Once the trials were over, I gathered the four idiots who were busy memorizing the Law Code in one place.
This time, I didn't call the newly appointed Ten Kings; I only summoned the four founders who had helped shape the laws governing the world.
The four of them gathered, wearing expressions that clearly asked why I was calling them when they were already swamped with work.
Even Shiryu, who usually maintained his composure, shared that same look with the other three.
Of course, they weren't busy judging sinners; they were busy memorizing that massive Law Code.
It is a bit thick, after all.
"The reason I called you today isn't anything grand. I want to increase the manpower in Hell."
Initially, I wanted to scold them for using sinners as jailers, but considering they were likely doing their best with what they had, I couldn't bring myself to chew them out.
Just how shorthanded were they that they had to borrow the hands of the damned?
I‘d honestly prefer the help of a cat.
"Increase manpower!? Are you serious!?"
The moment I mentioned manpower, Myoren‘s face lit up, and she let out a cheer.
For the usually negative crybaby Myoren to be this happy… just how grueling is the workload? Poor bastard.
"Which sector of Hell are you in charge of again?"
"The Hell of Sawing… I mean, it is my jurisdiction, sir…"
The Hell of Sawing is the sector that deals with financial crimes, particularly commercial disputes.
Since it focuses on fraud, the sinners there constantly try to scam even the Ten Kings, leading to a massive headache for the judge.
I can see why she‘s exhausted.
But I have a solution for that, so there‘s no problem.
"Hmm… Okay. I have a plan for that, so don't worry. We'll have it sorted soon."
"Really!? Yes!!"
Just how hard has she been pushed to break like this? I watched Myoren laughing like a loon—"Wahahaha! Heeehee!"—and just shook my head.
"Anyway, back to the manpower issue. First, we‘re going to create the Hell Wardens."
"Hell Wardens…? I believe the current system is sufficient for the time being."
Jomon countered, his expression full of doubt.
To be fair, Jomon isn't entirely wrong. The number of sinners in Hell barely exceeds a thousand right now.
In fact, Kagaya mentioned that several had recently been reincarnated through the Six Realms into lesser creatures like birds and insects, so there are actually fewer than a thousand.
In places like the Eight Cold Hells where there are very few 'true' sinners, or the unfinished Mountain of Needles and Forest of Swords, there are barely a dozen sinners at most.
The Hell of Poisonous Snakes, which handles violent crimes, is a different story…
There are quite a few there, but regardless, there wasn't an immediate, desperate need for change.
"But it‘s easier if we prepare and change things in advance. What happens when we just push things off saying, 'Oh, we'll fix it later'? Huh?"
"That is…"
"Humans kept reincarnating only as humans, Spiritual Power kept building up in the 'blood vessels' of the world like cholesterol, and it became a mess, right? Because of that, even the innocent Hozuki ended up falling into Hell. Am I right or wrong?"
The four of them had no rebuttal. They just let out pained groans and avoided eye contact.
I didn't intend to grill them, but here I am doing it again. I let out a long sigh, sat down, and began drawing on the ground.
"The first problem is solving the abnormal structure where sinners only accumulate karma instead of purging it. This isn't something that can wait; it must be changed immediately. That‘s why I want to increase the staff."
"However, no matter who does the deed, they will still accumulate the karma of killing."
"Which is why we need a being that possesses no karma."
"How could such a thing possibly exist?"
"The Kushanada."
I described the beings I remembered—beings that were effectively the manifested energy of Hell itself, the true Hell Wardens.
At first, the four of them thought it sounded plausible, but as I continued, their expressions grew grim.
"So… you mean to create beings that will never reincarnate, but will slaughter sinners in Hell for all eternity?"
"If you‘re talking about their raison d‘être, then yes."
I wasn't trying to create Buddhas.
As Myoren described, I intended to create machines—immortal, non-reincarnating engines of death that would endlessly execute sinners in Hell.
They must have no thoughts. They must have no heart.
They must be nothing more than things created solely to punish and kill the wicked.
"That‘s…! What exactly are you trying to build?!"
Having heard the general explanation, all four looked at me in horror. Myoren was the first to cry out in terror.
Even Jomon, who had sacrificed tens of thousands for the Ouken, was staring at me with a look of shock. It made me realize just how terrifying my plan sounded.
Of course, I knew it would sound that way to those who didn't understand the inner workings, so I quietly listened to their objections.
"This is just creating a scapegoat to bear the weight of karma! It's a preposterous theory!!"
"I‘m not one to talk, but… that plan sounds like something only a madman would conceive."
"Master, this is no different from offering an innocent child as a living sacrifice for the sake of a village. You surely know this, so why would you…"
I listened to them and nodded slowly.
I understood their concerns.
"Let's get one premise straight. They are not living things. They are inanimate."
"…Pardon?"
"Does a landslide have a heart? Does a typhoon have thoughts? Does a tsunami feel pity? No, they don't. That is what I want to create. Something like a natural disaster that judges the sinners. A heartless, mindless, pitiless inanimate object."
Karma is ultimately something that accumulates on the entity of the 'Self.'
What defines that 'Self'? To me, it is thoughts and a heart.
You know the saying—I think, therefore I am. Something like that.
That is why I want to create something without a heart or thoughts.
"Think of it simply as creating a Kido spell. Hell is overflowing with Spiritual Power, so we don't have to worry about maintenance costs. Sinners won't accumulate extra karma because of the executioners. It's nothing but benefits."
"But still… it feels dehumanizing."
"It's not like I'm killing everyone who comes to Hell. Only the sinners. And only those whose sentences are finalized."
If they wanted to feel pity for the Kushanada, I had nothing left to say.
I shrugged and drew on the ground again.
"Since they shouldn't look human, let‘s give them monstrous forms. Skeleton faces. And they shouldn't be too small, so make them larger than a man, but not overwhelmingly huge."
The sketches I produced showed massive humanoid figures with animal heads instead of human ones.
Feeling something was missing, I added more details.
I drew several varieties—from something resembling a Wendigo to Gozu (Ox-Head) and Mezu (Horse-Face), and even one twisted into the shape of a Baphomet.
Well, except for the Wendigo, they all technically belong in Hell, so it doesn't matter.
"Which of these looks best?"
"Let's exclude the ones with wings for now. They won't be flying in the sky, so adding wings would just be a waste of Spiritual Power."
"True enough."
By adding this and subtracting that, we eventually coordinated our views. The primary Hell Wardens were decided as Gozu and Mezu.
"Right, now you just need to build them as we discussed."
I gave them the idea; now it was their job to execute it.
When I said that, their faces twisted into spectacular grimaces.
"What? We have to make them…?"
"Of course. I don't know how to build stuff. Forget making new Kido; I don't even know how to handle Spiritual Power."
"You can learn starting now."
"Maybe I misspoke. I have no Spiritual Power."
I smirked, shrugged, and turned my back on them.
I could feel their glares burning holes into the back of my head, probably cursing me out, but I ignored them and walked away.
Don't call me irresponsible. This wasn't even my job to begin with, but I couldn't stand seeing the world the Soul King left behind turning into a total shitshow.
Considering the state Hell was in in the original story, I've already done more than enough.
Anyway, the reason I dumped that work on the four of them wasn't just because I wanted to slack off.
'I have something else to do.'
I let out a sigh and went to find Kagaya.
He was with Hozuki.
It had been a while since I'd seen Hozuki, and many things had changed.
First and foremost, the way he looked at sinners was different.
It was no longer an eye filled with a desperate, reckless urge to save them.
He wasn't seeking to save people anymore; he was seeking an answer. That was the look on his face.
"Why is the world filled with such suffering? Why must all sentient beings suffer?"
[Because they cling to the 'Self.']
"What is this 'Self'?"
[There is no Self. There is an 'I', but that 'I' is not me.]
It sounded like the conversation was getting too heavy, so I quietly backed away.
I‘m no philosopher. I only have a shallow, surface-level understanding of such things.
I hate these Zen riddles that just give me a headache.
I exhaled and waited patiently nearby for the two to finish their discussion.
After waiting a while, I felt someone approaching. I opened my eyes to see Hozuki looking at me.
"What? You haven't moved an inch this whole time. Are you finally ready to reincarnate?"
"Yes."
Looking at him, his Spiritual Power was significantly dissipated.
Sitting in one spot without eating, drinking, or sleeping, surviving on pure Spiritual Power alone, he had clearly consumed quite a lot of it.
"Well… this much should be fine for reincarnation."
I called over the four who were working hard and asked about the Six Realms of Reincarnation.
At the edge of the Hell of Black Darkness lies the path to the Six Realms. Once you start walking down one of those paths, your body gradually disperses until you are reincarnated as a being of that realm…
"So basically, you just open the door and walk in."
"Something we spent a hundred years building, and you summarize it in one sentence…"
Rasatsu looked a bit heartbroken by my summary, but that wasn't important. I took Hozuki to the edge of the Hell of Black Darkness.
I hadn't been here since I created Hell, and to my surprise, there was a void-like space with six distinct paths branch out.
"So, what do you want to be reincarnated as?"
"A human."
I asked, remembering our old promise, and Hozuki answered without a moment's hesitation.
It was surprising, yet not entirely unexpected, so I just shrugged.
"With your merit, you could have gone to the Heavenly Realm. Why?"
"To find the answer."
Hozuki said that and began to walk forward with long, steady strides.
Damn, kid‘s got no hesitation at all.
"Hey! You‘re not even going to say goodbye to Shiryu?!"
I shouted, but Hozuki simply gave a faint, enigmatic smile, turned his back, and kept walking.
Just before he vanished, the faint halo that shimmered behind him couldn't have been my imagination.
"Hey, what the hell did you say to him to make him reach enlightenment and attain nirvana so fast?"
[There is no such thing as nirvana.]
"What are you talking about?"
I frowned and asked back, but Kagaya just offered a peaceful smile and said nothing more.
Good grief… whatever, damn it.
"Hey, forget it. Just help me build the Mirror of Karma."
[Yes. As you wish.]
With that thought, I worked with Kagaya to create the Mirror of Karma, also known later as the Pure Spirit Mirror, the Johari.
There was no grand reason for it—I just thought having evidence for the trials would make things a lot easier.
With this, Hell will finally be somewhat stable.
I distributed the mirrors to each of the ten courts.
In the original tales, only King Yama in the Hell of Tongue-Pulling possesses the Johari, but since I‘d made them, I handed them out for everyone to use.
Slowly but surely, Hell began to take the shape of the place I knew. The systems of Hell and the Three Worlds were beginning to find their balance.
Of course, there were still many hiccups, but those were things that had to be fixed by trial and error. There was no other way.
A truly vast amount of time passed after that. As the systems of Hell became more sophisticated and the flow of the Three Worlds stabilized, Hell became Hell in the truest sense of the word.
Time elapsed: 100,000 years.
Time remaining until the original story begins: 900,000 years.