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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: Sin and Punishment
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Tick-tock.
Infinity Guild headquarters.
A splendid building that should have been bustling with hundreds of guild members and even the lowliest staff.
But at this moment, it was shrouded in dead silence, like a tomb.
It wasn't just because everyone had been evacuated and entry forbidden by some order.
There was a sentinel guarding that silence.
Tick-tock.
"..."
A desolate space empty of people.
A man with slicked-back hair sat there with his legs crossed on a single chair, having deployed various barrier skills to seal off the entire building.
Lee Cheongi was waiting.
Just as he had for the past four days.
His eyes fixed on the pocket watch in his hand.
Watching the second hand tick around more than 340,000 times.
340,000 seconds without eating, sleeping, or resting would exhaust even a high-level player to collapse.
But Lee Cheongi didn't twitch an eyebrow.
With his usual impassive face, he simply waited for the second hand to reach 345,600 ticks.
Ring!
"...The time has come."
The second hand finally hit its mark.
At the same time, the pocket watch blared its alarm.
Signaling that the promised four days had passed.
The moment he heard it, Lee Cheongi rose from his chair and headed for the place that had remained firmly shut for four days straight—the secretary's office.
Creak.
"Hm?"
But his action ended as an attempt.
Before he could even touch the doorknob, the closed door swung open, and a man stepped out.
"What are you doing here? Don't tell me you've been waiting out here the whole four days?"
White hair and golden eyes.
A single sword at his waist.
And a small scar near his eye.
The white-haired man with such distinctive features—Rimon Asfelder—looked at him in surprise.
But Lee Cheongi didn't answer.
No, he didn't even look at Rimon.
His gaze was fixed on one spot: the gap in the door that Rimon had left slightly ajar.
'This is...'
Blood splatters on the floor and even the ceiling.
A desk stamped so hard that the skull and teeth marks were clearly imprinted.
Chunks of flesh sliced thinner than paper, piled high.
Bone fragments and organ pieces scattered everywhere.
He stared at the gruesome, horrific remains—unbelievable from just one person—for a long while, frozen.
Finally, he forced his mouth open to ask.
"What the hell did you do in there for the past four days?"
"You really want to know?"
"..."
Lee Cheongi answered with silence.
Honestly, he didn't want to know.
No, he was scared to know.
It was a sight that would make even him—who had raided dungeons thousands of times and witnessed all sorts of brutal deaths—feel nauseous.
Rimon smirked at his honest reaction.
"Personally, I'd recommend incinerating the whole room."
Unless you want someone going insane from cleaning it up—handle it carefully.
Rimon offered the advice, kind in his own way.
But again, no reply came.
Just a gaze, heavy and sunken, directed at him.
"What? Feeling pity all of a sudden?"
"Not particularly."
Lee Cheongi shook his head at Rimon's sarcasm.
No matter how close Park Hyeon-gun had been, he wasn't saintly enough to pity someone who'd deceived and used him.
Yet Rimon casually pointed out why Lee Cheongi's face remained stiff.
"Then you think I went too far?"
"...I can't deny that."
Lee Cheongi calmly admitted it.
Anyone else would feel the same. No, they'd probably vomit and flee, looking at Rimon like a monster.
The scene was that brutal.
Whether any sinner deserved such a death.
And whether the one who did it could still be called human.
Anyone with a shred of decency would feel doubt and revulsion.
Especially if the victim was a cripple.
"Did you really need to kill Secretary Park like this, when he was already a vegetable?"
After the Serpent Connecting Ends abandoned Park Hyeon-gun's body, he became a complete vegetable.
His condition was so dire that he couldn't move, speak, or even seem to have a mind left.
Yet Rimon had known this and still resumed the four-day execution that the serpent's intervention had paused.
No wonder Lee Cheongi's face was grim.
But the perpetrator of that atrocity showed no guilt or shame.
He just tilted his head slightly.
"For me, this was already going way too easy on him."
"You mean that seriously?"
"You think I'd joke around with you?"
"..."
Lee Cheongi fell silent at the sight of those golden eyes, chillingly cold despite the light tone.
How could he call this 'going easy'?
He couldn't comprehend it.
"If this is 'easy' for you, you'd faint at the sight of a black mage doing human sacrifice."
"The fact we're comparing it to human sacrifice already means it's not normal."
"That's your standard."
Rimon smirked.
He knew why Lee Cheongi was reacting this way.
Too well, in fact.
In this modern age, murder itself was a sin.
Torturing someone to death was an inhuman atrocity beyond evil.
But that was just this era's standard.
"Listen up, kid. Back in the day, there were countries that gathered the masses for public human sacrifices."
Offering to the gods was an honor.
Human sacrifice was a path to heaven.
Religions where everyone believed it devoutly and volunteered as offerings.
"Times when they'd watch comrades stab each other in the Colosseum or treat hangings like festivals."
Eras when everyone craved cruel slaughter.
"Laws that threw even infants into snake pits alive just because they were kin to criminals."
Sins passed down through bloodlines.
"Teachings that praised eating your enemy's liver raw for revenge."
Cultures that saw failing revenge as shame.
"Armies that researched the most horrific, reliable ways to kill humans."
Wars that burned people like firewood.
All things that would be called insane today.
But in those eras, countries, religions, cultures, and situations, they were plain common sense.
"Get it? How flimsy and fragile the 'normal' you take as eternal truth really is?"
Of course, even Rimon hadn't lived through every era and history.
But having witnessed countless shifts in common sense over centuries across the world, he knew all too well its transience.
"Sure, believing murder is sin and shunning cruelty is progress."
He had no intention of spouting nonsense like 'the old days were better.'
The world now was undoubtedly more livable than times that trivialized life and glorified brutality.
Above all, Rimon—who knew how easily such acts eroded humanity—welcomed the change.
The problem was the other shift it brought.
"But I don't consider protecting villains' 'human rights' and letting them live boldly as 'normal' either."
Forgiving all sins because they're young.
Treated like the criminal for legitimate self-defense.
Not even killing the worst murderers.
Forcing forgiveness on children who lost parents.
Endlessly merciful to perpetrators, cold to victims—this era.
Perhaps it's proof of civilization over the past, a virtue to prevent needless hate.
But Rimon couldn't accept that twisted peace's virtue as natural.
He was an old soul, inescapably.
A swordsman who'd lived ripping out enemies' hearts and beheading villains.
"Maybe that bastard was a good guy originally. Maybe he'd turn over a new leaf someday."
If Park Hyeon-gun hadn't contracted with the Serpent Connecting Ends, he might not have become such a villain.
His skill specialized in lies, ''Prestige and Fame,'' might have turned him into a liar unconsciously, manipulated by the constellation—a victim too.
"But that's none of my business."
Still, Rimon declared firmly.
Park Hyeon-gun's rights, hidden goodness—he cared nothing for them.
"All that matters to me is he did something worth killing him for, so I killed him."
"...Even knowing it might make you question your own humanity?"
"Better than eroding it myself."
Don't misunderstand.
It's not just murder, torture, arrogance, or greed that destroys humanity.
Suppressing rightful anger.
Enduring unjust grievances.
Having goodness and mercy forced on you.
Those erode a person into society's cog, just the same.
Even great love becomes destructive if you stalk or imprison someone until they love you back.
"I told you. I want to be human, not some pathetic pushover."
Of course, if it's the era's flow, Rimon could accept it to some degree.
As a PAB agent, he didn't kill even the shittiest criminals on a whim.
If it had only harmed him, he might've wrecked them without killing a soul.
But the moment he cut down Yuna Kyung with his own sword.
Compromise vanished for Rimon.
No matter how the era changed.
Laws or culture shifted.
A boss collecting blood debt for a subordinate's wrongful death was his duty.
Abandoning it was forsaking his humanity in a different way from becoming a monster.
"And Lee Cheongi."
Shing.
Rimon slowly drew his sword.
Looking at him with cold eyes, he said.
"You're responsible for Na-kyung's death too."
Whether from his own greed.
Or constellation interference.
Park Hyeon-gun held the orphanage kids hostage and forced Yuna Kyung's suicide bombing.
But that didn't make Lee Cheongi innocent.
He'd ordered Rimon's handling.
And failed to manage his subordinate.
Puppet or not, he bore responsibility, and Rimon had never forgiven him.
Just held off punishment until the true culprit surfaced.
Now that Park was dead, no reason remained to spare Lee Cheongi.
"Will you kill me?"
As if he'd expected it.
Lee Cheongi asked calmly.
Rimon, staring intently, shook his head.
"No, not killing you now."
An unexpected answer.
Especially for Lee Cheongi, who'd braced for death since losing to Rimon.
"But not because you're the monarch."
In the same languid tone as when he'd beheaded Park, Rimon continued softly.
"Not worried about social chaos if I kill you, or wanting something from you, or fearing retaliation later."
Reasons anyone else would consider.
But irrelevant to collecting Yuna Kyung's blood debt.
With the bold declaration only one who'd slain a constellation could make, Rimon revealed why.
"Just that you're too stupid to deserve punishment, so I'm sparing you."
A ruthless insult.
Far too harsh for a monarch.
But Lee Cheongi showed no anger or denial.
He knew he deserved it more than anyone.
"Remember this."
To the silent Lee Cheongi, Rimon said.
"Ignorance is never an excuse, and you're still teetering on the edge."
Ignorance isn't sin? Nonsense.
Incompetence can be sin too.
This time, the scales tipped just barely.
If even a speck of dust tips it the other way, this verdict flips anytime.
"I'll keep watching you."
A warning and declaration.
Like Anubis weighing the dead's heart against a feather to judge if sin outweighed it.
A supreme being's vow to judge his life until death.
"And when you cross that line."
Slash.
What fell to the floor: rimless glasses.
A priceless masterpiece crafted by top artisans with rare materials.
But compared to what Rimon's sword had severed, it was trash.
Drip.
One eye now closed.
Red blood trickling from the slit.
The eyelid trembling in pain.
They told what Rimon had cut—and what Lee Cheongi had lost.
Looking at the now one-eyed Lee Cheongi, Rimon finished in a languid voice.
"I'll come collect the debt for your remaining eye and ninety days."
Harsh words.
Too cruel right after losing one eye.
But Lee Cheongi showed no rage, sorrow, fear, or regret.
Not numbing the pain with skills like ''Pain Block''—enduring it raw, he nodded calmly.
"...I'll remember."
As if verifying the sincerity.
His quiet golden eyes fixed on Lee Cheongi's sole remaining one for a moment.
"Good."
Clang.
Rimon sheathed his sword.
Then turned on his heel.
As if there was nothing left for him here.
As he left indifferently, Lee Cheongi suddenly asked.
"What will you do now?"
"Me?"
The question caught him off guard, perhaps.
Rimon paused.
Glanced back with a smirk and said.
With Yuna Kyung's blood debt paid.
What he needed to prioritize next.
"Guess I should get ready to get married."
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