The Order’s Saintess
by Afuhfuihgs
Parvati opened her eyes, feeling the cold. She sensed death, but she had only lost her limbs and lost consciousness. As her hazy mind, like someone just waking up, gradually cleared, Parvati thrashed as if having a seizure at the memory that flashed through her mind.
The people she cherished were dead. Nata, who was like a mother, and her precious younger siblings, who had so many dreams. All of them lost their lives to one person. Children who shouldn’t have died like that. Parvati, struggling on the bed, reflexively turned her head towards the sound of the door opening.
“Ah….”
It wasn’t a member of the Order who had come to save her. A blonde handsome man with cool blue eyes. The very person who had made Parvati lose everything precious to her had entered the room.
“Aheu… Aheu…!!!”
Her tongue wasn’t cut off. It was just that no words could replace Parvati’s anger. Roel, holding a water-soaked towel, sat on the bed, facing Parvati, who was spewing out moans like screams and glaring at him with hateful eyes.
Roel stared at Parvati and wiped her body with the towel. Only then did Parvati realize she was naked, and she gnashed her teeth and said.
“How much… how much humiliation are you planning to give me? Was it not enough to drop me into hell?”
Roel stopped his hand at Parvati’s tearful voice.
“…I have no intention of doing that.”
“Then!”
Parvati, who shouted with a sob, asked Roel with eyes that looked like they would burst into tears any moment.
“Why the hell did you kill those kids? Innocent… poor kids….”
Roel slightly opened his lips and then closed them again. Roel, who was silent as if contemplating an answer for a moment, moved his hand again and said quietly.
“…They were just collateral damage.”
“What…?”
Parvati blankly stared at Roel’s face, thinking for a moment that she had misheard. It was a mask-like face that didn’t show any emotion. Parvati, realizing that the other person didn’t feel any guilt at all, distorted her face and shouted.
“You murderer! I will never forgive you! Gyoju-nim will surely punish your sins!”
“…Why are you getting angry?”
Parvati was momentarily speechless at Roel’s appearance, looking at her with eyes that couldn’t understand her. The question in his voice was genuine. It contained an emotion as if he was puzzled to see someone who didn’t deserve to be angry getting angry.
The moment Parvati opened her mouth to unleash her anger, Roel muttered first.
“Those kids are sacrifices anyway.”
“…What?”
Roel leaned his upper body and brought his face closer to Parvati. Parvati, who was glaring at Roel with hateful eyes, flinched without realizing it at the strange sense of impulse she felt for a moment. His blue eyes trembled as he observed Parvati’s expression. After a while, Roel said with an apologetic expression.
“You didn’t know yet. Then that means Gyoju is not moving yet… Hasn’t he obtained complete causality yet?”
“…What are you talking about? Sacrifices, if you’re planning to deceive me with such nonsense, then stop it! Those kids are not sacrifices. They were precious children who would become the future of our Order!”
“Future?”
Roel let out a joyful laugh. Parvati felt an unknown fear at Roel’s appearance, laughing as if he was truly enjoying it.
“Why would an Order with the goal of destroying the world think about the future?”
“…That’s a common misunderstanding. The Order’s doctrine is not simply wishing for the destruction of the world!”
“No, it’s not a misunderstanding. You guys destroy the world. Tens of thousands of times.”
“…?”
Parvati couldn’t follow the conversation at Roel’s appearance, speaking with such a confident voice. Thinking that Roel was firmly mistaken about something, Parvati suppressed her anger for now and calmly started a conversation.
“The children in that village are not sacrifices. As a condition for me becoming the Order’s Saintess, the Order promised to protect the children who lost their parents on the continent.”
As Parvati’s words ended, Roel returned his leaning upper body and put the towel down next to the bed. Roel, wearing a bitter smile, closed his eyes as if recalling something.
And quietly muttered.
“Reef, Ariel, Lucy, Opils, Penia, Tris, Harry, Orion, Ballaga, Dor, Horace, Theodore, Vincent, Fudge, Spears, Carl, Robert, Elda, Maclore, Penelope, Padma, Hardin, Parker, Mike, Susan, Ernie, Lily, Molly, Ginny, George, Edessa, Wilkins, Brian, Skanderberg, Paron, Albus, Lawrence, Mark, Peter….”
Names flowed endlessly from Roel’s mouth. It wasn’t just simple names. All of those names were the children of the village that Roel had killed. There was nothing different from the names that Parvati had cherished and remembered one by one.
“H-how….”
As Parvati stammered and asked, Roel half-opened his closed eyes and wore a sad smile.
“Reef’s dream was to become a cool knight and protect everyone. Tris wanted to become a magician and protect you, and Lucy wanted to become a doctor. Opils, Vincent, and Fudge wanted to live in the village with everyone for a long time. George, Edessa, Wilkins, and Brian, the four musketeers, dreamed of heading to the sea they saw in books and becoming fishermen. Paron wanted to become a priest of the Order and be by your side, whom he had a crush on-“
Parvati felt a strange pain in her heart as Roel’s words continued. Roel knew everyone in more detail than she did. The image of the children achieving their desired dreams in the future, just like Roel said, naturally came to mind, and Parvati eventually burst into tears.
“…Nata always dreamed of remaining a good mother to the children.”
“How do you know such things…? How, how… how could you kill everyone while knowing them so well? Knowing that everyone was innocent… Knowing that Nata didn’t actually follow the Order, but was just a person who loved the children and volunteered… How.”
“Because I watched and remembered everyone’s utopia for countless eons.”
“What…?”
Parvati, wearing a questioning expression, met Roel’s gaze. Parvati flinched and trembled at the intense emotion she felt in his blue eyes for a moment. Clearly and vividly, to the point where she couldn’t deny it, Roel was grieving. He was just hiding his sadness without showing it on the outside.
“Before long, the children were scheduled to become living sacrifices for Gyoju’s causality. Nata would try to protect the children every time and die with her whole body exploding. You, who belatedly realized the truth, would feel betrayed by the Order, but it would already be too late to do anything. That’s what will happen in the future. So I went to the village and killed the children. To capture you, the Order’s Saintess, and to interfere with Gyoju. Because that’s the most efficient way.”
“What kind of… efficiency, future? What does it mean that Nata dies every time….”
Parvati fell into confusion. She couldn’t understand at all that Roel knew all the children in the village, or that he was rambling about the future. One thing was certain: Roel thought that everything he was saying was the truth.
Roel looked at such Parvati and wore a faint smile.
“You don’t have to understand. I never wanted you to understand. But it was a necessary thing to do. The reason I cut off your limbs is because you tried to escape every time, and the reason I kidnapped you is because your role is needed.”
“What are you talking about. What the hell are you talking about! Spout some sensible words!!!”
As Parvati thrashed and shouted, Roel reached out and gently stroked below Parvati’s navel with a bitter smile. Parvati, who stopped thrashing at the touch, gnashed her teeth and asked.
“Do you want my body?”
“Yeah, because you’re the Order’s Saintess.”
Parvati said with a hollow laugh at the matter-of-fact answer.
“…You said you wouldn’t humiliate me.”
“That’s right, I won’t do such a thing. I’m just going to use your body. Not the Order, but me.”
“What does that-“
“Because you’re a sacrifice, no different from the children.”
“…I’m a sacrifice?”
Roel smiled at Parvati, who was wearing a puzzled expression, and got up from the bed. And he approached the window with the curtains drawn and pushed the curtains aside.
The sunlight that leaked in from the outside brightly illuminated the room through the window. Parvati, blinking her eyes, struggled to lift her head and looked out the window. It was a beautiful city. A tourist city that remained vividly in Parvati’s memory as well.
Only then did Parvati realize where she was.
“This is….”
It was clearly El Dorado, ruled by the Golden King. The beautifully carved buildings and special style could only be seen in El Dorado. Parvati, who couldn’t hold on any longer, released the strength in her neck and buried her head back in the pillow.
“Why me here…?”
Roel approached the bedside at Parvati’s question. Roel looked down at Parvati and said.
“For smooth negotiations with the Golden King.”
“Are you planning to sell me to the Golden King…?”
“No, if you refuse the negotiations, I’m thinking of releasing the bug that’s parasitizing inside you.”
Roel pressed the area below Parvati’s navel with his fingertips.
“Because you’re a host harboring the Bug of Chaos.”
Parvati couldn’t understand Roel’s words. Nor the reason why he was smiling as he looked at the city outside the window.
0 Comments