episode_0010

*

After the commotion subsided, Lucia collapsed and fell asleep.

Perhaps it was closer to fainting.

I picked up Lucia and left the room.

Anna and Sola were completely terrified by the morning’s events.

I laid the unconscious Lucia on Sola’s bed and explained the situation to them.

The two were confused but slowly regained their composure, and soon left the hallway to prepare a meal.

I tried to deal with Kunat, the cause of all this, but he was nowhere to be seen, whether he had returned to Hell or was hiding.

I grabbed my cigarettes, told Anna I would skip the meal, and went outside the Monastery to sit on a bench.

Then, I slowly pulled a cigarette from my pocket and put it in my mouth.

“Damn it, flint.”

I was too flustered to bring a lighter.

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.

My hair was soaked with sweat.

I kept the cigarette in my mouth and began to think about Lucia for a while.

“Haa…”

Lucia was a girl who looked sickly to anyone who saw her.

With her pale ash-grey hair, pale sky-blue eyes, and skin so pale it seemed transparent, she was even more so because her behavior was so docile and cautious.

Of course, she was actually sickly.

More precisely, she had some physical disabilities, so she couldn’t move her body satisfactorily.

Lucia couldn’t run at all, and she couldn’t even dare to lift anything even slightly heavy.

Was it because of her below-average physique?

Even her personality was severely introverted and quiet.

Her words always stuttered, and her gaze never met the other person’s.

Her timid personality seemed to emphasize her sickly appearance even more, and every time I saw Lucia like that, my heart ached as if it were being cut by a sharp blade.

Lucia’s weak body was not due to a congenital disease.

Lucia, who lived in a small rural village with fewer than twenty residents, was an ordinary little lady who ruled the neighborhood in her childhood.

It’s hard to imagine when looking at Lucia now, but she had a childhood where she ran around the nearby hills and valleys to her heart’s content.

Of course, she wasn’t as rambunctious as Sola, though.

Lucia’s body, or rather Lucia’s life, was ruined twelve years ago, when she was seven years old.

Her fragile body was the result of terrible violence.

Unfortunately, she was possessed by a devil at the age of seven.

The devil that swallowed her was the same Ebony Wolf that possessed her today.

The Ebony Wolf, summoned by a heretic who happened to be hiding in a neighboring village, ambushed her as she was picking wildflowers on the hill.

Even though she was possessed by a devil, what fault did a seven-year-old child have?

It was a tragedy that could only be described as bad luck.

Her father managed to lock Lucia, who was not only murdering her mother but also trying to harm the villagers, in the barn somehow.

Then, he immediately headed to the nearest Cathedral to ask for help.

Saying it was a nearby Cathedral, it was so rural that it was a long journey that would take a week each way.

Under various adverse conditions, it took almost a month before he could finally return to the village with a trainee priest who had not yet been ordained.

It was a priest he had barely managed to find by begging, as it was a rural area where people didn’t even visit, and he didn’t even have the fare, but the trainee priest who accompanied Lucia’s father vaguely sensed that it was already too late.

Unfortunately, that guess was correct.

As soon as they entered the village, what they saw was a village covered in blood and Lucia in the middle of the village, piling up the corpses of her neighbors and tearing them apart.

The trainee priest gritted his teeth and fought the Ebony Wolf, and as a result, he was able to drive out the devil that had taken root in Lucia’s body.

However, the rookie priest, who had not yet been formally ordained at the time, was inexperienced, and as a result, Lucia’s body was severely damaged.

Fighting devils is basically a life-threatening task, so you can’t blame the priest, but Lucia had to live with permanent disabilities because of it.

Looking back now, the disabilities that Lucia suffered were not limited to her body.

Her father, pessimistic about this tragedy that had happened in an instant, including the deaths of his wife and neighbors and his daughter’s disability, threw himself off a cliff.

Lucia became an orphan, but no facility would accept a child who had been possessed by a devil and eaten all the villagers, no matter how innocent she was.

Moreover, Lucia herself vividly remembered everything that had happened during the period she was possessed by the devil.

The people she killed, the pain she experienced.

And even the taste of her childhood friend, who was the same age as her.

Lucia remembered everything clearly.

It must have been too harsh for a young girl who was not even ten years old.

Her body and mind were broken, and irreparable disabilities were engraved on her family, friends, future, and even human dignity.

Lucia was eventually sent to this island by the Order’s measures after they learned of the situation.

“…”

I knew that rookie priest who had made Lucia disabled very well.

He had chosen the life of a priest to make a decent living, but his meeting with Lucia was a big shock to him.

He vowed before God to try to prevent children like Lucia from being born, and he beat down devils like crazy as he had vowed.

That’s how he eventually became a well-known Exorcist Priest, but recently he was kicked out to a dead-end job because he needed to rest.

“Damn it…”

Yeah,

At that time, that rookie priest was me.

I am the one who made Lucia disabled.

“…”

Three months ago, the day I first arrived on this island.

I didn’t recognize the grown-up Lucia, but Lucia recognized me at a glance.

That night, Lucia’s appearance, cautiously asking if I remembered her, is still vivid in my mind.

The day I realized Lucia’s identity, I seemed to know why the Bishop had stuck me on this island.

Lucia, and Anna.

The two came to this island because of me.

You can’t say that you’ve done your faith just by defeating devils.

Facing the mistakes I’ve made, and protecting them.

I realized then that that was the new mission given to me.

Honestly, it would be a lie if I said I wasn’t upset.

I’ve always done my best.

But my best, which is nothing more than a mere human being, would inevitably leave a lingering aftertaste.

Picking up and resolving that aftertaste.

That must be why I came to this island.

“… But still… why did Lucia give her body to the devil?”

I blankly spoke to myself.

Lucia was a child who knew all too well how terrible things could happen if she got involved with a devil.

Of course, Sola, who wasn’t heavily involved with the devil, and even Anna, who was possessed by the devil because she succumbed to her lust, would be much more wary of the devil, so why would Lucia be the first to give her body to the devil?

I quietly sighed and pondered.

At that moment, a fire quietly lit the end of the cigarette in my mouth.

“I thought you didn’t have a lighter, so I lit it for you,”

Kunat was sitting quietly next to the bench I was sitting on, tilting his head.

“Perhaps it was unnecessary interference…”

I grabbed Kunat’s neck in an instant.

“It’s you.”

“Khee-eek,”

“You encouraged Lucia, didn’t you? There’s no other explanation.”

“I… didn’t do anything…”

“Don’t lie to me.”

I blew cigarette smoke through my teeth.

The scent of the herbs pickled in holy water entered Kunat’s nose, and Kunat coughed painfully.

Kunat scratched my arm with his claws, but the pain of a cat scratching was nothing compared to the pain in my abdomen.

I pressed down on his neck with my thumb.

Kunat struggled and continued to speak.

“You… Khee-eek, called me… and…”

“I called you to explain. But why aren’t you leaving after explaining everything?”

“Khee-eek.”

“Should I send you away by force? Do you really have to eat an Exorcism Ritual before you’ll disappear? I’ll grant your wish. It’s not difficult.”

“I said… didn’t I? There’s no other way…”

“…”

I threw Kunat against the edge of the bench.

It was a force that would have caused an ordinary cat to explode and die.

Kunat bounced off the bench, rolled across the floor, and screamed miserably.

Then, he slowly crawled to my feet and said.

“I understand that you’re angry… but this is really the only way to beat those monsters…”

“So, you seduced that child who lost everything to the devil? That’s what devils are like. It’s really disgusting.”

“… I didn’t seduce her, I didn’t even persuade her,”

“Ha, then, are you saying that Lucia went to you and asked you to give her body to the devil?”

“What if she did?”

I stomped on Kunat’s head.

“I know that most of the words coming out of devils’ mouths are bullshit, but this is especially bullshit. Seriously, do you think that makes sense? Do you?”

“Ee-eek,”

“If you’re going to lie, put some effort into it.”

“It’s true! That child really came to me first…!”

“Why? What for?”

Kunat whimpered and continued to speak.

“Why don’t you… ask her yourself?”

“What?”

Kunat wagged his tail, pointing somewhere.

When I turned my head to where the tail was pointing, Lucia was standing there.

“F-Father…”

“Lucia… you’re already up? Are you feeling okay?”

“… Yes, I’m okay…”

Lucia answered hesitantly.

Her gaze was fixed on the ground, and her small fingers were tightly clutching her collar.

She looked like a child who had broken a vase and was just waiting to be scolded by her mother.

I silently took my foot off of Kunat.

Kunat disappeared in an instant.

“… Did you come here because you had something to say?”

Lucia nodded silently.

I put out the cigarette, took out a handkerchief, unfolded it, and laid it on the seat next to the bench.

Lucia slowly walked over and sat on it, perching slightly on the edge.

“…”

“…”

Lucia only pursed her lips and didn’t start talking easily.

I didn’t urge her and calmly waited for her to be ready.

How much time had passed?

Lucia, who had only been wiggling her fingers, finally began to slowly part her lips.

“Th-The Priest…”

“Yes.”

“… Don’t you… ask any… thing?”

It seemed that Lucia was also waiting for my question.

Honestly, there was only one thing to ask.

Why did that happen?

But I couldn’t bring myself to say it easily.

I knew all too well what the devil meant to Lucia, and I was worried about what impact it would have on her if I forcibly subdued her again while she was possessed by the devil.

After hesitating for a long time, I carefully began to speak.

“If I ask… will you answer honestly?”

“… Yes.”

Lucia slowly nodded.

I pulled out the softest voice I could to avoid intimidating her and asked.

“Was it your wish?”

“…”

“Because you wanted to…”

I couldn’t continue speaking and closed my lips.

Lucia lowered her head for a moment, then shook it slightly up and down.

“Yes… I asked the cat.”

Ah…

I’m starting to feel sorry for Kunat.