MTO C39

Chapter 39

“Your announcement clearly said the festival would last until sundown!”

“All supplies are gone. Go home.”

A young man clung desperately to the soldier dismantling the tents. Other townsfolk clicked their tongues.

“Bill’s son, that one.”

“As always, he’s late from caring for his father.”

“What do you mean by that?” Michel suddenly hurried over to the group, inserting himself into their conversation. Kaidan followed a step behind. The praise he had almost spoken earlier slipped away, yet he too needed to know if there was trouble.

One man explained while pointing at the frantic youth:

“His father—Bill—fell to madness years ago. Raves that demons are coming to kill him. Smashes everything, screaming in fits. No one can even be near him. The wife ran away. Only the son is left, caring for him. Poor boy. He must’ve been waiting for today’s charity; he can’t earn coin, always stuck guarding his father. And look—he arrives late again, spent from calming him. Such a waste of young blood.”

Another snorted viciously:

“Parents should help children, not become their burden! What kind of man keeps living, crying that demons hunt him? Better Bill die quick, so Colin is freed.”

Cold words—but none objected. In fact, many nodded in sympathy for the son.

Kaidan gave no agreement aloud, but he understood. Some fathers would be better dead. He remembered well how often he, too, had prayed for his. There were too many in this world whose bloodline cursed, not blessed, them.

He resolved he would speak directly with this Colin. Supplies alone would not be enough; there might be more he could do.

But Michel reached him first, flashing that easy smile.

“Brother Colin! Hello!”

The young man froze, startled at being recognized by the Saint. Michel chatted warmly, leaning close, whispering words Kaidan could not hear.

Soon Colin burst into tears, clutching Michel’s hands, bowing over and over. Gratitude, seemingly. But why? Kaidan longed to know.

He did not wait long. Michel soon approached with the boy.

“Brother, may I step away for a while? The festival’s ended anyway.”

“…Where?”

“To visit Colin’s home. His father—he wishes to meet me.”

Michel joined his hands together in prayer‑like plea, eyes earnest. Kaidan was stunned. Did he not hear the tales of madness? How could he hear them—then still wish to enter such a place?

By reason, Kaidan should refuse. A deranged man might lash out. However quick Michel’s reflexes, he was no knight but a priest. After the success of today’s event, to risk disaster at its close was folly.

Yet Kaidan found himself curious.

Would Michel still wear the mask of purity if put in true danger?

“…I will go too.”

“You will?”

“I must see what this patient requires.”

At that, Michel grinned so brightly one could hardly look straight at him. Kaidan turned away, unsettled.

Colin’s house was a tumbledown shack at the village edge. No fence stood. The chicken coop was buried in snow, no eggs in sight. Even a quick glance proved the boy’s poverty.

“My father is sleeping—I’ll wake him. Could you wait outside?”

Colin slipped inside, leaving them together in the yard.

Kaidan stole a look at the Saint. Michel seemed—excited, as though off on a picnic. He had peppered Colin with questions all the way, so Kaidan had learned much: the boy was younger than he thought, the father ill for ten years, once a wealthy trader ruined by bandits.

Perhaps Michel simply did not know the truth of “madness.” He was, after all, ignorant of even basic prayers.

Delusion sickness—Mang‑sang‑byeong (망상병)—was declared by the Church a mark of sin. The afflicted were “corrupted by demons,” cast out of community. Surely Michel could not know that, else he would never step here voluntarily.

Kaidan decided to test him.

“The Church declares such patients sinners.”

“What?” Michel blinked. Kaidan continued evenly.

“They say demons disturb human reason, stoke violence. Only the weak fall prey. The madness itself is punishment for sins they have committed.”

Not his own belief, but the Church’s decree. From battlefields Kaidan knew a different truth—every mad soldier had suffered grievous trauma before. Colin’s father lost his life’s fortune to bandits. Men broke because life broke them, not because demons whispered.

But Michel needn’t know this.

“Sinners go to hell, don’t they?” Michel asked, gaping as if hearing this for the first time.

Kaidan nodded.

“Then why punish before hell?”

“Because it gives them chance. To repent, even then, and reach heaven.”

“But if demons stole their reason, how could they realize their sin? How could they repent?”

Sharp, uncomfortably sharp. Kaidan faltered.

“A strong faith is enough—”

“But wasn’t it the ‘weak in faith’ who succumb? Isn’t that contradictory?”

Michel frowned at him. The look said it plainly: You sound absurd.

Bitterness welled. Kaidan himself thought the doctrine hypocrisy. Yet to admit it now would seem weak.

“Brother, you are more naïve than expected,” Michel said lightly. “Don’t take every word you’re told as gospel.”

Kaidan opened his mouth to protest—“That is the Church’s—”

CRASH!

The shack resounded with violent noise. Glass shattered, timbers cracked, incoherent shouting shook the thin walls.

Then—thudding steps, huge, bestial. Instinctively Kaidan’s hand went to his sword.

“Father!”

Colin’s cry shrieked—and the door burst open.

A man staggered out stark naked. His hair and beard wild, his body filthy, every shame exposed without cloth.

“…Ahhh.”

His eyes darted, pained. Then they fixed upon Michel. His face twisted in torment.

Michel froze.

Groaning like a wounded animal, the madman lurched closer. Kaidan prepared to strike him down—when a hand caught his arm.

Michel’s hand.

The Saint, moments ago rigid, now held him still. His round face, uncharacteristically stern, never left the crazed elder.

For once, Michel looked entirely serious.

Footnote

1. Delusion Sickness (망상병 Mang‑sang‑byeong) – Fictionalised mental illness, treated as demon possession in story lore; mirrors real historical stigma toward mental illness as divine punishment. 
2. Naked Father’s Emergence – Symbol of complete loss of social dignity, marking maximum despair, and framing Michel’s response vs. Kaidan’s blade.