Chapter 202: A New Order
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 202: A New Order
“Saint Elize, this is my son. Please grant him your blessing so that he may navigate the harsh world ahead.”
It was a ritual held periodically at the Cathedral.
The Saint would bestow her blessing upon those who made an offering.
High priests had once performed this duty, but it had grown far more popular since the Saint’s arrival.
Word of mouth had spread far and wide, and people from all over—from the wealthy to the nobility—flocked to the Cathedral, vying to pay exorbitant offerings for a blessing from the Saint.
But Elize just stood there, a vacant look on her face.
“Saint Elize?”
“Yes?”
“They are waiting for your blessing.”
“Ah… yes.”
Elize snapped back to her senses. Before her stood a young boy, who looked as if he had just started talking, and his father.
Elize placed her hand on the boy’s head.
“One day, you will walk the wilderness of this world alone. The wind will blow, the rain will pour, and at times, you will lose your way and wander.”
Elize continued her prayer.
“But do not forget. Just as the earth is beneath your feet and the sky is above your head, God will always be by your side. So do not be afraid.”
Closing her eyes, Elize traced a small sign of the cross with her fingertips.
“May this child walk his own path with his head held high. May the blessing of Order be with you.”
A flicker of light sparked from her fingertips, and the candlelight filling the Cathedral trembled faintly.
“Thank you. Now, you must thank the Saint as well.”
“Thank youuu.”
The boy and his father bowed their heads in gratitude. Elize offered the child a gentle smile.
As they left the Cathedral, Elize let out a shallow sigh and caught her breath.
“Are you tired, Saint Elize?”
“I feel particularly weary today.”
“Let us conclude the ritual here. I will inform the others.”
“My apologies.”
“Your well-being is our utmost priority, Saint Elize.”
Elize exhaled once more.
Her chest felt tight.
“I’d like to get some fresh air.”
“I will make the arrangements immediately.”
Soon, Elize left the Cathedral with a minimal escort.
It would be a scene if she were recognized as the Saint, so she wore a simple traveling cloak instead of her holy vestments, her face hidden by a hood.
As Elize walked down the main street, the exhaustion was plain on her face.
It was for one reason and one reason only. Karami’s words from the day before refused to leave her mind. She had tossed and turned all night, replaying them over and over.
Karami had said he would do anything for his slaves. And so, filled with hope, Elize had asked him. Could you fall into the abyss with me?
—Why would I do that? I’m not an idiot.
But his reply had been a single, cutting remark.
The moment she heard it, Elize…
—You’re right. Only an idiot would fall into the abyss with me. I asked something far too obvious.
She had muttered self-deprecatingly before fleeing the inn.
“Haaah…”
She hadn’t wanted his sincerity from the start.
They were just words.
If he had offered even an empty promise to be with her, she would have smiled in satisfaction and let it go.
‘Yes, even if he’s this kind of person, I still have someone,’ she would have thought. He would have gained her trust in return. It would have been a win-win.
But Karami had refused.
He had chosen a path that was a loss for them both.
He, who usually smiled so freely and spoke words that swayed the heart without a second thought, had turned tail and run like a coward when she truly needed him.
If he was going to be like that, he shouldn't have offered his sugar-coated words in the first place. He had made her hope, only to betray her at the very end.
‘No.’
It wasn’t a betrayal. It was only natural.
Who in their right mind would walk the path of ruin with a mere slave?
She was the pathetic one for having been swayed by that man all this time.
The injustice of it all brought tears to her eyes.
“Hm?”
But as if to say a vampire has only blood to shed, a commotion shattered her thoughts.
At first, she thought it was just the bustle of the market. But as she drew closer, she realized it was no ordinary, everyday noise.
Elize stopped in her tracks.
In the middle of the square, a woman was bound with coarse ropes. Her clothes were torn and soiled, her hair disheveled.
“A witch! The witch has spread a curse!”
“Burn her! Let us pass judgment in the name of God!”
“No! I’m not a witch! I’ve never spread any curse!” the woman cried out.
But her pleas went unheard.
They scattered into the air, lost in the fury of the square.
The crowd, holding torches aloft, roared.
Some threw stones, others hurled curses.
Elize narrowed her eyes.
“What is that?”
“A witch. She was discovered after sneaking into the Holy Kingdom during the recent chaos.”
It was an ordinary witch hunt.
The world was still plagued by wicked witches.
“Did that witch do something?”
“Not exactly, but why else would she hide in the Holy Kingdom? Her purpose is obvious.”
Unlike in the past, they no longer committed their evil deeds openly, but one could never know when they might turn. They were potential criminals who could shatter the continent’s order.
That was the nature of witches.
For them, even a trial was a luxury.
“Shall we stay and watch? It might help lift your spirits.”
“Watch…”
Elize gazed silently at the witch. Outwardly, she looked no different from an ordinary person. To Elize, she seemed more human than herself.
It happened sometimes.
A witch who didn’t even know she was one.
But in the face of fury, the truth didn’t matter. No one would listen to her voice. Even though the woman shed tears, not blood, from her eyes.
Brutal violence, a madness that branded one person as evil.
And the fact that all of it was being done ‘in the name of God.’
Elize began to walk forward slowly.
No one paid any mind to the Saint’s arrival.
Among the enraged crowd, she saw faces that had just been praying for God’s blessing.
The father and son who had come to her for a blessing just moments ago. Those who had knelt in the Cathedral, earnestly begging for her grace.
They were now here, watching a witch hunt.
“Daddy, why is that lady like that?”
To the boy’s question, his father answered firmly.
“Witches are sinners, my son. And sinners must be punished. It means we, His servants, are carrying out the work that God desires.”
For a moment, Elize felt her heart drop. The verses of blessing she had just been reciting like a mantra echoed in her mind.
She realized how hollow her own words were now, in front of these flames.
If God truly existed, what would he say upon seeing this scene?
The very people who had yearned for salvation were now trying to push a person into the fire.
Simply for the crime of being born a witch, though she had committed no sin. Could God have truly wanted this absurd order?
Her fingertips grew cold.
The roar of the square grew louder and louder.
From somewhere, a lit torch was thrown.
The flames caught on the dry branches.
A wave of heat rose, and smoke billowed into the sky.
The woman called a witch cowered in fear.
The ropes dug into her flesh, her lips trembled.
She struggled, but there was no escape.
Yet no one cared.
Hands making the sign of the cross.
Lips calling God’s name.
They did not doubt their actions.
As if they were performing a sacred rite.
The same people who had just received the Saint’s blessing were now spewing curses with the same lips.
“…How amusing.”
A smile spread across Elize’s lips.
This was the true face of those who pursued order.
Right.
What else could one expect from those who believe in God?
She realized what a grave miscalculation it had been to think anything would change just because she became the Saint.
It felt as if a tangled skein of thread in her mind was finally unraveling.
“Saint Elize?”
Elize took a step forward.
At that moment, a fierce wind blew.
The hem of her robe fluttered, and her hood was thrown back.
Ignoring her escort’s call, she stepped into the commotion.
It was only when she approached the pyre, now engulfed in flames, that the crowd recognized her.
“Who’s that?”
“It’s the Saint!”
“Why is the Saint here…?”
“Why else? The Saint herself has come to condemn the sinner!”
No one found it strange.
They saw no reason to be alarmed.
They believed that the Saint, as a servant of God, would naturally approve of this judgment.
Elize walked slowly toward the woman tied to the cross.
“Saint Elize, it’s dangerous to get too close. Her impurity might spread to you.”
“That’s right. We’ll take care of it, so please step back.”
The fact that they were worried about her struck Elize as utterly ridiculous.
Elize raised her hand.
The crowd expected a dazzling holy light to erupt.
But what they witnessed was not light, but darkness.
KWWAAAAACK!
A bloodcurdling scream.
An invisible force exploded outward.
The orderly stone pavement shattered.
The flames thrashed violently.
People were thrown back, forced to their knees.
Those who couldn’t comprehend what had happened slowly raised their heads.
“…A vampire?”
“A vampire? The Saint? What kind of joke is this….”
It was no joke.
The person standing before them was Elize.
But she was not the Saint the faithful revered, the one who loved all of mankind.
A pair of black wings unfurled from Elize’s tailbone. Her ears were longer than a human’s, and fangs protruded from her lips.
She was a vampire, the very creature the believers so abhorred.
The Saint was a vampire.
The shock of this impossible reality seemed to stop time itself. The people who had been reveling in the witch hunt froze like stone.
Amidst the stillness, only Elize moved. With a single gesture, she extinguished the fire.
As the believers stared at her blankly, Elize’s lips curved into her usual smile.
But no one felt relieved by it, nor did anyone smile back. There was only a vague, infinite anxiety welling up inside them.
“In the name of the Saint,” Elize declared, “I will now rewrite the order of the Church.”
