Chapter 11 - This, too, must be the will of the heavens (6)
This, too, must be the will of the heavens (6)
Translator : Elizabeth
──────────── 【 You have absorbed Holy Power 】 ──────────── ──────────── 【 Holy Power has increased! 】 ────────────
I don't know why, but my Holy Power suddenly increased. The sensation was quite subtle. But for some reason, I feel like I've become a step stronger.
"V-Vivian... Are you okay...?"
While I was blinking my eyelids a few times looking calmly at the status window floating in front of me. May, who had approached close to my side before I knew it, asked me carefully.
"Ah, May."
"What was that earlier...? Vivian's body suddenly shone incredibly brightly..."
May seemed a little dazed by the sudden activation of 'Glow'. I looked at May with slightly blank eyes, then gently fixed my crooked veil.
"It's Holy Power. The stronger your belief in the Goddess, the brighter it shines."
"H-Holy Power...?"
"Yeah. I told you I was chosen."
Although I ended up using it inadvertently because I was startled, it is a fact anyway. I didn't tell a single lie.
"Wow, amazing... If I sincerely believe in the Goddess too, can I shine like Vivian?"
"Well, that might be impossible?"
"Eh, why?!"
"It's not something anyone can just do. Nor does it work just by believing blindly."
As soon as she heard my answer, May immediately made a sullen face. It seems she covets a shining body quite a bit.
"I guess you really have to be chosen by the Goddess..."
"Do you want to shine too, May?"
"Yeah..."
Come to think of it, the status window earlier said I absorbed Holy Power. I don't know where I absorbed it from. But anyway, if absorption is possible, wouldn't releasing it also be sufficiently possible?
"Maybe I can let you experience it a little?"
"Gasp, really?!"
"Yeah. But it might not work well."
I spoke quietly and gently placed my sticky right hand on top of May's head.
"As expected, Vivian is amazing! Even something like that is possible?!"
"Hehe, that's right. I am amazing."
...But, how do I release the absorbed Holy Power? I spoke quite confidently, but putting my hand on her head, no thoughts come to mind. Should I pray? Or should I put strength into my palm?
"......."
Cold sweat flowing unpleasantly down my spine. I focused all my nerves on my right hand and gritted my teeth gently.
"H-Huuup...!"
Because I was very tense, the body temperature of my palm became hotter and hotter. Then the honey that had hardened halfway melted by the heat and began to slowly flow into May's hair.
"Oh... something is flowing down from my head. Is this what you call Holy Power?"
"Kuaaaap...!!"
How much time passed like that? I became more and more impatient with the Holy Power that didn't release as easily as I thought. What if nothing really happens at this rate? Ah damn, I should have just stayed still...
──────────── 【 ...New Magic Unlocked 】 ────────────
Just then.
──────────── 【 'Evangelize' has been activated! 】 ────────────
As if a blocked dam collapsed. The powers that had lost their way and were crouching began to turn their direction all at once.
Whoooosh!
Light strangely emitting between my palm and the top of May's head. Although it wasn't a grand explosion like 'Glow'. The honey flowing down May's hair absorbed that light and began to sparkle brilliantly like jewels.
"Wow, my body is really shining!"
Staring piercingly at the pretty cluster of light sparkling around her body, May burst out exclamations repeatedly.
"Oh..."
And I couldn't take my eyes off that light either. The impatience of squeezing out a miracle disappeared without a trace before I knew it. Even I lost my soul at the mysterious sight unfolding before my eyes and blinked my eyelids bewilderedly.
──────────── 【 May Miller 】
[Race] Human[Status] Vivian's Lamb ────────────
A little time passed, and another translucent status window popped up. Inside it, May's information was written.
"...Lamb?"
Wondering what on earth this meant, I slightly lifted the veil covering my eyes to the side and stared piercingly at the status window. But the status window maintained that bizarre modifier firmly as if my embarrassment was of no concern.
"Vivian, look at this! My body is sparkly!"
"Uh, uh... The Goddess must have looked upon May commendably."
I hid my bewildered feelings and answered roughly. The word 'Lamb' stuck in May's status window was very uncomfortable. But since there is no way to know its meaning right now, I have no choice but to pass over it pretending not to know for now. If I make a fuss here for no reason, I will only plant useless anxiety in May, who is fully drunk on the atmosphere.
"Ah, it disappeared. It's shorter than I thought..."
The soft cluster of light wrapping May's body slowly scattered into the air and soon disappeared completely. May looked all over the back of her hand like a person who had dreamed a dream and made a face full of regret.
"...Well, it was an experience. It can't be helped."
"I wanted to enjoy it a little more, what a shame."
Hmm, fortunately, it seems there is no particular abnormality in her body. At this level, there is no need to worry my head over it.
"For an experience, that was quite a long time. Now, back to our seats..."
"I will gladly uphold the Goddess's will..."
Just as I roughly organized the situation and tried to go back to where we were.
"My arrogance of daring to conclude a noble person is a demon and drawing a sword..."
The person I had forgotten for a moment suddenly opened her mouth, and the air inside the sanctuary sank heavy once again.
"This must be the weight of the punishment I have to bear..."
Lumina Evangeline. The direct Holy Knight of a place called St. Something Papal State. Because I was taking care of May following the chief who lost his mind. I completely forgot about her, the most troublesome existence.
"The sense of despondency is unspeakable, but for a sinner who committed a mortal sin, even this must be a presumptuous sentiment."
Lumina still kneeling politely in front of me with her head bowed low. While I was taking care of May for a moment and looked away. What on earth did this woman think about so deeply alone? Every word she spat out with trembling lips was not just solemn but even desperate.
But I, listening, couldn't understand a single word of the underlying meaning.
"Mortal sin, you say?"
I asked carefully while being dumbfounded. Then Lumina answered dropping thick teardrops on the back of her hand resting on the floor.
"The sin of daring to raise a sword against the Goddess's agent. Where would there be a greater sin than this..."
Despite hearing the answer. Lumina's words still felt like incomprehensible alien language. What on earth does this mean? Didn't Lumina just work hard at her job?
"...I apologize for interrupting, but I am not the Goddess's agent."
I was bewildered in many ways. But amidst that, the word 'Goddess's agent' stuck clearly in my ears strangely stimulated my nerves for a moment.
"Even your humility is the Saintess herself."
"No. It's not humility, I really am not..."
"I clearly saw with my own two eyes you performing a miracle on that child just now."
I refuted desperately in my own way. But sadly, it seemed Lumina had already concluded in her head.
"Not only me, but the people behind also watched all of that holy scene."
At Lumina's words, I glanced sideways to check the villagers.
Then──.
"As expected, she wasn't an ordinary child..."
"We didn't even know that..."
"Please forgive our ignorance!"
The villagers began to lie flat on the floor one by one. What I showed May earlier was just something like a Holy Power experience ticket. It is spreading into an exaggerated atmosphere as if I really became a Saintess.
"No, no... I am neither the Goddess's agent nor a Saintess..."
The situation has already reached a point where I can't do anything with my power. The more I deny the fact, the more the villagers' eyes filled with deeper awe and admiration.
"The moment I faced your overwhelming 'Glow', I realized."
In such a chaotic situation, for some reason, Lumina's voice alone was heard clearly enough to be chilling.
"That the power I have wielded until now was fake, filled with only arrogance and self-righteousness."
"No, what on earth does that..."
My absurd counter-question was immediately buried helplessly by the noise constantly coming from the surroundings.
"That endless benevolence that reaps even the soul of a fallen Holy Knight as a lamb in an instant."
She trembled the hand resting on the floor and continued speaking with a convinced tone.
"That is why you took away my Holy Power. Now I see that intention."
Lumina's shocking remark that followed. As soon as I heard that, a small question mark floated above my head.
"...Yes?"
"The moment I harbored killing intent toward you and drew my sword, all the Holy Power inside me escaped like the ebb tide."
I doubted my ears. I hoped Lumina was misunderstanding. But that expectation didn't last long.
──────────── 【 You have absorbed Holy Power 】 ────────────
"That arrangement of taking the sinner's Holy Power and sharing it with a pure child... I truly admired it."
The record of the status window suddenly passing through my mind. To think the Holy Power I absorbed was Lumina's...
"How about going to the Papal State with me?!"
My spine suddenly went cold.