Chapter 164
“What the hell is this……”
Lete stared at the Holiness Simon had created as if she couldn’t believe it, then stammered.
“Th-That’s right! You’ve finally found faith in the great Goddess! All that time reading scripture to you has finally paid off!”
“I don’t think that’s it.”
“Then what’s that blooming on your left hand? It’s proof your faith has blossomed!”
Simon replied with a flat expression.
“The Goddess is a liar.”
“W-What? You bastard! What did you just say……?”
Fwoosh!
But then, the Holiness residing in Simon’s left hand grew even larger and brighter. Lete’s lips clamped shut the moment she saw it.
“It’s been proven.”
Simon grinned.
“At least for me, Holiness doesn’t come from belief in a god.”
“That’s nonsense!”
She clutched her head in anguish. Holiness was a power that came from the Goddess, and there were to be no exceptions. Lete felt as though the tower of faith she had built all her life was shaking to its foundation.
At that moment, Simon asked awkwardly,
“Hey, how do you turn this thing off?”
“……”
She had been burying her head in her knees in agony but lifted her head slightly.
“You have to ask the Goddess for permission……. Say something like, ‘Thank you for lending me your great power today. I will now return to being a mere human.’”
“Really?”
Simon tried following Lete’s instructions for now.
‘As if that’s gonna work.’
Next, he drew on the know-how from earlier. Instead of praying to a god, he asked himself for permission to stop using the power. That failed too.
‘Is this not it? Something feels slightly off.’
Simon thought deeply for a moment, then changed his mindset.
‘Actually, it’s normal that I can’t use Holiness.’
Fwoop!
The moment he decided that, the Holiness on his palm vanished like a lie.
“Oh.”
Lete’s eyes sparkled.
“Did the Goddess answer your prayer?”
“No, it just turned off when I told myself I can’t use Holiness, like self-hypnosis.”
Tremble tremble.
Still kneeling, her body trembled like a poplar leaf. Feeling a hint of danger, Simon tried to back away, but she moved first.
With a reddened face, she screamed “Waaah!” and pounced, knocking Simon flat onto the grass and climbing on top of him.
“You bastard! You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”
Flash!
A pure white spear of Holiness materialized in her hand, raised above her head.
“You think I don’t see through you? You’re trying to shake the faith of Efnelle’s top student! No way! Who put you up to this?!”
“……What are you talking about. I haven’t lied once in class.”
Simon replied in a calm, unwavering voice.
“My mother’s life is on the line. Why would I lie about that? I’m more serious than anyone right now. If I wanted to sabotage you, I’d do it after I get the material from the Tree of Life. What would I gain from shaking you up now?”
“……”
She bit her lip and trembled. Eventually, she backed off from Simon and sat down on the grass.
“Haaaah.”
A sigh thick with torment escaped her lips.
“Lete.”
“Wait.”
She stretched out her hand and said,
“Just give me a moment to think.”
“……Huh? Oh, okay.”
She sat there like that, asking for time to think—for 20 minutes.
Worried, Simon finally spoke again.
“If it’s too much, we can stop here for today.”
“No.”
She raised her head.
“……I was being foolish.”
“Huh?”
“I just haven’t yet grasped the true will of the Goddess. What seems perfectly natural to her must appear twisted through the lens of my limited and poorly trained perspective. Wavering in my faith over something like this only proves how lacking my discipline is. Maybe I’ve missed something fundamental because of the pride of being Efnelle’s top student.”
Simon gave a silent, dry laugh. It sounded like self-justification to him, but he decided to let it go.
“Alright then, let’s move on.”
Lete then helped Simon practice turning Holiness on and off freely. She explained the detailed principles behind the phenomenon and had him feel the flow.
“It all starts with sensing mana.”
Whether it was Holiness or Darkness, the base was mana.
Necromancers used a special organ called a ‘Core’ to process mana into the power of Darkness.
But for Priests, their entire bodies felt like one giant Core. The moment internal mana was released externally, it became discolored and transformed into Holiness.
“Try to focus more consciously.”
Of course, just expelling mana without thought wouldn’t work. To turn mana into Holiness, one needed a mental recognition so strong it could practically be called brainwashing.
The ‘faith’ that Lete kept emphasizing. The switch for triggering Holiness was Simon’s unshakable belief that he could use Holiness.
‘……Now I understand why there are so many fanatics in Efnelle.’
In a way, Holiness belonged in the realm of madness. You had to be convinced—utterly convinced—that you possessed a power you didn’t yet have.
Even if you didn’t have it, if you believed you did, then you had it. And even if you did have it, if you doubted it, then you didn’t.
It was a fanatical belief bordering on brainwashing. Simon even wondered if the entire system of religion used by holiness users existed just to fill that belief.
All complex thoughts were cut away. You focused only on ‘God’—absolute, perfect, infinite goodness. Once that premise was set, everything else became clear.
If one built faith centered around such divinity and used it as a foundation to produce holiness, they could control it freely.
Of course, if that faith wavered, one could collapse endlessly—just like Plema.
“Lete.”
During a break, while she was rereading scripture to reaffirm her faith, she replied in her usual cynical tone.
“What is it.”
“In general, how do priests in the Holy Federation learn to use holiness?”
She lifted her head.
“It’s a power bestowed by the Goddess. The only answer is discipline for the sake of faith.”
According to Lete, every village in the Holy Federation had a monastery. When a child turned seven, they were required to undergo a ‘Holiness Compatibility’ test at the monastery.
If they scored above a certain threshold, they were obligated to become a follower of Dave. They received theological education at the monastery for a set amount of time daily, and gradually nurtured their faith in the Goddess.
“But only a very few can rise from layperson to the priest class. To become a priest, one must pass the 19 Tribulations.”
“What’s that now?”
From her description, they were truly ‘tribulations’.
Carrying a heavy cross while walking a pilgrimage route, fasting for three months, walking naked through a thorn forest with nothing but faith, walking into fire, and so on. Just hearing about it gave Simon chills.
“You actually went through all that?”
“Of course.”
She answered proudly, arms crossed.
“Only after completing all of that do you finally earn the right to enter the Holy Chamber.”
The Holy Chamber was the 19th and final tribulation. You had to endure being trapped in a coffin where holiness flowed endlessly for an entire week.
“……Why is everything on your side so inhuman and cruel?”
At Simon’s words, shaking his head in disbelief, Lete snorted.
“This is what faith is, what belief truly means. Unlike you lot who just dirty your bodies a bit to create a Core and call yourselves necromancers, this is on a whole different level.”
“Yeah, yeah. But what happens if an ordinary person is exposed to that much holiness?”
“A small amount of holiness can help heal wounds, but if someone is exposed to it non-stop for a whole week, it’s a different story. Holiness is a ‘foreign substance’ to the average body. If they can’t endure it, they die.”
“……That’s insane.”
Through this brutal ritual, the human body undergoes a kind of ‘mutation’, resulting in people with extremely high holiness compatibility. These are the ones who receive baptism and become priests.
Those who give up halfway are considered lacking in faith and must return to layperson status and start the tribulations all over again. Even those who endure the week, if they fail to undergo mutation and fall below the holiness compatibility threshold, become ‘Clerics’.
“Never heard of Clerics before.”
“They’re just grunt…… ahem, they handle the administrative work in churches and monasteries. They can use Holiness, but not to the extent we Priests can.”
The Holy Federation was a rigidly hierarchical society.
Layperson, Believer, Cleric, Priest.
Lower ranks were absolutely obedient to the higher ones.
Of course, the Dark Alliance also divided people into commoners and nobles, but the class distinction wasn’t nearly as strict.
Among commoners, soldiers, merchants, and necromancers could hold more social power than most nobles. At Keyzen, too, skill and academic year mattered more than social status.
The major difference was that in the Dark Alliance, status was inherited, while in the Holy Federation, everyone started as a commoner and rose in rank based on the position they personally earned.
“Yeah, if I’m going to convincingly act like a trainee priest, I’d better learn about the culture of the Holy Federation.”
Lete nodded at Simon’s words.
“Exactly. If you can use holiness but don’t even know what a Cleric is, the Inquisitors will immediately get suspicious.”
“Listening to you talk, one thing’s been bugging me.”
“What is it.”
“You said holiness comes from faith in the Goddess. But isn’t it actually based on ‘Holiness compatibility’ that you’re born with, rather than just belief?”
Lete immediately growled.
“Oh, come on! If that’s how it works, then how do you explain this? Among priests with similar compatibility at Efnelle, some rise to the rank of Bishop, while others remain just priests for life! How would you explain that?”
“It must depend on their personal effort and their skill in handling holiness.”
“It’s a difference in faith!”
She shouted.
“The stronger your faith and belief in the Goddess, the greater your holiness capacity and control! This isn’t something your pathetic argument can overturn, it’s a truth proven by centuries of history!”
By that logic, wouldn’t all the upper echelons of the Holy Federation be free of corruption or bribery? They couldn’t all be paragons of virtue.
But Simon bit back the retort, if he kept pushing, it would really start a fight.
‘……Yeah, Lete has her own value system.’
She had her own experiences and lessons that shaped her. To deny or ridicule her beliefs just because they were different from his would obviously provoke resistance.
“Break time’s over.”
Lete placed her hands on her knees and reentered a serious posture.
“I hate to admit it, but with your level of holiness, you’re not behind the priests who passed through the Holy Chamber. So we’ll move straight to the basic training course. It’s the level trainee priests are taught.”
“Exactly what I’ve been waiting for.”
Simon’s eyes sparkled. Lete rummaged through her backpack and laid out the textbooks she used at Efnelle.
“At Efnelle and all other Holy Schools, there are nine total subjects.”
Blessing Studies.
Holiness Dynamics.
Healing Studies.
Spiritual Studies.
Defensive Arts.
Divine Beastology.
Holy Combat Studies.
Defense Against Darkness.
Mass Classes.
She picked up a nearby twig and began writing the subject names on the ground. Simon’s pupils shook as he read them.
He was certain he’d never heard them before, so why did they feel so familiar?
“The three core subjects at Efnelle are called ‘Blessing, Holiness, Healing’, or just ‘BHH’ for short by students. And the four supplementary subjects below are ‘Divine, Spirit, Defense, Combat’.”
Simon let out a small chuckle, and Lete frowned.
“What are you giggling about now? You’re irritating.”
“I don’t know, it just hit me that people are the same no matter where you go.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s nothing.”
Just earlier they were talking about tribulations and the Holy Chamber, all things that screamed cultural alienation. But now, it all suddenly felt so familiar and human.
Curse Studies and Blessing Studies, Holiness Dynamics and Darkness Dynamics, Magical Combat and Holy Combat, so many mirrored subjects with similar structures.
“Ugh, why do you keep smiling like that!”
At Lete’s flustered shout, Simon gave a gentle smile.
“I was just thinking what it would’ve been like if I’d gone to Efnelle instead of Keyzen.”
“……What a stupid thing to say.”
Lete pouted, but Simon didn’t care.
His heart was pounding.
Since he had the chance to learn Holiness from Efnelle’s number one, he might as well go all in.
“So, which subject are you going to teach me first?”
His body itched with anticipation.
Hurry up and bring out what I’m supposed to learn.
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters