Dominus Vobiscum (5)
“That happened while I was gone?!”
The quiet morning erupted into clamor in an instant. Birds scattered in fright as a bonus.
It was Lilia.
Hands on her hips, she glared at Ellian.
Ellian set down the bucket he'd been filling with water and tilted his head.
“...It was nothing much.”
Lilia's face went slack with disbelief.
“'Nothing much'? What do you mean, nothing much?!”
She strode right up to him.
“A Heretic Inquisitor showed up! One straight from the Holy Kingdom! Do you really not know what those people are like?!”
Ellian acted as if it were no big deal.
“She was strict, that's all.”
“Strict? They're terrifying!”
Lilia raked both hands through her hair at his reaction.
“One word from them and your life's over! Just hearing the Inquisition's name shuts down a whole city! And you're just sitting here all calm...”
She trailed off. Ellian was smiling quietly.
“...Why are you smiling?”
“Are you worried about me?”
Lilia's face flushed red.
“N-No! It's just... what if the church gets in trouble again?!”
Her words tumbled out faster than she intended.
A few onlookers nearby stifled chuckles. When Lilia shot them a glare, they all turned away.
That was when it happened.
Crunch.
The sound of carriage wheels over gravel. Everyone's eyes snapped toward the road.
A black carriage pulled to a slow stop.
It was plain—no crest, no gilding.
The driver dismounted silently and opened the door.
And then...
The figure who emerged was...
A woman in a nun's habit.
Dominica Alba, dressed in a neat black nun's robe.
The moment she raised her head...
Lilia stopped breathing.
“...Wait.”
Her eyes widened.
“...No way.”
She glanced at Ellian, then back at Dominica.
“No.”
She stepped forward.
“Why the hell are you back here?”
Dominica Alba said nothing.
Instead, she slowly surveyed her surroundings.
People emerging from prayer, the tidy courtyard, children's laughter.
And... the church.
For a brief, fleeting moment, she smiled.
But just as quickly, her face returned to its usual blank mask.
“I told you clearly.”
Her voice was even.
“It's not over yet.”
Lilia's expression hardened.
Dominica walked straight to Ellian, her steps unwavering.
“Ellian. You've been designated a person of interest.”
She pointed at him with her index finger, then thumbed at herself.
“...Which means you need watching.”
Lilia jumped in immediately.
“Hold on! Watching? What the hell does that—”
Thwack.
Something flew toward him. Ellian caught it reflexively.
A small round pendant.
Engraved on its surface was a single torch.
A flame—the source of light that could guide people through darkness...
Its handle bore a tiny Holy Light Church emblem.
Lilia squinted at it suspiciously.
“...What's that?”
Her voice mixed doubt and wariness. She still didn't trust Dominica one bit.
Oblivious or not, Dominica spoke calmly.
“A mark of the Holy Light Church.”
She paused briefly.
“We can't dispatch priests to every region. There simply aren't enough.”
The villagers exchanged glances and nodded.
“So this is a stopgap measure.”
Her gaze fell on the pendant.
“Even for non-priests, if they meet certain criteria... we grant them temporary authority to spread the teachings.”
Lilia's eyes widened.
“...Wait.”
She looked at the pendant again.
Then at Ellian.
“...So this means...”
Dominica nodded.
“Official permission.”
Lilia froze, reacting a beat late.
“Wait, hold on. An inquisitor shows up to watch you, and now suddenly you're giving permission?!”
Dominica continued matter-of-factly.
“You can like it.”
“...For real?”
“All formal issues are resolved.”
Ellian gazed silently at the pendant for a moment. Its metal surface gleamed softly in the sunlight.
Then he looked up.
“...Why?”
Lilia blinked.
“Huh?”
Ellian asked again.
“Why... go this far for me?”
Dominica's eyebrow twitched.
“...?”
Her face showed genuine confusion.
Ellian repeated himself.
“I was under investigation.”
“...”
Dominica stared at him for a moment, then glanced aside.
As if avoiding an unwelcome memory.
But she had to answer.
“Didn't you say it yourself?”
Her eyes returned to him.
“It was necessary.”
Ellian's own words.
“That's all I did—judged the same.”
She threw them back at him.
Her tone was still dry, but it carried a hint more life than before.
Lilia gawked, looking back and forth between them.
“...What is this? Some vibe I'm not getting?”
Ignoring her, Dominica pressed on.
“But don't get the wrong idea. This isn't a pardon.”
She stepped closer.
“I'm here to monitor you.”
Another step.
“Any suspicious move... and I won't hesitate.”
Ellian met her gaze, then bowed his head.
“...Understood.”
Lilia still looked lost.
“...So what's the final verdict here?”
No one answered.
Instead, a child standing by the church spoke up timidly.
“...Does that mean you're a real priest now, mister?”
As Ellian opened his mouth, Dominica beat him to it.
“...Temporary.”
The commotion in front of the church was dying down.
People returned to their routines. But amid it all, Dominica's eyes stayed fixed on one person.
Ellian.
She beckoned curtly.
“A word.”
Ellian followed her wordlessly to the back of the church. Beyond an old stone wall lay a small garden few visited.
But on the other side of that wall...
Lilia peeked out, holding her breath to watch.
“...Talking alone?”
She whispered, ears perked. She couldn't miss their secret meeting.
Meanwhile, Dominica cut straight to it.
“The village chief and Priest Rate have been transported to the Holy Kingdom.”
Flat tone.
“Colluding with local thugs to embezzle tithes, extorting believers, abusing authority for personal gain—the charges are confirmed.”
No personal emotion in her words.
“The trial will be a formality. The evidence is ironclad.”
Ellian nodded slightly.
“I see.”
Short and to the point.
And enough to irk Dominica just a little.
“'I see'... That's all you have to say?”
A sharp edge to her voice.
Ellian glanced up at the sky. Sunlight danced through the leaves.
“No.”
His gaze returned.
“Nothing brings me more joy than seeing life return to the villagers' faces.”
He continued.
“But on the other hand...”
He hesitated, then spoke.
“There are still so many suffering in the shadows.”
Calm voice.
“That's what weighs on me.”
Dominica stared at him long and hard. Then her lips quirked the tiniest bit.
“...Quite the saint you've become.”
Sarcasm. The kind that would spell trouble in an official setting. But this was just between them.
She looked away. Light fell on the church roof.
Images of the Holy Light Church she'd known flashed through her mind: priests wielding authority, crushing people under doctrine, clerics more concerned with face than faith.
Frankly... she was sick of it.
Swinging the sword of justice blurs what you're even protecting.
Yet...
This man was different.
No authority, no status, not even in a position to be protected.
Stepping up to help anyway.
No gain, no glory—just the risk of being branded a heretic and killed, like now.
“...I don't get it.”
Ellian tilted his head.
“What don't you?”
“Why go that far?”
“...”
Ellian didn't answer right away.
The question was simple, yet the words didn't come easily.
He paused, then spoke.
“...A story from my childhood.”
Dominica said nothing. No prompting.
“I was weak.”
She flinched at that. The man who'd blocked her strike so effortlessly—weak?
Hard to buy.
“Many days I could barely walk... Fevers that wouldn't break with the seasons. Doctors and medicine did little.”
A faint smile.
“The villagers thought I wouldn't last long.”
Behind the wall, Lilia's face hardened. She'd never heard this.
“There was... a priest back then.”
He closed his eyes, as if dredging up the memory.
“Dispatched from a big city, but he came to our worthless little village every day.”
Prayers, herbal brews, reading books. Time for a child no one expected anything from.
“No miracles. The illness stayed.”
“...”
“But he never gave up.”
Ellian smiled softly.
“Not out of pity for a sick kid... He treated it like it was just natural.”
As a person, not a patient. As someone who'd see tomorrow, not die today.
“That's when I first thought it.”
The moment that changed how he saw himself.
“I want to be like that.”
And the reason he wanted to be a cleric.
Not grand faith—just one act of kindness received.
Dominica stayed silent.
“But I couldn't.”
Ellian gave a wry smile.
“They said it was Rakein Degeneration.”
Dominica's eyes slowly widened.
She knew roughly what that entailed.
“...Then one day.”
He paused, as if catching his breath.
“Light suddenly enveloped me. Warm. The pain vanished...”
He clenched and unclenched his fist lightly.
“When I opened my eyes... I was cured.”
Dominica's expression stiffened. He might not realize, but she could guess what he described.
A miracle.
A word recorded endlessly in Holy Light Church annals—and doubted just as much.
But Ellian went on.
“Even doctors couldn't explain it.”
He shrugged slightly.
“So I figured... it was Her will. If She spared me, there must be a reason.”
“...”
“That's why I follow Her teachings.”
He smiled.
“To live sharing love with others.”
A bright smile.
“...I'm just carrying on what she did.”
The garden fell quiet. Only distant birdsong.
Dominica said nothing for a long while. Her eyes were on Ellian, but her gaze seemed elsewhere.
She'd interrogated countless liars. She knew: He was telling the truth.
“...”
She swallowed dryly, deciding that was enough, and turned to leave.
Doubts lingering in her heart.
Light.
And...
A miracle.