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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
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A hunk of junk traversed the city.
The priest, guiding the hunk of junk with 11 months left on its loan payments, parked the car in front of the orphanage.
Creak
“We’ve… arrived…”
There was no need to open the doors.
Amon and Sonia immediately got out of the car.
They had no luggage to unload from the trunk.
Because they had scattered it all along the highway.
The two, who had left the orphanage carrying a full load of luggage, returned as paupers.
“Sigh…”
Amon sighed as soon as he stepped over the threshold of the orphanage.
“How do we explain this…”
We were targeted by the Higzen Distribution and chased by ninjas, so we came back broke?
If they said that, of course, they would be believed.
But that would put the nuns in danger.
There are things in this world that are better left unknown.
Amon knew this very well, so he decided not to tell the nuns.
Sonia also agreed with Amon’s approach.
However, regardless of that, Sonia’s heart was heavy.
“They’ll be worried, right?”
“It can’t be helped.”
Like Sonia, Amon’s heart was heavy too.
With the car in this state, it would be impossible to hide everything.
The nuns would probably be genuinely worried about them.
But they had to prevent the nuns from getting close to the truth.
They could rebel like teenagers and say they didn’t care.
Or they could dismiss it, saying they were adults now and could handle their own affairs.
Neither option felt comfortable.
The two discussed excuses to explain the situation to the nuns as they headed inside the orphanage.
But when they opened the entrance and stepped inside, a grave atmosphere greeted them.
Broken windows, a chaotic hallway, bloodstains and bullet holes all over the walls.
“?!”
Without a word, the two rushed into the orphanage, calling for the nuns and their younger siblings.
Tommy, Kaylee, Luna, and so on.
They called out the names of their siblings as they came to mind.
Just as the two were about to collapse from the lack of response, the priest approached them.
“I think you can rest assured. As soon as the attack happened, anticipating this, the Paladins moved preemptively. They said the children and the nuns are under their protection.”
At the priest’s words, the two breathed a sigh of relief and slumped down.
Amon even started praying right there.
“Thank you, Lord. Thank you so much…”
After the heart-stopping experience ended and Amon regained his composure, he asked the priest the question he had put off.
“Thank you very much. But aside from that, I have to ask this. Why is the Vatican being so good to us?”
He could understand sending them to the Blue Moon Resort.
From the Vatican’s perspective, building a good relationship with the two by providing a two-day, one-night trip was a profitable deal.
But dispatching Paladins to protect not only Amon and Sonia but also including the orphanage in the scope of their protection was clearly not cost-effective.
Even if they were two precious possessors of divine power, this was too much goodwill.
Following the absolute law of cyberpunk, the law of equivalent exchange, Amon couldn’t help but suspect their motives.
“What does the Vatican want from us?”
What exactly did the Vatican put on the scales to value the two of them so highly?
Unless Amon understood this, he couldn’t trust the priests in front of him, nor the Paladins who protected them.
Amon’s straightforward gaze met the priest’s squinted eyes.
A silent struggle of wills passed between the two.
Finally, the priest sighed deeply, as if the ground was caving in, and surrendered.
“Somehow, Amon, you lack the cuteness befitting your age.”
“So, what is the Vatican’s objective?”
At Amon’s attempt to get straight to the point, ignoring the priest’s banter, the priest grumbled again about his lack of charm and began.
“How much do you know about the Higzen Distribution, Amon?”
Amon almost blurted out [Project Artificial Saint], but he quickly shut his mouth.
Instead, he answered the priest’s question with a question of his own.
“I know their ultimate goal. What about the Vatican?”
“We know it as well.”
It seemed the Holy See already knew what Amon had deduced.
Only Sonia at the scene couldn’t follow the topic of conversation.
“What is it? What are you two talking about?”
Amon looked at her flustered appearance with amusement and revealed the truth to her.
The words that came out of Amon’s mouth were shocking.
The plan to compress the divine power possessors into a single body to create a divine power giver, in other words, a historical saint, was unbelievable even after hearing it.
If these words hadn’t come from Amon’s mouth, and if the priest hadn’t been nodding beside him, Sonia wouldn’t have believed it either.
When Amon finished explaining, the priest looked surprised.
“How did you know that?”
At the priest’s question, Amon said with a wry smile,
“By the grace of God.”
It was a euphemism used by the priests of the Vatican’s Prophecy Department when they were being vague about divinely inspired prophecies.
This expression, born from the fact that a single word could change the future they saw, was a euphemism known only to a select few within the Vatican who could directly receive prophecies.
That select few included the Pope, Cardinals, top-tier exorcists, and high-ranking inquisitors.
The fact that this euphemism came out of Amon’s mouth meant only one thing.
“My, my. You’re a frightening one, aren’t you?”
The squinty-eyed priest understood immediately.
Seeing the priest not press further, Amon breathed a sigh of relief.
‘Divine power is the best after all.’
Most supernatural phenomena that couldn’t be explained by magic or science could be glossed over with divine power or mystical power.
Thanks to its versatility, almost like a cheat code, Amon wasn’t particularly suspected.
In any case, the Higzen Distribution’s conspiracy was revealed through Amon’s mouth.
Knowing the truth, Sonia rubbed her arms with a creepy feeling.
“Then that field trip was also…”
“You’re probably right.”
Sonia shuddered again, recalling the kind and warm voice.
The malice that lay beneath that voice was not pleasant at all.
The fact that she almost had her divine power sucked out continued to bother Sonia.
Amon hugged her and comforted her with pats.
After some time, when Sonia calmed down, the priest brought the topic back.
“Let’s return to the story. It would be quicker if Amon knew about the Higzen Distribution’s long-cherished wish.”
The priest began his explanation.
“From the moment it was founded, the Higzen Distribution has been pursuing a single goal. A long-cherished wish they are determined to achieve, no matter the cost.”
Usually, all mega-corps have a long-cherished wish.
That’s because simple greed for money isn’t enough to reach the level of a mega-corp.
To become a mega-corp, one needed an almost insane obsession, difficult for ordinary people to understand.
The Higzen Distribution was one such entity, and their obsession with this goal made them a mega-corp.
“They want to sell everything that exists in this world. That includes… dare I say, even divine power.”
Their insane obsession to sell everything ultimately made them one of the world’s leading general merchandise retailers.
From various food products to home appliances, medicine, and even guns.
The idea of running underground factories to provide whatever the customer wants is one that could only be conceived with such obsession.
But there was one thing the Higzen Distribution couldn’t yet sell in its stores: divine power.
In a world where magic and science had advanced, no company or government had found anything to replace divine power.
The miracles created by divine power had to rely solely on the individuals who possessed it.
The Higzen Distribution, wanting to sell everything everywhere, didn’t like this limitation.
So they made a plan.
To artificially create a Saint.
The Vatican’s reaction to this intelligence was dramatic.
Because if the Higzen Distribution succeeded, the Vatican could lose its very reason for existence.
“For one thing, the Pope’s authority would hit rock bottom.”
The first Pope was the first of the twelve apostles, chosen as disciples by the Saint, the only begotten daughter of the Goddess, who descended upon the world.
And every Pope since had been a clergyman inheriting the first Pope’s will.
But what would become of the Pope if the Higzen Distribution succeeded in artificially creating a Saint, and furthermore, appointed anyone they captured as apostles?
From that moment on, the Vatican and the Higzen Distribution became entities that could never coexist under the same sky.
“It was the first time in a long time that the priests, usually divided into factions and engaged in internal power struggles, were so united.”
With their own survival at stake, none of the priests sided with the Higzen Distribution.
The Vatican moved as one body, almost for the first time ever.
Inquisitors traveled far and wide, gathering information, Cardinals shared all the information they had, and the Paladin Order moved swiftly without questioning the Cardinals’ orders.
No one held anyone back to stop the Higzen Distribution’s conspiracy.
All the priests were genuinely united as one.
“Thus, the Higzen Distribution was declared heretical, and the Vatican has been their enemy for a long time.”
However, even if the Higzen Distribution was labeled heretical, this wasn’t the Middle Ages.
The power of religion had weakened considerably, and judgment was passed not by law or ethics, but by pure power.
Therefore, apart from declaring the Higzen Distribution heretical and preventing them from gathering divine power possessors, the Vatican’s options were limited.
Despite these obstacles, the Higzen Distribution continued to take divine power possessors and stubbornly pushed forward with their project.
And now, they were only one step away from completing their plan.
The Vatican interfered with the Higzen Distribution more actively than ever.
“That’s the situation in which you two appeared.”
Two divine power possessors appeared in an orphanage in Colorado, where the Higzen Distribution’s headquarters were located.
From the perspective of the Higzen Distribution, desperate for even one more, unprotected orphans were an irresistible, tempting prey.
Fortunately for the Vatican, they were the first to discover the two.
After that, the Vatican spared no expense in investing in the orphanage.
They employed various tactics to prevent the Higzen Distribution from discovering the two.
They concealed and disrupted information, and after they were discovered, they began to openly protect them.
“That’s how we arrived at this situation.”
This was the reason why the Vatican spared no support for Amon and Sonia.
Sending them to the resort was to keep them as far away from the corporation as possible, and protecting the orphanage was to prevent the nuns and the other children from being taken hostage.
The Vatican did all of this out of necessity.
The priest’s explanation ended.
Only then could Amon trust the Vatican’s goodwill.
He could understand the reason why the Vatican was so desperately trying to protect them through the logic of equivalent exchange.
“Will you believe in the Vatican now?”
At the priest’s question, Amon quietly nodded.
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