The Secret Code of Monsters.

Chapter 377: Compromise
The reason why Rebecca Fiennes was tried publicly was because the case involved two important people.

Madeline Terry, the daughter of the Arbiter of the Golden Libra, and John Shelley, the son of the Shelley family.

The Church could not allow the barbarians of the Inquisition to throw these two precious creatures into a damp and cold dungeon and inflict crude tortures on them according to their crude and monotonous imaginations - that would put the Holy Cross at a disadvantage in subsequent confrontations.

Especially when facing the Just Church, they must not give the other party the opportunity to occupy the moral high ground.

and so.

Rebecca Fiennes would confess her sins in the nave, beneath the huge, prestigious cross.

in public.

The Private League and the Church of Justice will send people to witness the trial, including the head of Scotland Yard - they will of course also invite Thomas Terry and James Shelley, but it is not certain whether these two will be present.

Under the cover of night, several carriages filled with executioners, escorting the middle carriage, filed out of the Tribunal and headed for the real Holy Cross.

Frankly speaking, executives rarely go to church.

Although they believed in the same god, differences arose because of their different perspectives and ways of interpreting the doctrine.

Besides, religion is just religion.

It relies on reality.

And the reality is that, since Victoria came to power, Holy Cross has been divided.

"Those fools always have so many wonderful ideas in their heads." The crow's low voice failed to reach another gap in the glass - as they moved forward, a carriage passed by.

……

"How should the little mouse be fed?"

The man and woman sitting opposite each other in the carriage were the two people the executioners were chasing.

John Shelley and Madeleine Terry -

No, it should be said that it was John Shelley and the strange woman in the skin of 'Madeleine'.

She sat in the stable carriage, facing the round mirror on the dining table, carefully sticking the thin human skin.

At their feet curled up a girl who had been knocked unconscious and had her hands and feet tied.

"You have no choice now, my Mr. John, my dear 'husband' - I told you a long time ago, I told you at the beginning, right?" The woman seemed to be over seventy years old, and there seemed to be a lot of dark brown dirt hidden in the wrinkles on her face.

But the half of her face that was 'pasted' looked very young.

Madeline Terry is not big.

“…Skinchanger.” John’s face turned pale.

"This is the name I told you, dear." Madeline turned the pasted half of her face towards the man, smiling and busy: "You are just a mortal, you understand the name of a certain ring, and learn it like a ritualist - didn't I fulfill your wish?"

indeed.

'Madeleine' fulfilled John's wish - to have divine power instead of being a ritualist.

He did.

Young Shelley rolled up his sleeves, and the brown pustules on his forearms that expanded and contracted like hearts reminded him that there was really no turning back.

"You tricked me."

"I didn't plot against anyone, dear. From the beginning to the end, I just wanted that box - it's your fault that you were as stupid as a pig and your father noticed something was wrong. Otherwise, I should have gotten what I wanted long ago..."

She narrowed her eyes, revealed her face from behind the mirror, and said in a bad tone: "You promised me to give me the box..."

"It's your problem!" John was angry. "If you hadn't seduced me, taught me to eat people, and led me into a cult, I would have given you the box long ago!"

Before Madeline and John were targeted by the executors, James Shelley noticed his son's abnormality:

He refused to hand over the mystery box to him, and instead planned to find someone else and find another way to get rid of this precious treasure...

How can that work?
"You are so stupid, John. That's your father, and you are his son - how can you be so stupid as to ask me to teach you step by step how a son can get what he wants from his father?"

"You never learned it in all these years, did you?"

The woman's voice kept changing.

Sometimes she sounds like a young girl, clear and sharp; sometimes she sounds like an old woman with drooping eyelids, hoarse and low.

When John Shelley began actively cannibalizing people, there was no need for her to hide her identity.

He and she, now riding in the same carriage, on the same ship.

"At least I'm Shelley."

"Look, you don't know Shelley as well as I do." Madeline sneered: "If you are really caught, will he offend the Holy Cross for you?"

John Shelley said nothing.

"You now, just like before, have no choice."

Madeline put her face on and pressed the mirror.

She was young again.

"Don't show me that face of yours... When did you eat her? Half a year ago? Are all cultists as disgusting as you?"

"A truly mature man won't let anger control his emotions, dear," Madeline smiled voluptuously, stepping on the curled-up girl at her feet with her legs, in a good mood: "I found her in Bristol - in a bathroom, guess what she was doing?"

Madeline leaned her head forward.

“…She was ascending to heaven while chanting her father’s name.”

John Shelley deadpanned.

"You don't chew your intestines like this," Madeline teased. "No matter how you look at it, you are now a real cultist - cultists should be burned to death, don't you think?"

"I can also kill you and tell my father everything."

"Yes, that's right." Madeline nodded: "But I'm afraid that neither you nor your father can do anything to me... Oh, are you willing to take a gamble? Before you report me and I am burned to death by the executioner, I can save your life and your father's life?" John raised his head: "My father is a ritualist."

"Yes. However, it was a ritualist who was poisoned by the Dragon Poison."

Madeline flicked her pale pink nails.

"'Dragon poison', do you know what it is? A deadly poison remains in his body - it turns high-level ritualists into low-level ritualists, and teaches low-level ritualists to become apprentices... If it weren't for this poison, I wouldn't dare to easily provoke Shelley and the Private Alliance..."

John was stunned.

He suddenly remembered what his father had said, that Mr. Geoffrey Banks and a group of ritualists from the alliance had been seriously injured when they killed a monster and seized treasures a few months ago, and that they had not recovered yet.

That is why the alliance is eager to throw this hot box out.

Father…

Poisoned too?

"It seems you don't know anything."

Madeline laughed:

"The ignorance and stupidity of mortals are fully reflected in you."

John Shelley had no time to get angry. For a moment, his memories of the past came together: because the upper-level ritualists of the private alliance were injured, they had to give up the puzzle box.

At the same time, the evil monster got the news from somewhere and came to the door.

he…

If he could hand over the puzzle box earlier...

Maybe, nothing will happen.

John Shelley.

You caused all this.

As 'Madeleine' said.

The ignorance and stupidity of mortals are fully reflected in him.

But, but...

His thoughts suddenly paused, he opened his hands, held his eyeballs and slowly moved them down.

The curled up, curly-haired, green-eyed girl.

A thief who followed them and was caught by Madeline.

but…

The human intestines...

and eyeballs.

It’s really delicious…

He licked his lips and felt his stomach rumble again.

He is hungry.

he…

I'm starving to death.

"Look." Madeline seemed to know him clearly. She lifted her chin with a smile and pulled aside the curtains. "I don't understand. What's wrong with this? I didn't force you to believe in a god you don't want to believe in."

"I didn't force you to eat anything you didn't want to eat."

"I didn't force you to recite any scripture or perform any ceremony."

"I didn't do anything to you, John Shelley."

"I'm not like your father who asks you for this and that all the time."

"It's all your choice..."

"Even now, you can stop the carriage and turn to the Court of Inquisition - you know where it is, right?"

Madeline shook her skirt and stared at the unpleasant-looking young man attentively.

She has seen too many people like this.

No one, no one can get rid of appetite.

That comes from a hunger in the soul.

Just taste it once...

I can never let it go.

“…You can’t hurt my father.” John compromised.

"Of course, of course, I don't need to offend the private alliance... Although, they are in a bad situation now." Madeline showed two rows of fangs: "I only want the box, not your life... As for after this, you leave with me, or stay in London for trial..."

"That's your business, isn't it?"

John bowed his head and said nothing.

He was going home to take the bank notes with him.

He couldn't be in London.

There was no room for a cultist in the Shelley household.

(End of this chapter)