Chapter 1. Candidate and Candidate (7)
Chapter 1. Candidate and Candidate (7)
Anna had never exactly had a spotless reputation in the convent, since she went around saying all sorts of strange things, but at least in this incident it was obvious that Anna had done nothing wrong.
Chae-eun was the one who had openly grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her off, and Chae-eun was the one who had openly asked about it in front of that person.
The Mother Superior looked back and forth between Anna and Chae-eun.
Anna was wearing a smile that looked somehow transcendent. More precisely, it looked as though her Soul had slipped out somewhere.
That smile is probably some kind of defense mechanism, Chae-eun thought.
The Mother Superior, who had been looking at Anna like that, let out a deep sigh and then spoke in a gentle voice.
"Sister Anna, please return to your room first."
"Understood, Mother Superior."
Anna answered a little stiffly, then walked toward the dormitory with equally stiff steps.
The other nuns nearby stepped aside to make way, wearing expressions that said they did not know whether to smile or worry.
"And...... Sister Maria."
The Mother Superior fixed Chae-eun with a sharp glare as she spoke.
"......Come with me."
At that voice, the other nuns held their breath—but not Chae-eun.
To be honest, it was not that Anna's reaction did not bother her at all, but still, how should she put it—she also felt a little relieved.
The girl called Anna was basically an entertaining kid, but she also had an air about her of living a bit too deeply in her own world.
The place the Mother Superior headed to was the interview room, where Chae-eun had been before.
After offering Chae-eun a seat, the Mother Superior brought out teacups and tea, just as she had last time.
Then she set one cup in front of Chae-eun, set one in front of her own seat as well, and sat down facing Chae-eun.
"Sister, may I ask what kind of thinking led to that action a moment ago?"
"Well, you see."
Still not cowed in the least, Chae-eun spoke.
"So...... it's like this. She was making strange judgments for no reason and thinking about something else, so I needed to correct her at least once, right?"
Chae-eun had recognized those scouts immediately.
She did not know their faces, but people like that had a distinctive air about them. None of them had ever approached Chae-eun directly to scout her, but the kids she studied with sometimes received offers from people like that, and some actually joined. In fact, Chae-eun had a few friends who were already being trained as members of the Association.
"Sister, do you remember the conversation you and I had when you entered the convent?"
"I remember."
Chae-eun let out a light breath.
"You said that if I changed the Saintess Candidate's mind and made her think about staying in the Church a little more comfortably...... you would speak well of me to my father and get me pulled out of the convent."
Hero Candidate.
She was a talent the Church wanted to secure, but in truth, even Heroes rarely ended up truly belonging to the Church.
No matter how you looked at it, living your whole life as a nun was, by ordinary people's standards, a somewhat difficult thing. The same went for the position of a monastic or a priest.
With abilities that good, you could earn so much, and yet they told you to live an ascetic life—so it was far easier to position yourself as someone connected to the Church but not an insider.
If some 'Saintess Candidate' in this cathedral had acted truly devout, the Church might have tried to secure Chae-eun through that Saintess Candidate.
The problem was that this being called a Saintess Candidate—that is, Anna—seemed to view the Church as nothing more than a means to use for herself.
No matter how temporarily they held onto her, she was someone who, by her own words, would really leave after one or two years.
Until now, the position of Saintess Candidate, or Saint Candidate, had been an extremely attractive one. It was true that from the moment someone took that position, they lived ascetically, but anyone capable of such Holy Power was ordinarily devout from the depths of their heart.
Would someone who worshipped with unshakable faith really have any reason to refuse the position of Saint or Saintess?
And yet the first 'Saintess Candidate' to come out of this Church, Anna, had already uttered words denying the very existence of God on numerous occasions.
She had heard those rumors. That the Cardinal had been furious enough to excommunicate her personally, and that several people had stepped in to stop him.
And the rumor that this Church was keeping a nun with Holy Power capable of saving even someone on the very brink of death.
And that there seemed to have been a person who gave testimony of actually seeing God.
But most of that information was fragmentary, and there were many ambiguous pieces that were hard to fit together. She looked like someone who would be fun to hang out with, denied God at the same time, and yet had the strongest Holy Power of all the Saintess Candidates—even though Holy Power could only be used by someone with intensely strong faith?
Hunters placed great importance on information, and they trained very hard to filter out useless information from it. In front of a Monster, a single piece of wrong common sense could cost you your neck or your limbs. And from Chae-eun's perspective, that information was simply 'entirely useless' information.
But the Anna she had seen in person—
"But...... if she herself dislikes it that firmly, is there really any reason to keep holding her in the Church?"
After meeting Anna several times, Chae-eun's thinking had changed a little.
She kept saying strange things and being annoying with flimsy logic. She was sometimes a bit loud, and she was the type to live however she pleased, modifying her nun's habit on her own or dyeing her hair.
She did not seem all that impressive. There were times when the power of that God she claimed not to believe in shone around her, but Chae-eun had already seen light of that level from other Saintess Candidates.
......When she had entered this place, the Mother Superior had made her an offer, but honestly, whether she accepted it or not, her rigid, stubborn father was obviously going to sulk for a long while. In that case, she had thought, just helping someone like Anna live the way she wanted would be a little less boring and not so bad.
As for the scouts, well.
Clergy capable of healing serious injuries on the spot were in demand everywhere. And a Saintess Candidate, even one with the least ability, was in a completely different league from ordinary clergy.
If a talent like that was about to leak out, they had no choice but to rush in. Those people would have heard the rumors too.
"......."
But the Mother Superior, who had been listening to Chae-eun, lifted her teacup and took a sip, delaying her answer a little.
"Sister."
The Mother Superior, who had been drawing out the pause for a while, finally opened her mouth.
"I do not particularly like this kind of expression either, but...... Sister, you have not yet spent a full week with Sister Anna."
"Yes, well, that's true."
The Mother Superior nodded at Chae-eun, who shrugged as if it were no big deal, and then spoke in a somewhat more serious voice.
"I have known her for fifteen years. And in that time, I have seen what kind of work the person called Anna has done, and what she is capable of."
"......."
If she put it that way, Chae-eun had nothing particular to say either.
It was a story she could not possibly believe just from what she had seen, but what could she say when someone who had watched her for fifteen years was telling her this?
"I believe it. Saintess Anna has a heart more devout than anyone I know—yes, more devout than even mine or the priest's. For some reason, though, she keeps denying that part of herself."
This story, too, was something she could not bring herself to believe until she saw it with her own eyes.
"So not long ago, I even spoke to her half-threateningly. Either keep staying, or leave right away...... It did not do much good."
In truth, the reason Chae-eun had been attached to her was not so much that the Mother Superior or the Priest fully trusted Chae-eun—it was because of her father's request.
That she needed to fix her attitude, so they should put her next to the most devout person possible.
The reason Chae-eun had shouted when she heard that, and the reason she had accepted the Mother Superior's request like swallowing a bitter pill, were all because of that.
"If you put it that strongly, I'll make an effort in my own way."
Chae-eun let out a deep sigh.
"But she's stubborn too...... you know that, right?"
The Mother Superior smiled bitterly.
There was nothing more to discuss.
They both wanted something, but neither had any particular way to get it.
While the two of them were slowly drinking the rest of their tea in silence—
Knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the door of the interview room, a little urgently.
[Mother Superior!]
The voice was urgent too.
It was not Anna's voice.
[Mother Superior, there's a wounded person! A wounded person who's right on the verge of going to God!]
Hearing that, the Mother Superior immediately rose from her seat. Caught off guard, Chae-eun also stood up and followed behind her.
The Mother Superior walked quickly to the door of the interview room and flung it open.
On the other side stood a young nun, gasping for breath as if she had run all the way here.
"Sister Anna is—"
"She's already on her way there!"
"Understood. I'll go as well. Sister, please return to your room."
"Ah, yes!"
After sending the nun back to her room like that, the Mother Superior turned around and looked at Chae-eun.
"Sister Maria. This is a good opportunity. Would you like to go see what kind of work Sister Anna can do?"
Chae-eun blinked.
*
It was the first time she had seen the Mother Superior run.
It was a speed that Chae-eun could easily catch up to with her own running, but it was probably the Mother Superior running as hard as she could.
Which probably meant the situation was that urgent.
They were headed deep into the church—and 'deep' was literal. The route led underground.
By the time Mother Superior and Chae-eun arrived, Anna and the priest were already beside the patient. Several older nuns who had apparently helped move the patient were there too, along with people who appeared to be the injured person's companions.
The patient was not as covered in blood as she had expected.
The patient's clothes were torn and the edges were soaked in blood, but the wound itself was unexpectedly clean. It was wet, apparently because it had been washed with Holy Water, yet the wound was already rotting black.
She had never seen it in person, but Chae-eun had learned about the cause of wounds like this.
Among Gates, there were types that led not merely to high-grade places but to places filled with all sorts of vicious toxins.
It would be nice if you could feel that ominousness from the scenery visible beyond the Gate, but in the first place, a Gate was a door leading to another world. And in most cases, the space beyond it was as vast as Earth itself.
So it was common for people to discover a new cave or forest beyond it, go inside, and end up like this. It was something that mainly happened to exploration teams.
Looking at that wound, Chae-eun thought:
Ah, this is hopeless.
The rotting was visible to the naked eye. Even though they must have poured Holy Water over it, the wound had not closed at all. It was clear that in less than an hour, this wounded person would be unrecognizable even in form.
If there had been only one wound, they might have handled it by cutting the affected area away entirely, but the man had stab wounds all over his body.
"You were lucky. It's all right."
But Anna, kneeling beside the wounded man, said something that defied that common sense.
Chae-eun blinked.
Ah, was she trying to reassure someone who was about to leave this world? So that he could be at peace even in his final moments?
But the action Anna showed next was the complete opposite of everything Anna had shown Chae-eun so far.
Anna remained kneeling reverently and extended both hands forward.
Looking again, Anna was not even wearing a veil. Had the veil she had merely tossed onto her head while running fallen off?
She had run so hard that her temples and the back of her neck were wet with sweat, and strands of hair clung to them.
"There's nothing to worry about. Brother, you're going to recover."
Anna spoke calmly, in a voice that even carried a hint of laughter.
And then—
And then, there was light.
Many people believed Holy Power was proof of God's existence. And that was, in fact, true. The being worshipped as God had never personally claimed to be God, but the closer someone felt to that being's presence, the more reliably they could use that power.
Anna—the Saintess Candidate who had been pouring out words denying God—was using that power right now.
Not something that could be called mere proof, but a light so intense that its very existence made you feel a certain conviction.
A power of a level that Chae-eun, who had met countless clergy, had never once seen—a light that, if there were any evil in this place, seemed capable of purifying it without leaving a single speck of ash.
That light illuminated every corner of the somewhat dark basement. It lasted only a moment, but Chae-eun felt as if she were standing under the sun on a brilliantly clear summer day.
The light slowly faded.
As though returning to where it belonged, the light dwindled into Anna's hands, and by the time it vanished completely, even Chae-eun felt a little sorry to see it go.
"......."
Silence settled over the room—
"......Hah!"
The patient, who just moments ago had been standing at the threshold of death, let out a breath.
Only then did Chae-eun realize that not a single wound remained on the patient's body.
"......Thank you."
Someone murmured that.
"Thank you."
"Oh, God."
A voice that sounded like quiet prayer.
It was a familiar voice, as if they had seen this sight several times before.
"You'll be all right now."
Drawn by Anna's voice, Chae-eun lowered her gaze again.
Anna had her hand on the shoulder of the wounded man, whose body had recovered but who had not yet fully regained consciousness, and was speaking to him.
"......Saintess."
"......."
"May God's blessing be with you, Saintess."
"......And with you too, Brother."
Seeing Anna say that, Chae-eun's mouth fell open blankly once again.
Anna rose from her spot as if her work was done.
Most of the people in the room were kneeling on the floor, offering prayers.
Prayers of thanks to God.
Because the power Anna had used was God's power.
.......
Chae-eun felt something strange.
Anna gave a slight bow to Mother Superior, who was standing behind her. Mother Superior, her hands clasped together, bowed back toward Anna.
For a moment, Anna and Chae-eun's eyes met.
Anna shrugged as if it were nothing, even though her forehead was soaked with sweat.
And then, she passed by Chae-eun and left the basement in one swift motion.
Once again, Chae-eun felt a sense of dissonance.
As if entranced, Chae-eun turned on her heel and followed after Anna.
"Wait."
And she grabbed the arm of Anna, who had climbed all the way up the stairs, stopping her.
"Huh?"
Anna turned back with a slightly startled expression, and Chae-eun asked without preamble:
"You said you don't believe in God."
"Uh...... to be precise, I think the being up there isn't God, but, well, it's roughly similar. I think the concept itself is vague too."
At Anna's answer, Chae-eun let out a baffled, hollow laugh.
"Then what was that just now?"
"Probably the power of the being up there."
"......."
Chae-eun stared at Anna blankly for a moment.
"Why?"
"No, what do you mean, why......."
Her thoughts in disarray, Chae-eun considered it from several angles before finally managing to speak again.
"That thinking of yours...... I mean, you've been openly saying you don't believe in God all this time, so why did you save that person? Until now, whenever light came down over your head, you swatted it away with your hand."
"Well, sure. This thinking of mine is also a kind of pride. And self-respect too."
"So?"
"So?"
As if she could not understand why Chae-eun was asking such a question, Anna echoed Chae-eun's question and tilted her head again.
"If it's pride and self-respect...... then the reason you do something like that."
"If I protect my pride, does that person's wound heal on its own?"
"......Uh."
"If I protect my pride, will that person suddenly get better and jump to his feet on his own? I'd love that too. Then I could protect my pride."
"......."
"If putting up with a little discomfort lets me save someone's life, what's the big deal? Pride isn't some expensive possession."
Chae-eun could not give any answer.
"Ah, again."
As light shone down onto her own face, Anna frowned and waved her hand around.
When Chae-eun let go of her arm, Anna turned back around and headed toward the dormitory.
"Ah, seriously......!"
When light began to emanate directly from around her head, Anna stopped in place and spun her head around in circles, as if twirling a hat ribbon with her hair.
Objectively speaking, it was a ridiculous sight—
But Chae-eun could not bring herself to laugh comfortably at Anna like that.
Now she felt she understood what Mother Superior had meant.