Chapter 34
Chapter 34
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: The Sponsored World Was Real
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"……!"
"B-Baron!"
Thud.
It was the Baron Rayfield who collapsed right there on the spot.
What does it mean to be annihilated?
It means to vanish—to cease to exist entirely.
For instance, when someone with a physical body is wounded, they become aware of their presence through the pain.
The daze of the mind and the agony when blood flows are tantamount to a fierce proclamation that they exist right here and now.
The very possibility of death—that is the greatest proof of existence.
Even in the face of inevitable death at the end of suffering, if someone remembers that the person existed in this place, their soul becomes immortal in a sense. Death is a privilege reserved only for those who exist.
However, Rayfield did not die. No, he could not die. The soul contained within the vessel of his flesh had been annihilated.
Thus, this is not a corpse. It is not the remains of something that once existed, evidence that something had been there.
This is merely a shell. An empty vessel. Something that takes the form of a human body but holds nothing within.
Witnessing that shell flop powerlessly to the ground... everyone, even the unbelievers, had no choice but to recognize it.
The existence of God—the true meaning of God refusing to allow it.
The deprivation even of the right to die!
Eirene stared at the entire scene in a daze... then slowly turned her gaze to the back of Igeon, who stood tall before everyone.
'……!!'
Others might not understand.
But Eirene, as one chosen by God, could perceive it.
—Just believe in God a little.
All of this had been possible because she believed.
She realized that this impossible event had occurred simply because she "believed" in Igeon.
"Th-this can't be...! Baron...! Please, come back to your senses...!"
At that moment.
The soldier was overwhelmed by a terror as if his head had been struck by a hammer.
He could not remember the baron's name...
Instead, his mind filled with an unknown voice. God's voice.
Drip.
Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip...
Igeon raised his head and looked at the soldier closest to him.
"Eek...!!"
The terrified soldier instinctively sensed it.
He did not know what "drip" meant. A created being could never comprehend the mind of God.
The moment one did, they would go mad. Like Saintess Erin, those not receiving God's love or choice would be crushed by the weight of an incomprehensible truth the instant they grasped God's thoughts, becoming nothing but lunatics.
Thus, it was natural not to know what it was.
Yet, one fact was clear.
The instant that word "drip" emerged from the mouth of that man—no, of God...!!
"R-run away!!"
"Uwaaaah!!!"
The soldiers threw down their weapons and fled on the spot.
Igeon, eyes flashing brilliantly as he raised his hands high toward the sky, watched the scene slowly... and only after the soldiers vanished from sight did he gradually lower his hands.
And—
Thud.
He collapsed right there.
"...Igeon!!!"
Eirene rushed to the fallen Igeon.
His face... was pale.
"Igeon, Igeon...! Pull yourself together...!!"
"Lady Eirene..."
Igeon looked at Eirene and flashed another radiant smile.
A smile that seemed it would shatter in the wind.
"I... deceived you, Lady Eirene."
"What...?"
"Just as you deceived me... I deceived you too, Lady Eirene."
"I am not Igeon... And I don't mean that I merely used a false name. I—"
—I am not human.
"……!!!!!"
God.
I am God.
"To be precise, a vessel modeled after God..."
"One who shares imagery with God but can never become the true God... a fragment of God, created for God's purpose..."
Eirene, who would not believe without clear evidence, did not think of such things now.
She listened intently to Igeon's words.
"God... loves you, Lady Eirene..."
"What...?"
Before she could voice that only the Saintess receives God's love.
[Motto: What's mine is mine, and what's yours is also mine.]
"Yours, mine... everything belongs to God. That is God's will. And with God's power, nothing is impossible..."
As if reading her mind, his response—claiming to be God—added proof to his words.
"Because He loves you, He wished you would not stray, Lady Eirene. If you spent time here without trusting anyone... you would come to harm."
"Ultimately, you would become a sacrificial lamb hated by all... uniting everyone through your sacrifice, reduced to such an existence."
As a fragment of God synchronized with Him, Igeon knew.
The catastrophe awaiting her in the grand cathedral—the end.
The fate she would meet if the Empress continued opposing the religious order.
Igeon slowly placed his hand on Eirene's.
And—
"!!!"
An unarrived future's imagery flooded into Eirene's mind.
The future awaiting her as the deposed Empress.
After a new political system utterly unlike the previous absolute monarchy took hold, her final moment: atoning for all the sins of the old era, engulfed in flames of karmic retribution.
Was that what Rayfield meant by it being essential for the new era?
As her intuition had told her, she was fated to fade into history alongside the old era.
And the sole reason she could avoid it—God's attention and love.
Only then did she realize.
The man before her embodied God's interest and love for Eirene.
"And, at the very last moment... you believed in me, Lady Eirene."
—You, who trusted no one, believed in God.
"That moment fulfilled God's desire at last, allowing me to borrow His power."
Had she been dragged away by Rayfield, Eirene would have suffered terribly.
Knowing that well, she could not speak recklessly.
God's will—Eirene gaining faith in God—enabled God's fragment, Igeon, to wield divine power, but—
"—ultimately, as merely a fragment, I cannot fully assimilate the power. So... this is probably the end."
These would be his last words... as red blood trickled from his mouth.
The price for a mere fragment daring to wield God's power.
Eirene did not say "What do you mean?" or "Don't talk nonsense."
Instead, she stroked Igeon's bloodied face.
"...Igeon."
"Lady Eirene...?"
"God's fragment or whatever... honestly, I don't fully understand. I don't think you're lying to me, nor do I grasp God's will now. From why exposing a woman's chest is so crucial to countless other incomprehensibles—it hasn't changed."
Even so.
"That you are here now... and that you believed in me and saved me is a clear truth, is it not? So..."
That you are Igeon. That you are the one who believed in me, despite my deception.
"Even if just a fragment, you are profoundly precious to me..."
Drip, drip.
Eirene's tears fell onto Igeon's face.
The once-brilliantly shining eyes were fading. The flame of life, proof of existence, was extinguishing.
"Do you... love me?"
Igeon slowly nodded.
"...God loves you, Lady Eirene."
"Is God's will your will?"
"Yes... everything I say is God's word..."
The words about being well-ripened, everything else.
Words God conveyed to you, Lady Eirene.
"Then..."
Squish.
Eirene bent down and embraced the fallen Igeon.
"I love you too."
"If you are God... then I shall gladly love God as well."
The one who first told her it was okay to trust someone.
The one who first taught her what it means for her heart to race,
The one who showed her what it means to be born a woman and to love...
"I will believe in God. And I will devote this body entirely to loving Lord Igugwoden."
Hearing those words, Igeon slowly lifted the corners of his mouth.
Then, he raised his hand... and wiped the tears from Eirene's eyes.
"Lady Eirene... thank you. For loving me."
"Thank you for believing in me, in God. This is not farewell... It is preparation for a future that will surely come. A moment when you and I... can live together in peace..."
—Someday.
When God manifests in this world...
We will meet again.
"……!!!"
With those words, thud.
Igeon's hand fell to the ground.
The brief life of God's fragment, having fulfilled its role, came to an end.
"......Ah... Aah... Aaaah...!!!"
She knew full well.
She knew Igeon's words were not lies.
She knew this was not God's—no, Igeon's—true death or end, merely the fragment vanishing.
Yet, the fragment named Igeon, who had extended a warm hand to her, had undoubtedly existed here.
Proof of that... even spilling red blood, gasping in agony, it had struggled to fulfill its role.
Thus, Eirene the created being could only sob. For even if brief, this was undoubtedly a farewell.
"Igeon... Igeon...!!!"
And so, cradling the fallen Igeon, she wept and wept for a long while.
Tears flowed, but her heart was no longer empty.
She now knew why: because it was filled with Igeon's love, with God's Plain Fact.
How many minutes passed?
Exhausted from crying, Eirene slowly rose and turned to look toward the monastery.
'......?'
It was a pull.
A feeling as if something absolute was calling her.
Unknowingly, she lifted her feet and entered the monastery.
Passing the dark corridors of the monastery, she arrived at the grand chapel where she had cleaned with Igeon... and what entered her vision was.
"……!!!"
Only then.
Only then did she understand everything.
What Igeon had said. Why her heart swelled.
Why this had happened. Why she could now trust someone.
What filled her vision was the hanging portrait of God.
The portrait depicting the face of the Sole God Igugwoden.
The very portrait to which God's fragment Igeon had prayed.
Eirene stared at the portrait as if her soul had been stolen.
The portrait was glowing. As if it alone in this world could emit its own light.
And in her vision—believing in Igeon, in God—the portrait's form was—
* * *
—Drip.
By the time Eirene realized hot tears were streaming down her cheeks.
She became aware that she herself sat upon the throne in Igugwoden Royal Palace.
She could not see ahead.
Not that her eyes were blind. Something blocked her vision.
—Holy Scripture. The holiest book in the world, containing God's words.
Erin slowly lifted the Holy Scripture from Eirene's forehead... and with a bewitchingly seductive smile, spoke to Eirene in a mischievous tone.
"How was it...? Lord Igugwoden's Plain Fact... wasn't it utterly thrilling...?"
—Ah...
What on earth have I been doing all this time?
This man named Igeon—denying the existence of the Sole God Igugwoden, what foolish acts...
Eirene slowly rose from the throne.
Then, looking up at the Holy Scripture in Erin's hand, she knelt on both knees. This was submission.
Even as an unbeliever, it was her devout response to the being who willingly loved her and taught her the value of faith.
The utmost words a woman whose body and soul were enslaved to God could utter.
"......Master...♥"
Eirene von Ainsberg.
At the age of 36, body and soul both fell to faith.