After the first trial, Hestia had to endure a horrific time in prison.
Impersonating the Saintess, the representative of the Goddess, was the gravest crime within the Church.
Originally, she should have been executed on the spot, but because of public scrutiny, the sentence had been temporarily delayed. Nevertheless, the day of her execution drew closer with each passing moment.
“Aaaaaaaaah!!! Kyaaaaaaah!!”
A scream that sounded like it could tear apart the cochlea.
So harrowing that one might believe it to be the wail of a banshee. The scream continuously filled the interrogation room that was now stained with crimson liquid.
“Answer quickly. Where did you obtain that vile and disgusting power?”
“I… I’m innocent… I don’t know anyth—Kyaaaaaaah!!!”
Tied to a chair, her appearance could hardly be distinguished from that of a ghost.
Her once pure white uniform was now tattered and soaked with blood and torn flesh.
Her skin, bloodied from endless torture, had split and hardened over and over, turning into a dark crimson, scabbed and stained with dried blood.
Under normal circumstances, the wounds on her body could have been healed by her own divine power. But that power no longer responded, and so, the cruel torture only left behind more scars.
“Please step aside for a moment.”
Click, clack.
A woman appeared with the sharp sound of high heels.
The strong scent of perfume that followed her was completely at odds with the image of a Saintess, yet the interrogators bowed their heads instinctively at the smell.
“You’ve arrived, Saintess!”
“You’ve done well. But I’d like to have a little conversation with an old friend. Could I ask you all to step aside for a bit?”
“Huh? B-But this woman—”
“I’m asking nicely~”
In that moment, a purple flash flickered in Eris’s eyes, but unfortunately, the inquisitors lacked the awareness to notice such a subtle shift.
“…Yes. As you wish, Saintess…”
The inquisitors soon withdrew from the room.
Eris cast a glance toward the door through which they had exited, then slowly began to approach Hestia, who was groaning in pain.
“Tia. If you’d just close your eyes and admit it, everything would be so much easier. Is that really so hard?”
“E…ris…”
Forcing her bloodied eyes that were sticky with crimson tears open, Hestia met Eris’s gaze and murmured in a breathless, faint voice.
“I… didn’t… I’m innocent…”
“Pfft! Puhahahaha!! That’s right, you must think you’re innocent!”
The merciful expression Eris had once worn had vanished. The Eris now standing before Hestia had become a twisted, disgusting villain. Her face was contorted in cruelty.
“But you did commit a crime. Want to know why?”
Squelch!
“Ughhh!!”
“Because you stole everything that should have been mine!!!”
Paying no mind to Hestia’s writhing in pain, Eris pressed down hard on her wounded shoulder and continued speaking.
“It’s always been like this… Ever since you first came to the orphanage… all the way until you were chosen as the Saintess and brought into the Church!”
Madness.
The purple gleam swirling in Eris’s eyes held no trace of reason or thought. Only the unrelenting insanity of a mind consumed.
“You…”
“Well, thanks to meeting him, I was finally able to reclaim this power that was mine to begin with. Ah! I’m so grateful!”
One moment angry, the next on the verge of tears… and now reveling in ecstasy.
Watching this display that could not possibly be considered normal, Hestia felt chills crawl over every inch of her body.
“You filthy wretch. Do you know how disgusting it was to see you grinning so innocently after stealing what was mine? Do you have any idea how many times a day I wanted to stab you to death?”
“I… I didn’t… I never…”
“…Hmph.”
Smack!
Eris slapped Hestia so hard that her head snapped to the side.
The blow split the inside of her mouth, sending blood trickling down between her lips, but Eris seemed concerned only with her reddened palm.
“You say you did nothing wrong…? Tia. That power was never yours. It was all meant for me. You just appeared out of nowhere and stole it. Isn’t that right?”
A claim completely devoid of logic or reason.
But Eris, now entirely consumed by madness, genuinely believed that Hestia had stolen what was rightfully hers and took great pleasure in seeing her so broken and ruined.
“Letting someone like Relic touch my body was disgusting, but I don’t care. I’ve taken back what originally belonged to me. Now that I’ve been reborn as the true Saintess, I’ve shed my former self!”
As she spoke, Eris casually listed off the names of the high-ranking priests she had slept with, and Hestia found herself feeling increasingly disgusted by the rot festering deep within the Church.
“Isn’t it funny, Tia? You, who cried out desperately for God, have ended up so weak and destroyed… and I, who never believed in anything, became the real Saintess.”
“Wh-What are you saying…?”
“You were abandoned. By God. Just like you were abandoned by your parents the day you were born.”
Thud—!
A truth she had denied, even as she was branded a criminal and tortured.
A truth she had never dared to face—no, one she lacked the courage to face—was now hurled at her from Eris’s lips, and it struck her heart with a force that shattered her.
“There’s no one left to save you. Aww~ poor little Tia~ Abandoned by your family, abandoned by your friend, and now… even abandoned by God~”
Click, clack! Click, clack!
“As an old friend, this is my final mercy. Admit your sins now and accept your execution. At least then, you can be freed from this wretched pain.”
“G… God will…”
“How naive~ Are you still clinging to your faith in God?”
Smack!
As if she had nothing more to say, Eris spun on her heel and strode confidently out the door.
“There is no God. And even if there is… what could someone abandoned by Him possibly do?”
And so, the next day arrived.
The day of the hanging.
***
Drip… shuffle—drip…
“Can’t you walk faster!?”
Wham—!
Seeing Hestia limp from the pain of her festering, unhealed wounds, a soldier lost patience and kicked her hard.
“Khhk!”
Thud!
She collapsed weakly. Her broken bones and fractured ribs crushed the scream in her throat, leaving her only able to grimace and gasp for breath.
Grab!
“Uugh… Aah…”
“Tch! Get up and walk, you filthy witch!”
Witch.
A heretic who deceives people with sweet words.
Who devours the hearts of children for her own gain.
At some point, Hestia could no longer deny that she had become no different from the blasphemous witch in their eyes, and she could only lower her head even further.
When she emerged from the long corridor, the path to the execution platform came into view, bathed in blindingly bright light.
The execution platform, part of a religious tribunal set up on the outskirts of the church, was surrounded by a swarm of spectators who had gathered like clouds.
With hundreds, perhaps nearly a thousand spectators hurling all manner of insults and abuse at her, dressed in rags as she was, Hestia found it almost impossible to breathe under the weight of it all.
Then, amidst the crowd, her eyes caught some familiar faces.
A boy who had once received freshly baked bread from her during a volunteer service.
A kind mother and daughter who had come to receive baptism together.
An old fruit vendor who had once handed her a perfectly ripe apple whenever she had fresh produce.
Seeing those she had once known now wearing terrifying expressions as they shouted accusations and jeers was a violence Hestia could hardly endure. Especially for someone who had known only love her entire life.
“Die!”
Smack!
“Witch!”
“Heretic!”
As she walked the path toward the execution platform, all manner of things were thrown at her.
Eggs and tomatoes, stones, and even shards of razor blades.
The crowd… or rather those demons masked as spectators, driven by madness and malice for reasons unknown, tightened the noose around what little breath Hestia had left.
– And what about you? What will you do when the Goddess you so blindly believe in betrays you? Even if you scream and cry your heart out, the Goddess won’t lift a finger. She’s too lazy to care.
Ah…
Suddenly, her last conversation with Mars came back to her.
You… were right.
She had accused him so fiercely for not believing in God, and yet, in the end, wasn’t it she who had lived her whole life devoted to that belief who had been betrayed?
Faced with such a pitiful version of herself, Hestia couldn’t help but let out a faint, bitter laugh even in the midst of agony.
And so, she arrived at the execution platform.
“From this moment forward, the execution of the heretic who impersonated the Saintess and cast evil curses shall start!”
With that thunderous proclamation, the executioner, wielding a large axe, began trudging toward her, where she now knelt on the platform.
That blade that was no doubt stained with the blood of countless others must have also taken the lives of innocents like her, who had died in vain.
I… want to apologize.
To admit that she had been wrong.
To say she was sorry for judging him without even understanding.
For some reason, the last thought that came to her before the axe could fall wasn’t a desire to live, nor was it resentment toward her god.
It was simply… the feeling of being sorry.
Clang———–!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“…………?”
When quite some time had passed since the executioner was supposed to have swung the axe and yet she felt nothing, Hestia grew puzzled and slowly opened her eyes.
As her eyes adjusted, the scene before her looked nearly identical to what she had seen moments ago.
No—if there was a difference, it was in the expressions of the people.
The crowd, who just moments earlier had looked like demons hurling jeers her way, now stood frozen. All of them were staring blankly in the same direction.
…Behind me?
She turned her head toward where their gazes were fixed—
“…Ah.”
“It’s been a while, huh? You didn’t even call over the break, and turns out you were here.”
A man stood there, having casually blocked the descending axe with a slender sword.
That huge axe that was large enough to split a person in half was being held back firmly by a blade not even a quarter as thick.
“You…”
“…Tch. Even on the other side, death row inmates at least get a last meal. You’re skin and bones.”
With incomprehensible words, the man looked at her with a mix of concern and relief in his eyes.
Creaaaaak—!
“Hey. Muscle pig. If you don’t want to die…”
The man with clear black hair. The man who was her ever-annoying love consultant—
“Get this fu*king axe out of my face.”
It was Mars Noctus.
Leave a Reply