BMPEW 39

Chapter 39

Erasinus did not ask Plautus any more questions and quietly left the temple.

Leaning on his staff, he walked along the winding paths of Mount Ardeo, occasionally letting out a chilling, mirthless laugh.

Paulus, carrying the unconscious Callidora on his back in place of his lame father, trembled in fear.

He knew that when a person experiences an intense emotion, they sometimes display the opposite reaction.

By that measure, Paulus judged that Erasinus was more furious now than ever before.

“An incompetent…”

Erasinus muttered as he walked ahead.

Paulus glanced anxiously at the child lying limp in his arms, still unconscious, before asking his father,

“What… is an incompetent?”

Erasinus turned to his son with a stony face.

A question?

Paulus was not the kind of child to ever ask first. And in a situation like this, where fear gripped him, it was even more unthinkable.

But Erasinus quickly pushed aside the thought that it was insolent. He decided to explain kindly — in a way, it was the change he had been hoping for.

“On rare occasions, among the human descendants blessed by the gods, a child is born with no magical power. You look like you’ve never heard of it before. Naturally — no family would ever go around proclaiming they had produced an incompetent. Still, though rare, it happens more often than you might think.”

“T-This child…?”

“You remember the scandal involving the House of Procellus, the family of the Wind, yes? You were old enough to recall it.”

“Yes. I remember. The lady of the house was accused of adultery…”

“Many people, myself included, did not believe that. Agelastus was not an illegitimate child — he was an incompetent.”

“B-But… because of that child, the lady suffered such disgrace.”

“When an incompetent is born, it’s seen as proof the family has lost the favor of the gods. In the Senate, there were calls to strip their family of the right to appoint temple priests. To protect the honor of his centuries-old family name, the head of House Procellus personally threw a stone at his own son — who looked exactly like him — in the public square.”

Erasinus gazed impassively at his son, whose face was growing paler and paler.

“And now we stand at the same crossroads.”

“F-From the start, you suspected this? That’s why you told me to bring the child…”

Another question.

Startled, Erasinus raised his voice without realizing it.

“Of course not! That would have been far too blasphemous to even consider. But I was certain there was something wrong with the child. Tiberius’s behavior was far too different from when he brought Abelus before — that boy he even took to speak from the Forum platform. But this girl, he wouldn’t even show to the rest of the family.”

What Erasinus had expected was something far more mundane than an incompetent —

Delayed development.
A strange temperament.

…Or perhaps a physical disability.

To determine the issue, he had given the child every kind of stimulus that might reveal it.

“Let gooo!”
“Oh dear, I’ll have to pick that up.”
“What do you like? A ball?”
“No!”

But in every respect, the girl was perfectly normal — in fact, her intelligence was unusually high.

“The first time I suspected the issue might be her bloodline, not her abilities, was when I overheard something she said in my office.”

“B-But… she said she liked Ignitus. Th-That she’d give her life for them…”

“That part was especially strange.”

Paulus frowned, not understanding.

Erasinus clicked his tongue and continued explaining.

“The people of Piraeon, her mother’s homeland, are an arrogant lot — they believe they alone truly serve the goddess Vesta. So the sentiment that child expressed is something a girl raised entirely in Piraeon could never have come to on her own. It must have been deliberately instilled in her.”

“T-That’s…”

“If they were handing the child over to Ignitus, what could they possibly gain from teaching her to feign loyalty toward their long-standing rivals? I couldn’t figure it out. But if she’s an incompetent, everything makes sense. The people of Piraeon have no qualms about killing a child with a defect. Had she stayed there, she would have been thrown off a cliff. I thought her mother heartless, but it seems there was more to it!”

‘That’s what I’ll do. Because I’ve been blessed by the goddess. So for Ignitutu, who serves her, I’ll do anything! I can give my life, no problem!’

Yes, the goddess really had blessed her — or so Erasinus thought with a cold smile.

But the fortune allowed to this child would be no more than a few extra months of life.

He fell into thought.

Normally, it would be right to hold Tiberius accountable for concealing such a grave matter and filling the successor’s seat with a deception, then have him removed.

But with an incompetent, it was different. Bringing such a fact to light would be like burning the whole house down to catch a mouse.

It was a shame to lose the child’s keen mind and the chance to check Tiberius’s wrongdoing, but some values outweighed others.

“The honor of Ignitus must remain intact.”

So saying, Erasinus reached out toward Callidora in Paulus’s arms.

“She must die.”

Paulus stood frozen, his hands still raised from moments before when he had been holding Callidora, watching his father walk away with the girl.

His head was filled with the thought that this wasn’t right, yet he couldn’t move.

‘And what will you do about it?’

A voice in his head spoke.

‘Defy your father? You?’

Paulus had no answer.

If one had to decide whether his father’s or his own judgment was correct, it was unquestionably his father’s.

His father was a man who always made the right decisions. Paulus, on the other hand, was nothing but a disappointment to the man he respected.

He had never been able to do what the world considered the greatest virtue — to become an excellent son and repay his parents’ devotion.

In truth, all his siblings were in the same position. His lazy older brother Nonus and his sickly sister Vibia had long been cast out of their father’s favor.

Only Paulus, who so closely resembled their father, had been the exception. Erasinus had once placed all his hopes in him, giving him full support.

But when Paulus was past the age of ten, it was discovered that he too was flawed.

As his divine power grew stronger, he began to have seizures at the mere sight of a flash of light.

For a member of Ignitus, who must wield the power of fire all his life, it was no different from a death sentence.

“Was it acquired later?”
“It’s a mental condition, my lord.”
“I’ve never denied it was mental. I asked if it was acquired later.”
“…It may be.”

Paulus had never forgotten the look of despair on his father’s face when he heard the physician’s answer.

Erasinus had not given up on his youngest son immediately. He tried everything to cure him.

But at some point, Paulus began to sense that, to his father, his condition was more than just the suffering of a beloved child. Still, he had no choice but to obey.

Yet despite all efforts, the day came when he collapsed during a friendly match against a rival house.

“Save me, Father! Please! Please save me!”
“I want to live, Father! I’ll try harder! Please, hold on to me!”

At last, Erasinus decided his son was no longer worth keeping alive.

He turned away, leaving Paulus to be swept away in the rapids of the river.