"Hello?"
Oliver said as he opened the door and walked inside.
Joanna, who was on the bed, looked at Oliver without responding.
But he didn't care because he could see her anger, resentment, and doubt through her emotions.
Oliver brought a stool next to her and sat down next to her, and greeted her again.
"… Hello?"
“… Hello, how are you?”
SQUEAK.
Joanna answered by raising her arms that were bounded by chains.
"Sorry. I thought it was exaggerating too, but other people say that this is the only way to put their minds at ease… Are you feeling very uncomfortable?”
“No, not really. I can break them whenever I want.”
“Well, since you are a paladin you could do that. However, in that case, the black magic prepared here in advance will be activated along with the ones in other rooms, and it will be your subordinates that may get hurt.”
Joanna noticed this too, so she looked at Minions with a bitter expression.
She wanted to get out of here right away, but she couldn't because she was worried about her colleagues.
This made Oliver curious.
How did such a person fight, how could she be so brave in the face of death, how did she radiate such a beautiful light…
There were so many things he wondered about.
“First of all, Let me introduce myself formally. My name is Oliver. Nice to meet you.”
Oliver stretched out his hand, introducing himself as kindly as he had practiced. However, the only thing that came back was a cold gaze.
“What are you doing right now?”
“… I just want to talk."
"Talk…? I don't know what you are trying to do, but it's useless if you're trying to get some information out of me or mess around with me. I will not be deceived, and I will not yield to any form of torture.”
She spoke in a thorny tone, what she said was sincere and for some unknown reason, she was very wary of Oliver.
“I didn’t come to get any information.”
“How can I believe you?”
“Um… Is it possible that you are being wary of me because I am a warlock?”
“Yes, could there be any other reason?”
"I'm really curious, is there anything wrong with being a warlock?"
Joanna, who had turned away from Oliver's gaze, frowned and met his gaze. For some reason, she felt very uncomfortable.
“Do you see me as a fool? Or, are you making fun of me right now?”
"No. I'm not thinking of you as a fool or mocking you. I just want to talk."
Joanna stared at Oliver without saying a word.
She then slowly opened her mouth.
“Don’t you know that you make harmful drugs and put people in a pit of sickness?”
“Ah… are you talking about Pilgaret?”
“Yeah, you mean you really don’t know how many people are being harmed by the drugs that you make?”
"I don't know… It's only been a little while since I became a Warlock."
"Don't lie!"
“It's not a lie. Whether you believe it or not, that's the truth… Anyway, as far as I know, Pilgaret isn't all that harmful. At best, it is said to be used as a replacement for the cigarette…. as a medicine.”
“Even so, drugs are drugs, and don’t tell me that you don’t extort other people’s emotions to make them?”
“It’s not extortion, we buy with money only from people who want to sell them.”
“Are you saying that it is alright to lure the poor with money to take their emotions out?”
At that moment, Oliver thought about the woman who had lost herself and her child due to the excess extraction of all maternal love.
"Um… no. I don't think so. They took out too much, and she became broke due to that. It's indeed sad."
“So.”
“So in the future, when extracting emotions, I will try to extract an appropriate amount without harming them. Like people donating blood.”
Anger and disgust appeared on Joanna's face.
“That doesn’t change anything.”
"Is that so? I'm sorry. But I'm glad I could talk to you… Just in case, if the warlock didn't produce such drugs, you wouldn't hate them anymore, right?"
“Are you seriously asking me that?”
“Um, yes… I want to know why you hate warlocks so much.”
"I don't like Warlocks because they don't hesitate to harm people and worship evil demons for their own desires. Their very existence itself represents evil.”
“Um…wouldn’t there be some kind-hearted warlocks too?”
“If there are winged pigs in this world, maybe there would be good warlocks.”
"Um… I have never seen pigs with wings… Ah, is it a metaphor? Sorry, I don't quite understand such things."
“Yes, that’s right. There is no such thing as winged pigs or good warlocks in this world. Why? Are you going to deny it?”
Oliver pondered for a moment.
“No, Even though I don’t worship Demon, I still kill people when I need to.”
"Haa…!"
Joanna scoffed at his words.
“But everyone is like that, isn’t it?”
"What?"
“Didn’t you too kill people when you needed to?”
“… What kind of nonsense are you saying?”
“Um, I’m sorry if I offended you. However, the orphanage director, Mine supervisor, Innkeeper, Warlocks, Wizards, Master… all of them were trying to kill me if necessary.”
“………”
“So I thought it was fine. Killing people if necessary… So I killed the waitress, Tom, the gangsters, the wizards, and my Master. Is it wrong?"
“Of course! What do you think of life?”
“But, didn’t you Paladins also kill all the gangsters?”
At that moment, Joanna's heart skipped a beat briefly, as if his words stabbed in a sore spot.
“It was… it was inevitable. They were sinners who worked with a warlock, and they didn’t even listen to my last advice to surrender, which I ordered upon God’s mercy. It was inevitable.”
"Um…"
Oliver nodded his head. Then he spoke again.
“I’m sorry, but who judged that it was inevitable?”
“…?”
“Did God say that?”
“Are you blaspheming our God now?!”
"No, I don't really know anything about it… But, isn’t God someone who sees everyone equally, whether they are Paladins or Warlocks or Gangsters."
"How dare you speak as if you know everything?! Are you ridiculing the will of us Parters who dedicated our lives to protect the human world from warlocks and demons? Even all the countries agree!”
"… In other words, God didn't specifically tell you anything? At least you haven't seen it?"
Joanna's beautiful face got twisted in anger, but she couldn't say anything.
She was very agitated because someone had asked her the very question that had been troubling her all this time.
“… Is your goal to destroy my faith with that sassy tongue of yours?”
“No, no… To tell you the truth. I like the way you are now.”
Joanna frowned and looked back at Oliver.
Oliver couldn't organize his thoughts, so he quickly gave a rough explanation.
“Um, I don’t know how to explain this, but I really like you, Miss Paladin. You looked beautiful.”
“How dare you say such dirty words…”
“What? Ah, I don't know what's wrong with it, but I'm sorry. It’s just that your emotions were so beautiful, and it looked amazing…”
“…?”
“Why did you become a paladin?”
“… what are you trying to ask?”
“As you may know, I’ve been looking at Miss Paladin’s battle with the gangsters. You don’t even like to fight, so why do we fight so much? Whenever someone goes to a battle, they all tend to get drenched in the pleasure of victory, the superiority of being strong, and the desire to destroy, but Miss Paladin had only a blank paper-like belief. You were sad even when you defeated the gangsters.”
“…..”
“I wonder what the reason is. Why are you fighting?”
"… I do not fight because it's fun, but because it's a duty. Because someone has to do it."
"Really? That's why you were able to stay calm when you were about to die?”
Joanna was agitated at that moment.
She remembered when Oliver's emotions swallowed her in the darkness except for one eye and mouth.
“…what the hell was that?”
"What?"
"The darkness that covered the sewers. Although this is my first official mission, I've never heard of anything like that."
“Um, You don’t know either. Actually. It's my first time extracting such emotions, so there are many things I don't know. So, I'm sorry if I offended you in any way."
“I don’t know why you are talking to me like this.”
“Because I want to know about the beautiful light.”
“Beautiful light?”
“Yeah, it’s a beautiful emotion to be precise, it shines brightly before a person dies. I've seen it three times, but you're the only one who exuded the beautiful light while being alive… So I just wanted to know, what were you thinking in the end?"
Oliver adjusted his posture and sat down properly to listen.
The figure was like a curious child waiting for an answer.
Joanna looked at Oliver for a long time and then spoke.
“Before answering, can I ask you a question? Why are you curious about that?”
“Um… because it’s beautiful.”
An emotion that he doesn't know.
There was no specific reason for Oliver for learning black magic or finding the beautiful emotions.
That itself was the goal.
“You are putting so much effort into it just because of that beautiful emotion?”
“Yes… So, do you know?”
As soon as she heard his answer, Joanna loosened her anger and hatred for Oliver and looked at him from a new perspective.
It was sympathy.
“You are…broken.”
“Broken?”
“Yes. Answer me. How many times have you felt sad or angry?”
Oliver thought about it quite seriously.
Has he ever been sad or angry?
Did he feel sad or angry when he was framed in the orphanage and got hit by the Orphanage Director?
No.
Did he feel sad or angry when he got tricked and sold to the mine?
No.
Did he feel sad or angry when the children in the mine bullied him?
No.
Did he feel sad or angry when the mine supervisor spit in his face and called him a motherless bastard?
No.
Did he feel sad or angry when he almost died in the inn?
No.
Did he feel sad or angry when he was slapped in the cheek by the intermediate disciple?
No
Did he feel sad or angry when Andrew tried to kill him?
No.
Did he feel sad or angry when his master tried to kill him?
No.
"Um…not much. Ah! I was a little sad when the beautiful light could not be extracted and disappeared. I also felt sad when I saw the woman who lost all her maternal love."
“It isn’t sadness, it is regret. Like a child who couldn’t have the toy he wanted.”
“Um… is that so?”
Oliver crossed his arms at those words and thought about it.
Then, Joanna spoke again.
"You're broken. You don't feel the right emotions. That's why you seek black magic or those beautiful emotions."
"Is that so?"
“At least in my opinion that’s how it is. So, let me help you."
"Um… how?"
“Stop what you are doing now, ask for forgiveness, and pay for your sins.”
“…What should I do after I pay for it?”
"Don't stay in this darkness, come out into the world. Meet a lot of people out there and learn to live like a normal person."
“How do you live as a normal person?”
“Wake up early, work diligently, make friends, chat with neighbors, laugh together, grieve together. That’ll help.”
Oliver understood that what Joanna was saying was sincere.
She truly felt pity for Oliver and wanted to help him.
She was a kind woman, Oliver had never seen anyone with such beautiful and warm emotions.
"Beautiful… that's an interesting story. Seriously. But it will be difficult."
“Why?”
“I want to give it a try, but now I can't, because there are things I promised and things I owe. There is an order for everything.”
“…do you think holding us like this will solve the problem?”
"No. But I think there will be negotiations soon. So, I think it will be fine.”
“Negotiations?”
"Ah, sorry… It was a secret, so please forget it."
Oliver rose from his seat, while Joanna tried to get up feeling flustered, but the chains tied to her hands creaked and interrupted her.
"This…!"
As he was about to leave, Oliver turned and looked at Joanna.
“Miss Paladin… Thank you very much for your words today. I think I got a bit of what I needed. So, thank you so much."
"Hey…!"
Joanna tried to say something to him, but Oliver left without listening to it.
He almost got everything he wanted.
After that, a week passed, and Joanna was released.
(To be Continued on Aug 22{MON})
To read ahead ?$1/chapter
CH 39 (New Wineham)Aug 16CH 40-41 (Marie's confession & Oliver's answer)Aug 17CH 42-43 (First steps into the world)Aug 19
