Chapter 112: Children Trapped Inside the Temple
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 112: Children Trapped Inside the Temple
“Will you shut up?! Crying your eyes out all day long, it’s driving me crazy!”
A man with an irritable face screamed incessantly. He slammed a club against the iron bars with a deafening clang.
We were inside a massive iron cage. It looked like a prison cell, but the bars were spaced much closer together than usual, likely because the captives were small children.
To forcibly lock children in a place like this... They really were disgusting bastards.
“H-huwaaaah.”
“I told you to be quiet!”
“Hic, ugh...”
The child, who had been crying in pain, bit their lip hard at the harsh words. Beside me, Luciano’s body trembled violently.
However, Luciano wasn’t trembling out of fear; he seemed to be suppressing a surge of white-hot rage. Among the children gathered here, Luciano was one of the largest.
Are they still researching poison using children?
I knew Nathaniel and Melissa had already driven out the Southern Plague, but these people were truly persistent. As I thought, as long as the Temple wasn’t completely uprooted, the people’s suffering would never end.
“Ugh, these damn brats, seriously.”
Shaking his head, the man walked away from the cage and headed elsewhere. There was a good chance this wasn't the only cage filled with children.
Once I was sure the man was gone, I let out a long breath. Perhaps because I had changed my appearance with a magical tool, the man hadn't paid me any special attention.
It occurred to me that the High Priest and the Empress Dowager might just leave me here quietly until they were ready to use me.
But what exactly are they planning to do with me?
One thought led to another.
The thing I understood least was why the Empress Dowager and the Temple had been so obsessed with targeting me all this time.
I couldn't fathom their intentions, and it left me confused. The Apocrypha infiltrating the Imperial Palace, the High Priest personally stepping forward to track Philip and capture me—the whole situation was riddled with things that made no sense.
“Princess, um, here. Take this.”
“Huh?”
While I was lost in thought, Luciano called out to me quietly. When I reflexively turned my head, he was holding something out to me.
“What is this?”
“Something to eat. I saved it in secret.”
“Ah.”
It was a handful of dried, hardened bread crumbs. Come to think of it, I hadn't eaten a single thing since I was kidnapped.
“Please, eat. They don't give us much food here.”
“They really are awful people.”
Frowning, I obediently took the bread Luciano gave me and ate it. The cheap bread had no flavor and was so hard it felt like chewing on a stone, but by dissolving it slowly in my mouth, I managed to force it down my throat.
“How long have you been here? Mari was really worried about you.”
“The Saintess?”
“Yeah.”
At the mention of Marianne, Luciano’s face flushed a deep red. I stared at him, finding the reaction curious, which prompted him to speak up hurriedly.
“I was caught right after the Saintess went to the Imperial Palace.”
“I see.”
For some reason, I felt as though Luciano being captured was my fault.
Back then, I had been so busy protecting Marianne that I hadn't even thought to look after Luciano. It felt like he had ended up like this because of that.
“Is the Saintess... is she alright?”
“Yeah, probably.”
The Apocrypha’s only target at the Imperial Palace was me; it seemed they had only used sorcery to stall the others because they were in the way.
When I nodded with that thought in mind, Luciano looked relieved.
“That’s a huge relief. They kept talking about the plague, so I was worried the Saintess might be in danger.”
“That’s all been taken care of. It’s okay now.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
Luciano, who had been cut off from news while imprisoned, brightened visibly at my words.
I hadn't noticed before because his hair usually covered most of his face, but looking at him now, he was actually quite cute.
Without thinking, I let a comment slip.
“You look much better with your hair pushed back.”
“Wh-what? Me?”
“Yeah, you’re handsome.”
“Uh...”
I only said it to compliment the kid, but Luciano became excessively flustered. Seeing his face turn as red as an apple, I felt the need to restrain myself.
“Anyway, have you seen anyone else? Any adults who came with me?”
“No, there was no one.”
“Hmm.”
It seemed they really had plucked only me out. I thought Philip would have been brought along as well. Was he somewhere else?
As Luciano grew restless seeing my serious expression, I felt a faint tugging at my thigh.
“Hmm?”
“Are you Luci’s friend?”
“Uh...”
A girl who looked to be about my current age asked with wide eyes. She had messy reddish-brown hair and striking freckles.
“Mei, don’t just touch her like that.”
“Huh? Why?”
“That’s...”
Luciano waved his hands in panic. But contrary to his worries, I didn't mind at all. I answered with a bright smile.
“Yeah, we’re friends!”
“Wow, really?”
The girl named Mei looked even more delighted.
“Then, then, you know... be friends with Mei too!”
“Shall we?”
“Mhm!”
Nodding vigorously, Mei snuggled closer to me. The child’s warmth felt nice. Mei continued to chatter away with questions.
“Hey, what’s your name?”
“Um, you can call me Dia.”
“Dia?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s a pretty name! I’m Mei.”
Mei clapped her hands with a giggle. She seemed happy to have made a new friend even in a situation like this. I smiled back, though I felt a bitter pang in my heart.
“Dia, you’re super pretty.”
“Thanks. You’re cute, Mei.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
I was the daughter of the greatest beauty in this world’s setting, so of course I’d be pretty even as a child. While thinking of it indifferently, I complimented the girl back, and she couldn't hide her joy.
“You know, you know... and also...”
I ended up getting a surprising amount of information from Mei. I probably wouldn't have heard this much at once from the shy Luciano.
First of all, as I suspected, this place was indeed inside the Temple, and the people coming and going were all priests. They only gave out food once a day, and everyone had to get a painful injection once a day as well. This was almost certainly the Demon's Poison experiments.
“But if you endure the pain, you get to eat something sweet.”
“Something sweet?”
“Yeah, Mei saved some in secret. Do you want some, Dia?”
When I looked to see what it was, it was a tiny piece of chocolate. For just a single piece of chocolate, these children were enduring immense pain and still finding a small spark of joy.
“I don’t need to eat it. You have it, Mei.”
“But, but... it’s really yummy.”
“I know. That’s why you should eat it all, Mei.”
“Okay...”
When I kept refusing, Mei looked a bit dejected.
As the conversation seemed to be winding down, I secretly observed the other children. Some were interested in my conversation with Mei, while others were curled up alone in the corners.
Most of them looked unwell, poisoned by the Demon's Poison. I frowned despite myself.
[If that Ilnes fellow were here, he could draw the poison out.]
Even if he did, they’d just be caught and experimented on again unless we get out of here.
[True enough.]
Having assessed the situation, I pondered a way to escape. However, I couldn't leave this place on my own by using demons whose strength was weakened by divine power. The same went for using my clumsy magic. The magic stone Melissa gave me was already gone.
What should I do?
It was probably best not to expect anyone to come rescue me. There was a high probability that no one even knew I was here.
I bit my lip hard. For now, I needed to watch how things unfolded.
Clang.
“Get in there, fast!”
“...!”
Suddenly, the cage door swung open. The guard I had seen earlier roughly shoved a child inside. I watched the scene, startled.
“Ugh.”
The boy stumbled into the cage and collapsed onto the floor. He was gasping for breath, looking utterly exhausted. At the same time, I caught the scent of that loathsome poison.
Those bastards.
Seeing the boy who looked like he had just come from an experiment, I clenched my fists. My body was trembling with rage when I suddenly locked eyes with the guard who was scanning the inside of the cage.