Salvation of the Fallen - Chapter 35
Lucy did nothing. She just waited beside the sleeping man, sniffling Felita. But when the man woke up, he tore at his hair in self-loathing. Lucy let the stupid nobleman misunderstand. Without having to lie underneath him, without having to fake crying or sway her hips, the foolish man trembled and offered a large sum of sponsorship. He was a very timid one.
“Well done. Lucy, you are truly a messenger of god.”
The high priest, whom she had revered like a father since the orphanage, gently stroked Lucy’s head. As if he himself had become a god. Intoxicated by that glory, Lucy roamed the village. She joyfully savored the world she had created.
And not long after, her belly began to swell. The heat writhing inside her stomach swirled as if to devour everything. It was pregnancy.
Damn, those temple bastards. To make such a mistake.
Even when she went to them in anger demanding an immediate solution, all she received was cold indifference. The donations had already overflowed, more than enough to build the temple. The value of the offering had long since disappeared. Thus, Lucy, having served her purpose, was abandoned.
The existence that wriggled and grew in size day by day was frightening. But Lucy wasn’t one to cower and collapse. A clever idea occurred to her. That blue-eyed nobleman who had recently paid generously for her body while trembling in fear, without even being drunk. Someone so scared would surely make good prey.
The temple’s management was thorough. When, where, who, and how much. The meticulous and secret sponsorship records were theirs alone. Until now, unnecessary information had not been given to Lucy. Lucy hadn’t asked either. She had never been curious about the identities of those who burrowed between her legs. Just seducing them was enough. But now she had to find out. If she was to survive right away.
Lucy, clutching her swollen belly, sought out the priests who usually eyed her with lustful gazes. After several humiliating ordeals, she found a weak one. Lucy endured the breath of the fallen one persistently, bent over in a filthy stable. Though her stomach was painfully pressed, she had a better future ahead.
The man’s identity, discovered with difficulty, was Count Katarini. He was a nobleman enjoying vast territory and wealth thanks to his wife. Someone with much to lose. Fortunately.
Lucy immediately sent a message demanding money. Of course, she demanded far more than the cost of abortion medicine, but as expected, the man sent a large sum.
With the money sent by the man, Lucy drank abortion medicine like water. But no matter how much potent medicine she swallowed, her belly showed no signs of shrinking. Rather, it seemed to use it as nourishment, growing larger and screaming. Lucy was powerless against the life clearly felt through her thin belly skin. Her fear grew just like her belly, swelling day by day. She had to make a final choice.
On a day when rain poured like blades, Lucy called for the forest witch under the cover of darkness. She was a woman people avoided, calling her a heretic. Thus, she was the woman who knew most of the village’s ugly secrets.
When the old woman refused, saying it was already too late, Lucy screamed at her. That this was a monster. A demon eating away at everything she had. She pleaded and wailed to the filthy woman. When she pressed a rusty blade against her belly that looked ready to burst at any moment, the old woman yielded with a deep sigh. It was a brilliant victory.
A hook, heated red-hot like a demon’s tongue and then cooled, was aimed between her legs. Lucy felt more ashamed now than when she first spread her legs for a man. To have to rely on a mere heretic. But she could endure it. This momentary pain would restore her glory. The one where she had been in ecstasy, blooming the whole world. Hoping for that, Lucy gritted her teeth.
“Why is this…”
When she regained consciousness, not knowing when she had lost it, there was a monster before her eyes that looked like a lump of blood. Everything was over. Tears flowed from her eyes with all their blood vessels burst.
“There’s much to prepare if you’re going to raise a child. I’ve brought what’s urgent for now.”
Lucy raised her reddened eyes at the old woman who was bustling about, putting on her coat.
“What do you mean by saving this!”
She couldn’t help but scream. Her teeth chattered. Raise it? This monster? It was something she had never thought of before. What was she to do now? Despair took over.
“Then what would you do with something born alive.”
“You should have killed it! You should have stabbed its neck with the hook and cut open its belly!”
“The god will be angry.”
Watching Lucy ranting, the old woman clicked her tongue and disappeared out the door. The rain poured like blades, the darkness swallowed her.
How dare a heretic speak of god. Lucy trembled with rage. Even after throwing everything within reach, she wasn’t satisfied. She wanted to destroy and ruin everything right away. Just like her life.
Despite all this commotion, the child was asleep, emitting weak wheezing sounds. It was a feeble breath that would vanish if grasped in one hand.
Now’s the time!
Lucy’s hand moved on its own. Her trembling fingers grasped the monster’s neck. Just a little more, just a little more. The time to convince herself wasn’t long. The moment she was about to apply force.
The monster’s small eyes suddenly opened and looked at Lucy. The blue eyes were filled with fear. As if sensing its fate. Like an uneasy, undulating sea. One she had never been to. Yet somehow familiar.
It felt like stepping into the middle of a swamp. Lucy couldn’t take her eyes off, as if falling into a deep abyss that swallowed her alive with no escape.
For a moment, her vision flashed as if receiving a revelation. If it was that coward. If it was Count Katarini! Indeed, god had not abandoned his servant. Lucy rushed out of the old woman’s house reeking of blood, forgetting even the pain of childbirth. The child’s cry that should have been heard was not.
***
“I’ll send child support every month from now on. In return, it’s best to keep your mouth shut.”
Not long after she made contact, someone sent by the count came to see Lucy in person. The butler, was it? The gray-haired old man examined the newborn’s appearance here and there, then tightly shut his eyes with a short murmur of “Oh Lord.”
The temple was turned upside down once, and the priest who had revealed the count’s identity to Lucy was found and excommunicated. But Lucy didn’t care. Her only interest was in the heavy money pouch handed to her with a brief warning.
With this, with this money. I’ll never have to go back to those wretched orphanage days. Her eyes gleamed with greed as she counted the money.
This is all thanks to those blue eyes.
Lucy had singled out Count Katarini simply because he had been afraid. Unlike other nobles who recklessly craved her body, the count had been afraid of something, making him the easiest prey. And now to think it even had his eyes! It was unprecedented luck.
That’s not a monster, it’s a golden pouch!
Lucy looked at the cloth-wrapped bundle while jingling the gold coins. What had been just a red lump of flesh, as if torn from her own flesh and blood, now had taken shape. Its features, so similar to her own, felt strangely lovable. And above all, those blue eyes that would pour out infinite gold. It was truly a gift from god, making her dream even in this desperate situation.
“Hello, Arsena.”
God’s salvation. Arsena. A name perfectly suited for the child. Though she couldn’t recall how she thought of it, it was a very fitting name.
But how is it still alive?
