Chapter 48: Not about money

A completely dark space.

The man, who had been raising his voice to argue with the leader of the bandits, Ophel, regained consciousness and slowly got to his feet.

“Where… am I?”

Just as he became aware of being swept away by a gust of wind, as if carried by a storm to an unknown place, he realized something alarming as he glanced around.

None of the comrades who had been dragged along with him were in sight.

“Hey! Where is everyone?”

Though he couldn’t even be certain what he was stepping on, he wandered around, feeling the ground beneath him.

But no matter where he looked, he couldn’t find a trace of his comrades.

Not even a shadow or silhouette.

The leader stopped his search and quickly started piecing his thoughts together.

‘What is this? Is this some kind of magic? But Ophel is supposed to be a knight. Sure, there’s no rule saying a knight can’t use magic, but… wasn’t it that strange animal that suddenly appeared and did something?’

He wanted to organize his thoughts more calmly, but—

[Commencing practical and concise injection of facts for the heretic who has strayed onto the wrong path.]

He wasn’t given the time to think things through.

“Wait a minute…!!”

-BOOOOM!!-

With an enormous roar, the ground beneath his feet began to rise.

It continued to ascend, higher and higher, until it started rolling forward like a massive cylinder.

It was an utterly bizarre sight. Who would seriously imagine that the ground beneath them could transform into a pillar-like shape?

“What… what is this?”

Turning his head slightly—

He saw it.

Down below, sharp spikes were densely packed across the surface.

If he fell down there… he would surely die!

The sheer terror of imminent death caused the man’s mind to go blank.

‘What was this situation?’

‘What kind of space had he fallen into?’

‘Where had those spikes come from, and where had his comrades disappeared to?’

He didn’t have the luxury of pondering such questions.

The pillar began to rotate faster.

“Huh? Huh…?”

Barely managing to avoid falling, the man stumbled forward.

At first, walking was enough to keep him balanced, but…

The speed of the spinning pillar steadily increased.

‘No… no!’

The man began running in the direction opposite the rotation of the pillar.

If he stopped, even for a moment… he’d fall and be impaled on the spikes below!

For now, all he could do was run.

Survival was all that mattered.

And so, a seemingly endless race for his life began.

***

How much time had passed since then?

“Hah… hah…!”

No matter how much he ran, the pillar showed no sign of stopping.

The man squeezed out every ounce of strength left in his body, barely managing to move forward.

The only relief was that the pillar’s speed didn’t accelerate beyond a certain point.

If anything, it might have been better if it had continued to speed up.

At least then, he wouldn’t have any lingering hope.

But because it felt like he could somehow endure, he had no choice but to push himself to the limit, using every last bit of energy he had.

“What… What do you want from me?!”

Even as he voiced his frustrations aloud, the man kept running and running.

It was the primal instinct of a living being who didn’t want to die.

It was the human will to not be unjustly taken down in such a place.

With those two feelings fueling him, he continued to run and run.

He couldn’t remember ever putting so much effort into anything in his entire life.

But as time passed, he began to sense it instinctively.

‘This pillar… It’s never going to stop.’

Tears of frustration welled up in his eyes.

He realized that the pillar would not stop.

It would keep spinning until he fell off.

If that was the case, giving up might be easier.

But his survival instincts compelled him to keep moving forward.

‘Damn it… Damn it… Why…?!’

For a brief moment, the thought crossed his mind: “What did I do wrong?”

But even in this dire situation, he couldn’t bring himself to think that way.

‘Hadn’t he committed robbery?’

‘Hadn’t he threatened women with a blade to steal their belongings?’

‘Even if he’d done it to survive, wasn’t he aware that there were other ways to live, slower but honest paths he could have taken?’

‘So… Is this… my punishment?’

For choosing theft, he was now forced to run endlessly on this spinning pillar.

The only options were to keep running or fall and die.

‘Damn it…!’

He knew.

He had no intention of claiming he was innocent.

He had no plans to beg for forgiveness now, claiming he had no choice but to do what he did.

He was simply unlucky, born in a plague-stricken region.

Unlucky that his father, the first victim of the disease, had caused the villagers to isolate his family.

Unlucky that he couldn’t even avenge his mother, who was beaten to death by the villagers with clubs for their safety.

Ironically, his isolation had saved him, leaving him the sole survivor when the entire village succumbed to the plague.

The memory of being slapped hard while stealing food had filled him with resentment toward the world.

Various excuses bubbled up in his mind, and before he knew it, tears were streaming down his face.

But he wasn’t trying to gain sympathy by telling this story.

He swore he wouldn’t regret his actions.

Never.

If a god truly existed—

If the god that religious fanatics praised as someone who delivered truth to all really existed—

‘Then why was his life in such a state?’

“I won’t… apologize… for something like this…!”

***

In a flash of defiance, the man’s running speed suddenly increased.

Responding to his effort, the pillar, which had been moving at a steady pace, began spinning faster.

“Aaah… Aaaaaah… AAAAAAAHHHH!”

He screamed.

It was the sound of someone beginning to accept their inevitable end.

He would never kneel before a god.

No matter what, under no circumstances—

“AAAAAAAHHHH!”

And then, his legs gave out.

He collapsed where he stood and fell off the pillar.

Toward the spikes below, spinning endlessly, endlessly—

-CRASH!-

“Ugh…!”

He felt pain.

But it was a different kind of pain than he’d expected.

It wasn’t the sharp, stabbing pain he’d feared… but the kind of pain you’d feel after a hard collision.

“…What?”

Slowly, he got up and looked down.

The ground was there.

It was a transparent floor that revealed the spikes stretching endlessly below.

‘What… is this?’

‘There was a floor?’

‘From the start…’

‘So even if I fell, I wouldn’t have died?’

The realization dawned on him in an instant.

[You did not take a life. You didn’t cross the line. Thus, the god hasn’t crossed it either.]

“What… are you saying?”

[If you had taken a life, the outcome might have been different. But because you didn’t, the god has considered your actions.]

“A god…?”

At that moment, the unbearable tension in his body loosened.

‘So the god knew that I didn’t kill anyone?’

‘The god… was watching me?’

[Why, then? Why did you not cross the line?]

‘Why didn’t I take a life?’

He could no longer deny the question that arose.

‘Was it because I didn’t want to dirty my hands?’

No, if that were true, I wouldn’t have lived as a bandit.

Even if I didn’t commit direct murder, I still threatened people and stole from them.

That doesn’t change.

“I…”

Come to think of it—

‘Why hadn’t I ever killed anyone?’

It was a question he had never seriously asked himself before.

Other bandit groups around him had no qualms about taking lives.

Perhaps it was even the more practical choice.

To be fair, he hadn’t always escaped situations where he might have been killed.

And yet, he had always managed to avoid choosing to kill someone, no matter what.

Not only that, but he repeatedly warned his comrades:

“Don’t kill people. Never.”

‘Was it because killing someone would only make things worse?’

That might have been part of it…

But as he reflected on it calmly, the real answer came to him surprisingly easily.

“…I didn’t want to become like them…”

He clenched his fists and continued, “I didn’t want to become like those bastards who beat my mother to death with clubs. Even if one day I lose my life at someone else’s hands… I never wanted to be the one who takes a life first.”

“I didn’t want to become like them… Damn it!”

The man shouted, then broke down crying like a child.

‘Yes. I didn’t want to become like them. Even if my life was in ruins, I refused to stain my hands with blood in the same way.’

***

“How much time had passed since then?”

The voice echoed again.

[As a result, this is it—

The floor that saved your life is the outcome of your refusal to become like them.]

‘The result…!’

The man reached out and touched the surface beneath him.

If it weren’t there, he would have died—violently, painfully.

[Your sins are not light. You caused great harm to many people. Think of the despair of those whose hard-earned wealth was stolen from them. To unconditionally absolve you of your sins would be far from the will of the divine.]

[However, because you didn’t cross the ultimate line… it’s not too late. You can start again. From the beginning. If you pay the price for your sins.]

“The price for my sins…?”

“Starting from the beginning?”

‘Could he really start over after being a bandit, after everything he had done?’

[Yes. Redemption is possible.]

“Why? Why… why would you say that?”

The voice answered his question directly.

[Because it is the ‘Concise Truth,’ the decision of Ophel Aichel Transrente, chosen by the One True God Igogodon.]

“The decision… of the Holy Knight Ophel… ‘Concise Truth’…”

[You can start over, Bellion. As long as the will to not cross that line remains, you can still live a better life.]

“…I can start over?”

Since the moment he became a bandit, no one had ever told him such a thing.

They either feared him or cursed him.

Even he had never thought of it himself.

That he could start over.

That he could live a different life.

[May the ‘Concise Truth’ guide you.]

***

At those words, something began to seep into his heart.

A warm emotion.

It was the belief of Ophel—the belief that he could redeem himself.

The ‘Concise Truth.’

For when someone believes in you, it can change your very nature…

‘I… I…!’

And just as Bellion was overcome with the ‘Concise Truth,’ a flash of light enveloped his vision—

“Huh…?”

When he regained consciousness, he realized he was standing back on the road, before he had been swept away.

Around him, his comrades were all kneeling, sobbing uncontrollably.

“This is… the ‘Concise Truth’…!”

“The One True God Igogodon…!”

Each of them muttered similar words, tears streaming onto the ground.

Bellion, leader of the bandits, slowly lifted his head.

What he saw before him was—

A rabbit.

A fluffy rabbit blinking its round eyes.

No, now he knew the truth.

That being wasn’t just a rabbit.

It was God in the form of a rabbit.

A divine emissary, a being akin to God…!

“O divine one…!”

Bellion immediately knelt before the rabbit and pressed his forehead to the ground.

It was the deepest reverence he could show to the being who had believed in him despite his sins and shared the ‘Concise Truth’ with him.

“I’m sorry… I’m so, so sorry…! Truly… truly sorry…!”

The rabbit didn’t respond.

It simply stared at the kneeling bandits with its large, round eyes.

Then, with a small hop, it leapt onto Ophel’s shoulder.

“Igogodon.”

“Call for reinforcements now? But—”

“Igogodon.”

“You mean… they won’t try to escape? Understood. I’ll summon them immediately.”

The bandits were pulled into the rift the rabbit opened.

Five minutes later, the rift opened again, and they were released.

Now they knelt, crying, calling out the name of God.

It was a surreal scene, but Ophel remained composed as she carried out the rabbit’s orders.

Shortly after, the forces she summoned arrived to arrest the entire bandit group.

***

Though they faced judgment for their crimes, investigations revealed that none of them had committed acts warranting execution.

What’s more, they followed through without resistance, claiming they would repay their victims, atone for their sins, and live as better people—

All in the name of the Great God Igogodon and the teachings of the holy knight Ophel.

Naturally, Ophel’s reputation soared, and so did the public’s favor toward her and the faith she represented.

She had accomplished more than anyone could have expected.

Yet, Ophel couldn’t bring herself to feel joy.

***

Some time after the incident.

As Ophel sat before a campfire, lost in thought after her night patrol—

A woman’s gentle voice called out.

“I’m sorry to keep you waiting, Ophel.”