Chapter 87: Fate set in stone?
What was it going to be?
A demon personified, only acting as a priest and as if he cared while showing masks or an actual saint as good natured and genuine as everyone described him?
Having moved back into the church it was Shizuo who Izaya ran into first.
Curiosity about what happened back with Monica and urgency drove his stance as he approached him.
"Izaya-" but Izaya didn't need Shizuo to tell him. The priest had arrived.
"I know," he mumbled quickly and moved past Shizuo with no further word lost.
He wanted to know what he was dealing with.
A sociopath that fooled everyone by sweet words? Or a true saint like everyone described? Both were very viable options and with both expectancies in mind he rushed out of the front.
A few people had already gathered. The old geezers and sister Monica were a few of the people present, along with the kids. "It's good to have you back!" Words of joy and relief to see the priest alive and well hallowed in front of the church.
Standing by quietly a horse impatiently flickered its ears and Izaya's eyes followed its gaze towards its master.
There he was.
Priest Marcius.
Younger than expected he stood taller than sister Monica and with an expression made to console bawling children upon sight. His brown hair was dipping into wild curls just below his ears and a pair of gentle hazel eyes looked around the gathering people.
"Look, look! I finally did it!" Maya rushed towards the priest first and held some kind of craft in her hands. It appeared to be a pattern on a piece of cloth and Izaya couldn't quite help but notice how familiar and trustful she behaved towards the guy.
It was a good indicator for his personality. Because if there was anything telling a person's character then it was the way animals and children acted towards him.
As expected, priest Marcius showed nothing but a gentle smile as he lowered onto the ground to inspect what the little girl had brought. The wooden cross dangling from his neck on a long leather string almost touched the ground, just as his long robe covered most of his body, but he seemed to not mind. "Well done," he praised genuinely and the girl's expression lit up.
Izaya wasn't sure what he had expected, but at least from the looks of it he perfectly fit the description of the people inside the church.
Only sister Monica seemed extremely disturbed by his presence for reasons only known to Izaya.
"Are you already done in the kitchen?" she scolded the girl quickly and Maya jumped to her feet in guilt. It was as if she had given some kind of order to not only her but also the rest of the people present as they slowly moved back to the front door.
It was more than obvious that sister Monica wanted to talk to the priest privately and most of the people present were willing to give her that favor. Just Izaya, Shizuo and the twins refused to move and a short side eye was all they got from the woman.
"Why are you back already?" Sister Monica asked despite their presence, but Izaya knew what she truly meant.
Having sent the priest away in order to get herself executed in his stead would have worked quite well as long as the priest didn't turn up to thwart the plan. A gentle smile was all the priest had to offer and it spoke up nothing else but insightful understanding. "Why wouldn't I be?" he asked as he gestured towards the building. "This is my church," he announced, and paused, before meeting sister Monica's eyes briefly with just a touch of seriosity. "And my responsibility."
Izaya didn't know to read their minds to know that the priest was talking about his deal with the demon.
"Father Marcius."
As if on cue Balthasar moved his ragged body out of the church's front next and slowly approached from the side.
"I have heard about you. You have some questions for me, is that right?" the priest asked and seemed to surprise the royal judge by how willing he seemed to be to cooperate.
"If you were so kind as to follow me," Balthasar offered and gestured towards the church.
He wanted to interrogate the priest. Or at least make it seem like he was going to. It was funny, everyone present seemed to act with ulterior motives in mind. That idea only left to guess what the priest's were.
"Before that may I have a moment?" Izaya quickly threw in as he approached the priest from the side.
Unknown as he was, Maricus had nothing to offer but an expression of mild confusion. But even his current state of perplexion didn't seem to be able to shake his peaceful smile and attitude. "I don't believe we have had the joy of meeting yet," he announced, and sister Monica quickly picked up on her duty.
"Father, they are refugees at our church. Bandits attacked their ladyship so now she is staying here with her two knights and servants," she briefly described and a soft frown of genuine compassion drew across priest Marcius' face.
"What a horrible fate," he whispered and a soft breeze combed across the area.
"They also protected our church when the villagers came," sister Monica admitted, only adding even more interest to Izaya's introduction as the priest looked at Shizuo and Izaya respectively.
But more than gratitude, concern seemed to fill his mind as he looked at sister Monica. "What did they try to do?"
Reluctance to speak marked sister Monica's stance and Izaya took it upon himself to steer the conversation into the direction he wanted it to.
"Set it on fire," he relayed quickly, without wasting any time to gloss over the facts over the event that occurred.
Almost immediately the priest's expression churned into an awfully disturbed and apologetic one.
"Forgive me, I wasn't aware what kind of terror my absence would bring," he whispered and the sister quickly shook her head. "There is not reason for you to apologize-"
"Would you spend time with our royal judge while I thank these men?" priest Marcius suddenly said, and somehow it was as though all former outrage held by her had faded away. Almost like a tiger. Ruthless and dangerous, being tamed into nothing but an innocent kitten.
"Of course," she quickly bowed and with that she moved away.
The moment of truth.
Izaya wasn't sure what he was expecting, but when the oppressing silence shrouded them like a heavy winter blanket of snow he couldn't help but let his thoughts run wild.
The priest might as well have been putting on a show for his followers' sake, or not?
It was when the holy man of god turned with a smile on his lips that Izaya expected him to show his true colors.
"How about a short walk?" he suddenly suggested and Izaya blinked, a little surprised. He obviously wanted to move away. To talk about topics that weren't suited for the church's presence. But was that a good or a bad thing?
Looking at Shizuo for a moment and at the twins that had quickly followed him on his way out he shrugged.
"I don't mind. But you have only just arrived. Don't you feel the desire to rest?"
Short laughter slipped from priest Marcius' lips and he quickly shook his head.
"I can rest when I'm dead." And with that he moved.
Slowly and leisurely.
The route leading towards the village was ignored and a small path alongside the woods was chosen instead.
Roots were digging up the ground and leaves gathered in between. It was fairly cold outside, but the sun glittering between the first buds of spring created a cozy and almost warming atmosphere.
The few clouds that had hung in the sky earlier had disappeared and the sweet symphony of motivated birds traversed the air.
"I take it you are aware of the reason that brought the royal judge to us?" Marcius suddenly asked, not bothering to tiptoe around the topic that was most heatedly discussed at church and Izaya tensed.
"People talk about a miracle created by your hands. The children at the church. They should be dead, yet they are not," he mouthed carefully, not willing to endanger his own position as the fake knight accompanying a woman that was anything but royalty.
Hell at the end of the day Shizuo, his siblings and him weren't even human. They were the exact demons that these people wanted to see dead.
Not denying Izaya's words the priest merely hummed as he let his hand brush across a fresh twig showing a few buds of flowers.
"Life is wonderful, isn't it?" he suddenly said, "Offering many opportunities and actions of great kinds," the branch was let go and moved back into the shrub it belonged to. "But to have this gift taken away so early seems unfair." A deep sigh sat at the end of his sentence and he turned his head to face Izaya.
"The children were sick," he explained, contrary to the villagers who seemed to have been convinced that they were possessed by some kind of evil entity. "I have known most of them their whole life. Their ambitions, their dreams, their joy of life," the priest continued and his eyes grew soft as he recalled moments of distant joy. "They are good at heart as no one else could be and yet their lives were about to end."
He was being honest.
Izaya could tell.
And so was his confidence and unwavering gaze as he spoke. "When a being holy or not as it may be transcended into my church and offered to save their smiles, I did not judge its intentions."
Izaya wasn't sure what he had expected. Denial? Maybe some kind of monologue speaking about how the creature that offered to save the kids' lives must have been sent from god himself? Actually he did. Most people hiding their fears behind the lying mask of belief were prone to adjust their reality to the one they liked to see.
But not priest Marcius.
He had no obligation to talk to Izaya at all, and yet he did and remained honest to a fault.
"So you are admitting that you made a deal with a demon?" Izaya repeated, but despite his unwavering confidence and zero shred of regret, the priest was no idiot either.
"I protected the lives of the innocent, as it is my duty to." It was funny. The way the priest put it almost made it seem like he didn't only try to protect the children from being blamed as the ones that received a demon's blessing, but also the demon itself.
He seemed to feel no hostility at all for the helper of his misery and Izaya frowned.
"What was the price?" Because there had to be one. For saving all the kids. It couldn't have been his life or the priest would have already disappeared. But if not that, then what else?
"I suspect it's waiting for me at church," the priest spoke softly and turned to face the direction they had come from.
He was talking about Balthasar.
And obviously convinced of his words as well.
Frown growing deeper, Izaya realized that the priest had fallen victim to a slight misconception.
The priest seemed to be mixing up the price a demon would ask for its power and the human concepts of segregation. But he was no fool. His eyes were unwavering and too smart to confuse human actions with superior spirits.
Whatever it was that he had offered to the demon, he was expecting to go to hell for it in both his life as well as his death.
And he was fine with it.
Unsure what to think of a man with this kind of conviction Izaya found himself oddly lost for words.
"Let me thank you once more," priest Marcius suddenly said and forced the complicated mess of theories in Izaya's mind to stop.
"You already did, there is no need to exaggerate," Izaya quickly corrected, but the priest seemed to have other ideas.
"There is. Because I have a request I would like to ask of you." Eyes narrowing, Izaya looked at the priest.
A request?
Their disguise as knights suddenly seemed awfully impractical and for a second he wondered whether he had chosen the wrong profession. Especially when he looked towards Shizuo.
But it seemed his worries were unjustified.
"Can you remain at our church for a while longer?"
Izaya wasn't sure what he had expected. A request for a demon hunt? Helping the priest to escape from the royal judge together with Monica? Or something more absurd, perhaps? But this?
How could a single person possess this much altruism?
His request was obvious. He wanted to be the only one suffering for his mistakes.
After having dealt with a demon he expected an execution of some sorts. But only for himself and nobody else.
Wishing for Shizuo and Izaya to remain nearby as the so called knights that had already served to protect the church once only emphasized just how genuinely good this man was to the core of his being.
It was funny, Izaya had never been a fan of the church or the people attending it, but looking at priest Maricus now he couldn't help but understand why so many people were willing to follow his guidance.
"We don't really have anywhere to go anyway," he agreed and the priest offered a bright, grateful smile. "I thank you." Turning towards the church his expression lost none of its joy and unbelievable calmth as he took a step towards it. "If you were so kind as to excuse me, the royal judge is waiting for me." A quick nod was all that Izaya gave, and so the priest moved and before long Izaya was left alone on the path leading to the woods with Shizuo and the twins.
"You are letting him go? Just like that?" Shizuo asked as soon as the guy was out of hearing range and Izaya groaned softly.
"I doubt they will set him on fire the moment he steps into church."
What was he supposed to do with this priest? With his intentions and his actions? parts of humanity ended up being cursed all the way into the future. The incubi gene brought him nothing but grief, really, but he failed to see how this story was about to unfold.
The kids were obviously not the ones who carried the curse. So how? And why?
Looking towards Mairu, Izaya looked at the only remaining source of information as he sighed.
"Tell me. What did you see?"
to be continued~
Yo~ xD Sorry for taking so long to update this one haha I plotted too much of the end of the story and too little of the sequence leading up to it xD In other words- writing this chapter was a pain in the ass lmao xD but hey! Now it's done and I can finally head for some mystery, horror and mental breakdown C: C: C: xDDD
See you next friday~! C: