Chapter 3. Faith and Status (7)

Normally, there would be no reason for anyone else to enter a room where only the defense attorney and the Saint Candidate were present.

If anyone were to enter, it would only be the single person escorting the Saint Candidate, Anna-in fact, there was nothing prohibiting anyone from entering.

If either of them had requested that their conversation not be overheard, the church would have complied, but no such request was made.

Therefore, it was unavoidable that Sophie, another Saint Candidate who had come to pick up Anna, overheard the conversation.

And it was also unavoidable that she ended up listening to the conversation blankly.

Choi Soo-bin, appointed as the defense attorney of evil, was originally supposed to be a strong ally for Anna.

The defense attorney of evil is a position that verifies the qualifications of someone to become a Saint, and therefore, their job is to find and present even the slightest detail about the candidate.

This time, the Saint Candidate, Anna, uniquely claimed to have no faith and to not believe in God, so unlike previous times, this verification should have been very easy-

However, the current atmosphere was not flowing in that direction.

“Now, then, Anna-ssi. Let’s think about it this way.”

For some reason, Choi Soo-bin kept trying to persuade Anna. Conversely, Anna, with a stiff expression, was refuting Choi Soo-bin point by point.

“Anna-ssi’s abilities might not actually be Anna-ssi’s.”

“They weren’t my abilities in the first place…”

Anna acknowledged Choi Soo-bin’s statement, but her expression remained stiff.

“Uh… so, in reality, as Anna-ssi thinks, every time you try to heal people, that power is simply manifesting through Anna-ssi…”

“Yes, that’s right. The being above is exercising its power through me.”

“Excuse me, Anna-ssi. The conversation hasn’t been progressing as it should, but aren’t you ultimately trying to say that God exists above?”

“No, I just can’t be sure that the being above is God.”

While denying the word “God,” Anna did not deny the existence of the being above at all.

Instead, she frowned as if she didn’t understand why they were having this conversation. It was as if she found it strange that I couldn’t comprehend such common sense.

Sophie found Anna’s words intriguing.

Anna had actually told Sophie the same thing directly before. At that time, I had seriously considered reporting Anna to the heresy tribunal. It was so strange that the Cardinal hadn’t immediately put her on trial after receiving her letter.

However, strangely enough.

This peculiar nun, who denied the very concept of God, continued to speak as if she had no shame in her words.

“The concept of God differs for everyone, doesn’t it?”

Choi Soo-bin spoke cautiously. Seeing Anna’s somewhat stiff demeanor, she seemed to be treading carefully, but she didn’t back down from her argument.

“So, there are various beings under the concept of God, even if they are not omniscient or omnipotent. The gods of Greek mythology are gods, and the gods of Egyptian mythology are also gods. The beings called ghosts in the East are also gods.”

“Yes, that’s right. That’s why I see the word ‘God’ itself as meaningless. What’s the point of calling the being above ‘God’?”

“Uh…”

“For example. If the being above actually exists… at the point where many people accept it, the previous gods became ‘not gods,’ didn’t they? Now, if you were to look at the gods from other mythologies and tell people to believe they are real gods, not many would. Except for those who think their worshipped god has finally descended in that form.”

For some reason, upon hearing that, Maria-whether it was a nickname, Anna called her ‘Ria’-who had been listening silently with her arms crossed, let out a laugh with a “Kuh,”.

Anna glared slightly at Maria but calmly continued her argument.

“So, isn’t the concept of God a word that can be completely negated? Even if it helps countless people now, what will happen if, in the distant future, a situation arises where that concept can also be negated? Will you lower the meaning of the word ‘God’ to the position of a ghost again, or will you simply remove the word ‘God’?”

Sophie blinked.

At that time, I was enraged by her words, which seemed to deny everything I believed in, and before that, I had felt a bit contemptuous that someone like a Saint Candidate would deny God.

But listening to her now-somehow, I thought that Anna had simply been talking about something ‘different’ from the beginning.

“In my opinion, the concept of God is not a universal concept in the first place. It’s like the concept of vegetables and fruits; in some countries, tomatoes are classified as vegetables, in others as fruits, and in some, they are classified as neither. If we were to define something above, I believe it should be distinguished with a much more objective concept than the word ‘God’.”

“Hmm, but your words don’t seem to deny that being. Aren’t you confessing your faith right now?”

“So, I’ve been wondering what you think I’m ‘believing’ all this time.”

“You mean the divine being above, right? Although, according to Anna-ssi, it might not be ‘God’.”

“Excuse me, that’s a bit different. I don’t ‘believe’ there’s something above. I ‘know’ it.”

Blink.

Sophie’s eyes blinked once.

Maria, who was a little further away, glanced at Sophie, who had a slightly dazed expression.

“Look at this.”

As if saying exactly that.

“If there’s a pebble in front of you when you’re walking, we don’t say we ‘believe’ it. It’s just there. When you see lightning strike the sky, you don’t believe lightning is striking. It’s just that lightning is really striking.”

So, Anna was saying that the person above also definitely exists.

She simply doesn’t want to call that being ‘God,’ she was saying.

Because the word ‘God’ is so unstable, it’s a word that can disappear at any moment.

“Hmm.”

Startled by the sound, I turned around. The Cardinal had entered the room at some point. Sophie then remembered that she hadn’t fully closed the door. Had her voice leaked through the crack?

Several clergy members who had followed the Cardinal also entered the room and watched the discussion with interest.

The topic was veering slightly off from what it was just before.

“Being there, good and evil don’t matter. Is healing people inherently a good power? Even before healing people with holy power, we already knew well that ‘healing power’ is neither unilaterally good nor evil. In nature, flies and maggots can be vectors of disease, and while they are often found where decaying matter exists and are considered dirty, their characteristics have also been used medically.”

“…….”

“So, this holy power is the same. It’s just the power to heal people. And it’s not even my power in the first place.”

“So, Anna-ssi… you’re saying you’re negating all the merits you might have accumulated so far.”

“At least on that point, we agreed from the beginning, didn’t we? I didn’t do much in that situation. I just couldn’t control that power and wandered around people. That shouldn’t be called merit. There are people in the world who risk their lives fighting, aren’t there? For the safety of people.”

Anna said that without changing her expression.

“If we’re talking about taking risks, Ria is much more amazing than me. Ria was the one who actually fought with a sword, and that’s why I could survive.”

“Huh!?”

At those words, Maria finally showed a slightly surprised expression, but seeing that there were people nearby, she quickly composed herself.

However, her gaze was already directed at Maria. As if embarrassed, her face turned slightly red.

“Well, I understand wanting to call it God. But seeing the power to heal what medicine couldn’t, and to allow someone who might have lost an arm or leg to live without disability, you might want to call that being above God, thinking it’s a benevolent being and will continue to help.”

Anna spoke in a calm voice.

“But that’s just believing in the power, isn’t it? If God is defined as something that can help me, would you also believe in a being that can harm me as God? Well, in the past, smallpox was believed to be God. We called it ‘Mama’ and feared it. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were also, in a sense, beings no different from gods.”

The room became completely silent, but Anna didn’t seem to notice.

“So, yes, to be honest, I don’t really know what the ‘God’ people talk about these days refers to. Are they referring to the white light that heals the injured person? Or are they calling the being that simply exists above ‘God’? I believe that if you claim God exists, you must first standardize that existence.”

After hearing up to that point, Sophie quickly looked around.

And she was convinced.

The Cardinal was looking at this nun named Anna before him with completely different eyes than when he first saw her.

Anna seemed to have contemplated the existence of God for a long time.

Perhaps, after that contemplation, she finally gained some certainty about that existence?

That’s why she was able to understand God better than others, and perhaps that’s why she could summon such power?

“…Alright.”

With a slightly stiff expression, Choi Soo-bin opened her mouth.

“I understand that we are not looking at the same thing. In that case…”

Choi Soo-bin exhaled lightly and said.

“Then, what should we call that being? That is, according to Anna-ssi’s words, assuming it exists anyway. We need a way to refer to it.”

At those words, Anna finally broke into a wide smile.

Everyone in the room focused their attention, and everyone held their breath, waiting for the next words-

Anna finally opened her mouth.

“First, we need to establish a proper scientific name.”

Saying that, she lightly brushed her hand to brush away the light that had been falling on her head from midway, and spoke.

Ah.

If only that last sentence hadn’t been there, it would have been perfect.

*

“First, we need to establish a proper scientific name. Of course, we only know that it exists for now, but scientists often give names to hypothetical beings in advance.”

That’s right.

After learning that there were thirty types of elementary particles, scientists thought that there must be a single particle that constitutes those thirty particles.

However, since there was no way to observe it yet, scientists had already named that particle “prion.” Of course, no one knows yet whether it truly exists or not, but they are thinking under the assumption, just in case.

But, isn’t it possible to give a name more definitively to the ‘being above’ that at least exists?

Since humans are also classified as animals and given a species name and subspecies name like Homo sapiens sapiens, isn’t it logical to attach a scientific name to the being they call God and study it-

Impressed by my own thought, I turned towards Ria, and only then did I belatedly realize that there were far more people in the room than I remembered.

“…Oh.”

And I felt a very chilling atmosphere.

Only Ria, standing far away, was holding back her laughter.