Chapter 145: Enlightenment
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 145: Enlightenment
After the incident at the church, Yohan and Evangeline left and headed for the royal castle.
The attendant waiting outside seemed to be wondering what on earth had happened, judging by the loud noises that had come from within, but Yohan offered no explanation.
Once inside the carriage, Yohan immediately closed his eyes and began to meditate, organizing the thoughts he’d had at the church.
‘That wasn’t very helpful.’
He had thought that by coming to the Holy Nation, the land of religion, he would find someone with exceptional religious insight who could help him find a clear answer to his troubles.
But that wasn’t the case. It wasn’t that the cardinals and bishops lacked knowledge, but they were, at the end of the day, simply people who had studied the holy scriptures.
They weren’t people with broad minds and outstanding morals, but devotees who strictly followed the precepts written in their holy book.
The kind of religious figures Yohan knew were people who followed morality, ethics, and justice above scripture.
“...I’m sorry.”
“—Huh?”
“Because of me, it seems like you’re leaving without achieving what you came here for....”
Evangeline said, bowing her head low. Yohan let out a soft chuckle as he looked at his teacher’s lowered head.
He carefully reached out and placed a hand on her head, then began to gently stroke her hair.
Evangeline looked up at Yohan, her expression full of confusion. She had no idea why he was suddenly stroking her hair—but, well, it felt good, so she let it be.
“Teacher.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“I’m the one who suggested we come here together. Instead of getting stressed out because of me—I’d rather you enjoy yourself, too.”
“Yohaaan....”
To be precise, it was more that she had followed Yohan, who had decided to come here. Yet Yohan acted as if that didn’t matter at all, so sweetly telling her that he wanted her to have fun.
His words pleased her so much that Evangeline, sitting quietly, felt a throbbing deep in her womb.
Her legs instinctively pressed together, her thighs rubbing against each other. Feeling her underwear already growing damp, Evangeline guided Yohan’s hand from her hair down to her cheek and began to suck on his thumb.
“Slurp—I want to do it....”
“...In here?”
“Mmm, can’t we?”
“Of course not. There are people around....”
“Th-then—I’ll just suck it....”
Denied sex, Evangeline looked as if her world had ended and began to tear up. Yohan sighed deeply at the sight of his teacher on the verge of tears.
His weakness was his soft heart. The moment his teacher started to cry, he found himself unable to refuse any of her requests.
“Just sucking?”
“Yes! Of course!”
Yohan carefully unfastened his pants and exposed his penis. Evangeline, who had been sucking on his finger, pounced on it as if she’d been waiting and began to suck greedily.
The lewd sounds of her sucking filled the carriage. —Naturally, it didn’t end with just sucking.
Upon entering the royal castle, Yohan relayed the words the Emperor of the Empire had entrusted to him to the King.
The King’s expression was far from pleased as he was forced to agree to various treaties after losing the war he had started, but he also seemed to think it was a relief that things ended there.
Leaving the royal castle, Yohan told the attendant following him that he didn't need to come any further.
“Ah, we’re going to do some sightseeing from now on. We’ll be on our own.”
“What? What do you mean....”
“Don’t follow us.”
The vassal serving as their attendant was aghast, insisting that it was absolutely impossible, but Yohan quickly vanished with Evangeline.
As the attendant’s tearful shouts faded behind them, Yohan and Evangeline landed in a back alley of the city. They pulled up their hoods and set out to explore.
“—It’s been a while. Just the two of us, walking through a city like this.”
“Has it? I don’t think it’s been that long.”
“No, it has been a while, hasn’t it?”
Yohan thought about her words for a moment and realized it truly had been a very long time since the two of them had been alone together.
With each new witch that joined them, the time Evangeline could have Yohan all to herself had grown shorter and shorter.
Yohan smiled and held out his hand to Evangeline.
“Well then, shall we enjoy a long-overdue date today?”
“...Yes!”
Beaming, Evangeline took Yohan’s hand. Not content with just holding hands, she interlocked their fingers and clung to his arm.
With Evangeline stuck to him so tightly it was hard to walk, Yohan strolled through the city.
Unlike the Empire, which had been razed and was still being rebuilt, the shadow of despair not yet lifted from people’s faces, the residents of the kingdom, who had suffered little damage, seemed no different than before.
“Everyone here is smiling.”
“Are they?”
As expected, Evangeline, who had little interest in other people, tilted her head and asked as if she hadn’t noticed.
Yohan nodded, looking around. There were people who had come to see the church’s headquarters, merchants trying to attract those tourists, and even pickpockets trying to empty their pockets.
Laughter bloomed on the faces of countless people.
‘Faces without a hint of worry... I’m envious. Is it because the church is right here?’
Perhaps because it was a nation that served as a religious center, the people seemed to know no anxiety or worry.
After all, if you could visit the headquarters of the church whenever you had a problem, you probably wouldn’t hold onto your worries for long.
As he was thinking this, Yohan spotted a nun haggling over a price in the distance.
“Please, can you give me a little discount...!”
“Haha, Sister. Even so, this is a bit....”
“Just a little!”
The shop owner scratched his cheek, looking troubled, but he couldn’t bring himself to turn away a nun in a religious nation. He sighed in resignation and lowered the price.
At that, the nun beamed with pure, unadulterated joy.
‘She’s that happy over something so small?’
For some reason, his eyes were drawn to her. Yohan looked the nun up and down. She didn’t have a great figure, nor was she particularly pretty.
The proof was that Evangeline, standing right next to him, showed no reaction even as Yohan stared intently at the nun. She had judged that this nun posed no threat of stealing Yohan from her.
“Yohan? What is it? Do you know her?”
“...Teacher, would it be alright if I went off on my own for a bit?”
“Mmm. Sure. Okay.”
Hearing that he wanted to be alone, Evangeline’s eyes grew moist with disappointment, but she obediently let him go. Freed from her grasp, Yohan followed after the nun.
The nun headed toward an area commonly known as the slums. Yohan followed her, and the deeper he went, the more hostile stares from locals who resented outsiders were shot his way.
Ignoring all the glares, he continued to follow her until she entered a church in the slums. He stared at the church, surprised that such a place even existed here.
The building was worn down and on the verge of collapse, but it seemed even the people of the slums left the church untouched. If they had targeted it, the building would have been stripped bare long ago, without a single beam left standing.
Yohan carefully entered the church. As he stepped through the entrance, he heard a loud voice from beyond a slightly ajar door.
“Kids, time to eat.”
“Yaaaay!”
The nun was gathering children who appeared to be orphans. He now understood why she had tried so hard to get a discount on her purchase earlier.
As she handed out food to the children, the nun smiled brightly. Seeing that smile, Yohan felt an unidentifiable emotion welling up inside him.
‘This is....’
A lotus flower can bloom even in the mud.
That phrase must have been meant for her.
Yohan cautiously approached the nun. Hearing the footsteps of an outsider, the nun snapped her head up to look at him.
Seeing his neat clothes, which were a rare sight in the slums, she didn’t seem to suspect him of being an assailant or an attacker.
“Sister.”
“Yes, brother. How may I help you?”
“I have something to ask you.”
“Oh... are you here for confession? We don’t have a priest at our church....”
“I have something to ask you, Sister.”
Yohan glanced back and forth between the nun, who was staring at him blankly, and the orphans in the distance, who were watching with expressions of curiosity.
In a way, he could be considered an orphan himself. They had no parents, but he had no world.
“I don’t know the meaning of my birth.”
“The meaning of your birth....”
Hearing Yohan’s question, the nun began to think it over with genuine sincerity. After a moment of contemplation, she seemed to find an answer and replied with a gentle smile, like that of a holy mother.
“I don’t think there’s any meaning to being born.”
“No meaning?”
“What’s important isn’t why you were born, but how you live.”
At those words, it was as if lightning struck his mind. The specific reason he had been dropped into this world didn’t matter.
What mattered was how he lived in this world.
What kind of mindset he lived with.
“Is that... something God said?”
“What? Ah... no. I’m sorry. God doesn’t say things like that....”
“Then?”
“That’s, well, just something I thought of... We can’t rely on God for everything, can we?”
As he watched the nun laugh sheepishly, Yohan realized that she was the one truly worthy of being a saintess.
A person who didn’t prioritize scripture or even God. And yet, a being armed with outstanding morality and religious enlightenment.
The positions of cardinal and bishop shouldn’t be filled by armchair zealots who lose touch with reality by burying their noses in scripture, but by people like her.
The fact that this was impossible was perhaps why the church was rotting from the inside out.
“...Thank you. This is a donation.”
“What? Oh! Thank you!”
Yohan left the donation and turned away. He heard the nun cry out in shock from behind him as she checked the contents of the pouch, but he deliberately ignored it.
For her words held just that much value.