Rust Burns Palchea #2
Every human being carries a self-destructive streak.
The only difference is whether it runs large or small.
Everyone hates themselves, despises themselves. Give them the slightest shove from behind and people will tear themselves apart without restraint.
Communities and societies built from human numbers show the exact same nature. The world itself longs to destroy itself.
Human society rotting beyond all control and hurtling toward ruin—dystopia unfolding—is, according to Scripture, an inevitable story.
“I shall prophesy. Lawlessness shall abound, and the numbers of the accursed sinners, swindlers, murderers, schemers, flatterers, heretics, cultists, and hypocrites shall increase day by day.”
So it is written in the Bible.
The Bible is truth. And that truth declares that human society is fated not for progress but for regression and degeneration, plummeting into the abyss until it becomes hell itself.
“Falling birth rates. Wars breaking out. Traditional values twisting. Ideologies colliding until giant mushroom clouds bloom—all of it is inevitable.”
When humanity finally reaches its ‘end,’ the Judgment will begin. The Lord will descend once more, purify the world, and forge a utopia—that is the prophecy of the Apocalypse.
“Therefore, until the Day of Judgment, humans will do nothing but destroy themselves like complete idiots. No one can stop it. Not I, Rust. Not the Pope. Not a single soul! And yet—”
I looked at the woman standing firm amid the endless scene of destruction.
She was as noble as a wildflower that had forced its way up through asphalt. Cradling the weak one, Lucy, protectively in her arms, she stood with her back straight and proud, as if ready to fight every thug and vicious criminal around her.
It was Psyche.
“Psyche, do you dare try to halt the flow of the age?”
Humanity’s self-destruction was the proper order of things. Society’s corruption was the proper order of things. Yet Psyche sought to stop it. For a woman who could not endure injustice and who loved people, it was the natural course of action.
And so I had no choice but to speak.
“Drag that insolent woman before me.”
I raised my index finger and pointed at Psyche. One of the enraged throng strode toward her and reached out a hand—
“I am a married woman! Do not lay hands on me so freely!”
Crack!
“Aagh!”
His wrist snapped. Exactly the result I had expected. The only person present who could possibly overpower Psyche by force and drag her here was Las.
But Psyche’s action only stoked the crowd’s fury higher.
“Rape that bitch and kill her!”
“How dare she refuse Lord Rust’s command!”
In this moment the number of rioters obeying my orders stood at three hundred. Even Psyche—without sword or armor—could she face that many alone? Of course, the presence of Lucy in her arms was a variable. If Lucy went berserk, every last person here could burn to death.
While I was thinking that, Psyche spoke.
“Let Miss Lucy escape! Then I will come before you myself.”
As expected. Psyche was a woman who knew how to save the lives of the common folk!
Las, however, who had been listening, flew into a rage.
“Psyche! How dare a wretch like you try to negotiate with Rust! Rust! You don’t need to talk to a woman like that! I’ll smash her nose with my fist!”
Las, you crazy bitch! Smash Psyche’s pretty face? What the hell are you saying!
Even in this mad situation I wanted, by any means necessary, to protect Psyche. She was my beloved wife, and the sight of her standing alone and righteous in a world overflowing with injustice was the very ideal I pursued.
If things continued like this, Psyche would be trampled by three hundred rioters and Las. I had no choice but to make a decision.
“Very well! I shall release Lucy! This world is my possession anyway. No matter where she runs, she remains my slave. And Psyche is my sacrifice. No one is to lay a hand on her lightly.”
The moment my words ended, Las—wrapped in a black cloak she had scavenged from somewhere—trembled all over.
“I see! You forbid anyone else from touching her so that you may corrupt Psyche yourself! I, Las, partner of Rust, can tell! Release Lucy!”
At Las’s word, Lucy was set free.
“I want to stay here! It’s so noisy and fun! I’ve never seen this many people gathered in one place since I was born! Is this a festival? This is awesome!”
Having grown up on an island, Lucy was a little short on common sense and experience. Psyche spoke to her.
“No! Lucy! Find Hyde! You have to protect Hyde!”
“Hyde… Got it! I’ll go look for Hyde!”
Whoosh—
At last Lucy departed. Only after watching her figure vanish into the crowd did I speak.
“There. I have sent Lucy away. Now keep your promise. Come before me, woman.”
“…….”
Psyche. She walked toward me. Amid these rough-faced rioters she still looked like a single beautiful flower. Even standing before me she showed not the slightest intimidation and spoke with perfect composure.
“Stop this wickedness at once. And you, Rust—I believe you should remove that mask, step before the people, and repent.”
“Repent? With two mouths you certainly never run out of things to say! I am sin itself! Soot that no amount of repentance can wash clean!”
“No! Every human can be forgiven! Even a monstrous beast like you!”
“Aaaargh!!! I don’t want to hear it! You’re the one who needs to repent, Psyche!”
“Me? What exactly am I supposed to repent for?”
“Kyahahaha! You bitch who dared force chastity on her husband even after marriage! A meat toilet who has the gall to refuse her role—this insolence is utterly unforgivable!”
“Do not speak my husband Hyde’s name with that filthy mouth of yours! My husband Hyde is a man more faithful and devout than anyone! Do not condemn us by your standards!”
Psyche. She seemed to place her trust in her husband Hyde. Was that really true?
No! Hyde might think so, but I, Rust, do not! There is not a single woman in this world worth trusting! Every last one of them is nothing but a lewd bitch!
“Psyche, you talk a good game, but you’ve harbored dirty thoughts about other men, haven’t you? You were going to accept a flower from Nicholas! The flower’s pussy!”
Psyche. When Nicholas asked her a second time to accept his flower, she did not refuse immediately; she glanced at Hyde for his reaction. At a glance it looked like she was respecting her husband’s opinion, but maybe she just wanted the flower! You lewd pussy bitch!
Yet Psyche shook her head with a brazen face.
“Absolutely not! I am a body that loves my husband Hyde. No matter what man offered me a flower, I would never have accepted it!”
“Lies! Lies! This woman is lying! Then hear me! Strip naked right now and dance before me! Do that and I will call off these rioters!”
“What did you say?”
“If you refuse, from this moment the Blood Crusade will advance on Palchea, burn every street and house, seize the people, and rape them indiscriminately—man, woman, or beast!”
Psyche. You love people and you love peace, don’t you?
“By sacrificing your single body you might save a thousand, ten thousand, perhaps a hundred thousand lives. Well, Psyche? The choice is yours.”
“I refuse! There will never come a day when I strip and dance before you! And I will not allow you to burn the city and rape its people either!”
It was the petulant stubbornness of a child. The sight made me angry.
“Psyche, you fucking cunt bitch. Where do you think you get the power for that right now? Justice that only flaps its mouth is worth less than a child’s tantrum.”
“I have no power, but the Lord can take a worthless wench like me and strike down evil with ease! Everyone! Stop this riot! It is not too late!”
Psyche. Her cry was empty. Not a single person gathered here lent an ear to her words. In truth, what Psyche said was biblically correct. In this place she alone was speaking the right words. But justice without power is sometimes more meaningless than the flutter of a fly’s wings.
Whoosh—
Then it came. The sound of something enormous cutting through the air.
Snap—
Psyche thrust her hand skyward and snatched a greatsword the size of her own body out of the air.
From far off Lucy shouted.
“Psyche! I couldn’t find Hyde! Looks like he ran! But I brought the weapon you treasure so much instead! It was super heavy!”
The greatsword Agarpe. The pure-white greatsword forged by the Agarpe family from the heart of a 「star」 that had fallen from the heavens.
The moment Psyche gripped it and prepared to swing, Las exploded in fury.
“You fucking bitch! You were stalling for time on purpose!”
BOOOOM!
Las kicked off the ground so hard the earth caved in beneath her feet and charged at Psyche. Psyche swung the greatsword she gripped with both hands in a mighty arc.
Whoooosh—!
CRAAAAASH—!
That alone released a violent shockwave that sent Las’s body flying. A movement so miraculous it was hard to believe it came from a slender girl.
“Guh! Aura?!”
Las staggered to her feet and shouted urgently.
“Rust! Danger!”
But I could not even react to the cry. Psyche had already circled behind me and was holding the massive greatsword to my throat.
“Now! If you don’t want to die right here, call them off at once!”
From the red-haired Psyche standing at my back came the scent of strawberries.
“Can you kill me? If you kill me like this I’ll drop straight into hell. Psyche, can an innocent girl like you really do that?”
Click—
Still holding the sword to my neck with one hand, Psyche reached out with the other.
“Then I’ll just remove your mask! Let’s end this ridiculous game!”
Remove my mask? No! The current situation is far beyond the level of “I was possessed by Rust”! Everyone here already believes I am the real Rust.
Crisis on every front! But no problem.
“Kyahaha! How dare you seize the body of a man who isn’t even your husband! The only reason I let myself be caught was so I could rape your ears!”
“Rape my ears…!?”
“Pussy. Cock. Sex. Oral sex. Pubic hair. Glans. Vagina. Portio. Sixty-nine. Bestiality. Copulation—”
I spat raw, graphic words. Even Hans, still pinned beneath me as my chair, cried out in horror, “Gyaaah! Th-this is so sinful I can’t even listen…!”
While everyone grimaced—
Even Psyche could not endure it.
“S-stop it…!”
Psyche clamped both hands—the one that had been reaching for the mask and the one gripping the sword—over her ears. Pure Psyche simply could not bear the cascade of filthy words. It must have felt like her ears and brain were being raped!
I used that opening to slip free of her restraint.
“Gwahahaha! Raping people is the most fun thing in the world!”
“Capture the cultists!”
“Begin the encirclement and annihilation formation!”
“Look at that black wolf banner! I-it’s Roland! The Black Knight Roland has taken the field!”
“Kill the Black Knight Roland! Fight for Lord Rust!”
The Black Knight Roland. He had appeared here in person? No choice. Retreat for now!
“What? Lord Rust is running away? Why? Is he afraid of the black knights? Lord Rust is fleeing!”
“Was Lord Rust not omnipotent after all?! Running from the appearance of one of the Six Knights, Roland! So Lord Rust was nothing but a frail human in the end!”
“You stupid bastards! That’s not running away—it’s the supreme humiliation technique called 『Mukber』 that appears in chapter 33, line 2 of NTR! Lord Rust just finished humiliating that ‘virgin Psyche’ and is leaving because he’s bored of her! I, Hans the First Baptized, can tell! Lord Rust is a true devil!”
“I-I didn’t know! When you put it that way it looks incredible! Lord Rust! We’ll open a path so you can Mukber those wicked bitches! This way, quickly!”
“Kyaaaaaaah! Open the way for Lord Rust!”
You idiots! I’m out of here!
“Hyde! Where have you been?”
Psyche. She ran toward me the moment I arrived at the inn.
Whoosh—
She seized my hands. Those hands were warm.
“I’ve been so worried all day! You’re not hurt, are you? Hyde, if you’d been badly injured or killed or captured by the cultists, I would have been truly heartbroken!”
Psyche’s eyes were swollen; she must have been crying. Had she been that sad?
……
Looking back on it now, I really had treated Psyche harshly. I felt terribly sorry.
“Psyche, I’m sorry for making you worry. And I’m sorry for… a lot of other things as well.”
“There’s nothing to apologize for! The bad one is that Rust! That man tried to drive a wedge between you and me!”
No. He is me and I am him. I’m not even dual-personality. Since I couldn’t explain any of that, I simply kept my mouth shut.
Even so, Psyche. In the end she never betrayed her fidelity to me, Hyde, before other men and the crowd. She remained proud to the last. Psyche truly was my pride and joy!
Still, just to be sure, I asked.
“Psyche, you didn’t fall for Rust’s temptation, did you? I heard he showed an abnormal obsession with you.”
“I don’t know about obsession, but I absolutely did not fall for any temptation! I’m your wife, Hyde! And a man that savage and blasphemous is completely not my type! Even if you brought me a hundred of them I’d refuse every single one!”
Then Psyche tightly clasped my hands.
“Hyde, I have something I want to tell you tonight.”
“Something to tell me? Can’t you say it right here?”
“Well…”
Psyche hesitated. Perhaps because she had cried so hard, her sparkling eyes and faintly flushed cheeks looked especially beautiful when she finally spoke.
“The reason I could find the courage to stand before so many people today was all thanks to you, Hyde. And I also realized that you are a more wonderful man than anyone else in the world.”
She turned her back to me. Just as she began, “Th—” and trailed off—
Clank, clatter—
The sound of knights’ armor rattling rose noisily from the tavern on the first floor of the inn.
—I am Gold Badge Knight Roland. Is Psyche in this inn?