4 – Bet
“Huh? “Why does the devil always win his bets?”
Priest Nogu, who is in charge of theological education for prospective heresy inquisitors, raised his head and looked at Crayl after hearing his question.
“Among humans, there are many people with intelligence far superior to that of devils, and if they were such people, they could win a bet with the devil, so why don’t they try to control the devil through those people?”
“That’s a pretty bold statement, and it’s also blasphemous.”
The priest, who was looking at Cryle with his head slightly lowered, eventually gave an answer while chuckling.
“The answer is surprisingly simple. If you think about it the other way, it can be done, is that the answer?”
Kryle shook his head as if he understood, said thank you, and left the training center.
The air I breathed in was cold. Is winter already approaching?
Julius and Cecil can be seen in the distance against the background of trees with bare branches.
It was a sight I didn’t really want to see, with Cecil running happily and Julius chasing after her with a frown on his face.
When I turn my head in the direction they are running, I see a sky full of dark clouds.
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It looked like the first snow was going to fall.
Krail fastened his collar and ran to Julius. It seemed obvious that if we kept those two together until night, an accident would occur.
***
That evening, as the night deepened, Kente Village, where there had been a lot of commotion, was quiet, as if what had happened during the day was a ghost.
A small light leaks from a gap in the door of a church that stands on a hill as if looking down on the village.
A black-haired girl, or rather, Thalia, a Kente heresy interrogator who had just begun to develop a woman’s womb, was staring blankly at the candles illuminating the statue in the chapel.
Emily, who was quietly watching the scene behind her, couldn’t help but speak to Thalia.
“Ha…. Thalia, stop now and go home and sleep. How long are you going to stay here like this?”
Even if you talk to him, there is no answer. Seeing her look completely lost, Emily brushed her hair once and sat down next to Thalia, gently wrapping her arms around her shoulders.
“If you work at the central office, you can’t contact your relatives and your marriage has to be a secret. I know you’ve liked Julius since you were young, but you can’t take back the fact that you already dumped him, so take care of yourself. Take a deep sleep. “Is Julius the only man in the world?”
Despite Emily’s comfort, Thalia’s mood did not improve one bit. What is this dark feeling rising in her heart? I’m sure if the Lord saw me now, he would turn his head to my ugly heart.
“…If I had gone to the Central Church with my brothers… Would I have had a chance?”
Emily was unable to respond to the words that came out with difficulty from her trembling mouth.
And so the night deepened.
.
.
.
In the end, Thalia, who had spent the night awake at her church, began her work with a gloomy mood in her wide-eyed eyes.
3 Reports of suspicion of heresy, just a word of suspicion of heresy. In a rural area like this, the only reports of suspicion of heresy are illegal book distribution or perverts walking around without clothes.
She glanced at the well-forged sword hanging on the wall next to the desk where she was working, and nodded her head a few times before shaking her head left and right again in shock.
It was a truly blasphemous thought.
I can’t believe I thought that about a play I once saw with Julius and Crayle.
Thalia pulled out her own hair for violating her with such gloomy thoughts.
The play was about a duel between gentlemen over her fiancee.
When he was young, when he saw it, Crayle looked pitifully at Julius watching the play with his eyes shining, and now he seemed to know why.
.
.
“You can’t walk around here like this, teacher.”
Talia is a pervert who often appears near the mill.
She got into a fight with Mr. Ronell and finally succeeded in sending him home after a struggle of nearly two hours.
A pervert who walks around wearing only short pants like that. Ronell wasn’t that kind of person when he was young…
Ms. Ronell, who could not get married and ended up becoming an old maid, 15 years ago, when she was called a swordsman genius girl, she declared, ‘I will marry the person who defeated me.’ Because she couldn’t get married, she lost her mind.
Sometimes, when she came to her senses, she saw Brother Julius talking about how he was her only hope, and she said that they should never meet each other. Thalia thought so, but she smiled.
She can’t smile anymore. Unless she could marry her brother Julius, it was certain that she would die of old age as an old maid.
The place she arrived, imagining her gloomy thoughts, was Manto’s Bookstore, the only bookstore in town where two reports of illegal book distribution had been filed.
“Huh? Who is this? Isn’t it Talia, our little girl who fainted yesterday? Ha ha ha.”
That was the end of Uncle Manto’s will. With her solar plexus screaming with rage, Talia turned her bookstore upside down looking for illegal books, and she found two books with strange titles.
[The secret daily life of a bar girl]
I burned the first book with sacred fire as soon as I saw the title. But when she saw the title of the second book, her eyes shook more violently than ever.
[Dizzying relationship with a married man 1]
After Thalia turned her head to see if anyone was watching, she carefully placed her book in her arms.
She quickly returned to the interrogation center, Thalia locked her door and closed her window for fear of being seen, and then she carefully opened the book.
[It’s still too early for you, kid.
-Manto has watched you since you were a child-]
A note sways between empty bookshelf and falls to the floor. Although she had murderous intentions toward Manto, she soon felt grateful.
It was a stinging word that brought her to her senses, as she had been imagining such impure thoughts even though she had given her blessing for her brother Julius’s marriage.
Thalia lit a flame and burned the book cleanly, then opened the door and went out.
Tonight, we decided to raise a toast to celebrate the return and marriage of Julius Brother.
After leaving the interrogation center, she walks down the hill feeling lighter, and a brilliant golden light appears in her eyes.
Julius was looking at the sky with eyes filled with melancholy, and there was no one called his wife nearby.
My heart, which I had held together as best as I could, is shaken. Her emotions run through her heart, as black as her own hair.
I liked him first, but if I had followed him, the seat next to him would have been mine.
Maybe he deserves the second one….
Thalia’s sparkling eyes became cloudy and then sparkled again.
After her mindset changed, her heavy heart became lighter for some reason.
From a distance, a woman wearing a pure white dress walks towards Julius as if dancing.
Thalia looked at her all-black outfit, smiled as wide as her flower, and ran down the hill with her black hair flying.
Talia Ziphnel, her name contains the name of the angel of lovingkindness.
The smile on her face certainly looked benevolent. Although the inside was stained black.
A faint howling sound is heard from the wind blowing down the hill.
It must be the cries of Uncle Manto, the bookstore owner who tried to protect the innocence of a girl.
***
Darkana, the capital of Lyriam, is shrouded in dark clouds. Unlike other places in the capital where the gloomy atmosphere prevails, the heart of the Telmere Church spreads the usual majestic glow, and the people of the Central Church look nervous. It was busy moving around.
Priest Lian swallowed his dry saliva once and carefully knocked twice on the rather simple-looking door.
“Come in.”
When I entered the room, what I saw was an old sofa and table, a hanger on the wall to hang clothes, and a bookcase filled with Bibles.
If Priest Emily of Kente had seen it, he would have tilted his head and made a fuss, saying it looked exactly like Brukin’s room. Erman, a saint of the time, was reading documents with an indifferent expression.
“First class priest Lian meets the saint.”
Ermann stopped Rian, who was about to bow his head to bow, and urged him to report.
“Just report it while you have time to show courtesy.”
“… I’m sorry. “There is news that Special Priest Brukin has just departed from Kente Village.”
“What else?”
“There is information that Julius’s wife was seen in the village market at the same time.”
“Thank you for your hard work. “Go away.”
At Erman’s cold answer, Rian shed a drop of cold sweat and carefully walked behind him and walked out of the room.
Saint Erman, the head of the Telmere Church, whose face still looks young compared to his age, took off the glasses he was wearing for documents, touched his eyelids a couple of times, then let out a weary sigh and swiveled his chair around in the room. I turned my eyes to the only large window.
When I see the dull sky and the heavy dark clouds that look like they might rain at any moment, that day comes to mind. The day when Erman’s life turned upside down and everything started to go to sh*t.
The saint of the church became corrupted from that day on. He secretly released and made deals with high-ranking demons who should not have been released, and he tricked the eyes of his close friend, Brukin, and slowly and deliberately blocked the information going to Jakentemaul.
The power of a high-ranking devil was truly convenient.
In the deal with Nightmare, the body of Julius’ wife Cecil was handed over. Cryil, by ordering that idiot to do it.
Like an angry bastard, Ehrmann increasingly broke taboos that she should not have done, but the plan in her head began to come together with amazing precision. It’s one year from now.
If you fool everyone just one year from now, your wish will come true.
“Huh…. “Just wait a moment, just wait a moment, and this father will definitely save you.”
In Erman’s room, a small portrait hangs on a bookshelf filled with Bibles.
It depicts a girl with light brown hair and clear blue eyes reminiscent of a rich wheat field, and a man with a solemn look.
“I hope you enjoy a sweet dream in your hometown at the end of your life. Julius Tapnel.”
The name of the fallen saint is Erman Lionelta.
He decided to willingly sacrifice the world to evil for the sake of his adopted daughter Cecile, whom it would not hurt to put her in his eyes.
Thick raindrops begin to fall from the heavy dark clouds.
It was one of those days when autumn passed and winter approached, with cloudy moonlight peeking through dark clouds and pitiful rain falling like teardrops.
***
In the late evening, the tiny lights of the moon and stars come together to brighten the night sky, and you can hear the sounds of trees with their bare branches decorated with fallen leaves swaying gently in the wind and whispering along the path.
In front of Julius, a devil holding a large shopping cart walks as if he were dancing.
After the fuss that took place in the market during the day, the devil dragged Julius around and shopped around.
The way he introduced her as her husband with a smiling face and carefully inspected the ingredients, as if he were his real wife, was exactly like Cecil’s.
Actually, I have never experienced grocery shopping with Cecil before.
Julius felt an unbearable disgust at himself as he looked at the devil and his precious wife.
He would have to rip that abominable demon to pieces right now and burn his wife’s body to prove to her god that she was not defiled by her demons and hope for the rest of her soul. .
The bodies of the heretics and demons he has killed so far must also have families.
He, who always tore them up and burned them without hesitation, ended up being upset by a devil pretending to be his wife.
It was a story that wouldn’t even elicit a dry laugh and couldn’t even be joked about.
The devil’s steps, gently stepping on the stones on the path, stop.
Spinning in place, her long skirt gently unfolds and returns like a flower petal, and her light pink lips like a peach speak.
“You look in a bad mood. Did something happen that you don’t like?”
The devil asked, tilting his head as if he really didn’t know. How could his lovely face look so hateful? Julius narrowed his eyes and looked at the devil.
“…Are you asking because you really don’t know?”
“Um…. “I think she’s done a good job of being a wife, but you’ve been so picky this morning, Rom’s child.”
“You damn ugly devil, do you really think that insulting my wife will please her?”
The devil got angry and fought back at Julius’ words.
“It’s ugly! I am the pinnacle of evil, of which only twenty-four exist in this world. How can you talk about me like that, the one who walks under the sun and is called the king’s nightmare? “Isn’t it written in the Bible in the first place?”
“There is nothing written about you in the Bible. “It’s not funny that it’s the king’s nightmare.”
“Hey, profit! “Let’s see, let’s see, this is real!”
The demon, who was angry as if he was really angry, lost his relaxed atmosphere and his ears turned red, and he closed his mouth like a mute who was fed up with Julius’s next answer.
“Hmph, in the first place, the peak of a demon is twenty-four. Considering that it has more than twenty heads, it seems that the demon is really ugly.”
The devil was silent as if there was a malfunction. After sighing and looking up at the sky for a moment, Julius passed the demon and walked towards his mansion, but stopped when he heard words coming from behind him.
“Do you remember me asking you what I didn’t like earlier?”
“There is no way you can go to sleep and not remember what you just said.”
“I really don’t understand, what do you really not like?”
“So, didn’t I tell you earlier, this damn devil woman…B.”
The dazed appearance from before suddenly disappears, a murky blue light reminiscent of the deep sea illuminates him, and the devil approaches him before he knows it, pushing his face under his chin and looking at Julius, making fun of his mouth.
“You’ve been telling lies since a while ago.”
The devil’s small whisper passes by his ears.
You can’t let that thing fool you any longer.
“I said I would tempt you.”
Shut your mouth, you dirty devil.
“That’s why I made your wish come true.”
I didn’t want it.
“No, you hoped. “You could kill me right now, but even now you can’t even touch a single hair.”
That’s because even Cecil’s body is burned. It’s not because I want something like you.
“Then tell me how to get me out of this body without burning it.”
“… ….”
The devil stands on tiptoe and gently places his hand around his shoulder.
Two bodies so close that they can hear each other’s hearts
“Summon the holy sword. If you truly wish, it will cut out only me as you wish.”
“…It was just a hard sword.”
“The devil always tells the truth. Now, stretch out your hand. And I desperately ask for the strength to defeat that abominable demon.”
The devil’s left hand grabs Julius’ strong hand and slowly pulls it up.
It looks like lovers dancing.
This place where even the blowing wind has stopped and only the sound of each other’s hearts can be heard.
No matter how long I waited, the holy sword did not appear.
The devil quietly fell away from Julius and spoke calmly while looking at the starlight.
“You have no intention of harming me, because she wants a living Cecil and I am that Cecil.”
Cecil, whose tone of voice has suddenly changed, smiles and walks lightly carrying her shopping cart.
I can hear an excited humming song, as if I’m in a really good mood.
Julius suddenly felt a drop of rain fall on his cheek and slowly raised his head.
The moon and stars still weave their light together to illuminate the world.
The devil always wins the bet. The reason was very simple.
-Because they always bet that they will win.
I suddenly remember the words of a close friend I left behind in the capital.
The sky was clear that night and the next day.
It was an autumn day without a single cloud.