NOVEL NEXT Chapter 4
When they returned to the convent, it was already midnight. Well, it was a place they had set off for at midnight and arrived at midnight.
Not a single person spoke in the car on the way back.
Well, of course.
Where in the world would you find a nun delivering a drop kick to a cardinal’s noggin? Even the inquisition wouldn’t act that quickly with a heresy in front of them. They would at least hold a trial.
Besides, the excuse I managed to come up with was, “I have a habit of delivering drop kicks when I hear nonsense,” which would easily get me fired and sent to a mental hospital.
I do have a habit of saying something ridiculous when flustered, but this just seems out there.
The cardinal, who took a drop kick, seemed to say a few words before passing out completely, while the priest and Mother Superior were bawling their eyes out.
The priest and Selena Lowell were also crying.
Maybe news would break out by tomorrow morning. A headline like “Mad Nun Causes Ruckus at Hero’s Funeral” might be in order.
Well, getting fired aside…
It’s clear I’d be facepalming for the rest of my life.
*
Because of the terrifying name “Inquisition,” everyone who worked there was rumored to be fanatics.
But that was almost entirely untrue.
In reality, the Inquisition was quite the idle place.
Let’s debunk the most well-known rumor about the Inquisition: it wasn’t a place to define heresies. The humans that appear as villains in the internet, novels, and dramas usually label decent people as heretics, dragging them down to hell, but the Inquisition had no such authority.
The Inquisition wasn’t about defining heresy; it was about interrogating it.
So, people who came to be questioned were mostly already considered heretics or almost certainly deemed so by various scientific and logical evidence.
Moreover, torture was strictly forbidden in the modern Inquisition.
The Inquisition was all about using solid evidence and legally recognized testimonies to utilize the holy power of zealous believers to find out if the target was a polymorphed demon or a brainwashed minion, to figure out necessary actions, and report them back to the church.
“When someone comes to be questioned, let them pray. If they possess any holy power, they are not a heretic.”
If true heretics came in, they were made to pray first, following a saying that dated back hundreds of years when the Inquisition was created.
Holy power was strong evidence of being connected to God, and since someone showing it was neither abandoned nor cast aside by God, they could never be a heretic. It just meant they served the same God but had different thoughts and judgments.
Hence, using the Inquisition as a tool for power struggles within the church was quite a challenging task.
The Inquisition had been able to save many misunderstood people over centuries with this method, and they took pride in it.
Thanks to that, they found themselves drifting further away from power.
“Hmm.”
However, even this seemingly idle Inquisition did have its work. Occasionally, rather radical believers or those with little communication with their surroundings would misunderstand something and get reported to the Inquisition.
Unless…
“Is it the 21st District again?”
…Causing friction with high-ranking officials and getting on their bad side.
Though the Inquisition aimed to rescue those misunderstood, the gap between how insiders and outsiders perceived it continued to grow with time.
Getting reported to the Inquisition left a mark.
Even if that person were truly innocent—and most of the time, they were—just the suspicion of being a heretic often blocked their pathway to success.
For those outside the church, it was alright. The Inquisition never leaked personal information outside the church.
But for those inside, it was another story.
No matter how massive the church might be, it was still a closed society. Rumors within the church were nearly impossible to suppress, no matter how hard one tried.
Let alone if someone were blatantly spreading rumors.
Kwon In-Soo, the cardinal of the 21st District, could be considered a regular at the Inquisition in that sense.
If there was a priest or nun he didn’t like, he’d shove them straight into the Inquisition. A no-brain fanatic, he had become a cardinal based solely on the holy power afforded to him by his fanaticism, using the power and influence gained from being a cardinal to throw his weight around.
As for whether he truly believed the accusations he filed or not, who knows.
Every person he accused was innocent. Most were churchgoers, some showed holy power during their first prayers, immediately proving their innocence, while others lacked evidence to substantiate guilt.
But none of these individuals would ever rise to the center of church power, including the central convent.
If anyone were to reach the highest position, it might be the position of Inquisition head, Andrea Bernard, who was reading this accusation now.
It was ironic that the highest position one could reach due to the stigma caused by the Inquisition would be the Inquisition’s very own top position.
“Clara Anderson, age fifteen. Due to enter the academy in two weeks, having shown holy power that others lack, but cleverly masked.”
At fifteen, exhibiting massive holy power upon transferring to a new convent, one could say she was a promising candidate. It was unusual at that age to display holy power beyond lighting dark places just a little. It wasn’t surprising that she had been accepted into the academy.
“However…”
Andrea slowly re-read the part about “cleverly masked” and scoffed.
“A mere fifteen-year-old girl can’t be pulling off something like that.”
Many struggled even to show holy power, yet mimicking it?
It would be impossible unless they were a true polymorphed high-ranking demon.
And a polymorphed high-ranking demon wouldn’t just walk into a convent.
“It’s unfortunate for this sister…”
But even so, it couldn’t be ignored since it was a direct accusation from a cardinal. Authority sometimes forces illogical actions and compels one to do things against their will.
“The only option is to call her in for verification.”
Given such strong holy power, it might even be a valid method to have her come over to the Inquisition. More enriching for them than out of pity.
As Andrea skimmed over the subsequent report, she flipped through it casually.
While flipping, she stumbled upon…
“… drop kick?”
Somehow, that word felt very out of place in a religious report, making her doubt her eyes.
*
The position of Miracle Investigator seemed all shiny on the surface, but in reality, it was quite an idle post.
If one were to rank it, it was in a competitive relationship with the Inquisition, but in truth, workload was much lighter than the Inquisition’s.
No, it was practically nonexistent.
As even its name indicates, “Miracle Investigation” had less authority than the Inquisition, and it was much smaller in scale.
Unlike the Inquisition, which had its own lower knights and several interrogators plus decent support staff, the Miracle Investigators barely managed to occupy one office in the central church, with no knights of their own. If they needed protection, they borrowed personnel from the church in the investigative district.
This was how little the role of the Miracle Investigator mattered.
Heresies existed, were suspected, and reported falsely, so work periodically came in, but what of miracles? They were just fantastical events detached from the reality of skills attributed to ancient stories of saints.
You couldn’t understand what a miracle was until you’d seen one with your own eyes.
In a world where holy power exists, shining lights from a person or lifting objects into the air, or resurrecting the dying aren’t miracles. Back when demons, witches, and high-ranking demons infiltrated the world centuries ago, those tales could have been saintly, but today, they were simply the abilities of capable individuals.
Moreover, those capable individuals were promptly scooped up by the central convent. Investigators had no opportunity to determine whether something was a miracle or not.
Although heroes who died forty years or even one hundred years ago are often canonized, in such cases the central church interprets their stories religiously and packages them as miracles. Again, no opportunity for the investigators to dig into historical facts.
The last actual miracle discovered by a Miracle Investigator was fifty years ago. Since then, amidst seven changes of investigators, there had been no miracle investigations. The age of great heroes reasonably came to a close at that point.
Thus, it shrank down to the present name-only Miracle Investigator.
The current Investigator, Matthew Turner, actually liked what he was doing now.
What he truly enjoyed was napping with the Bible on his face, legs crossed on his desk during work hours when everyone else was busy.
Of course, his assistant Aurora would often have a fit about it, but hey, that’s just how job perks work. Less work is better, and the more pay, the better.
Matthew always thanked the goddess for the luck of landing such an easy gig.
This was the first time a formal report crossed his desk since working as a Miracle Investigator, where nothing aside from basic paperwork came in.
“A report?”
He wanted to ask how absurd that was, but Matthew held it back as he lowered the Bible from his face to see Aurora beaming at him with sparkling eyes.
“Yes! It’s the first miracle report in fifty years! …You weren’t listening, were you?”
She seemed set to start her nagging again, but Matthew bit down on it, bending over and picking up the report on his desk.
[Priest Nguyen, St. Loyola Old Cathedral, 21st District]
[The nun Clara Anderson possesses superior holy power compared to other clergy…]
Thus began the report, leading to the story of [a saint who punished a cardinal distorting God’s words and brought forth the goddess’s words directly].
“Is this for real? Did someone have a little too much to drink at the funeral?”
“Investigator!”
Aurora huffed, but Matthew expertly ignored her again.
Miracles come in various forms. Of course, it was often hard to distinguish from holy power, but as long as an act couldn’t be performed with ‘ordinary’ holy power, the church would consider it a miracle.
For example, resurrecting a completely dead person hours later, bringing someone back to life, healing an amputee’s arm long ago, or erasing congenital disabilities, and so on.
However, there were also disagreements on such kinds of miracles. It’s not that they never happened; it’s just that there were murmurs like, “If one had enough holy power, wouldn’t this be possible? In truth, weren’t they just great individuals rather than saints?”
Well, from Matthew’s perspective, it sounded plausible enough.
However, he had never heard of anyone claiming to “bring God to earth.”
God is a revered being, someone you are meant to look up to. Just by experiencing such a thing, it’s a glory that could happen once in a lifetime. In such situations, due to the mental burden, one usually doesn’t even dare to look up; they simply listen to the voice. If such an event were ever confirmed to have occurred, that alone would suffice for it to be recognized as a miracle.
Prayers are not to call upon God, but rather a way to send one’s thoughts upward. It’s more for centering oneself than for asking for something. Every clergyman knows this, including lazy Matthew.
And yet, saying one could bring God into this world—how ridiculous!
Aurora, who had bright eyes sparkling at him, likely didn’t understand this yet. Well, she was still young.
“There’s evidence too!”
As she said this, Aurora pulled out a smartphone.
Oh, so that’s what had her all giddy. Matthew thought with a wry smile.
In the church, electronic devices were typically not used. This was due to the old-school reason that one shouldn’t pursue convenience in the presence of the divine. The idea was that you could show respect by doing everything by hand and moving your body to express gratitude for all you feel.
If that’s the case, then why do they have flush toilets and lights in every room? Well, who knows, but that’s how it was.
Of course, electronic devices included smartphones, which must be returned upon entering the church unless under special circumstances.
Someone like Aurora probably didn’t even have a smartphone.
‘She looks like a kid holding a toy for the first time.’
Wait, she really was a kid. Matthew took the smartphone Aurora offered. She approached closely withwide eyes, clearly fascinated that it could play videos.
Goodness.
Watching Aurora obliviously crowd in as if unaware of the decorum expected of a clergyman, Matthew wanted to say something, but decided to let it slide this time.
The shared smartphone had only the one piece of evidence video on it.
And in that video…
[Therefore, sacrifice must be noble. It must not be simply a livestock dragged out under coercion, but rather a conscious choice of those who fight for justice and the smiles of countless people. It’s not merely about fighting to die but should be the essence of fighting until the very last moment.]
A young nun spoke, her voice deep and mature for her appearance.
‘This must be Clara Anderson.’
But that was all there was to it in the video. The girl shared a religiously meaningful discourse effectively, and to a pious and emotional person, it may strike a chord, but that was literally all there was in the footage.
No, if anything, the fact that she was covered in food from head to toe was a unique trait, but still.
“Hm.”
Matthew let out a short snort.
“…Did someone really have a bit too much to drink?”
Aurora asked in a daze.
“Who knows.”
Matthew returned to reading the report in his hand.
[The sister’s whole body enveloped in dazzling, warm radiance… hair glowing a golden hue… changes in her voice…]
Was all omitted from the video.
Could he have seen it wrong?
“Who knows.”
Matthew muttered again. That didn’t seem like it. He sensed a unique urgency in the wording, indicating an attempt to record every detail as accurately as possible so as not to forget easily. Moreover, this report went directly to him without passing through the central church. It was addressed not ‘to the record investigator’ but ‘to Father Matthew Turner.’
The smartphone was also still in the envelope. It was likely the personal smartphone of the priest. Meaning it was a result of his very own recording. However, to write a report that contradicts the video so blatantly indicated suspicion would be unavoidable.
‘This was just a plea from someone wanting to get heard, without concern for church power.’
That’s what Matthew’s instincts whispered to him.
Though he wasn’t a veteran and had never conducted a miracle investigation, merely being a name-only Miracle Investigator, well.
“Aurora.”
“Aurora ‘Sister!’”
Aurora corrected him sternly. Matthew simply shrugged and continued.
“You understand that holy power and magic both start from something not governed by physical laws, right?”
Aurora nodded knowingly.
“Yes, but they still have physical consequences.”
Indeed. Only then can it be deemed ‘useful.’
Light cannot emerge from a person’s hands; it’s physically impossible. Yet holy power disregards those physical laws and generates light.
And consequently, it optically illuminates the area around.
Healing a wound dealt by a human’s hand back to its unhurt state is physically impossible.
But someone with exceptional holy power can physically heal a grievously wounded person.
That’s why holy power and magic can be observed and utilized. They descend into the realm of physical laws, making it measurable and convenient to use.
“If this nun radiated light all over, it should’ve been captured by the camera.”
If there was an optical result, it should affect everything around it uniformly.
“But it wasn’t captured by the camera.”
A realization dawned in Aurora’s eyes.
“Exactly.”
Of course, it could also be mistaken. It could’ve been a mere fabrication. It might not qualify as a miracle, or perhaps it was something unverifiable, rendering the investigation pointless.
But still.
“We can’t just handle something that’s come in for the first time in fifty years casually, can we?”
“Of course not!”
Aurora puffed out her chest.
If there was even the slightest chance that both the events recorded in this report and those captured on camera occurred at the same time, the most accurate term to describe it would be a miracle.