Chapter 51

“Even without you, I’ll be happy.”

051

Your Dream (Part 1)

“Hum hum~”

A hum naturally escaped her lips. Today was the day she finished all her annoying tasks and returned home.

Anne walked down the street in high spirits. The city of Dehen, belonging to the Inquisition Temple, was a simple and quiet city with no particular charm, but in Anne’s eyes, even its plainness seemed beautiful—or, to put it less kindly, its lack of appeal.

It wasn’t anything new. Her mood was at its peak. The anxiety and unfamiliar feelings she had while crouching in the Inquisition Temple gradually filled with bright joy as she got closer to home.

Though she called it home, she hadn’t really lived there, and it was only nominally hers, so she didn’t have any special attachment to it. What made her smile wasn’t the place but the person waiting for her there.

“Louis will surely be happy, right?”

The birth of a new life is a blessed event. According to the teachings of the Religious Order and her own feelings. But no matter how much she wanted to remain a girl forever, Anne was now an adult.

She couldn’t ignore reality, and she couldn’t help but be affected by the gazes of others. No matter how much she tried to think positively, sometimes a sticky depression would creep out from the depths of her heart.

Was it because of the natural physical and emotional changes that came with pregnancy, or because of the people around her who didn’t share her joy and looked at her with disapproval?

Or maybe, just maybe, was she a little scared herself?

Anne wanted to be a good mother, unlike her father. She wanted to have a good family. But what exactly is a “good family”?

In her early childhood, she was raised as a holy knight in the Inquisition Temple’s nursery, but due to her frail health, she was sent away and grew up in a small rural village. After returning to the Inquisition Temple, she received minimal combat and doctrinal training before being thrown onto the battlefield.

“Sigh.”

The caretakers at the nursery, the aunties in the small village, even her father whom she met again at the Inquisition Temple—none of them were family to Anne. The only person who could be considered family was a boy who, like her, grew up in neglect and indifference.

Other than that, the only family she experienced was through others, or more bluntly, through the heretics she had personally exterminated.

Heresy doesn’t happen suddenly. The process is slow and gradual, allowing one to fully savor despair. The sensation of becoming something else day by day. Gradually, one’s humanity fades, and the little remaining heart becomes all the more desperate.

Anne had seen it. Parents hiding their child and deliberately setting their house on fire. Young heretics don’t die from suffocation.

Of course, Inquisition Judges, though not to the extent of heretics, could also hold their breath for a long time, so Anne dug through the ashes and pulled out the child to kill it.

There were also those who, even after becoming heretics, still cared for their elderly parents with utmost devotion. Using their heretic abilities, they hunted animals every day to cook for them.

When she finally caught up to one after chasing through the forest for days, the heretic’s last plea before death wasn’t to spare themselves but to spare their parents. It was quite memorable, so Anne nodded and promised not to kill their parents.

And three days later, the heretic’s parents were hung on a stake by the Holy Army. Not for heresy, but for blasphemy and seditious speech.

“No…! Our son isn’t a demon!”

Recalling the desperate cries, Anne opened her eyes.

While she stood still on the street, the world moved on its own. Passersby glanced at her, but no one approached her, likely because of her high priestess attire.

“I see.”

She thought she understood a little about what family is.

It’s just wanting to believe. Nodding even at wrong words, caring even when it’s not your business, believing until the end even when everyone points fingers. It felt unfamiliar, but wasn’t it actually a familiar feeling?

Family is love.

“Hehe…”

With a silly smile, Anne started walking again. No longer standing alone, she naturally blended into the flow of the world.

The girl, isolated from normalcy for too long, was slowly learning everyday life again. Not as the endpoint of a life, but as the starting point of a new one.

Anne unconsciously stroked her belly. The sensation through the fabric was as slim as usual, making it hard to believe another life was growing inside.

“Louis, Louis…”

Not caring how she looked to others, she stroked her belly and muttered Louis’s name as she walked down the street. Leaving behind the terror of the Inquisition Judge and the dignity of the Religious Order’s upper echelons.

For just this moment, she wanted to purely enjoy it without any distractions. The path home.

Anne had never truly had a “home.” The yellow-roofed house she lived in with her aunt became a thorny place when she refused to call her “Mom,” and the Inquisition Temple’s dormitory and the mansion she was rewarded with were just places to rest her eyes.

Perhaps what she really needed wasn’t a place called home, but someone who would smile and welcome her when she returned after a hard day’s work.

“I’m home.”

If you said that, I’d hide my bloodstained hands behind my back and laugh sheepishly.

Now I think I understand a little about what family is. I’m not confident, but… I’ll try to be a good mom. For you, for our child.

Actually, it still doesn’t feel real. Every day I wonder if this is all a dream. Even if it’s not a dream, maybe Ailim will punish me for being too greedy, for being too happy… Haha, what a ridiculous thought, right?

I wonder how you’ll react when I tell you. Will you be surprised? Maybe a little flustered… or maybe you’ll be scared like me, unprepared. But in the end, you’ll be happier than anyone in the world. Happier than me.

I’m looking forward to it. When I get home, I’ll tell you the happiest news, enough to make you jump in surprise.

*

Her light steps grew heavier as she approached the mansion.

Something’s wrong. Something’s off. I don’t know what, but something’s not right. Maybe I know, but my conscious mind is refusing to acknowledge what my subconscious is telling me.

Anne hesitated for a long time in front of the mansion. If asked why, she could answer herself. Due to the Religious Order’s disdain for luxury, the mansion she received was a modest two-story building, more accurately called a villa by noble standards.

After fumbling with the doorknob for a while, she finally pushed the door open.

Whoosh-

The door opened silently, and a cool breeze from inside slightly ruffled her hair. She stepped inside without further hesitation.

The mansion was quiet, and all the lights were off. That was definitely strange. If the owner had returned, the servants should have gathered to greet her.

In the silence, only the buzzing of a few insects was disturbingly clear. Why were there so many flies in a mansion that was always kept clean? More sensitive than usual, Anne irritably swatted away the flies trying to cling to her.

Thump. Thump.

Her heart beat ominously. Even with her superhuman senses, she couldn’t detect any presence, only the rustling of insects here and there, unsettling her nerves.

She quickly climbed the stairs and headed to the farthest room on the second floor. Where Louis stayed. The windows were too narrow for a human to pass through, and to leave, one would inevitably cross paths with the servants. Not that he could walk the halls with his legs severed anyway.

Her breath quickened. When Anne burst open the door like a wild horse, Louis was, of course, inside.

“……”

He didn’t turn around at the sound of the door opening. Sitting in a chair, his posture slightly twisted with one leg sticking out, his hands fidgeting, his back slightly bent—was he writing something?

Step by step, she approached. For some reason, her body trembled. She stopped before getting too close.

From behind his unturned back, Anne quietly spoke.

“Louis.”

She called his name. He still maintained the same posture, but his shoulder twitched. Seeing him tremble, her voice had clearly reached him. Standing behind her lover who wouldn’t face her, Anne spoke softly.

One hand was already resting on her belly. The small hollow was a trace of when we were connected to a greater being.

She suddenly asked herself. Are we ready to become such a great being?

“I’m pregnant.”

The shocking statement was delivered in a flat tone. He still didn’t turn around.

Anne muttered, almost like talking to a wall. Her voice, initially low, gradually rose and roughened with unavoidable passion and the reality she didn’t want to accept.

My world is sinking. Submerging. Into the deep blue sea beyond.

“Our child.”

=……=

“Yours and mine. So……”

Louis turned around.

Chestnut hair and dark brown eyes. Extremely common and ordinary colors. But every time Anne stroked Louis’s hair or looked into his eyes, she felt something deep in her chest tingle.

Always kind, you. Others might dismiss you as ordinary, but to me, you were always a unique color.

What color will our child inherit? Platinum hair and blue eyes like me? Brown hair and brown eyes like you? Either way, I was ready to love them. Whether ordinary or special—I had just begun to nurture a heart capable of loving a unique color.

“……Tell me it’s a lie.”

The gentle, soft hair color, like wet riverbank soil, hung limp and greasy like freshly skinned animal hide. The eyes that always listened to her stories, never closing, would never close again. Torn eyelids, eyes hollowed out as if gouged, with insects crawling inside.

Louis stood up. He was missing a leg, and the holy scriptures still tightly bound him. All sorts of insects in the mansion swirled and gathered. Like moths willingly throwing themselves into a flame, they hurled themselves at Louis’s leg—more precisely, at the holy scriptures.

Crack. Crack. Crackle. The sound of something splattering and burning. Yet the black insects didn’t care and continued to burn. They rose. The countless insects writhing on the floor formed a layer, supporting the leg unbalanced by the holy scriptures.

Standing on two legs, Louis turned to Anne and spread his arms in a theatrical gesture. His half-broken sixth finger dangled, showing bone.

=Welcome, my love.=