As Su-ho stood there frozen in disbelief, Jack asked,
- What’s wrong?
“I just learned something absurd.”
- What is it?
“I’ll show you directly.”
Su-ho kicked Orma’s corpse, now dried out like a mummy.
The body crumbled apart with a brittle crackling sound, leaving behind only clothes and accessories.
Among them, the item Su-ho picked up was a necklace.
It looked plain enough, like an ordinary pendant, but this object was in fact a holy relic.
- What’s that?
“A relic of the Church of the Chief God.”
- A relic?
“It’s called Inheriting Light. And its ability is...”
To store the mana of priests.
That was the true reason the manufactured saintesses had been capable of displaying miracle-like powers.
But that was not all.
Inheriting Light came in paired sets, allowing mana to be shared between connected users. Orma had hoarded the mana distributed from other priests and only supplied saintesses with exactly the amount he deemed necessary.
That was the true reason the archbishop had been able to rule as the hidden power behind the scenes for so long.
“But since they couldn’t openly reveal the truth, they manipulated people with all kinds of lies. Saying things like their power would disappear if they violated doctrine.”
- Disgusting. In reality, they can still use holy magic even after violating doctrine, can’t they? Roland proved that.
“Instead, they simply stop supplying mana, so the saintesses can no longer display their previous level of power. Which means this was an enormous deception only the archbishop could pull off.”
- And if one of the substitute saintesses became too independent and stopped obeying, they could just claim she had been abandoned by God and replace her.
Jack was right.
Once they were no longer useful—
If they became disobedient, aged, or even had their appearance ruined in an accident, Orma discarded the fake saints and saintesses without a moment’s hesitation.
After all, replacements were always being raised in reserve.
- Then was Bell just lucky?
“Luck played a role, but more than anything, she was exceptionally obedient. From Orma’s perspective, there was no reason to throw away a saintess who was both beautiful and compliant.”
- But... did Bell know about this?
“I wonder.”
That, he truly did not know.
Su-ho raised his head and looked toward the ceiling, but no reaction appeared.
Jack spoke.
- Don’t tell me you already knew all this when you said you had a solution?
“I never said I had a solution. I only said I had my own method for dealing with this trial, even if it wasn’t the correct answer.”
- Isn’t that the same thing?
“No. Anyway...”
Su-ho pocketed Inheriting Light and stepped outside.
Then, watching the priests who still wandered the church grounds laughing and chatting without understanding anything, he said,
“The fact the trial still hasn’t ended means there’s probably something left.”
- Like what?
“I don’t know. But maybe I can at least vent some anger in the meantime.”
- Vent anger?
At those words, the corners of Jack’s lips curled upward.
“Honestly, there’s nothing left for me to teach anymore, right? We already talked enough about all of that when I was with Bell. And now that I understand why she ended up the way she did, maybe the only thing left is to vent some anger on behalf of Bell, who’s probably watching this from somewhere.”
- If it’s something like that, we’re specialists. So how do you want to do it?
“Kill them all.”
- All of them?
“Why not? This is a fake world created for the sake of the trial anyway. It’s not like killing fake people will cause some great disaster. And when you think about it, whether they were low-ranking priests or ordinary believers, every single one of them probably spent their entire lives crushing Bell beneath the weight of their expectations.”
- Fair point.
Jack revealed his enormous true form.
Then, as he raised his fist, countless Shadow Knights under his command appeared.
And together with the knights—
“KIEEEEEEEEEE!!”
The Black Shadow Dragon appeared as well, looking ready to reduce the entire Central Church to ruins.
“Kill them all.”
KWA-BOOOOM!!
It was the moment an unprecedented catastrophe descended upon the Central Church.
***
The place that should have echoed only with hymns and prayers was now filled solely with bloody screams begging for salvation.
The Black Shadow Dragon and the Shadow Knights granted death to everyone in this land without the slightest mercy.
A one-sided massacre.
But this was not merely a massacre.
It was a brutal requiem for one person.
A requiem for a woman who had spent her entire life desperately struggling to survive alone in the shadows, forced to suffer in place of grotesque old men.
That was why Su-ho never once looked away from the horrific slaughter unfolding before him and engraved every scene into his eyes.
Because he thought Bell might be watching this place through his eyes.
As countless people died, Jack spoke.
- Master.
“What?”
- I think this one’s someone you should see personally.
“Who?”
After Jack’s report, two Shadow Knights appeared dragging someone between them as if escorting a prisoner.
The captive was a woman he had never seen before.
But Su-ho recognized who she was immediately.
“A saintess.”
- Yeah.
He had never met her, but the memories he absorbed made her identity obvious at once.
She must have resisted fiercely, because both her clothes and body were covered in injuries.
When Su-ho looked at Jack, Jack shrugged.
- Don’t look at me like that. You’re the one who ordered everyone killed in the first place. I only brought her because I thought maybe you’d want to decide personally.
“Who’s blaming you? You did well.”
And he meant it.
Jack had done well.
Honestly, Su-ho had not even considered the existence of the current saintess.
He had only intended to use the lives of everyone here to comfort Bell.
But Jack had thoughtfully captured her alive, and seeing her now made Su-ho suddenly curious.
What sort of meaning did this woman hold for Bell?
The woman’s name was Serin.
Serin was Bell’s predecessor, and until now she had faithfully continued performing the role of an obedient saintess.
‘At least according to Orma’s memories.’
Serin bit her lip and glared at Su-ho.
But Su-ho merely looked up at the sky and asked,
“So? Should I just dispose of her too?”
Silence.
Hm.
Did Bell not care?
It seemed Bell held little interest in her predecessor.
At that moment—
Fwoooosh!
Light burst forth.
At the same time, the world turned gray and time froze.
The only things retaining their color were the Subspace, Su-ho, and the person who emerged from the Subspace.
It was Bell.
Her eyes widened sharply as she stepped out from within the Subspace.
Then she stopped in front of Su-ho.
Su-ho looked at her with a dry expression.
More precisely, he looked at the necklace hanging around her neck.
Inheriting Light.
She spoke.
“What exactly do you think you’re doing right now?”
“You’ve been watching everything. Why ask?”
“I’m asking what the hell you think you’re doing!”
“A requiem.”
“What?”
“You heard everything I said, so why act surprised now? After experiencing it myself, I became certain. These bastards all deserve to die.”
“Then killing only the priests would’ve been enough. Even just the high-ranking priests. Why are you killing low-ranking priests, servants, and believers too?”
“I told you already. This is a requiem for you. Since none of them are real people anyway, what’s wrong with killing a few to vent some anger?”
“You...!”
“Why? Do I seem insane?”
At the question, Bell suddenly fell silent.
Su-ho smirked.
“But I guess you really did hate the bishops quite a bit. Seeing as you’re saying it’s fine to kill the high-ranking priests.”
“......”
She did not answer.
Su-ho stared at her for a while before speaking again.
“Did you know?”
“......Know what?”
“That.”
Su-ho tilted his chin.
At the end of his gesture was Inheriting Light.
“......”
Bell remained silent for a long time.
Then she slowly shook her head.
“Yeah. I figured as much.”
But now she knew.
Because she had seen everything through Su-ho.
Still, it was pitiful.
While alive, she had lived as Orma’s slave beneath the title of saintess, and after death she had been praised endlessly as the greatest saintess in history.
Yet the hidden meaning behind those words was simply that she had been Orma’s most obedient slave.
‘There’s no disgrace quite like that.’
Silence settled between them again.
She looked as though tears might spill at any moment.
Su-ho spoke.
“I’m sorry.”
“......”
“Just like you said, I got angry without even properly understanding you. Even though everyone has their own circumstances.”
“......”
“But after going through it myself, I understand now. If I had been you, I would’ve ended up thinking the same way. People without power like you had no choice but to survive by obeying adults.”
“......”
“I thought about it a lot. When you first sent me here, I kept wondering what kind of teaching I was supposed to give you. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized you probably don’t need some special teaching. Because you became like this because of your environment, not because you’re a bad person.”
Bad people were common.
Lazy people were more common than diligent ones, liars more common than honest people, and people who treated promises lightly more common than those who kept them.
That was why bad people were common, and genuinely good people were so difficult to find.
But Bell was someone who possessed all three virtues at once.
Did someone like her truly need a new teaching?
No.
There was no need.
That was why, rather than trying to force some new lesson onto her, Su-ho had focused on understanding her perspective and uncovering the truth.
And his expectations had proven completely correct.
At that moment, tears began falling from Bell’s eyes.
“Thank you. Thank you so mu—”
Bell lowered her head and clamped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from making noise.
She looked ready to break down sobbing aloud, but even this restraint was probably nothing more than a habit born from long years of conditioning.
Su-ho quietly watched her for a moment before slowly walking forward and embracing her.
Then he gently stroked her back.
“You can cry out loud now. You don’t need to watch anyone’s reaction anymore.”
“Huaaah...!”
At those warm words, everything bottled up inside her—everything that had stagnated and rotted away for years—collapsed all at once and burst free.
And so she cried for a very long time.
As though she intended to pour out every tear she had never been able to shed in her entire life.
Within the frozen time, Su-ho simply continued stroking her back again and again until she had finally emptied everything inside herself.
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