Chapter 92: The End of Holiness – 4

Chapter 92: The End of Holiness – 4

……It was strange.

Clearly, the Inquisitor Commander’s flail had swung towards me, and I hadn’t offered any resistance.

All my senses vanished, and I even faced a panorama of my past days, memories of a time when I knew nothing.

Yet, my life didn’t extinguish.

……It was a little later that I realized there was a greatsword before me, darker than any divine power, yet simultaneously emitting a warm aura.

“Now you’ve really decided to just kill her, huh?”

“…Tsk. Still a bothersome bitch, I see.”

Following that, a now familiar voice.

…It was a well-known fact, needing no thought, that the girl’s greatsword had protected my life.

But a question arose.

Why?

I had attacked the girl alongside the Inquisitor Commander and the church.

I had branded her a heretic, and though there were differences, I too was responsible for this situation.

Yet… she was protecting me.

No, was she merely protecting me?

Perhaps thanks to a brief rest in the mist, she was holding the Inquisitor Commander completely captive, if only for a moment, through her ‘Divine Chains’ magic.

“……”

“You seem very confused, Saintess-nim?”

“…Saintess, you say? You know, don’t you? No, you’re the one who told me in the first place…!”

Why would the very person who told me I was a fake, someone never chosen by God, call me a Saintess?

Even the Inquisitor Commander had abandoned the title of Saintess and dropped his honorifics, so why on earth was this girl doing it?

I didn’t understand. Why would she show mercy to someone trying to kill her, and why would she affirm my existence in the first place?

Most of all… I didn’t know what I should do from now on.

Was I even a meaningful being? Me, a mere impersonator who had only pretended to be a Saintess?

“Well? Perhaps it’s because you seem like a Saintess to me?”

“…I was never even chosen by God anyway, so what’s the meaning of that?”

“Meaning, you say… Even though you’re already revered and respected as a Saintess by countless believers? Rather… at this point, I wonder if God’s choice even matters.”

Her words were shocking.

I had always thought and acted as if I had received God’s choice and thus had this task and mission; it wasn’t because I was a good person.

That’s why I was so shaken now that my status as a Saintess was being denied.

Yet, what part of me did this girl believe in to call me a Saintess?

“No. I, I… merely, mistakenly believed…”

“So, are you going to say that everything the Saintess-nim has done until now was just the delusion of some madwoman who mistakenly believed she was a Saintess? Surely not.

For that, the Saintess-nim’s value is far too great. Most importantly, isn’t it true that the Saintess-nim spread God’s will?”

“……”

“In the first place, is being chosen or not chosen by God really that important? The Saintess-nim has immense divine power and a heart that serves God. Isn’t that enough?”

“…Even so, I was merely a being created and used by the church.”

“And haven’t you yourself rejected that fate just now?”

……Rejected my own fate, huh.

It might be true.

Just a moment ago, I called the church nothing but another heretic. How could this be the image of a Saintess created by the church for its own use?

But, so what?

What could I do?

I, who was never chosen by God, and whose entire life had been denied.

“Most importantly… does serving God require some special status? Does life only have meaning if one is a Saintess, and does one’s faith only have meaning if one is a Saintess?

In the first place, despite the church’s actions that abandoned God’s will, there are those who maintained their faith solely because of the Saintess-nim’s presence. At this point, God should be making you a Saintess.”

“……”

“I’m not calling the Saintess-nim a Saintess simply because she acted like one. Whether chosen by God or not,

I’m saying this because I saw you become the hope of countless believers, save them, and speak out for them.”

Yet, the girl continued to speak.

That God’s choice wasn’t important, and the fact that I was created by the church wasn’t important.

Rather, my heart that cared for the believers was important, and the actions of actually healing and saving countless people were important.

The girl seemed to be continuously trying to persuade me.

……But I didn’t want to listen.

No, I couldn’t even hear properly.

So, at the very moment I was about to tell her to stop, a voice in my head spoke.

…I couldn’t hear it clearly, but it sounded like words of belief.

However, that wasn’t what was important.

It was exactly the same as when God gave an oracle to His Holiness the Pope.

An oracle received only by the Pope, chosen by God among countless believers.

That oracle… seemed to be descending upon me as well.

Only then did the girl’s words seem to register properly.

It wasn’t because I had received an oracle and felt recognized as a true Saintess.

In the first place, I couldn’t even tell if this was a real oracle or not; it could just be a delusion I created myself.

But the important point was that what the girl had been saying all along was now audible again.

My consciousness, which had been numb and submerged in the thought of my own meaninglessness, unable to properly hear anything around me, was now reawakened, and I began to see and hear my surroundings again.

This girl was telling me.

That even if I wasn’t a Saintess, my actions, which honored ‘Him’ and spread ‘His’ words and will more than anyone else, were not meaningless.

That even though I had played the role of a fake Saintess all this time, I was no different from a real Saintess.

…She was telling me that I hadn’t lived a meaningless life, and hadn’t merely been used by the church.

Furthermore, she was saying, ‘So what if you’re a fake Saintess? At this point, it’s only right for God to make you a Saintess.’

“Ah…”

“If you truly serve God, and are God’s Saintess, not the church’s… then you can’t just give up here, can you?

Isn’t it the mission of a Saintess, no, of one who follows God, to rectify the corrupt church and step forward for the countless believers who are still suffering?”

Whether she knew of my situation or not, the girl continued to speak.

Of course, this could have been an illusion or a phantom.

But… even so, it seemed it no longer mattered.

Because this voice, presumed to be an oracle, had made me realize that my thought of being useless because I wasn’t chosen was wrong.

Although I couldn’t immediately tell if this was truly ‘His’ voice or not.

Therefore, this voice, which I fleetingly thought sounded similar to the girl’s voice I was currently conversing with, wasn’t particularly important.

I hadn’t even properly heard what it said.

What was important was… that it had reawakened my consciousness and brought me back to my senses.

‘…That’s right. The world won’t change if I just give up here.’

The church would remain corrupt, and I would abandon God’s will and despair.

This girl, in her own way, would continue to face the church’s threats.

…And even amidst this, the girl continued to speak.

“No matter what you say, Saintess-nim, you are already the Saintess-nim of countless believers, aren’t you? You shouldn’t despair here.”

“…Thank you. I, I guess I was momentarily dazed.”

“It’s okay. Instead, let’s make a promise.”

“What is it? If it’s something I can do, I’ll definitely keep it.”

“Will you… change the church?”

It was an unexpected request.

If she had wished for the church’s destruction, that would be one thing, but to ask me to change the church.

…To be honest, she didn’t seem particularly devout.

“Well, the world will soon become chaotic, and there will be many people to protect… If the church is a mess, the problems will only get bigger, won’t they?”

“Yes? What do you mean…?”

“You’ll probably find out for yourself. I’d like to explain, but…”

“So, why suddenly…”

However, my question couldn’t be finished.

The Inquisitor Commander, having somehow broken free of his restraints, had resumed his attack.

“I was listening to what you were saying for a moment, and it’s just as I thought.”

“…Support, can I ask for it?”

At the words of the girl and the Inquisitor Commander coming from both sides, I took a moment to catch my breath.

…And then, I released all barriers and gathered my divine power.

I had no other thoughts. I simply wanted to save that girl.

……The girl who had become my benefactor, who had brought me back from the brink of giving up when my title as Saintess was denied.

The Inquisitor Commander seemed to be trying to do something about my actions, but once again, he was seen being stopped by the girl’s greatsword.

The next moment, a light so dazzling that even I, who had cast the spell, felt blinded, erupted from the park.