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  On this day,all judgments rendered thus farare consolidated into a single assessment.

  In this judgment,the focus is not merely on what the soul has done,but on how sincerely it repentedfor the karma it accumulated while living as a human,and how earnestly it sought forgiveness for it.

  What matters hereis not whether punishment was imposedin the human world.

  This court does not weigh legal sentences.It examines insteadhow deeply the soul recognized its own sins,and whether it bore a cost equal to their weight—measured by how long,and how earnestly,it chose to live for the sake of others.

  Regret without sincerity earns no score.Formal repentance leaves no trace.

  This judgment does not askwhether a sin was committed.It askshow one lived after committing it.

  Based on the totality of these records,the soul is assigneda single, final score.

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  Only a rare few soulspass all seven judgmentsand earn the right to remainwithin the Heaven Division.

  Upon the elevated dais,an ebony table stretched so farits end vanished from sight.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  Its polished black surfacedid not reflect light—it absorbed it,heavy and absolute.

  At its edge,the air itselffelt divided.

  Behind the table,seven judges sat perfectly still.Spines straight.Hands resting neatly on their knees.Even their breathingseemed restrained.

  As if sitting therewas alreadya form of judgment.

  And at the center—

  At the heart of the daissat a massive figure,draped in brilliant crimson silk.

  Yama, King of Judgment.

  His face, red as congealed blood,held fury compressed into something solid.Beneath sharply lifted brows,his gaze flashed—cold and unforgiving.

  Where his eyes settled,no excusecould survive.

  Yama exhaled roughlyand slowly ran a handthrough his long beard.

  With each movement of his fingers,the crimson robe—woven thick with gold thread—shuddered faintly.

  Even that single motionpressed downon the space below the dais.

  This was not a placefor rage to erupt.Nor a placefor mercy to descend.

  This was a placewhere judgment was delivered.

  Below the dais,countless souls stood packed together.

  Close enough to touch.Yet no one spoke.

  Movement was restrained to its limit,and every faceshared the same expression.

  Fear.

  Not the kind that trembles or cries.The kind pressed down so longit hardens.

  Only one soundcut through the silence.

  The dry rasp of paperas a judge turned a page.

  Shhk—Shhk—

  The sound fell slowly,like time itselfbeing counted.

  A cold, dry voice cut through the hall.

  “Soul ID HRTY-87645978.Step forward to the dais.”

  At once,the air quivered.

  The final stage.The Seventh Judgment.

  The verdict was moments away.

  The summoned soul lowered his headand stepped out from the crowd.

  No one moved aside.They didn’t need to.

  The space ahead parted on its own.

  Each time his foot touched the floor,a low gray mist curled upward.

  It vanished almost immediately,but a cold trace lingeredwhere he had passed.

  The soul could not run.Nor could he stop.

  The gaze from the daishad already fallen on him—completely.

  Yama, the King of Judgment,spoke in a low, iron-heavy voice.

  “Bring me this soul’s reincarnation record.The rulings up to the Sixth Judgmentalready qualify as a severe sentence.”

  His eyes drifted past the stacks of files.

  “Since whenhas this soul been reincarnating as a human?I will review the recordand decide myself.”

  The moment he finished speaking,movement rippled below the dais.

  The chief clerk bowed deeplyand sprinted forward without hesitation.

  Footsteps scraped sharply across marble.Moments later, he returned,cradling a thick bundle of documentssealed with a crimson stamp.

  As soon as the files touched the dais,the atmosphere changed.

  Yama opened the documents slowly.

  The sound of turning pageswas disturbingly calm.

  “Hm.”

  A single, measured breath.

  “So this is your first lifeas a human.”

  His gaze lifted from the record.

  “And yet the way you livedwas worse than a beast’s.How do you explain that?”

  His eyes narrowed.

  These were eyesthat had already reached a conclusion.

  “You will neverbe born human again.”

  Without pause,the sentence continued.

  “Subject this soulto the highest punishment in hell.”

  A brief silence.

  “Afterward,reincarnate it as a sewer rat.Ensure it never againobtains a human body.”

  It felt as if a stamp—HUMAN REINCARNATION: PROHIBITED—had been slammed onto the files,the impact echoing beneath the dais.

  After a short pause,Yama finalized the ruling.

  The soul was deemed unworthyof being kepteven in the cramped depths of hell.

  The judgment was cold.The process, brutally efficient.

  Moments later,one of the judges roseand delivered the sentence,his voice ringing through the hall.

  “Tak Jun-ho,who once lived as a human—”

  The air flinched.

  “By order of His Majesty,you are forever forbiddenfrom being reborn as a human!”

  Silence.

  Somewhere below the dais,someone swallowed.

  Whether it was a humanor a soul,no one could tell.

  “Bow before His Majestyand exit immediately!”

  This was not mercy.It was disposal.

  The greatest crisis facing the Earth Branchwas chronic overcapacity.

  Both the Intermediary Realmand Hellhad long exceeded their limits.

  Souls awaiting judgment.Souls already sentenced and transferred.

  The queues never shrank.Processing speedcould not keep upwith the inflow.

  Accidents.Epidemics.Wars.

  And sudden, unpredictablemass-death events.

  Each time disaster struck,souls flooded in—and Yama was forcedto absorb the surge himself,on site.

  Judgment could not be delayed.Procedure could not be skipped.

  Even the slightest imbalancewould plunge the Intermediary Realm into chaosand cripple hell entirely.

  The pressurewas already at its breaking point.

  At last,the Jade Emperor,overseer of Reapers Inc.’s Earth Branch,decided the mattercould no longer be leftto field-level judgment.

  This was no longeran Earth Branch issue alone.

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