SiM | Chapter 2

“If there is someone who does such blasphemous things in this holy monastery, God will surely unleash a dreadful curse!”

Andrea’s voice, as he objected, naturally turned sharp as well. In truth, Andrea had vaguely anticipated this future as well.

Johann was right. The abbot, who had grown extremely frail of late, would soon be taken into God’s embrace. Andrea’s future, with his body protected only by relying on that protection, was by no means bright.

“A curse? Are you saying you’ll curse me?”

Johann was always persistent and tenacious, but today he was far more brazen than usual.

“Hey, Andrea. You know I’m Brother Peter’s right hand, the one who’ll be the next abbot, don’t you? I have the power to protect you from the other monks. All you have to do is become someone who shares nights of pleasure with me. Do you still not know how much I love that white, beautiful face of yours, those amethyst eyes, and that hair like strands of gold?”

Johann kept trying to persuade him and stroked Andrea’s pale cheek with a lewd hand. Unable to bear it any longer, Andrea slapped Johann’s hand away with a sharp smack.

“I have no intention of being protected by spreading my legs for you. Go back to your place and do your work.”

When Andrea coldly snapped at him, Johann’s face twisted viciously.

“You… brat with a pretty face and nothing else useful about him…!”

Johann suddenly grabbed Andrea’s long blond hair.

Thud-!

“Ugh…!”

Andrea, whose hair had been seized, was violently thrown under the chair.

“What do you think you’re… mmph!”

As Andrea glared fiercely and protested, Johann clamped a broad palm over his mouth. Then he brought their faces close and smiled with a mean expression.

“Go on, scream if you want. What do you think will happen when the others find out that you, who were once so pure and aloof, have already been dirtied by me? They’ll probably all be drooling and sneaking into your room one by one. So think carefully, Andrea. Do you want to deal with just me, or do you want to be reduced to the monastery’s common latrine?”

Johann whispered in a vile voice and began tearing Andrea’s habit with one hand. The worn and faded habit was ripped apart with pathetic ease in Johann’s grip.

Andrea thrashed his body and struggled to break free from Johann’s hold. But whether it was the tremendous strength of Johann’s build, or because Johann was so worked up at the thought of violating Andrea that he was drawing out even strength he did not have, Andrea could not get away from him at all.

“Mmph! Mmmph!”

Even as he writhed, the clothes kept being torn away. In the end, his long legs, slender waist, and white skin were laid bare in the air. Johann’s eyes gleamed greedily as he kept Andrea’s mouth covered.

“To think you should just leave a body like this alone, tsk. If that old abbot had been ten years younger, he would have violated you countless times before me. No, come to think of it, it’s only because his body can’t keep up. In his mind, he must already have violated you hundreds of times over.”

“Mmph…! Uh… no…! Stop…! Stop it-!”

As Johann groped Andrea’s body like a madman, the hand covering his mouth loosened slightly. Seizing the opening, Andrea began shouting with all his strength. But before he could even cry out properly, Johann covered his mouth again. This time, in his haste, Johann’s hand covered Andrea’s nose too, making it hard to breathe.

“Mmph! Mmmph!”

Thick, rough hands kneaded Andrea’s thigh roughly as they moved upward. Then they soon touched the tender sex between his legs.

“Mmph-!!”

Aside from the nanny who bathed him when he was little, no one’s hands had ever touched that place. At the hands groping his shameful parts, Andrea thrashed like a madman. It was so miserable and humiliating that he would have rather died here and now. If Johann violated him at this moment, the rumor would quickly spread throughout the monastery, and the other monks would also stop at nothing to violate Andrea.

‘Abbot! Kiel…!’

Andrea, drowned in shame, shed tears as he called out to the two of them in his heart.

That was when it happened.

Knock-knock-.

A clear knocking sound rang out at the scriptorium door.

Johann, who had been furiously groping Andrea’s body, visibly flinched and then clamped both hands over Andrea’s mouth.

“Be quiet. If we’re found out, I’ll die too, but before that I’ll kill you first and then die.”

Johann whispered, reeking of foul breath.

Knock-knock-.

The knocking sounded again.

In a monastery that always kept silence and stillness, and in a scriptorium that demanded extreme concentration, it was the sort of knocking that could hardly ever be heard.

The knock that rang out in this instant was Andrea’s only hope of being saved from the current situation. But for some reason, Andrea felt an instinctive sense of wrongness and unease at that brief knock. He even thought that perhaps the nightmare he had had at dawn had foretold something.

“Andrea?”

Someone called Andrea’s name from beyond the door. Soon after, the door creaked open.

“Andr… Johann?!”

The person staring wide-eyed in shock was Peter, an older monk widely regarded as a candidate for the next abbot.

“You… filthy bastard! How dare you do this in the sacred monastery…!”

“B, Brother Peter.”

Johann stammered as he called out to Peter. Peter turned his head back to scan the surroundings, then hurried inside and shut the door.

“Let go of him this instant?!”

“B, but if Andrea screams like this, I… .”

Only now, as fear seemed to surge up at last, Johann said in a tiny voice. Andrea looked at Peter with trembling eyes.

Peter, who was openly known as the next abbot, was one of those who looked at Andrea with greed.

Just as expected, Peter swept his sticky gaze over the white naked body fully exposed through the habit torn to shreds. Andrea shut his eyes tightly, feeling as though it was all over now.

“Andrea.”

Peter called Andrea gently.

“Let’s pretend today’s matter never happened. You wouldn’t want this incident getting out to anyone else either, would you?”

“……”

“Then I promise I’ll protect you even after I become the next abbot. How about it?”

“Truly… ? Can you swear it before God?”

“Yes. I gladly swear it.”

Peter said, kissing the wooden cross around his neck. Peter was a clergyman who had strayed a little from the path, but not a believer so faithless that he would break a vow made to God.

“So, can you promise me?”

Peter asked gently, but with the clear need to hear a positive answer. In this situation, Andrea had no choice but to nod.

When Andrea nodded, Peter smiled kindly. Just then, the scriptorium door opened, and Johann came in, his face flushed red from running all the way here.

“I brought the monk’s habit.”

Johann glanced at Andrea and held out the habit. It was just as worn and tattered as the ones Andrea and the others wore.

“Here. Change into this, and let’s hurry to the abbot.”

Peter took the habit and handed it to Andrea. Andrea quickly changed clothes. As the large, worn habit completely covered his body, he felt a sense of relief, as if he were wrapped in a solid fortress wall.

“Let’s hurry.”

As if they had already delayed too much time, Peter urged him on.