episode_0149

149 – Love does not dwell in a doubtful heart #2

Winter has already arrived.

An intersection with snow falling from the sky.

“Ugh… Ah… !”

A woman with blonde hair beautifully tied back stretched out her hand toward the sky.

She was a young and beautiful woman who seemed to be over twenty now, but her eyes were as empty and dark as the deep sea.

However, her actions had the innocence of a five-year-old girl.

“Ah… !”

A man approached a woman dancing barefoot in the snow.

He was covering his face with a black robe.

“… Hecate. Then I caught a cold.”

Sze-.

Alter Archibald handed Hecate the fur coat he was holding in his hand.

Hecate said nothing as she looked at Alter.

I just tilted my head and muttered the words that had just come into my head.

“Hehe… Hecate… .”

It was a muttering without any meaning.

It was just a meaningless repetition of what I had heard like a parrot.

“… Hecate. Heka… frame… ?”

The empty-eyed witch couldn’t even remember her own name anymore.

She is completely pure, like the white snow field that spreads out before her eyes.

That was Hecate’s condition.

“… … .”

Alter clenched his fists.

Anger, sadness, and other emotions that I didn’t know where to turn were all tangled up like a whirlpool and I couldn’t do anything about it.

Alter spoke to Hecate to control his emotions.

“Now it’s a crossroads. If you turn left, it’s a road that leads to Royal Road, the royal road where the queen stays. If you head to the right, you can go to Castle Barakhan, where Pope Lucy is located. We─.”

Alter spoke, then closed his mouth again and looked at the cart attached to the carriage.

On top of the cart was something wrapped in bandages, like a mummy from an ancient kingdom.

It looked like a doll.

A doll that at some point stopped moving and even stopped thinking.

“We are going to the royal road. Hecate, you have been bewitched. It was Ginevit Uniger’s placenta that saved Milione, who was dying at the age of 15. If it’s her, she might be able to make this situation better.”

Hecate fell under a terrible spell.

It was a deprivation of people’s freedom and an insult and insult to their character.

“This son of a bitch has been like this all along. I deceived people, lied, deceived them, and ultimately ruined everything. This guy is a murderer. You have to pay for it. Definitely.”

Alter escaped from Sodomy through a secret passage and drove the wagon he had stolen again.

The place Alter was heading to was the royal road, Royal Road, where Queen Ginebit was located.

Rattling-.

“ugh-.”

Alter frowned at the rattling carriage.

When escaping from sodomy -.

It was because he was attacked by Milione who lost his temper.

━Gaaa!!!!!

━I’ll take charge of this place! Lord Alter! You take Hecate with you!

Milione was so angry that blood spurted from her eyes.

To stop her, Psyche stayed in the sodomy filled with heretics.

There was no way for Alter to know what happened to them.

but-.

Alter clearly knew what he had to do.

Alter believed that the prisoner he was dragging should be put in front of the people and be punished after a fair and just judgment.

# # #

winter.

It was a winter where the snow was so white that it looked blue.

The royal capital was colder than any previous day.

It was the coldest day of the year.

Dangling-.

Dangling-.

A man was walking along the cold streets of the royal capital with a bell ringing and his body covered in an old mat.

He was carrying a heavy cross, and on the cross was written the crime of “faithful priest.”

“Move quickly!”

“Go!”

The soldiers whipped him.

“… Ugh.”

Every time this happened, the man groaned and fell to the floor, and the soldiers kept whipping him to get him up.

The procession had already lasted three days.

We didn’t know how long it would continue, and people didn’t wonder about that either.

“이 개새끼!”

“I didn’t like you from the beginning!”

“You hypocrite!”

People insulted and got angry at the man.

It was right then.

A small girl who was watching this scene held the hand of a woman who seemed to be her mother and asked.

“Mom, why is that person being beaten?”

“He is a person who committed a sin.”

“What crime did you commit?”

“That’s─.”

The woman kept her mouth shut.

Because the woman did not know what crime the man had committed.

The same was true for the crowds and soldiers who whipped him, threw stones at him, and insulted him.

just-.

I thought to myself that I must have committed a terrible crime to deserve such a terrible punishment, so I just insulted him and got angry.

Also, even if it wasn’t necessary, for them, the man wearing the golden necklace was already guilty for simply ascending to a higher level than them.

Pot─.

Finally the man collapsed.

He was already at his limit after walking through the snow without resting for several days, being beaten, and was out of breath as if he would die at any moment.

The one who reached out her hand to the man was a woman with hair as red as a warm bonfire.

“Hyde… ! you… !”

Sze-.

Psyche took off the fur coat she was wearing and draped it over the man’s shoulders.

Then he held out the water bowl he was holding in his hand to the man’s mouth.

however-.

The man simply stood up.

Without touching the water bowl.

He chose to take off the fur coat draped over his shoulders and walk away in silence again.

“… … .”

Psyche looked at the man’s back.

Does it end when I die?

‘Does this terrible hell really end only after death?’

“… … .”

There were some people who were watching this scene from a distance.

They were Thorin the Platinum Wizard and Archibald the Medici.

said the blind wizard Thorin.

“People are cruel. They mercilessly throw stones and swear at men they don’t know what crime they committed. The world is such a terrible thing. Medici. I wonder if it was really right to keep that man’s truth a secret.”

“… … .”

Medici Archibald kept his mouth shut.

He had been deep in thought for a few days, ever since it started snowing.

These were fundamental questions that had been asked for a long time.

‘Why do humans deceive each other, lie, and feel sad?’

Medici still did not know the answer.

But I knew the answer was to hide the identity of prisoner Hyde from everyone.

“After the confrontation that day, the Crusade has been gaining momentum by attracting surrounding heretics. At the same time, I tend to remain quiet in sodomy. It’s like a quiet beehive. If they find out that their leader Rust has been captured─.”

“Yes. There will definitely be swarms of bees popping out in all directions. but. If it is revealed that the identity of the cult leader is in fact Priest Hyde, won’t there be enough of a gap?”

Medici also thought like that.

however-.

He quickly denied his thoughts.

“I don’t think so. The Crusaders are like flames. If I could set the world on fire, I would burn it regardless of whether it was oil or straw. The best thing is not to throw any firewood at all.’

”Huh… .“

Thorin touched his burned eyes.

It was a habit he used to do whenever he was in trouble.

Thorin still couldn’t forget what happened then.

Paladin Alter.

The time when he brought a man to negotiate with the queen.

Even though a week had passed, it felt as vivid as if it were yesterday.

Rust’s true identity was Hyde.

The only people who know this are Thorin, Medici, and the queen, as well as a few others.

Thorin felt a chill.

“Did he intend to control the country by manipulating heretics in the future and taking control of the king and queen in the future? This is my first time seeing such a scary monster. What on earth is it and where did it come from─.”

Thorin recalled his research into Hyde.

Before sodomy set Bluebeard’s house on fire, there were no records or even rumors about this man.

As if it suddenly came out of nothingness.

Sabak, Sabak-.

At that time, Psyche approached Thorin and Medici.

Thorin said to Psyche.

“Miss Psyche. I feel really sorry. I can’t believe I was married to such a horrible man. However, Her Majesty Queen Ginevit will use her authority to annul your engagement.”

“Valid… ?”

“Yes. Miss Psyche. You are still a pure and innocent woman. It’s okay to say that I’ve never been married. Was the reason we didn’t sleep together even after marriage because we noticed something?”

Psyche was a virgin, as if she were not married.

Queen Guinebit made the marriage between the strange Hyde and Psyche never happen and completely isolated Hyde.

Excited, Excited-.

Psyche felt her heart beating in many ways.

She said after clenching her hands together in front of her chest.

“… I don’t want to get divorced. It is even more impossible to turn a marriage into something that never happened. All of this is my responsibility. If I think about it now, there were plenty of opportunities to notice.”

Psyche continued to cry.

Until the tears dry and no longer come out.

It was never because he pitied his life, nor did he resent or hate Hyde.

Psyche, whose tears had dried, became even stronger.

“It is my responsibility that Hyde became like that. If I had noticed earlier and stopped him-. It wouldn’t have happened like this… ! So─.”

after-.

Psyche took a deep breath.

“So… .”

This is a story that I hesitated and pondered over several times.

I finally took it out and said it.

“If there is any punishment that Hyde should receive, I will receive it on his behalf. Any insult or humiliation. Even if it means death… … And for Hyde, I hope you give him a second chance. please… !”

Psyche recalled the vicious prisoners that Hyde had dealt with.

Hyde defended them by saying that they too should be given a second chance.

At that time, Psyche only thought that Hyde had a very good heart.

But─.

When I think about it now, I wonder if that was something I wanted to say to myself.

Everyone that Hyde has ever defended.

Wasn’t it a protest and defense for oneself?

In fact, Hyde, who had poured out all the stories at that time, was now enduring the insults and insults without saying a word.

Just stay silent.

As if he had been waiting for the day to pay for his sins.

After─.

Medici Archibald sighed deeply.

He said, looking up at the snowy sky.

“It will not be accepted. Because it has already been decided that Hyde will be executed tomorrow along with another ‘prisoner’. Everyone wants to deal with this unbelievable situation as quickly as possible.”

“Well, that can’t be possible… They are executed immediately without a trial or any such process. Isn’t that against the law? This is wrong… !”

“Still, I will try to speak to Her Majesty the Young Queen. And Miss Psyche. Do you know what happened to my daughter Milione?”

Milione.

When Psyche heard that name, her heart ached again.

“Miss Millie, I am also… .”

“… is it. okay. I see.”

It was an unusually cold winter day.

“─Why do we hate each other? Does your face blush? Why do we have no choice but to deceive one another and sin? Why do we─.”

The story of Medici became a breath of air and disappeared into the sky.

The snow falling from the sky had already piled up to our knees, and people who had been walking around the streets with blushing faces had returned to their families.

Dangling, dangling-.

A sinner carrying a cross was still walking along those winter streets.