Chapter 80: The Miracle, the True God, and the Future of the Holy Empire Part 1

The world is far more twisted than one could imagine.

That was the truth the girl realized today.

The stories taught at school, the common sense she learned with effort, none of it mattered.

The world turned out to be much more irrational than she had been led to believe.

Her current situation was proof enough.

She held nothing in her hands.

Her height barely reached 120 cm.

She was only nine years old.

And yet, she was a soldier drafted into the ongoing war.

It was an incredibly ironic status.

A soldier was supposed to be someone who fought to protect their country.

Yet, she was not given any means to defend herself.

Even more absurd, she wasn’t expected to fight.

Her purpose was to be a simple meat shield.

As a child, she was meant to demoralize the enemy, to beg pathetically for her life and die as miserably as possible.

Her sacrifice was meant to buy time for others to prepare for victory.

Everything, they said, was for the Heavenly God.

The Heavenly God would remember her sacrifice.

[Consider it an honor to be given such an opportunity.]

That’s what the soldiers told the children as they gathered them.

Yet, it was another bitter irony.

‘If sacrificing oneself as a meat shield was so honorable, why didn’t they offer the opportunity to themselves?’

‘Why was the soldier who demanded her sacrifice preparing to evacuate with his own family?’

‘The Heavenly God loves us.’

‘That’s what she had been told, what she had been taught.’

‘But why, then, was the Heavenly God telling her to throw her life away?’

She couldn’t understand a single thing.

‘If I think about it, maybe it’s always been this way.’

Maybe she was just too naive to notice until now.

The world had always been this horrifying.

When she was five, her father and mother were taken away.

They were forced to work on the construction of a grand, glittering cathedral—the residence of the Pope.

Overworked and denied rest, they died of exhaustion.

The adults said it was all for the Heavenly God.

To showcase His grandeur, a magnificent, radiant building was needed.

Her parents had dedicated their lives to the Heavenly God, they said, and He would surely rejoice in their sacrifice.

Common sense held no weight here.

Everyone lied.

No one could be trusted.

And she couldn’t even voice her grievances about this cruel world.

If she refused to act as a meat shield and tried to escape, she would be executed on the spot.

Her head would roll without hesitation.

Her only option was submission.

In the end, she staggered forward…

***

“Stop, all of you!”

She saw an unusual man.

A glowing halo floated above his head.

He looked divine, like the Heavenly God from the stories.

The man urgently shouted to everyone,

“This is all my fault! I will bear all the sins and hatred. Please, I beg you, stop this fight!”

He looked like someone shouldering original sin on behalf of everyone else.

Yet… this man was not the Heavenly God.

His hands trembled.

His voice wavered, and his eyes revealed fear.

He was clearly afraid of his own death, showing the vulnerability of a mere mortal.

Above all, there wasn’t the faintest sense of divine power emanating from him.

The halo above his head appeared somewhat sacred but only on the surface.

Even that halo flickered, as if it would vanish at any moment.

It was likely a fake, conjured by illusion magic.

Anyone from the Holy Empire would have recognized it as such.

Therefore, the man’s actions carried no significance.

[What value can possibly be found in humans killing one another?]

Despite his trembling voice and evident fear, the man had thrown himself into the battlefield, driven by the conviction to save everyone.

His actions were undoubtedly righteous and just.

But the world was not a place where righteousness mattered.

Speaking truth would not change it.

The world was built to resist change.

The man’s words would surely be ignored, cast aside mercilessly.

And yet…

***

For some reason, her vision blurred.

Her legs gave out beneath her, and she collapsed.

‘…I know.’

She knew the man’s words were futile.

Wars, tangled with complex interests, would not cease because of a mere plea.

‘I know, but… so what?’

The world may be cruel and unyielding.

The man’s words may be absurd.

‘But what did that matter?’

She didn’t care if it was absurd.

Even if everything was a mess, lacking any sense of logic or coherence, she wanted a happy ending.

She didn’t want to die.

She didn’t want to kill.

She simply wished for a peaceful, happy life.

Just… a small happy ending.

The girl quietly clasped her hands together.

She prayed that the man’s sincerity would be rewarded.

That everyone would stop this meaningless fighting.

Her prayer was not to the Heavenly God, but to a single human being.

In this irrational world, the little girl prayed for the man who stood alone, striving to do what was right.

Her heart reached out.

The feelings spread, gently touching and influencing others.

Perhaps the girl’s thoughts were wrong.

The world might actually be very simple.

Everyone wanted to be happy.

No one truly wanted to harm others.

There was no real reason to fight.

And so, one by one, everyone knelt before a single human.

They knelt and prayed together with one heart and one mind.

Their prayer was not directed toward a god but toward a mere human.

Under normal circumstances, such an act would have been utterly meaningless.

But none of that mattered.

The fighting had already stopped.

The war that was supposed to happen today, the countless lives that would have been lost meaninglessly, were saved—not by a god but by a single man.

A miracle, without a doubt, had occurred.

***

The war, stopped before it even began, was being observed through a “gaze” by a demon.

Agares, the second-ranked demon, frowned.

The alliance with Pope Judah and the plan to devour the Holy Empire, using it to strike against the Empire, had all been ruined.

The reason was painfully obvious.

[Is it that new professor again?]

His abilities appeared unimpressive.

But his actions defied all logic and common sense.

This was what made Agares wary.

By Agares’ observation, the professor’s physical abilities were subpar.

Achieving this much with so little meant he was surely hiding something.

Something even Agares couldn’t discern.

Until that mystery was unraveled, reckless actions were out of the question.

Agares had no intention of repeating the mistakes of his peers.

[It’s better to withdraw from this for now.]

Without hesitation, Agares abandoned his greed.

Judah was already a pawn he intended to discard.

There was no reason to linger here.

Drawing conclusions from what he saw today, he decided to investigate Riyan and eventually deal with him.

Having made his decision, Agares turned to leave…

But soon, his face was painted with shock.

It would have been stranger if he wasn’t surprised.

Before him were golden eyes, glowing with unmistakable hostility.

A man with pure white hair opened his mouth and spoke.

“Found you.”

Standing before Agares was none other than the new professor.

The situation was impossible to process.

The strange halo, the people kneeling before him—it all still muddled my thoughts.

But I knew what I had to do.

Without hesitation, I left the battlefield and tracked the demon’s trail.

It wasn’t out of anger toward the mastermind behind such atrocities or a sense of duty to prevent future victims.

At least, that wasn’t the main reason.

I knew my place in the world.

The most important thing to me was my own life.

I couldn’t afford to forget that.

‘So, why did I track the culprit behind all this?’

Well, it must have been for a straightforward reason.

When I thought about it, this was a world straight out of a novel.

If I suffered, I had to repay it in kind.

That was the proper way to operate in this world.

I was simply following the rules.

What I sought was revenge—against the demon who orchestrated this, against the enemies who had attacked me.

‘Did they think I’d just be used as a disposable tool?’

The Heavenly God, who tossed me a decorative halo, probably thought they’d maximize gains with minimal effort.

But they should have realized it was their greatest mistake.

I… have no talent.

Because I lack talent, I have no choice but to rely on the strength of others.

It’s a cowardly, despicable way to survive.

But if nothing else, I excelled at this underhanded approach.

The halo might vanish at any moment.

Even if it was merely an empty blessing, the connection still existed.

Faintly, but unmistakably, I was linked to the Heavenly God.

What I needed to do now was straightforward.

I accessed the circuit.

I delved into the connection, analyzing the structure of the god.

Everything that made up the god fell under my control.

The Holy See, already thoroughly corrupted.

The Heavenly God, who had neglected the suffering of the people.

If you intend to remain indifferent…

For this moment, For just this one moment, …I will be the god in your place.