AN: on second thought, I'll change him back to "normal", as I notice that people don't really read LN. Poor, pitiful souls.
The Sinner of Greed
Kazuma blankly looked forth, sitting on the soil ground. It took a moment for him to realize that he had already transmigrated. The information from the recent events was still being filtered with his head. The fact that he was alive again, then the sudden appearance of the Punisher who accused him as a sinner and worst, all he could do was to receive it, as a mere mortal. With no way to talk back or defend.
And then the painful experience he had ever undergone in his whole existence. Thinking about it was capable of making him let out a shaky breath.
What the hell can he do in that situation, really?
'Ah, why did I talk back though...?'
Regardless, based on what he's feeling currently, other than anger and irritation by the injustice and the stupid rules he broke, he didn't really feel the slightest bit of regret. Hesitation and reluctance by caution and anxiety are what he always experienced when he was alive. But since being in that dark room, he felt quite peaceful. It was as if the acknowledgement of the fact that he was dead extinguish them. So other than those two, he's surprisingly felt relief, and unquestionably satisfaction by talking back. Despite... this.
And the Sin of Greed. A punishment that has been bestowed upon him by the Punisher. He looked around his body but found nothing. Maybe it was ethereal or inside the mind, or maybe it could be something familiar to karma. Kazuma doesn't really know what it means by receiving it.
Bad luck, perhaps. The word "sin" itself is enough indication that it was a bad thing. No, even before considering that, the fact that it was a punishment from a literal Divinity, no matter how bullsh*t it was, certainly wouldn't be a good thing.
Well, besides all of that, at least he got that blessing.
At last, he merely shook his head, looking around in curiosity yet fascination. With a sigh following afterwards.
'I hope the exchange of being a thoughtless bastard was worth it.'
...A fantasy world. It's not wrong to call the current scenery he saw before him.
Things such as houses, pavements, markets, and attires. They are exactly what he imagined them to be if he was in a fantasy world. A medieval-themed world with fantastical and unreal elements. By the fact that a wizard just passed by with his staff, though he looks at Kazuma strangely with his companions. Maybe because he was sitting on the side of a pavement.
Realizing his unusual antics by the pedestrians, Kazuma slowly stood up. Admiring the scenery that he never thought he could be in. And then he felt a pull by the pants. Kazuma glanced at the cause and faltered.
'Ah, yeah, the Goddess.'
Pathetically curling up on the ground beside him, he did not know how she managed to look even worse than the previous him. The passer-by looked at them strangely and Kazuma, no matter how reckless by his acknowledgement that he was dead once, felt quite embarrassed.
With a troubled look, he kneeled down before Aqua, who was grasping his pants with moist eyes, with snots furiously sucked by her sobs. Kazuma sighed, he feels bad. Annoyed too, but he can't help but be sentimental.
"Aqua, it already happened, crying it's useless."
"H-Hmph, who says you could carelessly call me by my divine n-name?"
"Yeah, I am very sinful, huh?"
"W-Well... if you put it that way..."
Aqua glanced over and put up an unpleasant look, reminiscing the recent accident she suffered. With her short-sighted mind, she could only blame this mortal for this fiasco. But besides that, she's really just a clueless, innocent woman, if the Goddess title was put aside, she was like a clueless teenage girl who has no idea about this world. A pure-minded girl with a pure heart, oblivious, but not awful. Well, maybe not completely.
And looking at the back of the mortal before her, she couldn't help but feel assured. At least there was a person that would accompany her.
Still, she hates this. A goddess dumped to the Mortal World?!
"I don't care! It's all your fault!"
He puts his gaze on her momentarily before walking forward, following the pavement.
"Hey-!"
"Look, from my memory, it was you who initiate that thing to punish us. While it was somewhat my fault for provoking it, it doesn't mean you were innocent either. No, you, Aqua, were the one who started all of this!"
"W-What?! What did I even do?!"
Aqua screeched out, showing him a tearful face. Completely discarded any thought that she was a beautiful woman from his mind. Though she was still perfect in terms of physicality, Kazuma really can't give her any points other than that.
"I don't know. Maybe you've broken a rule?"
Well, he did. By saying God damn it in the face of that divinity.
What sort of narcissistic guy would create such a rule? It was such a stupid thing. It's not like they were included even though their titles, race names, or whatever it was were used as a subject in the sentence. Kazuma still resented it until now.
"Umm..."
Blankly looked up to the sky, Aqua marvelled, trying to remember a deed she'd done for the Punisher to befall penalties upon her. But by her needless pride and ego, she cannot see any faults she had done.
"I didn't do anything!"
"If so, then that so-called Punisher wouldn't appear. Just be honest, please."
"How about you?! Maybe you thought something inappropriate and incited the Punisher to appear?!"
"Based on the first testimony that thing said when it appeared, it was obvious that it was you who initiated it. Look, we don't have any reasons to lie. We are already desperate enough by knowing absolutely nothing in this world. Well, maybe you know a couple of things as a Goddess who was in charge of sending people to this world but seeing your tendencies, I doubt it. So please cooperate."
"H-Hey! I knew a thing or two! Like how this planet was invaded by the Demon Kings... uhhh..."
Kazuma looked at the dumb-looking Aqua and sighed. Sometimes, he wonders if it was a natural phenomenon. That when he expected things, he did get it. But with a twist. Like in the present. He expected companions, and yeah, he got it, but...
In the end, he just groaned quietly, looking forth to see where he was going. Before doing so, he glanced behind and grasp Aqua's arm, which snapped out of her "thoughtful thinking"
"Come on Aqua, let's just ask around."
"No! I want to go back! There must be a way! This is impossible! No! How could I be stuck with a Mortal in this lowly place?! And you can't call me by my name! You don't have the qualification to do so! Who do you think you are?! Waah-!"
Ignoring her needless, loud wailing as he dragged her with him, Kazuma strides over to a pedestrian. A middle-aged housewife who was carrying a bag filled with daily needs. Although he was getting stares because of the loud Aqua and maybe his outfit, he dismissed them. For the sake of coming out of this pit of confusion.
Until now, other than being a fantasy world, Kazuma doesn't have the slightest idea about this world.
"Excuse me, Ma'am?"
"Waah! I wanna go back! I! Wanna! Go! Back-!"
Smiling wryly at the situation, Kazuma could only sigh when the pedestrian looked at them strangely before fastening up her pace. Leaving him in the dust. He's irritated and annoyed, but doing such behaviour wouldn't improve the current situation, no, it'd make it worse, so he could only try to be patient.
"Hey, can you keep it for yourself-?"
"Ahh! A devil!!"
A boy, in a medieval outfit, screamed out, looking at Kazuma in fear and repulsion. The victim groaned once again.
'What now?!'
"Shush! It's not good to point out strangers!"
The mother of the boy scolded the boy before nodding at him apologetically. And then they departed with haste. Kazuma, seeing the situation hasn't improved one bit could only helplessly look at Aqua, who was still loud about her "suffering". What the hell was he supposed to do-
"Ah! Your eye!"
Aqua, who stared at him after he turned around suddenly screams exactly into his ears, making him step back and flinched. Aqua looked at him in fear, keeping a distance from him. Kazuma looked at her strangely.
"What eye? What's wrong with my eye?"
Looking around, Kazuma found a puddle of water beside the soil pavement. He strides over hastily with inquisitiveness and saw himself in the reflection.
"...F*ck."
By instinctual, common sense and the subconscious works of his brain, Kazuma made an immediate conclusion.
'The Sin of Greed.'
His right eye turned... odd. It as was if there was some sort of curse cast on it. His supposedly green eye turned black, and in the midst appeared a dot of red. Kazuma was terrified and stumbled back, covering his right eye with his hands. He sat there before a puddle of water, staring at the ground with widened eyes.
When a sudden scene of the beam flashes in his memory, Kazuma puts his other hand on his chest. Now, he realizes. As he saw himself in the reflection of the puddle...
'It was horrifying.'
He often saw what was on the reflection behind the screen. But the present wasn't merely a scene, it was an experience, an occurrence Kazuma underwent.
No matter what, Kazuma was essentially a student who witnessed and concluded things based on what he saw behind the screen. His real-life experiences, on the other hand, were equal to that of an ordinary Modern-Era citizen. Who has no experience in aspects of a fantasy world.
A feeling creeps into his heart. A feeling he always got when he understood the reality. All the things he said recently. They were merely statements. Thoughts.
Not real-life occurrences.
It's weird that when he saw himself, that's when he truly realized. What he lives in is a reality, not a fantasy. And when it comes to reality, Kazuma never had a good time when it was involved. It was a feeling familiar to acceptance mixed with this very awful, heart-wrenching feeling.
A feeling of being punished for something he cannot abide by. Punished by his expectations and the reality.
'I-I...'
"K-Kazuma?"
Aqua, while frightened, managed to comprehend the current situation. She was dumped into a world she has no idea of, with a mortal named Kazuma Satou. And while she was prideful and obnoxious, she's not so dumb as to overlook the current situation. No matter what she complained and screamed out, nothing would have changed.
As a Goddess who never experienced such an ordeal, it was hard for her to adapt to this situation. But a part of her said that she has to try. Or else she would suffer. Besides, at least she has a companion. She couldn't imagine what will she do if she was dumped alone. The thought almost made her burst into tears.
"H-Huh?"
Kazuma glanced back, covering his right eye with his hand.
"Are you... okay?"
Aqua asked in concern, while plastering a terrified look on her face.
...Perhaps, from a third perspective, it was merely a person asking others about their well-being. But when Aqua asked him that, he widened his eyes. Gazing at Aqua who was terrified yet concerned at the time, a realization hits him.
In this world, he's not alone.
In this foreign, strange world he has no knowledge nor experience of, despite being so similar to a fantasy world he always imagined, he had somebody he knows. Perhaps it was merely a Goddess who mostly showed her contempt, but she is somebody he knows. Somebody that sticks with him.
A colleague.
He doesn't know why it comforts him so much, knowing that someone is in the same shoes as him.
Kazuma stood up and slowly walks towards Aqua who was still terrified by his eye. He looks her in the eyes and smiled.
"Don't worry, I'm fine. Let's ask people around."
"Anyway, do something to that creepy eye of yours! What happened to it?!"
"Tsk, a side effect maybe? I don't know. Either way, do you have an eyepatch or something?"
"Of course I don't!"
"I'll cover it for the time being. Alright, let's look around."
With a hand on his eye and Aqua in tow, he walks into the town. Multiple, inexplicable feelings arise, yet Kazuma keeps moving forward.
He was somewhat terrified, confused, lost and felt strange, yet he was fascinated, excited and even impatient. Interested and curious, shocked, awe, amazement...
Multiple, mixed feelings, and Kazuma has no way to describe them in a precise manner. He glanced back and saw Aqua, who looks around in surprise. Kazuma has no idea why Aqua did not know that he was the host of the Sin of Greed. Perhaps she did not hear its testament by her fear back then. Alas, his instinct told him to keep it for himself.
"A mortal world, huh?"
"Yep."
A subconscious reply from Kazuma, and Aqua stared at his back momentarily. Oddly, a sense of dependence emerges from her heart. But her ego suppresses it. Still, it was there, and Aqua, for the first time, feel it. Maybe because he never lost his composure despite experiencing what she thought was unusual as a mortal or it could be because this whole time, Aqua feels like he is superior in terms of intelligence. Of course, as a supreme Goddess, she would never admit it.
In any way, there's this... sense, a sense of relying on somebody as she followed him. For her, it was curious how it makes her feel alleviated. Despite knowing him merely for minutes.
Well, he is the only person she knows in this world. And adding this intuition in her heart that this mortal before her was not evil, really, Aqua found it hard not to acknowledge him as a companion, despite that Kazuma was a mortal.
"Hmph, you must not know about the Guild Hall, aren't you?"
"What is that?"
Slowing his pace, Kazuma walks at a speed where he can stand beside Aqua, who smugly looks forth.
"It's usually placed in the middle of the town. With a conspicuous trait that a crowd would gather around its building. Search for it, and from there we could become adventurers."
Hearing the word adventurers, Kazuma blinked. He almost forgot about his task to defeat the Demon King. No, rather than a task, it was probably more appropriate to call it a goal.
A purpose. Of him being transmigrated.
"Huh, you're not completely clueless."
"I never was!"
He has an intention to bring up why didn't she say earlier, but it seems like it would ruin this moment. So he let it go.
As they walk through the town, Kazuma could feel many gazes from the townfolks. From his view, they were mostly filled with amazement and appreciation for Aqua's perfection. Thankfully, it seems like the people here were quite civil. But Kazuma has to be prepared for someone who would show a look full of immorality. Just in case.
He's not in a fantasy. But a reality.
When Kazuma passed a bridge, he saw a piece of glass in some sort of trash can. Secretly snatching the thing with haste, he keeps it in his pocket. It was small so it fits. His gaze points forth while being vigilance of his surroundings. Aqua, who walks beside him was clueless about the whole ordeal, and pridefully showed her beauty, which Kazuma cannot deny.
He could only shake his head mentally.
Fortunately, there wasn't any problem on their way to the Guild Hall. From afar, Kazuma could see a considerably massive building, but not so crowded as Aqua said. Looking at the sun at its peak, perhaps it was the time adventurers proceeded with their quest.
"There it is!"
Following Aqua who went ahead while jogging, Kazuma leisurely looked around. He already accepted it, but it's still unbelievable to live in an environment he thought he could only imagine. After they arrived before the big doors of the building, Aqua energetically opened them up, revealing the hall filled with an adventurous yet cosy ambience.
It doesn't matter how many times he said it, but Kazuma still found every single aspect and element he found within this world so damn fascinating. His sole eye brightens up, looking at the hall before him. But Aqua is already upstarts ahead, standing behind a line of what seemingly volunteers who wanted to become adventurers, like them.
"Woah, that girl is so gorgeous!"
"Hahah! We got another good guild member, it seems!"
"Wohoo!"
Hearing their cheers for her, Aqua puffed out her chest and grinned. She replied with a wave of her hand.
"Greetings! I am Aqua, the most beautiful, adored, admired, worshipped Goddess!"
"Not so far off, I'll be honest."
"Hmnh!"
"If I saw her from the upper echelons, I would believe her."
"Seconded."
While Aqua was enjoying the compliments thrown by the guild members, she didn't realize that the line was vacant in front of her. Thankfully, Kazuma was the one behind her, so he merely glanced at her with a deadpanned stare before walking to the receptionist's table. Where volunteers register to become adventurers, according to what he saw and observed.
"Excuse me?"
"Ah, yes? What do you need?"
A young woman who was seemingly in her early twenty greeted him. Beautiful, is a way to describe her. With her blond hair tied into a ponytail and her mature brown eyes, combined with a quite revealing uniform, Kazuma took a heavy breath and replied.
"I and that woman over there wanted to become adventurers. Can you please give us a procedure for it?"
Gesturing at Aqua with his vacant hand, who was being admired by the guild members, Kazuma glanced at her for a moment before reverting his attention to the receptionist, who nodded in understanding. She then checked a letter on her table before looking at him again.
"Young sir, it would be 1,000 Eris each person."
He blinked, looking at the receptionist for a moment before groaning quietly. It seems like he has to search for some money. How did he not realize it beforehand-?
"Kya!"
By a screech, Kazuma instinctively turned his head and a foreboding feeling arose. As he expected, which cruelly was in accordance with it despite being a disastrous one, Aqua was being held up by her arm by an adventurer. Seeing that the guild members he saw earlier looked at the spectacle disdainfully, the adventurer must be not one of their group.
"Kazuma! H-Help-!"
"Hohoho, to think I've gotten a good catch by visiting this Beginner's Town. I'm sure as hell lucky!"
The man was quite big, as Aqua merely reached his shoulders. His skin was tan, conceivably because of the time when he was out to adventure when the sun was at its peak. He has a massive broadsword on his back, showing his strength merely by looks alone. Wearing heavy armour over his muscly torso and leather pants, complementing his looks that exhibited that of an Adventurer. A warrior-class, particularly.
Kazuma was facing his back. The adventurer was focusing on Aqua, who looks like she was about to cry after being held up like that.
'Hey? That's yours, right?'
A premonition sensation arose from his covered eye, simultaneously creating a thought he had never thought of.
Unconsciously, Kazuma slowly brought out the piece of glass from his pocket, gripping it tightly. Something affecting him, making him solely focus on the scene ahead of him. He could see the man, treating Aqua like a toy, inconsiderate towards her feelings. He could see the man's eyes from his position, filled with immense immorality.
He removed his hand from the eye, showing the eye he thought was cursed exposed to the air. The form of the punishment of the Sin he know he did not deserve.
'That's yours, right?'
'...Then why did your possession being held up by others?'
Inevitably, the guild members noticed his unusual antics. Of course, by the long distance and the bangs Kazuma haven't cut for years, they can't clearly see his bizarre eye.
They whispered to each other and inescapably, it would attract the adventurer. He turned around and saw a scrawny guy, standing in front of the receptionist's table.
"Ah, Luna, my favourite receptionist. Would you mind if I bring this woman with me?"
"...She is his companion, so you have to ask him."
"Hmph? Him? That scrawny guy? Why can't I do that through you?"
"She's not a guild member yet. And she came with him."
The adventurer turned his attention to him, who wasn't focused on his surroundings.
'That's yours, that's yours, that's yours! What are you doing? Take her back!'
'Precisely, she is my colleague.'
These weird thoughts... Kazuma wasn't so clueless as to not know where they came from. Obviously, it came from the Sin of Greed. Trying to affect his actions and thoughts according to its will.
'...Yeah, that's my colleague.'
The only person he knew in this foreign world.
"Hey buddy. I just wanted to borrow this beautiful woman, it's fine, right? Here, a couple of Eris! It was a mutual exchange, you know? A couple of Eris for you who probably live a peasant life for me to spend my time with this woman as much as I wanted! So why don't you take this money, go, and heal that weird eye of yours?"
The man come closer, holding up Aqua with one hand by her hands, who was crying in shame.
"K-Kazuma..."
"Ah! So his name is Kazuma? What a weird name! Unlike mine, Leonhart, it sounds quite... weak."
'Grrr... That's yours! That's yours!!!'
Kazuma feels it. An irrational decision to act. Any normal person would cower and be scared, being in front of this man on the opposite side. But Kazuma only felt an impulsive urge to charge. To take back what he "possessed". Rage and anger, protectiveness.
Possessiveness.
"Whatever, it doesn't matter negotiating with you. You know?"
"Help me! Kazumaaa!!"
"I'll give you a hit to the head. For my farewell and probably hers too. And maybe a little extra for your disrespectfulness by not answering me."
The man motioned his other hand backwards, to charge an assault on him. Clearly evaluate him as a weak person. The receptionist, Luna, could only look in pity and sadness from behind. While the guild members clenched their mugs, wanting to act. But they knew they are powerless.
Leonhart is a strong adventurer. Coming from the other town. As citizens of Axel, a beginner's town, they were powerless.
'MOVE! Take back what's yours!!!'
A force so hard to resist moved his arm.
But Kazuma doesn't mind. He accepts it, and handle it the way he sees fit.
When the man's fist was a couple of centimetres away from his forehead, he ducked and charged forward, sending an uppercut with his bloodied fist because of the piece of glass. The speed and the strength, Kazuma knew he wasn't capable of, were demonstrated by his frail body. Allowed by the force compelled by the sin.
The red dot in the blackness of his iris glowed.
His greed overtook him. To take back what he "possessed"
Kazuma accepts it.
He is the Sinner of Greed.
"GUGH!"
The piece of glass penetrated the adventurer's jaw, and by the force it possessed, it went through his jaw and continued to penetrate his tongue. Because of the contrasting difference in size between the man and Kazuma, the force of Kazuma's uppercut didn't lift him, instead, it forced its way through with the shard of glass.
The man clearly wasn't on guard against Kazuma.
Kazuma pulled back his numbed fist, realizing the amount of blood his hand has been stained with. But his greed makes him ignorant about everything other than what's in his sight, and instead of caring, Kazuma immediately pounced on the fallen adventurer, who was grasping his ruined jaw while screaming curses. The spectators already stood up long ago, and they could imagine the amount of pain that man has to go through. Only imagine, not feel sorry for.
The shard of glass still stuck in Kazuma's hand, seeped into his flesh, with a little part sticking out. It acted as a claw, capable of ripping and penetrating what was in its way. He now realized that the sharpness of the shard of glass in this world surpassed that in his world by a large margin.
"You f*cker! Sh*t! F*ck*ng a*hole! You-!"
Before the man could utter another indecipherable word by his ruined tongue, Kazuma, by his greed, precisely its possessiveness, punched straight to the man's brain. And with the force, the sin manufactured through wills, Kazuma managed to scrap a little bit of his brain with the shard of glass that was surprisingly capable of penetrating his skull.
The adventurer cannot handle the pain anymore. And by that assault, he passed out. Possibly dead. Crippled, at least.
When the whole hall was silent, Kazuma slowly picked up the pouch the man carried and threw it to Aqua, who was dumbly staring at him. He stood up tiredly and weirdly enough, has the time to cover his eye. The other hand, embedded by the shard of glass, was bleeding out furiously. Numbed by the adrenaline, and soon would generate an incredible amount of pain.
Kazuma feels a lot of things. And one of them is exhaustion.
"Aqua?"
"...Y-Yeah?"
"Take care of the rest, please."
His constitution wasn't meant for what just happened. So the backlash of performing such a feat could be imagined. Despite merely inflicting two moves, the force behind each of those moves was immensely powerful, enough to penetrate an Intermediate's skull, with the help of a shard of glass, which originally was impossible to be conducted by Kazuma's untrained, weak body. So shortly after, he passed out. But before he falls, Aqua hastily comes over, placing his head on her lap. Still staring at him in a dumb manner. And many thoughts she could have, but she only focused on one thing.
'...He fought for me.'
"Amazing!"
"That young man is admirable!"
"Worthy of being a companion of the "Goddess"!"
Luna, from behind her receptionist table, looked at the bloodied figure, specifically the lower head of Leonhart, in shock. As a receptionist for many years, she saw an abundant amount of adventurers. But just this time, she saw something outrageous.
'A non-Adventurer won against an Intermediate with merely a shard of glass?!'
Situating Kazuma's head on her lap so he could be comfortable, Aqua stayed silent. Then, she murmured.
"...Don't worry, Kazuma."
Different from her usual antics around him, she doesn't show contempt, complaint and grievance. She merely stoke his hair, holding his bloodied hand to heal it. Peacefully looked over his face. With a gaze and a smile probably no one ever saw from her.
"I'll heal you. As the Goddess of Water."