Chapter 109 – Episode 108 – The Value Of The Holy War (3)

Emily was running, holding her brother’s hand, completely out of breath.

Why? Why was this happening?

She had been having good dreams for the past few days after meeting the Saintess. Every day had been happy. She had prayed diligently and helped her mother.

Yesterday, even the parish priest had praised her for being good. He had said that if she continued to work hard like this… then he would write a recommendation to the Order so that she could become a nun serving the Saintess.

But why…? Why were they running away in the middle of the night? Where did that scary sound come from?

“Oppa, what about Mom?”
“…Be quiet, you idiot. Mom… Mom said she’d be a little… late.”
“Then what about Dad?”
“……”

She had been sleeping when a loud noise, the floor shaking, and a feeling of floating in the air had jolted her awake. As soon as she opened her eyes, her brother had grabbed her with a scary expression and started running without any explanation. She still didn’t know why they had to run.

Emily looked at her sweaty hand. Her brother’s large hand was tightly gripping hers, and it felt unpleasant because her palm was so damp with sweat.

Thump.
A sound came from far away. And someone was screaming. Although it was a dark night, the familiar cityscape felt strange today, and Emily was suddenly filled with fear.

Why did her brother look so scared? Why were they suddenly running when she had been sleeping so well? Where was Mom? Where was Dad? And… what was that screaming sound?

That was Hans’s house. Hans’s house had collapsed. Was Hans okay? What about Hans’s aunt?

With each step, something kept splashing on her ankles. It hadn’t rained, so why was there so much water on the street? Emily thought the color of the water on the ground looked strange.

“Oppa.”
“……”
“Oppa, oppa, oppa.”
“Shut up! Be quiet, it’s dangerous!”

Hiccup.
Emily was startled by his outburst. It was the first time her brother had ever yelled at her.

Emily felt confused and upset, and tears welled up in her eyes. Her brother was more like a father than her busy dad, and although he was often blunt, he was always kind to Emily.

The parish priest had said that she and her brother were eight years apart. She didn’t know how long eight years was, but he had said that her older sisters and brothers had died one after another, leaving only her and her brother. The parish priest had even held a memorial mass for her sisters and brothers she couldn’t remember. But she didn’t know what a memorial mass was.

Emily tried to stifle her sobs as she ran, feeling miserable. However, running in the dark on an unpaved, rough road without paying attention was dangerous. Soon, Emily tripped over a rock and fell, unable to hold back her tears.

“Get up! Get up, Emily! We don’t have time for this! Hurry!”
“Oppa… I’m hurt. My knee hurts~ Waaah. Mom. Mom~”
“Y-you’re hurt? Where, where is it? Let me see. Where is it? I’m… I’m sorry. Mom and Dad will be here soon. So… let’s just hold on a little longer. Okay?”
“…Hiccup. But I’m tired.”
“Get on my back.”

Her brother, who had been biting his lip, suddenly crouched down and offered his back.
Emily wiped away her tears and quickly climbed onto her brother’s back, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Heh. It had been a while since she had ridden on her brother’s back.
Emily buried her face in her brother’s sturdy back. He hadn’t carried her much lately because he said it was embarrassing, but he was being kind today. Strangely so.

“Haa… haa… Listen carefully, Emily.”

Her brother, breathing heavily, put Emily down in a corner and grabbed her shoulders. Their eyes met. Emily instinctively grabbed her brother’s hands that were holding her shoulders.

As if sensing something even in her young mind, she held his large hands with her small ones and stammered.

“Don’t go. Don’t go, Oppa. I’m scared.”
“I’ll… haa, I’ll be back in 100 seconds. Okay? Emily, you learned how to count to 100, right?”
“Uh-huh. The parish priest taught me.”
“Yeah, my little sister is so smart. Emily could become a nun serving the Saintess. Who else’s sister would be so smart and pretty? So, Emily. I’m going to go get Mom and Dad… so you stay here and count to 100. Don’t cry. Can you do it?”
“Can’t you not go? I’m scared.”
“Then Mom and Dad won’t be able to find you. I’ll find them and be back soon… just wait a little. Okay?”
“U-uh, okay. I understand. One… two…”

Her brother walked away. Emily clenched her small fists and watched his retreating back, quietly repeating the numbers.

* * *

Although it was a large plaza, it was so packed with hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people that there was no space left. The plaza, which had seemed so large, was now too small to hold all these people. The people gathered in the plaza were murmuring with anxiety, as they were exhausted and filled with unease.

It was a place they had barely managed to reach, escaping the monsters and looters. The procession of people fleeing, made up of countless people’s blood, sweat, and tears, had been able to breathe a sigh of relief only after entering under the protection of the parish priest, who was known as a pillar of the city. But now, with no information given and people just gathered like this, anxiety was spreading again like an epidemic.

It was only because the parish priest, who was known as a kind man in this city, was there that the citizens followed him to this extent. If the parish priest hadn’t been there, the atmosphere was so heated that a riot wouldn’t have been surprising.

“Hey, that person. Who is that?”
“Where?”
“Over there. The man climbing up there… on top of the church.”

The eyes of the murmuring citizens turned to one side.
A man was climbing the broken spire that rose high on one side of the plaza. The man, wearing a priest’s robe that was stained with blood, sweat, and dirt but seemed to have been carefully arranged to look as neat as possible, was slowly climbing the spire, drawing people’s attention.

‘I’m going to die.’

Those people watching, wondering who that person was and what he was doing, wouldn’t know. The pressure felt from hundreds, maybe thousands, of pairs of eyes.

The pressure of wondering if I could do this well was even greater.
And what felt even heavier was the self-reproach that, while constantly rationalizing that this was the right thing to do, all of this was ultimately a selfish choice for myself.

Cold sweat was running down his back. His legs, as he climbed the spire, felt as if they were weighed down by lead.

Hundreds… no, more than a thousand people were watching him.
As he climbed the spire, people observed.

A man bleeding. A woman leaning awkwardly against the wall, unable to walk or stand properly. A child shaking the dried hand of their mother. An old man sitting on the ground in tattered clothes.

Countless eyes were looking this way. If gazes had weight, he might have been crushed to death.

It had been four days since the city was completely surrounded and attacked by monsters.
The public order had collapsed.
Food supplies were running out.
There was no guarantee when reinforcements would arrive.
The city was surrounded by monsters, fierce battles were still taking place on the city walls, and the city was being destroyed, burned, and collapsed by monsters that had penetrated the city, and corpses were swarming everywhere.

Hope had long since disappeared.
The faint sounds of monsters’ roars and screams could still be heard from various places.

Even now, the elite soldiers led by Irian were hunting down the monsters that were approaching the people gathered here, and they had already dealt with dozens of monsters. How many monsters were roaming around this city?

Looking at the listless eyes of the people who had fallen into despair, he climbed the spire, stood behind the tilted cross, and spoke.

Let’s admit it. Let’s just admit it.
I am not a hero or a saint. I am standing here only for my own benefit, my own position, my own future… and for the people around me.

Let’s stop the disgusting self-rationalization and admit that I am a thorough villain… a selfish bastard. Let’s accept that it is my inescapable fate, even if it torments me with a shred of conscience and guilt.

“Today, we have gathered here. Perhaps the people gathered here are the last survivors left in this city today.”

Amplification of sound using divine power. He had asked Diana to amplify his voice so that it would resonate throughout the city, and even beyond it. Of course, if the sound was simply amplified from where he was speaking to reach outside the city, the people sitting nearby would all suffer from ruptured eardrums.

Naturally, Saintess Diana’s delicate control of divine power allowed people sitting right in front of him and those on the outskirts of the city to hear the sound at a similar volume.

With this, his speech would be heard not only by the people sitting in front of him but also by people hiding throughout the city, even by the soldiers fighting on the walls and the people who had fled outside the city.

Eyes full of listlessness, despair, and fear were looking at him. A suffocating weight pressed down on him, but he couldn’t collapse here. If he was a villain, he would survive to the end like a villain. He would survive to the end and live a life of luxury and comfort.

“In this place, many people have gathered regardless of status, class, gender, or age. From the noble magistrate of the Empire and the blessed daughter of God, the Saintess, to a mere priest like myself, and countless people of the city.”

Propaganda was surprisingly simple and easy. You could subtly twist what people wanted to believe, use some loudmouths to encourage responses, or mix lies with some truth.

But on the other hand, propaganda required a lot of preparation. Especially when dealing with so many people… and especially to incite those who were in despair and fear.

“Even in front of me, there are people sitting who have been injured in the battle against the demons. Mercenaries with scars all over their bodies, guards who have lost their legs or arms, soldiers who have come supported by their comrades because they are blind. Dozens of brave warriors who fought valiantly against the vicious demons lurking in the city’s underground are here.”

The listless gazes of the people turned to the mercenaries and guards in the front row. The sudden appearance of the Saintess and the hasty gathering of mercenaries and guards to enter the city’s underground to catch demons was not unfamiliar to them.

After all, Diana had made a fuss about saving him, so the city had quickly gathered elite soldiers and sent them underground. It was inevitable that the news would spread throughout the city. In this era with no other entertainment, such rumors would have spread throughout the city in an instant.

Those who had been deliberately placed in the front, the mercenaries and guards, still looked tired, but they showed a small sense of pride on their faces.

The mercenaries and guards placed in the front were the elite who had broken through the underground with him. Although they were exhausted and tired from the excessive fighting, they were still looking up at him with eyes that had not yet died, ready to respond.

And these were his first target. Having fought together several times, their bond and trust were considerable, so he would start with those who were ready to respond actively.

Of course, the people of the city watching them had indifferent faces. If so, it was time to draw them in next.

“Behind them are the citizens of the city. And behind them are other citizens of the city. Soldiers, doctors, scientists, artists, engineers, architects, teachers, officials, people who work and study in their respective fields. Our proud citizens are sitting here.”

Actually, he didn’t know. How could he know if there were really such high-level intellectuals among the people in the back? Since it was the center of the city, intellectuals might have taken refuge here, but the wealthy might have all fled, and only the poor might have gathered.

But that wasn’t important. Whether the classes he mentioned were here or not, such ‘facts’ were not important at all.

If he could only instill in them a sense of unity as citizens of the city, a sense of belonging as representatives of the city.