◈ 545. [STAGE 31] Scarecrow (5)
A young boy’s voice was heard as Janice prepared to be deployed to the operation unit.
“I… excuse me!”
When Janice turned around, it was Hannibal.
The shaggy-haired boy hesitated a few steps away from Janice, at a loss for what to do.
“… .”
Janice also had a speechless face.
An awkward silence fell between the two.
After mumbling for a long time, it was Hannibal who spoke first.
“You can’t die!”
“… .”
“There are so many things I want to ask… .”
Janice, who had been mumbling in the same way, eventually smiled at her face.
“I won’t die.”
“… .”
“I have a lot of things I want to tell you too.”
Both father and son, and no relationship at all.
The two stared at each other.
How many hasty and awkward gazes that were too early to share any sympathy yet crossed like that.
Janice slowly reached out and carefully tried to stroke Hannibal’s hair.
Hannibal stared blankly at the hand and closed his eyes. Janice swallowed dry saliva.
And the moment Zenith’s hand was about to touch Hannibal’s head –
“Zenith!”
I heard Ash’s command.
“Operation begins! let’s go!”
“… Yes, Your Highness!”
After shouting in response, Janice smiled shyly at Hannibal and turned around and ran.
Hannibal pursed his lips and watched Janice walk away.
“Janice.”
Patting Janice’s back as she ran, Ash glanced at the outpost.
“I’ll help you down to the very edge, but in the end you have to get out of their fears yourself.”
“I know.”
“If you are captured by them and use the wide-area recovery magic in the center of the enemy camp, all your allies who have been released from fear will be liberated all at once. Then, as we rush in, we will collect our allies and destroy the enemies.”
Janice didn’t ask how Ash would gather allies and defeat enemies.
It was not an area that he could touch in the first place. I have no choice but to trust Ash.
“Remember, Janice. I planned this reckless operation to protect people.”
Ash whispered as he squeezed Janice’s shoulder.
“And you are among those ‘people’.”
“… .”
“True your life as much as the lives of others. got it?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Janice nodded, took a deep breath, and then walked to the hole in the wall of the outpost.
“I will go.”
And at the moment when Zenith, who was moving forward with a firm step, reached the wall of the outpost, kigi
kigi giggik! Kiggy Geek!
Jigigigiggigigiggig!
Dozens of scarecrows rushed like praying mantises and attacked Zenith at once.
The body was subdued and dozens of layers of fear were thrust down. Before she could do anything, Janice’s consciousness sank helplessly into the darkness.
***
Janice was standing in the punitive court.
“… uh?”
Janice looked around in bewilderment.
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.
“You’re really crazy, Priest Zenith.”
The bishop rebuked him.
“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.”
“I just… .”
but… ?
There was no back story.
Janice grabbed her neck. But no voice came out.
“Why would you spend the rest of your life suffering for a sin you didn’t commit?”
“… .”
“You will come to the painful realization that what you are doing is nothing more and nothing less than self-satisfying.”
It was as the bishop said.
Because of the momentary choice to save the child, Janice had to live in terrible pain for the rest of her life.
Hearing swear words and accusations, going to remote places as a white-collar soldier, and being abandoned by his colleagues.
It wasn’t just Janice herself.
This choice put the Empire in diplomatic trouble, tarnished the Order’s honor, and made the Templars’ allies suffer for a long time.
It was purely self-gratification.
As if he had become a saint by being intoxicated by the momentary trivial good intentions.
Not being thanked by the child, the child’s parents, or anyone else… … .
A life full of pain with no reward.
The good deeds he did without any measures he could not afford ruined his life and plunged him into agony for a long time.
Suddenly, the surroundings turned into the audience room of the Mist Kingdom. The king of the Mist Kingdom with a tall beard pointed and shouted.
“Both young parents who have given themselves over to stupid lust are dead! A common orphan everywhere!”
That was absolutely right.
He was an orphan everywhere. Even at this moment, somewhere in the world, thousands of similar children would be dying.
A child like that was just in front of his eyes.
He was just thrown into his arms.
“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?”
Janice’s lips trembled.
no no I don’t want to.
Actually, I regret it.
I am sincerely reflecting on this stupid thing I did.
So please forgive me just once.
I won’t do this again. I beg you like this, please… … .
“Come on, let’s not make an easy road difficult for nothing. Priest Zenith.”
The king smiled generously and beckoned.
“Come on, give me that gore. The child was born by my daughter, so the ownership is mine, right?”
Suddenly, the surroundings turned into crumbling mountain huts.
Princess Cloudy was already dead, and the newborn child was crying in her arms.
crying! Aaaaaaa… … !
Those desperate cries mixed up in Janice’s head. Janice covered her ears involuntarily.
It is now.
If I turn around now, if I run away from here.
Then nothing happened.
All wrongs can be righted. You only have to close your eyes once and turn your head.
Janice’s steps took two steps back, then changed to running.
Janice fled from the cabin, running at full speed up the steep mountain range.
The child will die here. Starve to death, freeze to death, or become food for animals. Either he or she might be dragged before the king and die.
So what is it?
Is there only one child in the world who dies like that?
Orphans who lost their parents were widely spread.
What the hell does that kid have to do with him, should he ruin his life trying to save a kid he has nothing to do with?
– It doesn’t matter, why not? we are the same person
Janice’s legs were twisted.
Stumbling, Janice rolled several times down the hillside and fell down.
When she finally stopped, Janice’s body was covered in blood from stones and branches.
I couldn’t breathe. It hurt so much that I couldn’t move.
The voice of the girl who had embraced her as a child rang in Janice’s mind, who could not even scream and was in pain.
– So we have to save each other.
“… Ugh.”
Janice staggered and rose from her seat.
A groan, not even words, flowed like an animal from his clenched mouth.
“Ughhh.”
Know.
the pain that lies ahead. their lives in the mud.
It’s a stupid sacrifice that no one will recognize, just self-satisfaction.
But still… … .
… .
nevertheless.
“Aaaaaaaaaaa!”
It was the life he chose.
At that moment, the dark clouds covering the sky of the Mist Kingdom parted.
As the damn dark clouds cleared, the dazzling clear moonlight fell.
The moonlight brightly illuminated the path ahead of Janice. Janice let out a cry and got up and climbed the hillside where she had fallen.
A lot of soldiers from the Mist Kingdom had gathered around the cabin. Janice hurled her way through the soldiers and moved forward.
“stop-!”
At the tip of the spear pointed at by the soldiers, there was a crying child in the arms of the dead princess.
Janice cried as she rolled over and hugged the child.
“My son… That is my son!”
***
“Huh?”
When Janice came to her senses, there was no one around her, only a statue of a goddess standing in an empty space.
Janice looked up blankly at it and smiled.
“… is it so. I’ll admit it. I regretted it.”
The statue of the Goddess had no questions or answers. I just looked down at Janice. But Janice continued.
“I regretted saving that child.”
“I’ll just turn a blind eye and pretend I don’t know.”
“But no one would have blamed me.”
“It was my life that was destroyed after being fooled like a sage.”
“My colleagues stigmatized me as a traitor, and I always moved from place to place. In the meantime, as soon as I saved a small amount of money, I sent it to my child… .”
“The people of the church keep away from me. Rumors spread that even the people in the area I was dispatched neglected me.”
Janice looked down at her stubby hand.
“… Why do I have to go through such hardships?”
“I regretted it. I hated myself for making that choice. If only I could turn it back, I wanted to turn it back.”
“I am not a saint. In fact, I always regretted the good deeds I did by chance… … It’s just a narrow piece of writing.”
Janice burst out laughing.
“I feel comfortable admitting it.”
The goddess statue does not interrogate.
don’t even answer
Looking up at her god like that, Zenith murmured.
“But now I see. Even if that moment comes again… … I will save the child.”
“And you will regret it for the rest of your life.”
“I’m just such an idiot. I want to become a sage, but there is no distribution for that… Poor old man.”
Silence passed.
Putting her hands in her pockets, Zenith smiled bitterly and slowly raised her head again to face the goddess statue.
“Now, are you satisfied? Then get out of the way, you scarecrow bastard.”
“It’s obvious how demons like you play with people’s minds.”
“Don’t disguise yourself as someone someone believes in and put them to the test, huh? Let’s have a cool jukbang showdown with each other.”
Then
-… … what do i look like to you
The statue of the goddess in front of me had turned into a bishop at the punishment court.
Janice sighed and exhaled.
“Scarecrow.”
– now?
The King of the Mist Kingdom asked while brushing his beard. Janice burst into laughter.
“Scarecrow.”
– now?
Janice was surrounded by a crowd of people who had been accusing her of making wrong choices all her life.
Janice shook her head as if there was nothing more to look at.
“Scarecrow.”
Then everyone disappeared, and Princess Cloudy stood in front of her eyes.
And the princess laughed innocently.
– Yes, Janice. Walk the path you think is right with people who are precious to you.
– If you truly believe that the way is right, then everyone who shouts that the way is wrong is nothing more than a scarecrow by the roadside.
Confused, Janice raised her eyes.
“what?”
Is it an illusion?
The shimmering opponent is either a princess, a scarecrow, or a statue of a goddess… .
Or as a burning woman tied to thorns.
the woman whispered warmly.
– cheer up.
And all around was covered with light.
***
“… .”
Janice opened her eyes.
His bloody body was bound to the scarecrow.
And in front of his eyes, the head of the Scarecrow Corps was completing the harvest from the people around him.
He was absorbing power from all sides while letting out an eerie laugh.
The boy hanging from the corps commander’s chest-Jenice smiled at the pale face of Mikhail.
“Another ‘moment’ has come.”
Zenith murmured, quietly gathering divine power.
“What can I do? I was excommunicated, but still… I have the inertia of living as a priest.”
Then he opened his eyes and stretched out his hand.
“I have to save people, damn it!”
Flash-!
As Zenith’s ultimate was activated, the inside of the half-destroyed base was filled with light.
