Scene of a Miracle (Not)
Scene of a Miracle (Not)
{Lift your eyes and you will see the Saint, weeping and bleeding.
He will love and pity even the vilest and filthiest being, willingly rolling in filth and dregs as he sheds tears.
He will call the repulsive being beautiful, for not one truly beautiful being has existed since the beginning of time.
Through this, you shall witness that the Goddess of Grace lives.}
- Scripture of Grace, Chapter 51, Verse 12.-
***
About three minutes had passed since I held the witch tightly and patted her back.
I felt my shoulder growing damp.
The witch in my arms was crying.
I couldn't tell if her shaking sobs meant she was genuinely calming down, if she was moved to tears, or if she was just venting her emotions before setting the world on fire because everything was so fucking awful.
I hugged her even tighter.
"It's okay. It's going to be okay."
It wasn't okay. Fuck.
Could you please just stop crying and calm down?
When you cried, I couldn't tell if it was a warning sign that you were about to explode or if you were actually settling down.
I was practically half out of my mind while I kept patting her.
"Even for a saint, this is too much!"
"That thing is a Calamity Bearer! A Calamity Bearer!! It will bring ruin to the world!"
"We must dispose of it immediately! Saint! Stand back! We cannot leave it like this!!"
I heard the clergy of the White Order spitting hostile words at me.
A Calamity Bearer who brings ruin to the world.
Right. That was true.
She was indeed a Calamity Bearer.
So don't you see I was pulling this stunt right then to save your lives?
You dumb fucks!
If I didn't comfort her now, she was going to explode!!
Maybe because I'd just been through a life-or-death experience, my nerves were on edge.
I glared at the clergy and raised my voice.
To survive, I absolutely had to take the witch's side.
"Why is she a Calamity Bearer?"
At my question, the clergy pointed at the witch as if frustrated and shouted.
"She is an Abomination!! Oh Saint!! An Abomination!"
"Look at her four spider-like arms, her twisted left face, and those grotesque eyes!"
"She became hideous because she worshipped an Evil God!"
"She will bring ruin to the world!"
You fucking lunatics!
The witch can hear all of this!!
What are you going to do if she explodes!!
I yelled furiously.
"So she's a Calamity Bearer because she's hideous? That's your reason for trying to destroy a person's soul and life?"
I stood up, still holding the witch.
Maybe it was because my life hung in the balance.
Even I thought it was terrifying, but an enormous voice burst from my mouth.
It was a volume bordering on a desperate struggle for survival.
"What is truly hideous?! If one's appearance is ugly and twisted, is that what makes them hideous? No!! Wrong! That is not hideous!! What is truly hideous is what is in your hearts!"
I looked at the citizens who had been throwing filth and jeering just moments before.
"You, who throw filth based on looks alone and destroy a person's life and soul, are far more hideous!!"
I looked at the people chuckling and laughing and yelled.
"You, who treat a person's destruction as a game and chatter and laugh, are far more hideous!! And!!"
Finally, I shouted at the clergy of the White Order.
"You, who shout with your mouths that you hunt evil, but whose hands are stained with the blood of the innocent, are even more hideous."
At my words, the clergy of the White Order flinched and stepped back.
Even I thought my voice was formidable, so they had every reason to.
"......A hideous appearance does not simply appear. It comes from being cursed by a god. Oh Saint."
"Correct. If we let her live, she will surely, surely become a future calamity. Oh Saint."
"Leaving an Abomination alive endangers the Empire. We act this way because we also wish to save everyone."
The clergy of the White Order stammered their reply.
Well.
That argument had merit.
In fact, what those clergy said was all correct.
They were a famous order of demon hunters, so they were surprisingly accurate.
How had they found this black mage witch and escorted her here?
But I had to stop this witch from going on a rampage.
If they took her like this, everyone would die!!
"Some god might indeed cast a curse. Not all gods are good."
Therefore, I had to make these clergy give up.
What did I have to do?
It got a little tangled, but just as I'd originally planned.
I just had to fix her face!
"And if there is a god who casts curses, there is also a god who lifts them."
I carefully placed my hand on the witch's head.
And I activated my skill.
[Using Skill: Body Modification!]
A familiar customization window appeared.
The witch's physical state appeared in a 3D modeling form.
It was a window I was now used to after modifying countless slum dwellers.
I began to slowly.
Modify the witch's body.
I removed the pair of arms sprouting from her lower body.
I removed the horrendous burn scars on the left side of her face.
And I eliminated the numerous clustered eyeballs.
It also indicated that some kind of drug was active in her body, causing an anesthetic effect, so I removed all of that too.
After making all of that clean, there was nothing left to touch.
The original base was already a supreme beauty, so just doing that had already made the witch a stunningly gorgeous sight.
"Ah!! Ugh!....... Uk!"
While the Body Modification was taking place, the witch let out strange noises.
This in itself was familiar.
Since muscles and bones moved on their own during modification, many people made sounds like that.
But what was this light starting to burst from her body?
What was this?
Why was light bursting from her body?
The moment the modification was complete.
After her body emitted an immense, momentary burst of light, intense enough to be blinding, the light vanished.
And in the spot where she had been, a woman of breathtaking beauty was slumped in the mud.
"Oh, heavens!......."
"Oh my god, Dulanear!......."
The clergy of the White Order were so shocked they collapsed to the ground.
"Saint!! Saint!!"
"A miracle! He has performed another miracle!!"
The slum dwellers kneeled and began to bow toward me.
"Oh Lopers."
"I swear by the sun, I have never seen a truer saint."
"The Goddess of Grace is truly alive."
The holy knights of the Sun Order also made holy signs and bowed deeply toward me.
It seemed to be because of that final light.
I didn't know why it burst out, but honestly, even to me, it was the very image of a miracle in action.
I slowly looked over the witch's appearance.
Hmm!
She was really pretty!
Good!
With that level of looks, she could have debuted as a top-tier idol in Korea right then without any trouble!
Could I consider this sufficiently healed?
I trusted she wouldn't go on a rampage anymore.
Please.
"Be it a curse, a disease, or the countless wounds people have inflicted on you. They are all gone now."
The witch fumbled at the left side of her face, then looked up at me silently, tears streaming down.
Good.
Looking at her then, those were clearly tears of emotion!
Yes!
It would be troublesome if she tried to explode after I'd even healed her!
"You are beautiful. Truly."
I smiled as I said it to the witch.
With flattery to that degree, I figured she wouldn't explode then.
Now that I'd healed her, all that remained was to vanish without a trace before the Lilia Order people arrived in the capital.
***
The sensation of the anesthetic that had been weighing down her body disappeared.
The sensation of the Magic Power Suppressant hindering her magic use disappeared as well.
Erpa touched her left face.
The sensation of the hideous and horrifying eyes, once bumpy and rough, was nowhere to be found, replaced by smooth skin.
Everything was exactly as she had dreamed it would be.
A human-like form.
She no longer had four arms, nor those ugly eyes.
Tears flowed without her realizing it.
Honestly, up until just moments ago, she had distrusted the man before her.
It was an appearance that had not changed despite her long years of effort.
She thought there was no way the man before her could solve such a problem in an instant.
That was what she thought.
But she had miscalculated.
A magically incomprehensible phenomenon manifested in her body.
The sprouted arms vanished, and her twisted face returned to normal.
In that moment of change.
She was so astonished and overjoyed that, without realizing it, she let the magical power she had gathered to burn the world simply flow away.
That was why the blinding flash of light had burst forth.
Even as she touched her face, she couldn't believe it.
Erpa slowly rose to her feet.
She looked at the man before her.
The man, wearing a gentle smile, was bleeding from his head, where the skin had burst.
Yet even that bleeding sight was so incredibly sacred.
Simply standing still, he was so sacred that it was hard to meet his eyes.
She felt like she understood why the slum dwellers called him a saint.
He had performed a miracle.
It wasn't simply because he had changed an appearance that was difficult to alter magically.
Perhaps she could have changed her own appearance with her own power if she had used stronger magic based on the Three Primary Colors Theorem.
But even if she had done that.
She would not have been able to erase the twisted hatred and resentment deep in her heart.
Nor could she have made those who had once seen her hideous face look at her with anything other than shock and horror.
The man before her had pierced through all those impossibilities in a single moment.
He had solved those problems, which she thought human effort could never overcome, so simply.
Her heart began to race uncontrollably.
Erpa had never been in love even once in her entire life.
Because she had been hideous.
Because she had been repulsive and foul.
And so she had bitterly secluded herself and done nothing but research.
But that was no longer the case.
"Your name. I want to know your name."
Erpa grabbed the saint's sleeve with a trembling voice.
Her face was deeply flushed and excited.
"I am merely someone who heals the injured."
The saint smiled and tried to shake off her hand.
But she could not let go.
"Please....... Please tell me your name."
She stepped forward and held his hand tightly.
At that action, the saint's body trembled.
His hand, shaking like a leaf, was covered in a thick, cold sweat.
Erpa knew what this was. She had studied miracles, hoping for a way to heal herself.
She knew that clergy who used powerful miracles sometimes exhibited these physical symptoms.
Furthermore, seeing the blood flowing from his forehead, there was a possibility of infection.
"The Saint is shaking!! It's the aftereffect of using a miracle!"
At Erpa's cry, the holy knights of the Sun Order and the clergy of the White Order moved simultaneously.
"Is it Divine Influx?"
"Yes! It's Divine Influx! He's sweating and trembling! He needs to rest!"
"Oh Lopers!! He has cared for so many poor souls!!......."
"Hurry! Prepare a place for him to rest! Leaving Divine Influx untreated could lead to an irreversible situation!!"
At those words, the White Order and the Sun Order moved as one.
"The Sun Order is the closest from here! I will guide you!"
"Oh Saint! Please get on my back!!"
A holy knight lifted him up onto his back, and Erpa and the clergy of the White Order followed behind.
"The Saint is unwell! Move! Make way!!"
The slum dwellers created a path, and the holy knights swiftly dashed along it.
Erpa followed behind them.
Things like her face or appearance no longer mattered at all.
Now, that man being carried away was her life.
He was the man who had kissed the left side of her face, a sight she herself had found repulsive to look upon.
-Live. You are beautiful.
The words the saint had spoken to her were etched clearly in her mind.
As she ran frantically, Erpa's face was burning as if it might burst.
One thing was certain: it was definitely not a flush caused by strenuous exercise.