IHDOE Ch 39

This man lacks even a shred of human restraint or morality.

Serpens grimaced as the man opened the door after he knocked.

Scrawny with a potbelly, the man reeked of stale alcohol and cheap tobacco, as if he hadn't washed in ages. The foul stench made Serpens almost cover his nose on instinct, despite knowing it was impolite.

Glaring with yellowed eyes at the two of them, the man shouted.

[Father] "I told you, my daughter isn't going back to that orphanage! If I say she's not going, she's not going! Why are you nosy strangers causing a fuss?"

Hacking up phlegm, he spat a thick glob at Stella's feet.

[Stella] "I already told you. If you just let us see Blin, we'll leave immediately."

[Father] "Why the hell should I?! Get the hell out before I call the guards! I wondered why that bitch had shit for brains, but with a teacher and a priest looking like this, no wonder! Are you two fucking or something?!"

Is there another way to speak to one's own daughter?

Words so foul that one would hesitate to spew them at a total stranger poured effortlessly from his mouth onto his own child.

Can a creature like this even be called human?

Unlike Serpens, who was appalled by the vulgarity, Stella remained completely unfazed. Her composure earned his quiet admiration.

Miss Stella is remarkable. To maintain such calm before a brute like him...

A strange sound echoed from inside—a pained groan accompanied by dragging, uneven footsteps.

Both Stella and the father turned toward the interior of the house.

[Father] "This little bitch!"

Leaving Stella at the doorway, he rushed into the room.

While Serpens hesitated, unsure if it was appropriate to trespass, Stella strode inside without a moment's hesitation.

[Serpens] "Miss Stella, we haven't been invited in yet...!"

[Stella] "There's no time for that."

Her judgment proved correct. The moment Serpens stepped inside, he confronted a horrific scene of abuse.

[Father] "You little bitch! Trying to run away the second my back is turned?!"

[Blin] "Argh!"

Covered in bruises, Blin thrashed wildly as her father grabbed her by the hair.

Stella grabbed a frying pan stacked in the kitchen and smashed it over the man's head without a second thought.

[Blin] "Argh! Let go! No! Let me go!"

As the man recoiled in pain, Blin scrambled free from his grasp. Stella seized the opening, striking his head repeatedly without mercy.

CLANG! CLANG!

The frying pan crashed against his skull in a deafening racket.

[Stella] "Who! Do you think! You are! Touching my student!"

The ambush forced the man to curl inward as blood streamed down the back of his head. Shaking off the disorientation, he blocked the descending frying pan with his arm.

[Father] "You... you crazy bitch...!"

Grabbing a nearby flowerpot, he swung it at Stella.

[Blin] "No!"

Blin threw her body forward, clinging to her father's leg, while Serpens grabbed the man's arm mid-swing.

[Father] "Ow! Ouch! It hurts! Let go!"

The man thrashing under Serpens' vice-like grip shrieked in agony. As his strength gave way beneath the pain, the flowerpot slipped from his fingers, crashing to the floor and shattering into pieces. He struggled wildly against Serpens.

[Father] "Can a priest beat up citizens like this?! Hey, neighbors! Look at this! A priest is beating a man! You bastard! Did your damn god teach you that?! Huh?! Are you fucking that woman?! I'm calling the guards! You! And this priest! I'll sue you all!"

Stella gripped the handle of the frying pan with both hands, glaring at him.

[Stella] "Go right ahead. I'll throw you in a cell before you get the chance."

She swung the pan with full force. Trapped in Serpens' grasp, the man had nowhere to run as the frying pan completed a clean arc right into his face.

---

With a gash on the back of his head and five missing teeth, Blin's father was turned over to the guards. His cries of unfairness fell on deaf ears.

[Serpens] "We caught the man in the act of abusing his child. When we attempted to restrain him, he resorted to violence first, forcing us to defend ourselves."

His word held immense authority as a high priest. Because he reported the incident directly, the guard officers took extraordinary care in handling it.

[Blin] "M-My father beat me, locked me up, and tried to force me to marry..."

Under proper investigative procedure, the officers should have taken Blin's statement and then verified the situation with her father. Instead, they tossed the man straight into a cell based solely on her testimony.

[Father] "When did I ever do that?! Fuck! Hey, Officer! Listen to me! Fine, I hit my daughter, sure! The brat was so disobedient. I gave her a little parental discipline! But that woman hit me first! Look at the back of my damn head! She smashed me over the head with a frying pan!"

Seething with indignation over his injuries, the father roared from behind bars. Naturally, the guards paid no mind to his ranting.

Of course they wouldn't.

On one side was a drug-addicted alcoholic; on the other, a high priest renowned for his morality and righteousness. It was obvious whose word they would believe.

Besides, ingratiating themselves with Serpens mattered far more to the officers than listening to a nameless slum dweller.

The father's past atrocities would return to haunt him for the maximum sentence allowed by law. He would rot in prison or the coal mines for the rest of his days.

That had been Satina's goal when bringing Serpens along. If she merely needed physical protection, the information guild would have sufficed. She brought him to exert legal and political pressure should trouble arise.

He probably thinks it was all a coincidence.

Just then, Serpens stepped outside after finishing his statement. The details he learned from the officers had clearly shaken him; his face looked haggard after only a few hours.

Dabbing his face with her handkerchief, Satina spoke soft words.

[Stella] "Are you all right? You look pale."

[Serpens] "Miss Stella…"

His voice trembled faintly.

[Serpens] "How... how can a human being do such things? How could he possibly..."

---

Serpens could hardly digest the officer's report.

[Officer] "Her leg is broken, and her ribs are cracked. Had she been left untreated much longer, she would have limped for the rest of her life."

[Serpens] "I see."

[Officer] "Our investigation also revealed he was attempting to force her into marriage."

[Serpens] "Marriage? To a child?"

[Officer] "Precisely because she is a child. It is a relief you intervened when you did, Your Grace. You saved that girl's life."

Staggering out of the guard station, Serpens sat on a nearby park bench beside Stella, who had been waiting for him.

Burying his face in his hands, he muttered brokenly.

[Serpens] "I can't believe it. How could family do such a thing... to his own flesh and blood... They said it was all for money. Can you believe it, Miss Stella? For a mere handful of gold coins... How could family..."

[Stella] "It happens precisely because they are family."

She spoke in a quiet, subdued tone.

[Stella] "Because it's family, you can't walk away even if you want to. That's why it gets worse..."

Serpens raised his head to look at her profile. Though composed and beautiful as ever, she radiated an overwhelming sorrow.

Suddenly, the memory of Stella confronting Blin's father flashed through his mind. At the time, he had admired her calm demeanor and swift, decisive judgment. But if that composure stemmed from already knowing what horrors awaited...

[Serpens] "Did something like that happen to you, too? By your own family?"

She remained silent.

[Serpens] "You mentioned before that you were on poor terms with your sister, that you didn't want to return home. Was that the reason? Did you... did you suffer like that as well...?"

With trembling hands, he gripped her shoulders. Overlaying Blin's bruised face with Stella's image, he envisioned her pale skin bruised black and blue, helpless to resist...

[Serpens] "Please tell me, Miss Stella!"

She looked at him with dry, hollow eyes—the very eyes that had troubled him since the day they first met.

[Stella] "Yes."

The moment her lips confirmed his suspicion, words failed him. His hands slipped from her shoulders and dropped limply to his side.

[Stella] "My sister tried to throw me into a pit of vipers."

Observing his stunned expression, Stella continued calmly. She needed no act, no pretense. She channeled what Satina had endured and felt. This was the sole fragment of truth she ever revealed to Serpens.

[Stella] "Did she want me dead? Or was it merely another one of her childish pranks? I don't know."

[Serpens] "We must report this to the guards! We have to...!"

[Stella] "Then my family would be destroyed."

[Serpens] "But...!"

[Stella] "Even if we did, nothing would change. Lord Serpens, I know full well what would happen next. The evidence in our house has already been erased. My parents would frame me as mentally unstable, and my sister would act with even greater malice."

[Stella] "I have no desire to make my personal hell any worse. Besides, I will be leaving home soon anyway..."

[Serpens] "By marrying a fiancé who cheats on you with another woman?"

Stella's eyes widened in surprise.

[Stella] "How do you know about that, Lord Serpens...?"

[Serpens] "I have ears."

An agonizing pain pierced his chest, as if stabbed with a blade.

[Serpens] "Break off the engagement, Miss Stella."

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