Chapter 90: Floating Sanctuary (5) Part 1
On the way back home after finishing the contract with the god she first met.
Perin smiled faintly as she looked at the mark engraved on the back of her hand.
She became an apostle of the god she called the evil god, but he didn’t seem to be as bad as she thought.
The evil god introduced Yuto to her and gave her a mysterious gift called a miracle.
The mark in her hand was also a sign that was engraved on a special person, he told her.
She also heard that she had to leave this village soon, but Perin asked for a few more days of grace.
It was to say goodbye to the fairies in the village and leave for a few days.
“I don’t know how they’ll react when I tell them I’m leaving.”
Perin, who had hidden Yuto and the miracle in the forest, wondered how the other fairies would react to her farewell.
There were several times when Perin had decided to leave the village.
But this was the first time she said goodbye properly to the fairies in the village.
She was also saying goodbye to the village she had grown fond of for a while.
Maybe there were some who would be sad to hear that Perin was leaving among the fairies.
Of course, she couldn’t tell them that she became an apostle of the evil god.
“By the way, I feel a little sorry for Rendel.”
As the village came closer, Rendel’s image flashed through Perin’s mind.
At first, Perin thought Rendel might take Yuto away from her.
But even after a long time since he introduced Yuto, Rendel didn’t do anything suspicious.
He only occasionally stroked Yuto when Perin wasn’t around.
He even gave Perin some rare plants to use for decorating Yuto.
Rather, Perin wondered if she was too harsh on Rendel.
“Rendel?”
As Perin pondered about Rendel, she saw a busy-looking village in her sight.
The center of the village where a withered tree stood.
There, many fairies were talking with serious faces.
Among them, Rendel was also present.
Apparently, something big had happened in the village.
Perin ran towards Rendel and the fairies to find out what was going on.
“······Perin?”
At the sound of Perin’s footsteps running towards the village, Rendel, who was talking with the fairies, looked at her.
Rendel looked at Perin with a stiff face.
The faces of the fairies who were talking with Rendel were also dark.
It seemed that it was much more serious than Perin expected.
Thinking that Rendel might ask her to run an errand, Perin ran straight towards him to help him.
“Rendel! Is there anything I can help you with?”
Perin stopped in front of Rendel and asked him with a smile.
But Rendel’s face was still dark.
Rendel quietly closed his mouth and looked at Perin.
At his attitude, all the fairies around him glared at Perin.
Their eyes were directed at the mark on Perin’s back of hand.
Perin hid the mark as she backed away from their gaze.
“······.”
Perin was scared by the sudden gaze of the fairies.
She had many experiences of being sneered at by fairies who saw her mark.
But this was the first time that everyone looked at her without saying anything.
Perin was confused by their unfamiliar gaze and backed away.
As soon as Perin backed away,
The fairies around her turned their backs on her.
It looked like they were surrounding Perin in the center.
“What are you doing all of a sudden?”
“Perin.”
“Yes?”
“There was no other choice.”
As Perin looked at Rendel with a puzzled look, he said something ominous to her.
As soon as their conversation ended,
The fairies around her rushed towards Perin.
Thud!
With a heavy thud, Perin fell to the ground and groaned from her mouth.
“Ouch······!”
Perin frowned and checked her situation.
She felt hands pressing down on her arms and head.
She couldn’t move freely in this situation.
The fairies around her had grabbed her and restrained her.
Perin lifted her head and looked up.
Rendel was holding a wooden staff in his hand.
“We will now perform the ritual of banishment on Perin Shtait.”
Rendel declared in a solemn voice to Perin and the fairies.
Banishment.
Perin’s face turned pale at his words.
She had heard stories about banishment from the old tales of the fairies.
It was a magical means to punish a fellow who strayed from the right path and harmed the fairies.
A fairy who was banished would suffer terrible pain and could not rest without the permission of other fairies.
Perin bit her lip as she remembered the banishment.
“Rendel! Please, please let me go!”
“You filthy thing, stay still!”
“I didn’t do anything! Really, sob······!”
“Aah!”
The fairy who held Perin’s mouth tried to stop her, but Perin bit his hand hard.
The fairy screamed and let go of his bleeding hand.
Perin freed her mouth and struggled to get closer to Rendel.
“I didn’t do anything! You said if I lived well, other fairies would like me! Why are you doing this to me!”
“You are too dangerous. That’s why we decided that we can’t control you without banishment.”
“I’ll leave the village, I’ll leave! So please, just let me go······!”
“Shut up and be quiet!”
The fairy who grabbed Perin’s head tightened his grip.
Perin felt a pain as if her head was going to crack and tears filled her eyes.
Meanwhile, Rendel’s staff was getting closer to Perin.
The staff with a blue light looked like a monster’s shape in Perin’s eyes.
Rendel uttered a short spell towards Perin.
“——Obey the order. Submit to the providence.”
“No, no······!”
“——We are born under the tree and sleep under the mound of earth.”
The blue light touched Perin’s skin and unknown symbols began to be engraved on it.
The symbols with light spread over Perin’s body and gradually grew in size.
A hot heat spread from where the symbols were drawn.
The spreading symbols were eating away at Perin’s body.
The heat from her body made Perin scream.
“Ah, it hurts! Stop······!”
“——Live under the same dream under the great will.”
“Stop it······!”
“——Obey. He is······.”
Despite Perin’s screams, Rendel continued the ritual.
The symbols that were engraved faded dozens of times as the blue light flickered.
Perin, who was under the symbols, kept pleading in pain.
Rendel, who was conducting the ritual, also had cold sweat running down his forehead.
As the ritual continued in screams, it finally reached its end.
Perin screamed again.
“Stop it! Stop it!”
Crack. Bang!
With her voice, the symbols engraved on her body shattered.
The symbols that wrapped around Perin became fragments of light and scattered in all directions.
The ritual that Rendel was conducting failed.
Only the mark on Perin’s hand remained, blinking with light.
Rendel vomited blood and stepped back a few steps.
“Cough··· ugh······!”
Rendel looked at Perin with wide eyes.
There was disbelief and fear in his eyes.
Perin, who had stopped the ritual, tried to get up.
But the hands that pressed her down were still there.
Some of the fairies went to Rendel and supported him.
“Rendel! Are you okay!”
Rendel wiped the blood on his mouth with their support.
No one here cared about Perin’s condition.
Rather, they were taking care of Rendel, who tried to engrave the banishment on her.
A huge sense of betrayal rose in Perin’s heart.
Dark emotions that had sunk into the abyss rose up slowly.
With a voice in her ear and darkness in the sky.
-“Who covets what is mine?”
The sky, where the evening sun had set, was suddenly covered with dark clouds.
It was an unnatural sight for anyone to see.
The anomaly that filled the sky did not stop there.
Crackle. Sparkle.
Lightning began to flash from the clouds in the sky.
The fairies’ hands trembled at the sight of the clouds glowing blue.
“The sky is weird?”
“What is this······.”
The fairies who held Perin down couldn’t finish their words.
Boom!
A streak of lightning fell between the fairies who surrounded Perin.
With a bright streak of light and a thunderous sound that shook their ears, smoke rose from the ground where the bushes had burned.
The fairies who were hit by lightning also convulsed and rolled on the ground.
Perin was the only fairy who could move safely after being hit by lightning.
“Rendel Elder, what is this······?”
Egershut, who was near Rendel, asked him.
Then Rendel laughed hollowly and looked at the sky.
He had a look of transcendence on his face.
It was the first time for Perin to see such a face of Rendel.
He opened his mouth with a sarcastic smile on his face as he looked at the sky.
“It’s the evil god.”
“······What?”
“We touched something that belongs to the evil god. Now he is looking at us.”
As soon as Rendel’s words ended,
Another lightning bolt came down from the sky.
Zap!
With a flash of light, one of the fairies near him fell to the ground.
The fairies’ eyes turned to the fallen fairy.
His last breath was buried in thunder and disappeared.
“You did it······.”
The fairies who stood up summoned spirits and looked around.
Among them, there was a fairy who tried to find the cause of this incident.
He was one of the men near Rendel.
He pointed at Perin with his finger and shouted at her.
“You did it! You brought the evil god here!”
Perin opened her eyes wide and looked at him.
He gritted his teeth and slowly moved away from her.
His words were just the beginning.
The fairies who heard his accusation joined him in line.
They pointed their fingers at Perin and poured out hateful insults.
“You filthy and vulgar thing!”
“I knew you would cause trouble someday! You finally brought out the evil god!”
“Get out of here! You dirty seed!”
Perin didn’t know what to do with their insults.
Rendel was the one who did wrong first by trying to engrave banishment on her.
But everyone here was spewing hatred at her.
Everyone had their own reasons to blame Perin.
The fairies had always hated Perin, but today their hostility was different from usual.
Moreover, some of them were spouting absurd accusations at her.
“You brought the evil god here from the start to kill us all!”
“No, I didn’t…”
Perin tried to say something in response to the fairy’s words.
But her words never came out of her mouth.
The fairy who was scolding Perin cut her off.
He glared at Perin with bloodshot eyes and continued to berate her.
“What do you mean, no? You are a disgrace to our fairy race!”
“I said no! I really…”
“Shut up! How dare you, a filthy and wicked servant of the evil god, speak in front of us!”
Ouch.
Perin clenched her teeth at the finger pointing at her.
At this moment, she was evil.
No matter what she said, the fairies here would not believe her.
But still, Perin had to speak.
She had to tell them everything about the feelings she had been holding inside.
“I… I said no.”
“…”
“I said no! I just wanted to get along with everyone!”
Her true feelings burst out.
Perin’s voice that came out of her mouth was the most desperate one in her life.
When was the last time she spoke so honestly?
It was the first time since she lost her family who cared for her.
Perin’s fist that spoke her true feelings was trembling uncontrollably from the overflowing emotions.
“I said no so many times! But you all ignored me because of my mark! No one listened to me!”
She wanted to be friends with everyone.
She had been trying hard for a long time with that one thought.
She tried to be like other fairies.
She tried to eliminate her flaws and get closer to others.
She tried to change the minds of the fairies who hated her. She remembered the moments when she trimmed the trees in the village with clumsy hands.
She also remembered how she scratched her hand until it bled to get rid of the mark on it.
There were times when she cried alone and expressed her loneliness to the trees in the forest.
There was a time when she thought that if she could use spirits even with a mark, she would be accepted by others.
“That’s why, I kept on wanting… I endured until now…”
And then she met the spirit she had been longing for.
Yuto. The only and mysterious friend who came to Perin, who was a loner.
She made a precious friend and promised to be with him forever.
As long as she was with the spirit, she would be recognized as a proper fairy.
She returned to the village where everyone was with that imagination.
“Just that one thing… I only wanted that one thing——!”
But nothing changed for her.
The fairies in the village still hated and feared her.
Even though she had no power to deserve that.
They hated, blamed, and shunned her for having a mark on her hand.
A marked fairy was nothing but an outsider from beginning to end.
It was impossible for her to be accepted by others no matter what she did.
“No one… looks at me…”
As time passed, Perin was the one who got hurt.
There were things in the world that could not be changed like a mountain.
Like the mark that was clearly engraved on the back of her hand.
That’s why she had to admit it eventually.
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