Burn Me Until I Cannot Weep (5)
It felt like her entire body was on fire.
Every last cell of it.
Was she going to lose her mind like this?
Somebody, anybody, please save me.
"Aaah—aaagh! Just kill me instead!"
A scream tore itself out of Cecilia's throat. Every time the sacred light touched her, her insides turned upside down. From the tips of her toes to the crown of her head, a pain like swallowing a ball of flame swept through her again and again.
Her clothes were soaked through with sweat, and from clawing at the floor her nails had split and broken. The blood welling up from the wounds dripped onto the stone floor, drop by drop, but Cecilia did not stop. If she didn't channel this agony somewhere—anywhere—she felt her sanity would simply drain away. She had to escape. Out of this place, by any means, as fast as possible.
Cecilia twisted her body in desperation. It was useless. Lucia's grip was unshakeable beyond anything she'd imagined. How could such strength live in that slender saintess's frame? It was almost impossible to believe. The more she thrashed, the tighter the fingers cinched around her wrists.
When she writhed to break free, the other hand pressed down on her shoulder and pinned her to the floor—as if escape had never been on the table from the very start.
"Let go! What kind of saintess has strength like this?!"
"It's all part of God's blessing."
"Shut up and let me go! Right now!"
Cecilia screamed and struggled, but Lucia paid her no mind. If anything, she pressed down harder than before, making certain there would be no escape.
"Please hold still. It will be over soon."
A voice so calm it raised the hair on her arms.
Is she really a saintess at all?
Everything about her, from top to bottom, felt utterly alien now.
"Do you have any idea how much this hurts?!"
"This is something you truly need, Lady Cecilia."
"Don't be ridiculous. Aah—ah, please…"
"Hehe, just bear with it a little longer. You will, won't you?"
Lucia smiled brightly. With a face the very picture of innocence. Only then did Cecilia catch a glimpse of what lurked beneath that smile.
She's not in her right mind. She's insane. She's completely insane.
She wasn't like this until just recently. So what went wrong?
The light poured down again. Lucia's hand traveled to her chest, then lower, to her belly—and each time, Cecilia's body arched and bucked off the floor.
"P-please… stop…! It hurts."
There was no room left for pride or dignity. If only she could escape this pain, she felt she would beg for anything, promise anything. Someone, please, anyone—save me.
"Surely this much is enough…"
"Shh. Just a little longer."
Lucia heeded neither her pleading nor her screams. She simply continued in silent devotion, like someone entranced. Once, twice… on and on.
Each time the light churned through her depths, an unbearable heat welled up inside her and then burst free. Perhaps because of it, along with her ragged gasps, a clear liquid overflowed past all control—flowing like the waters of a valley stream.
Some of it splashed upward and landed on Lucia's cheek. Lucia stopped moving. Then she wiped it from her cheek with a fingertip, perfectly naturally.
Oh? So this is what it tastes like?
Wine? No. Something deeper than that. Far richer and sweeter than any fruit in the world.
It should have been tasteless, which made it all the stranger. Lucia's eyes went round with wonder. And the moment she had tasted it, she found she could not stop. The sweetness lingering on the tip of her tongue kept coaxing her—give me more, right now. She was thirsty. She couldn't explain why; she only knew that she wanted to drink it.
"…Your body is a very special one, Lady Cecilia."
Murmuring as if to herself, Lucia swallowed hard. An unfamiliar heat bloomed in her glowing blue eyes. Then she slowly lowered her head toward Cecilia's body.
"Wh-what are you… don't touch me there!!"
Cecilia shrieked in alarm, but Lucia paid her no heed. What had splashed across her skin, what had trailed down the nape of her neck—she began to lick it all away, devoted and meticulous, and greedy all at once.
"Nnh! Mmph…! Nnngh!"
Each time that tongue touched her, Cecilia clamped a hand over her mouth and swallowed her moans. Her sensitized body could no longer endure even the smallest stimulation.
"How can you do this and call yourself a saintess?! It's heresy!"
Cecilia struggled with wet, blurred eyes.
Lucia lifted her face and answered with perfect composure.
Like a young child who understood nothing at all.
"This is simply treatment."
"Do you even realize what your face looks like right now?!"
"Hm? What's wrong with my face?"
There wasn't a shred of self-awareness in her voice. It was that very innocence that made Cecilia's skin crawl. If Lucia had shown outright malice, it would not have been half so terrifying.
Madness committed in the unshakable conviction that it was kindness.
There was no way to fight that at all.
A fallen saintess. What a horrifying thought.
"Ah, this part is like a little fruit."
"I'm not a fruit. Let go. Please."
"That's a lie. You taste this delicious?"
Cecilia stretched out a trembling hand, trying to push Lucia away. But the hand only flailed through empty air, changing nothing.
After a long while of savoring Cecilia's body, Lucia suddenly stopped. Then she gently pressed her ear against Cecilia's belly—as though searching for something.
"Now I understand. Why the power of healing causes you such pain. So this is why you've suffered so. Your body and your soul are tangled up this intricately."
Lucia's head snapped up.
Her eyes fixed squarely on Cecilia.
"Something wicked dwells within you. An enormous demonic power, at that. So the rumors really were true."
"Wh-what are you talking about? Don't be absurd."
She denied it with all her might, but her voice was trembling terribly. And that trembling was as good as a confession. Cecilia's breath caught in her throat. What do I do?
She could not refute it—because it was true. The contract with the demon was already engraved deep within her body. That was why the holy light triggered such violent rejection every time it touched her.
I never knew I had a weakness like this. A flaw I never once imagined. And to have it exposed here, of all places.
"Please don't look at me like that. I'm not blaming you, Lady Cecilia. It's been hard, hasn't it? Lonely, hasn't it? So come, rest in my arms."
Lucia spoke gently, the way one soothes a wounded child.
"How much you must have suffered, carrying something like this all alone. Don't worry anymore. From now on, I will hold you up. For the rest of my life."
Cecilia could only stare, bewildered. She couldn't tell whether it was pity or mockery. But Lucia's face was suffused with sincere, tender compassion—and that made it all the more chilling.
Lucia smiled sweetly.
Somehow, that smile was warped.
Exactly like a demon in a portrait.
"Entrust it all to me. I'll take it all away."
"…What? Take what away? While you're torturing me like this?"
"The pain you feel now is only for a moment. You need only give me a very little, and I will erase it—the curse inside your body, and the brand on your belly alike."
Lucia's fingertip pressed firmly against Cecilia's lower abdomen—pointing out, with perfect accuracy, the place where Chloe had inscribed the Slave's Curse.
All the color drained from Cecilia's face.
"…No. You must not touch that."
Cecilia moved to stop her, urgently, fear bleeding into her voice for the first time as she seized Lucia's clothing in a rough grip.
"I'm a criminal. This is a body that mustn't be cleansed. So leave it alone. You'll get caught up in it too—you'll lose everything and fall with me. Please. I'm begging you."
"A criminal, you say?"
Lucia's head tilted to one side. Then, after a moment, as if realizing something, she said with placid serenity, her face utterly unclouded:
"What meaning does the sin of a mortal carry before God's mercy? It is all meaningless. Everything. Your sins are no different."
Ice slid down Cecilia's spine.
Lucia truly intended to do something. And Cecilia realized what it was. The power that strips away everything of the mortal world.
No—the Mercy's Edification? She can't be serious.
The one and only miracle permitted to a saintess alone. A grace bestowed once in a lifetime, upon a single person. The divine mercy that renders every sin as though it had never been—and before it, neither race nor nation meant anything, because it was the will of God Himself.
That was why saintesses who performed the miracle were so rare.
But Lucia was casting it all away. Because she wanted the thing before her eyes, no matter what.
The sacred rite a saintess performs for the partner with whom she will spend her entire life. Which meant—to receive this power was, in effect, for Lucia to mark Cecilia as her mate for life.
Her head spun. Before she'd even slipped free of Chloe's grasp, now she was to be the saintess's consort. A mercy that erased sins was, in truth, nothing less than the heaviest shackle in all the world.
"W-wait. Stop. That you really cannot do!"
Cecilia screamed with everything she had. She knew exactly what the Mercy's Edification meant—how extraordinary it was—and it made her blood run cold.
"That isn't something you use carelessly! You're a saintess, come to your senses! You're supposed to use it on someone far more important than the likes of me. So right now—"
"I know. That's exactly why I'm giving it to you."
Lucia closed her eyes softly. She gathered both hands over Cecilia's stomach and began to recite, slowly, like a prayer breathed out into the air. Light came down from the heavens.
"The first and the last—both for you, Lady Cecilia."
"Stop…! You're supposed to be the heroine!"
Brilliant light erupted from Lucia's hands. It was on an entirely different level from everything before—a radiance of purest white. And it enveloped Cecilia whole.
"A-aaaagh, my belly feels like it's tearing open!"
Her mind went blank. Resistance, thought—nothing came at all. Her body had already slipped beyond control and thrashed wildly on its own. Her head fell back first.
Sounds that might have been screams or moans spilled endlessly from her lips. An unbearable sensation crashed over her like a wave and swallowed her entire body.
"…There. It's done. I finally did it."
Lucia whispered at her ear.
Her voice drew close, brimming with a tenderness beyond measure, as she turned toward Cecilia, who was weeping.
"No one will ever dare call you a criminal again. Because I will remake you so. Fufufu. If there's anything you want, I'll bring you anything at all."
And then—the brand on her lower abdomen.
The chain Chloe had engraved upon her—
faded, as though melting away.
…Ah, it's really disappearing. So this is what a miracle of God can do. Erasing it this cleanly.
Her instincts were the first to understand that where one chain had been severed, a far crueler chain was being forged in its place. What is going to become of me?
Lucia gazed down at the sight, enraptured. Emotions she had never once felt welled up within her. Her chest and her lower belly tingled.
"Lady Cecilia. Lady Cecilia."
Broken, disheveled, ruined completely—that figure shone in Lucia's eyes more dazzlingly than anything else in the world. Her heart pounded like mad. Her whole body burned hot.
She didn't want to show this to anyone else.
This is mine. All of it, mine alone. A gift granted by God. I'm certain of it.
"…Lady Cecilia. Come with me."
Lucia whispered as she looked down at Cecilia, bathed in light. Every bone in her body had been crushed from her struggle against the pain, but that was a trifling matter.
"To the order. To a place no one can interfere. There, stay with me forever. You don't have to do anything at all. Not even wash yourself, not even feed yourself. I will do every single thing for you."
In that place, not even Chloe could reach. A sanctuary untouched by any gaze, any hand. A perfect cage that she alone could claim entirely. Paradise, in the truest sense.
I finally, finally have her. I will never let anyone take her. Never.
"I will protect you on the name of the saintess. Your sins, your wounds—I will gather up everything and carry it away. So please, stay by my side, always and forever."
Cecilia could not answer. She could only gulp down ragged breaths. But at the fading edge of her consciousness, her dry lips moved faintly.
Lucia drew her into a tight embrace, like someone who had at last taken hold of the most precious treasure in the world.
The sound of the valley stream wrapped around the two of them.
Where the brand had vanished, a new yoke arrived in silence. And Cecilia, knowing as yet nothing at all, fell down into the abyss.