Am I a Saint?-3

Kang In-ho clings to Maria. His hands shake violently on her shoulders.

The man, head bowed, uses the woman as a support.

Gasping for breath, Kang In-ho cornered Maria.

“Why… why am I the Saint…”

Like squeezing water from a dry rag, a twisted, fractured sound crawled out of his throat.

“Well…”

Maria tried to answer as if he were asking something obvious, but she paused as if stumbling over a stone.

Why is the Saint the Saint?

Isn’t the Saint the Saint because he is the Saint?

“Because light shone from the sword I drew?”

The man offered an option at Maria’s hesitation.

Maria, sensing that the choice he presented was wrong, closed her mouth.

The trembling of the hands on her shoulders intensified.

“Because I look like a plausible Saint when I wear the robes?”

The man looked up at Maria, pressing her for an answer.

Maria saw blue flames flickering in the man’s blue eyes.

“Or…”

A wounded, resigned voice changed into one laced with thick anger.

“Because the Pope, that bastard… acknowledged me as the Saint?”

A rage she had never seen before.

“Tell me, Sister Maria.”

The Saint brought his face close.

Normally, such an action would have made her heart flutter, but now Maria felt only fear and an unfamiliar emotion.

“I… I…”

Maria couldn’t finish her sentence.

Because no matter how many times she asked herself, there was no clear answer.

The words of the Bible, now etched in her mind, which she had read and transcribed countless times, contained nothing that could answer the man’s question.

-Thud.

The man who had been shaking her shoulders released his grip.

The recoil caused Maria to stagger back slightly.

“S, Saint.”

She carefully took the Saint’s hand. The warmth of his hand was transmitted to her.

Was this heat his anger? Or his sorrow?

Maria wondered.

“Please leave. I beg you.”

The man pointed to the door.

Only then did Maria feel her vision clear.

The fragmented image of the man that she had seen was now, finally, completely visible.

Wounded, pained, and exhausted.

Maria unconsciously released his hand.

“……”

Maria left the room, turning back to look at the man several times even in that short distance.

With the small sound of the door closing, Maria left, and Inho stared at the door for a long time.

The fact that he had vented his anger on someone innocent made his face burn.

“…Shit.”

He picked up the cloth he had thrown at Maria from the floor and wiped away the remaining moisture.

As always, the act of abandoning reason to a torrent of emotions brought shame and another regret.

After roughly finishing up, he threw himself onto the bed.

His body was burning with fever.

The Saint had a fever.

The fact that the Saint, who had not suffered a single minor illness since coming to the Order, was now bedridden led most people to think that the Saint also had a human side.

Of course, a very small number of people thought of this as an ominous sign, but no one voiced it.

Doubt about the Saint was proof of disbelief.

The Saint, whose whole body was burning like a furnace, lay on the bed as if dead.

There was no short groan, no slight stirring.

It was Maria who reported the Saint’s condition.

The next morning, she came to the Saint’s room, drooping, and immediately called a doctor as soon as she checked the Saint’s condition.

The doctor gave a simple prescription and left.

The Pope himself came to see the Saint’s condition, but with that one exception, the Pope did not come to the Saint’s room.

“Saint…”

It was Maria who stayed by the Saint’s side.

Exempted from all duties, she brought a cot into the Saint’s room and nursed him day and night.

The Saint suffered from a fever for three days.

Maria, who had been nursing the Saint all night and taking naps, woke up with a start, startled to see the bed empty.

“Saint?”

She had prepared everything he would need after he woke up.

Water to quench his parched throat, clothes to change into, and food to satisfy his hunger were all prepared.

There should have been no need for him to leave the room.

The fact that the Saint, whose body was not well, had disappeared made Maria leave the room to call for someone.

But Maria’s steps did not last long.

“…Huh?”

The sound came from Maria’s mouth.

“Then, I will prepare it.”

“Yes, please prepare it. …And don’t forget.”

“Of course not.”

Because the Saint and Inquisitor General Lumen were seen walking side by side down the hallway.

“…Saint?”

The sight of them walking together, indifferent but matching each other’s pace, was so unfamiliar to Maria.