Chapter 93
Chapter 93
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 92
Chapter Title: Corpse
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“How did you end up possessing that body?”
This was exactly what it meant to be caught off guard. I involuntarily sucked in a sharp breath, too flustered to respond right away.
But she didn’t press me on it. She simply waited patiently for my answer, offering a kind smile.
How had she figured it out?
Even though bandages covered my face, hiding it from view, she had pierced right through to the truth, leaving me stunned.
Still, I gave her an answer.
It was, of course, a refusal.
“Sorry, but I can’t tell you that.”
“Hmm.”
Stella sounded disappointed. She tilted her head and replied.
“If you were simply an evil spirit, I’d have no choice but to exorcise you.”
“Do you have the power for that?”
“Of course not.”
Her matter-of-fact tone made me hesitate for a moment. Conversing with her felt like getting swept up in her rhythm.
“If I was rude, I apologize. You just seem like a different kind of being from an evil spirit, and I was curious.”
“……I didn’t forcibly steal my host’s body.”
Dayus, the original owner, had died before I entered it, so it wasn’t theft. If anything, I’d found it abandoned.
“That makes me even more curious. It feels like you’re hiding some tremendous secret.”
“Hah, won’t you forget everything tomorrow anyway?”
I knew the words could hurt, but I needed to deflect her persistent probing.
Yet Stella nodded as if I were right.
“That’s exactly why you can tell me, isn’t it?”
“…….”
“Secrets can be painful just to carry alone.”
Her words resonated so deeply that my heart pounded despite my muted emotions. Her voice reached me like a warm embrace.
“I actually think it’s a blessing that the demon’s curse makes me lose my memories every day.”
“…….”
Stella set down the rosary shaped like the sun and slowly extended her hand. I gently offered mine to her groping fingers in the air, and she wrapped them softly.
“That’s why I can hear things I shouldn’t. You could pour out the secrets you want to keep hidden forever, and I could offer comfort and empathy without ever remembering them.”
I couldn’t stop my heart from racing.
Being with this woman eased my mind to an almost painful degree.
“What’s your name?”
A question I’d never asked.
A pitiful one she’d forget by tomorrow.
“Kim Shin-woo.”
I answered, and Stella carefully drew my hand to stroke her cheek.
Her cool skin felt like the temperature of the tragedies she’d endured.
“Kim Shin-woo. Tell me your story. Not for my sake, but for yours.”
“…….”
“I’m probably here to hear your story. To share the burden you carry, even if just for a little while.”
She smiled brightly.
“And to forget you.”
That smile amid her cruel tragedy was like a tiny dandelion blooming from a pile of ashes.
“I wonder if this curse isn’t such a bad thing.”
“…….”
“What do you say? Will you give me one day to travel with you?”
* * *
We shared many stories.
From our childhoods to memorable experiences, family memories, and unforgettable wounds.
Through our talk, I realized it.
She must have noticed it too, not just me.
We comforted each other in conversation, and offered comfort in return.
I explained my strange life seeing ghosts until I entered Dayus’s body.
Stella spoke of her life devoted to others since childhood, sacrificing everything as a saintess.
Our lives were utterly different, yet we felt a strange kinship, empathized, and soothed one another.
I didn’t tell her this was a game world.
Or that I knew the world’s ending.
But I started from my past in another world.
Tales from Northsweden.
Incidents resolved at the academy.
Formidable foes met at the palace.
Faking holy power with the Holy Grail, becoming a necromancer who comforted the kingdom’s dead.
After hearing it all, Stella surprisingly thanked me.
“If the saintess is the kingdom’s sun, then you’re the moon rising at night.”
“…….”
“Please help Lucia well. With you there, that child won’t end up like me.”
I didn’t say that if I’d been there, she wouldn’t have suffered so.
It was a meaningless hypothetical that would only give false hope.
“You truly are a great woman.”
So after our conversation ended, I told her honestly.
No one I’d met could match her nobility or greatness.
Even Hertia, the goddess of hearth and fire she served, might bow her head before Stella’s purity.
Her beauty would linger deeply in my heart.
“Thank you for sharing all this. Talking with you brought me great comfort too.”
“…….”
“Enough that I almost regret forgetting it all tomorrow.”
Stella let out a playful chuckle. I answered her calmly.
“That won’t happen.”
“Huh?”
She tilted her head, puzzled by my words. But I turned away.
We’d been standing in a room without even a chair, yet I hadn’t felt tired.
Now, as I moved, my body creaked like old machinery.
“Stella, I respect you.”
“……Yes?”
I gave her a genuine smile, not the awkward one I usually forced.
“So I’ll honor your wish.”
Clunk.
I opened the door and stepped out. No need to lock it again.
I descended the stairs with steady steps, emerging outside where Pindenai, Iluania, and the Black Necromancer waited, looking bored.
“Whoa, you’re finally out!”
“You went in before lunch, and now it’s late evening already. We saved some food for you.”
[You talked for a long time.]
“I’ll eat later.”
I pushed away the plate Iluania offered and ordered Pindenai.
“Go to the convent warehouse and get a shovel.”
“A shovel? Suddenly?”
I answered her puzzled look without hesitation.
“We’re digging up a grave.”
The three were stunned by my abrupt declaration. But Pindenai soon grinned.
“You figured it out, huh? I’ll grab it right away!”
She dashed excitedly into the convent. I told Iluania to wait in the carriage, then headed to the graveyard with the Black Necromancer.
The spot where the nameless tombstone still lay toppled.
[Did talking to the former saintess give you some answers?]
“Yes. Speaking with her there let me see it.”
The Black Necromancer seemed curious, but I didn’t elaborate.
Soon after, Pindenai returned with a shovel easily enough—but she’d been caught, dragging a bunch of nuns along.
“Sorry, we got busted!”
She grinned innocently, as if ready to club the nuns with the shovel, but I shook my head.
“You did well.”
Bringing them all was perfect.
Pindenai shrugged awkwardly, not expecting praise—until the abbess’s sharp cry pierced like a needle.
“What do you think you’re doing?! Didn’t I show you the photos of the children’s bodies? Why dig up the graves again?!”
The nuns behind her nodded. I replied without backing down.
“I know who the demon is.”
“What? You do?”
“Yes. And to confirm it, I need to see the bodies with my own eyes.”
“……B-but!”
“Pindenai, dig.”
At my command, Pindenai cackled and started shoveling the dirt.
“Will digging up a nun’s grave curse me? Hope it’s something spicy.”
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Watching her excavate like a machine, the abbess and nuns edged away from each other.
The moment to reveal which of them was the demon was at hand.
“Ex-explain! Explain why you need to dig up the graves!”
I nodded at the abbess’s outburst. Pindenai’s digging bought us a little time.
“This morning, during our brief interviews. All four nuns said they suspected Mela.”
“Wh-what?”
“Mela?!”
Mela looked stunned and betrayed, glaring at the four nuns. The abbess denied it too.
“That can’t be! Mela is closer to a saintess than anyone right now!”
She began defending Mela, spittle flying.
“This child has the qualities to rival Lucia and Stella as a saintess!”
“Yes, exactly.”
I nodded. I almost wanted to applaud the abbess for spelling it out.
“That’s why the other four lied and pointed to Mela, the nun closest to being a double saintess.”
The four lowered their heads, bit their lips, or let out gloomy groans—different reactions, same truth.
“Yesterday, you wouldn’t answer at all. Today, you all point to Mela. Didn’t you think I’d find that suspicious?”
The nuns who’d eyed me warily and fearfully yesterday now singled out Mela without hesitation.
Their testimonies already stank of deceit.
“On the other hand, Mela. Even though you suspected someone, you lied and stayed silent.”
“……!”
All eyes turned to Mela. She looked choked, distraught, but cracked under the pressure and spat it out.
“The abbess… she’s suspicious.”
“What!?”
The abbess’s eyes bulged like she’d been struck from behind, and she jumped back.
“Me? You’re accusing me? Do you think that makes any sense?!”
Her intense reaction prompted Mela to raise her voice in rebuttal.
“After the incident! The punishments got harsher! She’s been coercive, even locking us up forcibly!”
Mela’s finger jabbed straight at the abbess.
“We all know she puts locks on our doors at midnight!”
“Th-that’s!”
The other nuns gasped in surprise.
The abbess stammered, fumbling for excuses, but I cut in.
“Then why didn’t you tell me the abbess was suspicious?”
“……Because we still can’t trust you. I planned to tell Sister Stella if I got the chance, but you were in there with her all day!”
Mela’s face flushed red with rising anger as she shouted.
The abbess, protesting her innocence with mouth agape, poured out excuses to me.
“N-no, that’s not it! Wait! It’s true I’ve been pushing the children hard lately, but that’s……!”
“The pressure of the next saintess maybe not coming from here.”
“……!”
“The fear that the gods might not choose the next one from a convent where a demon was summoned drove you to it.”
At my words, the abbess nodded hollowly.
Then.
“Master! All dug up!”
Pindenai’s shout rang out. Leaving the nuns to eye each other suspiciously, I headed to the graves.
Three coffins laid neatly.
Pindenai pried them open one by one, then smacked her lips in disappointment.
“It’s really just all burned up?”
The bodies matched the photos exactly. A bit more decayed, perhaps, but still.
[Wh-what is this?!]
The Black Necromancer stared at one body in shock, then at me.
Her expression screamed disbelief.
And a question: Did you know?
I met her gaze and pointed to the one at the far right end.
Now I was certain.
“That’s not a nun’s body.”
“What?”
“What do you mean?”
The abbess and Mela asked.
I clicked my tongue and answered.
“It’s a demon’s corpse.”