Chapter 1. Hypocrisy (8)
On the way, he had seen a small chapel. Eckart’s feet headed straight there.
The chapel’s atmosphere was no different from other places. There was a coffin placed there as if someone else had died, and in what would normally be a solemn place, everyone was drunk, showing off their singing and dancing skills.
Eckart turned around. Since another person’s funeral was already being held, there was no space for the child to lie.
Somewhere there must be a place to give the child rest. He searched for quite a while, but whether there was only one chapel nearby or he couldn’t find it, none was visible. In the end, Eckart had no choice but to enter the castle again while holding the child.
At first, the guard who recognized him and greeted him with respect soon discovered the child in his arms and blocked his way.
“You cannot bring that child inside.”
“I know. This child’s soul has already left this place.”
“…Pardon?”
The startled guard showed a confused expression. Seeing his face that clearly didn’t understand why he would bring a dead child into the castle, Eckart added an explanation.
“I found it dead on the road. I want to hold a funeral, but there was no suitable place nearby, and I’m thinking of riding to another location. If this child cannot enter, would you bring my horse?”
After pondering Eckart’s words for a moment, the guard called someone else and whispered something. The person who received the message ran into the castle, and before long, brought his horse. The jet-black horse, like his hair, had a glossy coat and an exceptional build.
And behind that, Ardwino appeared leading a white horse.
“Commander! Where on earth did you go to only show up now! I searched and searched, and when I thought you might have run away and went to the stables, your horse was still tied there! I thought if I waited there, you’d come to get your horse, and sure enough… Huh? Who is that child?”
“I found a pitiful child who died alone on the cold ground. I’m thinking of sending him off peacefully.”
“What?”
Ardwino asked back with a bewildered expression, but Eckart ignored him and took the reins. Since he couldn’t mount the horse while holding the child, he needed help from those around him. Only after securing the child firmly as if cradling him could he express his gratitude.
“Thank you.”
“…May God’s blessings be with you.”
The guard who had given a light greeting straightened his posture to fulfill his duty. Meanwhile, Ardwino had also mounted his horse and stood beside his commander.
“On such a good day, will there really be a priest willing to hold a funeral for a child whose name we don’t even know?”
“If we look, there will be at least one.”
“No, why go to such lengths for a child you don’t even know…”
“Everyone in the world faces death equally. It is also a natural right that all servants of God should enjoy to send off those who have met eternal rest by God’s will in blessing.”
“Well… if the commander says so, I have nothing to say…”
Ardwino gave up and followed Eckart. Blocking the rather fierce wind with their entire bodies, the two left Duran and headed toward the Papal territories.
***
Not everyone in Duran stayed awake all night long.
Ronen, who had returned early and thrown off his clothes and wig, was fast asleep, using the noise coming from far away as a lullaby.
In the deepening festival night, the sounds full of revelry transformed into a bustling marketplace in Ronen’s dreams. Perhaps because he had coincidentally encountered a child who resembled him. Memories of when he was as weak and innocent as that boy who had fearlessly climbed into a carriage to escape immediate hunger and cold were unnaturally breaking off and reconnecting repeatedly in his dreams.
Young Ronen was crouching in a corner of the marketplace. It was a place where merchants touting their wares and customers bargaining created constant commotion day after day. In the middle of the path where people came and went stood those preaching while holding scriptures in their arms. They were exactly Ronen’s target.
“…Ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind…” (*James 1:6)
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (*Romans 10:13)
Three preachers took turns reciting scripture. They also prayed for sinners passing by on the road. Ronen was too young to understand most of what they said. However, since their words were summarized into one thing, whether he understood or not, it embedded itself deep inside like the only truth.
If you believe in God, you can enter paradise.
Though it was only a few short years of life, all his memories consisted of cold and hunger. There could be no such thing as hope. Everyone around him lived like that. Everyone lived as if it were natural, struggling to continue their lives and then suddenly dying one day.
For such poor people, their only hope was heaven. If they could just enter that paradise as the preachers cried out, there would be no cold, no hunger, no pain. For them, death was an opportunity. Short suffering would end and long happiness would begin.
The missionaries always emphasized: Present suffering is merely a trial. It’s just demons tempting to drag them to hell. Only those who overcome can go to heaven. So do not doubt. Believe and follow. Only those who never let go of God until the end will receive God’s salvation.
Young Ronen prayed every day as the missionaries said. Waiting for an angel to come guide him to heaven, he muttered daily prayers composed of words he couldn’t understand. He also tried to secretly enter the chapel, which was said to be where one could get closest to God, but was chased away each time. The reason was that only those who donated could enter.
It was a particularly lucky day. He found a relatively clean container with collected rainwater and quenched his thirst, and a merciful noble shared food with Ronen. Around him were countless other children begging like himself, and while hurriedly devouring the food lest it be taken away, Ronen thought of prayer. With this, they might let him into the chapel.
Later, when he entered paradise, he would be able to eat as much bread as he wanted. Thinking this, he forgot his immediate hunger. Ronen put the remaining bread crumb in his pocket and ran to the chapel. However, he was soon surrounded by children who had followed the scent.
Even knowing that if he just gave it to them, they would fight among themselves and have no time to pay attention to Ronen, he couldn’t hand it over. This might be his first chance to enter the chapel. With this, God might listen to his prayers. Even while getting beaten up terribly, he held on.
When his consciousness began to fade, the beating suddenly stopped. When he struggled to lift his head, he could faintly see a boy swinging a stick. Though those who had surrounded him were relatively the same age, there were many of them, yet they were mercilessly beaten by the stick the boy wielded and eventually scattered in all directions.
The boy approached Ronen, who was staggering to his feet. What pierced into Ronen’s blurred vision was the boy’s eyes. In the midst of being completely dirty and black like himself, brilliant blue eyes were looking down at him.
It was a moment so intensely imprinted that he couldn’t forget it even after more than ten years. However, Ronen at that time was too young and frightened. Whether his ear was injured, it felt muffled as if submerged in water, so he couldn’t understand what the boy was saying.
So Ronen brushed away the hand the boy extended and ran away blindly. It was because he thought the boy also coveted the bread he had.
Only after a long time had passed did Ronen regret that he shouldn’t have brushed away the boy’s hand like that. If he had known that with just a dried bread crumb he couldn’t enter the chapel, if he had realized that the boy was the opportunity God had sent and was an angel, he would have grasped that hand then.
If he had, many things might have been different.
Even in his sleep, Ronen, who was chewing over belated regret, was startled awake by a touch that caressed his thigh and slowly moved upward.
Instead of the dark alley even in broad daylight, he saw a table, a statue of God, walls and chains. Though he looked around by moving his eyes, his mind was hazy since his drowsiness hadn’t completely cleared.
While he blinked several times and regained his senses, the hand that had entered his clothes grasped Ronen’s slightly raised cock and began to gently massage it.
From the strange sensation felt in the sensitive place, heat spread throughout his body. His exhaled breath quickly became hot. Blood rushed to his lower abdomen from the thrilling, tickling pleasure. As if satisfied that it was gradually increasing in volume and hardening in his hand, he began to stroke the shaft in earnest while licking his defenseless nape.
Ronen, whose mind had returned, thought he knew who it was but didn’t bother to turn his head to confirm. He just quietly accepted the large hand gently rubbing while grasping his cock, giving shallow pleasure.
When his previously limp body tensed and stiffened, he seemed to realize he had awakened. As if to punish him for holding back his moans with tightly pressed lips as usual, the hand that had dug below his neck grabbed his chin and inserted fingers between his lips. With two fingers holding his tongue and preventing it from moving, the saliva that had abundantly pooled flowed down his cheeks.
“Were you quite excited thinking about sucking that knight’s thing?”
The low voice whispering with lips against his ear belonged to Grand Duke Canis.
“Just from thinking about it, this place got hard and was dripping fluid.”
The Grand Duke, who had grasped the entire tip with his palm, spread the small opening with his thumb and rubbed it. When fingers brushed against the moistly wet opening, goosebumps arose.
“Ah. That’s not it.”
The hand that had been persistently massaging the plump head slowly moved downward. At the same time, the Grand Duke inserted one leg between Ronen’s legs and raised it up to spread them apart.
The Grand Duke’s hand caressed his scrotum and went further down to find the wrinkled opening. When fingers touched it, his body reflexively tensed and the opening tightened.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
