Chapter 226: Yoluya - End
For the first time, Joluiah realized how long and cold the road to the palace was.
The captain of the palace guards led him to the palace where the banquet was being held and said to him, "You are too impulsive. The Chancellor of Finance and the nobles behind him will not let you go."
Jolya: “I know.”
The captain of the palace guards seemed a little surprised, "You knew?"
Yoluya's face was cold and almost numb. "I lowered the price of holy grass, demolished the Rig District, and led the railway construction plan... I have violated the interests of too many nobles. When the reform is completed, I am destined to die miserably."
The captain of the palace guards was silent for a few seconds before he said, "You can survive. As long as you join the church and become a priest, the church will definitely protect you."
Joluya asked, "Why is there something wrong with the holy water given by the church? Who replaced the holy water? The Minister of Finance? Or the original landlord of the Rig District?"
Chief of the Guards: "That's a meaningless question."
The cold expression on Joluya's face shattered in an instant. He clenched his fists and angrily said, "They just want to have enough food and clothes! What have they done wrong? This is their right! They are human beings just like us, not livestock kept in a pigpen! Just because they don't want to be exploited slaves anymore, do they deserve to die?"
The captain of the guards said, "Yolya, please calm down." He held Yoluya down and whispered, "This is the royal palace."
Joluya sarcastically said, "So what?"
The captain of the guards lowered his voice, as if afraid of being overheard. "Those people have nothing to do with you. If they're dead, they're dead. Don't worry about it anymore."
Jolya's eyes widened.
The captain of the guards said, "In fact, under the rule of the gods, what's the difference between all of us and the livestock in the pigsty? Whether others live well or not is none of your business. You just need to live your life well..."
Bang! Yoluya punched him, knocking the much stronger captain of the guards to the ground. The captain looked up and saw the young and energetic Yoluya looking at him with eyes filled with disappointment and anger. "Three years ago, I betrayed my birth and class. Today, I will betray you too. From now on, you are no longer my brother."
The captain of the guards - Josel Youchester, Jolia's original brother.
After saying that, Yoluya's chest rose and fell violently for a while, then slowly stabilized. His expression returned to indifference, and he turned and walked towards the brightly lit palace in the distance.
The captain of the guards sat on the ground and muttered, "You're breaking off ties with me. You want to protect me? That's ridiculous. I'm obviously protecting you."
The captain of the guards stood up and chased after the figure, but for some reason, the more he chased, the farther away Yoluya's figure became.
This night banquet was said to be held to celebrate the completion of the railway topographic survey. Joluya was not surprised by this. After all, night banquets were often held in the palace. The name was not important, as long as everyone could eat and drink to their heart's content and have fun.
However, today was different from usual. The palace gate was open, but no music came from inside, only an eerie silence.
There was no servant at the door, so Joluya waited for a moment and walked in directly.
There were no gas lamps in the palace, but the most common candle lamps. The rows of tall and long white candle lamps were half burned. Under the rising flames, the melted wax tears piled up on the candlesticks, forming an ugly lump.
The lights were so bright, but the long table in the middle was a little dim.
Joluya blinked hard, but couldn't make out the people sitting at the long table. He could only tell from their clothes and figures that there were twelve people sitting there. At the top was the king, followed by the regent, and at the end was the finance minister, whom he had beaten the day before.
They seemed unaware of his arrival and continued to eat in silence. The knives and forks made crisp sounds against the porcelain, and the sound of the meat being cut became extremely vivid in the quiet palace.
Yoluya took two steps closer, and everything in front of him seemed to become clearer. He was about to salute when he froze. His body trembled slightly as he stared at the food on the plates.
Those are not vegetables, nor are they livestock, but human limbs!
"What are you...doing?" After a long time, Yoluya asked in a trembling voice.
The chewing sounds and the clatter of knives and forks paused for a moment. Everyone at the table raised their heads and gave Joluya the same smile. "Joluya, you're here! We're having dinner!"
Yoluya: "...My Lords, am I hallucinating? The thing on the plate looks like a person."
"Yes, it's people," said a minister. "We are nobles, so we have to eat on plates."
"Yes, we are not barbaric," said another minister.
Suddenly, the Chancellor of Finance, who was sitting at the very end, twitched his face, and a black thorn pierced out of his skin. However, he did not feel any pain at all. He just blocked the thorn, which was as thick as a finger, with a slightly distorted expression on his face.
The others at the table noticed his movements and turned their heads to look over. The Chancellor said in distress, "Oh, everything was perfect, but I got beaten yesterday, and this skin is not so stable anymore."
So the others turned their gazes away and began to discuss openly.
"Yorya is so rude! How could you hit him?"
"Yeah, we watched him grow up, and he was always a well-mannered kid."
"He's just a kid after all, why would you bother with him?"
"Yeah, he's just a child after all."
"Fortunately, those 60,000 poor people died, and Joluiah was able to survive."
"Yes, Jolyas can survive. He is truly the most pitiful and beautiful child I have ever seen."
Yoluya's chin trembled slightly, and the string in his head became even tighter. He retreated silently, and the moment he stepped out of the palace, he ran as fast as he could. After running a few steps, he bumped into the captain of the guards who came over.
As the other man stared in astonishment, he grabbed him and shouted with bloodshot eyes, "Brother, His Majesty and the ministers have been contaminated by monsters. Quick! Put the whole city under martial law! Notify the church!"
As they were talking, the twelve people in the palace staggered out, shouting Joluya's name as they walked. As they shouted, the blood under their skin surged faster and faster, as if something was surging and was about to break through the layer of skin and flesh and rush out.
Seeing that the captain of the guards seemed to be stunned and motionless, Yoluya shouted, "I'll stop them first, you leave quickly!"
Joluya pushed him and turned to face the group of monsters.
The captain of the guards behind him also moved, but he did not run out to ask for help. Instead, he walked past Joluya, lowered his head, and knelt in front of the "king".
"Your Majesty, Yoluyatai is disrespectful," he said.
The king's body had swelled to twice its original size, his skin hanging like a piece of paper stretched across the body of a monster. He laughed, and his entire skin trembled. Behind him, the figures of the other ministers also teetered, about to collapse.
The captain of the guards continued to kneel there humbly, as if he had seen nothing, had discovered nothing. Under the gradually expanding bodies of the monsters, he seemed like a weak animal shrouded in shadow.
The scene before him was so bizarre and absurd that Yoluya suspected he was dreaming. He couldn't help but roar, "Yosel! That's a monster! A monster!"
A silver light flashed before his eyes, and the captain of the guards in silver armor suddenly appeared in front of Yoluya, holding the back of his neck and arms, stepping on his legs and forcing him to kneel on the ground. Yoluya turned his head, and his red eyes met the calm gaze of the captain of the guards. A discovery made Yoluya tremble all over - the captain of the guards was awake!
He was sober and became a lackey of a group of monsters!
"Bastard!" Yoluya roared. He forcibly broke free from the captain of the guards, kicked him to the ground, and ran out without looking back.
He used his maximum speed and strength, shouting as he ran, "There are monsters! Monsters are invading!"
The palace path was too long and too dark, even the moonlight was obscured.
The huge palace was as quiet as a closed box. The usually strict guards were nowhere to be seen. Every place seemed to be filled with black water, and it was approaching Joluya at a terrifying speed like a flood.
Joluya had no weapons on him. He fought off several monsters that surrounded him with his bare hands, climbed up the bell tower, and rang the bell with all his strength.
This is the signal that monsters are attacking. The loud bell sound can penetrate the palace walls and reach the entire city.
Boom, boom, boom...
The sound of the bell spread far away, and Joluya breathed a sigh of relief, his still tense face looking towards the direction of the cathedral.
However, there was no movement in the night.
Feeling increasingly uneasy, Jolya jumped off the bell tower and ran towards the cathedral.
"Yorya...Yorya..."
"Poor Jolya..."
A hoarse, eerie call followed closely behind him. The monster in the palace completely shed its human skin and clothing and followed closely behind Yoluya. Yoluya gritted his teeth and rushed forward.
"Yorya...Yorya..."
"Get out of here!" He roared, his fist wrapped in supernatural power, and he punched a monster that was approaching away.
The monster rolled on the ground for a few times, its head twisted for a while, and gradually a familiar human face appeared. He looked at Yoluya in confusion and said to him, "Yolya, I am your uncle, I am your uncle...ah..."
Joluiah was speechless and his red eyes trembled constantly.
No! These are all monsters! They are all bewitched by monsters!
He rushed out of the palace and into the cathedral.
In the quiet of the night, the lights in the cathedral were still on. The Pope, wearing a luxurious robe, was sitting under the lamp reading the Canon. His solemn face showed mercy, and beside him, a tall statue of a god was standing quietly. This scene was full of divinity, which quickly calmed Joluya's confused heart.
Yoluya rushed to the Pope, panting. "Your Holiness, something terrible has happened! The palace is full of monsters! Your Majesty and the ministers are also..."
"Joluia." The Pope turned his compassionate face towards him and interrupted him in a very kind tone, "Do you know, Your Majesty, how much your Majesty and your family, the House of Chester, paid to save your life?"
His heart, which had just calmed down, became turbulent again. Yoluya asked, "Your Majesty, what did you say?"
The Pope smiled and said, "You are the one who killed those 60,000 poor people in the Rig District!"
Yoluya's pupils dilated, disbelief followed by anger. "It's obvious that someone swapped the holy water and caused them to be eaten by the monsters! It's obvious that someone is deliberately targeting them. They want to prevent the construction of the railway. They..."
Yoluya couldn't continue speaking. The uneasy premonition in his heart became stronger and stronger. The hairs on his back seemed to be clamoring for him not to look back, but Yoluya turned back resolutely.
A group of monsters walked into the church.
How could a monster enter the church?
How could a monster enter the church?
Monster, how could...
With the Pope in front of him and the monster behind him, Jolya took a step back.
"Smart boy, I think you must have guessed it." The Pope stood up, and the huge shadow behind him was baring its fangs and claws.
The Pope opened his hands, as if to mark the beginning of a grand miracle. "The world was created by the Lord God, humans are His subjects, and even the most terrifying and powerful monsters are His followers. What a great power this is!"
The bright lights illuminated Yoluya's pale face. He looked like he had been struck by lightning, and his entire body became a stiff and rigid sculpture.
"Yorya, the Lord God has always maintained a balance between humans and monsters, and has worked tirelessly to create a beautiful, harmonious, and hopeful kingdom for humans. Why would you want to disrupt this balance?"
Yoluya suddenly covered his head with his hands. The taut thread in his brain seemed to turn into a sharp needle and pierce through his skull. "Stop talking, stop talking, I don't believe it, I don't believe it!"
"Yorya, your family, your brothers, your king... have always protected you. They guarded your fragile heart, preventing you from seeing the truth of the world. You could have continued living in this dream. Why did you go to the slums in person? Why did you offer benefits to those poor people? Why did you try to win them over?"
"You made them abandon the Lord God, and you made them believe in you."
"Today there are 60,000 believers in you, tomorrow there will be 600,000... You have committed a great sin!"
"Yorya, they urged you to join the church and become a priest, why didn't you listen?"
"Poor child, why are you crying? Is it because you have doubts about the Lord God, because you doubt the teachings of the righteous God?"
"Yolya, your brother is right. Humans are the swine and sheep kept by the Lord God, but you took those swine and sheep and ran away without permission. There's nothing we can do. To protect you and to wash away the mistakes of those swine and sheep, we have no choice but to grant them a new life."
"They died tragically just because of you!"
The lights in the church went out, and the string in Joluya's head finally snapped after a buzzing sound. He fell heavily to his knees, clutching his head and screaming at the top of his lungs...
The next day, news came from the palace that Joluya was contaminated by a monster and even injured his uncle when he entered the palace for a banquet. Fortunately, His Holiness the Pope arrived in time and purified the pollution.
Joluya, who was rescued, was filled with gratitude. He entered the church and decided to become a priest. Not long after, he was canonized as the Son of God.
Young Raymond attended the canonization ceremony and saw that Joluiah was more radiant than before, with even the sunlight shining through his hair.
He thought Joluya was worried about being liquidated by the nobles, and he thought Joluya had found the biggest backer, and he was very happy for him.
He couldn't hear the words beneath the radiant skin, but Yoluya's broken consciousness was desperately shouting: Run away! Run away...
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