125 – idiot

Fearing that the god would leave us, we ripped off the wings, cut the body into pieces, and crammed everything into the delicate girl’s body.

A strange will recited by Bishop Lancel, who passed away several years ago, just before his death.

It wasn’t long before Beltane fully understood the true meaning of those words.

Originally, it has been said that the quality of a saintess is divided into how well she can maintain a clean body and a noble spirit worthy of receiving God’s grace.

It was one of the church’s truths widely preached throughout the system under the leadership of the Holy See, and of course there was a time when Beltane had no doubts about such teachings.

Because she was the one who led the practice of the Archbishop’s teaching that only pure beings undefiled during secular times were worthy to bear the name of a saint.

But this was half right and half wrong.

Even if it was a sincere nun who had lived her whole life praying to God, even if she was a street vagabond who had never listened to God’s teachings in her entire life, it didn’t really matter.

If anyone were to be violated by that vicious light called the baptism of God, it would be clear that anyone would be transformed into a pure white existence without an inch of dirt.

The Vatican’s method of finding potential saints was quite different from what was known to the public.

First, there is a process called selection.

A dungeon called the Devil’s Pit that contains all the harmful things that exist in this world.

The high-purity magic extracted from it is purified in the form of a plague called ‘Curse’ and spreads throughout the system.

The main targets are rural villages with a large number of children of the right age, or slums teeming with orphans who have lost their parents.

It’s safe to say that a ruined orphanage was literally the best place.

After that, after culling out the surviving children from the area ravaged by such a plague, approach their parents and take them over with the flattery that your child is qualified to become a saint.

For my child to become a saint is to be accepted as the highest honor for those who live in this system.

Parents who refuse this are rare.

It was not uncommon for aristocratic parents to bribe high-ranking priests and ask for recommendations for their children to become saints.

Fools.

When he first found out about such a fact, Beltane said it unintentionally.

The ugly truth of the baptism ceremony that everyone in the system admired was to select the one who showed the most outstanding sensitivity and the holy power that brought out the remains of the first saint as a medium among the handful of girls that were gathered like that.

Hundreds of people in this process. Although many thousands of children are sacrificed.

The head of the Holy See, heavily armed with the cause of bringing peace to the world, did not feel any remorse.

The backlash from bereaved families was a matter of no need to worry.

Even if only the children with outstanding vitality were carefully selected, giving the power of a god to an ordinary human body was impossible unless their souls, personalities, and egos rooted in this world were completely removed.

Therefore, except for a few cases, no one could find a person who fully remembered their existence even after the baptism ceremony was over.

Yes, as if it never existed in this world in the first place.

Even their real parents forgot the fact that they had children. There was no need for the Vatican to expend effort in post-processing of this.

That’s worse than death. It was the so-called extinction.

The atrocities of the Holy See, which deprived innocent girls of even the minimum right to life, intensified Beltane’s anger.

However, the anger of the powerless is just firewood that fuels the embers of helplessness.

Even Beltane, who was called the prodigy of the century, was able to save his life from the demons of the Vatican because of pure luck.

In order to protect their one and only younger brother from the reckless crowd that surrounded them, they clearly remembered the courageous step forward to be baptized first.

However, right after that, like a water balloon that a child constantly creates, the intense pain as if her brain was being rubbed by someone transcendent, instantly shattered her clear mind and resolve.

My memories after that were quite vague.

Concepts and knowledge never seen before in life.

While unfamiliar visions that can only be seen as belonging to the other world are eating away their very existence.

It was because the thin younger brother he wanted to protect stood in front of him from the ruthless actors, and instead, only the image of him trying to protect himself was spreading layer by layer on the clouded retina.

”I… I’ll do it before my sister…!”

At the end of that sonorous echo, Beltane’s consciousness was completely engulfed in the darkness creeping up from the corner of his field of vision.

However, even at this moment, many years after that, Beltane’s sky-blue eyes were following him with his gray-colored memories of that day imprinted on them.

◈◈◈

how much do you sleep

From the body that felt dozens of times heavier than usual and the vision that was seldom clear, Beltane estimated his physical condition.

For her, who always suffers from chronic fatigue due to overwork, it has been a long time since fainting while working has been treated as a kind of nap.

Because of this, Beltane’s thought circuit was more like an act of checking how much more a broken robot could move in the future, rather than worrying about his own body.

”Ugh…”

A headache that passed through his temple for an instant twisted Beltane’s brow.

A whitish moan mixed with the dusky silence for a while, and the sudden pain and silence gradually brought up memories she had forgotten for a while.

”That, yes! Well Na!”

The head lifted up like a spring that gathered power.

Beltane hurriedly looked around like someone who had lost something, but the only thing he could find in the dark room was the dim moonlight filtering through the crack in the window.

Using the desk next to the bed as support, she struggled to get up.

However, it was not enough to support her whole body in place of her weak legs with her slender arms that swayed incessantly.

Clink!

”Wow!”

The sound of something breaking and breaking left an ominous ringing in the ears, and the faint pain that pierced her palm tried to distract her mind again.

The memory just before fainting, which became noticeably clearer as his consciousness became clearer, gave Beltane an unknown power even if he lost consciousness right now.

”Oh, no. Misunderstanding. Rage’s priest… Well I… Our Welna didn’t do anything wrong…”

I’m in a situation where I’m out of power just by controlling my body right now.

From her dry lips, pleas for someone’s defense flowed nonstop.

The shocking vision he saw right before he lost consciousness.

The horrific scene of the man rejecting the saintess of his own will was the worst thing Beltane wanted to avoid among the many hypotheses he had ever imagined.

Because he was the only one

I searched and searched priests all over the system like teeth, searching for people like him.

That futile effort only reminded her of the reality that there was no substitute for him, at least in this system.

”ha····. ha····.”

In Beltane’s vision, who had grown accustomed to the darkness, her blood-stained palms were slowly revealed.

A stab wound caused by breaking a water cup lying on the desk.

Even in pitch-black darkness, the scars that sharp glass fragments ferociously cut through the path of blood seemed clear at a glance that someone was in desperate need of a helping hand.

”Oh, no····!”

Sky blue eyes swaying with emotions of intense agitation.

Writhing in deep pain, this unique song-eup.

But everything she sprang up now wasn’t from her wounds.

Like a snake that found its prey, the dark red blood that leaked from her fingertips stained the white paper lying everywhere red.

Suddenly, the moonlight leaning over slowly illuminated the black writing in the middle of the paper.

Resignation.

Beltane, who fully acknowledged the familiar phrase written in the man’s handwriting with both eyes, hurriedly stood up.

Her body, which could not fully move without a place to lean on, was hit in the air and occasionally rolled on the floor, but she didn’t care at all.

Because I had to fix it.

Because I had to right the wrongs as soon as possible before it was too late.

”Ray… Rage’s priest…!”

At first glance, the two white hands clutching the cool doorknob looked as if they were trying to grab onto something.