From the Tip of the Tongue of the Lowliest Maid - Chapter 82

This work contains scenes of sadistic coercion and hardcore depictions of BDSM. Reader discretion is advised.

Ragnar disliked such convenient wordplay. Language that seemed plausible wherever it was applied was, to the strict standards of a holy knight, nothing more than verbal trash.

And there was something Ragnar guarded against even more than the word games of theologians.

It was the foolish public who, speaking recklessly of a great saint’s tale as if it were an episode in an obscene book, indulged in fantasies.

“Even if the interpretation is true, Saint Beckelus was a saint who endured thirteen trials of suffering.”

“Indeed,” the priest replied.

“Those who live beneath the sanctity refuse to accept even a single hardship throughout their entire lives. If you tell them the story of Saint Beckelus, they will hide behind the saint’s name and try to absolve the debauchery they hold in their hearts.”

The lord’s words were as resolute and cold as his expression.

True to his rigid and uncompromising nature, Ragnar was close to a fundamentalist who interpreted every law literally.

In Ragnar’s world, there was no room for poetic metaphors, progressive imagination, or the willingness to be humbled by beauty.

To Ragnar, the young ruler who stood tall upon the battlegrounds of heretical religions and curses of unorthodox fae, there existed only right and wrong. The opposite of sanctity was heresy, and what went against the law was to be eliminated.

“But, my lord, didn’t the heretics reformed by Saint Beckelus eventually become angels?” the priest asked.

Ragnar furrowed his brows and nodded.

Within the worldview of Impellias, the angel most beloved by the public had originated from the reformation by Saint Beckelus. Therefore, Saint Beckelus was an indispensable figure—no matter how much he disturbed Ragnar’s unyielding sense of order.

“There is an inherently seductive allure to heretical things, is there not? People are always drawn to the profane. But Saint Beckelus subdued those wicked heretics by using the ways of heresy itself, ultimately offering their dangerous beauty to the great god of Impellias. It was not something that could have been achieved through upright principles alone.”

In this ascetic and repressive world of gods, angels symbolized brilliance, fantastic imagination, and charm. And more than anything, the public adored the tale of Impellias’s victory, in which even the wicked heretics were made to submit.

Perhaps the beautiful angels were the trophies of Impellias’s triumph.

“There must be meaning in the fact that the great god chose Saint Beckelus as an apostle.”

The priest smiled, feigning the gentleness of a benevolent man. His snake-like, eerie eyes narrowed even further.

“Come to think of it, the upcoming Seasonal Festival happens to fall on the feast day of Saint Beckelus.”

“…It will be a year of indulgence, then.”

At the lord’s openly disapproving words, the priest smiled again.

One saint per year, and so the feast of Beckelus returned every eight years. Tailored to suit the saint’s personality, Beckelus’s feast day was far more flamboyant than the other saints’ festivals, and it was also the most eagerly awaited celebration for the people of the domain.

“This year’s fasting period will be longer and more stringent.”

To restore discipline loosened by the festival, days of fasting followed its conclusion. It was a practice based on Impellias’s teaching that pleasure must come at a price.

“Come to think of it, my lord, you resemble Saint Beckelus.”

“Not much of a joke.”

“Calling it a joke about a saint, how disrespectful. Well, perhaps it’s simply because Saint Beckelus was such a handsome man.”

The priest bowed deeply toward the lord, whose brow furrowed once again.

“The matter you have been researching so diligently, is it not also for the purpose of purifying the heretical beings?”

Ragnar straightened his back.

The blessing granted to Ragnar by the god was the divine power of purification. Simply by placing his hand on the earth, he could “purify” land tainted by fae blood.

And lately, Ragnar had been wholly absorbed in studying ways to expand the use of his divine power.

One of those was the possibility of converting heretical beings through his divinity.

Just as Saint Beckelus transformed heretics into angels through his own method, Ragnar’s divinity might be able to convert anti-Impellias beings into assets for the church.