episode_0108

*

I scoured the entire village with the nuns, searching for Paolo.

We searched every empty house and shady spot in the village, from the entrance to the corners of the harbor, but Paolo was nowhere to be found.

By the time I opened my eyes, the sun was already beginning to set, and the world was quickly being enveloped by the dark night.

As it began to get so dark that you couldn’t see an inch in front of you without light, the nuns and I gathered one by one in front of the Cathedral, empty-handed.

I ruffled my bangs wildly and twitched my lips.

“It doesn’t seem like he’s in the village. There’s no trace.”

Sola nodded at my words and said,

“Me too, I went around all the empty houses… he wasn’t there.”

Anna, who had summoned her Succubus wings to look around the village, and Lucia, who had wandered quite far from the village searching for his trail, also shook their heads.

“I couldn’t find him either.”

“I couldn’t find any trace at all.”

I sighed.

It was already night.

No matter how much stronger devils are than monsters, I didn’t want to send the nuns out of the village in the middle of the night, where monsters were swarming.

Shamefully, I had been sleeping until a few hours ago, so I didn’t have the nerve to ask them to do more work.

Besides, Paolo had been beaten severely by me because he brazenly refused to give up his intentions to rape Anna.

I’m ashamed that I resorted to violence, driven by emotion, but I can honestly say that he couldn’t have recovered fully from his injuries in just one day.

If Paolo really went outside the village with that body…

“… Damn it,”

He can’t survive.

He may already have been killed by a monster.

A chill ran down my spine.

Of course, Paolo’s disposition was very evil, so sanctions were necessary, but it was practically the same as me killing him.

“Where did he go? Seriously.”

“Um… Father.”

Lucia slowly placed her hand on my arm and opened her mouth.

“Um… there’s something I wanted to say… would that be alright?”

Lucia looked at me carefully and spoke in a very cautious tone.

It was a familiar sight.

People who talk to me when I’m angry usually make that kind of face.

Even Lucia, who I’ve already shared a body with, is being so cautious, so my expression must be unusually fierce right now.

I closed my eyes tightly, took a deep breath, and nodded.

“Yeah, it’s okay.”

“Well… there’s something a little strange…”

“… Strange?”

Lucia nodded and continued.

“Well, there’s no sign of that man anywhere.”

“I know, that’s why we’re looking for him.”

“No… I’m not saying that I can’t see the person, but that there isn’t a single trace of him.”

“… Huh?”

Lucia slowly pressed her foot firmly into the dirt floor.

The ground, which had become muddy from the snow that had been falling until recently, caved in and left Lucia’s footprint on the ground.

Lucia took a step back, as if trying to show me her footprint, and said,

“If he walked out of the village, there would be footprints, or bloodstains since he was badly injured… something like that should be left behind…”

“…”

Lucia raised her head, lifted the tip of her nose to the sky, and closed her eyes.

“There’s no trace at all… no smell either.”

“Smell?”

“Yes, that unique unpleasant stench, you know.”

“…?”

“Ah, well… that man stinks… didn’t you know?”

I didn’t know.

I didn’t know, but Lucia, who has the sensitive nose of an Ebony Wolf, seems to have smelled some kind of stench from Paolo until now.

But even that stench is gone now.

Could it mean that Paolo disappeared as if he evaporated?

“Lucia is right, Father.”

Anna came to my side and seconded Lucia’s words.

“I looked from the sky, but I couldn’t find him at all. A Succubus… my senses couldn’t miss a human like that, a lump of desire.”

“… What are you saying? Are you saying that Paolo literally evaporated?”

Anna shrugged and said.

“Well… he may have gone out a long time ago and already died.”

“…”

Lucia also tilted her head and said.

“Or… maybe he went to the harbor and missed his footing? He fell into the sea and was swept away… if he drowned…”

“…”

“That’s why the smell might have disappeared. No matter how strong that stench is, it’s not stronger than the smell of the sea…”

“Okay, then let’s go to the sea one more time…”

That’s when it happened.

Sola shook her head and dusted off her hands before opening her mouth.

“Hey, well, that’s the end of it. Honestly, who cares where he disappeared to? We can’t find him anyway.”

“… What?”

“No, that’s right, Father. If he fell into the winter sea, he would have frozen to death, and if he went outside the village, he would have been killed by monsters.”

“…”

“Sola.”

Before I could say anything, Anna patted Sola’s shoulder and chimed in.

“I guess so?”

“Well, we’ve searched as much as we could, and if he’s not visible to this extent, well… there’s nothing we can do.”

“Th, that’s… but… Father wants to find him… Sola.”

“So, we worked hard, right? Lucia worked the hardest.”

“… Yes, I worked hard.”

Lucia looked at me, but quietly nodded in agreement with Sola’s words.

“… You guys.”

“Father? Why are you making that face?”

“Father…”

“Ah, Father, I’m just saying this just in case, but this is definitely not your fault. At this point, you could say that Paolo was so eager to die himself.”

The three nuns slowly approached me as if surrounding me.

Sola, looking up at me with an innocent face, and Lucia, fidgeting and constantly watching my expression, each grabbed one of my arms and hugged me.

Anna came to me head-on, made eye contact with me, and opened her mouth.

“Besides, to be honest, I feel a little relieved that that person is gone.”

“Anna…”

“Do you remember what that man was trying to do to me?”

“…”

“To be honest, it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. Fortunately, that night, Father’s big…”

“Stop,”

I warned Anna.

This girl…

What are you talking about when Sola is right next to you?

Fortunately, Anna also looked down at Sola once and quickly realized her mistake.

Her face turned red, and she soon cleared her throat and corrected her words.

“Bi… Big hands, Fa… Father comforted me, I would have lived with terrible feelings for months.”

“…”

“Fortunately, it ended without any major problems, but still, living with someone like that is unpleasant.”

Yes, Paolo attempted rape.

Fortunately, he was knocked unconscious by Anna, so it ended in an attempt, but the fact that he had to live with such a heinous person would cause threats and discomfort to women.

In the first place, my decision to forgive him may have been a disposition that ignored the nuns’ position, especially Anna’s, who was the direct victim.

In the first place, the fact that our nuns are all extraordinary women with devils inside of them made me somewhat disregard Paolo’s threat and the nuns’ safety.

But, even so, I couldn’t shake off a certain ominous feeling.

No matter how evil he is, no matter how much I hate dealing with such a gangster,

Anna, Lucia, and even Sola.

No one was shocked or saddened by the fact that Paolo might have died.

On the contrary, I could even see signs of welcoming his disappearance or death.

“,,,”

I don’t know.

The standards of good and evil in me are collapsing.

Do I, who have already embraced Lucia and Anna, have the right to preach about morality and ethics to anyone?

Can I rebuke these women for not sympathizing with a sex offender?

Sympathy is the most fundamental emotion of human goodness, but have they been tainted by the devil and turned evil, or was Paolo an evil person who didn’t even deserve it?

As daughters of the Goddess, as religious people, as human beings, how far should forgiveness and tolerance be extended?

Does Paolo not receive forgiveness or sympathy?

No, should the nuns be considered to have taken care of him enough by wandering around for hours to find him?

In the first place, where did he go?

Did he leave the village?

Was he really swept away by the waves and washed away to the open sea?

Or did he really evaporate like magic?

“…”

The world has become simple.

All the rules created by humans, such as law and ethics, have collapsed, the meaning of religion has faded, and the surviving minority of mankind will struggle today and tomorrow for survival.

Perhaps, the confusion I’m experiencing is caused by the dissonance that arises from constantly trying to fit outdated ethics into this simply changed era.

The world has changed.

I’ve changed too.

So, should my beliefs also change?

“… Father, I don’t know what you’re thinking… cheer up… it’s not your fault.”

“No… it’s not that…”

“And… we’ll always be by Father’s side anyway… and it doesn’t matter if there’s no one else.”

Anna slowly hugged me from the front and buried her cheek in my chest.

“Yeah, Father overslept today. You must be tired from overdoing it. You don’t have to worry about someone like Paolo!”

Sola clung to my right arm, wrapping her arms tightly around it and imprisoning it in her arms.

“Father…”

Lucia slowly intertwined her fingers with my left hand, pushed her chest against my arm, and secretly stroked my butt with her other hand without Sola noticing.

Then, in a small, very small voice, she whispered in my ear.

“Yesterday was Anna’s turn… so… it’s my turn… right?”

Ah, I see.

Ethics, like that, have already become meaningless from the moment I touched them.

I desperately realized that fact.

The nuns were not afraid of Paolo.

He was just annoying.

I looked up at the jet-black sky.

Winter is coming to an end.

As the frozen cold air slowly melts, the smell of the sea begins to intensify in the air.

The three people held me tightly.

I couldn’t move.

I felt like my ankles were gradually sinking into a swamp of bitter corruption that I couldn’t fathom.