Chapter 44
Chapter 44
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 44
Chapter Title: A Church Without Missionaries (9)
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Truth be told, until just a short while ago, I didn't have much attachment to this neighborhood.
It was only natural, in a way. I'd only been in this unfamiliar world for a few months now. Even today, a corner of my heart still saw "Omega Detroit" as nothing more than a fictional city I'd only ever seen in a game.
So despite building up fairly deep connections with the people around me, the area itself still felt awkward and foreign.
Even after establishing the Radiance Church, it was all just to protect myself, and the charitable works were merely an extension of that purpose.
It wasn't about truly practicing a god's selfless love or holding any special affection for the locals here.
That sentiment had lingered right up until recently.
The number of parishioners visiting the cathedral kept growing, but I never attributed any meaning to it beyond expanding the church's influence.
But something had definitely changed.
"It's all thanks to you, Saintess... Thank you so much. Really."
I couldn't help but feel it every day, facing the parishioners who looked at me with eyes full of goodwill and affection.
The fact that each and every person living here was a real human being, just like me.
Not mere background scenery or nameless crowds.
They were people who came seeking God, burdened with their own deep worries and the weight of their lives.
And they knew how to express genuine gratitude for the help they received.
Gradually realizing this bit by bit, I found I could no longer view this neighborhood and its residents as strangers like before.
Each tearful thank-you made me a little embarrassed, but on the other hand... yeah, it definitely made me happy.
The rundown buildings here, the people greeting me as I passed by—they were all starting to feel familiar, little by little. I'd grown attached without even realizing it.
Of course, even at this moment, my goal of returning to my original world hadn't changed one bit.
However, if my journey toward that goal could help someone, even just a little...
Then I thought the days I'd spent in this world wouldn't be entirely meaningless.
But while I was lost in those feelings, there was one fact I'd momentarily forgotten.
Yes, this was the infamous Omega Detroit.
A city of sin where unexpected incidents and accidents happened every minute, every second.
And most of those unfortunate mishaps usually befell the powerless.
A paradise for the strong, a hell for the weak.
How had I managed to forget that I was living in such an unjust world...?
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ That day was no different from any ordinary one.
Balancing my part-time job with the church's minor tasks had become quite routine by now.
As usual, after getting off work, I'd stopped by the cathedral office to handle approvals for the charitable programs when—
Bang! Bang! Bang!!!
Suddenly, urgent knocks pounded on the office door.
Wondering what it was, I looked up just as Esty opened the door. A priest drenched in sweat stumbled inside in a panic.
He started babbling incoherently.
"Saintess! Big trouble! R-right now, on the street...!"
"Calm down first. Tell us step by step. What happened?"
"W-well, here, please put this on first!"
His face pale as a sheet, the priest hurriedly pulled something from his pocket and thrust it toward me.
It was a mask.
Not a simple cloth one, but a mechanical mask connected to a small oxygen tank.
As I stared at it in confusion, he pressed on desperately.
"Hurry, please wear it...!"
I had a mountain of questions, but his utterly frantic expression made me take it first.
Glancing at Esty beside me, she answered.
"My respiratory implants have integrated composite anti-toxin functions, so I'm fine."
Hearing that, I put on the mask.
It covered only the lower face like a lower veil, not a full hood, so it wasn't too suffocating—thank goodness.
Then we followed the priest downstairs.
"What on earth is going on?"
"W-well... please see for yourself first."
Finally reaching the chapel, the sight before me made my breath catch.
"My God..."
It was pure pandemonium.
"Cough! Cough!"
"Guh... hack!"
The cathedral interior, peaceful just half a day ago, was now packed with residents who looked like they'd just fled here.
Coughs erupting from all directions.
Faces pale to the point of ghostly white.
Red rashes blooming across skin, people collapsed on the floor vomiting in agony...
On one side, critically ill patients lay sprawled anyhow, gasping raggedly.
"What in the world..."
At a glance, there were easily over a hundred people. Some were even unconscious children mixed in.
With a trembling voice, I asked the priest.
"...What happened?"
He wiped sweat from his brow and answered.
"Toxic gas is spreading through spots on 13th Street right now...!"
Toxic gas. The first thing that came to mind was chemical weapons.
"Are we under attack right now, by any chance?"
"No. This incident is... well..."
The priest hesitated for words. Then someone else cut in.
"We're assuming it's a kind of industrial accident."
"Yoanna."
Without further explanation, the girl hurried to my side and showed me her tablet screen.
It was CCTV footage of some location.
Dozens of massive pipes stretched in a long pipeline, the surrounding area hazy with pale smoke.
"The leak seems to be from one of these large gas pipes. It's an energy supply line crossing from the outskirts into the city, and toxic gas was massively leaking from one of them."
Yoanna added that the nearby streets had turned into living hell overnight.
The next CCTV clip she showed was of a back alley in utter devastation.
The whole street was shrouded in pale fog, people foaming at the mouth and collapsing within it.
Countless folks lay scattered on the roads, regardless of shops or homes.
They were the very same people who'd greeted me warmly and familiarly on my way to work just yesterday.
"My God..."
A shuddering whisper escaped me at the horrific scene.
"No way... they're all... dead?"
Thankfully, Yoanna shook her head.
"The leaked gas concentration doesn't seem lethal yet. Most are unconscious, but still alive for now. Without proper first aid, though, they won't last long."
Anyone could see time was running critically short.
I desperately brainstormed solutions.
"Then we need to mobilize church personnel to find and seal that leaking pipe—"
But Yoanna shook her head again.
"Eve, the gas pipe has already been fully repaired. What's spreading on the streets now is just residual gas."
"What? How...?"
She swiped the tablet screen once more.
Adding that this footage was from about two hours ago.
"This..."
The same pipeline as before. Several work vehicles arrived nearby, technicians in gas masks hopped out, tinkered with the faulty pipe, and vanished in a flash.
Once they were gone, the pale fog engulfing the screen stopped expanding.
Yoanna explained.
"They're presumed to be the maintenance team from Union Solutions, the energy company that owns that pipeline. They probably checked the incoming gas levels along the pipe, noticed the issue, and repaired the leak itself two hours ago. All that's left on the streets now is the gas that leaked before then."
At those words, I felt a brief spark of hope.
"So the company figured it out quickly. Then rescue teams or police they send might arrive soon?"
"........."
But Yoanna's expression didn't change; she just calmly shook her head.
"No reports filed to government servers. They probably reported it internally, but their 'fix' was likely just repairing the pipe."
The moment I grasped what that meant, I doubted my ears.
"Th-then... that's it? Just like that? At the very least... they should have at least warned nearby residents about the leak! Two hours ago, they could've evacuated people before it spread this far. Why...? Why didn't they order an evacuation?"
To my agitated question, Esty beside me explained coolly.
"Because if they order an evacuation, it clarifies liability. To avoid scrutiny for negligence or claims for damages, they're pretending nothing happened at all."
"But people are actually dying!"
"If everyone dies and no one complains, it's not a problem. No matter how blatant their fault, slum-dwellers have no leverage against a corporation. Fix the pipe secretly, play dumb, and it never happened—as per their wishes. That's the standard way issues get 'resolved' in this city."
"My God..."
The company owning the pipeline had ignored countless lives just to skimp on accident compensation.
It was unbelievable, yet the results lay right before my eyes.
The chapel floor, now a shelter, was covered with innumerable people writhing in pain.
And this wasn't all. Countless more residents collapsed across the entire back alley we hadn't yet found. People isolated in homes or shops they couldn't escape—too many to even count.
Yoanna's voice reached me amid the dizzying despair.
"Analyzing the leaked gas composition and remaining airborne residue, the golden hour for unconscious poisoning victims is about three hours max. And... two hours have already passed."
As she said, in just one more hour, most in this unevacuated zone would die.
But rescuing and treating every victim scattered across the back alleys? Time was hopelessly insufficient.
"Why... why does this happen...?"
Suddenly, I looked around again.
Amid throngs of patients, a father frantically searching for his family.
A child, face smeared black with soot, crying for his mom.
Elders breathing their last, ragged gasps.
Deep resignation and despair etched every face.
Because they knew.
The corporation behind this catastrophe, this hellish nightmare, would never take responsibility.
Back-alley poor couldn't afford proper lawyers for lawsuits or protests downtown.
Even venting by destroying corporate outer assets like other pipelines would just give them excuse to 'cleanly settle' the victims' families too. No matter what, it wouldn't stick.
So, they could do nothing.
Thus, to this city's corporations, nothing had happened at all.
Not even if hundreds ruined their bodies overnight and lost their lifelong homes.
"........."
Suddenly, words from my original world came to mind.
"Human life can't be priced."
Originally, it meant how precious life was.
But this city's society didn't price lives either. For the opposite reason.
"Because they're too worthless and valueless."
Especially slum-dwellers beyond city limits without even voting rights—they weren't even counted in statistics. Thoroughly ignored.
No one cared for their tears.
"........."
But.
Right now, wasn't I watching this...?
With resolve firm, I tore off the stifling mask and tossed it to the floor.
"Eve...?"
I approached the patients lying in the chapel's center.
Some faces were familiar.
"Ellie..."
The girl with brown hair who'd once helped me lay pale-eyed, unconscious.
Her faint breaths came with pained residual coughs.
As I instinctively reached to touch her forehead—
Someone stopped me.
"Saintess."
Yoanna? Esty? One of the nearby priests?
I don't clearly recall whose voice it was.
But the words? Crystal clear even now.
"This could really be dangerous. It's directly involving a corporation. If an epidemiology investigation pops up anywhere, the miracles' true nature could be exposed—we assess high risk."
Yet the warning didn't feel like it was trying to dissuade me.
It sounded more like a voice steeled with determination.
The resolve of those sworn to share my fate, no matter the peril.
And everyone here seemed to feel the same.
"........."
Before them, I answered.
"That's exactly why I founded the church—for times like this."
From the first time I'd borrowed God's name to heal that blind girl, I'd vowed it.
To return home from this city without ever losing my humanity.
And now, facing these countless lives before me.
They were dying without anyone's help. And I had the power to save them.
Turning away from this horror to seek only my own safety? That wasn't human.
"Yeah, if I go, I'll go having lived like a person."
Even if my efforts ended in tragedy, I'd bear it gladly.
I didn't want to be the coward among those who'd pledged their lives to me for an honorable existence.
So I'd do what I could right now.
"If it's a tragedy beyond human power..."
Only divine strength could aid them.
I clasped my hands in prayer—
The first light burst forth.
Flash—!
The girl nearest, Ellie, gasping nearby, slowly opened her eyes.
"Eve...?"
She looked up at me, still dazed.
Not just her. The gentle glow that had just softly illuminated the chapel drew all eyes to me.
"Saintess?"
"It's the Saintess..."
"Ahh, Merciful Radiance... have mercy..."
Murmurs rose, the area growing restless, but such commotion didn't faze me now.
I was fully focused, inwardly pleading desperately to some unseen someone.
"If... whoever gave me this power has been watching my journey here..."
Were all the tragedies I've faced in this city part of your plan?
Do you truly wish for me to sweep away the misfortune and suffering rampant here with my own hands?
If my thoughts are right... if that's truly what you desire...
"Please, grant me the strength to see it through."
As the prayer ended—
"......!"
A brilliance fiercer than ever erupted from my entire body.
Not just my hands, the medium for all prior miracles.
Now from head to toe, every strand of hair shimmered with dazzling light.
This radiant glow filled the chapel in an instant, spilling out windows and open doors.
Even the dark streets outside lit up like midday.
Patients bathed in that warm light began ceasing their pained coughs, opening their eyes one by one.
"........."
Finally, the blinding light faded.
Someone noticed the cathedral's main doors, once shut tight, now wide open.
But no one moved to close them.
Instead, as if by agreement, people removed masks or cloths from their faces one after another.
And drew deep breaths.
"Hah—"
What filled their lungs was no longer air of death.
Not the usual stifling mix of fine dust and acrid smog.
It was like ascending to the clouds, or atop a distant skyscraper—crisp, pure, refreshingly clear winds sweeping gently through the chapel inside and out, embracing the entire eastern outskirts district.
"Ahh..."
All witnessed the miracle. Even the bottom-rung lives in despair's valley, ignored by all, felt God's love embracing them warmly. They no longer doubted their savior. Not a shred.
Someone later remarked:
That moment was truly the Radiance Church's beginning.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "That church needs no one to preach the word, for none could behold the miracle before their eyes and fail to believe."
— Author Unknown: A Church Without Missionaries —