Chapter 3 - Lord Balticon (1/2)
Translated by iseuli
‘No torture and interrogation at all? I’m lucky to experience a painless death.’
Jade felt relieved to hear that he would be burned to death without any extra torture interrogation.
When Lord Balticon arrested him, everyone had treated Jade like a murderer. However after the fact, they didn’t treat him very harsh at all.
In the monastery, his regular meals were dried hard bread to begin with, so even though the meals were awful, he didn’t feel it was much of a problem. He felt grateful that they would provide three square meals a day for a prisoner at all.
The prison guards provided Jade meals in exchange of stories to pass the time. Jade freely shared all the stories that he knew of.
He told the story of the girl who lost her shoe, the prince who turned into a frog, the young girl who sought revenge against the wolf that ate her grandmother, and also the story of the girl who died eating a poisonous apple.
The bored prison guards preferred to listen to his stories over mindlessly beating the prisoners of this place.
It was considered a sin for a Priest to talk of mystical beings such as elves, orcs, and devils. All of his stories could possibly be used against him as evidence of worshipping the devil. Even so, Jade didn’t wish to turn down the earnest requests of the prison guards in this place.
“Father? Father?”
Jade was sitting on top of some damp straws in his prison cell when a voice called him. An old woman whose age that could not be guessed stopped and kneeled just before the prison door. The old woman had many wrinkles and her eyes sagged making it hard to see through to her eyes. Her jaw and cheeks sagged so much from wrinkles that it almost seemed like she was wearing someone else’s skin.
“This horrible old woman has come to make a confession.”
This was the first time Jade met this woman.
“If you want to make a confession…, why have you come to me? There should be other designated priests who are qualified to listen to confessions..”
“But it must be you. This is because when my younger brother made a confession in your place, he disappeared.”
The old woman peered up and smiled showing off a toothless smile.
‘This must somehow be related to the man from 18 months ago. What was that man’s name again?’
Jade approached the prison door and spoke the man’s name.
“Duorde.”
Jade sat just before the iron prison door.
“Yes. Yes. Duorde. That was this old woman’s younger brother.”
The old woman was sitting just out of Jade’s reach across the other side of his prison door.
“Bless me, Father, for this old woman has sinned. I’ve come to absolve my sins, please listen to my confession.”
“I do not have the power to absolve your sins with validity. However, I will listen to your words.”
“Aren’t you supposed to tell me, ‘God is listening, please confess?’ Am I wrong? Wasn’t it?”
Nopah said tilting her head in a joking manner.
Jade responded coldly.
“Would such words matter for someone like you? Anyway, you have not come to seek God, but me.”
“You’re perceptive. Yes. It was a lie that I wanted to make a confession to absolve my sins. However, this is a confession so it should be all the same? Right?”
Nopah snickered as she continued to speak.
“This old woman will confess. The reason, father priest, is locked up in this prison is because of this old woman. I’ve told all your wrongs to Lord Balticon. This old woman had.”
The old woman continued to cackle without any signs of stopping. It appeared she was forcing herself to laugh.
‘My assumptions that Lord Balticon had intervened in this incident must be true then…’
Lord Balticon had not been blindly stubborn over a short exchange of sacrilegious chatter.
The other had understood and went ahead forcing his way into the Catholic monastery, even with the knowledge that such actions would greatly shake his relation with the Catholic Order.
‘…It is hiding in the form of an old woman, the answer to this incident has come walking to me on its own.’
Jade thought for a moment and continued to talk.
“I heard rumors that the Raphael Priest Order would take over this place. In order to achieve this, Lord Balticon needed to weaken the core power within the Antone’s Monastery. I have become the black sheep to make this happen, correct?”
The elder woman was momentarily shocked, then broke into a crackling laugh.
“After the Lord is finished with this religious trial, he plans to deport everyone from the Monastery of Zerba. At that moment, the Rapheal Priest Order will intercede to stop it. Our Lord will have no choice but to reluctantly agree.”
The elder woman snickered.
Lord Balticon had always been unhappy about the small size of the local monastery. He wanted to rebuild it into a bigger scale, additionally he could even rename the church under his own name.
“Priest Jade, you will need to become the martyr for the sake of making the foundation of this Monastery stronger. Of course nobody will recognize you for it though. Except one person, this old woman will remember you.”
The old woman clapped with ecstasy.
“This old woman will be very happy because you were the one who killed my younger brother! This is the revenge of miracles. Isn’t murdering for revenge one of the unforgivable sins of the Catholic faith? This smelly old woman begs for your forgiveness. Not under the name of God, but I hope to be forgiven by you, Mr. Priest.”
“Let me ask you one thing.”
“Wrong. You’re supposed to say that you will abolish my sins.”
The old woman snickered.
Jade continued to talk without paying her any mind.
“The night your younger brother visited me, he confessed that he had killed five women.”
“The five women were prostitutes.”
“He had come to find me, because he decided the next person he would kill was me, a priest.”
“Yes.”
“I did not ask why. Why was I the sixth target? Why did he kill the five women?”
“I needed their heart.”
“For what?”
“This poor hungry old woman wanted to eat it.”
“My younger brother wanted to kill, and I wanted to consume human flesh. We scattered the body parts so that others would not know that we were eating humans.”
“That’s not exactly true. This old woman just truly enjoys seeing other women trembling in terror.”
“So you were the one who directed all this.”
“Yes. Except one person. I never asked him to kill you. This old woman is picky and will not eat the heart of men.”
“Why did Duorde come to kill me? Why did he go out of his way to visit the monastery?”
“Our kind is just naturally attracted to those from the clergy. Especially proper upright clergymen like yourself, you look like fresh clean meat in our eyes. You are like a freshly caught fish, or newly butcherd pig. You appear about ten times more delicious than an average human. Of course this isn’t in my case, because I’m a picky eater.”
The old woman scratched her cheek with her pointy nails. Her flesh tore and sticky fluid oozed from her skin.
“Rather than eating you, this old woman would rather see you burning on a stake. The people of Zerba loved you. However, once someone calls you a heathen, they would turn their backs to you in a snap and throw stones as they rejoice smelling your burning flesh. Person to person, they would feel sad and pity, however if you group them together they will dance. I really enjoy seeing this sight.”
Jade blankly watched the old woman.
“I also feel pretty happy watching people like you burning.”
The old woman observed him with her bad eye and spoke.
“I wonder if you will be able to remain calm even when you are tied to the stake to be burned tomorrow.”
“I wonder if you will be able to remain calm while being burned alive.”
The woman chuckled lightly and then her expression abruptly turned to stone. She took several steps back as if she was pushed by a strong wind.
Jade took several steps back from the iron bars and sat down on the cell corner while covering his face.
He was like this for a long while when a familiar voice sounded.
“What are you doing there?”
Jade didn’t move his hand away from his face nor did he bother with a reply.
“I’m very disappointed in myself right now.”
“Why are you disappointed?”
“An old woman claimed she would exact revenge against me because I killed her younger brother. I followed her example and said I wonder who will be the one to die first. I acted like a knight requesting a duel. I’ve remained in the monastery for three years, but I’m still the same bastard.”
Jade put down his two hands from his face.
Father Daniel was standing on the other side of the jail instead of the old woman.
“You’ve come quickly.”
“Quickly? Your death sentence is tomorrow.” Daniel said laughing.
“I heard. This is why I said you’ve come sooner than I expected. I thought you would arrive when I was already tied to the stake.”
“Sheesh, you’re really-. I sometimes wonder if you enjoy being like this.”
Daniel held up the keys to the prison cell.
“I’ve been discharged?”
“Yes.”
“How did you convince Lord Balticon?”