Ch.355Episode 14 – One Religion, One Faith, Two Saints

One Month Ago

“Huh?”

Lucia couldn’t hide her bewilderment as she lifted my shirt.

She was wearing bright blue surgical gloves that seemed out of place with her religious attire. Fully equipped and having completed sterilization to prevent any possible infection, Lucia made a dumbfounded sound as she faced her patient.

“What’s wrong?”

That day was like any other.

I was tracking clues to suspicious incidents surrounding the northern region, following traces and pursuing demons.

I often made time in my busy schedule to visit Lucia. It was because of her warning that wounds inflicted by demons shouldn’t be left untreated, even if complete healing was impossible.

“The wound… it’s completely healed?”

However, Lucia, who was about to remove the decaying tissue and apply holy water and ointment, could only widen her eyes in surprise when she checked the wound.

Because the wound had completely disappeared.

The festering wound had long vanished without a trace. The skin that had turned black had regained its original color, and the grotesquely gouged flesh had filled in as if nothing had ever happened.

Facing the miraculously healed wound, Lucia put her hands together in prayer, thanking the divine for healing a wound left by an evil entity.

But the line between blessing and curse was paper-thin.

Just as we overcame one crisis, another immediately appeared before us.

“Lucia, I think this…”

“Yes, it seems to be the aftermath of what happened that day.”

The wound had disappeared right after I shared a bed with Lucia. It was a remarkably coincidental timing.

We didn’t know by what principle the wound had been healed. However, one thing was clear: that night together had played a decisive role.

At that moment, we were given two choices.

First, to acknowledge the fact that I had slept with Lucia.

Sleeping with a healing priest had an excellent effect on healing wounds. This was a tradition passed down orally among clergy, and also formalized knowledge in papal regulations.

But the moment we admitted to sleeping together, there would undoubtedly be major repercussions. After all, Lucia was a saint of the order, scheduled for canonization.

No matter how much we explained that we hadn’t had sexual relations, people wouldn’t believe it. The Military Intelligence Bureau would immediately summon me for an investigation, and Lucia would face suspicious glances from the bishops and cardinals.

Above all, violating regulations without the church’s approval was a crime that even high-ranking clergy were reluctant to commit.

In the end, we had only one option left.

“Let’s keep it a secret.”

To hide the fact that Lucia and I had shared a bed. Lying was a grave sin for clergy, but we had no other choice.

“…I suppose we must.”

“Will you be alright?”

“I’ll be fine, but… I’m worried about my sister. She’ll surely be shocked if she finds out.”

“Don’t worry.”

Eventually, Lucia agreed to hide our relationship.

Not for her own safety, but for the sake of someone precious who would worry about her.

The problem was…

“Y-you bastard! How could you call yourself human!”

“Ugh…!”

“I trusted you…! I trusted you, Major!”

I got caught.

Episode 14 – One Religion, One Faith, Two Saints

Click! The flint scraped, and a spark ignited.

The oil-soaked wick met the spark and burst into flame. The burning flame turned into smoke as it met the finely chopped leaves, and the toxic smoke filtered through to seep into the lungs beyond the nasal cavity.

The whitish cigarette smoke left a dry, spicy taste in my mouth, along with a slightly fishy blood scent.

As I exhaled the smoke, I hunched over and spat out bloody saliva onto the floor.

“……”

It was a sight that would have horrified any believer, but no one reproached me. Not even the clergy sitting across from the unbeliever who had defiled the cathedral.

Leaning back in her chair, Veronica stared at me with an expressionless face, not uttering a word. Whether she judged it not worth the effort or simply lacked the energy to be angry, I couldn’t tell.

“Phew….”

Acrid cigar smoke rose between her reddish lips. As the gray smoke that shot toward the ceiling slowly dispersed like an afterimage, the red chimney that had exhaled it puckered sullenly.

“Major.”

After exhaling smoke, Veronica began scratching her forehead, brushing back her bangs. The cigar’s characteristic hard ash clung precariously to the mini cigar between her delicate fingers, but she paid it no mind.

“Major.”

“Yes.”

At her voice calling me again as if echoing herself, I bowed my head in response. I looked very much like a criminal.

“Don’t you have anything to say to me?”

“……”

I kept my silence, hanging my head like a quail. My appearance must have been quite unsightly.

Veronica nervously inhaled and exhaled smoke, then carelessly tossed the cigar to the floor. The black shoes symbolizing the clergy crushed the half-burned cigar, and as the cathedral floor was soiled, the strong scent of the cigar stung my nostrils.

“You dared to sleep with my sister?”

The vulgar words continued.

Sleep with her? It was hardly an expression one would expect from someone in religious service.

I suddenly recalled the words spat out by the demon who had glared at me with veins bulging in its neck. “Vulgar gunman,” wasn’t it?

Indeed, those words were true.

“Oh, for real!”

Having uttered those crude words, Veronica raised her arm in uncontrollable anger. As if she might slap my cheek at any moment.

I instinctively raised my arms to protect my head. Then I shouted, suppressing my indignation:

“Ah, stop! I said stop!”

“Stop what! Put your hands down!”

“Stop hitting my face!”

After witnessing the fact that the wound left by the demon had been completely healed when I pulled down my shirt, Veronica, who had maintained her composure, went berserk.

It was a wound that even she, with skills far superior to Lucia’s as a fully-fledged clergy, couldn’t easily heal. If Veronica, who could even restore severed body parts, couldn’t handle it, then no existing clergy would dare try to remove scars left by demons.

Yet the demon’s wound had been cleanly healed.

What could this possibly mean?

“To heal that, you’d need a skilled clergy to work on it, and besides me, what other skilled clergy is there on the continent apart from my sister? So my sister healed your wound. But for her, who’s far less skilled than me, to heal such a wound through normal means—it doesn’t make sense!”

That was true.

Lucia’s skills were far inferior to Veronica’s. Though she had room to grow, a clergy’s healing power doesn’t easily improve with just a few prayers.

So how was Lucia able to heal me?

The answer came from Veronica’s lips.

“That means you slept with my sister, doesn’t it?!”

I squeezed my eyes shut as Veronica’s fist filled my vision.

After discovering the fact that I had slept with Lucia, Veronica mercilessly swung her fists to punish me. It was revenge against the scoundrel who had defiled the purity of the sister she loved more than her own blood.

Veronica pushed me into the confessional and beat me with her hands and feet. Her punches and kicks were so fierce that sparks flew and my vision turned white.

Despite having undergone training to resist torture before joining the intelligence unit, and having experience built up in the field while traveling abroad, I was thoroughly beaten by Veronica without making a sound. I had no choice.

The sight of Veronica swinging her fists was no different from a redneck chasing after the boyfriend who had run off with his precious daughter, shotgun in hand.

The desire for revenge against a man who had toyed with her beloved sister was that terrifying.

“Huff, huff….”

Veronica barely suppressed the anger boiling inside her by sighing. The merciless violence stopped at that very moment.

Her trembling fists drooped downward.

Veronica, releasing the tension from her body, slumped into a chair.

“My, my sister…. my poor sister….”

Her voice, mixed with moisture, spread throughout the cathedral.

The gangster-like violent demeanor was nowhere to be seen.

Veronica covered her face with her palms as if about to burst into tears.

“I should have trusted someone trustworthy…. What will happen to Lucia now….”

“……”

“Oh, Father….”

The saint who had collapsed before the altar desperately called for her father. But the statue of God placed on the cathedral’s altar remained silent.

Amid the awkward silence surrounding us, I finally gathered my wits and opened my mouth to offer a lame excuse.

“Um, Veronica. I understand your concern for Lucia, but we’re really okay—”

“Shut up!”

Veronica erupted in rage as if having a seizure.

“You call that an explanation? No matter if it was because of the oracle, you slept with a young woman with a bright future ahead of her! After enjoying yourself and showing her something she shouldn’t have seen, you say your relationship is okay?!”

“That’s harsh—”

“You’re the harsh one! I repeatedly told you to take good care of my sisters!”

A finger raised like a spear was thrust in front of my face. Startled by her intensity, I hastily backed away. But it was only momentary. Veronica approached one step closer, repeatedly pointing her finger.

Nothing could stop the saint whose eyes had rolled back in anger.

“But you touched my sister?”

“……”

“Go ahead and speak, Major.”

Veronica spoke with a voice filled with malice. I’d always said she was like a crazy woman, but this was on a different level.

“What did you like so much about Lucia? Hmm? That she’s so young? That her personality is pure? Or that she treated you well? Tell me.”

“N-no… First, please calm down…”

“Calm down?!”

Bang!

When her fist struck the altar, the liturgical items placed on it shook.

“Do I look like I can calm down right now?!”

Veronica acted like a madwoman.

She pounded the altar with her fist and stamped her feet. She beat her chest in frustration and grabbed my collar, shaking me back and forth.

“My, my sister…. after all the effort I put into raising her….”

Then suddenly, she collapsed on the altar and muttered in a voice full of moisture.

“Take responsibility! Take responsibility, you shameless bastard…!”

As I was grabbed by the collar and shaken around, I thought that Veronica probably needed a therapist rather than clergy.

She seemed out of her mind, freely moving between anger, sadness, and despair. Of course, the same could be said about me.

Finally, I raised both hands and feet in surrender.

“Alright! I get it! I’ll take responsibility!”

Realistically, it was the most rational and logical answer I could offer.

But as someone once said, there’s no reason or logic with a crazy person.

That saying soon became reality.

“H-how dare you raise your voice so irreverently!”

Veronica struck my head with the scripture placed on the altar.

“Argh…!”

I rolled on the floor, clutching the top of my head. Veronica, who had roughly grabbed the scripture, exhaled through her nose like an angry bull.

“After playing with my innocent sister, how dare you be so irreverent…!”

“N-nonsense…”

“Be quiet!”

A palm flew to my ear as I tried to protest. Veronica, who had twisted my earlobe with one hand, threw the scripture back onto the altar.

“This won’t do.”

“……”

“No matter how I think about it, I can’t let you go to my sisters like this. Who knows what trouble you might cause again?”

What is she talking about?

Before I could even ask, Veronica had already started moving.

She pulled my ear hard and took large strides. Her footsteps headed toward the inner part of the cathedral. At the end of that long corridor was the confessional.

Veronica pushed me inside.

Then she entered the confessional, exhaling rough breaths as if to suppress her anger.

The door began to close.

“Prepare yourself today. I’m going to fix that mindset of yours completely!”

With those words, the door of the confessional closed.