Ch.48People, Lions, Bulls, and Eagles (5)

The man and woman in brown robes covered their eyes with their hands. Though they staggered, they somehow managed not to collapse.

Eventually, the man spoke. It wasn’t the confident voice from before, but rather like someone forcing out words that were being sucked into a hole.

“As you sow, so shall you reap! You treated these people with indifference. You didn’t care at all about what happened to them! You sowed indifference, loneliness, and solitude, so you shall reap the same from them!”

Maria looked at old Baolo, who stood closest to her.

“You. The one who tried to set fire to the door. State your name.”

If it had been just words, he would have answered gruffly, “Why ask such a thing?” But Maria didn’t stop at words. Following her gaze, a brilliant light gradually approached above the old man’s head.

Even an innocent person would feel intimidated and tremble with fear when subjected to everyone’s gaze, let alone when a light as bright as the sun “looked down” upon them.

The old man spread his hand and pressed it tightly above his eyebrows. The light was still strong, but when he narrowed his eyes, he could see ahead.

It was a familiar face. That rude young person who had boldly talked back to him. Earlier, they had seemed so detestable, but now they looked down at him like an angel of punishment.

“Ba-Baolo…”

“Inquisitor Maria asks you. Did someone in this house make you feel lonely, miserable, and troubled?

Did they treat you like you didn’t exist, block their ears to whatever you said, and hate even the sight of you passing by?

Or did they say you should be locked up and burned?”

Old Baolo shook his head. But Maria seemed displeased. She pressed on mercilessly, with a forceful tone.

“Who dares to merely nod before the representative of light!

The prophet of life and death is looking down upon you, and you dare to nod or shake your head rather than speak the truth!

Speak with your mouth!”

The old man seemed to struggle even to lift his head straight.

“N-no…”

Even speaking seemed difficult. The neck that had supported him his entire life was trying to flee, his legs refused to move and abandoned their master, and his arms wouldn’t make even the minimal effort to cover and protect his body.

In darkness, he had been someone trying to set fire to a neighbor’s door, but in the light, he became a weak being trembling as if he might break at the slightest breeze.

“No. That wasn’t the case.”

“Then did everyone in this city treat you harshly? Were you unable to get along with anyone and couldn’t hear anyone’s words?”

That wasn’t true. Baolo was certain. His old comrades around him. The old men at the market who would scold him despite their concern. And there were also those people in brown robes.

“No. No. That wasn’t the case.”

“Then why did you try to burn this house?”

‘Why did I do that?’

The old man couldn’t figure it out. He hated them. He hated them so much he wanted to burn them. While he was falling asleep lonely and alone, they were happily laughing and chatting, and that irritated him.

‘But was that a sin deserving of death by fire?’

The old man didn’t answer. He couldn’t bring himself to tell himself that it wasn’t.

‘Why me? Why, why only me?’

Resentment pushed away his guilt. The old man shouted.

“What did I, what did we do so wrong? We just gathered and sang songs! We stomped our feet merrily to old tunes and had minor arguments, but it’s not something for an Inquisitor to interfere and intimidate us about!”

“I make the judgment, not you!”

The single shout struck his ears, and the old man covered them.

“I will bring you before a secular court. You. Your accomplices. All who shared your intentions. I will bring all of you to court and give you nothing to drink or eat until you speak the truth!

I will thoroughly search through every record of your entire life and hear testimony from everyone who lived closest to you, from three-year-old children to eighty-year-old elders!

So before I throw you onto the cold stone floor of a prison, tell the truth.

Who? Who made you burn this house? Who made you sing old military songs, and who encouraged your loneliness? Did you do it yourself, or did someone order you to do it?”

When his airway opened, the old man reached out his hand convulsively. Those people in brown robes. They were the problem. ‘Yes. That’s right.’ The old man thought.

‘There was no problem until they came. There was no problem until they stirred things up. They incited us. They agitated us. They told us we were lonely.’

“Those young people in long brown robes!”

The intimidated old people all shouted at once.

“It was them! It was them! They incited us. They told us to set fires. They did! They shouted that we were being ignored!”

“Ungrateful creatures!”

The woman in brown robes screamed and tried to run away. But it was already too late. The guards had surrounded the park without leaving any gaps. The officer had already prepared ropes to bind them, gripping his long spear.

“You were clapping and rejoicing at our words before, and now you try to betray us! We only tried to get along with you!”

“Bring those people to court!”

The old people shouted one after another.

“Arrest them!”

The officer approached. The man and woman’s eyes rolled wildly. They pulled out small, sharp daggers from their robes.

“We gladly offer our blood and bodies!”

The pair shouted as they stabbed their own necks with the daggers.

Something like black oil flowed from their necks, then burst into black flames. Their bodies writhed like reeds caught in a wildfire, then rose as something strange.

It was a man and woman with their bodies joined as if standing side by side. Their four eyes shed black blood, and black tongues flickered whenever they opened their mouths. Behind their backs, shadows undulated like the legs of a starfish.

Their ribs protruded and constantly contracted and expanded like insect gills, and their stomach skin clung to their backs as if starved, replaced by something as black as a demon’s throat.

The thing screamed. The brands on the old people’s shoulders instantly enveloped their bodies. Those who couldn’t stand in the light rose, captured by darkness and shadow.

A flag fluttered among the old people who had become young and fierce again, like in their youth. It was a flag with the portrait of the prophet of life and death.

However, it was hung upside down, defiled, and full of holes. At the bottom, the red numeral “III” hung mockingly.

The old people charged like war horses with blindfolds. Like hungry beasts, they tore at the guards’ armor and stole their spears. They seized torches and threw them at people’s houses.

The residents didn’t just stand by. Mothers held knives and blocked the way to protect their children, and fathers beat and pushed them back with clubs, chairs, and poles.

But when the shadow, spreading like the tide, overturned their bodies and shadows from below, they soon sat down on the floor screaming and wailing.

It was the resurrection of the monastery.

* * * * *

Beatrice danced before Kain’s eyes. She spun around laughing, half-naked, but her back had no skin, exposing bones and muscles.

– Pretty maids used to sew for me stitch by stitch. Now wriggling maggots peel off my skin to decorate me. Don’t you like it? It’s the clothes you dressed me in, Kairos.

The world spun around. The Eastern Kingdom’s banquet hall was beautiful. Nowhere else in the world could one see such a variety of dances.

– It’s strange. You were always clumsy with your feet. You would step on my dress hem or my shoes, and even trip me. But how could you change so much when holding a sword, Kairos?

“No.”

Kain took a deep breath. He touched the scabbard at his left waist and the sword resting quietly in it. He gripped the cane in his right hand firmly.

“I am Kain.”

– You…

Beatrice was furious.

– How dare you…?

“You’re just a mere shadow ghost.” Kain walked forward. He tapped the floor with his cane, feeling the vibration in his palm.

Only what touches the body. Only what is felt by the skin is real.

There is work to be done. He cannot be held back by the past any longer.

– How dare you…!

Beatrice rushed at him. Kain swung his cane. It was as foolish as trying to cut through a shadow, and he knew how stupid it was, but he had to do it. He had to confirm it somehow. What he held in his hand was a cane, not a sword. And with a cane, he couldn’t cut through.

The scattered shadow gathered again. It blocked Kain’s path two, three times as if this couldn’t be happening, but Kain ignored it and pushed through the crowd.

He struck the back and behind the knees of an old man running toward a house. Before the old man fell, he grabbed his belt and set him down gently.

He slightly turned his body to avoid someone charging at him with a horrible scream, and thrust his cane between their legs. The old person tumbled down. Seeing them place their hands on the ground, they probably weren’t seriously hurt.

Kain continued swinging his cane. He blocked old people trying to break into houses and laid them on the ground. He forcibly tore the ropes tied around the guards’ waists and looped them around the violent old people like snares.

As Kain was methodically laying them down one by one, something pulled at his foot. It was a young guard. He was begging for his life.

Kain struck down with his cane. He struck hard and severely enough to dent the helmet. The crying fellow let out a scream and clutched his helmet with his hands.

“Snap out of it! Imperial citizens are dying, what are you doing?”

The young man who had been looking at Kain resentfully trembled at the word “Imperial” and stood up. Though his eyes were full of tears and resentment, he had regained some of his spirit.

Kain nodded, slapped the young man’s cheek, and continued running. He caught old people and laid them down, and mercilessly beat confused guards.

‘Too slow.’

The guards were regaining their senses one by one, and people inside the houses were also waking up one after another. The screams of children and the cries of families awakened them.

But it was too slow.

The old people possessed by shadows tried to kill everyone. But the people of Masada who faced them couldn’t do the same.

Although they had mocked them, saying they didn’t want to look at them, they were ridiculous, and they smelled, no matter how estranged their relationship had become, these old people were still the elders of Masada.

They were once kind and mischievous adults, and although they were rough and scary, they had also shown gentle smiles during village festivals and holidays.

The people of Masada disliked them, but they couldn’t kill them. They hated them, but they couldn’t drive them away.

Because it would be crossing a line. Because it would be crossing some collective boundary.

Because, as yet, the people of Masada hadn’t turned their backs on anyone to that extent.

As the night deepened, the shadow’s momentum increased. As much as the guards and villagers had risen, the power of the shadow possessing the old people grew more formidable.

Instead of improving, the situation spiraled toward the worse.

‘The beast. I need to catch the beast to end this.’

Kain turned around.