Chapter 58: Holy Blood (12)

The vehicle sent by the Lumina Group arrived at the scheduled time.

It was the same sedan-type AV I had seen before.

Its sleek, streamlined body was a deep, dark color like the night sky, and the windows were tinted so darkly that the inside couldn’t be seen.

“……”

The heavy door opened smoothly, and I cautiously stepped inside.

I was the only one boarding this vehicle.

This time, no security personnel accompanied me.

After all, the place I was heading to was the headquarters of a major corporation.

Having decided to accept this invitation, it wouldn’t have made much difference how many escorts I brought anyway.

If an unforeseen situation were to arise there, ST would be the only one whose protection would be meaningful.

However, I couldn’t take her to a place like a corporate headquarters.

She hadn’t fully regained her memories yet.

If, by any chance, she encountered someone who knew her past… I didn’t know what might happen.

Therefore, I decided to go on this errand alone.

Pssh-

Once I was inside, the door closed automatically.

The interior I observed was far more luxurious than I had anticipated.

As soon as I sat down, the fully automated seat, which detected my body type and adjusted to the most comfortable position, left me speechless.

The refined leather material gently enveloped every part of my body it touched, and the spacious interior boasted enough room for several adult men to ride comfortably.

There was even a small wine bar on one side, making me feel as if I were riding in a luxurious limousine.

“……”

In silence, the vehicle smoothly lifted into the air.

The process was so quiet and vibration-free that it was hard to believe we were flying.

Only the gentle pressure of acceleration on my body and the rapidly passing scenery outside the window attested to our speed.

As the altitude gradually increased, a vast cityscape began to unfold beneath me.

The view of Omega Detroit from the window was of buildings packed tightly together, stretching to the horizon.

A city so massive it couldn’t be taken in at a single glance, even from the sky.

Among them, the density of buildings increased even more as we approached the city center.

High-rise apartments and buildings, pushed to their maximum floor area ratio, stood densely packed as if competing to reach the sky.

Dazzling hologram billboards attached to the exterior walls constantly changed images, scattering brilliant lights.

I felt overwhelmed by the sight of human habitation lights filling every direction—up, down, left, and right.

A veritable Kowloon Walled City of skyscrapers, made possible by advancements in architectural technology.

The night view I had stared at in a daze from a great distance on the day I first set foot in this city was precisely that of the downtown area.

“…..”

That was already several months ago.

So much time had passed since I began staying in this city.

While I was briefly lost in my own thoughts, the AV continued to fly without stopping.

After passing through the scenery for a while longer, we finally arrived at our destination.

A single, colossal structure rose conspicuously even among the already tall buildings of the city center.

Despite its overwhelming size, seeming to reach the clouds, its exterior was quite sophisticated.

A candlestick-shaped building shimmering with only silver frames and sky-blue reinforced glass.

Unlike other buildings, there wasn’t a single messy external billboard to cover maintenance costs.

Only a single logo was engraved there.

LUMINA

While I was admiring the view of the phenomenally large building, the vehicle I was in was already entering a landing pad prepared on the upper floors.

Following the guidance holograms, the vehicle landed smoothly, and as the door opened, an employee in a neat suit greeted me.

He extended a white-gloved hand, as if escorting a lady alighting from a carriage.

“Welcome to Lumina Tower, Evinia-nim. Did you have any discomfort during your journey?”

I smiled awkwardly and replied that I hadn’t.

As I disembarked from the vehicle, the employee began to lead me with a polite gesture.

“Thank you for accepting our invitation, Evinia-nim. Before you meet the chairman, you will need to wait for a short while according to the schedule. I will guide you to a place where you can wait comfortably.”

=========

Following the employee’s guidance, I walked for a while down the corridor connected to the landing pad.

Just walking through the building’s interior for a short time made me feel like I had entered an entirely different world.

Everything was incomparably neat and tidy compared to the suburbs where I had been staying.

The corridor, bathed in soft lighting, was so impeccably clean that not a speck of dust could be seen.

Even a mere corridor seemed far cleaner and more luxurious than my own lodgings… to be honest, I felt a little intimidated.

The reality that I had truly entered the headquarters of a major corporation, and on my own two feet, hit me anew.

“……”

After walking for some time, the attendant stopped in front of a certain door.

“This is the waiting room where you will be staying, Evinia-nim.”

However, before I entered the room, he handed me something and requested my signature.

‘A non-disclosure agreement?’

It was a document stating that I would not disclose anything I saw or heard within the company building to any outside party, and that I could be held legally responsible if I violated this.

“This is a formal procedure, so we ask for your understanding.”

Once I signed the document, he politely took it back and spoke.

“The chairman will call for you shortly. Please wait here until then.”

With that, the employee bowed lightly again and quietly withdrew.

“……”

I took a deep breath for a moment, then opened the door to the waiting room and entered.

What appeared was a space so spacious it could have passed for a banquet hall.

Bottled water, various beverages, and simple refreshments were neatly prepared in various places, and among them, even fresh fruit, which I was seeing for the first time since coming to this city, was neatly cut and piled up.

Suddenly, I felt gazes upon me.

It was from a few people who had arrived earlier and were waiting.

Someone was reading a book alone, set apart, while a few others were gathered by the window, conversing in low voices.

Most of them were men and women in formal attire, appearing to be of a certain age.

Among them, my appearance seemed to stand out awkwardly.

Unlike the others, I was not in a suit, but in the same clothes I had worn for mass at the church just a little while ago.

I had dressed appropriately, assuming I was invited in my role as a religious figure, but… I couldn’t help feeling a little embarrassed inwardly.

Still, I pretended to be unfazed on the outside, picked up a bottle of water, and found an empty seat at a corner of a table.

Then, I quietly and subtly observed the people around me.

‘Are those the prominent figures from various fields that Yoanna mentioned?’

Professors, philosophers, social activists, writers….

Indeed, they had that kind of aura.

How should I put it, a look of scholarly authority in the humanities?

But what I still couldn’t understand was why, among such people, I had been invited.

And what was I supposed to do here from now on?

I had accepted the invitation without knowing the details because it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.

‘Well, I’m already here, so there’s no helping it.’

Just as I was trying to swallow my anxiety and calm my mind, it happened.

“Hi?”

“…!”

Suddenly, I heard a voice speaking to me.

When I turned around, a girl who looked to be about college-aged was standing right next to me.

She had a pretty face, but her style, her aura, were quite unique, to say the least.

Her attire, which stood out conspicuously in this space where most people were dressed neatly, was the first thing.

An oversized jacket with a fluorescent glow, and a crop top underneath.

Her hair was a flashy mix of white and pink two-tones, tied in low twintails.

And most uniquely, her eyes.

They were probably artificial eyes.

A person’s natural eyes wouldn’t sparkle so brilliantly with multiple colors.

Such a strikingly dressed, unfamiliar beautiful girl approached me with those sparkling eyes and started talking.

“You’re really pretty! What’s your name? Were you invited too?”

I was momentarily flustered.

The way she closed the distance, a bit too friendly.

Clearly an extreme extrovert at a glance, she started to carry on the conversation one-sidedly and naturally before I could even reply.

“Wow, those clothes are totally unique! What brand are they? Kinda hip, huh? Got a good vibe? Wanna be friends?”

In slang… an ‘inssa’ (social butterfly), was it?

The sudden appearance of such an extrovert, one who exuded so much energy it felt like they could drain the life out of anyone nearby, made me feel a bit dazed.

So, I managed to stop her torrent of words.

“P-Please, wait a moment. Calm down a bit….”

“Ah, right! Look at me! I should introduce myself first! Ahem, hem! My name is Rico!”

She took a step back, smiled brightly and cheerfully, and made V-signs with both hands.

“I’m Rico, and I run the streaming channel, Rico Time! Nice to meet you! Yay~!”

Then, in a clear voice, she began to pour out a torrent of unasked-for stories again.

“The main content of my channel is daily life chats, singing, and talk radio like viewer counseling! Ah, of course, I’m not broadcasting now, so don’t worry! Those guys in suits I saw earlier were super strict. Thanks to them, my 700-day continuous live broadcast record was broken, can you believe it? I can’t even see viewer reactions, and everyone gathered here is just serious-looking old men and women, so I was incredibly bored! It’s such luck that a friend my age, who I instantly liked, came along! Hey, hey, are you perhaps a celebrity? Haven’t debuted yet, I guess? If you had debuted, there’s no way I would have missed a visual like yours! So, who are you, my friend? What do you do that got you invited all the way here?”

Amidst the whirlwind of her talk, a question suddenly registered, and I paused for a moment.

“Don’t worry. You know everything we see and hear here is under a non-disclosure agreement, right? I won’t go blabbing on my broadcast about who I met, so rest assured. Surely, you’re not going to keep secrets between us already, are you? Tell me! Huh?!”

‘What ‘between us’…?’

Had she built up some sort of internal intimacy all by herself while she was chattering away?

Her sparkling gaze, full of expectation, was pouring onto me.

Avoiding her eyes, I fell into thought for a moment.

‘Who… am I?’

I hadn’t really thought about it.

If I had to say, perhaps now I was the ‘Saintess of the Church of Radiance’.

Considering the recent events, the existence of the church itself was already somewhat exposed.

From the corporations’ perspective, they could easily find out with a flip of their hand if they put their minds to it.

So, even if I revealed my identity truthfully here and now, it didn’t seem like it would be particularly more dangerous.

However, this wasn’t the outskirts, but the heart of downtown.

To the people here, who neither knew of the church nor had seen a divine miracle, I had no idea what kind of reaction I would get if I introduced myself with talk of a church and a saintess right from the start.

‘Is it okay to say? Won’t I be treated like a total weirdo?’

As I hesitated, another thought suddenly occurred to me.

‘Wait a minute. Isn’t that actually a good thing?’

To be honest… I found the person in front of me burdensome.

I had no ill feelings.

It was just that, at this moment when an extremely difficult meeting awaited me, she was too overwhelming a type to keep dealing with.

But it was also difficult to bluntly tell someone who had approached me first with clear goodwill to go away.

However, perhaps, if I invoked the name of ‘God’ now….

‘Perhaps, without me having to say anything harsh, she would avoid me on her own?’

That thought suddenly struck me, so I immediately straightened my posture and, feigning the most devout and serious voice I could muster, said.

“Yes, then let me introduce myself. Evinia. Please call me Eve. Though I am lacking, as a Saintess, I lead a church that serves the Radiant One.”

Rico looked momentarily dumbfounded.

“What… is that….”

For a moment, I thought my plan had worked.

In a world where faith in God had vanished, it would be natural to be treated as a strange person if one seriously talked about faith to a stranger.

However, there was one thing I had overlooked.

“Wow…!”

Rico’s eyes sparkled even more brightly than before as she abruptly leaned her face closer.

In her electronic prosthetic eyes that met mine, a pair of small exclamation marks appeared.

“Is that your concept? That’s totally hip….!”

The part I had just overlooked was the fact that the person before me was far more peculiar than I had thought.