Chapter 28 – Sin – 1

Myler was more of a fortress than a city. It was a place that claimed to be the sacred place of the Ennessic Church, so the level of weapons of the guards was different, and compared to the guys stationed at Rick’s house, they were clearly disciplined. The pass screening was also quite strict, so there was a high possibility that you would not have been able to enter if it had not been for the fake ID that the professor had prepared in advance.

However, the documents he prepared stated that I was Rachel’s father, so a considerable level of acting was required. By acting ability, I meant holding back her vomit at the sight of Rachel fawning over and over again like her daughter.

As I silently accepted her childishness, Rachel started looking at me with strange eyes after she passed. As I continued to feel the burdensome gaze, I eventually couldn’t stand it and threw a word.

“What? If there’s something you want to say, just do it.”

“No. Just out of surprise. I wondered if you were going to kill the coachman again and disguise yourself as him.”

“Will was dying at the time, and he already told me, but I also asked for his consent.”

“Well, it’s not a bad condition to be able to save the owner you’ve been serving with your dying life. I’m sorry for misunderstanding.”

“Quickly find that woman named Vanessa. Don’t waste your time.”

“I’m looking for it with great passion. The road to get there is just a bit rough.”

Rachel guided her way as if she had lived in this city for decades. I sighed and followed her.

A stench wafted from all over the city. On the outside, it was covered with shiny and neat hypocrisy, but even if the curtain of lies was lifted a little, the ugly aspects were revealed.

The white buildings of the church, which claimed to be God’s will, covered the sky with their stomachs full, and the black tongues of the priests whispering secret words between them. And the women who show off their skirts to those priests. I don’t know if someone would call this place a holy place, but to me it felt no different from a whorehouse.

Even Rachel was leading me towards the deep, dark places where the ugliest side of such a city was most exposed. As more and more people became sick than normal people, those who hid their desires through hypocrisy gradually revealed their naked bodies without hesitation and seduced each other. Saint. Prostitute. Abstinence. Heat. As the saying goes, extremes must connect, and in the lower part of the holy city, a lump of desire was inevitably raising its head.

Strangely, however, I felt that the more the surroundings were stained with corruption, the easier it was to breathe. Maybe it was because I saw so many secrets and lies that my teeth trembled. Rachel stopped her steps as the clean dust settled pleasantly in her lungs.

“We’re almost there.”

“I think he said he was coming to the place where the former priest was.”

“So this must be the best place to hide, isn’t it?”

“…That’s right.”

I quietly looked around. In this place full of rags, old people, and people trapped in the bottom of their lives, even if you wash your eyes, you can’t find the existence of God. True to her words, if Vanessa was sick of the cult and decided to hide, it seemed like there couldn’t be a better place.

“So. How are you going to find it?”

“Well, it’s obvious, but I’ll have to go home first.”

“Do you remember?”

“I remember the approximate location. And if you go, you’ll know. He’s running an orphanage in a place like this.”

“It’s not strange. There are probably a lot of orphans here.”

“You’re so chillingly cool.”

Rachel raised her eyebrows shyly as she headed deeper and darker into the inner city. I followed her back, ignoring the prostitutes flirting around me.

“Is it still far? I think I’ve come a long way.”

“No. I’m here. Can you see me in front of me?”

Following her words, she raised her head and saw a large house that seemed to be in better condition than any other shack she had ever seen. Rachel opened her mouth slowly, moving her steps slowly.

“As I expected, you’ll be in there. You won’t be away often because of the kids.”

“I don’t want to be fooled, but is there any way to check?”

“It’s very easy. Just one more step from here…”

Huiik

The moment Rachel stepped forward, an arrow flew from somewhere with the sound of a torn wind. I quickly grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and pulled her behind her, and the arrow pierced the spot where her head had just been.

“…An arrow…Will come flying…Yo…Ugh…”

Perhaps because of the sudden tug, she grabbed me by the scruff of her neck and dangled from my hand, holding her breath as if choking me. When I let go of her hand, she smacked her buttock on the floor and jumped up to lift her hands up.

“I guess he’s inside. I guess I’ll have to let my guard down.”

“It seems so.”

I nodded her head and raised her hands after Rachel. But then, along with the sound of crutches, I heard a woman’s voice scratching like an old man for decades.

“…No. You don’t have to raise your hand.”

As she turned her head, a woman with crutches in her armpits was approaching her, carrying her crossbow. She looked at me and Rachel as she raised the loaded crossbow skyward.

“Regardless of whether you raise your hand or not, tearing me apart won’t be a thing for you.”

I tried to make eye contact with her, thinking it was a woman with her fairly precise eyes, but I couldn’t see her. To be precise, I couldn’t look at the two eyes completely.

Where her left eye should have been, instead of her eyeball, a picture of an eye with a monstrous sense was drawn. The picture drawn roughly with crayons was all messed up in color and shape, probably drawn by a child. The other eye was quite intact, but the presence of her left eye was so great that even her right eye felt uncomfortable.

But it wasn’t just her eyes that were not intact in her body. Not only was she missing her legs, but she had flesh torn off from her forearms as if they had been eaten by worms, and many of her fingers were missing, to the point where she wondered how she pulled the crossbow. It was hard to believe that she once followed God, and it seemed that her body was completely shunned by God.

Even though her whole body was literally in tatters, she greeted me nonchalantly as if she didn’t care about her own misfortune.

“It’s been a while. Detective. I’ve been wondering where you’ve been crushing things for a year, and I guess you’ve finally thought about paying for it?”

“You have no face, Vanessa. But, as you know, killing an archbishop is not an easy task. So I needed some preparation.”

Rachel blinked her eyes shamelessly in my direction. Vanessa took a good look at me and nodded her head in satisfaction.

“Well…I brought it properly.”

“Do you know me?”

“Because not everyone in the world is blind.”

Vanessa straightened his crutches and turned him away.

“Let’s go in and talk.”

The shack, which looked shabby on the outside, was in even more dire condition once inside. There were only three chairs that were in good shape, and even one of them broke her leg as soon as Rachel sat down, forcing her to fall again in an ugly way. Eventually, naturally, she sat down on her floor and said, scratching her head shyly.

“Um…I can’t see the kids by the way. Where have they all gone?”

“It’s in the basement. I have to keep it as out of sight as possible.”

“What if I get noticed?”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a girl or a boy, they’re sold fairly to the brothel. It’s more accurate to say that they’re dragged away. I’ve never taken a single penny from a kid taken away. Can I smoke a cigarette?”

“It’s your house, whatever you want.”

At my words, she picked up the pipe and lit it with her fingers. She’s a wizard, but she shoots her crossbow instead of using magic. I asked, observing her every single action.

“Are you trained?”

“Well… I’ve been dispatched to the border area for several years.”

“Then she must have been injured.”

“That’s not it. I’m a pretty good wizard.”

“Then what happened to the eyes and legs?”

“Because I’m a really good healer.”

Her indifferent eyes were bright blue. God sometimes plays a naughty prank by making things that would otherwise be lost especially beautiful.

“At first, I was just taking a little bit of my flesh for the wounded soldiers. But as I took it off one by one, I became more and more insensitive to my body. There is only one.”

If you listen to her tone alone, she’s lamenting her life, but her tone is surprisingly monotonous. Vanessa told her story without emotion, as if she were telling someone else’s story, then looked inward at her with one of her eyes that had been left behind.

“But because she has only one eye, she pays more attention to the little things that people miss. Like a country boy who went unnoticed in a parade of flashy warriors.”

“…We’ll talk about that later. There’s another important thing.”

“Yes. You’re probably here to ask about Bobby.”

Pale cigarette smoke wafted from her mouth. The blurry eyes in her smoke seemed to flow into the past.

“Well…But there’s not much to tell you. I’ve already told the detective lady, but she entered the Ascension Ceremony a year ago. I don’t know much about whereabouts.”

“Do you really believe he has entered consciousness?”

“Yes. I entered the Ascension Ceremony with over a hundred young girls.”

“Oh my god.”

Rachel, who had been listening, barely uttered a single word. I nodded her head, thinking it was a Barbie-like misdeed.

“So. Any guesses where he might be?”

“I can’t even guess. Only those closest to him would know, but as you can see, I’m a little too ugly to be in that position.”

“He’s your closest friend.”

I just touched the hilt with my hand. It was cold and smooth to the touch, so it felt more secure than a warm blanket.

“For example. Like Saint Sarah.”

“Well…She might know.”

“Is there any way she can approach her?”

“Yes. You just have to attend the worship service diligently. Our saintess Serra, who went from being an ordinary country girl to a genius wizard in order to defeat the demon king under Goddess Annesic’s trust, attended every service after Bobby ascended to the position of Archbishop. For spreading his teachings.”

It was more like a sarcasm than a joke. She took one last deep breath on her cigarette and exhaled.

“Well. If you want to have a more direct meeting, you can pay a small donation and apply for confession. To be precise, it’s close to prostitution.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s literally. The only way to cleanse one’s sins in the current Ennessic Church is to cleanse one’s sin-stained body by coming into contact with the holy bodies of the priests.”

“In a word, sex.”

Rachel came to a conclusion in a straight line. I pondered a bit, then turned her head to Rachel.

“How much money do you have on hand?”

“…How much do you need?”

Instead of answering her, she turned her head to Vanessa and she marked a number with her finger. Rachel opened her mouth wide in astonishment.

“Oh my God. Is that enough?”

“You’d be surprised to find out how many people want to sleep with a saintess. Even the church can’t assign a saintess to just anyone, so money is the standard.”

“No matter how much I don’t have that much money, Mr. Luca.”

“It doesn’t matter. I’ll just have to shed that much blood.”

“…I hope it’s not as bad as the baron days.”

“But you. You should know that. No matter how much contact you make with a saint, you never know if she will readily tell you the location of her Barbie. Uselessly, only people will die.”

“You’ll have to tell me.”

Vanessa looked this way with a meaningful look. I opened her mouth before her eyes could penetrate my secret.

“So when is the worship service?”

“Today is already over. So, let’s sleep overnight and leave early tomorrow morning.

“You won’t need it anyway.”

Rachel whistled at my words and spoke playfully.

“As expected. I knew that. By the way, are you going to go in without hiding your face this time? Wouldn’t it make you tired if you noticed it first before you met face-to-face?”

“Of course I have to hide it. I’ll use a method similar to last time.”

“I pretended not to be. Whose face leather are you going to wear this time?”

I slowly turned her head to look at Rachel. And when her expression hardened, she simply threw her one word.

“You.”