Chapter 48, Lee Yeonhee (2)
Divine power lived up to its other name, the power of a god, when it came to healing humans.
At the very least, it was powerful enough that the name didn't feel exaggerated.
But just because divine power was the power of a god didn't mean the person using it was also a god.
Divine power wasn't something that came without a price.
When I had asked the demigods and angels in the Gallery what divine power was, they answered that it was a power of amplification.
A power that amplified one's own life force and allowed it to be transferred to another person.
It wasn't some ability that healed others without cost.
The price of divine power was the user's own life.
For divine power to grow meant that the rate at which one's life force could be amplified also increased.
That was the reason I hadn't wanted to leave my treatment to Lee Yeonhee.
I caught Lee Yeonhee just as she was about to collapse and carried her into the bedroom.
She had already passed out, still wearing a weak smile.
I turned off the lights in the master bedroom where she was lying, closed the door, and returned to the living room.
“How's Lee Yeonhee?”
“It looks like she passed out from exhaustion. She needs plenty of rest. She should rest for at least the entire day.”
“...She's okay, right? She looked like she was suffering a lot.”
“Physically, there shouldn't be any problem. Divine power isn't called the power of a god for nothing.”
“Yes, Yuhyeon is correct. No matter how much divine power is used, it only causes fatigue. It doesn't directly damage the body.”
“Then... the mental pain is the real problem.”
“Yes.”
“...That is correct.”
I changed out of my clothes, which were soaked with Lee Yeonhee's sweat, and checked my condition.
Even after Epsilon treated me, my head had already felt quite clear.
But now it felt completely different.
Before, my mind had been like a clean lake.
Now it was like the sky.
Like a sky made only of air, without even water, my mind had become completely pure, without a single impurity.
Instead of feeling happy about it, I felt troubled.
Thinking that this was the result of Lee Yeonhee's sacrifice made it impossible to simply feel good.
That feeling would probably continue until the very moment she completely cured the zombie virus.
I wanted to help her somehow.
If curing the virus required Lee Yeonhee's divine power to grow, couldn't I at least find some way to make that growth happen faster?
I asked the Gallery that question, but no useful answer came back.
Apparently, the only way to train divine power was through trials.
I asked Arlin as well, since she had gathered all kinds of knowledge as a mage.
Her answer was exactly the same.
Was the only solution really to make Lee Yeonhee suffer through more hardships?
“...”
Should I just settle things with the Order instead?
No.
That option was too emotionally driven.
The Order wasn't an opponent I could face while hoping for miraculous luck like I had against the Company.
Besides, I didn't even know where one of the Order's branches was located.
Even if I wanted to choose that option, I couldn't.
Then what about finding a Mystery?
That option was at least somewhat better.
It wasn't impossible, after all.
While I was lost in thought and weighing my choices, a meow sounded beside my ear.
I turned my head.
The cat was rubbing its head against me while crying.
Even now, it was the right head, the one representing good fortune, that had opened its mouth and cried.
Ever since I went out to hunt raiders last time, the cat's right head had continued crying.
“When exactly is this good fortune supposed to arrive?”
I held the cat's face with both hands and rubbed it.
It purred happily.
I handed the cat to Confirmation Bias and stood up.
There was no point sitting still.
I had decided I should at least try doing something.
That was when I heard a knock.
Knock, knock.
I had been about to grab my weapons and leave, but I stopped.
Not only me, every companion who had been moving also froze.
“...”
Everyone's gaze immediately turned toward the cat.
The moment the knock sounded, the cat had stopped crying.
Completely unconcerned, it gracefully licked its own body with its tongue.
To anyone watching, it clearly looked like the good fortune the cat had been hinting at had finally arrived.
Everyone quickly armed themselves.
I looked over my companions, then opened the door.
There was a familiar person standing on the other side.
If I remembered correctly, he was one of the Church of Nihility believers who had worshiped me.
Behind him stood four or five others who looked like fellow believers, their heads lowered deeply.
“We greet the Wise Flame of God.”
“We greet the Wise Flame of God.”
They bowed to me three times with solemn expressions, then remained with their heads pressed toward the ground.
I could practically feel Arlin and Hwa-ryeon's eyes narrowing behind me.
I quickly told the believers to raise their heads.
They lifted their heads with ecstatic expressions and kept their mouths tightly shut, behaving as though they were standing before a king.
They seemed determined to remain silent until I spoke first.
“...Why are you here? And how did you find my apartment number?”
“Forgive me... I deeply repent for the sin I have committed. If the Flame wishes it, I will burn my life here and offer it as a sacrifice.”
What is he talking about?
Rather than irritation, I felt mostly confusion at his rambling attitude.
By Flame, he was probably referring to the Flame of Human Sacrifice I had shown them before.
But I had no idea why they insisted on calling me the Flame.
And what was all this nonsense about judgment?
I hid the awkward laugh and confusion trying to escape and spoke.
“Just answer the question.”
“We learned the location where the Flame resides from the female believers.”
“Female believers?”
“Yes. It is terribly disrespectful, but the female believers of the church admire the Flame and have memorized the apartment number where you live... If you wish, we can immediately pass judgment upon those who dared hold the Flame within their hearts...”
“No. Do not judge or act on your own until I tell you to.”
Even though I interrupted him, he bowed his head without hesitation, his face still filled with faith.
“Understood.”
“So why did you come here?”
“We knew it was sinful to stand before the Flame, but we came to report that the people who gave us the statue have appeared again.”
The ones who had given them the statue were from the Order.
They had come to tell me that the Order had appeared again.
I asked.
“...The Order came back?”
“Yes.”
“Did they do anything in this apartment complex?”
“Yes. They said they had come to retrieve the statue.”
“And after that?”
“We told them the statue had been destroyed, and they simply said they understood before leaving. They did nothing else.”
That bothered me a lot.
I was already on edge because of the zombie virus and Lee Yeonhee.
And now the Order had been added on top of that.
Recently, I seemed to be getting involved with the Order quite often.
The apartment complex.
The raider organization.
It almost felt like I was being dragged toward them by fate.
The Order.
They really bothered me.
Of course, the fact that they had returned to retrieve the statue bothered me.
But what made me even more uneasy was how easily they had left.
The statue was a Mystery, so naturally they might come back to collect it.
Even for a major faction, Mysteries seemed to be extremely valuable resources.
But hearing that the statue had been destroyed and then leaving without doing anything else was far too suspicious.
Wouldn't normal people at least investigate why it was destroyed?
I couldn't shake the feeling that I would keep getting involved with the Order in the future.
Feeling irritated by that thought, I turned around.
I was about to close the door when one of the believers spoke through the gap.
“Ah, and Flame. This lowly believer has an offering he dares present to you.”
“I don't need it.”
“Even so, please... I sincerely beg you to grant me the opportunity to make this offering.”
Was the flame I showed them last time really that overwhelming?
An old man who looked older than my current age and my age from before reincarnation combined was lowering himself this much before me.
It made me feel complicated.
I decided I might as well see what he wanted to offer.
I opened the door again and looked at him.
The old man deeply lowered his head and pulled something from his clothes.
It was a fragment that looked like a piece of broken glass.
Surprisingly, it was glowing on its own.
It looked transparent like glass or ice.
There shouldn't have been any mechanical device inside it.
Yet the fragment was producing light by itself.
The light carried a golden color similar to divine power.
Just like real divine power, simply looking at it seemed to make my mind feel cleaner.
“...What is this?”
No matter how I looked at it, the fragment didn't seem ordinary.
Anyone who had encountered a Mystery even once would probably assume this fragment was one.
But when I opened Lucy, no new information appeared.
That meant one of two things.
Either the fragment wasn't a Mystery...
Or it was connected to a Mystery Lucy had already recorded before.
In the case of the fragment in the old man's hand, it was probably the latter.
I accepted the fragment from him.
The moment it entered my hand, I felt another shock.
The violence Lee Yeonhee hadn't been able to completely remove disappeared entirely.
As if brilliant light had burned away every shadow, both the violence and irritation vanished completely.
“What... is this really? And how did you get it?”
At my question, the old man lowered his head even further.
“Forgive me. I do not know what it is either. However, I can tell you how we obtained it. We hunted down those people that the Flame calls the Order, and obtained this fragment from them.”
The answer that came from the old man's mouth was something I had never imagined.
