Chapter 22
Aria's complexion rapidly turned pale.
Even that gloomy expression had a peculiar allure, Ronin thought.
“What has you so lost in thought? Even now, countless believers are gathered at your feet, hoping to confess to the Saintess herself. Surely our merciful Saintess won't turn away these poor souls?”
“……”
Chomp.
Her expression was pitiful as she worried at her lip.
She must have bitten down hard. A rivulet of blood trickled from her lip.
Ronin felt a surge of delight.
Yes, that was the face.
That face, becoming a complete mess.
A thrill coursed through his entire body.
To Ronin, Aria was like a single, small flower blooming on the edge of a cliff.
A flower that drew the eye all the more because it grew in such a perilous place.
Some said flowers were beautiful because they would one day wither.
Well, Ronin thought a little differently.
Flowers were beautiful because they endured countless hardships for the beauty of a single season.
They sprouted from cold, hard soil.
They weathered fierce rain and wind.
And after a time of patient endurance, they formed a bud.
Then, from that bud, bloomed a flower with a vivid, radiant grace.
A flower that had grown that way was, simply by existing, a triumph over hardship, a hymn rising above arduous adversity, and a desperate nobility that refused to yield to oppression from without.
That was right.
It was beautiful precisely because it had endured trials and weathered the harsh vicissitudes of life.
A being covered in wounds from head to toe, yet noble and imbued with purity.
What a wonderfully contradictory beauty.
To Ronin, Aria was such a singular presence.
The difference was that while an ordinary person might marvel at a flower that had struggled so hard to bloom, Ronin felt an intense desire to tear its head off.
Think about it.
What if Aria, who had endured such harsh circumstances, suddenly snapped and fell apart?
What if she couldn't bear the pain and despair and began to wail?
What could be more heartrending than that?
Bishop Ronin shuddered, intoxicated by his own thoughts.
Just imagining it was enough.
The depraved thrill of personally destroying the girl he'd so lovingly raised was simply intoxicating.
“Don't dawdle. Come along.”
Ronin placed a hand on Aria's shoulder.
Instead of resisting, Aria let out a sigh.
Hold on.
All she had to do was hold on until Mr. Ashtein returned.
Wasn't that why she had come here?
Besides, wasn't she used to it?
Things like this.
“It's been a while, hasn't it?”
Aria ignored him and walked on.
Ronin grinned, raised a hand, and slapped her hard.
Smack.
Her head snapped to the side from the slap.
Her legs seemed to give out, and she sank to the floor where she stood, staring at Ronin in bewilderment.
“Saintess. You should answer me.”
“……Yes. I'm sorry.”
For a moment, she'd forgotten.
Just how sadistic this man was.
* * *
They arrived at a dark chamber beneath the ground.
Many of the people there were familiar to her.
Cardinal Mavlov, along with the bishops she'd been intimate with all this time.
Were they planning to gang-rape her while Ashtein was taking the Holy Sword's test?
Ronin whispered beside her.
“Now, shouldn't we show these lowly men the Saintess's noble body?”
His voice was so creepy it felt like a snake crawling up her arm.
Fine. She would do as he said.
That would be the least painful option.
She pulled the hem of her robe, which reached her knees, up to her navel.
Her pale thighs and white underwear were revealed.
A few of the men let out cries of admiration.
“You've grown even more captivating since I last saw you!”
“That's the Saintess for you. The blood's already rushing south!”
“It must be a blessing bestowed by the Goddess of Erotic Love!”
Aria thought:
Was this really something to admire?
Didn't she look like an object on display at an auction?
The sight of herself in such an outrageous state filled her with misery.
Even thinking about what lay ahead, about being leered at and harassed by those men, made her feel sick.
Her heart, her mind, were in turmoil.
All she had to do was endure this one more time.
Why did she feel this way?
She'd endured it all this time.
She'd endured even when she thought she might die.
So why was it so painful now?
Regardless of Aria's condition, the bishops began chatting among themselves.
They traded vile remarks about who would go first and how they would torment her this time.
After Cardinal Mavlov cleared his throat a few times, the murmuring died down.
Mavlov put on a sly smile and spoke in a smooth, gentle voice.
“I've missed you terribly, Saintess.”
Aria stayed silent.
She didn't have the strength to answer him.
Her chest felt as though a boulder had settled there.
It felt heavy and painful.
Mavlov, finding her behavior strange, looked at Ronin.
Ronin acted at once.
Smack.
Aria was slapped again.
Even so, she didn't open her mouth.
Aria's hands, clutching the robe she'd pulled up to her navel, trembled.
Then, abruptly, she let go of the hem she'd been holding.
Her pale thighs and white underwear were once again hidden beneath her robe.
Mavlov asked, noting her unusual behavior.
“……Is something the matter?”
Aria's body trembled faintly.
I have to endure it.
I have to, but...
I can't take it anymore.
Ashtein.
Because I feel guilty toward you.
Because I don't think I could face you without shame.
I don't want to accept this situation and simply submit to it anymore.
Aria drew in a deep breath, then exhaled with a plaintive sound.
She'd thought she could bear it.
She'd thought she could endure it.
But the warmth she'd come to know through Ashtein made the cold reality feel even colder.
If only she had never known it.
She'd tasted hope, cruelly enough to make it hurt.
Thanks to Ashtein's kindness and care, her wounds had begun to heal.
Was that why?
Ironically, Aria's threshold for pain had lowered.
The girl who could endure because she had no hope was now unable to endure because she did.
“I don't want to be treated like that anymore.”
She made her refusal unmistakably clear.
A feeble act of resistance, spoken in a trembling voice.
At the girl's words, Ronin felt goosebumps rise.
Ah, so driving Aria out into the world had been the right decision after all.
The Hero had breathed life back into her, and now she'd finally recovered the resistance that had been beaten out of her—wasn't this a historic moment?
To crush that meager resistance. To break it.
Ronin found the thought irresistible.
As everyone gathered there fell silent, Ronin spoke.
“Do you mean that?”
“……Even now, it's not too late.”
That's right.
It wasn't too late.
Repeating that to herself for courage, she glared at everyone gathered there.
“I will never again become your plaything.”
The once-obedient Saintess had bared her teeth.
Naturally, she received no favorable response.
Only an uncomfortable silence filled the dark chamber.
Ronin spoke again.
“You're free to think that, but I'm curious what led you to make up your mind. Did the Hero put you up to it?”
At the word Hero, Aria's shoulders trembled faintly.
Watching her reaction, Ronin continued.
“I suppose that confirms it. But does the Hero know that you've let one man after another have his way with you?”
“……Shut up.”
“If the Hero learned about that side of you…… yes, I imagine he'd feel a fundamental revulsion. People don't use an ashtray as a dish for side dishes, do they? Even if you scrub it clean, the fact that it once held filth stays rooted in people's minds.”
You are a lump of filth.
Hearing it put that way, the light faded from Aria's eyes.
“Shut up.”
Like a parrot, Aria could only repeat those words.
It was all too easy for Ronin to toy with her as her reason began to waver.
“So now you'll give your body to only one man? That's a fine sentiment. You could even be called a paragon of chastity. It's a noble resolve, Saintess. But that doesn't erase the fact that you've spread your legs for this man and that man, does it?”
Every word was a razor-sharp blade.
It was far too close to what Aria had always thought herself that she couldn't help but find it convincing.
No matter how much you pretend to be clean, no matter how much you try to dress yourself up,
you're not a Saintess or anything else. You're just a loose woman.
“……Ugh.”
Aria's body trembled with humiliation.
Even that sight struck Ronin as lovely.
“And your refusal is pointless. We will simply do what must be done.”
“Do you think the Hero will just stand by if he learns about this?”
It was the strongest threat she could manage.
“Then let me ask you this: do you really think he'd lift a finger for a woman like you?”
“He'll come to my aid.”
“Then let's make a wager. Will he help you after seeing you writhing in pleasure, or won't he?”
Aria couldn't speak.
How could she let him see her like that?
“………That……”
“Are you not confident?”
No, she wasn't.
Who could love her when she was lost in pleasure and making obscene noises?
I can't even love myself.
Ronin gazed at Cardinal Mavlov with a composed expression.
Even Mavlov swallowed hard at that emotionless stare.
“Your Eminence, things nearly went awry, but let us proceed as originally planned.”
“Ahem. Yes, of course.”
Originally planned?
Aria looked at Bishop Ronin anxiously.
He only smiled at her.
Mavlov raised his voice.
“Come in.”
“F-Father. It's so dark in here.”
Aria swallowed hard.
Why was she hearing that voice here?
Ronin stroked Aria's cheek and whispered.
“Didn't you secretly want to show this side of yourself to the believer Makarov?”
Why would he do this?
The person who entered the dark chamber was Makarov.
After Ashtein, Makarov was the last person she wanted to expose to this reality.