The Kind of Evil

‎Rasmus stood in front of Cardinal Eros, staring down at him as he held his cane with both hands. Astrea entered the room reluctantly, and then Javi closed the door in front of him and locked it. The room they were in was an empty storage room, deep in the temple which had barely anyone visited the room or the area of the temple.

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‎"Count... You're not going to hurt him, right?" Astrea asked as she looked at Cardinal Eros on the ground, unconscious.

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‎"That depends, Lady Astrea. I don't find joy in hurting someone, nor do I want to do it. However, it's necessary to gather the information that I need. I won't hurt him if he chooses to speak and answer all my questions truthfully. That's what I can say," Rasmus said as he pressed his cane on Eros' throat, making it harder for him to breathe.

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‎Astrea was about to stop Rasmus from harming Eros, but then Eros regained his consciousness and gasped for air. She immediately moved her wheelchair back, away from Rasmus and Eros. She wanted to stop Rasmus, but knowing Eros planned to kill her, she felt conflicted.

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‎"Wha... What are you doing?! Where... Where am I..." Eros slowly crawled on his back, moving away from Rasmus as he looked around.

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‎Rasmus pulled out the dagger that was hidden underneath Eros's robe. When Eros saw it, his face became pale as cold sweat began to appear on his forehead. An old man who seemed to have less than a decade to live was scared and panicking.

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‎"Answer me truthfully and you can live without having to feel any physical pain," Rasmus said as he stared at the dagger that seemed to be specially made.

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‎"Yes! Yes! I will tell you everything! Please don't hurt me!" Eros slowly went to his knees and clasped his hands together as he looked up at Rasmus.

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‎"What were you planning to do with this?" Rasmus asked as he stared into Eros's eyes with a cold gaze and played with the dagger in his hand.

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‎"I was only trying to threaten Her Holiness... We needed to make a move against that demon called Nemu! We need Saint Aurelia to guide the people! Prevent them from going astray from our God!" Eros answered, his voice trembling and cracking with fear.

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‎Astrea was confused by Eros's answer and Rasmus's information which contradicted each other. Rasmus said that Eros was planning to kill her, but then Eros said that he only wanted to threaten her. She looked at both of them and wondered who lied, but then she remembered something about Rasmus.

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‎"(He never lied...)" Astrea thought as she looked down at her weak body covered in bandages on a wheelchair.

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‎"You wanted to bring salvation to the people by harming the very person who can give them salvation? You really have a funny sense of humor," Rasmus said as he glanced at the tip of the dagger and noticed there was a thin layer of liquid on the blade. "Then who gave you this dagger?" He asked.

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‎Eros couldn't hold his sigh of relief, and his breath calmed down a bit so that Rasmus could see it. He didn't expect Rasmus to swallow the words he said without questioning his answers at all. He felt a bit relieved and realized he could get out of this situation if he put himself off the big picture, letting the others take the fall.

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‎Astrea was confused when she noticed that as well, and wanted to question Rasmus for changing the subject without even questioning Eros's words. She knew Rasmus wouldn't be that clueless, so she thought that there must be a reason behind it.

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‎"The dagger? It was Archbishop Wersel! He gave me the dagger this morning. I swear to God that I'm telling the truth!" Eros answered.

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‎Rasmus kept his stoic expression as he stared at Eros, observing his behavior and expression. He then turned his head to look at Astrea, wondering if she knew what kind of motive Wersel had to pull off something like this. However, Astrea shook her head, surprised that Archbishop Wersel, one of the most respected and liked Archbishops in the Holy Nation would do something like that.

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‎"Did you know that this dagger has been coated in poison?" Rasmus asked as he brushed the dagger on the table, leaving a faint trail of liquid on the table's surface.

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‎"Poison?! I don't know anything about it!" Eros answered immediately and put on a panicked and confused expression on his face. "He didn't mention anything about poison. If I hurt Her Holiness, she might die..." he looked devastated and shocked at the same time.

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‎Rasmus never changed his expression for one bit, and when Eros stole a glance at him, Eros looked anxious. Rasmus then put down the dagger on the table, and slowly took a seat on an old chair.

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‎"Can you prove your words that Archbishop Wersel is truly the main culprit of this scheme?" Rasmus asked as he stared at the dagger.

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‎"Yes! I do! I have every hidden message he sent me secretly in the past few weeks! I can show you everything!" Eros nodded repeatedly and slowly slouched his back, no longer in fear or panic.

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‎Astrea finally saw from her perspective that Rasmus didn't confront the lie because it was easier and faster for Eros to cooperate. Rasmus bought the first lie, putting Eros in a safe space, and then made Eros reveal the truth willingly and completely shift the blame to Wersel. She was completely shocked and petrified by Rasmus's mastery in understanding human nature.

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‎"Tell me where you keep those, and that man over there will take them all," Rasmus said as he pointed at Javi. "But if you lied, you should be prepared for the consequences," he glanced at Eros with a cold gaze.

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‎"Of course! I won't lie!" Eros nodded repeatedly.

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‎Eros began to reveal where he had hidden all the letters in his chamber. As soon as he gave the exact location, Javi left the storage room and went to Eros's chamber to find the letters.

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‎"I really don't know about the poison! I wouldn't agree to help him if I knew. I did it because I believed it was the right thing to do. We are in a time where we need to make a move, not idling around like this..." Eros began to pour his mind willingly because he knew he had everything to prove his innocence.

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‎Rasmus didn't say a word even after listening to Eros's blabbering. Eros noticed the changes in the way Rasmus looked at him and how Rasmus began to ignore his words, uninterested. He started to panic again, but in Astrea's eyes, Rasmus had been like that from the very beginning. The illusion of safety that Eros felt slowly crumbled, and he realized he had been digging his own grave willingly, and the whole conversation was only giving away more information.

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‎"Seeing that you're bad at lying, it seems you were a devoted follower of God. However, it seems you have taken a different path and used God's name to justify your action," Rasmus said as he grabbed the dagger and got up from the chair.

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‎"Wait... Wait!" Eros began to sweat again as he clasped his hands together, pleading for his life. "I'll tell you everything! I'll tell you the truth, I swear on my name! On God!" He begged as he lowered his head and raised his clasped hands above his head.

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‎"Oh? So you were lying? Which part?" Rasmus asked, staring down at Eros with his brows slightly raised.

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‎Eros's heart raced so fast that he could feel the pulsing behind his eyes. His body began to tremble and his breath shortened when he realized he wasn't only digging his own grave, he was about to bury himself in it.

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‎Astrea, in her wheelchair, witnessed how Rasmus watered the lies, and made it bloom proudly, and Rasmus stood there ready to pick it up. The lies were no longer hidden, it was fully open, exposed, and the last thing that would happen was to see the lies wilt in his hand.

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‎"I knew about the poison... It wasn't just Archbishop Wersel, there were more. I also lied about planning to threaten Her Holiness... I was planning to kill her..." Eros answered, completely defeated, knowing that telling the truth and continuing the lies wouldn't matter.

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‎"The wyverns attack, this isn't a coincidence, isn't it?" Rasmus asked as he held the dagger firmly.

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‎"It's not a coincidence... we knew this would happen. We were planning to take this opportunity to get rid of Her Holiness Astrea...." Eros answered, muttering his truth with a blank expression as he looked down at the dusty floor.

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‎Astrea shed a tear when she heard the truth, and she couldn't believe how the Holy Nation had become so corrupted. She couldn't think straight, and the storage room made it worse for her. But suddenly, Rasmus opened the door widely for her, knowing that she wanted time to think and to grab fresh air.

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‎Astrea pushed her own wheelchair out of the storage room, not even batting an eye at Eros. Once she was outside and stared out the window, her mind was blank, and tears didn't stop coming out of her eyes. Rasmus glanced at her as he closed the door in front of him, locking himself with Eros in the storage room.

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‎Astrea sat in her wheelchair with a blank expression for minutes until she was startled by the screaming from inside the storage room. She panicked and realized she had just left Eros alone with Rasmus in there. She had never heard such a scream of pain and the gargling voice of Eros begging for his life.

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‎Astrea slowly covered her ears, turning a blind eye and trying her best not to hear the scream. She was powerless, and she didn't have the ability to prevent Rasmus from doing what he was planning to do.

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‎"God..." Astrea muttered, her trembling voice as she pleaded to God for the mess in her head and what she chose to ignore.

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