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144
How many days had passed since then? His sense of time was blurred, making it hard to tell.
Huff. Huff. Heavy breathing echoed. With each step, his body swayed precariously.
Where his arm should have been was empty. He had wrapped the torn area with cloth of unknown origin to stop the bleeding, but it seemed insufficient. The cloth, dyed so red that its original color was indiscernible, left a damp sensation under his intact hand.
‘Damn it…’
He exhaled laboriously. It felt as if curses were mixed in his breath. His mind was in a haze. In his ears, ‘that’ voice kept echoing.
‘It seems you’re taking us for fools, you impure seed.’
A mid-low voice of indeterminate gender. The calamity that swept through the area began with that voice.
A storm so violent he couldn’t even open his eyes, followed by an ear-splitting boom. Then, his vision was filled with light. At that moment, Oscar could only recognize one thing.
If he touched that light, he would die.
As the fear of death approached, he instinctively retreated. Even when the female believer beside him screamed and burned away, when her breath was completely extinguished, when the cracked ceiling collapsed… he ran. The primal desire to live moved his body.
He couldn’t remember how he escaped that hell. With an incomprehensibly enormous power chasing from behind, such thoughts were a luxury.
He ran and ran. Only when his life was no longer as precarious as a candle in the wind did his senses return. From that moment, excruciating pain began to sweep over him. The cause of the sudden pain was found quicker than expected.
One of his arms was gone.
The wound was jagged, as if torn by the teeth of a brutal beast. It felt as if there was an intangible will to make him feel every possible pain to the fullest. He couldn’t even recall when or how he had been injured. Just stopping the gushing blood was overwhelming enough.
‘Was it a god?’
The more he struggled to breathe, the more he recalled the moment when the whole world turned white, one thought consumed his mind entirely.
The enormous light descending from the sky, the overwhelming power that extinguished life in an instant, the pressure that came from it, and… the voice that penetrated his mind, whose status he couldn’t even begin to fathom.
Oscar, not chosen by the gods, couldn’t feel the power bestowed by them. Whether it was holy power or magic, he could only sense it as an ‘unknown power’ different from aura, lacking the ability to distinguish it.
But at this moment, he was certain that it was a god who had taken his arm. It was an enormous calamity that couldn’t be comprehended otherwise. Even as uncontrollable fear grew within him, a self-deprecating smile spread across his lips.
‘…Divine punishment.’
Yes. This might be what people commonly call ‘divine punishment’. The punishment of god that is said to befall only those who have committed sins they wouldn’t repent even in hell.
Far from living a virtuous life, he had lived bearing all sorts of unforgivable sins. Looking back on his past like this, he couldn’t help but think he deserved divine punishment. However… his stumbling steps, unable to maintain proper balance, moved towards one place.
‘The reason I committed sins.’
Wasn’t there a reason he lived on resolutely, even with both hands thoroughly stained with blood? Wasn’t there a reason he had to commit sins?
Because there was someone he didn’t want to dirty their hands. Because he hoped that person wouldn’t fall into hell. Because he hoped… they wouldn’t receive divine punishment. So he committed all sorts of sins in their stead. He stained his hands with the blood of countless people in their place.
He hoped that purpose wouldn’t fade. Despite the bleeding having somewhat subsided, he firmly pressed the area that was still sending searing pain throughout his body.
So he had to let them know. That the being who had never personally intervened until now had begun to take action. That they too should be careful… like that.
“…Lord Oscar?”
His body, which had been moving forward mindlessly, stopped as if it were a lie. The voice of someone who shouldn’t be heard reached his ears. His widely opened eyes blankly stared at the man who had approached right in front of him. To not even sense his presence. Sensing the end was near, Oscar’s face darkened.
“Your Highness.”
His cracked voice exhaled a low sound.
The white silver hair ruffled in the breeze flowing through the air, and eyes tinged with a subtle green shook aimlessly as if they had seen something they shouldn’t. The person who looked exactly like the one and only sun he had been yearning for was right before his eyes.
“What is this… your arm.”
The face that had been bearing a cold light crumbled helplessly. The emotion etched on that face seemed unmistakably to be shock and concern.
Oscar, who had only been aware that he was injured but didn’t know the state of his appearance, simply bowed his head gruffly. He brushed past the hand that failed to grab him.
Even amidst the agony, worry suddenly surged up. Because that face, so similar yet openly displaying emotions, somehow seemed unreliable.
‘Still… lacking.’
It wasn’t just now when he was injured. The longer he served by the Emperor’s side, Oscar couldn’t help but think this every time he faced ‘Luciel Lencester’. That he would never become a perfect emperor like his lord. A sound of clicking his tongue in disappointment involuntarily escaped.
You must not trust people. Don’t give them affection. Use everything you can use. And thus, become a being that can support a perfect empire.
A gentle voice echoed in his ears. It was right. For the empire his lord desired, this was absolutely necessary.
“Your Majesty…”
Before he knew it, a large door loomed before him. His voice, flowing out, was trembling as if about to cry. As he stepped through the door opened by knights with expressionless faces like dolls in the dark night… Oscar closed his eyes.
‘Where did it go wrong?’
Was it that those blessed by the gods set foot in the place he had been aiming for all along? Was it that he changed his goals on his own, seeing it as an opportunity and not postponing his plans? Was it that he went along with the woman’s plan to covet what belongs to the gods, claiming to recreate the past once again?
He didn’t know. There were too many things coming to mind. What was certain was that regardless of what exactly was the wrong action…
The fact that he had committed that sin would remain unchanged.
So, he had to pay for his sins. Even as he gasped for breath from the pain that made his vision go white, Oscar’s steps knew no stopping.
That night.
In the place where the Emperor stayed, one person’s soul fell into hell.
***
“…”
Luciel silently gazed out the window. With distant eyes as if looking beyond the invisible imperial palace, he turned his head.
And before him, a woman was seated.
“So. Does this seem right to you?”
“…”
“Brother Luciel.”
“…”
“Luciel.”
“…”
“Hey.”
Evelyn, who was being treated as a conversation partner, poked him, but there was no response. It was the same even after calling him several times. Only then did her smooth brow wrinkle.
What’s he up to, suddenly coming in like this? It took all of her patience, both existing and non-existing, just to not curse him out and tell him to get lost right away. Just as her trembling lips were about to burst out in anger.
“…I don’t know.”
A low voice leaked out from Luciel.
Evelyn, who had missed her chance to speak, made a complicated face. Although he was the one who had confined her in agreement with His Majesty, she could roughly guess why he was showing such an expression. Her gaze also turned towards the window.
A damn fine weather came into view. The clouds embroidered in the sky, the occasional flying birds, the sound of wind gently tapping on the window… It was an incredibly peaceful scene, but the imperial palace was in contrast, unsettled.
“I don’t know.”
Was this the path I was walking?
His scattered voice was quite self-deprecating. Soon, Luciel’s eyes squeezed shut. He seemed to be recalling someone’s head hanging outside the imperial city.
Oscar. The man who could be called the closest aide to the current Emperor, his father. Evelyn recalled his face.
In fact, she hadn’t seen Oscar’s face that much. All she knew about him was that he was quite blunt and strangely loyal to her father. She had roughly heard that he had his life saved once, so she just accepted it as such.
There’s a feeling you get when you see a person.
The moment she first faced Oscar, Evelyn felt it. Ah, this man truly likes our dad. The fragmentary emotion she felt as a child became more certain as she grew up. That he would never betray ‘Mikhail Lencester’.
“…He was always like that.”
Evelyn, who had closed and opened her eyes following Luciel, muttered. The one she thought would always be by her father’s side was now hanging miserably outside the imperial city. With his head cut off by none other than the Emperor’s hand.
Why did a man who was so loyal to the Emperor meet his death by the Emperor’s hand? It wasn’t difficult to guess. That’s why Luciel’s face was also terribly distorted.
The Emperor discarded Oscar. Thinking he was no longer needed, that he had served his purpose… he killed a subordinate who had been with him for nearly decades.
“He was always that kind of person.”
It felt as if a large stone was blocking her breath. Strangely, her chest felt tight. Was it sympathy arising from empathizing with his situation, or a sneer thinking ‘I knew it would be like this’? She too couldn’t identify the nature of her own emotions.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
