Chapter 30

To summarize the long meeting as briefly as possible, it was a ‘collection of testimonies.’

I don’t know how the canonization process works in the reality I lived in during my previous life. My interest in religion was short-lived, having escaped from it in various ways since I was very young.

The extent of my ‘detailed knowledge’ about religion was reading stories about religious figures that popped up occasionally on real-time edit lists while browsing a wiki.

Well, I might not know what the actual canonization process is like, but testimonies are definitely important.

As an atheist, I was firmly convinced there was no proof of miracles. If people claimed something was miraculous, I believed they were either interpreting a coincidence as divine intention, misperceiving something, or just setting the stage for a scam.

So, if a person is to be canonized, the only thing left is that ‘testimony.’ Besides that, it’s all about verifying whether the person was corrupt or not.

However, there was one problem—

“…”

The presentation screen wasn’t just words.

There were, of course, photos and videos meant for reference.

And on that screen, it clearly showed me healing people.

Honestly, it looked a bit ridiculous. The ‘Saint Power’ wasn’t visible in the video. It’s a common understanding that at least the eyes of living beings can see ‘Saint Power,’ even if they can’t see magic. No matter how you try to capture it on video, only the results of using that power are recorded; the power itself doesn’t appear on film.

For this reason, people sometimes assumed that ‘Saint Power’ was some kind of ‘psychological phenomenon.’

They weren’t claiming it didn’t exist or was fake; rather, they were saying it was a force that transcended the laws of reality, expressed in the brain as ‘light.’ It’s a kind of optical illusion, but far more concrete… something that exists for now.

I wanted to claim that it was just an illusion, but what could I do when it actually works? It’s visible to everyone, whether they believe in God or not.

“Oh…”

Exclamations of awe rippled among the priests.

Although the light wasn’t visible, the process of healing people stood out even more. It looked as if time was rewinding as wounds healed rapidly. While time wasn’t literally reversing, watching scars completely disappear was closer to rewinding than rushing.

In the video, I rescued all the injured people huddled together just like that.

The second most applauded moment was when I ducked over an injured person to shield them from a large object coming at me.

But the moment that received the loudest applause was when I collapsed after doing all that and lost consciousness.

All the people gathered here were priests, and everyone who wasn’t from the church had either received my help or witnessed it.

Naturally, they couldn’t help but be favorable.

Wait, isn’t this too biased? This means there’s no one here who wouldn’t support me!

Normally, that would be advantageous, but still!

“….”

Hearing the murmurs of admiration and reverence from all around made me feel like I could die from embarrassment at any moment.

As someone who lives in this cold modern age, I’m just as sensitive to compliments. I don’t like giving or receiving them.

But hearing them as if I had saved the world was seriously mortifying.

“That’s all.”

After the video ended, a nun in front of me looked at me.

Her expression seemed to ask if I wanted to say something.

The gazes of the priests all turned to me, and I felt my face flush and sealed my lips. The video depicted the truth, so I didn’t have anything particularly to say.

“So…”

The Cardinal muttered as he looked at me again.

His expression was very subtle.

It looked like he was thinking, ‘This kid?’ Well, that makes sense. I sent a letter filled with things like ‘The concept of God is wrong,’ ‘God cannot possibly exist,’ and ‘How can you prove that the entity above can perform miracles?’ So, it was natural for him to react that way.

“Now, let’s hear testimonies from those who are not affiliated with the church. The people here are especially those who have personally received healing from Sister Anna, who is not yet a Saintess. And they are witnesses of that event. Since ‘Saint Power’ doesn’t appear on video, these individuals will provide the descriptions.”

I didn’t know I still had more embarrassment to face.

I covered my face with both hands.

*

What I thought would end with testimonies from the priests and videos led to experiencing double the embarrassment I had felt before.

The Saint Candidates, including Sophie, and the nuns and priests present described my actions quite plainly. Perhaps it’s understandable since they were somewhat knowledgeable about ‘Saint Power.’ There was no need to over-explain that one plus one equals two.

However, the words from those who weren’t priests were a bit different.

“It was as if that light was being bestowed directly by the Lord—”

“I’ve never seen such a power before—”

“It really seems like you could even bring the dead back to life—”

…

Personal impressions tend to be a bit exaggerated.

Unlike when the priests testified, this time a nun interrupted a few times to keep things in check, guiding them back to provide objective accounts. I never thought I’d feel grateful to church folk in such a situation.

The Cardinal listened seriously to each of those testimonies.

Setting aside any bad feelings or first impressions, he was trying to look at the situation objectively.

The order changed a few times, and then the next person stepped up.

“Oh, hello.”

Unlike when I first saw her, the girl with her hair tied back properly, as in the original work, looked pretty.

She was a character who had also been portrayed quite well in the illustrations. However, her chest was a bit smaller and less extravagant compared to the Saintess.

With her black hair and neat appearance, I felt like her character was well represented. Her black eyes glanced at me for a moment—

Huh?

And I felt some sort of… shall I say it, ‘will’ in those eyes.

Typically, scenes where heroines show will in novels relate to moments involving the male lead. It’s either a scene where the male lead is risking his life to save others, or perhaps…

Or when they come face to face with another heroine, a rival.

Naturally, there are no enemies threatening Siyoon’s life right now.

“My name is Han Yu-ri. I’m a rank 6 Hunter and I was with my colleague, Siyoon… Hunter Lee Si-yoon, when he was being treated.”

“Is that so? To have already advanced a rank at that age, you must have considerable skill.”

The Cardinal spoke gently to the still tense Han Yu-ri.

“… No, that day when Hunter Lee Si-yoon was attacked, I couldn’t do anything…”

“I’ve already heard that there are situations a rank 6 Hunter couldn’t manage. Surviving was a great achievement.”

“Thank you.”

Han Yu-ri bowed her head.

“So, could you describe the situation from that day in detail once more?”

At the nun’s question, Han Yu-ri nodded and continued her testimony.

The situation itself wasn’t different from what I remembered.

However—

“That scene was exactly like the Saintess in the stories who sacrifices herself to save the people.”

“…”

She added that to her story.

Well, it’s a personal impression, so I can’t really say much, but I felt something in her expression that clearly wanted to elevate me to the position of Saintess.

So, I guess… um.

Could she possibly be misunderstanding me? That I’m interested in Lee Si-yoon? And that she’s trying to fixate me as a Saintess?

In the original story, she did have a pretty jealous personality.

I wanted to jump up and assert that I wouldn’t be doing anything of the sort and that, in fact, I wished for my childhood friend to end up with Siyoon. However, if I said something like that, it would just lead to me getting questioned about how I knew that relationship.

Moreover, if I were to act out right now, declaring I wouldn’t become a Saintess, I might get misunderstood for that too.

With a satisfied expression, Han Yu-ri stepped down after finishing her testimony. At least if she had crossed the line while testifying, I could argue against it, but she didn’t lie in that moment.

She probably knew that exaggerating the story wouldn’t fly either.

A few more people testified after that, and the nun in charge said,

“With that, we’ve heard all testimonies and seen all materials.”

She glanced over us and added,

“Now, let’s move on to the next stage.”

What could the next stage be?

Am I going to have to go to the Vatican to prove my sanctity or something? The Vatican is a place I’d love to visit, but I wouldn’t want it to serve such a purpose.

But when I heard what was next, I came to my senses.

“Ascending to a symbolic position in the church shouldn’t be taken lightly. Therefore—”

To sum it up, it meant they would test my qualifications.

They would look into my life in detail and confirm whether I’ve committed any indiscretions in the process.

And there would be someone to supervise that process—

“The Devil’s Advocate.”

…Right.

It means the church is worried about some level of corruption.

And to prevent that, they have a role that investigates those to ascend to the position of Saintess, rebutting their merits.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be a priest; in fact, it’s better if it isn’t.

So they’re inviting someone from outside the church—

Bang.

Before the conversation could finish, the door swung open.

And the person who entered gasped, exclaiming,

“I-I’m so sorry! I misread the ticket time—”

The person was dressed in a suit, but they appeared disheveled from running around.

A rather young woman, but I already recognized that face.

Not because I’d seen her in the original work, but I had seen her a couple of times on TV in this world.

There were people like her in the world I lived in.

Individuals who deny that the Earth is round and claim it’s flat. While what they say may not be correct, such claims do pique people’s interest.

And those individuals gain fame for it and sometimes make appearances on broadcasts. Usually, they end up being ridiculed on cable TV as those who claim nonsense—

…That’s right.

I’ve seen that woman on TV, representing such people.

You could say she’s the ‘flat-earther’ of this world, but instead of promoting that idea, she’s an ‘atheist.’

I suddenly felt a spark of light in my head after a long time.

And then I belatedly realized that the light was truly shining above my head, and hurriedly swatted it away with my hand.