Why must sin taste so bitterly sweet (fyozai)

Chapter 3

Word count: 2122

"And then, as we all know, our Lord created the earth as we know it. Creating us all in his image in the hopes that his creations may one day be just as great as he is, though unfortunately some people living upon the surface of our Lord's beautiful creation have become lost. They have given themselves in to the beckoning image of sin; they have given up the purity that our Lord so generously bestowed upon them at birth and sullied it, some doing so unknowingly, others doing so purposefully. It is important to learn the distinction between these two types of sinner, one may reconcile with our Lord and be forgiven with guidance from the welcoming embrace of people like us, our Lord's faithful messengers. The other is beyond the help of even the best among us-vile creatures that seek out sin, whose souls have become infected and fester with it at their very core-only our Lord is able to bring them true salvation, and so such sinners are the ones we send directly to our Lord above. Entrusting them to his capable hands to rid them of the impurities plaguing them, to set them free, and welcome them into his warm embrace. Now that we've completed our recap, let us move onto the preparations that each of these sinners go through in order to give them the best chance possible at properly reconciling with our Lord," came the monotonous, dry voice of Fyodor's religious studies teacher as he paced around the front of the class.

Fyodor sat in the very back row of the classroom, a seat which he had made sure to secure by arriving early on their first day for two reasons: one being that he was less likely to be called upon in class; the other was that with the angle at which his desk stood and thanks to the many desks ahead of his own, you couldn't see underneath his desk very well from the front of the room. Fyodor, of course, took full advantage of this, deciding to reclaim his lost reading time as he sat with a book open on his lap and his eyes glued to the page, resting his face in his hand upon the desk so as to not seem too conspicuous. He already knew all he needed to know about the preparations; his father had even had him perform some of them himself when he was younger, saying it was to prepare him for when he took over his father's title and responsibilities, including overseeing the preparation process.

His father had always been adamant that Fyodor would take his place when he became too old to perform his duties himself; it was what he'd been told would be his future for as long as he could remember. It had been set in stone the moment he had left his mother's womb and was identified as male, a single path lay stretched out ahead of him, a path that his parents had painstakingly carved out for him and made sure to lead him down as thoroughly as they could. He'd never once been asked if this was the future he wanted, as this was the future he would have. The one the Lord had already laid out for him.

"Some of you may be called upon to take part in these preparations or even in the ceremonies themselves in the future!" The teacher droned on, beginning to walk down the aisle between the desks with purpose in his strides. "And so, I suggest certain people pay closer attention!" He gritted out as he reached his destination and slammed his hands down on Fyodor's desk, a sharp glare fixed on the student's face. The sudden noise suddenly dragged Fyodor from his world of safety and sent him plummeting back into his religious studies class as his body gave an involuntary jolt. Disgruntled, he looked up from his book to meet the teacher's glare with one of his own, the two remaining still in a sort of standoff for a good two or so minutes before his teacher looked away from him with a scoff. "Sometimes I wonder how you're Mikhail's son." The man muttered as he held out his hand expectantly, his gaze flicking from Fyodor's eyes to the book on his lap. With a sigh, Fyodor begrudgingly handed the book over, dropping it on the man's hand more so than he dropped it into it. The teacher then returned to the front of the room, leaving Fyodor's book on his desk, before he continued with the lecture.

With his book gone and him already knowing everything they'd be covering in this lecture, Fyodor decided to put his head down on his desk and spend a little time in his thoughts, his mind eventually wandering back to that day's upkeep duty.