“Uuuh….”

A completely dark space.

The man who was raising his voice at the leader of the thieves’ group, Ophilia, came to his senses and slowly got up.

“Where is this…?”

It dawned on him that he had been swept away by a wind as fierce as a whirlwind and dragged somewhere.

As he regained his composure and looked around, he noticed that his companions, who had also been sucked in with him, were nowhere to be seen.

“Hey! Where is everybody?!”

He had no idea what he was stepping on, but wandering around searching for them only yielded nothing—not even a trace of his comrades.

The leader stopped his search and quickly turned his mind.

‘What’s going on? Did someone cast a spell? But Ophilia is a knight. Of course, just because she’s a knight doesn’t mean she can’t use magic…’

Wait, wasn’t it that something suddenly appeared and caused the trouble?

He wanted to slowly sort his thoughts, but—

Unfortunately.

<[From now on, I will begin the straightforward injection of pure facts into the misguided infidels who have wandered down the wrong path.]>

“?!”

He didn’t have the luxury of time to think.

“Wait a moment…!!”

—Kwahwang!!

With a tremendous roar, the ground beneath his feet began to rise.

It rose up, up, and then suddenly started to roll forward as if it had become a single cylindrical shape.

It was an extraordinarily bizarre sight. Who would seriously imagine that something they were standing on could transform into a pillar?

“What… what is this?”

Turning his head slightly—

‘!!!’

He saw that spikes had sprouted densely from the floor.

If he falls there… he’d die!

Suddenly gripped by the terror of impending death, the man’s face turned ghostly pale.

What on earth is happening?

What kind of place is this space I fell into?

Where did those spikes come from, and where did all my companions disappear to?

Without the time to ponder such questions, the pillar began to spin faster and faster.

“Uh? Uhh…?”

He barely managed to avoid falling and stumbled forward.

At first, he could keep pace with walking, but the speed of the pillar started to increase.

‘Oh no…!’

He began to run in the opposite direction of the spinning pillar.

If he stopped even once… he would fall and be impaled by the spikes!

For now, he had to run. No matter what, he had to survive!

Thus began a race that seemed never-ending.

* * *

How much time passed after that?

“Huff, huff… huff…!”

No matter how much he ran, the column showed no signs of stopping.

He squeezed every last bit of strength left in his body just to move forward.

At least it was a relief that the speed of the column wouldn’t go beyond a certain limit.

If it had continued to accelerate, he would have given up completely.

Fueled by the belief that he could somehow make it, he pushed himself harder, even using every ounce of strength he had left.

“What… what do you want from me…!!”

While complaining out loud, he kept running and running.

The instinct of a living being not wanting to die clashed with his human will of not wanting to be unjustly punished in such a place.

With both feelings within him, he continued to run.

He ran like never before in his life, but…

As time went on, he instinctively realized.

‘This pillar… it will never stop.’

Tears of injustice began to well up in his eyes.

He understood that the pillar would keep spinning until he fell.

If that’s the case, it would be better to give up, but driven by the instinct to survive, he kept pushing himself forward.

‘Damn it…!!!’

He knew.

He had no intention of claiming innocence.

He wasn’t going to ask for forgiveness now by saying life had been tough.

Just the fact that he lived in a region hit hard by a plague.

It was precisely because his father was the first victim that he was isolated by the villagers.

His heart ached from the memories of not getting proper revenge against those who killed his mother for their own safety.

Ironically, he had survived alone while everyone else succumbed to disease.

The resentment bubbled up to the surface because he got slapped hard for trying to steal food—

With all sorts of excuses flooding his mind, he suddenly burst into tears.

He had no intention of seeking sympathy.

Absolutely, absolutely… no reflection at all.

If God really existed.

If the religious figures were right about Him being the one who gives everyone straightforward facts, then why the hell is my life like this… I want to scream!

“I’m not going to apologize for that…!!!”

In an instant, his running speed picked up.

As if responding to him, the column began to spin even faster.

“Uwa… Augh… AAAAAAA!!!!”

He shouted.

This was his acceptance of the fact that he would eventually meet his end.

He would not kneel before any god.

Never, no matter what…!!

“AAAAAAAH!!!”

Then, suddenly, his legs gave way, and he fell.

Falling from the pillar—

Into the area where spikes lay spread wide open, over and over…

—Bang!

“Ugh…!”

He felt pain.

But it was a bit different from what he had expected.

It wasn’t the kind of pain from a cut or a scratch… it felt more like the pain one would feel from a hard impact.

“…Huh?”

Slowly, the man got up and looked below.

…There was a floor.

A transparent floor that allowed him to see the spikes sprawled out beneath it.

‘What…?’

There was a floor?

From the start… falling didn’t mean dying?

Just as that thought crossed his mind—

—The Voice.

“!!!”

The very first voice echoed in his head once again.

—You did not kill anyone. You did not cross the line. Therefore, the God does not hold that against you.

“What are you talking about…?”

—If you had killed someone, you may have met a different end…

But God took that into consideration because you didn’t.

“God…?”

In that moment.

The strong tension that had been gripping him loosened up.

Does God know that I did not commit murder?

God… was watching me…?

—Why is that?

Why did you not cross the line?

“…”

Why didn’t I kill anyone?

Well, it’s because I didn’t want to dirty my hands, right? No, if I felt that way, I wouldn’t have become a thief.

Though I didn’t commit any direct murder, I did threaten others to forcibly take what wasn’t mine.

“I….”

Thinking back, why didn’t I kill anyone?

It was a question I had never seriously considered before.

The other thieves around me took lives without hesitation. Perhaps that was the rational choice.

In truth, I hadn’t been free of life-threatening situations either. Yet, I had somehow managed to avoid the choice of killing someone.

Moreover, I repeatedly advised my comrades against taking lives.

Because it would complicate things?

That could be one reason, but as I thought it through calmly, the answer came to me surprisingly easily.

“I didn’t want to become like them….”

I didn’t want to become like those bastards who beat my mother with clubs.

Even if the moment came when my life was in danger, I didn’t want to be the one taking a life first.

“I didn’t want to become like them…!! Damn it…!”

The man shouted, and then he cried like a child for a long time.

That’s right. I didn’t want to become like them. Even if my life was a mess, I didn’t want to stain my hands with blood in the same way.

How much time passed after that?

Once more, a voice echoed.

—This is the outcome.

The result of your struggle to not become the same is the floor that saved your life.

‘The result is…!’

The man reached out to feel the floor supporting him.

Without it, he would have died. In a very tragic manner.

—Your sins are by no means light. Many people have suffered greatly. Considering the despair of those who have had their fortunes seized through blood and sweat, absolving your sins unilaterally is far from the will of God.

However, as long as you did not cross the line… it is not too late. You can start again. From the beginning. If you pay for all your sins.

‘Sins…?’

Starting over… again, can I?

I may not have committed murder, but I did steal… and now I’m being offered another chance?

—Indeed. You can rehabilitate.

“Why? How can you say that…?”

And the voice answered his question.

—That is the decision of Holy Knight Ophilia Translerente, chosen by the One God Igguoqueden— ‘straightforward facts.’

‘!!!’

The decision of Holy Knight Ophilia, ‘straightforward facts.’

—You can start again, Belion. As long as you have the will to not cross the line, you can live a much better life.

“Start… again…?”

Since becoming a thief.

No one—no one had said such words to him—

People only feared him, or cursed him.

So he hadn’t even thought about it. That he could start over.

That he could live a different life… he never considered that.

—May the straightforward facts be with you.

‘…!’

As he heard those words, something slowly seeped into his heart.

It was a warm feeling. The decision of Ophilia, who believed he could rehabilitate and shared realistic facts with him.

Because humans can change simply by having someone believe in them…

‘I… I…’

As he felt the reality of the straightforward facts, a flash of insight appeared in Belion’s view—

* * *

“Huff… Huh.”

—When he came to, he found himself back on the roadside before being sucked into something.

Around him, all his companions were kneeling and sobbing.

“This is the straightforward fact…!”

“Lord Igguoqueden…!”

His companions said such things while shedding tears on the ground.

The leader of the thieves, Belion, slowly raised his head.

There, standing before them—was a rabbit. A fluffy rabbit, blinking its eyes.

—No. Now he understood.

That figure was a god in the form of a rabbit.

An entity comparable to a deity, the Messenger of God…!!

“Lord…!”

Belion immediately knelt before the rabbit and pressed his forehead to the ground.

For the one who believed in him despite his thievery and shared the straightforward facts, he offered the highest level of reverence he could muster.

“Huff, huff…! I’m sorry… I’m sorry…!!! Really… I’m really sorry…!!!”

The rabbit didn’t respond, simply staring at the kneeling thieves with round eyes—then, it jumped and landed on Ophilia’s head.

“Igguoqueden.”

“You want me to summon people immediately? But—”

“Igguoqueden.”

“Does that mean they won’t run away…? I understand. Please wait a moment.”

The thieves were sucked into the fissure opened by the rabbit.

After about five minutes, the fissure opened again, and they jumped out.

Although it would have been shocking to see this surreal scene of people kneeling and crying out the name of the god—

Ophilia calmly executed the rabbit’s orders.

Thus, with her arrival the chaos concluded as she brought in troops to capture the entire thieves’ group.

All of the thieves were to face their due punishment, but upon investigation, it turned out none of them had committed crimes worthy of execution.

Moreover, throughout the process, without putting up any resistance, they all testified in accordance with the teachings of the great God Igguoqueden and the great Holy Knight Ophilia who had chosen them, promising to repay their debts and transform into new people.

Naturally, Ophilia’s reputation soared, greatly improving public sentiment towards ‘Holy Knight Plate’, and the image of Guoden Church also skyrocketed, ultimately achieving more than her share of success—yet—

‘…’

Ophilia could not let herself be completely joyous.

* * *

Some time later, after the incident.

‘…’

As Ophilia finished her night patrol and sat by the campfire lost in thought—

A voice came to her, belonging to a woman with a wonderfully sweet voice.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Ophilia.”