Chapter 33
Chapter 33
Saint, You’re So Vulgar! – Chapter 33
Two days after the dawn sky was stained blood-red, it was late afternoon.
The mining district of Pureed, usually bustling with laborers darting about, was devoid of miners today.
In their place, geologists, knights, and mages tread the land.
Every one of them wore a grave expression.
And rightly so. After that anomaly, the earthquakes that shook the ground, and the missing miners that followed, that dawn had been a chain of astonishing events.
They knew the reason behind it all.
The Church of the Holy God's saintess had come incognito to purge heretics, and they had stirred up trouble searching for those heretics and the missing people.
The reason these people had gathered here was none other than to investigate the aftermath of that day.
A trembling voice wandered through the air.
"What in the world..."
The mage's eyes were filled with shock.
The knights could barely breathe, their heads bowed low.
It was a sight too unbelievable even to see with their own eyes.
No wonder.
"...Is this truly the devastation wrought by a single person?"
A vast clearing.
What had been called that was now a massive crater.
The overwhelming aftermath, as if a meteor had crashed, evoked a sense of awe.
The geologist spoke.
"The ground caved in, blocking the mine paths. The laborers will probably need to... "
"We'll have to be even more cautious about safety accidents for a while."
The knight's response was uneasy.
His gaze turned back to the crater.
'A saintess, huh...'
Could someone capable of this truly be called human?
He knew what the Church of the Holy God was.
A supranational guardian organization existing to maintain world order.
The supreme council wielding extralegal power.
Acting on the Parent God's will was their very reason for being.
Yet the knight thought to himself without meaning to.
'A storm is brewing.'
He understood the logic of power.
A moderate intimidation bred submission, but excess turned it to fear.
And humans became endlessly cowardly and frail before fear.
The signs were already appearing.
The common folk who had witnessed the blood-red sky with their own eyes felt unease.
Some trembled at the thought of divine punishment, others wailed that the Parent God had abandoned them.
The church's official statement and testimonies from the rescued had calmed things for now, but still...
His lips twitched.
In the end, he clamped them shut.
The knight turned his head, his face etched with worry.
"...Let's head back."
He could only hope this immense power wouldn't become a source of fear.
All he could do was offer a brief prayer to the Parent God who had shaped their lands.
* * *
Incognito mission result: Heretics exterminated.
Merits in rescuing the missing, but unease caused by manifestation of divine power.
Verdict: House confinement for one week.
That was the punishment handed down to Versia.
It was also the outcome of a grand council attended by cardinals and scholars, up to the church's current leader, the Pope.
The incident had sparked numerous issues both inside and out.
Especially the meaning of that blood-red sky within the churchit was extraordinary.
Divine punishment.
The blood-red sky was a phenomenon that occurred when the Parent God expressed anger toward the land.
Considering the massive repercussions divine punishment had wrought throughout continental history, this couldn't be glossed over.
Externally, voices demanding explanations from the church were already growing loud.
For now, they were covering it by saying the gods were angered by the heretics' emergence, but if it happened again, excuses would get harder.
Why not?
If divine punishment struck twice for the same reason, it would mean the Parent God was dissatisfied with the church's achievements.
The church's position could be jeopardized.
In the midst of this turbulent situation, Lubena let out a sigh.
"Ugh...!"
Lubena tore at her hair again.
Satern held back from saying, You'll go bald like me.
He understood her frustration better than anyone.
Versia's punishment ending in mere house confinement was entirely thanks to Lubena.
She had 'explained' the blood-red sky as the Parent God's will resonating with Versia's intent.
In the end, even the confinement was meant as a call to recognize her favored status and focus on spiritual cultivation.
The fact that Versia had triggered the divine punishment was a secret known only to Lubena, Satern... and the other saintesses.
It was advice from the eldest, Halia.
-Hide it. Saying the Parent God responded to Versia's anger is different in nuance from Versia wielding divine power by her own will. That child's very existence could sow chaos in the church. For now, let's keep it among ourselves.
Judith Haraway, being an eccentric who hoarded interesting topics to herself, readily agreed.
Lubena's heart was far more troubled than hers.
And rightly soVersia looked far too precarious.
With her physical and mental state, it seemed she could trigger something like that twice over.
Why did that trouble her?
Normally, Lubena would have exposed everything to drive her out, but now she couldn't.
-I can do it.
That stubborn Versia had smiled at her, and it pricked at her conscience like this.
That's why her feet led her to Versia's quarters.
Day five of confinement.
Today, too, Lubena stood before her bedroom door, face tense.
She knocked lightly, then opened it.
She knew there'd be no reply.
"...Hey, you there?"
She squinted and peeked inside, head only.
Right away, Lubena had to suppress a rising sigh.
"......"
The air was frigid.
The room was clearly warm, but Versia's aura made it so.
Asher lay on the bed, asleep like the dead.
Versia sat beside him in a pulled-up chair, her face blank as a soulless doll.
Versia was haggard.
Withered to a degree Lubena had never imagined.
Even with sounds or voices, even spoken to, she didn't react.
She just stared with empty eyes at Asher lying still.
A week without eating.
She should have collapsed from dehydration or malnutrition by now, yet she ate nothing, or so she'd heard.
It irritated her for no reason.
Who steps up to care for someone, only to nearly drop dead yourself?
Her teeth clenched, and just as a scolding was about to burst out
Tap
Satern placed a hand on Lubena's shoulder and shook his head.
Lubena deflated completely and trudged away.
Satern asked.
"You're really worried, aren't y"
"No, I'm not!!! "
Only then did she shriek and stomp off.
Satern was at a loss.
* * *
Versia suddenly recalled a thought.
When had she lost track of time's passage?
She couldn't remember well.
In truth, she couldn't even tell if she was awake or asleep.
At some point, her thoughts had started snapping off one by one; her mind was foggy like filled with mist; the things happening around her felt unreal.
It should have been as simple as sleeping, but she couldn't even do that.
She feared Asher's heart might stop while she slept.
The vague anxiety that she might send him off unprepared gripped her entire body.
It felt like well over a week had passed, yet Asher hadn't woken.
-It's just a coma. Leave him be, and he'll wake.
Judith Haraway had said as much, but wasn't it strange?
His body was fully healed, nutrition steadily managedwhy hadn't his mind returned after over a week?
What if only his soul had slipped from this body?
When such thoughts surged, she'd rather die.
She couldn't even attempt it, fearing something might happen to Asher in the meantime.
And because she already knew she wouldn't die even if she tried suicide.
Over nearly a week, Versia had discovered a new limit to herself.
She could go a week without eating or drinking, motionless, without collapsing.
No death from exhaustion or such.
The power dwelling in her body somehow sustained it, leading to this realization once more:
A life where she couldn't even die at will.
She spent another day like that.
As darkness fell around her, Versia felt chills.
It was freezing, agonizing.
Regardless of the actual temperature.
Night's shadow draped over Asher's face.
His skin, bathed in moonlight, was pallid as a corpse.
Then, as on previous nights, Versia rose from the chair, climbed onto the bed, and burrowed into his arms.
She pressed her ear to Asher's chest, confirming the thump-thump of his heartbeat.
She exhaled.
Grip. She clutched his collar tight.
Her lips moved.
But her parched mouth only let out a raspy shhhk.
'Wake up.'
Please.
If he just woke again, she'd grant any wish.
No vulgar jokes, she'd even do those saintly things he so wanted.
As she thought that
Throb
Her train of thought twisted.
Versia denied her prior notion.
'...No.'
That's not it.
That's what led to Asher ending up like this.
Then what should she do?
What to avoid this happening again?
What can I even do?
The looming shadow gnawed at her mind.
Thump, thump.
When she felt an obsession nearing fixation with his heartbeat, suffocation swelled beyond words.
That suffocation soon morphed into resentment.
'Why did you step in?'
You could've just stayed away from danger.
Stuck quietly in this annex, and everything would've resolved fine.
Look, things you could've crushed with a glance, and you couldn't handle themhow pathetic is this collapse?
In the end, it proved it.
For all your bravado, you're just a tiny, fragile thing who only knows tricks.
It was at that moment, as her thoughts sprawled further
Versia lifted her head.
Through her disheveled hair, Asher reflected in her vacant eyes.
Her heart beat irregularly.
Shadows deepened under her eyes.
Tomorrow terrified her.
Watching him like this made the thought inescapable.
'What if...'
What if their bodies swapped back?
Trapped again in that frail form, and if she lost consciousness?
This annex might become a cage binding him.
Then he'd stay forever by her side in that lovely form, wouldn't he?
At the end of that odd thought, her head throbbed again.
Versia buried her face in Asher's chest.
Her still-feverish eyes were bloodshot.
'Ah.'
Her head hurt.
She couldn't breathe.
Her throat was parched.
She wanted to hear Asher's voice.