Chapter 604: Interlude - Schoon Verfrist - Conflict
Schoon Verfrist lived a cursed existence.
The demon hadn’t asked to be born. Hadn’t been asked to be born a demon, specifically. Hadn’t asked to be one of the Immortal races, hadn’t asked for White Dove to curse him with a compulsion that could never be satisfied.
Hadn’t asked for a Sin that was unusual, outside the norm. An outsider even among demons.
Many of them got typical Sins. Lust and Pride, Sloth and Gluttony, Wrath, Greed, and Envy. Each was difficult, but they were known. Others knew how to handle a demon of Sloth slacking off, or working themselves into an early grave. It was understandable when a demon of Gluttony declined a meal, or asked for fifths.
Schoon’s Sin was Clean.
It colored his perception of everything. Every surface was dirty, and could be cleaned. Every floor needed to be swept, every dish bussed, every rug beaten. Other demons could understand a demon of Envy copying every style and fashion. They didn’t understand Schoon’s need to wash his hands a fourth time, a fifth time. How simply removing his hands from the water made them dirty once again, how the very dust in the air was enough to pollute his fingers and make him unclean.
It extended to more than that. Food was never prepared properly, specters of disgust floating through his mind. Ideals were polluted, always with a flaw. The less he learned of society, the better.
It wasn’t like his Sin was Lust, and he could simply go without. Entirely ignoring his urges led to a slovenly life, a rejection by peers as he smelled, dishes going unwashed and getting sick with disease. Leaning into them had led to him cleaning his house again and again, until there was no more house left, until his hand freely bled as he’d flayed his skin off.
There was no winning.