Chapter 197: Fake Kindness And Lawful Good (1)
"Then I'll be taking this child and ensuring he receives the appropriate punishment. You two can continue on your way."
Damien looked back at Ohjin and Ha-eun with a faint smile.
"Are you not going to help him?" Ohjin continued while looking at him with relaxed eyes, "You should be more than capable of helping him as the Second Star."
"...So you know who I am."
"It'd be strange if I didn't, considering how famous you are."
Ha-eun looked at Damien, who was nonchalantly nodding his head, with shock.
"Th-the Second Star? H-He's one of the Seven Stars?"
Her surprised expression showed that she couldn't have imagined it.
Well, Demian's appearance was extremely normal for one who held the grand title of being one of the 'Seven Stars'.
It was only natural that she didn’t notice someone with a very plain face like Damien when there were many cases of people failing to notice celebrities with eye-catching looks.
"Yes, you're correct. Giving this child financial aid wouldn't be a problem for me."
Damien nodded his head.
However, he didn't stop there but continued in a low voice.
"Even if I feel sympathetic, I cannot help someone who has sinned. If I did, what about the others who live on through great effort without sinning?"
He was right… excessively so.
"There are good people who are in anguish in this world. Helping this child is an insult to those people."
"I see."
Ohjin nodded his head.
What he said was such a sound argument that he couldn't refute it.
'So this is the Sword of Justice.'
He was flawlessly righteous, wasn't phased by human emotions, and stuck to his convictions.
Rather than the pain, despair, and cries of the weak, the most important thing to him was the absolute value of 'Justice'.
"I understand."
Ohjin smirked and turned away.
"Then I'll leave that child in your hands."
"Yes."
He left Damien behind and pulled on Ha-eun’s arm.
"W-Wait, Ohjin!"
Ha-eun followed Ohjin with a shocked expression on her face.
"Are you going to let things be?! It's obvious what will happen if he gets dragged to the police!"
From Ohjin’s perspective, whatever happened to a child he didn't even know the name of didn't matter, but it appeared that it was quite important for a kind-hearted person like Ha-eun.
In addition… whatever was important to her was also important to him.
"I'll talk to Isabella later and tell her to contact the police. I'll also make sure he gets money for the medicine."
"Ah… th-thank you."
It appeared that Ha-eun didn’t even consider such a solution in the heat of the moment since she nodded her head with an embarrassed look.
She then glanced back at Damien dragging the boy away and frowned.
"In any case, he's the Second Star, right?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure."
"I heard a lot about him being the Sword of Justice and whatnot, but it turns out he's a stubborn bastard."
"Well… none of what he said is wrong."
He was just excessively right.
There was nothing to criticize about Damien's actions.
You couldn't justify the action of stealing someone else's wallet because your mother was sick.
"That's true, but…"
Ha-eun scratched her head with a stuffy look.
"I guess some people could look at us and say it's fake kindness."
They had nothing to say if people said their kindness was fake because sympathy was what drove them to help a criminal.
However…
"I at least think that having fake kindness is better than acting only by the law."
Acting only by the law couldn’t save anyone, but fake kindness could save at least one person.
Even if it wasn't 'righteous', it would still be better than saving no one.
"...That was a very you thing to say."
Ha-eun smiled and rustled Ohjin’s hair.
"You know, this is why I like you."
"Alright, I got it, so let’s hurry up and find a pub."
"Sure."
* * *
Ohjin returned to the residence after having fun and drinking a bunch with Ha-eun.
He went on a light walk outside to sober up while Ha-eun went to wash up first.
"Hm?"
A familiar figure stood out in his eyes.
"Isabella?"
He hadn’t been able to see her for several days.
"Ah… Ohjin?"
Isabella noticed Ohjin and turned her head, sitting on the bench in the middle of the garden.
Enough fatigue was built up on her face that he saw it clearly in the middle of the night.
"Are you alright? You look very tired."
"I'm okay."
Isabella moved slightly with a faint smile on her face and made space for him to sit down.
He sat down next to her and examined her complexion.
Unlike what she said, her condition didn't look okay at all.
'Is the curse getting worse?'
Even worse, she was like that when it was midnight. Her condition seemed much more severe than he imagined.
"I heard that you went sightseeing in the city with Ha-eun today."
"Hm? Who did you hear that from?"
"Fufu. No matter how busy I am, I still receive reports of your every move."
Isabella smiled brightly and continued.
"I should've been there to guide you two around… I apologize."
"No, it's alright. Putting that aside, how have things been going on your side?"
It wouldn’t be easy to settle down the situation after such a massive incident.
"Firing Uncle Guilford… gathering all the deceased's families and apologizing… It really has been a mess these past few days."
"It isn't something you should be responsible for."
The incident at San Fruttuoso was a natural disaster akin to a typhoon or earthquake.
Well, at least that was how it was known to the public.
Guilford being punished for not carrying out his duties properly could be understood, but Isabella taking full responsibility when she was there for a simple vacation made no sense.
"I'm still the next family head of the Colagrande Household."
"I guess being from a noble background isn't always good."
"Responsibility is bound to come with authority."
Isabella looked up to the night sky and smiled bitterly.
"I'm sorry. Such an accident had to happen when I went out of my way to invite you."
"It's fine. I'm resting pretty well."
"...Thank you."
Isabella gently placed her hand on the back of his hand and smiled faintly.
"It's pretty late. You should head back and get some rest. Hasn’t it been impossible for you to sleep properly these daiys?" Ohjin said while looking at Isabella, who seemed exhausted.
Isabella nodded her head and got up from her seat.
"You're right. Are you going to stay here a little longer?"
"Yeah."
"Then I'll be heading back first."
Isabella grew distant.
Left alone at the bench, Ohjin looked up at the sky.
* * *
Translator - Maccas
Proofreader - ilafy
* * *
Ring, ring—
At that moment, his phone rang.
'Come to think of it, it's about time I got contacted.'
Needless to say, resting wasn't the only thing Ohjin did over the week.
He had handed over the star relic fragments to a trusted informant to figure out where they had originated from.
"Hello."
-This is Lanzoni.
—Paolo Lanzoni.
He was the informant he received help from in Rome to find Isabella.
"How has the case I left you been going?"
-I did have to go through some trouble… but I traced its origin.
Ohjin’s eyes gleamed.
"Where is the star relic from?"
-It is from the Colagrande Household.
"...Pardon?"
'The star relic that stimulated the dragon vein is from the Colagrande Household?'
-There's no doubt about it. The traces were nearly erased… but it is definitely an explosive-type star relic the Colagrande Household previously acquired.
"......"
In that case, did that mean the stimulation of the dragon vein and the countless monsters escaping from the gate was all the Colagrande Household's doing?
'Why?'
He couldn’t understand it.
It would at least make sense if a rival household managed that area, but what kind of crazy person would plant an explosion in their front yard and blow it up themselves?
-Mr. Ohjin?
“Ah, yes. Thank you. I’ll send the reward at a later date.”
-Understood.
Beep—
The call ended.
Ohjin closed his eyes and got lost in thought.
If the stimulation of the dragon vein was the Colagrande Household’s doing…
‘First off, it isn’t Isabella.’
She had no reason to do such a thing when her condition was getting so severe that she was being influenced by the curse at night.
“Wait…”
Ohjin suddenly frowned.
‘When did her condition start to get that bad?’
When he eavesdropped on her conversation with Robert, she definitely said that it was ‘okay at night’. Despite that, her condition at night looked much worse than their first day at the beach.
‘It’s because she used her power.’
She had used the stigma of Hirudo to stop the wave of monsters. Even worse, it was when the curse weakened her the most: the middle of the day.
“Hah.”
A chuckle left his mouth.
“I see… so that’s what happened.”
He covered his face with his hand and chewed his lips.
-I hope that… all the built-up hate and misunderstandings will be resolved and that everything will go back to how things were in the past like a miracle.
Ohjin recalled the words she said with a bitter smile in the night.
“Returning things to how they were… is impossible now,” he mumbled with a sigh.
Despite having predicted it already, there was still a bitter taste in his mouth.
“Tsk.”
He clicked his tongue and stood up.
Since he knew the culprit of the incident, it was time for him to move.
‘Black Curtain.’
After concealing his presence, he returned back to the residence. Ohjin had already grasped the internal structure during his week there.
Without hesitation, he headed to the place where Isabella’s father—the family head of the Colagrande Household—Paulo Colagrande would be.
He activated the stigma of the Hunting Dog in front of the tightly-shut door.
‘Hm?’
Paulo should have definitely been inside the room at that time of the day, but there was a suspicious lack of sound from the room.
‘Is there some kind of barrier in place?’
Ohjin slightly touched the door with his hand.
As he thought, mana was covering the door with a systematic flow.
‘I’ll have to get through this barrier first.’
It wasn’t a difficult task.
Ohjin used Transformation and turned a portion of his body into a liquid. The liquid flowed past the small gap beneath the door.
If the barrier installed on the door was just to prevent sound from leaking outside, he could get past it with such a simple method.
“I apologize for calling you here at such a late time.”
“No. Night or day does not matter in the face of punishing evil. It also took me some time to cover my tacks.”
“Haha. That’s a relief.”
There was one person other inside the room excluding Paulo, and their voice was very familiar to Ohjin.
“Is this all the material regarding the witch?”
“Yes. The witch has been using our household’s centers to protect the Romani on the surface while cruelly extracting their blood behind the scenes.”
“...What a vile imposter.”
Damien grasped the sword on his belt, his eyes enraged.
“I will punish her immediately.”
“No. I believe it would be best to wait until tomorrow.”
Paulo’s eyes shone, and a sly smile was on his face.
“Let us punish the witch when she is weakened the most… when the sun is at its peak.”
“I understand. I’ll come back tomorrow.”
Ohjin, who was leaning on the door and eavesdropping on their conversation, created distance before Damien came out.
Thud, thud—
He smirked while walking down the dark hallway.
‘A vile imposter, huh?’
Isabella’s vile, fake kindness had given homes to tens of thousands of people.
‘In that case… I wonder how many people your clean justice has saved.’
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