Chapter 400: Karmic Fire (Part 10)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 400: Karmic Fire (Part 10)
"Liya, why do you want to become a Saintess?"
Warm sunlight bathed the Saintess’s soft profile, making her pale golden hair and clear eyes look as if they were soaking in the spring waters of a sunset.
She gazed at the newly chosen little girl before her, her expression incredibly gentle.
"Be... become a Saintess?"
The timid little girl hid behind the carriage curtain, peeking out with two large, watery eyes at this legendary Saintess. Startled by the question, her entire face scrunched up in an adorable, flustered pout.
"Yes."
The Saintess reached out and patted Liya’s head soothingly. "Becoming a Saintess is not the easy path you imagine, nor is it merely the radiant light you see. This path represents hardships and monotony beyond your imagination; it is a duty and a burden heavy enough to crush anyone.
"Therefore, before I officially become your teacher, I need you to answer this question. You must think deeply during this process, or you may live to regret it for the rest of your life."
"Think... question..."
The young girl seemed unable to grasp the profound weight of those words. Instead, she simply expressed her most basic thought. Turning her head, she looked out with immense longing and said:
"I want to... save people."
"Save... many, many people."
The wind caught the carriage curtain, revealing the desolate landscape outside.
Figures clad in heavy, sealed suits and wearing strange masks walked past rows of corpses covered in white sheets, recording cold, lifeless numbers onto sheets of paper.
A woman’s agonized wailing drifted from a tent; she had just lost both her husband and her son.
A youth, his skin still marred by faint red spots, lay on a crude sickbed, staring blankly at the sunlight that could not reach him.
Crows cawed, their cries exceptionally mournful.
A cruel plague had just swept through this place. Had the Church’s Saintess not happened to pass by, it was likely that not a single living soul would have remained for a hundred miles.
This was also the first trial experienced by little Liya, who had just been selected as a Saintess Candidate.
She showed great sympathy and compassion, her gaze lingering on every suffering person. She busied herself helping to brew medicine and deliver supplies. Her small body couldn't do much, but she performed every task with utmost sincerity.
Just like the quality required of every Saintess, the brilliance of humanity had already begun to shine within her still-tender frame.
"If I can... I want to save everyone, just like you, Saintess!"
The little girl wore a look of determination far beyond her years. She clenched her chubby little fists and spoke with total seriousness.
"Saving everyone... that is very hard work."
"I’m not afraid of hard work!"
"It might even require you to pay an unbearable price," the Saintess said, looking deep into her eyes.
"I’m not afraid of paying a price either! Uncle Jack next door told me that 'Saintess' is a synonym for sacrifice and selflessness. A Saintess’s love must be given to everyone!" Stars twinkled in the little girl's eyes.
"To everyone... how truly kind."
The Saintess smiled gently. Suddenly, the carriage jolted. The clamor of voices and the angry shouting of knights interrupted this important dialogue between teacher and student.
"Come, let’s go see."
The Saintess patted Liya’s shoulder and led her out of the carriage.
"Save me... please save me! I’m innocent, I’m innocent!"
In front of the carriage, a man covered in red spots and dressed in rags knelt in the dirt, his face drenched in tears. He was being pinned down by two powerful knights to prevent him from offending the holy procession.
The surrounding people watched from a distance, not daring to draw close, yet they pointed at him and hurled constant abuse.
"Liya, look at him."
The Saintess pointed at the man and said:
"He is the source of this plague. To save his own son, he chose to make a deal with an Evil God. The result of this spreading plague is the death of over a thousand people. His son did indeed return, but he himself contracted the plague as well, and his case is more severe than anyone else's.
"And now, he wants us to save him."
"I beg of you, Saintess! I’m innocent! I didn't know it would turn out like this, and I didn't know that was an Evil God! I only wanted to save my son!"
The man was a mess of tears and snot. If he weren't being held down, he surely would have rushed forward to cling to the Saintess’s feet.
"My son is only three years old. He’s so small, and I’m his only relative. He can't be without a father! I beg of you, merciful Saintess, please save me too! Once I’ve settled my son, you can throw me in prison, anything! Just please save me..."
"What a pitiful man," the Saintess sighed.
The man was overjoyed and kowtowed violently. "Saintess! Please, I beg you..."
"Though, claiming you knew nothing is likely a lie."
The man’s face froze instantly.
Liya stared blankly at him. Her small mind was not yet capable of processing such a complex scene.
She only felt that this person was both loathsome and pitiable.
But then, the Saintess placed a pill into Liya’s palm.
"Now, whether to save him or not depends on you."
"Eh?"
"Though this is cruel for you right now, I do not want you to encounter such a situation in the future and make a choice that will cause you lifelong regret.
"So, choose, Liya. Will you save a father, or kill a villain?
"This is the first lesson I shall give you."
The Saintess watched Liya quietly, as if speaking of a trivial matter, her gaze remaining gentle.
But as Liya gripped that pill, it felt like holding a piece of ice that would never melt. She felt the warmth being sucked out of her entire body.
The warm sunset turned into a deep, cold, silent sea, drowning her...
"I..."
*
"I didn't expect to suddenly remember something from so long ago."
Liya’s mind gradually cleared, though her gaze remained somewhat dazed.
"Back then... what was my choice?"
She couldn't remember; she had likely forgotten.
Over the years, in order to become the Saintess she admired—to become someone like her teacher who could save everyone—she had crammed too much into her head. Such an "insignificant" matter had naturally been swept into the deepest corners of her memory.
"It’s so cold."
Liya suddenly shivered, hugging her shoulders as a faint mist of white breath escaped her cherry-pink lips.
"But... the cold is only natural, isn't it?"
She turned her gaze toward her surroundings.
It was a sea.
A pitch-black sea.
Like a quagmire that swallowed everything, it settled at the bottom of this vast, infinite space. Looking down from above, Liya couldn't even see the end of it; she could only feel her own insignificance.
But what drifted in this sea were not cute creatures like octopuses.
They were... people.
Deformed, twisted, agonizing people.
They struggled, wailed, and pleaded for help within the mud sea. Just looking at them was enough to know the level of torment those souls were enduring.
"Ah, you’ve come."
Suddenly, the crowd drifting in the mud sea seemed to notice her. They surged toward her frantically, raising their hands high like swaying seaweed, desperate to grab onto something.
"Have you come to save us?"
"Save us... please save us..."
"It hurts, it hurts so much..."
"Save me... you must save me..."
Countless pleas for help buzzed like a provoked swarm of bees, stinging Liya’s mind like needles.
"Don't... be quiet!"
Liya clutched her head in pain.
And so, the entire mud sea truly fell silent.
While Liya was still confused, she suddenly saw the mud sea ripple. A hunched figure parted the countless drifting forms and walked out.
It was an old woman—or rather, she should have been an old woman. Because her level of deformity far exceeded the others, Liya could only distinguish her advanced age by the wrinkles covering her face.
Yet, her consciousness was clearer than most in the mud sea; she wasn't merely parroting pleas for help. She came before Liya and knelt down respectfully.
"Messenger from outside... have you finally come to save us?"
"Messenger... me?"
"Yes. The aura upon you tells me that you are the messenger we have long awaited. The messenger from that great deity."
Great deity?
Who was she talking about? The Goddess?
But shouldn't they be believers of the Goddess? Why use such a strange phrasing as "messenger from that great deity"?
Liya looked at the old woman, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "You all... are the indigenous people, right?"
"Yes... we are the original inhabitants of this kingdom."
The old woman lifted her head, murky tears flowing. "We have been here, waiting for a thousand years."
"Waiting for a thousand years... what does that mean?"
Liya’s mouth hung open in shock. "Isn't this place supposed to be Cantville? The Golden Kingdom where there is no hunger or pain..."
"No! This is not some Golden Kingdom at all!"
The old woman roared in fury, the wrinkles on her face twitching like twisted tree bark.
"We were deceived by the Evil God! This is not a holy land of happiness and joy without hunger or pain. This place is... the Evil God’s pasture!"
"Evil God? Pasture?"
Liya felt as if she had been struck by lightning, her eyes widening in shock.
The old woman’s words were the complete opposite of everything she knew.
But Liya was not stupid. Through the current scene, the old woman’s words, and the clues she had seen before, she quickly pieced together part of the truth.
"In other words... the Evil God disguised itself as Goddess Emiel and deceived you all?"
The old woman looked at Liya, went silent for a moment, and then nodded vigorously. "Yes. We were all deceived. This entire city of Cantville—one million people—were all deceived into becoming lambs raised by the Evil God."
"..."
Liya’s mind was in total chaos.
Every word the old woman spoke was like a heavy hammer striking her heart. She once again felt that sensation of sinking into the deep sea, enveloped by dead silence and crushing pressure.
"Then... you called me here..."
"As you have heard. Please... save us."
The old woman spoke with absolute earnestness:
"The time is not far off before the Evil God swings the butcher's cleaver to harvest us completely. When that time comes, all of us will become the Evil God’s food.
"So, before that happens, I hope you can save us. Purify the filth upon us, and erase the mark of the lamb from our bodies."
"Purify the filth..."
Liya was stunned for a moment, then shook her head vigorously. "No, I can't. I can't do something like that..."
"You can. You definitely can."
The old woman looked up, staring intently at Liya.
At the same time, one million twisted people, one million suffering souls, looked up together from the pitch-black mud sea. Two million eyes on deformed faces gazed fervently at Liya.
"Is this not exactly why you have come? The Saintess... of that deity."