The Last Companion: The Saintess Loves Holy Water (4)
The morning birds chirped brightly. Estia was lost in a dream.
Without Holy Water, the terrible memories resurfaced. Children being experimented on in the church basement. Thirty today. Twenty-eight tomorrow. Twenty-four the day after. In that deep swamp of a memory where friends vanished one by one, Estia was drowning.
“N-no…! D-don’t go, everyone…! Don’t leave me behind…!!”
Her friends had long since sunk into the swamp and been consumed. Only Estia remained, her head barely above the surface. In the midst of that cruel scene, she heard someone’s voice.
“W…a…k…”
“G…e…t…”
“Wake up—!!”
She shot upright.
“Uwaaah—!”
Just as Luna had said, the Saintess Estia sprang up immediately. Where was she? Feeling a faint pain in her forehead, she turned her head from side to side and looked around.
“Where am I? This isn’t the church?”
“Ow, my chin… What are you doing, suddenly sitting up like that!”
“Who are you?”
“I’m Runasia Runa. I’m someone who got kidnapped, just like you!”
The golden-haired girl, Luna, declared proudly. She had bumped heads with Estia and was now rubbing her sore chin. Estia couldn’t understand this bizarre situation.
What… what is this? Why am I here? I was definitely in the church…?
Her memories from when she drank the Holy Water weren’t intact. They came in fragments, scattered like broken pieces. Estia tried to gather them as best she could. The memory that surfaced in her mind was…
Mask, oppa, sky, clink? What is this?
She couldn’t recall the process, but she understood the conclusion perfectly. I’ve been kidnapped, haven’t I? By that Apostle oppa who wanted to make me his?
“Minerva’s Apostle is the kidnapper? This might be really bad.”
Since he was the Goddess’s Apostle, he probably wouldn’t kill her… but there were plenty of things one could do without killing someone. Experiments, for example.
…Experiments.
The moment she realized that, anxiety flooded Estia’s heart. No matter what happened to her here, she wouldn’t be able to tell anyone. Fear consumed her body, and her hands began to tremble violently. She needed Holy Water. She needed it now.
“G-give me a cup…! Where’s the cup…!! I-I have to receive Holy Water!!”
“Huh? Why are you suddenly acting like this?”
“A-ah… I don’t have any divine power…!! I-I’m going to be experimented on…! It might hurt more than dying…!! Goddess, please save this Estia from above…!!”
“Sigh. I knew you weren’t in your right mind since yesterday, but you really aren’t.”
Luna let out a sigh. Estia’s behavior reminded her so much of her own past self that it felt downright stupid.
“I used to be like that too…”
“L-let me out… O-or give me Holy Water… P-please save me, Goddess…”
Watching Estia thrash about, Luna suddenly recalled her own past. As the senior kidnapping victim, she decided to set a good example. She grabbed the panicked girl by the shoulders, met her eyes, and shouted firmly.
“Stay still! You can’t run away anyway. Look at your leg.”
“R-run…! Aaaah—! W-what is this…? A c-chain…? I-I can’t run…”
“I said stay still! Uncle will come later and explain everything. For now, just stay quiet and listen. Got it?”
“…”
Estia nodded. Seeing that, Luna felt like she was looking at her own little sister.
My youngest brother acts exactly like that…
She behaved no differently from a five-year-old. To calm her down, Luna went to the desk. There was one completely empty bowl and another half-filled with porridge.
She ate a little… Well, it should be fine.
Luna picked it up and brought it to Estia. The girl must have been hungry—her eyes were glued to the bowl.
“Here, say ‘ah~’. Eat this and calm down, okay?”
“…Ah.”
“She listens well.”
Chomp.
Estia ate the porridge and her eyes widened. It was delicious, filled with carefully prepared ingredients.
“W-what is this, why is it so good…?”
“Uncle may be bad, but his cooking is top-notch. Total gap-moe! Though it would’ve been better if he was a kind person who just couldn’t cook. Wait, you didn’t hear that… right?”
“…You said your name was Luna? I have a question.”
“Yeah, what is it?”
Now calmer, Estia took a deep breath and asked.
“You said you were kidnapped too. So why are you so calm?”
It was strange. Normally, kidnapped people looked gloomy and begged to be spared until the very end, didn’t they? Estia couldn’t understand why Luna was smiling so brightly even after being kidnapped.
Luna smiled at the question and answered.
“Well, you see… Honestly, being kidnapped is a bad thing. But it’s not that bad.”
“…You mean it’s not bad even if you die?”
“N-no? Why would I die! Uncle may be a bad person, but he has some manners, I guess? He doesn’t kill! If anything, he takes care of us…”
Ah, never mind, it’s embarrassing!
Luna found praising Uncle far too cringeworthy. Praising the very person who had forcibly kidnapped her was extremely weird to begin with.
“Anyway! Just calm down and wait. You’ll gradually figure out what kind of place this is.”
“…Okay, got it. Thank you. As thanks, I want to give you Holy Water that makes you happy—”
“I-I’m fine! I don’t need it!”
Luna waved her hands wildly, rejecting Estia’s Holy Water. Estia looked deeply disappointed that she couldn’t share that happiness.
“It really makes you happy and feels good…”
“H-haha…”
Why did Uncle keep bringing home such abnormal kids? Luna couldn’t understand his intentions at all.
And so the two of them talked about each other until Lee Junwoo arrived—about understanding the situation and casual chatter about what had happened here. In the process, Luna naturally came to a huge misunderstanding.
What? Talking to her, she seems like a good kid… Her mental state seems fine too…
She’s actually pretty decent? She thought, falling into a massive delusion.
Without realizing that Estia’s fingertips were beginning to tremble and that withdrawal symptoms were setting in…
Hare was fast asleep, hugging her pillow tightly. She woke up to the sound of Uncle’s voice coming from upstairs.
“Hwaaam~”
Maybe because she went to bed late last night…? She still felt a little sleepy… But she had to get moving.
She sprang up from the bed. As usual, she washed up, tidied her bedding, and checked her face in the mirror.
I want to look pretty for Uncle.
Because she carried a girl’s heart, she always had to check her condition. If there was even a speck of eye crust, Uncle might be disappointed.
After finishing all her routines, Hare left her room and headed to the living room.
“Looks like Uncle is already up…”
The smell of food wafted from the kitchen. And from upstairs came Uncle’s voice. He must have cooked and then gone up to the second floor… Hare followed his traces and climbed the stairs.
He was talking inside Luna’s room.
“Y-you kidnapper! Let me go right now!! I have to pray!”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why not!”
“You have something you must do. It is the Goddess’s will.”
“T-that can’t be… I have to give happiness to people…”
The voices of the two talking reached Hare. The newly kidnapped child’s voice was soft and used childish speech patterns.
…She’ll be easy to chase out.
Hare judged her as not much of a threat. At least until the girl spoke again.
“Apostle oppa! I’ll give you my happiness, so please let me go…? Okay? I’m going to be late for prayer time…”
Oppa. Oppa?
Did she just say oppa?
Hare doubted her own ears. But then Estia’s voice came again.
“I have to give happiness to people… Please, oppa, get me out of here… I-I need to drink Holy Water too…”
“…There’s no proper place to pray in this house, so divine power won’t gather either. It’s forbidden for the time being.”
“N-no..! I-I’m going to die..? I’m going to die..!! Oppa, think properly..!!”
The whining of a child. Hare, quietly watching her from the stairs, naturally furrowed her brow.
Why does she keep calling him oppa…? He’s Uncle.
Who said she could call him oppa…? When Uncle never gave permission…?
Jealousy bloomed in Hare’s heart. Her chest ached, and a suffocating tightness made it hard to breathe.
Uncle is Uncle. Calling him oppa is absolutely not allowed.
Uncle probably hates kids who call him oppa too. But he’s too kind to tell her to stop. Therefore—
I have to get rid of her. In his place.
Hare, who had decided to become a bad girl, had just been given the perfect opportunity. The first target she would drive out of the house was ‘Saintess Estia.’
In Luna’s room, Estia watched Luna preparing to leave and felt anxious.
“Luna, where are you going? Is that oppa going to torment you?”
“No, I’m just going to train.”
“Train…? Why are you training?”
“I don’t really know either! But Uncle told me to train! He said if I win, he’ll let me out of here, so I’m training hard to win for sure.”
“W-what is this place…”
What kind of place was this…? They kidnapped her but didn’t experiment on her… Instead, they fed her well and made her train… It was a strange space.
“Don’t tell me they’re raising us to eat us later?!”
“…I don’t think that’s it! Anyway, rest by yourself, Estia. I’ll be back!”
Lee Junwoo opened the door for Luna, and only she left the room. Watching her go, Estia recalled a memory from her past.
I’ll be back, Estia. Wait for me!
Her green-haired friend had smiled brightly as she said goodbye. After that greeting, she never came back.
S-surely not? Luna too…? She was such a good kid—was that her final goodbye?
“N-no… Still, I should have made her happy before she died, right? But I don’t have any divine power, so I can’t…”
How could she replenish her divine power…? Estia used whatever was around her to try.
“Will this let my prayer reach the Goddess?”
A cross hastily made from a box. Facing the cross that looked like it would collapse if tapped, Estia began to pray.
“Goddesses who give us happiness every day, and furthermore give happiness in life, please accept my prayer…”
And so on and so forth.
Estia knelt for a long time, praying. All for the happiness she was waiting for.
But her faith betrayed her.
“O-only one drop…? Only one drop filled up!? T-this is a lie! It’s a lie!”
Divine power showed its greatest effect when praying inside a church. Because a church was the very dwelling place of God. As an exception, high-ranking clergy could gather divine power even in open fields. Because God resided in their hearts.
But Estia, who held twisted thoughts and could not understand the Goddess’s faith, could only obtain divine power inside a church.
“A-ah… I want Holy Water… Holy Water…”
Because she hadn’t drunk Holy Water today, withdrawal symptoms kept creeping up on her. Her hands trembled uncontrollably and she kept smacking her lips.
It was then.
Knock knock—
As if the heavens hadn’t abandoned her, a hand of salvation reached out to Estia. Along with the knocking came the small voice of a girl.
The destined Thief of the Hero Party, Yuriana Hare. She extended a hand of salvation to Estia.
It was an extremely selfish act on Hare’s part, but the rescued Estia had no way of knowing that.