Chapter 3. Faith and Status (3)
Chapter 3. Faith and Status (3)
No, no, no.
This is a bit much.
No matter how I thought about it, my reaction had been like a granddaughter waving at her grandpa.
I did call him Cardinal, but who in the world addressed a Cardinal that casually?
Besides, thinking about it again, I was meeting the Cardinal for the first time today. Technically, we had exchanged a few words through letters, but since we had each one-sidedly said only what we wanted to say, it couldn't even be called a conversation.
I did know his face from the TV in the dining hall, but.......
"Grandpa!"
But before I could make an excuse, someone addressed the Cardinal with an even more outrageous form of address than mine.
It was the young nun I had been talking with just moments ago.
"Oh my, Sisters, you were all out here."
The moment the Cardinal heard that voice, his expression shifted right into a kindly smile.
As the young nuns flocked over, the Cardinal stood at a slight distance from them and bent down a little to look at the children.
"Seeing you out here, it seems today's Bible study has all finished."
"Yes!"
The children, gathered in small groups like chicks and answering together as if in chorus, wore expressions as clear as a cloudless sky.
"Finishing your studies early is something to celebrate. However, many people from outside the church are scheduled to arrive today. The Mother Superior was looking for you over there, as it happens. How about heading back soon?"
"Outsiders!"
"We want to see them too!"
"Is that Saintess Candidate over there an outsider too?"
At that, the Cardinal smiled bitterly.
"Does she look like one?"
"She's wearing her veil weird, and her hair color is weird too."
"Her habit looks a little different as well......."
"Hm."
The Cardinal looked at me with a somewhat awkward expression.
I was...... how should I put it, at a loss for words.
In high school, there are always kids who shorten their uniforms as much as possible, aren't there. The type who dye their hair a conspicuous color no matter what the teachers say, and flop down on their desks to sleep through class.
Well, I did listen diligently in class in my own way.
......Though it was also true that I had never once studied the scripture this place considered important.
"......Now, now. Off you go. The Mother Superior baked chocolate chip cookies, and she said if you're too late, there might not be any left."
"Chocolate chip cookies!"
"Let's go, let's go!"
The Cardinal gave up on explaining and lured the children away with bait.
The little nuns flocked together again and ran off to the other side of the church. Everyone passing by watched them with fond expressions.
"......."
And so did Ria and I, along with Sophie beside us and the escort knight.
The Cardinal, who had been watching the children's retreating backs, turned toward me.
His expression had returned to blank. How should I put it—if there were such a thing as the businesslike expression of a person of high rank, this was it.
"Ah......."
When our eyes met, I briefly and seriously agonized over what to say.
I wasn't particularly used to situations like this. Not in this life, and not in my Past Life either, since I'd never actually met anyone truly important.
If there had been someone that important, I probably would have run into them on the street and recognized them myself.
While thoughts like "procedure" and "protocol" were flashing through my head—
"Sister Sophie."
The Cardinal spoke first.
The Cardinal said this and gave a slight, polite bow. Sophie bowed her head slightly in return. He didn't address the knight beside her by name, but they exchanged courteous greetings all the same.
"......And Sister Anna."
The Cardinal did the same toward me. I bowed my head exactly as Sophie had done earlier. Though mine was much more awkward, of course.
Ria looked as though she knew the Cardinal, but he only gave her a light nod, just as he had done with the knight.
Was he acting based on my status?
My rights had been stripped, but my position itself hadn't been demoted.
"Then, may I escort you straight to the meeting room? It's a little earlier than our appointment time."
"Yes, I don't mind."
Sophie answered and glanced at me.
"I, I don't mind either......."
I answered, fighting the urge to clutch my head.
If only I hadn't greeted the Cardinal to escape my embarrassment, it probably would have been a little less awkward.
I want to go back three minutes and smack myself hard on the back of the head.
The other clergy who had followed behind the Cardinal quietly trailed after us.
"Hey, hey, no need to be so tense."
Ria said, poking me in the side.
"The Cardinal is actually not the type to care much about formalities."
Yeah, that doesn't really put my mind at ease.
Remember, I'd basically insulted the Cardinal's parents. Well, it wasn't as if I'd literally asked whether he had no parents, but still.
Ria kept glancing at me on the way to the meeting room, as if my tense face were amusing.
I pressed my lips firmly shut, suppressing my shame as much as possible, and entered the meeting room.
*
It was called a church, but the interior wasn't entirely decorated in solemn reverence. There were church symbols hanging here and there, but basically, there were also ordinary meeting rooms.
The place we entered was closer to a presentation room than a meeting room, but well, if there were a lot of people, I could understand the chairs being arranged that way. A round table gets a bit burdensome when it's too big......
No, wait, a lot of people?
Because of how the Cardinal had acted a moment ago, I had just assumed this would feel like a company meeting. In the first place, this gathering probably wasn't to discuss my position as Saintess, but to deliberate over whether to restore the Saintess Candidate's rights.
If it was just that, the Cardinal's authority could handle it somehow, but since the Cardinal was the one who had stripped my rights in the first place, couldn't he just say one word about whether he would or wouldn't?
"Now, then."
But my thoughts—
"As Sister Sophie and the two other Saintess Candidates have petitioned, regarding the verification of Sister Anna's qualifications as Saintess—"
"Whaaat!?"
Gasp.
I let out that shriek before I knew it and quickly covered my mouth with both hands.
Everyone in the meeting hall was looking at me.
"Sister Anna, did you have something to say?"
The middle-aged nun who had been presenting at the front said that. She wore a nun's habit, but her glasses and slightly stern air made her look like a senior corporate executive. Extremely businesslike.
Ah, come to think of it, wasn't there a famous nun who used to follow some Pope around? I'd only vaguely heard about her on the internet, so I didn't really know what she looked like.
"Ah, well, that's......."
I carefully opened my mouth.
Honestly, I didn't particularly want to say anything, but in a setting like this, there was one thing I needed to address.
"So, this gathering...... I never imagined it would be about, qualifications as Saintess? ......I never thought it would be a meeting to discuss that."
"Did the head priest not tell you?"
The nun asked, businesslike but exceedingly polite. If you added up my Past Life age, I might be older than her—but still, in this world, I had only just become an adult.
No matter how globalized things had become, this was South Korea. Honestly, even living this kind of life, I had been influenced more by Confucianism than by the Church.
Having someone older than me speak to me so politely was a little...... embarrassing.
"I only thought it was a meeting to discuss the Saintess Candidate's rights......."
I stopped talking there.
Right, somehow I could imagine the priest not telling me.
The reason was simple.
The moment I realized I'd risen to the position of Saintess Candidate, I'd already sent a letter to the Cardinal saying the unfilial nonsense that God didn't exist.
If he had said something like "If you go there, you'll become a Saintess," I might really have just jumped the wall and run away that day.
As I was barely suppressing the urge to clutch my head, the nun spoke.
"It seems you already understand why he didn't tell you."
"......."
"Then, may I continue?"
For a moment, I considered just standing up and running away, but when I looked around and my eyes met Ria's, she had an expression like she might burst out laughing at any second, so I just gave up.
Even if I ran, I'd be caught.
There was a big difference between becoming a Saintess Candidate and becoming a Saintess. Right—if God's spokesperson ran away, the Church would come after me too.
However—
"I think...... the position of Saintess isn't somewhere you can rise to that easily......."
I timidly added one more sentence.
That's right.
The Church wasn't only in Korea. There were higher organizations encompassing the whole world. There was also the Pope.
What I meant was, it's not as if one Cardinal's recommendation would immediately elevate someone to Saintess.
I thought it couldn't be so slapdash that someone could become a Saintess after a single Cardinal's recommendation.
"Ah, of course."
The nun nodded at my words.
"It won't be decided right here. There are several stages of procedure. In fact, this meeting was hastily arranged because some people insisted it needed to be decided as quickly as possible."
"......."
I quickly looked toward Sophie.
Sophie smiled as if to say it was her. There were other nuns sitting in a group beside her, and they all looked oddly satisfied.
And near them—
Lee Si-yoon?
And beside him were Hunters as well. They were all in suits, though.
It seemed they had all arrived and been waiting before we entered the meeting room.
After confirming only that much, I squeezed my eyes shut.
"Then, may we continue the meeting?"
Even without me nodding, the next part proceeded naturally.