2-17 Murder Ghost and the Sacrificed Saintess (1)
Saintess Saria could see the future.
Her saintess power was the authority of blessings and curses, but occasionally, saintesses with the rare gift of precognition appeared as well. Lately, even the 3rd Saintess Lemon had been having dreams akin to prophetic visions—weak in power, but undoubtedly the same type of ability.
Saintess Saria, who could glimpse the future. The very first future she foresaw was—
Her own death.
When she first experienced that precognition, the event was still far, far in the distance. But precisely because so much time remained until it came to pass, it was all the harder to endure.
In the future, she meets her end at the hands of the Doom Cultists.
Dragged to a place where no one comes to her aid, she faces a gruesome death alone.
Even if she stations holy knights and warns them to stand guard, it proves futile.
The location, time, and method change, but the cultists always succeed in killing her.
As if it were an inevitable outcome.
As if it were a predestined fate.
Thus, the saintess dies. And using the "death of the saintess" as material, a Seed of Ruin—Jabberwocky—is born.
That was as far as her dream went. What followed seemed to be the newborn Jabberwocky and the cultists setting the capital Berthel ablaze, the Holy Light Kingdom Berea not quite falling but greatly weakened... But by then, she was already dead. She had no desire to etch those horrific scenes into her memory.
'No.'
Aah, it's terrifying. Scary, scary, scary. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die...!!
She knew that all people must die someday. And as a saintess, she knew all the more that she shouldn't fear death.
But even if she'd been chosen as a saintess, what did that change? She was still a hopelessly flawed woman—just a bit more knowledgeable and refined on the surface, but ordinary to her core. A mere female animal.
No amount of gilding with the title of "saintess" could alter that fact. She was nothing more than a pathetic creature who feared death and desperately clung to life.
And so, she barricaded herself in the Prayer Room, praying alone. In the hope that perhaps the Goddess might alter this future. Or if it was an unchangeable destiny, at least that she might erase this fearful heart.
She prayed and prayed, day after day, but nothing changed. Despairing at the immutable future, nearly abandoning her faith in the Goddess—only to cling to Her again in tearful desperation, having no one else to turn to. She repeated this cycle hundreds of times.
Those dark, lightless days dragged on endlessly. But at last, they came to an end.
The future that had never wavered finally shifted. The precognition heralding her death changed.
She would not die. Nor would the capital Berthel burn.
The day her saintess dream changed was, coincidentally, the same day the Saintess Lemon began having strange dreams about the Bewitching Forest.
And the very day King Gaon appeared in this land, with Lete and Mea pledging their loyalty to him.
"From some point on, I gained the ability to see the future."
"And the future I saw was always one of my own death."
Slipping out of the church, Gaon's group hurried through the night streets.
They startled holy knights along the way, causing a commotion, but there was no time to care.
Any holy knights trying to block the path were swiftly subdued by Sharon and Noa.
It took less than two seconds. Both were Lv.4 Hero Units. Low-level holy knights at Lv.1 or Lv.2 couldn't hold out even for a moment.
This was blatant overkill.
'My mistake.'
Yes, overkill. When he received the letter, he'd assumed it was unmistakably a trap from the 1st Saintess. That going to the church might mean facing its entire force.
Yet he'd gone anyway because it didn't matter. With Eve absent, the strongest unit in the church right now was Sharon. He'd secured her, plus the leveled-up Noa at his side. He judged they could handle the church's full might.
He was certain they'd win. That assessment wasn't wrong. The strategy was sound.
That's why Saria had acted that way. Knowing Gaon would come, she'd deliberately sent that cryptic message.
—Because doing so would leave no one to protect the 3rd Saintess.
"Kuh...! Noa!!"
"Yes, Gaon-nim!"
Even running at full speed felt too slow, frustratingly so. Without a word, Noa understood, scooped Gaon into her arms at his call, and broke into a run.
The leg strength of a Lv.4 unit propelled them forward faster than ever.
In an instant, they crossed the vast church grounds, passed through the garden, and burst onto the streets.
Leaving stunned guards behind, they sped on. Bells tolled frantically from the church—clang clang clang clang.
Shouts echoed everywhere: "Catch the unidentified giant that fled the church!"
The church's uproar faded swiftly behind them.
And they arrived at Mera Laundry.
BAM! They smashed through the door of Mera Laundry and charged inside. No time to unlock it properly.
The interior was eerily quiet. As always, on the first floor. Empty of people.
It had to be his imagination.
Up the stairs to the second floor— the living quarters. Scanning around, they spotted Amy slumped over the dining table, unconscious.
Rushing over, they checked her—no visible wounds.
"Looks like drugs. She's responding to it."
Using sacred magic, Sharon quickly confirmed. The only anomaly was the drug reaction; Amy's body itself was unharmed. The life in her womb, too.
No other presences in the living room or other rooms on the second floor.
The people who should be here... were gone.
Up to the third floor. This time, Noa took point, Sharon guarding the rear around Gaon.
Noa, arriving first, suddenly halted. Her eyes wide, as if she'd spotted something.
Gaon pushed past and climbed up.
In the third-floor hallway lay someone collapsed. A blue-haired maid. No. 2.
He hurried to her, lifting her up. The carpet around No. 2 was soaked in blood, but it wasn't hers.
Like Amy, she was unwounded and unconscious—just a heavy blow to the back of her neck.
Relief at no wounds mixed with a chill.
'Then this blood... whose is it?'
He propped No. 2 against the nearby wall and proceeded down the hall.
Bloodstains marked the floor, sparing them a full search of the spacious third floor.
Following the trail inward. To the room at the far end—the study/party room, the very one they'd used last night. He opened the door.
...
The room was dark. But the curtains were open, moonlight flooding in untouched.
In the center stood a figure. Moonlight silhouetted its form.
The outline, the faintly visible profile—both familiar.
Gaon called her name.
"Sion."
"....................................You've come, Gaon-nim."
She—Sion—finally turned, bathed in moonlight. Same as always. Pale green twintails, dark circles under those pitch-black eyes.
But one difference: something massive gripped in one hand.
Only on closer inspection did he realize it was a giant scythe. Where had she gotten it? Certainly not from this house.
"Ugh, urgh..."
A groan from the side. Turning, he saw a dark lump writhing against the wall. Heart, plastered to it.
Bringing the magic stone lamp close revealed her form starkly.
She was pinned to the wall. Back against it, arms raised overhead and crossed, impaled through by her own dagger's blade—driven deep into the wall behind.
Her hands skewered to the wall by the dagger, hanging like a calendar. Blood everywhere else, too. Legs drenched—likely tendons severed to prevent resistance.
The blood trail from outside was hers, it seemed.
He swung the lamp back from Heart toward Sion—and beyond her, deeper into the room.
A bed there. Oversized.
And atop it.
"......."
".................................Sister?"
Lemon lay on the bed. Hands politely clasped before her, as if peacefully asleep.
Were it not for the chest soaked crimson in blood—
One might think she was just sleeping.
"......So you're the murder ghost, Sion."
He turned the lamp from Lemon back to Sion.
Sion nodded in affirmation. "Yes."
Saintess Saria spoke.
She wanted to live.
Saintess Saria agonized.
Because for her to live, someone had to die.
Saintess Saria despaired.
The one to die in her place had to be no other than a saintess like herself.
Thus, Saintess Saria committed a sin.
A grave sin, difficult to forgive.
And how could it not be?
She had sacrificed the most beloved saintess in this Holy Light Kingdom in her stead――
