Chapter 75 – Heretic Saint, Forbidden Nun (8)
11. Heretic Saint, Forbidden Nun (8)
“You’re stupid, kid. Why are you so stubborn?”
“Oh, no. Even if you say that, this, this is not okay!”
“I don’t understand. Didn’t all the other kids listen to me? I don’t know why you are the only one who refuses so much.”
“Ah… Even if you say so, no.”
The old man, who had been admonishing the girl in a benevolent tone, hardened his expression at the child’s repeated refusal.
“Even if you reject it like that, why don’t you know that the future is certain? I have said many times earlier that there is a huge difference between accepting it on your own and accepting it by force.”
“… You are wrong.”
“What?”
“I-I won’t be like that. Just because the other kids did what you said, there’s no law that says I have to.”
“Her.”
The old man, who had been exclaiming, murmured terrifyingly.
“Even though the child named ‘Rivea’ whom you cared about and cared for so much decided to follow my words?”
“Yes? Are you Rivera? Nonsense! It can’t be!”
“It can’t be? You will understand when you see it for yourself, and you will believe it again.”
“What the hell did you say? What have you done!”
“He hasn’t fully taken my word for it yet. It could be different depending on how you do it.”
“It can’t be… I can’t… !”
“There is not much time left. Saintess.”
The old man’s face turned black in an instant. The child screamed
“The great deal will happen soon. Saint woman, starting with you.”
**
“Ha-ha, ha-ha, ha-ha…”
The woman let out a rough breath and raised her upper body. An unpleasant cold sweat ran through her body.
“How… Why do you keep dreaming like this?”
There was nothing to guess. She knew that she had been abducted by fear cults, that she was being called the Holy Lady, and that she would be an important chess piece for their schemes. As a result, I couldn’t help but think that these unpleasant dreams, which became clearer and more frequent as the date for the execution of the plan approached, must have something to do with fear.
What the hell am i
She is just an ordinary nun who believes in Raella and is trying to follow his path.
Is it punishment for the mistake of buying bread without my parents’ knowledge when I was a child? Is it punishment for sneaking out of the dorm to play during the probationary period? Or, was it wrong for her to send Libea first, saying that she had business to see on her way back from a business trip?
“Ah, Rivera!”
Among the sisters of the same or other denominations who had been arrested so far, there was no Libea, her best friend and colleague. She resented the fact that she had to helplessly watch the other sisters fall apart, but she also scolded herself for being relieved that she and Libea were not there.
I was anxious. Why did I have such a dream after the eerie masked man stopped by?
Has she even been captured by Libea? Could it be that she has already gone astray? It can’t be. She was a more faithful friend than he was, but it can’t be.
And, am I really going to give up my trust in Raella-sama? How am I going to be
“La Ella. Please let me know…”
The woman prayed fervently. But there was no answer from the goddess. The woman was not resentful. She just kept praying. Hoping that her own faith would not be in vain, she made sure that it was not erroneous.
Bestia, a woman called a saint by heretics, kept muttering words that no one would hear while holding the sweaty, slippery Rosario tightly in her hand.
Without knowing that a part of Rosario had been stained black.
**
“It’s strange.”
“What do you mean?”
“I went in pretty deep, but there was nothing.”
It’s been over an hour since we passed the sixth room. It wasn’t that I was neglecting the sand bar vigilance, but despite walking at a fairly fast pace, there was literally nothing.
Fearless warriors, traces of their activities, and the contingent of the Church of Raella. Even other denominations could not be found.
“I said we had a good chance of being in the lead. But still, it seems like it’s been over an hour, doesn’t it seem a bit absurd that no other church has reached this point besides us?”
“That’s right. In particular, the temple president of the Church of Justitia is a warrior with excellent combat power. I don’t think the crusaders he led couldn’t break through until now.”
“Sestia-sama is right. It’s kind of hard to say this, but Master is a monster.”
It didn’t matter because I was already aware of the size of this place itself. But the fact that there was nothing in itself was so unsettling. We were obviously heading towards the central district, especially the center, but it was so strange that there was nothing more than the outskirts.
“Leader. Is there any possibility that only the central area is a different space, like a dungeon?”
“No. There wouldn’t be a place like that. You know that. That feeling when you just pass the entrance. At least I’ve never had that feeling while I’ve been here.”
Kaya put forward a possible hypothesis, but it couldn’t be. If you passed a place like the entrance to a dungeon, a message would surely pop up.
So it was even more embarrassing. There was no guessing.
“Cestia. Do you have any guesses?”
“…”
“Cestia?”
“Ah yes?”
“What do you think?”
“Oh sorry. I was looking at the walls and columns here.”
“Why are the walls and columns? There is nothing else.”
“Yes. Nothing special. Until just now.”
“What?”
“For a moment… Could you come over here for a moment?”
For some reason, I deviated from the road at the gesture of Sestia, who was slightly trembling. At regular intervals on either side of the road stood plain pillars, and she led us to one of them.
“Why are you here?”
“Wait a minute. Come this way… Ah. Could you look over here?”
“For some reason… Isn’t this a divine scar?”
“Sacred marks?”
“It is a trace of divine power. You can think of it like bloodstains.”
“There’s no way these heretics would leave something like this, so it must be a trace of Cestia-sama?”
“That’s right. I secretly shot it about 30 minutes ago and buried it.”
At Cestia’s words, we, who were staring at her pillars for a moment, discovered a horrifying contradiction in her words almost at the same time.
“No, wait! We kept walking in the same direction! I didn’t even take a break!”
“There were no tricks or heretics!”
“Well, how is this possible? It didn’t look like it was going round and round…”
Without exaggeration, goose bumps came up on my arms. I had no idea that such a trick would exist. In The Long Terror, where all you had to do was simply move along the aisle, such a trick?
No, is the trick right in the first place? Didn’t you have any clue?
“Not being able to encounter our church’s dispatch team or other church’s combat teams… Could it be because of this phenomenon?”
“Sestia, if you hadn’t marked it, you’re saying we wouldn’t even know it and we’d just keep hovering around. I managed to think of that.”
“As Hendrick-sama said, it’s strange. I didn’t say anything and secretly marked it for fear of creating tension that I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier.”
“No. Rather, you should be grateful. The one who has to say sorry is me, the captain.”
Moving forward was meaningless. I think it’s been over an hour since we left the 6th room, but based on Sestia’s words, we were on a loop every 30 minutes or so.
“Did they know we couldn’t get through here, so they weren’t that desperate?”
“There is a possibility that it is simply to pass the time. Assuming that if the denominations gather, this place will somehow become a party, and they will be in charge of each axis of the huge sacrificial camp, and their deaths themselves will be used as a kind of fuel. Those bastards are still there.”
“We don’t know the exact size of the central sector, but it’s unlikely that this reversal will affect the cults as well. No matter how much you prepare for an intrusion, that makes no sense.”
“Perhaps, some of the key people who are essential for the plan can be in a place called ‘nucleus’ in advance. If that happens, it won’t matter to them what happens to the rest. Either you die while wasting time or you die while wandering around here.”
Me, Shay, and Kaya each made their guesses. Of course, none of them were hopeful.
“Right now, the important thing is how to break through here. If it doesn’t, it means nothing.”
“That’s right.”
It was stifling. If it wasn’t for Cestia’s wit, how could he solve a strange phenomenon that no one would have noticed.
‘If I put in the time and effort, I might be able to solve it.’
The problem was the time.
Aside from the food we have, will the heretics stay still in the meantime? It never seemed like that.
Kaya, Shay, and Cestia could see that they were working hard, but no answer came out. Seeing that even Sestia, who must have experienced many things until she reached 9th level, is silent, she must be the first to experience this phenomenon.
She stood up and walked from side to side, then leaned against her pole, then sat down and… She kept thinking as she changed her posture, but she couldn’t think of anything she wanted.
‘It’s not good.’
The atmosphere was gradually stagnating to the point where it was more comfortable to see a battle unfold. Even at this moment, there must be nuns who are corrupt, and I didn’t even know what they were suffering from. Their plan must be going on there, but the fact that they were stranded and unable to do anything was a great stress.
[Mentality]
Shay: -44
Kaya: -36
Eugene: -30
Cestia: -26
‘When did my mentality get so bad?’
Obviously, it wasn’t like this when I checked after the battle. I hurriedly looked through the messages, and there were messages saying that my mentality had declined. I got goosebumps again.
‘I didn’t recognize it at all.’
Walking idly down a dark and monotonous road? It wasn’t that kind of problem. Just as I didn’t notice that everyone, including me, was circling the same place, it was important that I missed even a single message that I hadn’t missed before. It was a problem that I couldn’t share with my colleagues yet, but that made it all the more frustrating, crazy, and jumping up and down.
“Ah.”
“Sister?”
At that time, Kaya, who was staring blankly at the divine scar, shook something of hers from her bag.
These were the necklaces the fallen nuns had.
“Kaya. Why is this all of a sudden…”
“Shay and Sister Sestia. Please take a closer look.”
“Yes?”
“I’m still immature and can only figure out that there are subtle changes in these necklaces, but I think Sister Shay and Sestia, who are much better than me, will be able to find out in much more detail.”
“Wait for a sec! What is change!”
“That’s right. At least I didn’t feel the subtle changes that older sister felt?”
“Just… I can only describe it as literally changed. It’s not that the color has changed or the material itself hasn’t changed, but it’s definitely something that has changed… And what I could feel, maybe it’s because I’m the closest to this necklace. Anyway, please take a closer look. It may be a clue to break through the current situation.”
I don’t know what it is, but anyway, it wasn’t bad that there was a variable in the current situation that was stuck without an answer.
Shay and Cestia were arranging the necklaces that had turned black in the order they were obtained and investigating them by injecting divine power very minutely, while Kaya went to the exact spot where she felt the change and re-examined the surrounding area.
‘I can’t feel the divine power, so there’s nothing I can do.’
All I can do right now is to keep quiet so that they don’t lose their concentration. Still, I felt like I had to do something, so I put a map close to the magic torch and began to infer a place that would be the core of the central area, considering both the traffic lines excluding and including the loop.
‘Draw an hour, no, 30 minutes from here. If we assume that the direction and distance after entering the central area from six directions including us are the same…’
– AA AA AA… !!!
“What!”
“Leader!”
“Captain!”
But soon after, a creepy sound was heard, and Kaya and Shay, including me, jumped up and stood up, alerting everyone. But Sestia, she alone was looking at a necklace and muttering. It was a bewildered expression.
“Beth, Tia… ?”
– Aaaaa!!!
