52. The Grand Archives

In the confines of Nathanial’s wooden room, he had taken a brief nap on his soft linen sheets, believing that what he had just seen was nothing more than a dream. After spending days on the open battlefield along the southern borders, he had somehow drifted asleep at the bastion despite his vows’ penalties working against him.

The moon hung in the sky, and that brief nap he had taken had instead taken away hours of his life.

“I can’t believe I just slept through the entire day…” he muttered.

It was only supposed to be three hours at most.

Instead, he was in bed for nearly eight hours, with the golden screen displaying his status before him.

Nathanial searched through the text once more. His eyes landed on the titles that had been given to him.

On the title that said: Vessel of the Ninth Sin.

The letters on the golden screen bled black, unlike the others. And Nathanial could feel the opposing title and his vows push against the sinister characters festering like a wound on the golden screen.

The minor distortion on the screen and the distant whispers entering Nathanial’s ears felt unholy.

Yet everything was somehow reaching a balance.

“What the hell is going on?” he muttered.

He had already reached the conclusion that his first title, Champion of █ █ █ █ █, was a title relating to the higher realms. One that was driven into existence by one of the many gods in the world. The only question was which one it was and why they chose him.

It didn’t make any sense.

The world was the one that created the system.

That was what the messenger told him, so the gods didn’t have a hand in it.

It was also entirely possible that there wasn’t a God manipulating everything behind the scenes.

But if there were, and if Nathanial did entertain the thought, then why the hell did it say he was the Vessel of the Ninth Sin?

What exactly was the Ninth Sin?

Everyone knew of the seven sins. The core human flaws such as pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, sloth, and wrath.

But now there was a ninth sin? Something he had never heard about before? And if he was the vessel for the ninth, then what was the eighth sin, and who was the vessel for that?

Nathanial rubbed his eyes with his index finger and thumb. His head ached at the mere thought. There was no telling how many foes existed beyond the seven named sins.

But the system was right.

This was only the beginning, and if he was the vessel for one of the sins, Nathanial needed to figure out what exactly that sin was. The only issue was that he had no clue where to start.

“Am I the only vessel of the new sins?”

The golden screen before him gently hummed. Its translucent screen flickered for a moment before characters started appearing one after another.

[ No, it is within reason to believe that the seven original sins are still in the many floors of hell, and that new sins have manifested into the world. ]

“How many of them are there?”

[ That is unknown. Only one has been confirmed to exist. However, his physical characteristics remain a mystery, not which side he stands on. ]

“What is this new sin?”

The question asked by Nathanial made the golden screen pause for a moment. A series of dots appeared, repeating in sequences of three like a ticking clock before vanishing.

[ Hope. The eighth new sin is hope. ]

Nathanial felt a sharp breath escape his lips. “…Hope?”

[ Indeed. That would be the new sin that has emerged. It was born from a desire wishing for change. ]

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[ If despair kills quickly, then hope kills slowly. ]

[ Those consumed by hope ignore reality because they believe without a shred of doubt—that salvation is just around the corner. ]

“But the concept of hope isn’t like the other sins born of morality,” Nathanial softly protested.

[ You are correct, it is worse. ]

[ If pride declares, it deserves more, and greed craves more, then hope demands that one day it will have more. ]

Nathanial listened to the words with his head resting flat on his white pillow as he stared at the ceiling. His white shirt and beige trousers clung to his body like pale hands that wanted to drag him into the depths of madness.

Hope should never be a sin. It made little sense to him, and the more he thought about it, the more it felt wrong.

Nathanial thought of the soldiers stationed on the walls. The wounded men from the Sixth and Seventh Armies were in the infirmary. Even the refugees who escaped to Stafford, the bastion of the Kingdom after losing everything because they believed that tomorrow would be better.

If hope really were a sin…

Then what kind of world did they live in for it to exist?

Yet, as the system explained this to him, a question surfaced from the depths of his mind.

“What is the ninth sin?”

The system didn’t answer.