Yoris's Repentance (2)
The next day.
News that the Hero's party, visiting the capital, had suffered a major incident spread far and wide, and the royal court found itself in an exceedingly awkward position.
The palace immediately mobilized soldiers under the leadership of Princess Audrite and launched a sweeping investigation.
Prince Edward had been slated to lead it, but the prince's current state was in no condition to handle anything at all.
He was still holed up in the banquet hall with Yosef, locked in a drinking contest, entirely unaware that a crisis had even befallen the kingdom.
“You said it looked like three men and three women?”
“Yes. One middle-aged man, two young men, and three young women, as far as I could tell.”
Morning. Yoris's room.
Maru and Princess Audrite were conducting an interview with Yoris as part of the investigation into the kidnapping.
“Did they ever reveal their identities?”
“They seemed to belong to some organization. A large-scale terrorist group, I'd say. Something like a major power from the underworld... I can't say for certain.”
Yoris sat propped against the headboard of the bed, his lower body covered by the blanket.
His expression, so meek and compliant as he answered the princess's questions, was so clear and serene that you would never guess he'd been tortured just the day before. His voice was calm and his thoughts careful.
“Was there anyone among your captors whose appearance or dress left an impression?”
“No. They concealed themselves meticulously. All I could see were the torture instruments glinting before my eyes.”
“Ah...”
Audrite, seated in her chair, nodded with a look of sympathy.
Maru, standing behind her, simply watched in silence.
Ordinarily he would have handled the investigation himself, but because of his personal history with Yoris, he stood back with his hands clasped behind him, merely observing.
And even with him listening in, Yoris showed no particular reaction to his presence.
“The place where you were held—do you remember anything at all? The shape of a window frame, the scenery, objects on the street... anything would do.”
“Hmm. I really couldn't say. But this morning, Lady Kiera examined my mind with Trans-Observe, the spell that infiltrates a person's psyche, and then departed somewhere. If anyone knows, it would likely be Lady Kiera.”
Meanwhile, at that very moment, Kiera stood with Lucy and Natalie in front of an isolated house on the plains outside the royal capital.
When she stretched both arms toward the house and made a motion of lifting it, the timber-built structure rose wholesale into the air.
A moment later, the house was completely disassembled in midair down to the last nail and plank.
When even the most thorough search turned up nothing of use, she simply detonated the whole thing where it hung.
“Tch.”
Kiera approached the emptied plot as countless fragments rained down around her.
The stone-built cellar lay fully exposed beneath.
It was empty to the point of offering not a single clue, and the walls and floor were immaculately clean, without a trace of blood.
Irritated, she smashed her fist down and blew the cellar apart as well.
“Did they give any reason for the kidnapping?”
“That's the part I can't make sense of, so I've been turning it over ever since. They said this: a child of a highborn figure drowned and died several months ago, and they claimed it was because of us. But no matter how hard I think, I have no idea whatsoever who this deceased young lord might be.”
The instant Maru heard those words, the hair on the back of his neck stood on end.
A young lord who drowned...? Are they talking about me? Don't tell me Mother...?
Maru's thoughts began to churn.
The moment he left this room, he decided, he would confirm it with a letter right away.
“Thank you for cooperating despite everything you've been through. The kingdom will investigate this matter thoroughly and bring the culprits to justice without fail.”
“Please do all you can so that no other victim appears. God will aid you as well.”
“Yes. Then please rest well.”
While Maru was lost in thoughts of his mother, the interview had quietly come to an end.
When Audrite rose from her seat, Maru moved ahead of her to the door and swung it wide open so he could follow her out.
It was then that Yoris, who until now had treated Maru as if he were invisible, suddenly called out to stop him.
“Maru. Might you spare me a moment of conversation?”
“......?”
While Maru hesitated, wondering why on earth is he doing this?, Audrite came close and gave him a sly wink.
“I'll wait outside. Go ahead and have your talk.”
Taking the doorknob from Maru's hand, she pulled the door shut behind her.
As Maru stood dumbly at the doorway, Yoris smiled up at him, gentle and warm.
It was a kindness he had never shown before.
There was no trace of hypocrisy or deceit in his eyes.
Maru blinked.
Did he get beat around enough to reach enlightenment or something...?
When Yoris gestured for him to take a chair, Maru stood there awkwardly for a moment before finally sitting down and looking at him.
“When we parted ways, we promised that if we ever met again, we wouldn't pretend to know each other. I'm sure you remember, Maru.”
“Yes, well... I do.”
“At last, I get to hear your voice. I believe I'm the first of the Hero's party to hold a conversation with you here.”
He wore a playful smile, laughing brightly as he added, an honor, truly.
Then, little by little, the smile faded from his lips, and his expression turned serious.
“While I was being subjected to that terrible torture, a thought came to me. Why am I being held here? What did I do wrong? Did I ever do anything to earn someone's grudge? At first, I simply felt wronged. And as I dwelled on it, I began to look back on myself. What wrongs I had committed against others. What I had done poorly. How I had lived my life.”
Yoris let out a deep sigh.
“I looked back at my past, and the conclusion I finally reached was this: up until yesterday, I was nothing short of a monster. All that time following the Hero, I had drifted far from God and lost myself entirely to greed. How much will I get from today's loot split? What if someone takes more than their share? I have to secure mine. That man only favors the Hero and never praises me? Then I won't help him. After years spent alongside the Hero, who received the people's praise every single day, I had somehow grown swollen with self-importance and sunk into vanity. I was no longer the person I'd been when I first entered religious life. Back then, I was someone who would share even the smallest thing with others...”
Maru listened in silence for a while, then gently scratched his temple and asked, “...Do you feel any desire for revenge against your kidnappers?”
Yoris shook his head.
“Perhaps because I was born to be a priest, repentance comes to mind before vengeance does. It seems I'm fortunate that I hadn't yet fallen so far into the abyss. The kidnappers claimed they took me because of that young lord who drowned, but by my own judgment, they clearly mistook me for someone else. Why would they make such a mistake? Why seize a stranger and put him to torture? After long deliberation, I arrived at a conclusion: this was Heaven's punishment. God allowed the wrong people to mistake me, and through them, saw to it that I was chastised. Make that fool Yoris come to his senses, He said.”
He tossed off the joke with a laugh.
Maru quietly laughed along.
Yoris held out both his arms.
“Look. Yesterday, when I was being tortured, my whole body was carved up—even one of my arms was cut off. Yet they healed me completely before releasing me. All that torment, and then they treat my wounds and let me go... Doesn't something about that strike you as strange?”
Yoris slowly turned his gaze toward the window and looked up at the sky.
“Yesterday felt as though an apostle of God had descended, rebuked me for my years of dissolute living, and departed. Surely God drew back the rod and granted me one more chance. If I go on living as I did yesterday and commit new sins, then next time, it may truly be the end.”
He let out a relieved breath and smiled.
“After much soul-searching, I have resolved to change. The path laid before me now is atonement. I want to conduct a full examination of and repentance for my dulled faith, and devote myself to raising future generations of the clergy. Having experienced it firsthand, I've come to appreciate anew just how grueling a place the secular world truly is.”
Maru simply listened.
“The truth is, I'm far more fragile than an ordinary person. The aftermath of the torture still leaves my hands and feet trembling. My body came back whole, but my spirit has already been worn down to rags. I'm exhausted. My body is screaming at me that it needs a long rest.”
“......”
“So I've decided to end my journey here and return home. I've worked hard to aid humanity all this while—surely it's time I finally rested. I believe now is the right moment. It's time I took a sabbatical, so to speak.”
At Yoris's sudden declaration, Maru swallowed hard.
“Kie...”
He had only ever called her that Hero, so having the name leave his lips after so long felt awkward in his mouth.
Uncomfortable as it was, he asked anyway.
“...Does Kiera know about this?”
“I intend to tell her soon enough. But more importantly, Maru.”
Yoris reached out with both hands and gently wrapped them around Maru's, where they sat facing each other.
“I'm sorry for everything. I was in the wrong.”
“Sorry for... what, exactly?”
“All of it. Every action I took, from our days together in the party until now... Drunk on selfish, narrow-minded thinking, I caused you great pain. I offer you my sincerest apology.”
The unexpected apology left Maru dumbfounded.
“It's fine. It's all in the past.”
“No, it is not!”
Yoris's voice rose.
The hands clasping Maru's tightened further.
Hot tears spilled down his cheeks.
“If there is anyone to whom I must desperately beg forgiveness this very moment, it is you! I committed a terrible wrong against you, Maru! Three whole years together, and I should never have sent you away the way I did! Never so coldly, so cruelly...! Hk—hhk...! To a comrade... to a comrade who shared life and death beside me, it was never something I should have done...! And beyond that, I slandered you behind your back! I was truly a wretched piece of filth! I...! I...! I'm a monster...! Hhk!”
Unable to continue, Yoris buried his face into the hands wrapped around Maru's and wept, great sobs racking his frame.
Maru gave a wry smile and patted him on the back.
“Yoris... I understand where you're coming from, but that's a bit one-sided.”
Just remembering what had been done to him made his skin crawl.
So he said it gently.
“I'm not ready to forgive you yet, so stop crying.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Meanwhile, back in Maru's room, the succubus's ambitious scheme to ensnare the lecherous mage was proceeding without a hitch.
“Will this be enough, I wonder?”
Luciela looked around the room and smiled in satisfaction.
Floor, walls, ceiling—the entire room was blanketed in grotesque mounds of flesh, breathing and pulsing, with dozens of tentacles grown from them writhing in a chaotic frenzy.
“Aren't they adorable? Absolutely precious.”
With that, Maru's room was now completely severed from the outside world.
Whatever happened within these walls, no one outside would ever know.
It had become a wicked sanctum where demonic power would swell to many times its strength.
“I'd best be off before my Lord arrives. He's bound to scold me for what I've been up to in here alone.”
Luciela swept her hand through the air, and in an instant the tentacles vanished, the room restored to its original state.
Brilliant sunlight streamed through the window and lit the interior.
Shielding her eyes with a hand, Luciela walked toward a shadowed corner of the room.
“This one waits with fingers counted, so come quickly and fall into my trap, little vixen. Fufufu.”
Before long, she dissolved into black smoke and was gone.