Chapter 47: Holy Blood (1)

A voice whispered in my ear.

But for some reason, its tone was trembling slightly.

“Where… are you planning to go?”

I cautiously opened my closed eyes again.

“…..!”

And I flinched inadvertently.

The golden eyes I met up close still exuded a chilling coldness.

However, they were also faintly trembling.

As if anxious, as if confused.

The emotions mixed in her gaze also seeped into her voice, making it quiver.

“If… if I’m abandoned by you too… I….”

“……”

I was a little surprised.

To be honest, the image of ST in my mind until now had been that of a steel-willed person.

From her demeanor of not even batting an eye on battlefields where a single moment of carelessness could mean death.

I had only thought of her as a superhuman possessing transcendent strength, mental fortitude, and intuition.

But this was the first time she had shown such a vulnerable side so openly.

Her slightly drooping eyelids, her pathetically pursed lips, and even the desperation evident in her expression.

ST was unabashedly revealing her human anxieties.

“…….”

The moment I saw that, I realized.

She, too, was ultimately a person like me.

A being who felt emotions like anyone else, and who definitely had a vulnerable part in her heart.

Realizing this belatedly, I somehow felt a little pity for her.

‘Perhaps ST… has a trauma about being abandoned by her own side.’

It had been like that since we first met.

A woman, abandoned in a corner of a junkyard, dying miserably.

She had dedicated her life to an organization whose memory was now lost, but the result was a cold-blooded execution.

It wouldn’t have been strange if she had developed deep psychological wounds.

She had been thoroughly betrayed by those she had served with loyalty.

I had saved ST, who had been abandoned like that once, and she had promised to follow me.

Since then, we had weathered countless hardships together.

If I had to pick just one person in this city with whom I had forged the deepest bond, my choice would undoubtedly be her.

And ST would likely feel the same.

I realized that, even without words, our feelings for each other were mutual.

Yet, the instinctive fear that the person she trusted so deeply might cast her aside again…

It was now poignantly reflected beyond her anxiously trembling eyes.

“……”

I felt a little sorry for some reason.

To think ST was scary, what a foolish sentiment that was.

There were others to doubt.

She had always been devoted to me.

To the point where I felt ashamed that I couldn’t reward her more… I was pathetic for having cowered in fear just because she wasn’t acting like her usual self.

So, I quietly reached out my arms, and gently, yet firmly, hugged her slumped shoulders.

“…..!”

ST’s body, embraced in my arms, flinched as if surprised.

As I gently patted her trembling shoulder, I spoke in the kindest voice I could muster.

“What do you mean, I’m leaving?

You must have misheard.

Kyla has been throwing strange jokes around since earlier.”

“…..Is that really true?”

With her face buried in my embrace, she asked again, unable to hide her anxiety.

“Yes, if you want, I can promise you right now.”

“….?”

“I will never disappear without a word.

Even if something like that happens, I’ll be sure to tell ST in advance, so don’t worry.”

Even if it were miraculously possible to transcend dimensions, I had no idea how much preparation would be needed to achieve it at this point.

I vaguely guessed it would be a very long journey.

So, there was absolutely no way I would leave her, or this place, right now.

Later… much later, if such a day were to come, that would be a problem to think about then.

ST muttered in a low voice.

“You’ve definitely promised.”

“Yes, of course.”

We stayed like that for a while, sharing each other’s warmth in an embrace.

After a moment, when I tried to let go of ST, who seemed to have calmed down, she strangely didn’t seem to want to separate.

In fact, it even felt like she was hugging me tighter.

“Just a moment…. Just a little longer, I want to stay like this….”

Her low voice seemed to contain a childlike petulance, mixed with some other emotion.

Finding that somehow endearing, I smiled faintly and patted her back.

“I’ll hug you as much as you want.”

I even felt a sense of joy at seeing a new side of her that I hadn’t known in many ways.

Lost in such thoughts, there was something I hadn’t noticed.

Her golden eyes, which had slowly opened while her face was buried in my shoulder.

The fact that within those pupils, which had regained their usual composure, a distant, chilling glint flashed by for just a moment.

==============

After the misunderstanding was cleared up, my relationship with ST returned to its former atmosphere.

However, there were some minor changes in her attitude.

Like how I would sometimes feel her gaze fixed intently on me.

Or how she would refuse to leave my side even in safe places.

And sometimes, she even tried to follow me into places like the restroom, citing a lapse in security…

I decided to set aside such minor squabbles for now.

It was time to fully concentrate on the church’s affairs.

“…..”

This happened just a moment ago, while I was walking down the corridor of the church.

Every believer I encountered immediately composed themselves reverently upon seeing me.

And they maintained a prayerful silence until I had completely passed.

“……….”

I can assert that this was not a courtesy taught or forced by anyone.

Rather, it was closer to respect stemming from voluntary faith.

After the gas leak incident, at least for the residents of this eastern suburban district, Radiance had truly become the sole deity watching over them.

Therefore, they now treated the ‘Saintess’ with reverence, no longer daring to approach her familiarly.

As you can see, the believers no longer approached me as warmly as before to offer greetings.

However, this by no means indicated a decline in their favorability.

Rather, their emotions seemed to have transcended simple affection and entered the realm of devout worship.

Not only in the church, but also on the streets, in restaurants, and in alleys, people showed similar reactions when I encountered them.

It was to the point where it was difficult to find anyone among the residents who wasn’t a believer of the Church of Radiance.

At least in this eastern suburb, the religion had taken root almost perfectly.

So now, the only way to expand the church’s influence further was to reach out to other districts.

However, there was one problem.

The church’s current cash flow wasn’t very comfortable for launching additional charity projects here.

The church operations were definitely recording a surplus, but it was in the process of reinvesting as much profit as it earned.

As the homeless and the poor on the streets gradually disappeared due to the effects of the charity work, one-dimensional proselytizing methods like distributing food became less effective.

Instead, we were in the process of buying up back-alley real estate to lease to believers and establishing church-affiliated schools and hospitals, thereby connecting faith to daily life in a more intimate and sustainable manner.

Thanks to such plans, our immediate available funds were tight.

The businesses we had seized from the mafia boss were still undergoing acquisition procedures, and their slush funds were also in the process of being laundered.

Over time, these assets would all come into our possession, but as is often the case with criminal organizations’ holdings, they often straddled the line between legal and illegal.

There were quite a few cumbersome processes involved in completely legitimizing the black money and taking over the businesses.

However, we didn’t have the time to wait so leisurely.

Like the recent gas leak incident, you never knew when or what kind of incident might suddenly erupt in this city.

Would I safely return home first?

Or would I be discovered and captured by forces coveting the Saintess’s abilities first?

It felt like a kind of war with time.

Therefore, growing the church’s influence as quickly as possible was the only way to prepare for an uncertain future.

However, as mentioned before, the church currently lacked the funds to conduct additional charity work, which was the basis of proselytizing.

‘Isn’t there some way?’

While pondering such concerns, I was heading down some stairs.

The place I finally arrived at was one of the church’s underground storage rooms, filled with supplies.

In one corner, there were glass bottles sealed in large boxes.

I picked up one of them and fiddled with it for a moment, and the clear mineral water inside instantly transformed into a liquid with a brilliant ruby ​​hue.

It was the power to change water into wine, which had settled within me at some point.

‘But strangely, I can’t seem to control this particular ability as I wish.’

I didn’t know if it was because the number of believers had increased too rapidly, but if I didn’t ‘release’ this ability periodically like this, every liquid I touched would turn into wine in the blink of an eye.

If I didn’t want to spend the whole day intoxicated, I needed to appropriately drain this power each time.

The wine bottles created for that reason were already filling up a display case in a corner of the church’s warehouse.

‘It felt like a waste to just throw them away, so I’ve been collecting them….’

It had piled up like this before I knew it.

I tried to somehow shove the wine bottle I had just created into a gap in the display case where other bottles were tightly packed.

Clatter-, clatter-

When it wouldn’t fit, I habitually looked for another space to organize it while lost in thought.

‘Isn’t there anything valuable that might just fall from the sky for free?’

Then, suddenly, I looked down at the wine bottle in my hand.

“….?”