Bell continued speaking.
“So even hypocrisy counts as good? Maybe for you. Must be nice, living a life where you can say hypocrisy is still good. But not for me. I spent my entire life surrounded by hypocrites who constantly forced expectations onto me, saying a Saintess must behave this way or that way. So why should I accept hypocrisy as virtue?”
Bell grabbed the blood sword pressed beneath her chin.
Fwoooosh!
Light burst outward.
A sacred radiance befitting a Saintess.
“I heard that if a Saintess chosen by God breaks the laws and loses her qualifications, then from that point onward she falls from God’s favor and can no longer use Holy Arts. That’s why I lived my entire life as the temple’s dog, doing everything possible not to violate the laws. Because only by maintaining my qualifications could I continue using Holy Arts, and only then could I help more poor and sick people.”
Fwoooosh!
The light grew denser and brighter.
Bell slowly rose to her feet.
And the radiance that had begun at her fingertips now completely covered her eyes.
“I look forward to it. Newly elected Pope, I hope that as the wise new Pope, you will grant enlightenment to this ignorant and selfish ghost of the past. If you do, then I shall fully acknowledge you.”
Fwoooosh!
Light scattered everywhere.
And as the light spread, the wound on her neck vanished as well.
Soon after her final words, Su-ho’s vision went black.
It was absurd.
So in the end, she intended to test him.
Still, if there was any silver lining, then perhaps this was it.
After all, if he passed this trial, he would likely obtain the power of the Master Cleric as well.
Right then—
Smack!!
“Why aren’t you moving already?!”
A burning pain exploded across the back of his head.
Someone had struck him.
It hurt badly enough that he instinctively turned around, only to find a large boy glaring down at him.
“What’s your problem?”
Gasp!
Su-ho immediately shut his mouth in shock at the sound of his own voice.
A child’s voice.
No, more precisely—
The voice of a young child.
‘Wait. Don’t tell me...’
As he thought that, the boy exploded in irritation.
“What do you mean what’s my problem?! Ah, shut up and move already! If we don’t get food because of you, you’re seriously dead!”
The boy shoved him roughly, and Su-ho stumbled forward weakly.
It hurt.
Just from getting pushed?
Then he saw his wrist.
Thin, pale, fragile.
The wrist of a child that looked like it would snap with the slightest force.
At that moment, he noticed a mirror nearby.
Reflected in it was a filthy-looking young boy staring back in shock at his own face.
And that boy was unmistakably Su-ho.
Or more accurately, a boy who resembled Bell from her childhood.
“Bell?”
“Did you lose your mind this morning...? Are you seriously crazy? Hurry up and get in line before the food’s gone!”
The boy snapped irritably.
And before long, Su-ho realized what this trial truly was.
In this trial, he had been sent directly into Bell’s childhood to experience her life firsthand.
‘This is insane.’
A watery soup and a single piece of hard bread.
Now living as Bell, Su-ho stared at his reflection in the soup.
Silver hair.
Sky-blue eyes.
Anyone would recognize them as Bell’s.
Then one of the temple caretaking sisters spoke.
“All right, everyone. Let us offer our prayer before the meal. For granting us our daily bread today...”
At the mention of prayer, all the children clasped their hands and closed their eyes.
It was unbelievable.
He had gone his entire life without believing in religion, and now suddenly he was living like this.
Still, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.
For now, Su-ho decided to adapt himself to the situation.
After all, the trial had already begun.
‘Though can this really even be called a trial?’
Bell had said that she was ignorant and wished for the new Pope to teach her something new.
But instead of receiving a lecture or sermon, she seemed intent on forcing Su-ho into her circumstances and drawing enlightenment from the choices and judgments he made within them.
‘Fine. I’ll play along with your demands.’
Su-ho quietly folded his hands and offered a prayer.
He did not merely pretend.
Thinking of Bell shouting that he knew nothing about her, he decided to genuinely experience her childhood in order to truly understand her.
And so, life in the temple began.
***
Daaang—! Daaang—!
Several days passed.
Once again, the morning bells tore through the temple’s deep corridors.
The rusted metallic ringing crashed against the walls from every direction, the echo returning to tap against Su-ho’s ears like bone.
When he opened his eyes, the entire world felt made of nothing but dampness and cold.
Every breath carried the chill scent of stone and stale moisture unique to the temple, enough to make someone feel as though they would eventually develop lung disease just from living there.
And that was not the only unpleasant part.
The sleeping quarters, where beds had been crammed together like a refugee shelter, made him resent not the arrangement but the beds themselves.
Was this even a bed, or just a slab of rock?
Sleeping on the floor honestly sounded more comfortable.
But before he could even finish processing his irritation, a cold command rang out.
“Everyone, get up.”
The name of the temple where Bell had lived was Demez.
More than a dozen caretaking sisters were responsible for the children there, and among them, the nun in charge of the morning routine was especially cold and severe.
Su-ho quickly got up and straightened his bedding.
This place looked as though it should have overflowed with love and charity, yet in reality it operated entirely through rigid rules.
That was why the children cleaned their beds and lined up before they had even wiped the sleep from their eyes.
Not for breakfast.
But for the prayer hall.
At Demez, they prayed five times every day.
The first prayer upon waking.
The second prayer during breakfast.
The third prayer during lunch.
The fourth prayer during dinner.
And the fifth and final prayer before bed.
Every prayer even had its own separate scripture, and the caretaking sisters watched over the children’s posture and behavior during prayer as though lasers were shooting from their eyes.
After the morning prayer ended, Su-ho stood in line again.
This time for breakfast.
Skipping meals was not allowed.
This place ran strictly by rules, and unless there was a special reason, refusing a meal meant going hungry for the entire day.
Not that the food quality was remotely good.
Breakfast consisted of nothing but bread so hard it felt like it had been made entirely of flour and a thin watery soup.
Su-ho noticed milk and cheese on the sisters’ table, but those were permitted only for the sisters.
Asking for more food was forbidden as well.
Meals were distributed in exact portions, and greedily coveting someone else’s share out of hunger brought punishment accordingly.
After breakfast, the children spent the morning studying the laws containing God’s teachings, and once lunch ended, they were forced to work until evening under the name of afternoon duties.
Of course, the labor itself was not anything grand.
Perhaps because the children were still young, the temple assigned them tedious repetitive work such as sewing cloth and leather products, sorting small objects, or peeling grain husks.
And even these tasks were distributed equally among all the children.
Refusal was impossible.
If even one child failed to do their part, the burden was divided among the others instead, which meant the children of Demez were always forced to carry the same log together.
It was truly a hell of equality.
It had only been a few days, yet Su-ho already felt he understood why Bell had become so obsessively conditioned by fairness.
“Beneath the Lord’s wings, all are equal.”
While the labor continued, the sisters took turns reading scripture aloud or offering prayers.
They all felt mechanical.
Like announcers, they recited God’s words with flawless pronunciation and calm, measured tones.
At first glance, it sounded like something from a religious radio broadcast.
But if one listened carefully, it was really a warning.
“Therefore, if you quarrel with your neighbor, then both of you shall go hungry that evening together. To share another’s sin is repentance.”
Teaching equality, in practice, meant sharing punishment.
And slowly, year after year like rings forming within a tree, that mindset seeped into the children.
That was why the children always appeared to smile, yet inwardly lived without room to breathe, like cups already filled to the brim with water.
They were kind to each other while simultaneously distrusting one another completely.
The mistake of the child beside you became your own hunger, and your hunger became tomorrow’s anger.
And so the children of Demez lived like time bombs with shortened fuses, offering prayers five times a day.
“......”
Su-ho endured it.
There had been countless moments when he wanted to overturn this insane lifestyle immediately.
But he decided to understand why someone who had risen all the way to the position of Pope had developed such deeply ingrained beliefs.
‘I have to endure it. Only then can I understand her.’
Part of the reason was that there was nothing he could currently do about it.
But above all, there was one decisive factor.
The moment Bell’s trial began, all of his powers had vanished.
He did not know why.
Most likely, the environment had been arranged specifically so he could focus entirely on the trial.
And so, whether he liked it or not, he was forced to endure Bell’s childhood.
Several more days passed like that.
Life in Demez repeated itself endlessly.
Nothing truly changed.
Occasionally the taste of the soup would differ slightly, or the type of chores would change, but every day was fundamentally the same.
Then the first weekend arrived.
Like the world Su-ho had lived in, this world also divided weeks into seven days, and Sunday was treated as the holy day of rest.
And for the first time since arriving, something changed.
There were no morning lessons or afternoon labor duties.
Nor was that all.
Unlike the usual quick wash that barely counted as cleaning, the temple opened the bathhouse and spent the entire morning thoroughly washing the children.
Then they dressed them in clean white clothing like children being prepared for a celebration.
Why?
The answer became obvious quickly.
It was the first weekend.
And the reason the sisters had been unusually gentle was because important guests from outside were visiting that afternoon.
High-ranking priests from the order’s headquarters, known as the Central Church.
And the moment the middle-aged priests entered Demez, Su-ho’s eyes widened sharply.
Because among them—
Was one of the sinners Su-ho had seen during Ruinberg’s trial.
More specifically—
One of the people he had personally killed.
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