Hyde Sets Out to Suppress Heresy! #1
The city of Fierenzo, blessed by art, literature, and the grace of God.
A grand mansion stood in this region known as the flower of Durgien.
In a second-floor room that caught the sunlight particularly well, a woman was reading a book.
Her features, framed by cascading golden hair, were so beautiful that even the maids cleaning the room would pause and steal glances at her.
Bang, creak—.
Then the door opened.
“Hic!”
While the startled maid hurriedly resumed her cleaning, the woman remained as she was, legs propped up on the desk in a free-spirited pose, still reading her book.
The man who approached her was tall, with neat ash-gray hair that left an impression, dressed in a priest’s robe so lavishly dyed in purple that it glittered.
Rustle—.
The man touched his Roman collar as he spoke.
“Miss Batori, you may stop cleaning and leave. And today isn’t a work day for you, Miss Batori—why not go home and rest?”
“But Your Excellency, this is something I do because I want to. How can I ever repay the Archbishop who prayed at my mother’s bedside in her final moments—”
“Praying for people is simply my duty, is it not? You really may leave. I have something to discuss alone with my daughter.”
The maid Batori was moved by Archbishop Archibold’s generous heart.
There’s no one in the world as kind and good as our Archbishop.
Rustle—.
Bowing her head, the maid withdrew.
Creak, click—.
When the door closed, Archbishop Medici Archibold let out a long sigh.
“Milli, I hear Lady Psyche has gotten married. I suppose we ought to send a congratulatory gift—what do you think would be good?”
“Psyche? With that scoundrel of a second brother? I don’t care.”
The woman with exceptionally white hands flipped through the pages indifferently.
Her beautiful face was full of boredom and ennui.
That expression changed completely at her father’s next words.
“No, she married a Wood Badge monk by the name of Hyde.”
“Ha? Some Wood Badge monk? How on earth did that happen? That Psyche just married some Wood Badge monk?”
Milione Archibold.
Nickname: Milli.
She recalled Psyche, whom she had met at a social gathering in her childhood.
Though Milli looked down on everyone in the world, she considered Lady Psyche at least worthy of conversation with her.
When Psyche had been faking illness, Milli had found it rather amusing.
It was a clumsy performance, but a novel story.
And when Oscar Archibold had been targeting Psyche, she had grown bored again.
But for Oscar and her father Medici Archibold’s schemes to be foiled by some Wood Badge monk?
It was enough to make her laugh.
“Father, you must be quite bitter. You’ve invested a great deal of effort into the Agarpe territory, haven’t you?”
“It’s fine. I’ve prepared many strategies to stabilize the Durgien region. In that sense, Milli, you’ve rejected every marriage proposal again this time. Did you dislike the eldest son of Count Ormandy?”
“They were all boring men. As for me—I like flames. If you’re going to introduce me to a man, find me one like a flame.”
Whoosh—.
Milli took her eyes off the book and gazed at the candle on the desk.
In her red eyes, the candle flame began to flicker and blaze with large sparks.
“If I could marry a living flame, I wouldn’t mind even being a concubine.”
“Milli, how could I send my precious daughter off as a concubine?”
“Of course you wouldn’t, Your Excellency Archbishop Archibold! So which man are you planning to arbitrarily pair me with this time? Thinking of betrothing me to a prince like the Agarpe lady?”
“Don’t be sarcastic. Anyway, this father of yours has business in the royal capital and must leave Fierenzo for a while, so don’t cause any trouble in the meantime.”
As Archbishop Archibold was about to leave the room, Milione Archibold, the woman rumored to be one of the most beautiful in the kingdom, turned her gaze back to her book.
Tristan and Isolde.
Of course, she had already read this book dozens of times, so no matter which page she opened, it was all boring.
So dull that the letters wouldn’t even enter her eyes—unbearable.
It’s not just this book that’s boring.
Having read every book in Fierenzo, the city of art and learning, Milli always felt boredom. So bored that she sometimes wished the world would burn to a crisp.
I want a new story. That Psyche married some nobody Wood Badge monk? Hyde—I’ve never heard the name. An unfamiliar, new name. I’d like to meet him once.
Rustle—. Click—.
Milione closed the book.
Looking at her father about to leave the room, she said,
“You said you were thinking of a wedding gift? What’s the name of the most troublesome heretical cult group in that area?”
Psyche Agarpe.
She had intended to live her whole life as a virgin.
But when a man hanged himself in front of her—
—she realized her entire life was being shaken to its roots and felt a little sad.
And she hated that man just a little.
Fortunately, that sadness and hatred didn’t last long.
Psyche took Hyde as her partner, and that Hyde splendidly repelled the Archibold schemes.
The Hyde she had thought a disaster had in fact been Agarpe’s good fortune.
Just as Job, who suffered hardships, was saved through them. A ray of sunlight has begun to seep into my clouded life. Above all, my husband Hyde and I are remarkably compatible.
When talking with Hyde, Psyche felt at ease and her heart gradually lifted. In Psyche’s entire life, this was the first person besides her parents and younger brother with whom she got along so well.
It even feels like I’ve known him for a long time.
Moreover, Hyde claimed to love Psyche with great passion.
Psyche herself could feel it to that degree.
Was this what newlywed life was like—her face was always flushed red with that thought.
At the story that man had just brought up, Psyche felt a slight dizziness.
“Hyde, w-what did you just say?”
“I asked you to arrange a meeting for me with Miss Milione, the daughter of Archbishop Archibold. If you just arrange the meeting, I’ll handle making her my second wife myself.”
Second wife.
It was Psyche who had suggested it.
Because Psyche was a person who could not bear children due to her vow.
Of course, in Psyche’s mind, Hyde was also a devout ‘chastity advocate,’ so the lack of children between them might not have been a problem—
But Hyde was an orphan.
Psyche felt sorry for Hyde and wanted to create a ‘real family’ for him, so she had intended to carefully find a second wife herself.
And she truly swore to God that she would raise any child they had as her own.
…But I at least expected him to refuse once!
Hyde accepted the suggestion to take a second wife without any refusal! And while talking about Abraham, the ancestor of faith, no less!
The problem was that he even asked her to arrange a meeting with Milione, the daughter of Archbishop Archibold.
“Hyde, as you well know, no matter how much I mediate, for you to meet the Archibold lady is difficult in many ways…”
Milione Archibold.
Recalling that arrogant, rude, unpredictable woman made Psyche’s heart sink.
Though the same age as Psyche, their personalities were far too different.
“Just somehow arrange the meeting. I can handle the rest myself.”
“That’s why I’m saying… arranging the meeting is completely impossible. Lady Milione is a woman who never takes a single step outside her hometown of Fierenzo. Also…”
Psyche searched for and recalled various reasons why Hyde shouldn’t meet Milione. Fortunately, her husband was the smartest man in the Agarpe territory and quickly understood.
“I said it knowing you would say that.”
“What do you mean—”
Ah.
In that moment, Psyche realized.
And she was moved.
“Hyde, you…”
Her husband Hyde had just elegantly and wisely refused the idea of a second wife by saying ‘something like a second wife is unnecessary.’
At least, that’s what Psyche thought as she was moved and reflected on her own shortcomings.
I was the one who said it was okay to take a second wife, yet I didn’t do my best to introduce Lady Milione to Hyde.
Was it because of the bad rumors about Milione?
Because meeting her itself was difficult?
There was that, but Psyche felt a strange emotion rising from within herself for the first time.
Hyde is my husband. I will love only Hyde as well. But what if Hyde falls even more for another woman?
The Bible was full of stories of men who fell for second wives and foreign women. Even the wise King Solomon, and Abraham the father of faith.
If my husband Hyde became like that?
Squeeze—.
Her chest felt slightly tight.
Had she caught some illness?
Since this was the first time Psyche had felt such an emotion, she didn’t know what it was.
But Psyche was Psyche.
No, I trust Hyde. He’s the man I chose as my husband. And he said he loves me more than anyone in the world. And that he always will!
Slap—.
To steel her resolve, Psyche slapped her own cheek and borrowed paper and pen from Hyde.
“I’ll write a letter to Lady Milione. Of course, I can’t even imagine that picky, arrogant woman coming outside Fierenzo! But I’m Psyche, who keeps her promises!”
Scratch, scratch scratch—.
Psyche wrote the letter neatly in very pretty handwriting and had a servant mount a horse to deliver it.
Even if by some miracle Milione who received the letter came to this Agarpe land, her husband Hyde would look only at her—
Psyche now truly believed that without a doubt.
Psyche really wrote a letter to the Archibold lady.
But Lady Milione leaving Fierenzo to come to this Agarpe territory would be impossible.
How do I know?
Because until five years later when I was called Rust, Lady Milione had stayed in Fierenzo.
She truly never came out even once.
I also wanted to see the face of the archbishop’s daughter who was said to be as beautiful as Psyche at least once.
But well, I thought it was exaggerated rumor.
There couldn’t be another woman as beautiful as Psyche in the world.
With that feeling, time passed.
Psyche and I, as usual, diligently did our night work—prayer—and lay in the same bed.
Sleeping next to a pretty woman for several days already.
Just as I was thinking I still wasn’t used to this situation, her closed blue eyes slowly opened and met mine.
“Hyde, so what happens to that nymph? The nymph from your story. She started being chased by hunters. What happens to the nymph Oinoe?”
The nymph Oinoe was the protagonist of the story I wrote, Backstreet Nymph’s Village.
I had cut off the story right at a critical moment.
“I’m so curious about the next part that I honestly can’t sleep.”
In the 21st century, to make money with novels, the skill of making people curious about the next chapter was important, but my cliffhanger technique seemed a bit sharp for these medieval people.
I closed my eyes thinking of the next content.
“It’s a secret.”
“That’s mean. If you write the next part of the story, can you show it to me first as your wife? You will, right?”
Psyche liked my story.
Well, the books of this world were all boring, old-fashioned moral tales of good rewarded and evil punished.
The most interesting stories were about the level of the Arabian Nights.
In such a world, my story containing the essence of the 21st century would have been truly addictive!
Luring Dihon with a novel wouldn’t be difficult either.
Thinking that, I fell asleep, and the next morning.
Rustle—.
The maid who had been guarding Dihon’s room yesterday approached me.
“Lord Hyde, Young Master Dihon wishes to see you.”
Good.
Here it comes.
Thinking that, I stood firmly in front of Dihon’s door.
Then Dihon spoke from beyond the door.
—Brother-in-law, it was a really amazing story. But there’s something I completely don’t understand. So what on earth is that status window? Letters appearing before your eyes?
Oh no.
Was it hard to make a boy of about ten understand the status windows that mainly appear in 21st-century novels—
As I thought that, the boy said,
—Seeing abilities as numbers! How did you come up with that idea? And what’s a Nymphmon? Does it evolve with an Evolution Stone? Hyde, this is the first time I’ve heard such a fun story! It’s so fun my heart—cough, huff, cough, huff….
Dihon started coughing terribly.
Thud—.
I heard the sound of him collapsing.
At the sound of him choking, I grabbed the door.
“Dihon!”
Then the maid was startled and blocked my arm.
“Y-you mustn’t enter carelessly or a bad spirit might transfer to the young master—”
“If the young master dies like this, will you take responsibility? Open the door. I’ll take responsibility for everything that happens after I enter. Open the door. Scouty, this is an order.”
“…An order!?”
When I spoke looking into her eyes, the maid was startled.
She trembled with great anxiety and released the hand that had been holding the doorknob.
I kicked open the door and grabbed the boy collapsed in the middle of the room.
His skin was pale and his breathing weak, but he was conscious.
“…Brother Selim said no one else should c-come in…”
His skin was cold enough to have a blue tinge.
His health looked extremely poor.
Of course it would.
When that Selim said he was drawing Dihon’s blood by the bowlful with an unsterilized knife, this was the natural result.
“Heart disease causes blood circulation problems. On top of that, drawing blood to lower blood pressure would naturally break the body.”
Rather, it was amazing he was still alive until now.
Looking closely, the boy’s body seemed to have a longer life thread than expected.
His bones were thick.
As expected of Psyche’s brother and Doban’s son.
Then of course this kid would also be an aura user.
“Dihon, from today I’ll take full charge of your treatment. Keeping that crazy Selim by your side any longer seems like a serious problem.”
Rustle—.
I stood up.
The moment the goal was set.
I went straight to Doban Agarpe’s office.
Early morning.
He happened to be talking with Selim about something.
“Son-in-law, what is it?”
“Count, please stop Selim’s treatment. His treatment is actually killing Dihon. If you just stop Selim for one week, I’ll make Dihon better than before.”