Chapter 3
Translator: Yonnee
The mottled spots were concentrated in the area around his groin first, but they gradually expanded and caused skin lesions. And, eventually, his skin soon started to rot and gave off a horrible odor.
Not only did yellow pus flow out of his skin, but the bridge of his nose also slowly melted and sank. And apart from that, his tongue hardenedevery sound he made was closer to an animals groans than a human beings speech.
Six months after the onset of the symptoms, his face became misshapen enough that he could no longer be recognized as human.
It was a typical case of leprosy.
Agness mother-in-law had long since succumbed to madness.
Lunacy devoured her mother-in-laws soul day in and day out, and she would lash out in violence many times.
When Agnes had no choice but to leave the house, she always had to tie her mother-in-laws hand with a leather strap and attach it to the doorknob.
She knew that it was inhumane, but there was no other way.
She did not know when her mother-in-laws madness would come out, or what form it would take.
Despite all her care and attention to her family, something terrible happened this spring.
Agnes was away for a while, and she had to leave her mother-in-law and the old womans son alone at home.
Her mother-in-law cut the leather strap.
Then she stabbed herself in the right eye with a blade meant for cutting meat.
The old woman screamed in pain, but her son was completely unaware of his mothers agony. Due to his leprosy, he had completely lost his hearing.
And, a while later.
When the daughter-in-law returned home, she found that the sharp blade was already deeply embedded in the mother-in-laws eye.
The old woman writhed and cried tears of blood. Agnes screamed in astonishment.
Besides that, the tragic thing was that the old woman could not even receive proper treatment. They were too poor.
All Agnes could do in that situation was to take a piece of clean cloth and dab it over her mother-in-laws eye.
Despite her efforts, her mother-in-law eventually lost her sight completely in the other eye as well.
The old womans blindness was caused by tetanus.
Even so, this tragic event did not push Agnes to surrender to despair.
She continued to struggle and live for the sake of her blind mother-in-law and her terminally ill husband.
She did not mind doing menial chores, nor hard work in the fields.
When she could not find any work, she begged on the streets.
But even a decrepit life such as this was not easily acquiesced by God.
The world around her had become more and more harsh due to the extended drought, and more beggars overflowed the streets.
Agnes slowly felt despair crawling up to her, and she thought, Can life be more hellish than this
But at that time.
The prophecy came down.
The prophecy that heralded the order to capture the obscene saintess who dared to betray the one and only God of the empire.
At first, Agnes did not pay the prophecy much mind.
Naturally, she thought that it was something that had nothing to do with her.
She was not the saintess.
She knew herself better than anyone else.
As a citizen of the empire, it was natural for her to believe in and serve the Almighty God, but her faith did not run deep.
For those who were hungry, who were thirsty, who were shackled to a life of devastation Gods glory was all but useless.
But the rumors about the saintess became more and more detailed. Agnes slowly noticed that something was not right.
Hadnt they all already witnessed enough of those widespread witch hunts?
Those terrible scenes of pandemonium?
Even now, Agnes could still clearly hear the cries of many, many women. They all screamed and cried that they were not witches, that they had not sinned.
Whenever she witnessed a woman being burned at the stake, dread never failed to visit her. What if she was next?
But then.
A silver-haired saintess.
Living with a blind old woman.
And a spouse suffering from leprosy.
The saintess in the prophecy perfectly described Agness current situation.
She knew for a fact that it was just a coincidence, but the world would not be so kind as to easily believe her.
In the eyes of those who had already been so devastated by the extended drought, humane feelings of philanthropy, love or benevolence no longer existed in this plane of existence.
An instinctive fear ran through Agnes. Before the rumors could spread even further, she decided to run away, packing up only a few household goods.
Of course, her husband and mother-in-law had difficulties in moving, so she sold the rest of their assets to hire a cart puller.
At first, the cart puller refused to carry a filthy leper in his cart, but when he heard about Agness pitiful situation, he soon silently helped them move.
Perhaps this was the final act of humanity that Agnes would ever receive.
Thus, they managed to move to a new village, and they lived in an especially remote part of the forest.
Since then, the whole family just lived in hiding, reducing their presence from the world.
Her husbands leprosy and her mother-in-laws lunacy got worse and worse.
Agnes herself suffered from hunger day after day. She became so malnourished to the point that her bones were clearly jutting out.
Maggots began to fester in her husbands flesh. His breaths also became more laborious, his wheezing breaths pointing to the supposition that he might have contracted a lung disease.
Seizures started becoming more common with her mother-in-law as well. The old woman would writhe and convulse as if she had become possessed by a demon.
A leper for a husband, and a lunatic for a mother-in-law.
As her life was now devoid of all hope, Agnes got ready for the day. She put on a robe and left the house.
She needed to get some food on the table for her starving family.
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