Chapter 23: Where the Eyes Linger, the Heart Rests (5)[Revised]

[23] 3. Where the Eyes Linger, the Heart Rests (5)[Revised]

(Tl Note: Btw that’s literally the title, not like my translation revision but the author’s revision of the chapter.)

It began with a muffled sound.

It was less than half a day after they left the Vatican.

There was a strange sound coming from beyond the walls of the carriage.

The sound of something blunt crushing something soft.

The sound of something thick being pierced.

The sound of wind escaping.

Each one was faint, but the boy’s sensitive ears didn’t miss it.

The boy, who had been reading a book to the girl inside the carriage, stopped.

“Why did you suddenly stop…”

The boy put a finger to his lips. The girl was puzzled, but the boy’s expression was so serious that she closed her mouth.

And then, a moment later…

*Screech-*

The carriage suddenly came to a stop.

Then, a holy knight’s voice from outside.

“Would-be Saint Clara, I think you need to come out here for a moment.”

His voice was stiff, somehow.

“…”

The boy still had his finger over his mouth. Frowning, the girl kept quiet.

“…Would-be Saint Clara?”

“What is it?”

The boy suddenly spoke up. A cold voice replied,

“You have no right to speak to me, servant.”

“Then I suppose you do have to answer me. What is it?”

The girl, seemingly sensing something, intervened. Giving the startled boy a wink, she continued,

“Why do I have to come out here?”

“…The lead carriage overturned, and there are multiple injuries. We need your help.”

“I don’t want to.”

The girl crossed her arms.

“We have so many priests here, why should I have to go? Tell them to take care of it.”

After speaking, she felt a sense of unease.

Certainly, a lot of priests had accompanied her. Meaning they could easily treat a few injured people even without her.

And most of all, if the lead carriage had overturned, then why wasn’t there any commotion?

A chill ran down her spine.

“…Move.”

A menacing voice from beyond the door.

The boy hurriedly got up to shut the door, but before he could reach it, it burst open.

A large, bulky Holy Knight.

He had a sword already drawn, gleaming in the light of the setting sun.

The boy’s face contorted, and he shouted.

“Just what the hell…! ”

*Thwack-!*

With a sickening sound, the boy’s body was sent flying. He crashed against the carriage wall and collapsed.

“Rem!”

The girl rushed to the unconscious boy and held him in her arms. Then she glared at the Holy Knight with venomous eyes.

“You! What the hell do you think you’re doing? Do you even realize who you’ve…”

“Get out.”

The Holy Knight said, slinging his sword over his shoulder,

“Before I drag you out by the hair.”

She was so stunned by his rude remark that she couldn’t even form words for a moment.

But a moment later, the girl’s red eyes blazed with fury.

Glaring at the Holy Knight, she extended her hand towards him.

“I’ll make sure you never walk again.”

And then, reciting the verse inwardly, she cast a holy magic spell.

“…Huh?”

At least, she thought she did.

The girl’s bewildered eyes looked at her white hand, which hadn’t unleashed anything. She clearly recited the verse in her mind, but her hands, far from glowing, were simply becoming paler.

“I knew you wouldn’t understand.”

“Kyaaak-!!”

The Holy Knight’s gauntlet grabbed a fistful of her silvery hair. The girl screamed as she was dragged out of the carriage.

“Let go! Let go of me! I’m going to kill you! I swear I’ll kill you!!”

The girl hurled vicious curses, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears.

The Holy Knight dragged her out of the carriage and threw her onto the ground.

Her pure white clothes were stained with dirt.

She immediately raised her head and glared at him.

“I remember your armor! When I get back to the Vatican…!”

But it wasn’t just dirt that stained her clothes.

Her gaze shifted to the red stain that was spreading across her dress, and then to its source.

“____!!”

It was a scene she had once seen depicted on a stained glass window in the Crystal Palace.

A saint sitting atop a pile of demon corpses, their depiction gruesomely detailed.

The intestines of a demon, whose lower body was missing, spilled out from its waist, and the crushed head of another was a grotesque mixture of blood, flesh, and brain, colored in an unnatural hue. One demon had a spear that pierced through its skull and out its jaw.

A sight that had once given her nightmares.

The only difference was, the demons were now humans.

Something rose in her throat.

“Uweeegh-!”

“Feeling a bit better now?”

A harsh voice. The girl, having vomited out both the contents of her stomach and her tears, raised her head.

“…The captain of the Holy Knights?”

His beard was stained with blood, but it was definitely him. The man who was in charge of escorting her on this journey.

He was holding a sword covered in blood and fat, and behind him stood Holy Knights splattered with blood.

The Holy Knight who had grabbed her by the hair and dragged her out of the carriage was also standing behind the captain.

Realizing the situation, the girl’s face contorted.

“J-Just what the hell is going on! How dare you…!”

“Why did you do it?”

The Captain of the Holy Knight’s face was cold and hardened, as if he was suppressing something. He continued,

“Why did you do that to my son?”

The girl was only momentarily baffled. Then with a look of fear and confusion, she asked back,

“What in the world are you…”

“Why did you break my son’s wrist a month ago?!”

The captain of the Holy Knights, seeming to have reached his limit, roared, his beard trembling as he pointed at her.

“And then you tied him up in the garden of the Crystal Palace as an example! Why?! Why would you do such a thing?!”

The girl could feel her hands tremble. She had no idea what he was talking about.

“Was it really such a grave sin that he threw a stone at your servant?!”

A realization struck the girl’s mind like a bolt of lightning.

But it brought even more confusion.

Certainly, a month ago, she had asked Ivan to find the culprit and punish them.

But breaking his wrist and tying him up in the garden?

“Y-You must have the wrong person! I never did anything like that! I…”

“Don’t lie now! Haven’t you refused every single request I’ve made to visit him?!”

Request to visit? She had never received such a request.

To begin with, Ivan always took care of such matters.

The girl felt her head spinning.

Tears were now streaming down her face.

“I-I’m not lying. I-I don’t know what you’re *hic* t-talking about…! W-Why are *hic* you sh-shouting at me…!”

She looked like a typical frightened girl.

The Captain of the Holy Knight’s anger wavered for a moment at the sight.

But only for a moment.

“Don’t be fooled. Besides, the deed is already done.”

The Holy Knight who had dragged her out by the hair said, wiping his bloody sword.

The Captain of the Holy Knights trembled as he heard those words, then nodded.

“Right, the deed is done.”

The moment they killed the priests, he, as well as the Holy Knights who had joined him, could no longer return to the Church.

He walked towards the sobbing girl.

“My son… he succumbed to his injuries from that day.”

“D-Don’t come near me…!!”

The girl scrambled back, extending her hand towards the Captain once more.

But the light that had always been by her side no longer helped her.

She desperately extended her hands, screaming,

“Why?! Why?! Why?! Why isn’t it working?! Why?!”

“But I still had one chance.”

The girl’s back finally hit a tree.

Her body froze, and only her frightened eyes moved, staring at the Captain’s sword.

“‘They’ promised to bring my son back to life if I bring them the Saint’s head.”

The girl’s eyes suddenly snapped to the Holy Knight who had grabbed her by the hair. He had taken off his armor and was now wearing his original attire.

Black robes and bone ornaments that signaled his abandonment of God.

The girl’s eyes widened as if they were about to tear.

“You… you’re colluding with the cultists…? J-Just how far will you…”

“Shut up!”

The Captain of the Holy Knights roared.

“Things went wrong from the moment we started worshiping the child of a prostitute as a saint! We were fooled by you! We were tricked and forced onto the wrong path!”

It was a ridiculous accusation.

She wasn’t the one who appointed herself as the saint. And she was meeting the captain for the first time today.

His decision to join forces with the cultists wasn’t forced; it was entirely his choice. It wasn’t the girl who deceived him, but his blind grief.

But years of self-righteousness easily distort one’s view of the world.

The captain raised his sword.

“So I’m just trying to set things right.”

The red blade slashed across the light of the setting sun.

The girl instinctively cowered, squeezing her eyes shut. Trembling at the approaching pain, she prayed to God for the first time.

But God didn’t help her.

“Damn it…!!”

Because she still had one more person left.

The girl’s red eyes turned to the boy who was clinging onto the Captain’s shoulder.

“___!!”

“This little orphan bastard…!!”

The boy, growling like a beast, wrapped his arms around the Captain’s neck. Opening his mouth wide, he bit down on his ear.

“Aaaaargh!!”

The Captain screamed.

The boy spat out the ear he’d bitten off and looked at the girl.

“Run, you idiot!!”

It was a moment straight out of a fairy tale.

A page ripped from the fairy tale book she’d longed to read a long time ago.

A cheesy, cliche story of a handsome prince saving a damsel in distress.

The very reason she still insisted on being called ‘My Lady’ instead of ‘Would-be Saint’.

Even though the prince wasn’t wearing a fancy outfit, and he didn’t even have a hand.

Still, the girl’s heart began to race.

“Get this brat off me!!”

But like all fairy tales, the magic always wears off.

A Holy Knight, who had been caught off guard by the sudden situation, dashed over and grabbed the boy.

The boy struggled desperately, but after getting punched in the gut, his body went limp.

The boy slumped to the ground.

The Holy Knight restrained his arms and legs, which were flailing weakly.

The Captain, breathing heavily, turned his sword to a different target.

And then, *thump*.

The sound of something being stabbed and crushed.

Blood splattering.

The boy’s body collapsing.

The girl’s mouth opening to let out a stunned gasp.

“Rem…?”

And then, *crack*.

The sound of something cracking and crumbling.

The cultist, who had been watching the scene, looked down at his chest at the strange sound.

A small incense burner that had been suppressing the girl’s divine power…

…Now had a large crack in it.

“Why is there a crack…”

And in the next moment…

The girl’s eyes, filled with hatred, turned towards the Holy Knights…

*Shatter*

With a flash of light, everything turned into a pool of blood.

***

“Rem!!”

The girl ran to the boy, who was lying on the ground. And then, seeing his condition, she was speechless.

The boy’s blood, already soaking the ground and starting to pool.

Blood gushing like a fountain from the wound in his chest.

A fatal wound.

The girl’s eyes and hands trembled violently.

“I-It’s okay, Rem…! I-It’s, It’s going to be okay. I’ll heal you. I, I can heal you…!”

She was talking more to herself than to the boy. Reciting a verse inwardly, the girl reached out her hand to the boy.

But once again, the light betrayed her.

“…!”

Blood burst from her mouth like vomit. Blood even streamed from her bloodshot eyes.

A single word came to mind as she groaned in agonizing pain.

Divine Power depletion.

God’s power is infinite, but the human who receives it is finite.

And the girl who had been chosen by God, was no exception.

“N-No…! D-Don’t be ridiculous! No! This can’t be happening!!”

The girl screamed desperately as she reached for the boy again.

“…!”

When she recited the verse inwardly, tears of blood streamed down her face once more. She could feel the blood rise in her throat.

But, biting her lower lip, the girl continued to recite the verse in her mind. Ignoring the pain that felt like her insides were being twisted, she stared at her pale hand.

“…I told you… to run…”

It was then that the boy’s wrist was placed on her hand.

“…! ”

The girl desperately grabbed his wrist.

“R-Rem…! You, you don’t need to wo-worry… I’ll soon…!”

The boy shook his head, cutting her off.

His other wrist, with much effort, barely managed to point across the road.

“There might… be… more…”

The boy’s gradually closing eyes turned towards the girl.

“Run… away… qu… ickly…”

And then, the boy’s eyes closed completely.

The hand that had been pointing across the road went limp.

Death, that chilling word, was casting its shadow over the boy’s body.

It was at that moment that the girl remembered the first time she met him.

At first, she was just curious.

Because his eyes were unusual, and he didn’t have a hand.

She thought he’d be a good toy.

She thought she’d play with him for a few weeks and then throw him away.

But a few weeks turned into a few months, and a few months into a year.

The boy, with that grumpy face, took root in the girl’s heart. And whenever she tried to forget him, he would pop up, filling her mind.

Before she knew it, the girl’s life had become one where she couldn’t live without the boy.

And now, that boy was about to disappear.

“No! No! NO!!”

The girl clutched her head and slammed it against the ground.

And then, for the first time in her life, she began to rack her brains desperately.

She went over everything she had ever heard, learned, and seen. Searching for a way, adding even the smallest memory to her thoughts.

A way to save the boy she loved.

And finally, she found it.

*Slap-*

“Wake up! Rem, you idiot!!”

*Slap-* *Slap-* *Slap-*

With tears streaming down her face, the girl slapped the boy repeatedly. And then, he opened his eyes.

But his eyes were extremely clouded. She wasn’t even sure if he could hear her.

“Listen and repeat after me!”

She pressed her forehead against his, staring into his clouded eyes with her tear-filled ones, and said,

“Le-dina Diu’ pasa.”

The verse of the Heavenly God, which is said to grant divine power even if you just read it inwardly.

The source of holy magic.

However, God did not grant power to the girl.

Instead, He punished her with rising blood.

“Repeat after me! If you can’t hear me, then just look at my lips and repeat!”

Swallowing the blood that was rising in her throat, she pried his drooping eyelids open. Suppressing the pain, she shouted,

“Le-dina Diu’ pasa!! Le-dina Diu’ pasa!! Le-dina Diu’ pasa…! Le-dina Diu’ pasa…”

Her voice, which had started out as a roar, gradually began to tremble. Before she knew it, her hands were clasped together in front of her chest.

It was the first sincere prayer she had ever offered.

Please, God.

Let my prayer reach the boy.

And let the boy’s prayer reach heaven.

“Le… dina…”

And then, light seeped into the girl’s eyes.

Opening her eyes, the girl looked at the boy, his whole body now radiating a bright light.

“Diu’ pasa…”

The blood flowed back into his body, his mangled organs restored, and fresh flesh filled the hole in his chest.

And then, when the light subsided, the boy was sleeping peacefully, his body whole.

The girl felt a sob rising in her throat.

But instead of letting it out, she knelt on the ground, clasped her hands together, and closed her eyes.

Le-dina Diu’ pasa.

Thank you, God.

The girl, with tears in her eyes, repeated this phrase over and over, hundreds, thousands of times.