William sat on a small wooden chair beside the bed where his sister lay unconscious. His head was down, and a thoughtful expression plagued his face.
'Jumping between step one and step two. How am I doing that?'
This piece of information that Elsa had given him very much intrigued William. According to the blond girl, step one was physical connection, which apparently happens when a sin first invades someone's body. Then step two would be connection of the mind, which happens when someone starts acting according to their sin's core trait.
Him being at step one made sense to William, since he did indeed get his soul invaded by a sin, and he also did get a boost to his physical capabilities. Step two, however, was where he got confused.
When exactly did he jump to step two?
'I guess I'll have to make my best guess with the information I have in hand.'
First of all, Elsa had said that the sin of Envy was fond of him, which was the reason he got a magical ability before reaching step two. The first ability that William got was reflection travel, so he could only assume that reflection travel was the ability that was granted to him by the sin of Envy when he was still at the first step. So if it was step two that granted someone mystical abilities, and he assumed that reflection travel was just an outlier given to him because of fondness, then that would leave only his second ability, which was copy.
And when did William unlock copy?
'...The crimson cloud.'
The vile red cloud was the only thing that he could think of, and when he really thought about it, the red cloud being the cause of his temporary ascension to step two made perfect sense. Step two was all about giving your mind up to your sin, and what had the red cloud done to him? It had forcefully resurfaced William's intense hatred for his brother. And even though he didn't want to admit it, William knew that the hatred he felt for his brother came from a place of envy and jealousy.
'So, I first achieved step one when I was fighting the wooden abomination for the first time. I then temporarily jumped to step two when the crimson cloud made my old emotions resurface. After those emotions calmed down, I presume that I dropped back down to step one again?'
A slight frown formed on his face as he thought this.
'No, that doesn't make sense. If I have dropped to step one again, then why do I still have copy? If I am following this logic correctly, my ability to copy things should have disappeared as soon as I dropped back to step one, so why do I still have it?'
He continued to think. Was there any other instance after his encounter with the red cloud where he felt jealousy or envy toward someone or something?
...
Suddenly, William's frown turned to a deep scowl.
'The angel of Kindness.'
Sure, it was true that the sin of Envy inside William had influenced him and made his emotions swell against the angel. But again, as much as he didn't want to admit it, William knew that deep down he was indeed jealous toward the angel. Not only because of how much more powerful she was than him, but also because of how easily she had defeated his greatest foe—the wooden abomination.
'So if my thought process is correct, that means that I am currently at step two.'
That made him feel a lot of different emotions. Yes, it was a good thing because he was more powerful at step two rather than at step one, but William wasn't ignorant. He could tell that this path of power was a complete mousetrap. It basically relied on giving up more of your own being to the sin that infected you, until there was nothing left of yourself.
William sprawled back on his chair with a sigh. Staring up at the rock ceiling, he thought:
'My best chance is maintaining a second-step relationship with my sin. If I go any higher, I will lose myself, and if I go any lower, I will simply be too weak to exist in a place like this.'
What a horrid situation this was, and yet it wasn't even the one he had to worry about the most. There were so many other issues he would eventually have to face, like the cosmic war, which even now he had very little intel on. Or whatever plan the devil called Elsa had planned for him. And the one that he didn't want to think about the most was...
An involuntary grimace contorted William's pale face.
'I wonder if fate is pushing him toward this cosmic war just like it's doing to me.'
He wondered which planet of sin Hans had been sent to. William doubted that people were just assigned to a random planet without any thought put behind it—no, Hell's system was just too methodical to make such aimless decisions. If he had to take a guess, he would think that once a person was judged in the Judgment Realm, they would then be sent to a planet of sin that best represented them as a person.
Of course, this theory had some implications that made him wish that he was wrong.
William was not only sent to the planet of Envy but also became its overlord by getting the sin itself attached to his soul. Even though it burned him to say, he couldn't help but admit that this made sense considering what he had done in the past. However, what didn't make sense, or what William wished to not make sense, was the fact that Jane was sent here to the planet of Envy as well.
If his theory was correct and Jane was sent to the planet of Envy due to living her life in a jealous fashion, well, due to personal experience, he could make a pretty good guess as to who his sister was jealous of.
William wanted to feel surprised, but he really didn't. The gap between the three of them had been so painfully obvious that even a blind man could see it. A genius brother who built up a company from practically nothing, loved by everyone and cherished as a golden child by his parents. Then there were his siblings, two imbeciles who couldn't even find jobs for themselves and needed the help of their older brother to be hired into his company.
Looking at Jane's sleeping face, he couldn't help but scoff.
'You were jealous of him too. But unlike me, you didn't have the courage to actually do anything about it.'
A scowl almost formed on his face, but then, strangely enough, it never came to be as William closed his eyes and took a deep breath in.
'Gods, what am I even saying to myself right now.'
Was he really going to blame his sister because she didn't let her inner emotions get the best of her, unlike himself? Was he really going to blame her for not wanting to ruin her life? Was he really going to blame her for not wanting to ruin her big brother's life?
No, no, he couldn't blame her at all.
William didn't regret what he did, but he sure as hell hoped that his sister wouldn't do the same thing to someone else.
'Don't regret it...do I not regret it?'
The destruction of his brother's company, did he regret doing it or not? When this question had first appeared in his mind, William had pretended to have answered it by saying that he did not regret it without a single second of hesitation.
So much conviction in a false answer.
In reality, what he was doing was avoiding the question and putting it at the back of his mind while he pretended that he had this great conviction about the decision he made. But if he was to answer this question truthfully, there was no way that he would answer it without hesitation.
William let out a deep sigh.
'Maybe it's time I answer it...'
Did he regret it?
His thoughts were suddenly interrupted as a certain black-haired girl opened her eyes and sprang up from the bed.
'I'll answer it later.'