Chapter 58: Saintess
It wasn’t that difficult to figure out her identity.
“Eek!”
Of course, I didn’t find out her name or title. That wasn’t something I could do through guesswork or assumptions.
It was just that the energy I felt from her was something I recognized. I narrowed my eyes and looked at her.
‘Is she the Saintess?’
It couldn’t be a mistake. Even though a long time had passed, the unique energy of a Saintess was not something that could be confused or forgotten.
I recalled the information I had overheard at the Inquisition. They said the Saintess, who had appeared after hundreds of years, was greatly anticipated by everyone.
“Eek!”
As if to prove that she was a different person from the Saintess I had seen hundreds of years ago, she showed a rather unique reaction.
Dressed in thin clothes that looked like a cross between priestly robes and travel attire, she stumbled backward and tripped over the tree root she had been using as a pillow.
Thud.
What a mess.
I looked indifferently at the Saintess, who was sprawled on the ground, looking up at me with a terrified expression. I had no desire to get involved. Confirming the appearance of the Saintess was enough.
The Saintess, or the Saint, are those born with the grace of God.
From my experience, which I don’t want to dwell on, getting involved with such blessed beings isn’t a good thing.
For either of us.
If I were a polite nobleman or a kind knight, I would have offered a hand to the fallen Saintess, but my choice was the opposite.
Whoosh.
Without a moment’s hesitation, I turned around without any consideration for a minimal introduction or a polite greeting, and walked towards the building visible between the trees ahead.
Then, I heard the Saintess’ s voice from behind.
“W-wait!”
A voice mixed with bewilderment, disappointment, and a bit of embarrassment. Afterward, I heard the sound of her hurriedly getting up and running towards me.
Dada-da.
As if she had something to say, the Saintess quickly approached and grabbed my arm from behind.
Grab.
I almost instinctively shook her hand off, but I hid my true feelings and slowly turned around.
The Saintess’ s green eyes were looking up at me. Her small mouth slowly opened.
“W-who are you?”
The Saintess is fundamentally a being born with God’s grace, far superior to ordinary humans. I thought it wouldn’t be good to meet her gaze for too long, so I opened my mouth.
“Inquisitor Luciel Lumineger.”
I introduced myself and intended to shake her off. However, the Saintess tilted her head at my words.
“Inquisitor?”
Slightly releasing my arm, she took a step back and carefully examined me. The Saintess was a being whose limits were difficult to gauge, so I felt a moment of anxiety, but fortunately, she didn’t seem to notice that I was hiding demonic energy.
“Huh? No? That’s strange……”
Humming, she stepped back and belatedly touched her chest with her hand.
“I’m Sophia.”
It was a very perfunctory self-introduction, without any mention of her family name, status, or position. It was a highly inadequate greeting, especially for someone who was leisurely lying in the garden of the Holy See, unlike a commoner on the street.
“……”
She seemed to be expecting me to ask about it, as she looked at me with a slightly expectant expression.
However, I simply nodded and turned around again.
“I see.”
Then, her voice came again.
“Huh? W-wait!”
The Saintess hurriedly ran in front of me and pointed to my arm.
“The wound on your arm.”
“Ah.”
I finally realized why the Saintess had hurriedly gotten up and grabbed me. The wound on my arm that hadn’t completely healed yet.
Did she notice the faint remnants of demonic energy left on my arm from destroying Caridad’s altar? No matter how clumsy she seemed, she was indeed the Saintess.
With a natural gesture, she placed her slender hand on my arm, and a warm light flowed from it.
Swoosh.
It was the purest and most potent holy power I had seen since I opened my eyes again. Perhaps a devout believer would have knelt at this brilliant radiance.
“……”
However, I simply looked down as the brilliant light emanating from the Saintess’ s hand gently enveloped my arm.
The chill remaining in the wound completely disappeared, and a warm sensation gently wrapped around my arm. The slight discomfort and pain vanished, and I felt an overflowing vitality filling me.
The Saintess is indeed the Saintess.
Experiencing it firsthand, she was no different from a walking, top-grade potion.
I nodded towards her and said briefly,
“Thank you.”
Perhaps she had expected a more enthusiastic response. My desolate reply brought a look of bewilderment to the Saintess’ s face.
“I have business to attend to, so I’ll be going.”
“Uh……”
To the Saintess, who seemed to be saying,’Is that all?’, I bowed my head slightly in greeting and turned around again, quickly walking towards the Holy See.
It’s not good to be involved with the Saintess for long. This is a well-known adage passed down among black mages since ancient times.
🔹🔹🔹
The interior of the Holy See, which I entered after passing through the splendid garden, was even more magnificent. It was embarrassingly different from the monotonous, or rather, desolate Inquisition of Hesterica.
If the merchants who donated countless offerings to the Church saw this, wouldn’t they sigh, realizing that their money was all spent here?
After completing a simple identification process at the entrance, as before, I entered and walked through the corridor made of gleaming marble to the room I was guided to. Was this a waiting room?
However, inside the relatively small room, there was a man sitting at a large desk that occupied half of the space, half-buried in a mountain of documents, scribbling something.
Hearing the sound of the door opening, he spoke without lifting his head.
“How can I help you?”
His voice was laced with fatigue. The room was filled with stacks of documents and books.
It didn’t seem like a place where a young Inquisitor who had achieved outstanding results against heretics would be called to be commended.
While I was choosing an appropriate answer, the man slightly lifted his head.
Pushing up his glasses, which were halfway down his nose, he looked at me from between the piles of documents.
“Ah.”
He seemed to immediately recognize my identity from my young, unfamiliar face and the black cloak I was wearing. He nodded.
“You’re the Inquisitor from Hesterica. Are you Mr. Luciel Lumineger-nim?”
“……Yes.”
After answering reluctantly, I approached the man who was still sitting at the desk, his hands moving busily.
I didn’t expect a grand welcoming ceremony. In fact, I would have declined such a thing.
In the first place, the achievements I made weren’t that significant, and the closure of the Catacomb that worshiped the Great Demon was supposed to be known as something unrelated to me.
Of course, that didn’t mean that the successful completion of various missions, including my contributions in the Ashitan Kingdom, was insignificant.
“I apologize. As you can see, I’m swamped with work……”
Muttering an apology, the man began rummaging through the pile of documents.
“Let’s see…… Ah, here it is. Hmm.”
He cleared his throat, which seemed to be hoarse from staying up all night, and unfolded a paper bearing the Pope’s seal, slowly reading it.
“Luciel Lumineger, Inquisitor of Hesterica, at the forefront of the eradication of heresy. Your light, which illuminated the name of God through outstanding achievements in Browell Village, Mount Pehern, Sitdria, and the Ashitan Kingdom, has reached even the Holy Land of Del─”
The sentences written in neat handwriting were filled with archaic yet meaningless rhetoric.
“God said, from the one seated on the throne to the lowly one covered in dust and ashes, and from the one dressed in purple to the one clad in rags, all are under His mercy─”
Pushing up his glasses, he continued reading the Pope’s personal letter.
“─We commend you once again, and may God’s warm breath be with you on the cold path you will walk. Pope Ferzadia III.”
After reading all the ornate yet unsubstantial sentences, the man looked at me and coughed slightly.
Is that all?
I felt like I understood the Saintess’ s reaction I had encountered earlier.
Anton’s words before I left the monastery, telling me not to be too disappointed, seemed to mean this.
Considering the reaction of the Holy Knight I met at the entrance, I had expected it to some extent. Unlike the past, I heard that there were subtle power struggles between different factions within the Church.
Of course, I didn’t expect it to be this bad.
“Concise and to the point, unlike the appearance of this place.”
At my words, the man coughed and handed me a gold-leafed letter with the Pope’s seal and a small holy relic containing a bit of divine power.
It wasn’t a very satisfying reward, but I didn’t come here expecting material compensation in the first place. The important thing was that I was slowly climbing upwards.
It wasn’t bad. No, it was rather fortunate that I could avoid unnecessary attention.
“I……”
The man looked at me and hesitated, opening his mouth. His expression was filled with a slight sense of guilt.
Apart from the subtle power struggle between the higher-ups of the Holy See and the Inquisition, he seemed to think I deserved better treatment. Of course, there probably wasn’t much he could do, as he didn’t seem to hold a very high position.
“I apologize. I’ve been assigned so many tasks recently……”
Making excuses that weren’t really excuses, the man showed me the documents as if to prove his point.
Documents recording various incidents from all over the continent. Except for the location and scale, they didn’t seem much different from what the Inquisition handled.
‘Wait.’
I carefully observed one of the documents fluttering in the man’s hand.
A report marked in red, as if it were important. Judging by the lack of discoloration or smudging of the ink, it seemed to be relatively recent.
“That one. Can I take a look at it?”
Although it passed by quickly, I didn’t miss the title written on the report and the place name.
Plague outbreak. The location was Ephesus.
It was the place where the third legacy, the artifact’Knot Unraveling,’which followed the Artifact of the Rift and Kamuron’s Bracelet, was hidden.
A plague spreading in that region.
I frowned slightly.
It wasn’t a good combination. If the place I planned to visit after finishing my business at the Holy See started restricting access due to the plague, it wouldn’t be good for me.
Should I use my position as an Inquisitor to force my way in?
Or.
‘Should I join the investigation team dispatched by the Holy See?’
Realizing that he was carelessly waving a document that shouldn’t be casually revealed, the man lowered the bundle of papers with a startled expression.
“Can I get more detailed information about this?”
“Ah, that……”
The man made a troubled expression at my words. It seemed like it wasn’t something he could handle on his own.
After all, the tasks assigned to the Inquisition and the Holy See were somewhat separate.
He said with a slightly apologetic look,
“I apologize. To provide you with information about this incident, I need the consent of the Archbishop-nim or someone of equivalent authority.”
I stroked my chin at the man’s words.
Archbishops are very high-ranking individuals within the Holy See. They were typically difficult to even encounter.
Even if an Inquisitor holds authority close to that of an Associate Bishop, it would be extremely difficult to obtain consent from those I had no prior acquaintance with.
Especially if they were complete strangers.
“It seems like a very important incident.”
Although it was a roundabout way of expressing a refusal, I smiled slightly. Someone came to mind.
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