Chapter 188

Chapter 188

Investing Through the Status Window.

Episode 188: The Finger Of God (3)

It began with the most insignificant and ignorant people on the continent.

A prostitute dying of venereal disease.

A beggar whose bones were showing.

A child beaten to the brink of death.

A gambler who lost everything.

A mercenary missing a limb.

Parents who lost their child.

Those with death looming right in front of them.

Those who wish to be liberated from this barren life.

And Vermandois, with its wide spread of all kinds of lower classes, also faced this trend head-on like a fire spreading in the wind. Indeed, in an instant…

The Blind Saintess Ordnung participated in the Vermandois cathedral’s relief events every two or three days regularly.

In fact, even though this was the only cathedral in Vermandois, most visitors were prostitutes or beggars. Naturally, mercenaries, who valued their lives, had little interest in a cathedral that only consumed money.

The only time this quiet cathedral would get somewhat busy was during the relief event that came around once every three days.

During this time, many beggars and orphans would flock together, hoping to get a bowl of this free gruel that was akin to food stray dogs might eat.

The Blind Saintess’s role here was to ladle out the gruel while blessing them with God’s grace or to listen to the congregants’ concerns.

Especially when listening to concerns, the youngest and most beautiful Blind Saintess faced all sorts of antics from the twisted-minded ones.

Asking if she knew about sex was mild. There were quite a few who outright claimed they would shove themselves into her. Of course, the Blind Saintess, who had her share of experiences in the back alleys of the Holy Kingdom, wouldn’t just smile sweetly and let it slide. Naturally, she administered some suitable physical therapy.

Anyway, when it was time to distribute the porridge and share grievances…

A middle-aged beggar, known for causing trouble, entered the confessional with reddened eyes. The spirited Blind Saintess, smiling as if more calm and devout than anyone, gracefully placed her hands together and welcomed him.

“Welcome, believer. What troubles do you have today?”

However, the beggar’s usual playful demeanor was nowhere to be seen, and he trembled as if rolling naked in the snow.

“S-S-Saintess, Saintess…!”

“Yes, the Saintess is here. Please speak.”

The beggar pleaded painfully, as if squeezing his lungs.

“I can’t… I can’t sleep. Ah. Ah… And my whole body aches. It hurts, Saintess. Ah, I want to sleep…!”

“Oh dear. You need to rest. Stop with the constant fiddling. Set aside your worries and concerns for a while, and relax…”

“I’m telling you, I can’t sleep! That’s not it! I can’t sleep! I can’t! Please save me! I don’t want this! They said I wouldn’t die! Put me to sleep!”

The beggar clung to the window, raving madly. Like a rabid dog.

Soon, a few participants of the event heard the commotion and dragged him out.

“Help me, help me, please, aaaaaaahhhhhhh.”

Oh dear, another commotion from that person.

It was only the fourth time, but she already felt exhausted. At least today, he didn’t offer the fishy-smelling semen as a beauty product, which was a relief.

The next turn soon came. A boy, skinny from hunger.

He looked like any other orphan from Vermandois, but his nature was gentle.

“Welcome, Brother Ben. What brings you here today?”

Ordnung asked gently, but Ben couldn’t maintain his usual composure.

“Saintess… I’m in pain…”

“Where does it hurt?”

“It hurts. And I can’t sleep. I can’t fall asleep. Ah. Saintess… I’m struggling. It’s too much for me…!”

The beggar boy whimpered, extending his left hand toward the small window. There was nothing where his index finger should have been.

“What happened, Brother?! Your finger? What happened to your finger?!”

“Saintess, Saintess, here too, here too…!”

He pulled up his tattered shirt made of patched cloth. What appeared was a horrifying wound—a wound that should have been fatal at a glance, yet he was still alive.

“Brother Ben!”

She panicked, opened the locked door, and examined the wound from something sharp.

“Saintess, it hurts. And I can’t sleep. My body feels strange. Ah…!”

She quickly called for help outside. Then, sturdy men rushed in. They frowned at the boy’s horrific wound.

One man hurried to the cathedral and brought an old woman who could use healing. She used healing on the child, but for some reason, his body rejected the holy power, as if he were cursed.

“Strangely, it’s not working…!”

The old woman repeatedly used healing, but the wound didn’t heal at all.

Yet the boy did not die.

“Saintess, I want to sleep. I want to sleep. Help me. Ah. It hurts, it’s cold, I feel like I’m dying. Ah.”

“Child, it’s okay. It’s okay.”

The Blind Saintess emerged from the confessional, holding the child in her arms. Outside, there was a massive crowd of people crying out in agony.

“Saintess! Please help us.”

“Saintess, it hurts. I can’t sleep.”

“Saintess!”

People in terrible conditions, pleading about insomnia and pain.

And all of them… were missing their left index fingers.

This… what…?!

“Saintess! Saintess! Help me! Please help! Help meee!”

The beggar boy, Ben, who was held in the Saintess’s arms, cried out in pain and begged for help. Eventually, unable to contain himself, he even bit down hard on her shoulder blade.

!!

“Ouch!”

In reflex to the pain from her shoulder, the Blind Saintess flung the boy she was holding away.

“Aaaaah, aaaaaaahhhh!!!”

The beggar boy writhed on the ground, going berserk. And in an instant, chaos enveloped the surroundings of the cathedral.

-Save me!

-I want to sleep!

-It hurts!

-Help me!

The Blind Saintess stumbled backward as she watched the maddened crowd.

“Saintess! I want to sleep! It hurts! Help me! Help meee!”

Ben, with bloodshot eyes glaring at the Saintess, was no longer the gentle boy he once was. A human half-crazed by excruciating pain and relentless fatigue…

Ah…!

The pleas quickly transformed into violence.

The Blind Saintess, instinctively sensing something terribly wrong, struggled to stop them, but it was impossible to restrain those who had already lost their reason to pain and fatigue. Moreover, the violence wasn’t just simple violence; it was violence that led to unrestrained killing.

“Don’t do this! You can’t do this, believers!”

“Ah, aaahhh!”

They turned into a mob in an instant. They started biting and chewing on those who stood in their way, eventually committing murder. Even the kind-hearted old woman was quickly surrounded by several rioters who began beating her all over. Her frail body soon became a blood-soaked lump of flesh.

“Dieee, dieeeeeee!!”

“Stop it! Stop it, you bastards!!”

The Blind Saintess and the men tried to subdue them, but the mob struggled violently, ignoring their own broken limbs.

In the end, one man, unable to bear it any longer, smashed a beggar’s head with a stone, yet the beggar didn’t die and continued to writhe and scream.

“M-monster! They’re monsters! These guys are all monsters!”

“No! Don’t kill! Killing is not allowed!”

Killing a fellow believer. And in front of the cathedral where God resides.

What a horrific tragedy this is!

She struggled desperately to stop it, but the subdued guy twisted his head to the point of breaking his neck and finally bit her arm hard. He bit so fiercely that a chunk of flesh was almost torn off. She screamed in agony and, in a fit of rage, punched his head a bit too hard.

Then, with a thud, his head caved in.

Ah!

“I-I’m sorry. Are you okay? Ah…! Stop, stooop!”

But the guy, even while howling in pain, did not die. Instead, he attacked her even more viciously.

Clearly, they were not normal.

Where in this world is there a human who doesn’t die even when their head is smashed?

Still, she desperately tried to stop it. Somehow. Still, somehow…!

However, even with heads exploding, bodies pierced, and limbs falling off, it was hard to see those crazed beings as humans any longer.

They were monsters. Not humans.

Monsters…

These things are monsters.

They’re all monsters…!

As soon as Group Leader Allen heard about the horrific incident at the cathedral, he immediately set out.

Upon arriving at the scene, he saw a person standing alone amidst a gruesome hell of blood and flesh.

The Blind Saintess, whose nun’s habit, meant to be clean and holy, was covered in blood and excretions.

Allen hurriedly approached her and called her name.

“Ordnung!”

But she just stood there with her head bowed, without a single movement.

“Ordnung!”

He grabbed her shoulders and shook her strongly. Then, the Saintess came to her senses a little.

“Group… Leader…”

He hugged her tightly and patted her back.

“It’s okay. It’s alright. It couldn’t be helped. You surely did your best. It’s okay, Ordnung.”

Her gaze was fixed on Ben’s body, which, though completely crushed, still writhed and silently screamed.

Ah.

Aaaaaah.

Oh, God.