The Heretic's Scars
Dirtied heretic! I had clearly commanded you to complete the entire task perfectly by today, had I not? How dare you slack off?
Crack!
Lisbel did not even let out a cry of pain as the scorching lash whipped across her forearm and she collapsed where she stood.
Even though it was a space of punishment, the sanctuary here was just as impeccably clean and immaculately white. On its artificial purity, the mismatched blood from the whip's trail bloomed in perfect circles.
“I have been too soft on you all this time. It seems the time has come to give you a proper education at last. Wouldn’t you agree?”
To protest that one had not slacked off, had not eaten or slept, had clung on desperately would only bring back greater agony.
Experienced in accumulated suffering, Lisbel had foreseen the coming pain. Yet she buried both the ache and the rage deep inside herself and simply closed her eyes. How much longer must she endure this misery?
She knew that if no reaction came at all, the terrible time would end quickly. So when she bit the flesh inside her mouth to keep even a small whimper from escaping, it was the moment her lips were torn open.
“Aaaah!”
Instead of the savage flogging, a lone scream flew in and Lisbel flinched. It was the voice of the priest administering her punishment.
“A priest inflicting such disgusting acts inside the holiest space. To dare punish a prisoner specially managed by the imperial family at will.”
Lisbel had never forgotten the owner of that voice for even a single moment.
A low, heavy voice whose emotional depths were impossible to gauge. From the moment of his birth, the dignity and arrogance peculiar to one born noble permeated every short syllable with heavy weight.
He was none other than Hendrick von Hautman, the sole heir of the Hautman Grand Ducal family—the man she had once loved to the point of death.
“Lisbel Belloc. Eyes open.”
In defiance of the arrogant command carrying inescapable power, Lisbel slowly opened her eyes.
The moment her gaze lifted, the sight of the priest rolling on the floor, blood pouring from his body, appeared before her. He was clutching the exact same spot on her body that she had just been struck.
“And what else did that bastard touch?”
At the vicious question, Lisbel once again squeezed her eyes shut.
She had wondered if she had merely imagined the voice, but the man gripping the hilt of his sword with murderous intent was indeed Hendrick von Hautman.
Beyond the relief of escaping violence came a stronger wave of shame at having been seen in such a state by that man.
“What are you saying to me, you filthy heretic! I am an upper priest of the Great Temple….”
While Lisbel remained quietly glaring, Hendrick sheathed his sword and spoke coldly at the priest’s furious outburst.
“Handle it.”
“H-Huh?! Your Grace the Second Duke! Y-You can’t possibly be serious about killing me! I was merely trying to educate the prisoner! Aaaah, let go! Let me go!”
With one order from Hendrick, the priest was dragged away like a dog. The echoes of his screams faded down the long corridor and suddenly cut off.
Even though the long-time abuser had met such a wretched end, Lisbel felt no emotion at all. The disappearance of that single priest would not change her miserable fate in the slightest.
With both priest and knights having left the room, only the two of them remained.
Lisbel staggered to her feet with great effort. Yet her gaze remained fixed on the bloodstains scattered across the floor. Hendrick quietly watched the top of her wretched head, grinding his teeth. As if suppressing something.
“How long are you going to sit there on that filthy floor? Get up.”
His command, cold as ice, rang out.
From the coldness, Lisbel felt that the feelings she thought had long been buried were now welling up. Just as bubbles rise to the surface of a black ocean, the suppressed emotions lifted their heads.
“I am sorry that I made you wait so long.”
She had imagined meeting him countless times.
In those imaginings, Hendrick would apologize for having rescued her so late from this hell and comfort her kindly when she had suffered. “His Majesty the Emperor has issued an order. The heretic Lisbel Belloc is to accompany the imperial ruins’ ancient inscription exploration immediately.”
But reality was as cold as ever.
The only light she had believed would save her from this hell was nowhere to be seen. Before her stood only the imperial family’s own hounds who had framed her and branded her a heretic.
“Ha…”
An exploration of the imperial ruins? It was an absurd sound. Lisbel let out a dry, hollow laugh and offered no reply.
“When speaking, one does not do so without looking into the eyes of the person being spoken to.”
With arrogant words, Hendrick strode forward and bowed deeply. Then, with his large hand, he seized Lisbel’s cheek and forcefully lifted her face so their eyes met.
Resisting the strong grip, the moment their gazes locked, Lisbel’s lavender irises trembled uncontrollably.
“Let go!”
Her rebellious shout was in vain; he did not move even an inch.
Hendrick, staring straight at her, was far more handsome than before. Beneath the dark blue-black hair that melted the depths of the night sky, ruby-etched dark-red eyes gleamed brilliantly. The sharp jawline visible above the shirt collar and the sturdy physique concealed beneath the knight commander’s uniform were exactly as the noble society had always admired.
Lisbel’s appearance, however, was pitiful beyond words. Three years of confinement had stolen every gleam from her silver hair, turning it ashen. Her lotus-like eyes had lost their luster and grown dim. Her body, now emaciated like a beggar, was nothing like the past. The former self who had stubbornly clung to her dream of becoming a worthy partner for him had become so wretched that it was almost comical. The overwhelming sense of misery struck her that those cold, indifferent eyes were taking in every detail of her ruined state.
Finally, Lisbel could endure the rising shame no longer. She violently shook off Hendrick’s hand and turned her head away.
Among the three years of confinement and slander, this very moment was the most excruciating and painful of all.
“Suddenly, ancient inscriptions that had never been discovered before have appeared in every imperial ruin scattered across the empire. Despite mobilizing every renowned archaeologist and priest in the country, we still cannot interpret what is recorded on the inscriptions.”
Even at that interruption, Hendrick showed no reaction and began to speak as he pleased. He did not care in the slightest about her misery.
Removing the glove he wore and casually tossing it aside seemed to him like touching something filthy, making the contempt feel almost physical.
“The reason I made this simple proposal to you, who have been imprisoned, is straightforward. You, who were the youngest to earn a professorship in the Academy of Archaeology and who were praised as a genius following your father’s footsteps, would be capable of interpretation. If you can interpret it correctly, I will provide appropriate compensation.”
“How could you possibly believe the interpretation of a heretic?”
“Since you were never a heretic in the first place, there is no reason not to trust you.”
At that casual sentence, Lisbel halted her breath and looked up at Hendrick. She had pleaded countless times that she was not a heretic, that something was terribly wrong. Yet no one had listened. Even Hendrick, who had been the only one to believe her grievance, had abandoned her.
“Imperial decree. Lisbel Belloc. You are immediately arrested on charges of treason and heresy. All research records and heretic sorcery materials discovered from this point are seized as evidence of dungeon generation.”
Without knowing it was heretic evidence, it had poured from her laboratory and residence. No matter how much she screamed that it was not hers, it was useless. Even the scholars who had called her a genius and her disciples who had followed her had turned their eyes on her with contempt.
Yet there was one person. Hendrick had been the only one who still believed in her innocence. She had repeatedly vowed to clear her name. But…
“Rick… I am really not… You knew, didn’t you? That I have no interest in such things.”
“I am sorry.”
“Rick? No, don’t go. Rick, please…!”
He had pushed her, the only remaining hope, off the edge.
And now he wants me to acknowledge that I am not a heretic?
“I must have been unlucky.”
“Ha…”
A dry, hollow laugh escaped her.
During the three years of confinement, she had replayed why she had been made to suffer this way again and again. And finally, she had arrived at the conclusion. Unexplained dungeon gates and monsters. The empire had needed a sacrifice to appease the public outrage of its citizens.
“You… used me.”
Lisbel had quickly understood that she herself had been consumed as the minimal sacrifice that could calm the situation.
“And yet how dare you….”
She no longer wanted to know why he had severed the bond that had continued since childhood and turned away from her.
No matter what explanation he gave, it would be nothing but excuses.
“I will never do what you want. Do you even know how much pain I have suffered? Every time I open my eyes, I have thought that perhaps dying would have been better. But how…!”
A belated anger rose in her parched heart.
Too much had been lost to slander. The honor and glory she had finally achieved as an archaeologist. The confidence that she could finally stand proudly beside him, the second duke. The love that had wanted to burn everything and protect him.
“Huff…”
Branded a heretic, locked in a filthy dungeon, enduring every humiliation. And worse, under the hypocritical pretext of needing repentance, she had been confined in the sanctuary and abused by both supervisors and fellow inmates, enduring miserable days.
In this way, her soul had slowly shattered, and now even her emotions had been ground down to nothing.
“Just watch. I will never obey that order. After all, I am a heretic who will rot away in the end, so I will die like this.”
Even if only for the injustice of the past three years, she wanted to do nothing for the empire or for Hendrick.