Episode 77. cake (6)

At the beginning of the semester, when Professor Ian was accused of being a demon.

Louise Sepia, who was caught up in the incident and destroyed the Saint Stica Cathedral, is one of the few students who knows the identity of Karin, who disguised herself as a saint.

She could still vividly recall the situation of the day when she risked her life in a chase with the Stica Knights.

Under the ivory moonlight that casts like mist, the ruins of a church with collapsed outer walls.

Wizard hunters and choirs rushed in in silence, and the smell of the sea wafted faintly with flashes through the white windows that pierced the ceiling of the cathedral.

That sight, that smell are also unforgettable memories… . These were not the scenes that were most strongly imprinted on Sepia’s mind.

‘The goddess answered the saint’s prayer. Everyone put down your sword and pray.’

On the back of the saintess who rode down the starlight in Professor Ian’s arms, there were pure white wings.

As the saintess wrapped up all the conflicts inside and outside the cathedral with a white miracle, dawn closed her eyes and bowed her head along with the knights around her without realizing it.

Divine. It was the moment when the priests easily put it in their mouths, and the words that made them yawn just by hearing them touched Sepia’s heart for the first time.

‘I’ve never bowed my head in prayer in my life.’

She is a goddess who did not even respond to anything the student council did on the subject that she was always watching over all the students on campus.

There is no way that Sepia, who was brutally bullied in the middle of Kiruna, which is called the Holy Land, would be in awe of such Elma.

I could understand why the Saint Stica Church praised the little girl as a holy being.

I still don’t think the goddess Elma is benevolent. but… . The saintess deserves everyone’s respect, regardless of the power she possesses.

After that day, whenever Sepia ran into Karin in the dormitory, she would bow her head a little to show her respect.

Sepia, a 3rd year student, might look suspicious if she treated her with respect even in front of others, so only she can recognize her… .

As a result, even though the two did not talk often, they became a unique relationship that felt strangely friendly.

“Raise your arms.”

“… .”

“It’s okay, now look back… . thank god. You are not hurt.”

Sepia looked around Karin, who was being targeted by the thieves, and was relieved when she confirmed that she was safe.

In fact, the believers of the cathedral were not fools, so they did not send their spiritual guide, the saint, to the harsh outside world without any protection.

She had the high-ranking guardians that the high-ranking priests did their best to bring out, and the magic of immediately reporting a crisis situation to the cathedral.

If those boys had done one small cut to her trying to steal… . There must have been an emergency with the Stica Knights, who were on standby for 24 hours just for the saintess, and the situation would have gotten out of control.

‘It wasn’t a fuss that I followed here. Somehow, among the rabbits, I was most worried about this one.’

Ina went to catch the boy who had no left arm, so on the second floor of the large grocery store, only Sepia, Karin, and the boy who had been performing tricks in front of her were left.

After holding one of the pickpocket duo with a magic rope, Sepia looked around and whispered in Karin’s ear, who was squatting in front of her.

“Saintess, when you come to a place like this, people you don’t know should be careful. There are a lot of kids who get drunk on the atmosphere of the shopping district and even steal their emergency money.”

People in the commercial district of Opé praise priests as agents of the goddess and do not treat them carelessly, but some desperate people do not notice such things.

Especially on days like today when ships come into the dock, there are more people in the commercial district than usual, so a lot of dangerous people used to come in as well.

Sending a saintess who was ignorant of the world because she had been confined to the cathedral for so long was, at least in Sepia’s eyes, no different than putting a child out by the river.

“It’s fortunate that pickpocketing ends, but there are many people who suffer worse than that. The Ope commercial district is a tougher place than the Agoge dormitory you are living in right now?”

Karin nodded at Sepia’s nagging, but looked at the boy across her shoulder looking down at the floor with a shadowy face. Sepia sighed.

‘I’m afraid someone might say I’m not a saint… .’

It’s not like being nice is bad, but if you don’t have the ability to understand the other person’s malice and protect yourself… . Recklessly extending a hand first could endanger Karin.

Sepia put her hand on Karin’s shoulder and looked straight into her eyes.

“You should also think about the church people who are waiting for the saintess. How sad they must be if the saintess gets hurt.”

Maybe it’s because she’s the kind of person who always thinks of others first, but Karin didn’t take her eyes off the boy thief until Sepia brought up the story of her followers.

She took a notebook out of her pocket, wrote something down, and showed it to Sepia.

‘I’ll keep that in mind. I’m sorry for causing you concern. And thank you for your help.’

“What do you want him to do?”

‘Looking at the fruit bag, I think it was probably because I was very hungry, but I want to forgive you. I want to hand over the fruits I was trying to steal.’

“Then I will punish him moderately and set him free, so give him some fruit and go visit your friends. You don’t have much time left to go out.”

Karin bowed her head. Sepia smiled and straightened Karin’s disheveled clothes, removing the hair clinging to her sweaty cheeks.

“Because you look so innocent, even those guys are targeting you. Now, write an impression. Make it look scary.”

“… !”

“Well… .”

“… ?”

“… no. Just take a good look around you. I really must go now. Your friends will be looking for you.”

As Sepia said, the sound of Eugene and Jun looking for Karin came from the first floor.

Karin bowed to the captive boy and went down to the first floor, and Sepia approached him, picking up the gifts she had left behind.

“Hey, what’s your name? I’m sepia.”

“It’s Jack.”

“Looking at your stunts earlier, you look like a member of a famous evil troupe here. that’s right?”

“… Yeah.”

“I understand your situation roughly. that person… . No, he said he forgave you too. But, did you really have to steal it? Couldn’t you just tell me you’re so hungry? You don’t even know how you’ll be treated if you touch a priest here.”

“… .”

“Even if you just asked for help, he was a kid who could give you everything he had right now. They told me to give them all the things I have in my hands right now. Anyway, I’ll just skip it this time, so thank you. next time-”

“Should I thank him? Or, dear Elma? Should I be grateful that a girl who would never starve had to throw away food for a beggar like me because her luggage was too much… ? Because other people have a lot to eat… . You can just give me some of this.”

When I looked into Jack’s empty eyes.

Sepia gave no other answer, and Jack began to vent his core anger.

“Did you tell me to ask for help? My friend Bill had his arm cut off for holding out his dirty hands while begging for something to eat. Why, should we always be grateful for the prosperous favor we throw at us. Why do we have to be thankful for the piece of hard bread thrown at us when we gather in front of the church from dawn, and why should we only be thankful for the clergy who treat us as beggars when we try to enter the church? ! why… .”

“Little boy.”

Sepia recalled seeing something like Jack’s eyes.

When the leading members were brutally lynched, when I broke the bathroom mirror with the feeling that I would rather die if this was the case.

On the other side of the cracked and refracted mirror, the swampy eyes were just like Jack’s now.

“I, like you, had a time when I hated other people to death. When I’m really on the edge of a cliff, I hate the hypocrites who only watch from behind the scenes more than the real bad guys.”

“… .”

“But isn’t it? That there were people out there who really wanted to help me? If you hate everyone, you won’t even recognize the people who try to help you.”

Sepia, who once hated Kiruna’s students and the goddess, recalled the conversation she had with Karin after a long time.

It was a night when the stars that rose in late spring were twinkling in Kiruna Chapel.

* * *

“What is this?”

It’s been two weeks since the goddess answered Karin’s prayer.

Sepia, who had borrowed a lot of books and papers from the Central Library, sat on her dormitory bed and tilted her head at the arrival of a letter with no name on it.

‘Dear Kidney Wizard.’

The handwriting on the letters was round and crooked.

However, the content was mostly similar, but it contained a request to come to the cathedral with the saintess during vacation and show her magic.

“Ah, that’s it. I suddenly said what kind of kidney it is.”

Sepia was finally able to grasp the situation.

When the casting of magic was blocked by the singing of the San Stika choir, the children hiding in the cathedral seemed to hear the sound of mana spurting out of the body and shouting.

‘Kidney!’ ‘Left Gan!’ It was also written that a bizarre game that makes the same sound is in vogue.

“What do people who don’t know anything think when they see it… .”

Somehow embarrassed, Sepia fanned her face with stationery and began to think about what to write in response to these numerous fan letters.

It was not difficult to put on a magic show in front of the children, but the problem was that the place was a cathedral.

Sorcerers and theologians have long shunned each other, but all of a sudden I’m in the middle of the church and messing with the eyes of young priests with magic?

Saint Presen Cathedral, which is relatively tolerant of magic, would not allow such disrespect.

“I think it would be embarrassing if I just refused or ignored it. then… .”

I have no choice but to ask the owner of the cathedral directly.

Having concluded that, Sepia glanced at the clock hanging on the wall.

11 p.m. It was time for Saint Stika believers to worship.

‘Why do night worship times differ for each cathedral?’

According to the books that Sepia borrowed today, the night service at Saint-Ballain Cathedral was fixed at 3:00 in the morning.

All believers who attend that church must wake up at 3:00 in the morning, pray to the goddess, and then go back to bed.

“Just thinking about it is terrifying. What are you doing that for?”

As she moved stealthily from the agoge corridor to the chapel, avoiding the supervisor’s eyes, Sepia remembered what was written on the books and papers borrowed today.

All of them were books on theology and saints, but no matter how much I thought about them, Sepia couldn’t accept them.

In particular, the saints, in her eyes, were no different from discarded toilet paper wiping away the darkness of the believers.

Is the grace of the goddess so significant that a girl has to be forcibly turned into a blank sheet of paper?

Not so with Sepia.

‘If there really was a goddess living in this school, she would have been watching everything that happened to me by the student council.’

Then, even if he couldn’t help himself, would it have been so difficult to send a signal to save a suffering girl through theology students like Holden?

To Sepia, Elma was a cold being to the point of hating her indifference.

‘Why the hell do people in the cathedral rely on the goddess? Because I don’t know the truth?’

Sepia, who had been cursing Elma inwardly all the way to the chapel, and who had just arrived, quietly peeked inside.

The only Saint-Stika follower in the school was silently praying to an unanswered goddess.