Chapter 124: The Lord is With Us (45)
Chapter 124: The Lord is With Us (45)
By the time the Saintess arrived at the director’s office, Guildford had already drawn his sword.
The blade, resting atop a pristine white cloth, shimmered with a chilling sharpness. He was staring down at the weapon in silence.
His gaze was incredibly deep. His eyes were a mixture of sorrow and remorse, as if he were recalling memories from a long time ago.
It must be the sword he used during his days as a mercenary, the Saintess thought as she spoke.
"……Director Guildford."
"Ah, Saintess."
At her soft call, Guildford, who had been staring at the sword, turned around. He wore his usual benevolent smile.
The Saintess gazed at him intently.
The color captured by her Spiritual Eye was clear. At the very least, it meant he was not a bad person.
The Saintess, by nature, did not trust people. She knew all too well that no matter how kind someone appeared, they were ultimately selfish, worldly, and calculating beings.
Because she was the same way.
However, she could trust the colors revealed by her Spiritual Eye to some extent. Her Spiritual Eye was as developed as her divine power, allowing her to discern a person's general disposition.
From her perspective, Guildford was someone who fell into the category of being exceptionally virtuous.
This was why she had come to meet him alone without hesitation. Guildford’s character was trustworthy.
With her eyes closed, the Saintess quietly traced the sign of the cross over her chest. A benevolent voice flowed from her lips.
"Have you, perhaps, heard of the situation?"
"……I have."
Guildford spoke with a voice laced with a sigh. His expression looked troubled.
The Saintess thought it was only natural. He had poured his heart into running this orphanage for a long time. He probably never imagined it would be closed down under these circumstances.
But it was too dangerous to leave things as they were. For Guildford, for the children of the orphanage, and for the world.
A monster out of myth could not be unleashed upon the Continent. The Saintess offered words of comfort, her voice filled with regret.
"Do not be too saddened, brother. The Heavenly God does not bestow trials without reason."
"……Trials without reason, you say."
The old man let out a bitter smile at those words. Mention of the 'Heavenly God' seemed to bring many thoughts to his mind.
He wiped the sword clean with the cloth.
"Saintess, would you care to listen to this old man's life story?"
The Saintess looked at Guildford with a questioning gaze. Every second was precious right now. There was no time for such things.
Guildford wasn't someone who wouldn't know that. Though she found it strange, she shook her head with a sigh.
"I am sorry, Director. But you must make a choice right now—"
"I, too, grew up in an orphanage as a child."
Her pale pink eyes stared blankly at Guildford. Regardless, he simply continued his story.
As if the Saintess had no choice in the matter from the start.
"I was quite lucky, though. I met a wonderful director, and when he happened to discover I had talent, he went out of his way to find someone to teach me swordsmanship. That’s why my dream since I was young was to be an orphanage director. I wanted to become a great person like him and take care of children."
"……And you succeeded."
Suppressing her urge to snap that she was busy, the Saintess forced herself to play along. Her image was precious, after all.
Oblivious, Guildford continued his life story. The gaze he directed at his sword, which had regained its luster, was distant.
"But life isn't that simple. I reached the level of Sword Expert and returned to my hometown as a man who had been successful for a mercenary. But the orphanage I had stayed in had already collapsed."
"……Why?"
"Financial difficulties. In the end, the director, who had even resorted to borrowing from moneylenders, was murdered by them, and the children were scattered. This orphanage was built on that very site."
The Saintess fell silent at the grim past. Orphanages failing was something that happened countless times on this Continent.
There were many orphans in the world, and too few orphanages. The more conscientiously a place was run, the more budget it required, and the fewer sources of income it had.
Thus, most orphanages that failed were those with excellent directors.
Just like the Guildford Orphanage.
"At first, I started the orphanage with great ambition, but I soon realized how difficult it is to protect orphans. Before long, children began to starve one after another. Humans are cunning animals; when their stomachs are empty, they even resort to beating other children to steal their food."
As soon as she heard those words, something flashed through the Saintess's mind.
Ian's friend had said something like that. He said it was a miracle the orphanage had been managed until now, and that the finances simply didn't add up.
Guildford gave a bitter smile and sheathed the polished sword at his waist.
"That was when I thought: Why on earth is the Heavenly God doing this? There are so many weak and suffering people in this world, so why is it that the more virtuous one is, the more they lose and the more they must hurt?"
"Director Guildford, what on earth are you saying……"
It was then that a scream filled the orphanage.
The Saintess turned her panicked gaze toward the door of the director's office. She could tell just by the faint sounds reaching her.
This was a crisis. There was no more time to listen to old stories.
The Saintess shouted urgently at the director. Her body was already turned toward the door.
"There is no time for this! Director, we must escape immediately……!"
"……There is no need for that."
But at those words, the Saintess froze.
His voice was far too calm. Her pale pink eyes, filled with doubt, turned back toward Guildford. He was looking at her with an indifferent expression.
His gaze was deep, unfathomable.
He looked sad, yet he also looked pained. The Saintess instinctively gritted her teeth.
"Director Guildford!"
"I am serious. There is no need, Saintess. Escape is already impossible."
The conviction in his voice sent the Saintess's mind into a tangled mess.
Countless threads of thought deduced the possibilities.
Why was Guildford so composed, and why was he treating her as if he already knew exactly what was happening?
The Saintess's mouth hung open, unable to find words.
In truth, the answer was already there. But no matter how much she rubbed her eyes and looked, the color of Guildford's soul captured by her Spiritual Eye remained the same.
Nevertheless, she could no longer deny the possibility, and her brow furrowed.
"……Don't tell me."
"It is my failing."
Guildford lowered his gaze as if in apology. That meant only one thing.
A Fiend. Guildford was a Fiend.
The moment she realized that, the Saintess, uncharacteristically, lashed out.
"You—you devil! You…… you kidnapped the children and turned them into that?!"
"I had no choice."
His voice was pitiful. But the Saintess didn't feel the slightest bit of pity for him. She could only think of the bloody tears of the young child she had seen trapped in that lump of flesh.
At the same time, the Saintess's eyes scanned the surroundings.
She was looking for a way to escape. Her opponent was a Sword Expert, and a Fiend at that.
As someone specialized in support, he was a difficult opponent to face one-on-one. Even with the secret martial arts of the Holy Kingdom, it would be the same.
Whether he knew her heart or not, Guildford simply continued his excuses with a sigh.
"If this orphanage disappears, hundreds of children will have nowhere left to go. I prayed hundreds, thousands of times! But that great Heavenly God gave no answer. That was when they came to me. It was a connection from long ago."
"……The Dark Cult!"
The Saintess spat the words out, grinding her teeth. The old man's shoulders slumped.
"One person a month. That was the condition. In exchange, they said they would provide hundreds of gold in funding every month."
"So you sold them? Knowing full well what kind of pain those children would suffer!"
"Then where was the Heavenly God at that time!"
The Saintess, who had been raising her voice, was immediately silenced by his retort.
Guildford was more agitated than ever before. His eyes were burning with intensity.
"Should I have let the children starve to death? In this harsh world, the chance of an orphan growing up properly is less than one in a hundred! No one cares—not the state, not the temple, not even the Heavenly God! I prayed so much; is the Heavenly God truly deaf?"
Facing that desperate rage, the Saintess's pale pink eyes wavered. She knew plenty of logic to refute those words theologically.
But in the face of the weight of reality, how empty were theological debates?
After a moment of hesitation, the Saintess had no choice but to close her eyes tight and recite the words she always said.
"The Heavenly God is merely sparing His words. Originally, human free will—"
"Then He is not only deaf, but a mute as well."
At the blatant blasphemy, the Saintess's gaze turned sharp. But Guildford didn't even care if she was angry.
He simply bowed his head, his voice pleading.
"……Saintess, please. I do not want to harm anyone else."
"Haven't you already harmed countless people?"
"And by doing so, I saved hundreds. Are you any different, Saintess?"
Stung, the Saintess took a step forward. But as Guildford raised his head again, his cold gaze made her falter, her words catching in her throat for some reason.
Guildford said:
"Aren't you also planning to abandon the children of this orphanage? Because it is a small sacrifice! To me, that small sacrifice was just one child kidnapped once a month…… I chose carefully, children who didn't have much longer to live anyway!"
"Do you think that justifies your sin?!"
"Is there anything more empty than a sermon without an alternative?"
His voice was murky. If those words had life, they might have been strangled to death already. Even Guildford's face, as he squeezed out those words, was gaunt and hollow.
"By that logic, we are all sinners. Hasn't the world abandoned us? You know it too, Saintess…… because you are an orphan yourself!"
"And so you're saying we should abandon the children too?"
"If you abandon one child, you can save hundreds."
With that, Guildford silently drew his sword. Then, he sliced his own wrist.
Blood dripped down, gathering on the table. The droplets began to trace a geometric pattern of their own accord.
It was a magic circle. Seeing this, the Saintess's eyes filled with bewilderment.
"……This is reality. The reality that I and my children face, which is not written in the scriptures. So, please, just look the other way this once."
"What on earth is this?"
At the Saintess's question, as she instinctively sensed an ill omen, Guildford continued in a weary voice.
"It is contract magic used by the Dark Cult. A contract made by staking each other's lives. Lies or loopholes do not work."
Guildford spoke while standing before the magic circle that emitted an eerie, blood-red light.
The Saintess swallowed hard.
Guildford was right in front of her, and there was no hesitation in his eyes. It was a declaration of intent that he would make her enter the contract no matter what.
It was a desperate crisis.