Chapter 7 - This, too, must be the will of the heavens (2)
This, too, must be the will of the heavens (2)
Translator : Elizabeth
Holy Water.
To the eye, it is no different from ordinary water. But the moment that name is attached, it is no longer ordinary water.
"T-The grass grew where the water touched..."
May's jaw dropped immediately after witnessing that unbelievable sight right next to me. And I, the very person responsible, also stood speechless with my mouth open for a while.
The taste of the water was definitely ordinary. But what the water drops falling on the ground brought about was not ordinary at all.
"How on earth did this happen...?"
"......."
As soon as a single drop of water flowing from my mouth fell to the ground, a green sprout immediately shot up from that spot, extended its stem in an instant, and burst its flower bud.
A single flower emitting vivid life force alone on the dying earth. Anyone could see it was clearly a product of supernatural power.
"Vivian... say something..."
"M-move aside...!! Don't touch that flower!!"
Before May could even finish speaking, the chief's urgent shout burst out from somewhere. The chief, with his eyes rolled back, roughly shoved May aside. Then, without a shred of hesitation, he knelt toward that flower.
"It's a holy relic... This is a holy relic...!!"
The chief's voice was already terribly cracked with greed and rapture. Like a person who had received a divine revelation, he trembled his arm covered in black spots and slowly reached out toward that flower.
"If I just have this flower... If I just brew this flower and drink it..."
It seems the chief didn't see the light emitting from the water I drank. He seemed to believe that the flower blooming from the ground was the only answer to wash away the village's curse.
"......."
The water in the bucket had completely withdrawn its light by now. The wondrous energy that was clearly felt within it also vanished without a trace. But the water contained in the bucket was more transparent than any other water. It was an unrealistic cleanliness, as if all impurities had been filtered out, leaving only transparency.
"Are you okay, May?"
"V-Vivian..."
I was equally bewildered by the situation. But I couldn't just stand there staring blankly at the water in the bucket forever. After carefully helping May up, who had fallen helplessly to the ground, I slowly turned my head toward the chief.
"That flower isn't a holy relic or anything. It's just an ordinary flower."
As soon as I finished speaking, the chief whipped his head around and glared at me.
"This is an ordinary flower, you say? Are your eyes broken or something?!"
"It's true. Even if you brew that flower and drink it, there won't be any effect."
"Shut up! What does someone like you know!"
The chief's sharp rebuke tore through the dry air. He struggled to raise his staggering body and slowly pointed his index finger at me.
"It bloomed a flower bud on this rotten land! This is definitely a holy relic the Goddess sent down out of pity for me!"
There was not a speck of reason left in the chief's eyes. Only the blind faith remained that the flower in front of him would cure his rotting body.
"This is mine. I found it, so it's mine..."
The chief lay flat in front of the flower again. And as if handling a treasure, he slowly reached out and carefully grabbed the flower stem.
"If I just have this, I will be back to..."
However, the chief's joy didn't last long. As soon as his fingers touched it, the green petals turned black and burned away in an instant as if grazed by an invisible fire.
"Ah... Ah..."
A beast-like groan leaked helplessly from the chief's mouth. The fresh leaves withered and twisted like fallen leaves in the blink of an eye, and the brightly bloomed flower bud was brutally crushed in the chief's hand.
"My flower... my miracle...!"
The chief looked down blankly at the remains of the flower left in his palm as if he couldn't believe it. But that short silence was brief. He roughly brushed off the black ash stuck to his palm and slowly raised his head toward me.
"You... As soon as you opened your mouth, the flower died!"
The chief gasped for breath roughly once again and struggled to raise his staggering body.
"Because you kept spouting negative words, the miracle went into hiding!"
There was no logic more forced than this. But the chief's voice, soaked in madness, possessed a strange power of incitement.
"......."
The villagers who had gathered in a circle around me before I knew it. Their eyes were already abnormal. Veins bulging over ashen skin. And eyes glistening like beasts suffering from thirst.
Instead of refuting the chief's forced shouting, they turned that arrow toward me and began to slowly vent their despair.
"She's wearing the veil upside down..."
"A witch... She must be a witch..."
"The witch was jealous of the miracle and killed the flower!"
The villagers' murmuring quickly turned into a clamor filled with conviction.
"That witch took away our village's last hope!"
"Kill her! We must kill the witch and offer her as a sacrifice to the Goddess!"
Mad hatred rushing in quickly like angry waves. I swallowed a hollow laugh for a moment at that absurd sight, but May standing next to me was terrified and clutched my hem tightly.
"N-no... Vivian isn't a witch..."
May's slender voice was helplessly buried under the loud clamor of the villagers soaked in madness. They were no different from the chief.
"......."
I looked down at the bucket I was holding in my arms for a moment. The water contained in it was still unrealistically clear and transparent.
"Why is everyone suddenly acting like this... Please stop, please..."
"May, get away from there right now! That thing is a witch! Don't be fooled by appearances!"
If I use this water, I could probably stop the villagers' rampage quickly. But can that really be called salvation?
"Right! She's wearing the veil upside down!"
"There might be a hideous brand stamped under that veil!"
"Besides, that thing... strange smoke has been coming from her body since earlier!"
The villagers have already become monsters in human form. Clutching sickles and stones, into terrible monsters spitting without a shred of hesitation at the scapegoat who will justify their misfortune.
"S-sorry, Vivian... I didn't know it would turn out like this..."
"Don't cry, May. You didn't do anything wrong."
"But everyone is... to Vivian..."
"It's okay. I'm perfectly fine."
Salvation without a price becomes poison instead. If I cure the villagers' illness and calm their madness with this water right now, they will surely mistake this miracle for their right. And when the next pain comes, the villagers will crave a bigger miracle and set up another witch on the altar.
Salvation with gratitude cut out is no different from saltwater that cannot quench thirst.
"May, black spots are coming up on your body too, right?"
"Hu, huh...?"
"You're pretending to be fine, but you're actually being eaten by the curse too."
At my indifferent remark, May's eyes trembled finely for a moment.
"How did you..."
"All the villagers are eaten by the curse, so there's no way only you would be fine."
After muttering that sentence calmly as if talking to myself, I immediately held out the bucket I was holding in my arms to May.
"Drink. If you drink this water, the curse will disappear cleanly."
As soon as I finished speaking, the surroundings were immediately engulfed in an awkward silence. The gazes of the villagers, who were raising sickles and stones and shouting that I was a witch, all focused on the bucket in May's hands.
"V-Vivian... but this is..."
"You saw it, so you know. That this water is real."
May hesitated for a moment, looking around at the others. But soon, she gulped dry spit down her throat and carefully accepted the bucket I held out with trembling hands.
"No! Don't drink it, May!"
"That's poison! The curse will get worse!"
Starting with the chief's shout, the villagers' fierce boos poured out one after another, but leaving all that criticism and fear behind, May gently brought her mouth to the bucket as if possessed by something.
Gulp, gulp...
The sound of drinking water rang exceptionally loud in the desolate square. The villagers watching from afar all held their breath. Some seemed to inwardly hope for May's body to rot miserably, and others seemed to hope for an unexpected disaster to occur so they would have a justification to punish the witch.
But their ugly expectations were completely shattered in less than a minute.
"...Ah."
A endlessly clear breath leaked quietly from between May's moistly wet lips. Soon, a dazzling white radiance began to spread slowly from under her skin, instantly pushing away the unholy curse covering May's body.
"L-lie... My body doesn't hurt at all..."
May looked down at her hands, where color was returning, with a bewildered voice. That short sentence cut the reasoning of the villagers gathered in the square once again.
"W-what... It wasn't poison?!"
"Why... No, why did her body become fine?!"
The square turned into chaos in an instant. The hands that were wielding sickles and stones as if to tear me to death just moments ago became the forepaws of begging beasts, flailing helplessly in the air.
"Me too! Give me that water too!"
"Move, I'm first! My arm is rotting right now!!"
People rushed in howling like beasts. Only terrible greed to be saved before others made their eyes glisten.
However──.
Splash...!
The water in the bucket poured out onto the dirty dirt ground without leaving a single drop. It was neither May nor the mad villagers who spilled that water.
"Ah, my hand slipped."
It was me.