I'll Kick Him Out
I'll Kick Him Out
"Mom. I'm cold. I don't want to go in!"
Jim was shouting.
Amy was crying.
But Peter and Anna held the two children's hands tightly and refused to let go.
"If you don't go in, you'll just keep hurting. You don't want to hurt anymore, do you?"
"Let's go in. Jim. Amy. If we go here, you won't hurt anymore."
The couple lifted their sobbing son and daughter into their arms.
And as they patted the children's backs, the two of them slowly began to walk into the river.
"It's okay. You won't hurt anymore. It's okay."
Slowly.
The water began to swallow their bodies.
At the sight, I nearly rushed forward without thinking, but I froze in place as if my feet were nailed to the ground.
If I unleashed the Demon King's Authority and turned the surface into hell, that would be the worst possible outcome.
The women I loved destroyed because of my Authority?
Horrifying.
But what terrified me more than anything else was the thought of burning in hell for eternity.
If I used the Authority, I would go to hell.
And I didn't want to go to hell.
I wanted to stay quiet as I was, find a black mage or a demon worshipper, quietly extinguish my soul, and be done with it.
I wanted to go back to Korea.
What was that family to me?
At most, they'd handed me a few pieces of black bread.
I was grateful, but no matter how I thought about it, going to hell to save them didn't add up.
So I had to turn back.
I had to turn back......
"Mom. I don't want to die!"
Jim wailed.
At that single desolate cry, the couple finally stopped in their tracks.
Standing in water up to their chests, the couple began to let out a wretched weeping unlike anything I had ever heard before.
Unable to go in.
Yet unable to come out.
They simply stood there, stock-still, and wept.
Early dawn.
Within the cold darkness.
All around the river, the homeless, their bodies battered in one way or another like Peter and Anna's family, were slumped over without any hope or salvation, merely staring blankly at the family that was trying to commit suicide.
There was no one here who could save them except me.
Would I suffer in hell for eternity?
Or would I abandon these people who had almost nothing to do with me and flee to Korea?
A truly simple choice.
A disgustingly simple choice.
"Peter!! Anna!!"
My head was definitely screaming to pick the latter.
But before I knew it, my body was leaping into the river.
I would surely regret this moment later.
I could clearly see myself beating the ground in regret.
Even so, I couldn't stop.
"Don't die!!"
When I came to my senses, I had already dragged the family of four out of the river.
The condition of the four people I pulled out of the water was truly wretched.
Their bodies were, of course, cold as ice, and all of them were shivering as if seized by convulsions.
But what seemed far more seriously injured than their bodies was their hearts.
"Why did you save us?"
Peter, one arm severed, asked through his tears.
"Living is meaningless, so why did you save us? How are we supposed to live in these bodies...?"
His voice was ruined, but the fact that he was crying sounded to me like he still hadn't abandoned hope entirely.
Until the very end.
I hesitated.
The moment I used my power, the rumors would inevitably spread one way or another.
A family whose arms were severed and eyes were blind just yesterday were perfectly fine overnight?
Even if I erased their memories of me healing them with Absolute Hypnosis afterward, people would grow suspicious and try to find out, and they would inevitably reach me.
So either I shouldn't use it even once, or, since I'd already used it, people would come looking for me anyway.
I had no choice but to go with healing as many as possible.
I looked around.
The area was full of homeless people, slumped over with injuries to some part of their bodies, much like Peter's family.
I couldn't heal Peter's family while ignoring the rest of them.
They were all the same.
No.
Perhaps they were people who had suffered and struggled even more than Peter's family.
I'd become able to use Time Stop much more easily by then.
I could run away at any time.
So please, just this once. Goddess.
I'd take responsibility and martyr myself before my Authority fully bloomed.
Even though I had the ability to heal these people, telling me to just leave them be was too cruel.
It was seriously too cruel.
"You gave me black bread, didn't you?"
I released the Body Modification on my face.
Gradually.
My face returned to its original appearance.
"That was hope to me. So I will give you hope in return."
I used Body Modification on Peter.
I healed his severed arm and healed his frozen body.
For good measure, I completely purged all the impurities and waste products from his body as well.
Next was Anna.
Next were Jim and Amy.
Blinded eyes regained their function, and severed arms sprouted anew in their original forms.
Lungs that had been ruined, clogged with dust from the textile factory, returned to their original state.
In an instant.
Every one of them transformed into a state of health surpassing anyone else.
"M-my arm......"
Peter stared at his own arm.
"M-Mom!! I can see!! I can see!!"
Young Jim yelled out in astonishment.
"I can see too, Mom! Dad!! I can see!!"
Amy also shouted, fumbling at her own eyes.
And finally, Anna was staring at me, unable to even breathe properly.
"E-Eleos......"
I stroked her head.
"I'm sorry I couldn't help you sooner."
I was sorry that I was a coward.
But my fate was on the line, the fate of going to hell.
I needed time to make up my mind.
So please forgive me.
After healing the family, I looked around.
The homeless people who had been staring at me with cloudy, hopeless eyes just moments before had risen to their feet, every last one of them.
I'd heal them.
I'd heal them and run away before my Authority grew too vast.
One week.
I'd heal them for exactly one week and then run.
I simply couldn't stand by and watch them any longer.
"I will heal you."
At my words, all the homeless people around me let out a collective shout and rose from where they sat.
"Eleos!!"
"P-please heal me!! Me!!"
Seeing the people rushing toward me in chaos, my strength drained away.
In the end, I had chosen the path to hell.
Still, strangely enough, I felt no regret.
I began to heal the sick who thronged before me.
I had thought about this wrong.
Next time, I needed to go somewhere with no people at all.
That was one thing I could definitely learn from this moment.
***
The Scrap Yard was, for Mammon, a perfectly ideal location.
Extreme polarization, made up of money-mad businessmen and suffering paupers.
Human greed that rotted endlessly under the name of capitalism.
Not a single temple in the entire city, thanks to a culture that rejected all religion, faith, and magic.
No believers of the Pantheon, no influence of the Evil God—it was a delicious prey, perfect for devouring.
Beholding that city, Mammon devised a grand plan.
To swallow every last soul and mind of every human in this city.
To turn all of it into his own Authority.
Harboring that grand ambition, he had spent decades, a vast amount of time and effort, continuously steering the city into exhaustion and despair.
Just a little more, and his plan would be complete.
The clash between greed for wealth and greed for power.
And amid the chaos, the grand plan to gobble up all the countless human souls and resentments that would be spilled—just a little more, and it would be complete.
But at the final moment.
A party pooper appeared.
[Isn't that the Healing Saint? Why is that bastard here?]
A guy who had appeared out of nowhere, without any clue as to where he came from.
The Healing Saint.
A guy known as Lilia's Chosen, the one whose goddess was uniquely and gravely wounded among the Pantheon's gods.
And a guy who wielded a power beyond imagination, annihilating a Fragment of the Evil God, which was hard to reconcile with Lilia's Chosen being so gravely wounded.
A guy where nothing added up had suddenly settled in a corner of his city and begun healing people.
[I'll have to drive him out. How dare he come into someone else's territory and interfere?]
It was as if a gatecrasher had suddenly shoved his way onto the elaborate stage of a play he had spent decades preparing.
A variable would be troublesome, so just as Mammon was about to move quickly to eliminate the saintly fellow—
[Drive him out? You'd better not.]
A familiar stench and a revolting voice rang in Mammon's ear.
Mammon's brow furrowed sharply.
[How did a little Abyss-worm crawl all the way up here?]
At the repulsive sight of the Evil God, Mammon growled and shot out a retort.
But the Evil God paid no mind.
[I came to pass on some interesting information.]
[So you've come to lie again. I'll be fooled by your lies once or twice. Get lost. Don't interfere with me.]
Just as he was summoning his Authority to expel the Evil God from his domain—
[The Healing Saint actually possesses the Demon King Asmodeus's Authority.]
At the words that slipped from the Evil God's mouth, Mammon flinched and had to stop what he was about to push away.
[Now that piques my interest. What fresh bullshit is that?]
[It's exactly what I said. That Asmodeus bastard is playing the saint. It's a fact I discovered when a part of me entered the bastard's body.]
The Evil God laughed slyly.
[Does it make any sense, conventionally speaking, that the wrecked Lilia would send down a Chosen One?]
[It doesn't make sense.]
[If it had been my Chosen One, that would be one thing, but there's no way he would have destroyed my fragment then. Not me. Not the Pantheon. Then what's left. The authority of Pandemonium.]
[Couldn't it be that one of the divinities that fell during the Heavenly War took human form? Wasn't that son of a bitch, Lopers, the God of Justice, or whatever from the Sun Order, a human before his divinity was restored and he ascended to the Pantheon?]
[That's right. The Pantheon gods probably assume something similar. But my words are correct. The saint bastard is performing miracles with Asmodeus's Authority.]
Mammon snickered.
[The bullshit is so absurd that I find myself listening. So what do you want to say, you Abyss-worm?]
[The Authority of Lust. Devour it.]
The Evil God whispered temptingly.
[Your plan to sow chaos in the Scrap Yard and swallow souls and resentment. I know all about it. But no matter how meticulously you gnaw it clean, it's not going to compare to devouring another Demon King's Authority, is it? Where else is there a better opportunity than now?]
[......]
[For 300 years, Lucifer has been gnawing at the connection between the Human Realm and the Celestial Realm, so aside from Dulanear, Lopers, and Lupiel, the other gods can't even send down a divine speech, let alone a Chosen One. On top of that, I'm telling only you information the other Demon Kings don't know at all. Even if you devour the Authority of Lust, it means they can't stop you.]
The Evil God smiled from ear to ear.
Mammon was staring at the Evil God with a sullen expression.
[I listened because it was the first time you weren't spinning a plausible lie but just spouting pure absurd nonsense, but your intentions are so transparent they're practically invisible. Long story short, you're telling me to touch the Saint, aren't you?]
[That's right.]
[The Pantheon would hate that. On top of that, if I touch the guy the human empire considers most important, the Imperial Household will move too. Then the tower I've painstakingly built in the Scrap Yard for decades will come crashing down. You think I don't know your black little heart, you little insect?]
The Evil God shrugged his shoulders.
[Believe it or not, that's up to me. But think carefully. Can the so-called Demon King of Greed really afford to let an opportunity this good slip by?]
[We aren't exactly on such warm terms that you'd worry about me, are we? Get lost, you insect.]
As Mammon snapped his fingers, the Evil God's apparition shattered and vanished.
Mammon shook his head as if dumbfounded.
If only he could devour the Authority of Lust, it would naturally be the best outcome from Mammon's perspective.
But Mammon simply could not trust that Evil God's words.
[I've been fooled by that bastard's lies once or twice before.]
Whether it was that Lust bastard.
Or a divinity of the Pantheon left in the Human Realm.
What mattered was that this guy was a party pooper crashing the plan he had spent a long time preparing.
A character that wasn't in the schedule had no business appearing in the play he was preparing.
And to do that, he needed a legal excuse to drive him out of the city without provoking the Imperial Household and the Pantheon.
[It's not legal to expel him just because he proselytized, is it?]
There was only a culture that looked unfavorably on missionary work.
Under imperial law, there was no statute that prohibited missionary work itself.
However, imperial law was written to favor businessmen over laborers, so if he latched onto the free healing instead of the missionary work, a legal expulsion was possible.
[He caused damage to a pharmaceutical company by providing free treatment......so I can frame him as a Labor Theorist and expel him.]
Even a saint, in the cold-hearted world of capitalism, was simply a person causing damage to a company.
This way, expulsion was legal, so even after driving him out, the Imperial Household and the Pantheon would have nothing to say to the Scrap Yard.
At the satisfying solution, Mammon smiled with satisfaction.