Sinner

"The second son walked upon fertile land. Bend down, and there was wheat heavy with grain; reach out, and he could pluck sweet fruit. The valleys held countless cattle and sheep."

"His shepherd father warned him not to go to the caverns, lest he bring suffering to the surface."

"The second son did not know what suffering was. Day after day, his curiosity could no longer be suppressed, and he went to the caverns. Thus, suffering came to the surface."

"The demon spirit hidden in the darkness, unable to bear the light, told mankind: once suffering was released, the sins brought by suffering would cling to you. Only by taking on another form could you escape sin."

"The second son believed the demon spirit's words and took on another form, making that form hideously ugly to draw sin to it, so that his true form could remain far from sin." —Divine Word: Age of Divine Revelation

Adam ate a pickled-vegetable flatbread as he leaned against a bookshelf, reading another copy of Divine Word. In the distance, Master Alva slept in his chair, snoring.

After spending another whole morning exploring the church with him, Adam had been permitted to read here at noon.

It had to be said that the Holy Sound Church's basic education was fairly well done. Every so often, priests would visit every household to explain Divine Word and teach children to read along the way.

Perhaps because the threshold for entering the Theological Academy had risen, however, fewer and fewer priests were willing to explain things household by household. To them, why should the knowledge they had paid a considerable sum to learn at the Theological Academy be taught freely to others? Even if it was merely superficial knowledge, they still felt it was a loss.

What was more, after the threshold rose, those capable of entering the Theological Academy were either wealthy merchants or nobles. Neither group thought much of commoners, and their nature determined how they treated them.

Adam set down his book. That passage explained the origins of Otherkind such as Werewolves.

They took on another form to bear sin. Thus, Otherkind were considered sinful from birth. No matter how they appeared outwardly, once priests discovered an Otherkind, they generally chose to kill it and return it to dust.

To exist was to be guilty.

That afternoon, Alva's measuring work seemed to be nearing its end. Following behind him, Adam noticed something else.

Because of the church renovations, some believers' baptisms and worship had been moved to a side hall. Adam noticed that one worshipper was different from the rest.

Like ordinary worshippers, that believer's manner of worship was extremely proper. He entered through the main entrance, cleansed his hands, face, and ears, then sat quietly to cleanse his heart. After that, he knelt before the statue, covered his eyes with both hands, and carefully listened to the Holy Sound.

After completing all this, he covered his ears, recited the Divine Word, walked toward the statue, and exited through the door beneath the statue's hand.

There was nothing different about the ritual itself, but Adam noticed that the believer gave off the scent of sweat, mixed with a familiar smell.

"An Otherkind enduring pain to worship?" Adam knew very well what would happen when Otherkind worshipped. Their entire bodies would resist, as though an army of rebels had erupted within them and was rioting everywhere, bringing intense pain.

But this pain could be adapted to. If it happened often enough, then later on it would probably amount to nothing more than aching all over and sweating profusely. They would not faint or display further abnormalities.

Unfortunately, that person's sweat exposed him. It carried the same scent as the witch doctor and Werewolf from that day. He had likely taken a potion to conceal his abnormalities as well.

"Because of fear?" Adam analyzed the man's mindset. Otherkind were considered sinners by birth; merely existing was a sin.

Over the course of their long struggle, it was not as though no Otherkind had given up resisting. They acknowledged their sins and were willing to begin atoning for them.

Following the Divine Word, they became ascetics who day after day begged for God's forgiveness. These Otherkind earned the recognition of some human priests and established the God's Tear Church.

However, the God's Tear Church did not have good relations with any of the major Churches. Some Churches did not even recognize it as an orthodox Church, dismissing it as a cult.

That Otherkind worshipper clearly was not the sort of devout believer who genuinely wished to worship God and offer everything he had to God. The only reason he now came before the statue to pray was fear of death.

With the witch doctor captured, Otherkind without means of concealment had grown ever more terrified. Yet he was unlike the Werewolf who had attacked the execution ground, whose faith had completely shattered and who only wished to die.

Thus, he came to the Church in terror to worship, yet did not stop taking the potion.

"People like this have no faith at their core. Everything they believe in returns to themselves; every purpose serves themselves." Adam memorized the man's scent. "And as long as I seize this man's weakness, I can control him!"

"And once I open this breach, use him as a banner, and gather momentum of my own, I can win over more Otherkind." There was truth to strength in numbers.

Once your numbers grew, even if others were individually stronger than you, they would still not dare act. An invisible force would take shape, restraining them and drawing them into this power.

Of course, it was not impossible to encounter reckless fools who ignored everything else and relied solely on personal strength to determine victory or defeat.

"So, in the early stages, I need mystery to bolster me. I need to hide my true face and make others fear me as much as possible."

"But I still need to be careful." Though it was an excellent opportunity, Adam had no intention of acting rashly.

The Holy Sound Church's attitude toward Otherkind was extermination, but there were always exceptions. So he could not rule out the possibility that this Otherkind before him was another test by the Church.

And even if it was not a test, he had to find out whether Church members had noticed this man's abnormality.

He could tell the man was Otherkind through a Werewolf's innate, keen sense of smell. The Church might have discovered this worshipper's abnormalities through some other means.

If that were the case, he would expose himself instead.

"I can't rush this..." Adam told himself, yet what he lacked most urgently now was time.

After Alva examined the last wall that needed painting, he announced a break and told Adam to go wherever he pleased.

Though Alva did not show it, Adam understood that this teacher held some grievances against him as well.

"For example, he never remembers the names of people he doesn't think much of." Adam was one of those whose name had not been remembered. Though they had spent two days together and Alva had ordered him to do quite a few things, he had never truly called Adam by name even once.

"The person he approves of is Fula." Adam did not feel insulted by this. He had obtained this opportunity through underhanded means in the first place.

Adam was clear-eyed about that, but he would never regret it or feel guilty because of it.

That night, Adam transformed into a Werewolf once more, slipped out through the attic, and began searching for his target based on the information he had gathered during the day.

"That man arrived at the Church in the afternoon. Besides the potion scent, his sweat carried the smell of the Poison Fog District. Judging by his clothes, his family was not well-off either."

"This can also be inferred from the other Werewolf's financial situation. Potions are not cheap." Adam recalled the Werewolf who had charged the execution ground. The man had worked diligently enough, yet had never been wealthy and had not even had the money to marry. There had previously been gossip among the neighbors that he was a gambler.

In truth, most of that man's money had likely gone toward buying medicine. By analogy, this also indirectly proved that today's Otherkind worshipper was not in good financial circumstances.

Though he truly did not want to go to the slums he called the Poison Fog District, Adam stepped into the area once more.

An overwhelmingly dense stench drifted through the streets. Standing at the district entrance, Adam looked up and could almost see a massive yellow-green monster crouched in midair, grinning viciously at him.

Public sanitation in this era was atrocious. Many believed water was unclean, so they had hardly bathed in their entire lives.

The commoner districts were somewhat better, with public latrines built by the Holy Sound Kingdom. But the people of the slums could not afford such concerns. They dumped urine and excrement directly into the streets, where it mixed with all kinds of horse dung and was packed down by carriage wheels, becoming a new layer of road.

That was why Adam called the slums the Poison Fog District.