
—Why?
Why didn't you cross that one line?
"..."
Why didn't he kill anyone?
Because he didn't want to dirty his hands? No, if that were the case, he wouldn't have become a bandit.
He had only avoided direct murder; the fact that he threatened and extorted those who wouldn't pay remained the same.
"I..."
Come to think of it.
Why had he never committed murder?
It was a question he had never seriously considered even once.
The other bandit gangs around him took lives without hesitation. It might even have been the rational choice.
In fact, he had faced crises where he nearly died himself. Yet he had somehow avoided choosing to kill others.
Not only that, he had repeatedly told his comrades: never kill anyone.
Because it would make things bigger?
That could be a reason... but upon calm reflection, the answer surprisingly came easily.
"...I didn't want to become the same..."
I didn't want to become the same as those bastards who beat my mother to death with clubs.
Even if the moment came when I lost my life at someone else's hands... I didn't want to take someone else's life first.
"I didn't want to become the same...!! Damn it...!"
The man shouted that and cried like a child for a long time.
Yeah. I didn't want to become the same. Even if my life was a mess, I didn't want to stain my hands with blood in the same way.
How much time passed like that?
The voice came again.
—This is the result.
The result of your struggle not to become the same is that floor that saved your life.
'The result...!'
The man touched the floor supporting him.
Without this, he would have died. And in a very gruesome way.
—Your sins are not light. Countless people suffered great harm. Considering the despair of those whose hard-earned wealth was stolen through blood and sweat, unilaterally forgiving your sins would be far from God's will.
However, since you didn't cross that one line... it's not too late. You can start over. From the beginning. If you pay for all your sins.
'Pay for sins...'
Start over... from the beginning?
He had only avoided murder, but he had robbed... and now?
—Yes. You can be redeemed.
"Why? Why... why can you say that...?"
And it answered the man's question.
—Because it is the judgment of Ophelia Translente, chosen by the Sole God Igugwoden—'Plain Facts.'
'!!!'
The Holy Knight Ophelia's judgment, 'Plain Facts.'
—You can start over, Bellion. If you have the will not to cross that line, you can live a much better life.
"I can... start over...?"
After becoming a bandit.
No one—not a single person—had said that to him, Bellion.
They had only feared him or cursed him.
Thus, he himself hadn't thought it either. That he could start over.
That he could live a different life... he couldn't imagine it.
—May plain facts be with you.
'...!'
As he heard those words, something slowly seeped into his heart.
It was a warm feeling. Ophelia's judgment that believed he could be redeemed—Plain Facts.
Because people can change just from someone believing in them...
'I... I...'
As he felt the plain facts and realized something, a flash lit up Bellion's vision—
* * *
"Hic... sob."
—When he came to, he realized he was back on the roadside before being sucked into something.
His comrades were all around him, kneeling and sniffling.
"This is plain facts...!"
"Lord Igugwoden...!"
The comrades were dropping tears on the ground, each muttering such things.
Bellion, the bandit gang's leader, slowly raised his head.
There was—a rabbit. A fluffy rabbit blinking its eyes.
—No. Now he knew.
That being was a god in the form of a rabbit.
A being comparable to a god, God's Messenger...!!
"God...!"
Bellion immediately knelt before the rabbit in front of him and slammed his head to the ground.
The utmost reverence he could muster toward the existence that believed in his potential despite his banditry and shared plain facts with him.
"Hic, hiiic...! Sorry... I'm sorry...!!! Truly... truly sorry...!!!"
The rabbit gave no reply, just stared at the kneeling bandit gang with its round eyes—
Then hopped up onto Ophelia's head.
"Igogodon."
"Call someone right now? But—"
"Igogodon."
"They won't run away...? Understood. Please wait a moment."
The bandit gang had been sucked into the rift the rabbit opened.
About five minutes later, the rift opened again, and they tumbled out.
It would have been bewildering to see this surreal scene of them suddenly kneeling, calling out God's name, and sobbing—
But Ophelia carried out the rabbit's command quite calmly.
And so, the troops she brought arrested the entire bandit gang, bringing the commotion to a close.
The entire bandit gang received fitting punishment, but the investigation revealed none had committed crimes warranting execution.
Moreover, without any resistance, they all testified unanimously that they would pay for their sins, seek out the victims for proper compensation, and be reborn as new people, in accordance with the teachings of the great god Igugwoden and the great Holy Knight Ophelia, chosen by Him.
Naturally, Ophelia's fame rose, public sentiment toward 'Dish of Holy Knights' improved greatly, and the image of the Igugwoden Church soared vertically, meaning she had accomplished more than her share admirably—
'......'
Ophelia could not feel at ease and rejoice.
* * *
Some time after that incident.
'......'
As Ophelia, having finished her night patrol, sat by the campfire lost in thought—
A woman's voice, possessing an extraordinarily beautiful tone, rang out.
"Sorry for keeping you waiting, Ophelia."