Before going ahead with this chapter I would like you to hear me out for a sec. For a while I,ve been thinking of changing the app I use to post, and after some consideration I've decided to use Royal Road, which is way better for new writers such as myself. I am grateful to everyone that has followed me here, on the webnovel app, almost 100 followers! If you enjoy the chapters and want to be there when I start my own story I would really appreciate it if you followed me there. Other socials I use so you can be notified when new chapters are out:
Twitter/X= denfox_
Tiktok= denfox__
And of course Royal Road= Denfox
I have to say this chapter is reaaaaaaally short, so sorry 'bout that. I'm really happy everytime I see the comments you guys leave me. From support even when I'm unable to post to constructive criticism that helps me improve. This will most likely be the last chapter posted on this app, so I'll see y'all in Royal Road, thanks for the support you have given me here.
I would also appreciate it if you read this chapter directly over there on Royal Road, but because it's so sudden at least I'll post a last one here.
Having been abducted by the witch cult, Natsuki Subaru found himself tied up by chains in a cave he had no recollection of ever having visited. As much as he would have wanted to, he wasn't alone.
"Why does such dense love hang so abundantly upon your person?" a green-haired man, with dry-looking eyes, no apparent lips, and the creepiest smile he had ever seen, asked while he stood mere centimeters from his face. He slipped his hand inside his robe and took out a black book. "Do you not own a copy of the Gospel?"
Despite the situation, all Subaru could get out was a quiet mumble. "Eh?"
"It saddens me to be ignored!" said the man as he arched his whole body backward. "I'm treating you so kindly, and yet, and yet, and yet... and yet, and yet, yet, yet, yet, yet!" His arched body suddenly straightened up again as he leaned toward Subaru. "In that case, I will change the order of my questions."
He grabbed the lower side of Subaru's face and started licking it from bottom to top, leaving a trace of his saliva in his eyeball. "Let me ask you this..."
"Why do you pretend that your mind has broken?"
◇
"Oh?" Roswaal couldn't help but let out a quiet murmur, followed by a long "mmmmmh," as if assessing the situation.
Other than him, the enigmatic words uttered by the Sin Archbishop of Sloth amounted to nothing.
Why do you pretend that your mind has broken?
Such words... what meaning could they have?
◇
Subaru looked around, his eyes dilated and his mind transcending the limits of what's commonly regarded as sanity—or was it?
"No, no, no, no. I truly have my doubts." The green-haired man cocked his head a few times and raised both index fingers. "Why, for what reason, for what purpose, do you act crazed?"
"———"
"Your insanity is far too sane." He turned around, then to the side, crouched his knees, and then slowly turned back at Subaru. "Your insanity is far too sane. To behave so cleverly and quietly, as if seeking sympathy... it is an insult to true madness."
Subaru grabbed his head and started stumbling in place, making a noise indistinguishable between a laugh and a cry for help.
"Ahhh... ah... aaaaah... aaaaaahh... aah... aaah... aaaah..."
"You are a poorly acted madman. If you really meant it, you would pay no heed to the gaze of others."
"Aaah... ahhh... ahhh... aaaaah... aaaaaahh!" As he kept screaming, the endless tears that had been locked in place by his faked madness started to flow out.
With his raspy voice, the Sin Archbishop screamed, "Ah, how comical! How comical!" Both his arms were raised, and a creepy smile had formed where his nonexistent lips should be.
"Aaah! Aaaaaahhhhh! Aaah... aaaaah!"
◇
"Oi... what's going on?"
"I hope I am wrong, in fact... but I think... or do I want to be wrong?"
"—Eh? Beatrice, what do you mean?"
Despite hearing Garfiel loud and clear, Beatrice paid no regard to his question.
"If he... not crazy... but if fake... meaning... he isn't... the tears... his gaze... no... he is..."
Emilia, next to Beatrice, hearing the latter mumble incoherent words, turned to face her.
"...so if he... better... later not... worse then... eeeh... it's..."
"Beatrice?"
"so... best... it has... wrong..."
"Beatrice!" screamed Emilia as she slapped both of the spirit's cheeks.
"Ah!? E-Emilia?"
Emilia sighed. "Sorry, but I feel like you were thinking about something bad right now."
"...Not... maybe just a little bit, I suppose."
"Then I'm glad I stopped you. If we start thinking too much..."
"I know what you're trying to say. You need not say it. I... appreciate your... slap? I suppose."
◇
Suddenly Subaru's chin was grabbed. "I pity you! I pity your wretched, ugly, lowly, diminutive, sinful being from the bottom of my heart!" He lifted Subaru's body into the air. "Despite all that, you are so loved!" and smashed his head against the cave's rocky surface. "You'd rather waste away in stagnation than repay the goodwill shown to you?" After saying that, he finally let go of him, but as Subaru's body collapsed ahead, the man again grabbed him by the hair.
"You are truly slothful."
As the blood spilling from Subaru's head reached his eyeball and started to cloud his vision, a cultist who had been sent flying by what seemed like a metallic tool landed right next to the pair.
From the ground's shadows, another group of cultists appeared.
Carrying a mace and with a horn on her forehead, a beautiful girl covered in blood appeared from the darkness.
"I found you!"
◇
"Tsk. Again."
"Nee-sama..."
The hatred she was feeling—who could she possibly blame it on? Who could Ram direct her hate at?
"Is it even fair...?"
for me to hate anyone but myself for not being there?
Her sister is dying, yet she can do nothing but watch as it happens. She is fighting for someone who is doing nothing but cry, complain, and die. A person who simply waited to see what happened before doing anything. His lack of courage... such a pathetic existence was nothing but an eyesore to her.
Ram could feel herself gritting her teeth harder and harder.
"Pathetic..." she whispered. "What a worthless excuse for a man... If anyone else had been there—"
Her voice was so quiet not even her sister, barely any distance from her, could decipher her words.
"You have no strength, yet you act the way you do. The facade—you pride yourself on being a good guy? A hero, was it? What a joke. Despite being the reason behind Rem's death, you act as if you were her savior."
"Nee-san? Did you say something? I didn't hear you."
Ram looked back at her sister, whose eyes were clouded by unimaginable pain and regret.
Unforgivable
"No, don't worry. It's nothing."
And thus the hatred beared towards the man who proclaimed himself as the faction's knight kept increasing in the maid's heart.
This is what I said up before starting, if you read it don't bother with this:
For a while I,ve been thinking of changing the app I use to post, and after some consideration I've decided to use Royal Road, which is way better for new writers such as myself. I am grateful to everyone that has followed me here, on the webnovel app, almost 100 followers! If you enjoy the chapters and want to be there when I start my own story I would really appreciate it if you followed me there. Other socials I use so you can be notified when new chapters are out:
Twitter/X= denfox_
Tiktok= denfox__
And of course Royal Road= Denfox
I have to say this chapter is reaaaaaaally short, so sorry 'bout that. I'm really happy everytime I see the comments you guys leave me. From support even when I'm unable to post to constructive criticism that helps me improve.
This will most likely be the last chapter posted on this app, so I'll see y'all in Royal Road, thanks for the support you have given me here, cya.