Chapter 684: The Sisters (5)
The outermost edge of the Holy See State.
There stood an old, worn-down building.
This building was none other than a convent, a convent dedicated to training sisters.
Each year, this convent trained around a hundred sisters, who were then dispatched across the world.
Some went to assist other convents in need of guidance. Others were sent to impoverished neighborhoods in need of a helping hand, to colonies where new faith was spreading, or even to war-torn fields requiring aid.
And, wherever these sisters went, they spread the Father’s love, as they had been taught at the convent, thus enhancing the reputation of the Pater Church.
For hundreds of years, consistently so.
In essence, this convent was a vital institution for the Holy See State, as crucial as the seminary that trained future priests and the Holy Knights Academy, the sole institution capable of training holy knights.
However, unlike these two institutions, the convent was located not in the heart of the Holy See State but on its fringes, and it exuded a rather forlorn atmosphere.
This wasn’t simply due to the building's age. Even the grand seminary and the Holy Knights Academy, which commanded respect, had histories as old as the convent.
Yet the convent’s desolation was due to a lack of maintenance and repairs compared to the other two establishments.
The cracked walls, sparse weeds growing here and there, drafty walls, creaky wooden floors, musty blankets, sunken pillows, and meager meals were all testament to this neglect.
Why was this so?
Ironically, it was due to a lack of funding.
Even the devout who studied and practiced the teachings of God needed to survive with their feet firmly planted on the ground.
It was an excuse that seemed oddly inadequate for a place dedicated to training those who spread the teachings of God.
However, even that excuse was only a facade. The true reason was something far more meager, base, and contemptible.
It was to make the sisters accustomed to hardship.
To accustom them to lack of resources, uncomfortable lives, and, above all, the injustices woven into every part of their lives.
Because that was the most effective method.
Humans, after all, are creatures who don’t listen merely because they are told to.
Thus, the Pater Church spent three long years indoctrinating and conditioning the sisters.
To mold them into workers fitting the ideals of humility, service, and obedience.
For this purpose, the Pater Church strictly controlled every aspect of life at the convent and constantly allocated insufficient funds.
As a result, the convent radiated a bleak atmosphere, and even those who lived within it gradually lost their vitality, succumbing to a subdued gloom.
They were made into obedient workers who existed only to carry out the will of God. And so it had been, for centuries.
But today was different.
Outwardly, nothing seemed to have changed from previous days, but below the surface...
In the underground tombs where sisters who had died under mysterious circumstances were laid to rest, an unusual energy lingered.
A silent resolve and fervor, moving purposefully toward a goal, filled the air.
“Our Father, who art in Heaven, your daughters have prepared an altar...”
The source of that fervor was a spacious area set in the center of the underground tomb.
At the heart of this space stood a grand altar fashioned from a tombstone engraved with a crown symbol.
“Please, heed our voices and send down your Apostle upon us…”
In front of the altar lay large quantities of shining gold thread, pristine white lace, and jars of fragrant oil arranged neatly,
and around them, 110 people formed two concentric circles.
“We are prepared for sacrifice. Please, melt us and use us as your instruments…”
The people surrounding the altar were divided into two groups.
In the inner circle, there were fifty-five young girls draped in black velvet, praying, and surrounding them, as if to encircle them, were fifty-five nuns also in prayer.
Of note, the fifty-five girls in the inner circle were neither sisters nor novices in training to become sisters.
They were simply innocent believers from outside.
Pure, devout girls who had committed no sin...
Ordinarily, these outsiders would not have been permitted entry to the convent, but thanks to their clandestine arrival through a secret passage with the nuns, they now prayed alongside them.
They wished to create a better world for the sisters who had helped them.
The girls in velvet continued to echo the nuns' prayer.
“Our Father in Heaven, make us your instruments, renew the world. Destroy all evil and allow good to flourish.”
The girls prayed to the Father in Heaven, hoping for evil to be punished and goodness to rise, the universal longing of humanity. Because that was the right thing to do.
And so, the girls and nuns continued their prayers in unity.
They waited for the most important element and the most important person to arrive...
“To rid the world of the rampant anger and jealousy, envy and spite, and malice—”
—Snap.
As the nuns and girls prayed, they stopped speaking in unison, as if it had been orchestrated. The sound of a thread snapping echoed.
They all simultaneously turned their heads in one direction, the eerie sensation lingering.
Zzzzt...
They turned their gazes down a single passageway, where a group of figures approached.
That group was Sister Della, Holy Knight Joanna, and a group of Holy Knights escorting them.
Sister Della, under the protection of the Holy Knights, was dragging the unconscious Joanna by her golden hair.
Upon seeing them, the nuns and girls began to rise, all at once.
Only until Della shouted.
“Please, everyone, do not stand!”
She directed her words toward the velvet-clad girls, who, like trained dogs, hesitated upon hearing her command, then knelt back down to resume their prayers.
Only the nuns, who were permitted to stand, gathered around Della.
“Sister...”
“We’re so relieved that you’ve arrived.”
“We were beginning to worry something had happened because you were a bit delayed.”
The nuns expressed the worries they had hidden.
Naturally, they had every reason to worry.
They had already crossed a point of no return, yet the person leading the event had been absent.
But now, those concerns vanished. Sister Della had arrived.
“Apologies for causing you to worry. There was a minor issue on the way. Nothing major, though.”
The nuns refrained from asking what that issue had been.
The sight of Joanna being dragged by her hair was answer enough.
“This woman... is she okay?”
“She has lost her Holy Magic and returned to being a regular woman, but she’ll do just fine. That’s no problem at all; the content is what matters.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, the important part isn’t that she was a Holy Knight but that she was favored by Him... The proof is that the blessing I received from the Duchess didn’t affect her.”
Sister Della gazed at Joanna as she spoke.
She had insisted that He was merely a man, but ironically, that statement itself served as evidence that He was indeed the Prince of Hell.
This wasn’t merely because of His unimaginable power. A Prince was more than just strength alone.
The evidence of His identity as the Prince of Hell lay within Joanna herself.
Because, despite having engaged in numerous conversations with Della, Joanna had not been swayed.
This suggested that the “Blessing of a Lady’s Love” bestowed by the Duchess did not work on her.
If He were merely human, as Joanna claimed, such resistance would have been impossible.
No matter how strong her mental fortitude, Joanna would have succumbed during her interactions with Della, ultimately doing as she was commanded.
Just like the sisters and girls gathered here.
Yet, instead of yielding, she resisted—even after losing her Holy Magic and becoming an ordinary woman.
The only possible conclusion was that this woman, Joanna, had already received a blessing from someone.
And not just any blessing, but one powerful enough to resist the blessing granted by one of the seventy-two demons of Hell.
Based on the knowledge Della possessed, there were only three beings in existence who could grant such a blessing.
The Father in Heaven who created the world,
The brightest Son who opposed Him,
And the Son of that brilliant Son, the one who would bring judgment upon the world.
These were the three highest beings in existence.
This was an immutable law.
As she pondered this truth, Della once again felt the same emotions she’d experienced when she was rejected as a Holy Knight and sent to the convent.
Disappointment, jealousy, envy, and rage.
The brutal and unacceptable truth of not being chosen, of another being chosen instead.
After all, hadn’t she wanted it just as much? How could she not be angry, seeing someone else chosen while she was denied?
If it had to be this way, it would have been better if she hadn’t been given that desire in the first place.
"...Hah."
But now, it no longer mattered.
Though painful, it had all been a trial.
And in the end, it was thanks to that rejection that she had been chosen by the Duchess, which led to the opportunity to stand before Him.
To stand before the most radiant being in existence.
To be a chosen one. To become someone special.
Not to die as a nameless slave but to be remembered forever as a being of significance. For all eternity.
“So... this is your true desire?”
A voice broke through Della’s thoughts.
Joanna, who had regained consciousness despite being dragged there, spoke, her face a mess yet still able to form words.
Looking down at her, Della replied.
“Oh my, you’re awake already? You could have rested a bit longer.”
Della sneered, with the arrogance that only victors could display.
The kind of humiliation the sisters had endured countless times.
In return, the humiliated Holy Knight glanced around her surroundings.
The dimly lit underground tomb, reliant on torchlight,
The massive altar carved from a gravestone at the center,
The piles of golden thread and white lace, jars of fragrant oil laid before the altar,
And the fifty-five girls clad in black velvet kneeling around it.
As Joanna took in her surroundings, Sister Della and the other nuns conversed.
“Now that we’re here, we have the full count. Fifty-six and fifty-six exactly.”
Fifty-six and fifty-six. In the very center of the convent's underground, a total of 112 people had gathered. (Excluding the Holy Knights)
The nuns rejoiced. Then, one of them asked.
“But are we safe, Sister Della? I heard reports just now that the Archpriests might have become aware of the situation here…”
“Don’t worry. The Holy Knights who support us are holding them back as we speak. He also promised to lend us some assistance.”
“So that means…”
“It means we have more than enough time to summon Him to this world.”
“Oh…”
Della and the fifty-six nuns smiled brightly.
According to the Apostle’s words conveyed through Della, if they summoned the Prince of Hell at this very moment when He had willingly come to this world, they would share the glory of delivering God's will and the grace of standing in His presence.
The sisters of the Pater Church, who were regarded as the lowest and most insignificant...
The moment of that promised grace was now right before them.
They couldn’t help but feel joy.
“Run!”
As they all basked in this joy, a sudden shout cut through the air.
It was the voice of Joanna, the Holy Knight. No, having lost her Holy Magic, she was no longer a Holy Knight—just Joanna, an ordinary woman.
“Hurry, run away!”
She cried out with even more desperation than she had when Della had struck her, directing her plea to the young girls in velvet.
And whether due to the urgency in her voice, one by one, the girls looked over in her direction.
This wasn’t right.
“You all—”
“—Stop that prayer immediately! Whatever you think this is, it’s not! They’re summoning a demon...! They’re using you as sacrifices to summon a demon...!”
Joanna shouted desperately, recalling what she had seen in the New World.