◈ 540. [Side Story] Hannibal (3)
Janice was brought back to the Mist Kingdom.
Kneeling in the square, Zenith was beaten all night by the King’s soldiers.
However, no matter how much he was beaten and whipped, he did not let go of the child in his arms. It was because he knew that the moment he let go, the child would die.
“You damn bastard… .”
“Aren’t you giving up the child? What should I do?”
“Put it in jail for now. Tomorrow the King will interrogate him himself.”
So Janice was put in solitary confinement in prison.
It was solitary, but not alone. Because there was still a child in her arms.
“… .”
Janice looked down at the child with wide eyes. The little boy let out a labored breath.
Ever since I was born, I haven’t been able to drink a sip of water, let alone get wet. The child’s breathing was feeble, and it seemed as if it would stop at any moment.
“… .”
I’d rather this child die here.
If so, he could get out of the Mist Kingdom without much trouble and there might not be a big dissonance between the Empire and the Mist Kingdom.
To put it bluntly, wasn’t it just helping the princess give birth?
Even if this child survives, by any chance, who the hell will be nice to you?
One unfortunate life thrown by irresponsible parents only increases in the world.
As the breath from the bloody child’s nostrils faded, Zenith unconsciously felt relieved.
yes, you better leave now.
Before you taste the pain that is full of the world, before you realize what pain is yet, in peace… … .
“… ?”
It was then.
Something blurry passed through the barbed wire. Janice looked curiously at the window overhead.
It’s a dark night and there’s not a single lamp around, so where is the light?
“… ah.”
There – moonlight.
There was a slight crack in the sky of this terrible country, always obscured by dark clouds, through which a ray of moonlight streamed down.
The light brushed the child’s face, revealing the child’s transparent, ignorant face.
It was a moment. It was only a moment, but it was enough time to engrave the child’s image in Janice’s retinas.
“… Ugh.”
Janice didn’t know.
Why are your eyes suddenly hot?
“Ugh… .”
Why does my heart fill up at the sight of a child who has nothing to do with me dying?
Janice didn’t know. I couldn’t understand. But he whispered involuntarily.
“do not die.”
Hugging the child, Janice repeated more earnestly than all the prayers she had prayed in her entire life combined.
“do not die… .”
Fortunately, it started to drizzle.
Janice collected the rainwater from the iron bars in her hand, warmed it up, and poured it into the child’s mouth.
The child sucked Zenith’s fingers as eagerly as her mother’s milk.
“okay. Not nice, not nice… … . Please hold on… … .”
While trying to maintain the child’s body temperature by catching the rain with his back in a small solitary cell.
“Let’s live.”
Janice whispered desperately.
“Let’s live together… .”
***
It’s been a long night.
The child was still breathing, and Janice was taken out of the cell and brought to the audience room.
“Priest Zenith!”
There was the king of the Mist Kingdom who hadn’t met Zenith for the past three years.
The king smiled with a mustache and welcomed Zenith with open arms.
“This is a great disrespect of my men to the diplomat of the Everblack Empire. I will apologize for you.”
“… .”
“From now on, only good things will happen between our two countries, but my youngest daughter did something stupid and caused trouble even to Priest Zenith.”
The king beckoned Zenith, who was silent.
“Come on, let’s not make an easy road difficult for nothing. Priest Zenith.”
“… .”
“Come on, give me that gore. The child was born by my daughter, so the ownership is mine, right?”
Standing with a cold face like an expressionless Heretic Questioner, Zenith slowly lowered her head and looked at the child in her arms.
It was the last chance.
to live the same life as before.
“… This child is Princess Cloudy’s child.”
And
Janice decided to give up on that path.
“At the same time, he is also my child.”
“… what?”
Zenith declared to the king who frowned.
“This child is the child I gave birth to through affection with Princess Cloudy.”
“… .”
“For the past three years, we have been hanging out together and our love has blossomed, and this child was born as a result. This child is my son.”
A sneer crept across the king’s lips as if it were absurd.
“Why are you doing this, Priest Zenith? Do I look like a double-headed idiot?”
“… .”
“She is the cursed product of my stupid youngest daughter and her furry slave wallowing. My eyesight isn’t bad enough that I can’t recognize people of mixed race just because I’m king in a remote remote area covered in dark clouds like this.”
Zenith’s blood-stained top was wrapped like a cotton cloth, and all over the child’s body were hairs unique to the beast race.
The king shouted as he pointed at the child.
“Both young parents who have given themselves over to stupid lust are dead! A common orphan everywhere!”
“… .”
“Are you going to put a bad name on yourself just to save an orphan like that? Are you going to say that to yourself that you committed such an inappropriate thing as being a priest and having an affair with a princess in the city you came to preach?”
“That’s right.”
Janice nodded. The king’s mouth opened slightly.
“This child is a child of the Mist Kingdom, but he is also the son of an Everblack diplomat and a priestess of the Goddess Church.”
“… .”
“This child deserves an imperial citizenship. If Your Majesty tries to kill this child, it means that the Mist Kingdom is trying to kill the Imperial people, and this will cause serious diplomatic trouble.”
The king, who had been observing such a Zenith with his mouth open for a long time, asked slowly.
“Has my daughter done you any great favors?”
“no.”
“Do you owe him or the hairy slave that my daughter used to circulate?”
“We haven’t even had a good conversation.”
“Then why are you trying to keep him like that?”
Janice slowly lowered her head and looked down at the child in her arms. And he responded slowly.
“… Even if I tell you, you won’t understand.”
The king waved his hand in disgust.
“Do whatever you want. Take the illegitimate child you found from my daughter’s corpse and hurry to your hometown. I will quietly let you go.”
“… .”
“But you’ll have to take care of the aftermath, Priest Zenith.”
Pointing at Zenith, the king spat out ferociously.
“As you said, if the child you and my daughter had through love, then the ‘diplomatic disturbance’ was caused by you and the Everblack Empire!”
***
A few months later.
Everblack Empire. ecliptic.
The central church of the Goddess Church. punishment judge.
“You’re really crazy, Priest Zenith.”
Upon returning to the ecliptic, the imprisoned Zenith was taken to the Central Church.
In the Central Church’s Punishment Courtroom, not only the high-ranking members of the Church, but also those who sat in key positions in the Imperial Foreign Ministry were standing with fearful faces.
“Now you’ve given up not only your own life, but also the countless prospective followers of the Mist Kingdom.”
“… .”
“I was enchanted by the personal love in front of me and spilled a bigger cause! As a priest who supports the will of the goddess, as the shadow of the goddess! I did something I shouldn’t have done.”
Janice replied calmly.
“I just practiced the doctrine of not ignoring the voice calling for help right in front of my eyes.”
“Isn’t it your position that you shouldn’t judge it arbitrarily!”
The bishop, who had been reprimanding Janice, shook his head.
“… Why spend the rest of your life in pain for a sin you didn’t commit?”
Janice was unstoppable.
“Because I believe the person I trust would act like me if they were in the same situation as me.”
“You are indeed arrogant.”
The priests surrounding Zenith clicked their tongues and sighed in unison.
“You will come to the painful realization that what you are doing is nothing more and nothing less than self-satisfying.”
“Maybe.”
Janice shrugged.
“But even if it’s self-satisfying, protecting that young life… … It must be worth more than my whole life of just breaking something as instructed above.”
bang!
The bishop, who hit the table with his fist, shouted.
“I will ask you one last time, Janice! Where did you hide the child?”
“How many times can I tell you? Shortly after leaving the Mist Realm, he died of a fever. The body was buried in the hills.”
“Zenith to the end… !”
“All you have to do is punish me.”
Janice calmly spread her arms.
“Please punish this unfortunate lamb.”
The Templars’ colleagues closed their eyes tightly.
All in all, Rosetta was absent. Janice spat out as she sadly scanned her sister’s empty seat.
“A fair punishment for me who painted ink on the honor of my colleagues.”
***
Before standing in the punitive court.
Before entering the ecliptic, Zenith stopped at an orphanage in the suburbs under cover of night.
It was run by the former leader of the Knights Templar, and it was the orphanage that raised Rosetta and Janice in their childhood.
“I will be pursued for the rest of my life.”
Janice handed over the child in her arms, and the old man silently embraced the child.
The leader who had taken Rosetta and Zenith home in that windy wasteland when they were young is now the director of an orphanage.
The director glanced at Janice with a dissatisfied face. Janice spoke slowly.
“The assassins of the Mist Realm and the Templars who were my brothers will all try to kill me. This child will be targeted as well.”
“… so?”
“I want to leave this child here.”
The manager let out a laugh.
“Will everyone in the Church, especially the Templars you belonged to, look for with red eyes, leave this child in the orphanage run by me, a member of the Templars within the Church?”
“Because it is dark under the lamp.”
“This boldly crazy bastard… .”
The director, who heard the whole situation, only shook his head.
“It’s ridiculous, you bastard. No, I did it wrong… … Whew.”
Even in front of the director’s insults, Janice was smiling.
It was finally a little relieved to entrust the child to the most trustworthy person in the safest place he knew.
The director frowned.
“What is it that makes you look so relieved? Am I mistaken that you’ve become some kind of saint? You’re just a moron who can’t take care of himself and is alone.”
“I know.”
“If you know, get out of here! Before the child remembers your face for nothing.”
While listening to the director’s bruises, Janice took one last look at the child’s face.
“You must grow up well, Hannibal.”
Hannibal, who was always whining in Janice’s arms, seemed to be comfortable in the director’s arms, but was fast asleep.
To a child who was only a few months old, but kept, fed, washed, and put to sleep as if he had truly become a father. Janice whispered.
“Let’s meet again someday.”
… .
And 14 years passed.
***
“… end?”
Janice stops talking and waits for a while.
I asked cautiously, and Janice nodded.
“Yeah what… As you know, after this. Thanks to the political fight within the church, his life was saved, and he was dispatched only to remote areas while serving as a white soldier… … .”
“… .”
“As soon as I get paid, I cook, wash, and send them to the orphanage. How did you live?”
All the men around them tore their heads in unison.
“Wait a minute, why are there only developments that suffocate like sweet potatoes? What else? Is this really the end?”
“The king? Who is the head of the church? Why don’t you take the punishment?”
“Give me some cider cider, Lucas! Come on… !”
“… What is cider, lord?”
My throat was choking and I was patting Lucas on the shoulder, but I suddenly realized that and shouted at Janice.
“No, wait, then Hannibal is not your son!”
Janice answered shyly.
“… But he is also my son.”
“There’s a level of mad fuckin’ indignation!”
I shouted while pointing at Janice.
“You’re just a coward!”
Then, Janice smiled.
“I know.”
