Chapter 13
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Who Examines the Examiner? (2)
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What the hell?
I'm flustered.
The saintess suddenly shot up from her seat, and now this paladin is looking at me like he's lost his country.
'Did I say something weird?'
No matter how much I thought back, there was nothing that could have caused a diplomatic blunder.
"If there's some kind of pro—"
"Are you really, really the Central Officer? That Central Officer?"
The saintess cut me off and leaned sharply toward me.
Her golden eyes sparkled with an intensity that felt overwhelming.
I leaned back as far as I could and answered.
"Ah, yes. Th-that's correct. My official title is Central Officer, as per my duties."
"And there's not a shred of falsehood in that? You swear it to the Lord God?"
This time, she thrust her face right up to within a handspan of mine.
A faint, warm scent like sunlight tickled my nose.
What's wrong with this woman?
I glanced back at the paladin behind her, sending a silent plea for help.
But he just shook his head with a sigh, as if he were in shock too.
"Haa, my goodness. What kind of coincidence is this..."
What's his deal?
Realizing no one was going to save me, I forced a smile and said to the saintess,
"Ah, the inspection isn't over yet, so if you could please stay seated—"
"You swear it to the Lord God????"
Damn, this is driving me crazy.
She stared at me piercingly, as if she wouldn't back off until I answered.
I couldn't push her away.
Laying hands on the saintess's sacred body would get my wrist chopped off in an instant.
And saying "You're too close. Please back off" would be a diplomatic faux pas.
No choice.
I had to give her the answer she wanted.
"Yes, that's right."
I dropped my smile and looked straight into those golden eyes inches from my face.
"I am Nathan Kell, the head of the Southern Border Immigration Control Office and the highest-ranking immigration inspector, the Central Officer."
Attendant, hurry up and bring that stamp.
This is getting too awkward; I might die of embarrassment.
Ecstasy.
The first emotion Erzena felt was pure ecstasy.
She was convinced once more that this was fate.
Out of countless inspectors, the very first one she met—and the one conducting her inspection—was the Central Officer himself.
What an astonishing coincidence.
'The Lord God truly guided me here.'
He always worked in such ways.
Weaving coincidences, accidents, and the unexpected into the fabric of inevitability.
And this time was no different.
'To let me meet the Central Officer so naturally, without even searching or asking...'
The perfection of it made the saintess tremble.
"Haaah... Lord God..."
Ah, His love knows no bounds.
Even as He fulfills the church's long-held dream of the northern expedition, He demonstrates His omnipotence through inevitability once again.
The rapture she usually felt only on stage washed over her entire body.
Ahh, Lord God... Lord God Lord God Lord God Lord God Lor—
"Ahem! Uh, Saintess?"
"Ahhh... Lord Go... Huh?"
Mohaim's sudden fake cough snapped Erzena back just before she slipped fully into divine trance.
He glanced around awkwardly and said,
"There are many eyes watching. Please maintain your dignity..."
"Pardon? Dignity? What do you—"
Only then did Erzena realize her current predicament.
She was up on the desk, leaning so close to the Central Officer that she was practically pressed against him, staring intently.
The distance was barely a handspan.
Close enough to feel each other's breath.
"..."
"..."
Every gaze in the area was fixed on them. Everyone's mouths agape.
"Ah."
Her golden eyes met the man's black ones.
The recent events flashed through her mind like a montage.
The strange moans, her body shuddering, the hot sigh she let slip in her ecstasy.
—Ahhh, Lord Go...
An incredibly... lascivious pose and coquettish voice to show before a man.
"Eek...!!!!!!!"
The saintess's face flushed crimson in an instant.
"Ah, ahahaha. Deep faith is a wonderful thing."
The Central Officer gave an awkward smile and a compliment upon seeing it.
But his eyes were shaking mercilessly.
And his body was pulled back as far as possible from her, on the verge of toppling over backward.
—Rustle.
As soon as she came to her senses, the saintess sat back in her seat at lightning speed. Then, in a voice barely audible,
"My apologies. I just... hadn't heard the title before..."
"No, no. My title is a bit unique, I know."
"No, I think it's a really cool name. Central Officer."
She smiled faintly, narrowing her eyes.
"A really cool name..."
With those words, she subtly hid her left hand behind her back, signaling Mohaim.
'Remember our promise earlier, Mohaim? We met him by co.in.ci.dence, so no interfering.'
The response came immediately.
'No. Our main goal isn't this! And you haven't gotten the entry stamp yet, so for now, stay quie—'
'Oh? A paladin breaking a promise? To a saintess, no less? I'll have to tell the Lord God about this.'
A paladin's oath, no matter how trivial, must never be broken. Caught on that weakness, the paladin captain had no choice but to go silent.
'Don't worry. I won't ask outright.'
Meanwhile, oblivious to their silent exchange, Nathan clapped loudly to lighten the mood.
"Alright, everyone, stop gawking and get back to your tasks."
Then, as if nothing had happened, he sorted his papers and straightened in his seat.
"The attendant will bring the stamp soon. Just a bit longer. Sorry for the delay on the entry."
"It's fine. The hourglass hasn't run out yet. If you're alright with it, Central Officer, shall we chat a little?"
"It would be an honor."
Separate from her religious ecstasy and shame, Erzena's mind had already regained its rationality.
Once the peak passed, her excitement faded swiftly, replaced by calm.
'I know this man is the Central Officer. But there are still things to confirm.'
She had met the one guided by the Lord God.
But was he truly the Talent Manifestor?
That was a separate question.
She still didn't know if this Nathan Kell was the 'real' Talent Manifestor.
'A Talent Manifestor unknown to our church... Is that even true?'
She couldn't ask directly.
Doing so would reveal they hadn't known of his existence.
If the church failed to detect one blessed by the Lord's love, it would expose utter incompetence.
'I need to probe other things first. Approach slowly.'
Start with verifying the rumors.
"I've heard rumors that you're quite capable, Central Officer. Is that true?"
The Central Officer glanced at the still-flowing hourglass, then smiled amiably.
"You're too kind. Rumors are always exaggerated. I'm just a civil servant doing my job diligently."
A humbly modest reply.
The smile of a young man who looked tired but lived earnestly.
To anyone watching, he was a healthy youth of this era, working with responsibility and a sense of fulfillment. Right before the saintess's eyes.
"Diligence is a virtue the Lord God loves. Your—that, uh?"
But as she tried to continue, an inexplicable sense of wrongness hit her.
"Saintess? Are you alright?"
"Ah, yes. It's nothing. I just stuttered for a moment."
His neat attire, restrained movements, and elegant speech formed perfect harmony. Yet something was off.
Like a beautifully painted picture with a gaping black hole punched through it.
'What is it?'
Facing this unprecedented sensation, she tilted her head briefly.
Was he hiding something?
'Then more questions will reveal it.'
Erzena changed her expression to one of bright surprise.
"I heard you recently subdued a raging fire spirit with your bare hands. My goodness, even our paladins would struggle with that!"
—Flinch.
"Haha, it was just a minor cultural misunderstanding. They graciously overlooked it, and it resolved peacefully. Rumors spread fast. How embarrassing."
The Central Officer slipped past smoothly once more.
A response that seemed to answer without affirming or denying.
But in that brief span of less than two seconds, the saintess clearly saw it.
Discomfort. Eyebrows twitching uneasily. Eyes averting, unable to meet hers.
"Hmm. Is that so..."
She let out a small hum, narrowing her eyes.
Only after the reply did she finally grasp the source of that wrongness.
'He's lying. And he's uncomfortable around me.'
His words and posture were impeccable, but his body language betrayed him so obviously.
Hiding lies within truth, pretending all was normal.
But that wasn't the wrongness she felt.
It was something else entirely, different from the awkwardness of lying.
'This man... I feel nothing from him.'
Everyone possesses mana, or something akin to it.
Even newborns carry a trace of energy.
Those loved by gods have divine power; those loved by the world have spirit energy or mana.
It was one of this world's immutable laws.
An unchanging truth.
Yet from the Central Officer, she sensed no divine energy from the Lord God.
Not even mana.
Nothing.
'What in the world?'
Faced with something that shouldn't exist by common sense, Erzena was momentarily speechless.
She focused her mind to probe deeper, but the result was the same.
'Nothing. Not a speck. Not a mote.'
No aura that anyone should have. This man had none.
As if severed from the world.
Like a gaping hole in the center of a fine painting.
Erzena finally realized what she was seeing.
'Heavens...'
Pure black darkness sat before her in human form.
Emptiness.
That was the aura emanating from the Central Officer.
'Is this... even possible?'
An impossible phenomenon. A grotesque form she'd never seen.
In her bewilderment, she calmly recalled one certain fact.
'This man is no Talent Manifestor. He can never be that existence.'
All touched by the Lord's hand bear divine power.
Especially one lavishly loved, like a Talent Manifestor.
The saintess couldn't fail to sense it.
She couldn't miss that dazzling, warm golden energy, bright as the sun.
But black?
Darker than the night sky, eerily hollow black?
'This defies the world's order. A being with nothing can't exist!'
Then, an unbeliever? One impersonating a Talent Manifestor without faith in the Lord God?
'No. Not an unbeliever either.'
Even non-believers have mana.
An indisputable fact, however irreverent.
One could see it in mages and elves.
Races who denied gods yet wielded the world's power existed everywhere.
'Doesn't seem like mere bluffing either.'
The Central Officer didn't strike her as foolish enough to tell an obvious lie.
And if he did, it showed immediately.
No arrogance in his demeanor so far, so not one to boast vainly.
Then, a word flashed through Erzena's mind.
'Minion of the Evil God Cult.'
It fit everything.
His inner scream the moment he saw her.
His discomfort at sharing the same space now.
The utter void of any energy, like the world's emptiness.
All made sense if he was a repulsive heretic.
Beings who denied the Lord God and sought the world's destruction.
They were never meant to exist in the first place.
Erzena quietly recited a scripture under her breath, inaudible to others.
"Doubt leads to unbelief, yet it is also the shortest path to certainty."
And she felt she had finally found that path.
The saintess's eyes sharpened.
'The Lord God didn't guide us here by mere chance.'
He hadn't led them for a Talent Manifestor blessing.
He had brought them on the northern path to judge one daring to impersonate His love.
'To think I rejoiced like a child, oblivious...'
Shameful.
Not only misreading His will but fawning over an Evil God Cult minion.
The fondness she'd felt toward him until moments ago turned to rage, then cold contempt.
Now, what Erzena had to do was clear.
Turn doubt into certainty.
—Srrrr.
The hourglass raced toward its end.
"I have just one last question."
And only the final question remained.
The blasphemer glanced back briefly, then smirked faintly at the approaching attendant in the distance.
"The stamp's finally here. Time's just about up, so one last question should be fine."
That loathsome smile was utterly repulsive.
"How generous. Then I won't hold back."
She returned a cold smile to match.
"It's a very simple question. Just yes or no."
In that instant, Mohaim instinctively knew what she would ask.
"Saintess! That's breaking the promi—"
"Stay out of it, Mohaim. That's an order."
The captain stepped forward, ignoring protocol amid rising anxiety, but Erzena's firmly raised hand stopped him.
"Mohaim? Mohaim Espirence of the 1st Paladin Order?"
Discomfort flickered across the Central Officer's face.
She seized the moment.
"Do you believe in God, Nathan Kell?"
Her golden halo began to darken.