It’s not even funny.

“Who do you think I am a fool?”

From the moment I touched Livli, I couldn’t give up. Giving up meant corruption. The only choice left for me was to prove good and become Livli’s master.

“Just accept me!”

The vibrations that had become even more intense rose up my arms and seemed to echo even in my soul. I had a feeling that this was Livli’s last struggle.

There wasn’t much left.

At that moment, there was a commotion that broke through the wall of the tornado.

“Tsk, the torches are all out.”

“Time... time... Ah, no...”

[<System> Warning. The 166th in the Demon World’s hierarchy, ‘Narrow-minded Absolute Goodness Reaper Moriel’ has reappeared.]

The top of the tornado opened like the eye of a typhoon. A pair of red eyes without irises flashed on the ceiling that was revealed in my field of vision.

<There is no sacrifice.>

✠

“Madam, is it your child?”

“Yes? Yes, that’s right. It’s my child.”

At this point, the woman shouldn’t have answered like that. It was like confessing a fatal weakness.

“Gyaak! Levio!”

“Oh, mother!”

The old man pushed the woman away and grabbed the child as if he was stealing something. The man’s bloodshot eyes were hard to believe were human. In fact, his humanity was suffocated by the following words.

“You want to save the child? Then kill one of the prisoners here!”

“......!”

Usually, a child was a mother’s fatal weakness.

“Oh, what should I do, like that, oh, ah.......”

The face of the woman whose preciousness was being tested was distorted into a mess. With every breath and sob in her field, the air was dyed with despair.

That was when even the indifferent Reed’s gaze was drawn to her.

“Hurry up! There’s no time!”

“You, you son of a bitch!”

There weren’t only people in this room who sympathized with the old man.

While everyone else was turning away, a young man rushed at the man. It was Peloc, who had passed through the previous room with him.

“What are you doing to the child’s mother! Let the child go now!”

“This crazy bastard?! Why are you letting him go when I said I’d save him! Just stay still!”

“Are you even human after doing that?! How can a human do something like that?!”

“Hey, what are you guys just watching?! Get this crazy bastard away from me!”

“This ugly old man... kekeke!”

Those who had condoned crimes in the gray area made their stance clear. They actively tore Peloc apart, proving that they were accomplices with the old man.

An individual was too helpless to fight against group violence. Peloc collapsed on the floor, exhausted. Even without the foot that stepped on his face, he couldn’t even raise his body.

His swollen eyes were dim. At that moment, Peloc met eyes with a bystander between the legs of the people surrounding him.

“.......”

“.......”

He didn’t have the energy to speak, so he just moved his lips.

Even without paying attention, Reed could tell what Peloc was trying to say.

It was a phrase he had heard too many times over the years he had lived, and a mouth shape he had seen too many times.

‘Save me.’

Pelok wasn’t asking for himself.

‘Save the child, the mother.’

Reed thought as he watched him lose consciousness.

What kind of belief was this? They had only passed through the same room before.

Do you believe that you will share the same feelings just because you had the same experience? Do you naively believe that others will have what you have?

Goodness is not common.

You don’t know how rare what I have is.

Naive.

Really naively kind.

I want to laugh out loud. But Reed’s mouth is stiff.

Why can’t he laugh?

While a quiet ripple rippled inside him, the outside world was rushing toward destruction.

“Hurry up and kill the prisoner! If you delay any longer, you’ll see your son suffer!”

“......You don’t have to go that far.”

The woman’s attitude, which had suddenly become calm, gave off a strange sense of discomfort.

“You don’t have to kill the prisoner.”

“What?”

“You can offer me up.”

The woman pulled up her sleeves, revealing her forearms. There was a faint branding beneath the burn marks.

She was a prisoner.

“My husband... had bad habits. I could tolerate him hitting me... but when he touched my child... he wasn’t in his right mind.”

“.......”

“I was pardoned, but... my sins don’t disappear.......”

Ordinary people don’t know the difference in the colors of prison uniforms. Nevertheless, what she knew was based on experience.

“I wish you had come forward sooner!”

The old man’s face was filled with ugly joy.

“Oh, Mom......!”

“Go away, Levio.”

The woman went up to the altar, leaving the child behind.

“Mom, Mom!”

The old man instinctively grabbed the child who was trying to follow him and stopped him. The child, who was struggling and crying, looked around for someone to help him.

And he found her.

“Please save Mom.”

“.......”

“Please, save Mom, Magician Brother.”

“.......”

“Huh.......”

Reed didn't want to see the crying child's face. He didn't want to hear the clinging voice.

Don't look. Don't listen.

But he couldn't take °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° his eyes or ears off as if he was under some kind of spell.

Suddenly, memories of the past came to mind one by one.

The tears of the young man who cried out loud, thanking him for saving his life.

The thin porridge that the old woman who projected the remains of her son made him with care.

The nameless wild flower that the child who returned to his mother and father's arms put in his hand.

Everything that made him a hero was trying to come back to life under the dry sedimentary layers that had piled up.

"Please..."

He called himself a world-hating person.

The reason he couldn't call it a misanthrope was because he couldn't hate all humans at all.

Some humans really do a good job of exploiting that weak gap every time. Among them, those that were delicate, pitiful, and lovely were especially effective.

For example, like the child in front of him.

He knew it clearly in his head. The world was just trying to deceive and use him by putting on a pitiful and affectionate face.

Thanks to the long repetition of learning, he really knew it well enough to be sick of it in his head, but as always, his heart was contradictory.

“You guys.”

He didn’t hide his bewilderment. He was on the verge of doing something stupid.

“Every time, you don’t leave me alone.”

Reed wondered why he had become stupid again. Now, the tears of a young man, the thin porridge of an old woman, the flowers of a child... ... .

In addition to those, there was one more thing that came to mind.

A pink color resembling the color of cherry blossoms bloomed in his head. Spring had finally come to his world in the 101st timeline.

Whose side would this warm season be on? Is it him, or is it the world? I don’t know yet.

He laughed lowly. Like a capricious villain, he spoke.

“I’ll fool you.”

“......Hyung?”

Just before the tears welling up in the child’s eyes and his vision opened, Reed extended one hand as if to command.

As he interfered with the world with his will alone, darkness arose and covered everyone’s eyes.

“What, what! Why are there torches already!”

“It’s not even time yet......!”

Reed quietly stepped into the darkness. The feeling of walking up onto the altar on his own feet was familiar. It was a new feeling to be pretending to be a sacrificial lamb after a long time.

“Come out.”

A demon could not help but obey the voice that contained the sublime words. Moriel appeared on the ceiling at the call.

<A sacrifice? But you... ... .>

“.......”

<Oh, my God! Such a precious person... ... !>

Moriel was not a being that could be looked down upon from above. She tried to hurry down, but the body of the statue that was integrated with the ceiling did not easily separate.

Reed willingly raised his head and raised his gaze toward Moriel, who seemed to be struggling fiercely.

“Moriel.”

<Yes... ... !>

The name was recorded in the voice of Chaos Evil. It was an honor beyond compare to Moriel.

“The executor of absolute good?”

However, in reality, it was neither a call nor a question, but a murmur.

As evidence, Moriel tried to answer but only croaked. This was because the supreme lord of the universe did not allow her to speak.

Reed’s voice echoed through the darkness.

“There are many kinds of good in the world. Lawful good, absolute good, hypocrisy, self-righteousness. What comes before them that is not pure?”

<... ... .>

“But were those lines really good? They seem closer to evil.”

<... ... .>

It was a thorough monologue that did not expect a response or a reaction. However, it was not bad to have an ear to listen.

Reed continued to tie Moriel’s tongue and continued his reminiscence.

“But if all of those things could be defined as good.”

Reed’s gaze sank to the floor.

“What was I?”

His voice had become so cold that it seemed as if all his words up until now had been a sweet song with a rhythm.

“What on earth was I in the past timeline?”

✠

The rough vibrations that had been running up his shoulder had stopped. Livrily, who had stopped struggling, had become completely calm and was now in my hands.

[<System> You have acquired the ‘Lily Cross of the Holy Horse, Livli’.]

[<System> You have completed the ‘Final Dark Curtain Leading Stage 5’ quest.]

<You succeeded, Aylet!>

“Yes, Agnes.”

You have passed Livli’s qualification test. There was nothing left for me to do.

“You are finished now, Moriel.”

It was the moment when I looked up at the ceiling while taking an attack stance.

<Kiaaaaaaak!>

It seemed that something strange had happened.