Chapter 21
Chapter 21
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 21
Chapter Title: Sudden Worship (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A few days of commotion had passed, and the troublesome situation seemed to have been roughly sorted out.
The rumors about the 'miracle' circulating in the back alleys had also died down. There was no need to worry about any shady cults prying too deeply or investigating, since their leader and top brass had vanished.
There were no signs of corporate groups getting involved either, and with the proselytizing halted, no one came knocking anymore.
Just like that, it seemed they could return to their peaceful daily routine.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ A few days after the chapel incident, the awaited contact from Joseph finally came through.
When they met again, he looked even more haggard than before. But his eyes were different. Amid the deep guilt from their last meeting, a faint resolve to rise above his past had now begun to flicker.
I cautiously asked how he was doing.
"How have you been? Have you managed to sort out your feelings a bit?"
He nodded quietly.
"Yes. It's all thanks to you, Eve. Thank you so much."
Then he bowed deeply once more before getting to the point.
"And about the proposal you sent through Esty the other day... I gladly accept."
It was about the original bodyguard arrangement.
In exchange for healing his sister Yoanna's illness, he would respond to their calls and perform bodyguard duties whenever needed.
He hesitated for a moment before revealing his hidden inner thoughts.
"Truth be told... I've been really anxious about it. Even though it's such an undeserved offer, my experience of being deceived by the cult leader under the guise of a 'miracle' made me fear holding onto false hope again and collapsing in front of my sister."
That explained why it had taken him so long to respond, even after I promised to heal her.
The similar experience had left a deep trauma in his heart.
"But... over the past few days, Yoanna's condition has started worsening again. I've realized I no longer have the luxury to hesitate on what needs to be done because of my pointless anxieties. I'll carry out whatever you ask. So please... grant my sister the same miracle you showed me that day."
He looked at me with desperate eyes.
My answer was already prepared.
"Good. No reason to drag this out. Shall we go meet your sister right now?"
Color briefly returned to Joseph's face at my words.
But instead of readily leading the way, he hesitated, mumbling awkwardly.
"Um, Eve. There's one thing I should tell you in advance."
"Yes?"
"My sister Yoanna... she's lived only within the church since she was very young. Once she got a bit older, she had almost no contact with outsiders. So she might be... a little different from other kids."
Joseph said that and bowed his head deeply again.
"Please understand in advance."
His expression seemed genuinely worried.
What could be so different about her? I was briefly puzzled but didn't make a big deal of it.
People come in all kinds, after all. I nodded in agreement, wrapping up the conversation.
With the deal settled, they began heading to where Joseph's sister was staying, following his lead.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The place they arrived at was a small room in a rundown apartment building.
Inside the room, beyond the slowly opening door, sat a girl in a wheelchair.
'That's her...'
Yoanna. Joseph's one and only sister, the one he wanted so desperately to protect.
She was the picture of pity.
Her skin was transparently pale from lack of sunlight, and the thin lines of her body peeking from under her clothes were gaunt and frail. Beneath her long, dry golden blonde hair, her round, large emerald-green eyes met mine.
She looked about thirteen. Even at a glance, she was clearly in a severely weakened state, yet still a beautiful girl. It was easy to imagine how vibrant her beauty would bloom if she regained her health.
That only deepened the pity of anyone watching.
Joseph called out to his sister in as cheerful a voice as he could muster.
"Yoanna, have you been well?"
["Onii-chan!"]
The girl's lips barely moved, yet a clear, childlike voice rang out.
An electrode device attached to her slender neck.
The artificial voice emanated from the wheelchair's speaker, triggered by the signal.
Her whole body's muscles had atrophied so much she couldn't even produce her own voice at will.
I let out a small sigh without realizing it at the heartbreaking sight.
Then Yoanna's green eyes turned toward me, filled with curiosity about the stranger.
["Who is this person?"]
Joseph started to introduce me but choked up with emotion, unable to continue for a moment.
His eyes shook anxiously as he looked at me, as if asking, 'Is this really okay?'
I nodded lightly to reassure him and knelt on one knee before the girl to meet her gaze.
"Nice to meet you, Yoanna. I'm Eve."
The girl blinked in surprise for a moment. Smiling, I continued.
"Could you close your eyes for a bit? It'll be over quickly."
At my request, Yoanna looked up at her brother with a puzzled expression. Joseph nodded tensely, and after hesitating briefly, she quietly closed her eyes. Her long, soft lashes trembled faintly.
I gently placed my fingertips on her pale forehead.
As always, I closed my eyes in prayer-like focus...
✨ HEALING RADIANCE ACTIVATED ✨ A radiant glow bloomed from her fingertips, softly enveloping the girl's entire body. The room brightened like midday in an instant. The brilliantly blooming light gradually faded.
Even after the light fully vanished, Yoanna blinked several more times as if dazzled. Tears had welled up in her eyes, trickling down her cheeks.
Due to the blurring tears, she instinctively raised her hand to rub her eyes.
Then her movement suddenly stopped.
Her innocent face twisted in shock and disbelief. Her trembling voice echoed simultaneously from her lips and the wheelchair speaker at the realization that her hand had just moved on its own.
"......H-hand...."
["......H-hand...."]
The eerie overlap of two voices. Yoanna startled and fumbled at the electrode on her neck.
Then she froze again at the sensation of her fingertips touching her own neck.
With trembling eyes, she looked back and forth between her hand, my face, and her brother.
Joseph, too, was frozen in disbelief, forgetting to breathe at the scene before him.
Finally, in a pitifully quavering voice filled with desperate hope, he asked.
"Y-Yoanna... c-can you... try standing up...?"
"......."
Hearing her brother, Yoanna very slowly... like a newborn baby taking its first steps... cautiously extended her toes beyond the wheelchair.
Her skinny legs trembled violently, but she gritted her teeth, gripped the armrests, and struggled to rise.
And at last. If only for a brief moment, she stood on her own two feet.
".....!"
Her weakened muscles, unused for so long, buckled immediately, but she had undeniably stood up by her own power.
The moment they realized it, the siblings' pent-up emotions erupted all at once.
"Hic... sob...."
Thick teardrops streamed endlessly from Yoanna's eyes. Bursting into sobs, she reached out to her brother.
"Onii-chan.... Onii-chan...! Waaah....!"
"Hngh....!"
Joseph could no longer hold back and collapsed with her, pulling her into a tight embrace.
The siblings clung to each other, shedding hot tears for a long while.
How much time passed? Finally calming her sobs, the girl looked up at me with reddened eyes. Breathing shallowly from lingering weakness, she opened her mouth with sincere gratitude.
"Thank you... Eve sis. Really, truly thank you...."
A bit clumsy and raspy from disuse, but it was unmistakably Yoanna's own voice.
Overwhelmed by hearing her own voice for the first time in years, she repeated the same thanks dozens of times like a broken record. No one stopped her. They simply watched warmly until the end.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Finally, as if her resentment had been purged, the girl who had gathered her emotions let out a deep sigh.
She looked around at everyone in turn and spoke up.
"Um... could I ask one favor?"
"Sure?"
"There's something I want to talk about alone with Eve sis. Sorry, but could you two step out for a bit?"
At the sudden request, they blankly exchanged glances.
It occurred to me that for a sensitive teenage girl like her, even without anything special, expressing heartfelt thanks while others watched might feel embarrassing.
So I accepted, and Esty quietly stepped out with Joseph, her expression unchanged.
The door closed softly with a creak.
Now, only the two of them remained in the room.
The girl's face across from her seemed much calmer than when she had been sobbing in her brother's arms. But beneath that calm lurked a subtle dissonance. Sensing her hesitation, I spoke first.
"Yoanna, is there something you wanted to say to me?"
"......."
But the girl didn't answer right away, simply gazing up at me quietly.
A meaningful glint flickered in her deep green eyes. As she stared fixedly, an awkward silence filled the room. By then, I started sensing something off.
'The atmosphere feels... a bit different from before.'
Suddenly, the girl called out to me in a calm, gentle voice unlike before.
"Lady Evania."
I instinctively felt a chill of wrongness.
Her tone, her expression, the very air in the room.
Subtle, but definitely changed from moments ago.
Struggling to pinpoint the source of the unease, it hit me.
The name.
That was what she had just called me.
'Evania?'
When we first met, I'd introduced myself to Joseph as just 'Eve,' and even Esty always shortened it that way. 'Evania' was my full name, one I rarely used myself and barely remembered... Impossible for a girl I'd just met to know it.
'How does she...?'
Before the question could fade, the girl spoke again.
"Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I never doubted that this day would come."
She smiled faintly, genuinely delighted, and hugged her own body tightly.
A gesture like desperately suppressing overwhelming emotion.
The sense of wrongness thickened.
'Something's wrong.'
Suddenly, I thought I needed to leave. As I instinctively stepped back—
A cold hand suddenly gripped my wrist.
"....!"
I flinched, shoulders trembling. The pull was stronger than expected. From such a frail, petite frame, yet I couldn't shake it off easily.
Was it the intimidating aura leaking from her meaningful demeanor?
Or the intense, inexplicable emotion swirling in her green eyes as our gazes met?
Yoanna, who had been gazing deeply into my eyes until then, smiled hazily and said.
"You have no idea how long I've awaited this moment. Yes, how much preparation and longing it took just to meet you..."
A faint flush colored her deathly pale cheeks.
Her excited voice tickled softly into my ears.
"Pleased to meet you. I've been waiting."
And with an ecstatic expression, she added softly.
"My goddess."