Chapter 3. Faith and Status (4)
Chapter 3. Faith and Status (4)
To summarize the meeting, which had dragged on for quite a while, as briefly as possible: it was a "collection of testimonies."
I didn't know how the Canonization process worked in the reality where I lived in my Past Life. The only time I'd ever taken an interest in religion was when I was very young, and I'd lost all interest after escaping from it in more ways than one.
The occasional story about a religious figure that I happened to read in the live edit feed while browsing a wiki site was the entirety of my "detailed knowledge" about religion.
Still, even if I didn't know what the actual Canonization process was like, testimony was certainly important.
As an Atheist, I was someone who was certain that there was no such thing as evidence of miracles. If someone claimed something was a miracle, I would have thought it was either a coincidence being interpreted as God's will, a case of seeing something wrong and being mistaken, or a con artist laying groundwork for a scam.
So, naturally, the only thing left for Canonization was that "testimony." Other than that, there would only be some verification of whether the person was corrupt or not.
However, if there was a problem here—
"......."
The presentation screen didn't only have text on it.
Photos and videos to be used as materials were also present, as if it were only natural.
And on that screen, there I was, healing people, captured exactly as it happened.
Actually, it was a little comical. Because "Holy Power" wasn't visible in the footage. This was common knowledge in this world: Magic aside, at least "Holy Power" could only be seen by the eyes of living creatures. Strangely, even when people tried to record it, only the results of using that Holy Power were captured; the Holy Power itself never appeared on video.
Because of that, people sometimes speculated that Holy Power was a kind of "psychological phenomenon."
They weren't claiming that Holy Power didn't exist or was fake. The idea was that when a person perceived some force beyond the laws of reality, their brain represented that inexplicable force as something like "light." A kind of optical illusion, but far more concrete than that...... well, something that existed, at any rate.
I wanted to claim it was just an optical illusion too, if I could, but what could I do when it actually worked? And whether you believed in God or not, everyone could see it with their own eyes.
"Oooh......"
Such exclamations of admiration leaked out from among the clergy.
The light wasn't visible, but precisely because of that, the process of healing people's bodies was all the more clearly seen. Wounds closing rapidly, as if time itself were rewinding. It wasn't actually healing in the manner of time turning back, but when you watched wounds disappear without even leaving a scar, the result looked closer to rewinding than fast-forwarding.
The me in the footage saved all the wounded who were gathered in droves like that.
The scene that received the second-biggest response was the moment when I saw a large object flying toward me and bent over the wounded to protect them.
And the scene that received the biggest response was when the footage showed me collapsing unconscious after finishing all of that.
Everyone gathered here was clergy, and the people who weren't from the Church were all people who had received my help or witnessed it.
Of course they'd be favorable.
No, isn't this too one-sided? At this rate, there's no one here but people taking my side!
No, I mean, normally that would be advantageous!
"......."
Listening to sounds of admiration and awe flowing out from all around, I felt like I could die of embarrassment at any moment.
Like a person with a dried-up sensibility living in a bleak modern age, I too found praise awkward. Both giving it and receiving it.
But hearing people beside me marveling as if I had saved the world or something was, in many ways, seriously mortifying.
"That is all."
The video ended, and the nun who had been standing at the front looked at me.
Her expression asked if I had anything I wanted to say.
The clergy's gazes turned to me, and with my face burning hot, I pressed my lips shut. The scenes in the video were true, after all, so I didn't particularly have anything to say.
"Is that so......"
The Cardinal murmured that and looked at me again.
His expression was very subtle.
It was a look that seemed to say, "This girl?" Well, of course it would be. I was the one who had filled a letter to the brim with things like "The concept of God is wrong," "In the first place, something like God cannot exist," and "How can you prove that the Being Above is purely good?"—so of course he'd react that way upon seeing me use power like that.
"Then, next, we will also hear testimony from those who are not affiliated with the Church. The people here have personally received healing from Sister Anna, who is currently being considered as a Saintess, correct? They also witnessed it firsthand. Since Holy Power does not appear on video, they will describe what they saw."
So there was still more humiliation left for me to endure.
I covered my face with both hands.
*
I had thought it would end with the clergy testimony and the video, but after that, I had to feel a shame roughly twice as great as what I had felt before.
At least the Saintess Candidates, including Sophie, and the nuns and priests present described my actions quite plainly. Perhaps that was only natural, since they were people who knew something about Holy Power. There was no reason to passionately explain the fact that 1 plus 1 equals 2.
But the words of the people who were not clergy were a little different.
"It was as if that light was truly bestowed directly by God—"
"I've never seen power like that before—"
"It seemed like it could surely even bring the dead back to life—"
.......
Personal impressions are naturally prone to some exaggeration.
Unlike when the clergy testified, this time a nun interjected from time to time to get them to restrain themselves a little, then guided them back to testifying about the objective circumstances. I had never imagined I would feel grateful to a Church person in a setting like this.
The Cardinal listened to each and every testimony seriously.
He appeared to be setting aside any ill feelings or first impressions and trying to view the situation objectively.
After the order changed a few times like that, the person who took the stand was.
"Ah, h-hello."
Unlike when I first saw her, the girl with her hair properly tied up, just like in the original, looked pretty.
She was a character whose illustrations had turned out extremely well. Though her chest was a bit smaller than the Saintess's, and she was a little less flashy.
Her black hair and neat appearance represented her personality well, I thought. Those black eyes briefly brushed past me—
Huh?
And in those eyes, I felt something, how should I put it.
I felt a sense of "determination."
Usually, in novels, the scene where a heroine shows determination was a scene connected to the male lead. A scene where the male lead was in mortal danger and she tried to sacrifice herself in his place, or else......
Or else, when she faced another heroine—that is, a rival in love.
Obviously, there was no enemy threatening Lee Si-yoon's life right now.
"My name is Han Yu-ri. I'm a Rank 6 Hunter, and when my companion Si-yoon...... Hunter Lee Si-yoon was being treated, I was beside him."
"Is that so. To have already risen a grade at that age, you must possess considerable skill."
The Cardinal spoke gently to the nervous Han Yu-ri.
"......No. That day, when Hunter Lee Si-yoon was attacked, I couldn't do anything......"
"We have already heard that it was a situation a Rank 6 Hunter could do nothing about. Surviving must have been a commendable feat."
"Thank you."
Han Yu-ri gave a polite bow of her head.
"So, could you tell us about the situation at that time once more, in detail?"
At the nun's question, Han Yu-ri nodded and continued her testimony.
For the most part, the situation itself was almost no different from what I remembered.
Except—
"That figure was exactly like the Saintess in the stories who sacrificed herself to save people."
"......."
She went out of her way to add that.
Well, I mean, it's a personal impression, so I can't really say anything, but somehow I could feel from her expression that she was determined to put me in the position of Saintess no matter what.
So, probably...... hmm.
Could she be misunderstanding me? That I was interested in Lee Si-yoon? And so she was trying to lock me in as the Saintess......?
She did have quite a jealous personality in the original.
I wanted to leap up from my seat right then and say that nothing like that would happen, and that I was actually hoping that she, his childhood friend, and Lee Si-yoon would end up together—but if I said that, I'd obviously be interrogated about how I knew about their relationship.
Besides, if I threw a fit here about not becoming the Saintess, that could also be misunderstood in its own way.
Having finished her story, Han Yu-ri came down from the stand with a satisfied expression. If she had at least crossed a line during her testimony, I could have objected to something, but Han Yu-ri hadn't even lied in that moment.
She probably knew that inflating the story with lies would make it less convincing.
After that, a few more people testified, and then the nun acting as moderator spoke.
"With this, we have seen and heard all of the testimony and materials."
Then she looked around at us once and said.
"Now, we will move on to the next stage."
What was the next stage?
Surely I wouldn't have to go to the Vatican or something and prove my divinity? The Vatican was a tourist destination I did want to visit once, but I didn't want that to be the purpose.
But upon hearing what came next, I snapped to attention.
"Ascending to a symbolic position within the Order must not be taken lightly. Therefore—"
To summarize, it meant they were going to test my qualifications.
They would investigate my life in detail, and in the process, confirm whether I had ever committed any impure acts.
And there was a person to oversee that process—
"The Devil’s Advocate."
......Right.
It meant the Church, in its own way, was also worried about the upper ranks becoming corrupt.
And, to prevent that, a position that investigated the person rising to become a Saintess and argued against their good deeds.
There was no particular reason for the person to be a member of the clergy; in fact, it was better if they weren't.
Therefore, they said they were inviting someone from outside the Church—
Bang.
Before the explanation finished, the door opened.
And the person who entered shouted, panting for breath.
"I-I'm sorry! I misread the time on my ticket and—"
The person speaking was dressed sharply in a suit, but from running so hard, she was disheveled all over.
She was a fairly young woman, but I already knew her face.
Not because I had seen her in the original, but because I had seen her on TV a few times in this world.
There had been people like that in the world I used to live in, too.
People who denied that the Earth was round and claimed it was flat. What they said wasn't right, but such claims had a way of stirring people's interest.
And such people often gained fame from that and appeared on broadcasts. Though usually, even if it was called fame, they appeared in positions where they were openly mocked on things like cable TV as people spouting nonsense—
......Right.
That woman, I had seen her on TV as that kind of person.
So to speak, she could be called this world's version of a "flat-Earther."
Of course, what she claimed wasn't flat-Earth theory but "Atheism."
For the first time in a long while, I felt a light of illumination shining in my mind.
And then, belatedly realizing that the light was actually real light shining down over my head, I quickly waved my hand to scatter it away.