Taming the Dark Lord

CHAPTER 8

Chapter 8 – Cruelty

Maybe Debra would let the world know about her secret in a few days time. Amelia would be arrested in her room then, and from there she would also be caught with a dark creature in her possession, prompting the officials to charge her with a double offense that would surely bring her to her death.

Amelia sighed in frustration, pulling her hair out in the process.

It’s already pass noon, and Amelia still had a class to attend later that day. She had no appetite, so she dismissed eating altogether and went straight towards class.

The classroom was situated inside a small Church, just a few walks from her palace. Amelia took her time, leisurely walking as the scent of flowers tickled her nose. It seemed like the flowers planted onto the pathway had already bloomed. The sea of flowers bloomed brightly under the sunlight, with the petals swaying slightly in the wind.

She stopped on her tracks, squatting to smell the freshly bloomed flowers. Sniffing its’ scent made her forget the heaviness of her heart— for now at least.

However, the sweet scent was overpowered greatly by a strong scent of blood. She looked around and stood up. Walking for a few steps, she saw a middle-aged bishop with a whip on his grasp. He was violently whipping a mass of body that was forced upright by a metal frame, and pieces of flesh and blood flew from the force and fell to the ground.

“Hello, Saint Amelia.” The bishop greeted her with a smile.

Amelia held her breath and sported a calm expression. She stepped into the pool of blood and walked closer to the bishop. “Master bishop, this is…?”

‘Isn’t this the hundred-eyed monster? Why is the bishop troubling himself in purifying such monster, which never hurts people in the first place?’

The bishop laughed. “Oh, nothing. It’s been quite a long time since I did this, so I thought that maybe I should practice.”

Amelia smiled back, and the bishop beckoned her closer. “Would like to try? Purifying monsters is a very important part in your exams. Practicing would surely help.”

The bishops were all saints once. And to the bishops, seeing the saints was just like seeing the young versions of themselves. They were particularly keen about the outstanding saints too, since those might be their colleagues sometime in the future.

The bishop gave her an inviting look, and he gestured Amelia to come closer.

The dying hundred-eyed monster let out a pitiful moan. Amelia looked at the absurdity of the situation; The bishop was smiling like the devoted man that he is, but his hands were stained with blood. How ironic.

As if heaven and hell suddenly merged together, the line dividing the two opposing forces suddenly became blurred, and one wouldn’t be able to tell the difference anymore.

Absolutely disgusting.

Amelia could not stand it anymore.

Barely getting a hold of her disdain, she forced a smile onto her expression. “Master bishop, thank you for the invitation but I just got out of the office. There are tasks that I still need to attend to. How about I come back next time?”

The bishop nodded in agreement. He took out a candy from his pocket and pushed it towards Amelia’s hands. “Don’t tell anyone I gave you this.” Amelia bowed her head and thanked the bishop for the treat. She walked pass him and hurriedly went to the intersection.

What a bunch of lunatics.

She took a series of deep breaths, willing the vomit to go down as she ran.

The hundred-eye monster was docile like rabbits, yet it was being tortured without mercy…

What really broke Amelia’s heart was the idea of burning the witches at the stake, those young girls who were tied tightly to wooden posts and burned alive. The crackling sound of burning flesh and the hysterical screams of pain were glued to the back of Amelia’s mind.

Everybody was in heightened spirits then, everybody except her. All of them were too enamored with the grueling sight, and from that moment on, Amelia thought that each and every one of them had gone completely out of their minds.

Those young girls were labeled as spawns of the devil, and they were even called witches just because they did not like going to the Church. No matter how hard they tried to defend and explain themselves, they were still burned alive in the end.

Amelia doesn’t condone such behavior. It was too cruel, too vile, but she did not dare voice out her disapproval. Doing so would entail her death as well, and she didn’t want that. What she wanted to do now was to live as far as she could away from these lunatics, and she would gladly live her life in solitude.

There was only one year left until her graduation. As long as she completes her final year, and blend seamlessly with the other saints, she would be free in no time.