Chapter 27
Arzeletta was so shocked she couldn’t even breathe.
Theogrim, who couldn’t have imagined someone was watching from hiding, walked calmly up to the center of the altar, where a white circle was drawn, and knelt.
Clank—a metallic sound rang out. Only then did Arzeletta realize the heavy object bound to Theogrim’s feet was a shackle. The way his steps across the altar had looked like those of a sinner had not been her imagination.
The priests moved swiftly, like industrious ants. Theogrim’s wrists were each bound to the apparatus prepared on both sides of the altar.
His white wrists, chained in iron, twitched.
Those were the hands that had once held the reins of a white horse in the middle of the plaza. He had been a man who received praise, respect, and love from all.
And yet, he was now bound and exposed before everyone like a spectacle, naked, as if he were a fugitive prisoner. It was a humiliation beyond what even prisoners of war might endure.
As his arms were bound and his back turned, his wounds became even more starkly visible. Arzeletta desperately clamped her hands over her mouth to keep from screaming.
Half of Theogrim’s back was covered in wounds. It was no different from her own back.
Why?
“This is the sacred duty of ‘Del Rose.’”
Exion said quietly from behind the sniffling Arzeletta, who was struggling to hold back her cries.
“He atones with his own flesh for the sins committed by the domain’s people throughout the day.”
“…Why….”
“What do you mean, why? All humans are committing filthy sins. Even at this moment, humans kill something to eat, turn it into feces and excrete it. They breathe disgusting air, lust, envy, hate, and their minds are full of filthy thoughts.”
“……”
“If no one pays the price, the sins just pile up. This is a noble act to protect the domain. So that the lowly and filthy beings who barely clung to life today can survive in their wretchedness again tomorrow—Del Rose, the great one, pleads for forgiveness from the gods.”
As Exion’s words came to an end, a man taller than any Arzeletta had ever seen stood before Theogrim.
His knight’s uniform, black and adorned with golden embroidery, emphasized his heroic frame even more aggressively.
He looked like a god. Arzeletta knew who that man was. The absolute ruler of this domain, a man closer to god than even the Emperor of the Empire.
The great Holy Knight, Ragnar von Rosenburg.
The whip Ragnar received from the priests writhed fiercely like a living snake. Even in the darkness, its black body gleamed like scales, and the finely crafted gold decorations shone.
Then, a strange melody made solely of the priests’ voices rang through the secret altar.
Ragnar raised the whip in his hand.
It was the moment Arzeletta’s green eyes opened wider than ever before.
Crack!
“……!”
The thick, black whip struck Theogrim’s back. The elastic body of the whip hit the young man’s well-built frame and rebounded high into the air.
Theogrim did not even let out a groan. Only the chains binding his arms clinked, as if echoing the pain he could not express.
The muscles on his exposed back tensed firmly. From the newly carved wounds on his back, covered entirely in red scars, dark crimson blood flowed down.
Arzeletta staggered.
She couldn’t believe it. His wounds felt like her own.
The blood he shed seemed like her blood, and the pain seemed like her pain.
She wished it were so.
Just as he had scarred his beautiful face saving her from the flames, he was now carving pain like fire into that noble body to atone for the sins committed by others.
“P-please… stop…!”
“Shh.”
When Arzeletta’s voice rose involuntarily, Exion covered her mouth. He grabbed her struggling arm with one hand and pushed it down behind her back.
Arzeletta shook her head with all her strength. This roughest resistance so far made Exion twitch his eyebrows.
“Don’t make a sound.”
“No… no! Please save him from there…!”
“What nonsense. This is a choice he made himself.”
At Exion’s words, Arzeletta raised her tear-streaked face.
“The position as Ragnar’s successor, the glory enjoyed in this domain—they all stand on top of that humiliation.”
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