The skin as pale and cold as snow, and lips dyed a vivid red.
A radiant smile like a blooming rose directed towards a man who had become a wreck through torture.
She looked like an enchanting witch who had just walked out of hell.
The man pleaded desperately to the smiling Asta.
“S-Saint, please s-spare me! I’ll tell you everything!”
“I see, you finally decided to talk. Shouldn’t you have changed your mind a bit earlier? It must have been painful..”
“Heuk.. ah… Now, I’m sorry. I was wrong…”
Asta glared at the man who had completely succumbed.
He was an unknown and poor doctor who couldn’t earn much money. And dedicated himself to research that others didn’t bother with.
The reason Asta had captured and tortured this seemingly useless physician was that he was examining Hanelope.
‘When the incident happened at the Great Temple, I thought Marquis Fork was just foolish and messed things up. I believed that Hanelope collapsed, startled by the accident.’
But when I received Prache’s oracle, I had my doubts.
An oracle that came out of nowhere in a time of need. All it contained was the word ‘Divine Poisoning’.
Asta instinctively thought it was a hint to resolve the crisis.
So she found out that Hanelope had been regularly meeting with the doctor.
‘If Hanelope had simply fainted, they wouldn’t still be calling in the physicians. They could heal her at the temple, but they rushed her to the palace without telling us.
That wasn’t the only oddity.
The physician was too inexperienced to be entrusted with the Princess’s care, and he was a man of useless research.
‘Why would Hart, who was so fond of his daughter, send for such a physician?’
There was only one reason.
‘One of the diseases he was studying was Divine Poisoning.’
It was no coincidence.
‘They have a secret to hide.’
But it was obvious what they were trying to cover.
Lips turning to green clearly indicated Divine poisoning. Divine poisoning was a disease of ‘traitors to God’.
Thanks to the blessings of the God Prache, humans cannot die from contact with the strong divinity that pervades the world. Exceptions were sinners who were forsaken by God and witches who served demons.
Since God took his blessing sway, they couldn’t handle divinity, thus resulting in their lips turning green.
‘.. this was the claim of the temple.’
But it was all fiction. It was all made up in order to steal a holy object, the ‘Viridescent Sword’, from a woman.
Of course, the truth didn’t matter.
‘If I can accuse Hanelope being cursed, I can claim that she was behind the incident on the Blessing Day. Her witchcraft made the corns rot.’
Asta turned to the physician with a cruel smile.
“Doctor, I don’t want to do this either. But as a Saint, I can’t let go of someone who committed blasphemy. Tell me, what happened to the Princess?”
“T-The Princess, s-she…”
“Her lips turned green, didn’t they? Like someone suffering from Divine Poisoning.”
“I-it’s not certain! It could be another disease! I-I am researching it, but Divine Poisoning is a disease with an unclear nature! A-and, above all, the Princess is just a young child. There’s no way such a young child could be a witch… Ugh!”
The priests began to torture the physician again. They were far too cruel to be representative of the Gods.
‘As expected, the low ranking priests are easy to use.’
No matter how much Asta’s influence had diminished, a Saint was still an object of admiration for the low ranked priests.’
When such a Saint approached them and asked for help in catching a witch, they couldn’t help but try to gain her favor.
The cruelty of the priests made the physician raise a white flag.
“Y-yes, Divine Poisoning is correct! That child is a little witch! Her lips have turned completely green… Ugh! Please, stop!”
“Alright. Do you promise to say the same thing in front of people whenever I ask you to?”
The doctor nodded desperately.
‘With this, I’ve got a leverage on Hanelope.’
“Take him away.”
When Asta gestured, the priests dragged the bloodied doctor out.
‘It will be interesting to see the Emperor’s expression when his only granddaughter is accused of being a witch.’
He would desperately try to save Hanelope.
‘Should I threaten and make a deal with the imperial family? Especially Hart, he will give me anything I want.’
Losing a loyal and capable hound like Hart was truly regrettable for Asta.
If only Hart had remained on her side, she wouldn’t have faced the current predicament.
‘But I must get rid of that annoying kid…’
While contemplating, Asta coldly lifted the corners of her mouth.
‘Watching Hanelope die will be more entertaining.’
Asta’s blue eyes gleamed ominously.
***
“Yawn, I’m sleepy…”
“Well, Miss has been running around like a squirrel today, so of course you’re tired.”
Sherry smirked as I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand. She picked me up, and tucked me into bed. Then gently patted my tummy and wished me goodnight.
I squeezed one of Sherry’s long fingers back and smiled.
“Oh my! Why are you smiling all of a sudden, other than sleeping?”
“Because I like Sherry so much…”
“I like the Miss, too.”
Sherry said with a happy face.
‘I’m glad Sherry is happy, because I really, really like her.’
It breaks my heart to cheat on someone I love so much.
Sensing my calm breath, she left the room.
As soon as the door closed, I jumped off the bed. Then I pulled the pendant out of the drawer.
‘Will Uncle Rabbit answer today?’
I wasn’t sure.
But I had a lot of questions for him.
The identity of the voice that tried to kill me in the basement of the Great Temple, the truth about a disease called Divine Poisoning…
I’ve done my own research on the poisoning, but I haven’t found out much more than I already knew, and there must be more to it.
The disease of witches.
A stigma placed on those who are forsaken by the Gods.
‘But it’s a lie that someone made up.’
I opened the pendant and put some mana.
A large amount of mana poured out today, more than usual. And the mana was directed towards… the green gem.
“!”
As if on cue, a translucent green window appeared in front of me.
A text was quickly inscribed on it.
[ G○d ◎◇ scolds the lazy believer, saying, “How long have I been waiting for! You’re only waking me up now! But why are you the only one? Tell where all my numerous devotees are.” ]
Except for the colour of the translucent window, the other person was talking to me just as the Uncle Rabbit did.
Was it because I had gone through this before? I wasn’t surprised.
In fact, the other person seemed more confused.
[ G○d ◎◇ asks why isn’t the believer answering? ]
“I’m not your believer.”
The translucent window went blank at my words.
‘It must have been very surprised.’
I waited in silence.
After a while, the text began to be inscribed above the window again.
[ If you are not my devotee, then who are you? ]
“My name is Hanelope. Who are you, uncle?”
[ G○d ◎◇ says, “I am not an old uncle, but ◎◇, the Mother of Heaven, the Father of Earth, and Nature itself.”]
Again, I couldn’t read the name, like it happened with uncle rabbit.
‘I can’t help it.’
“Then I’ll call you Uncle Butterfly.”
The green window went blank again.
After a while-
[ G○d, ◎◇ says to call her miss not uncle. ]
Oh! She’s a sister! I almost made a big mistake.
I quickly nodded.
“Okay!”
[ The title of “G○d, ◎◇” has been changed to “Miss Butterfly”. ‘Miss Butterfly’ is asking what happened to the shattered seal after the explosion? ]
The seal was broken? I replied, feeling uncomfortable.
“There was an explosion in the basement of the Great Temple, and when I woke up, the green gem was inside my pendant.”
[ ‘Miss Butterfly’ recalls feeling strong divinity and being led somewhere. ]
“Divinity?”
Did she feel Divine power because it was in the Great Temple?
Suddenly, the green window fluttered like crazy.
[ ‘Miss Butterfly’ is furious, asking who this filthy and smelly guy next to me is.]
“Uh, um! That’s Uncle Rabbit. Uncle Rabbit is…”
[ ‘Miss Butterfly’ says, “I-I remember this punk!” and angrily asks why this tacky guy is in the same linker as her. ]
“Linker? Is this pendant a linker?”
I changed the subject to calm Butterfly sis down.
I knew the pendant was a linker thanks to Uncle Rabbit, but I pretended to be unaware.
It worked, and the green window stopped shaking.
[ ‘Miss Butterfly’ is surprised that you don’t know it. She finds it strange that you, a human, is using this linker that a priest should posses. “It’s a tool humans used to talk to us. But why is it… Where are my believers? I’ve been sending signals even after being sealed. Where are they instead of worshiping? ]
Staring at the green window, I asked cautiously.
“What signals have you been sending?”
[ ‘Miss Butterfly’ says that years ago, the power of the seal loosened, and I sent out my natural aura. The aura leaves a mark on those who come into contact with it, and I assure you there is nothing my priests can’t recognise. ]
‘As expected. My assumption was correct.’
I repeated.
“And that mark is… lips turning green?”
The skin as pale and cold as snow, and lips dyed a vivid red.
A radiant smile like a blooming rose directed towards a man who had become a wreck through torture.
She looked like an enchanting witch who had just walked out of hell.
The man pleaded desperately to the smiling Asta.
“S-Saint, please s-spare me! I’ll tell you everything!”
“I see, you finally decided to talk. Shouldn’t you have changed your mind a bit earlier? It must have been painful..”
“Heuk.. ah… Now, I’m sorry. I was wrong…”
Asta glared at the man who had completely succumbed.
He was an unknown and poor doctor who couldn’t earn much money. And dedicated himself to research that others didn’t bother with.
The reason Asta had captured and tortured this seemingly useless physician was that he was examining Hanelope.
‘When the incident happened at the Great Temple, I thought Marquis Fork was just foolish and messed things up. I believed that Hanelope collapsed, startled by the accident.’
But when I received Prache’s oracle, I had my doubts.
An oracle that came out of nowhere in a time of need. All it contained was the word ‘Divine Poisoning’.
Asta instinctively thought it was a hint to resolve the crisis.
So she found out that Hanelope had been regularly meeting with the doctor.
‘If Hanelope had simply fainted, they wouldn’t still be calling in the physicians. They could heal her at the temple, but they rushed her to the palace without telling us.
That wasn’t the only oddity.
The physician was too inexperienced to be entrusted with the Princess’s care, and he was a man of useless research.
‘Why would Hart, who was so fond of his daughter, send for such a physician?’
There was only one reason.
‘One of the diseases he was studying was Divine Poisoning.’
It was no coincidence.
‘They have a secret to hide.’
But it was obvious what they were trying to cover.
Lips turning to green clearly indicated Divine poisoning. Divine poisoning was a disease of ‘traitors to God’.
Thanks to the blessings of the God Prache, humans cannot die from contact with the strong divinity that pervades the world. Exceptions were sinners who were forsaken by God and witches who served demons.
Since God took his blessing sway, they couldn’t handle divinity, thus resulting in their lips turning green.
‘.. this was the claim of the temple.’
But it was all fiction. It was all made up in order to steal a holy object, the ‘Viridescent Sword’, from a woman.
Of course, the truth didn’t matter.
‘If I can accuse Hanelope being cursed, I can claim that she was behind the incident on the Blessing Day. Her witchcraft made the corns rot.’
Asta turned to the physician with a cruel smile.
“Doctor, I don’t want to do this either. But as a Saint, I can’t let go of someone who committed blasphemy. Tell me, what happened to the Princess?”
“T-The Princess, s-she…”
“Her lips turned green, didn’t they? Like someone suffering from Divine Poisoning.”
“I-it’s not certain! It could be another disease! I-I am researching it, but Divine Poisoning is a disease with an unclear nature! A-and, above all, the Princess is just a young child. There’s no way such a young child could be a witch… Ugh!”
The priests began to torture the physician again. They were far too cruel to be representative of the Gods.
‘As expected, the low ranking priests are easy to use.’
No matter how much Asta’s influence had diminished, a Saint was still an object of admiration for the low ranked priests.’
When such a Saint approached them and asked for help in catching a witch, they couldn’t help but try to gain her favor.
The cruelty of the priests made the physician raise a white flag.
“Y-yes, Divine Poisoning is correct! That child is a little witch! Her lips have turned completely green… Ugh! Please, stop!”
“Alright. Do you promise to say the same thing in front of people whenever I ask you to?”
The doctor nodded desperately.
‘With this, I’ve got a leverage on Hanelope.’
“Take him away.”
When Asta gestured, the priests dragged the bloodied doctor out.
‘It will be interesting to see the Emperor’s expression when his only granddaughter is accused of being a witch.’
He would desperately try to save Hanelope.
‘Should I threaten and make a deal with the imperial family? Especially Hart, he will give me anything I want.’
Losing a loyal and capable hound like Hart was truly regrettable for Asta.
If only Hart had remained on her side, she wouldn’t have faced the current predicament.
‘But I must get rid of that annoying kid…’
While contemplating, Asta coldly lifted the corners of her mouth.
‘Watching Hanelope die will be more entertaining.’
Asta’s blue eyes gleamed ominously.
***
“Yawn, I’m sleepy…”
“Well, Miss has been running around like a squirrel today, so of course you’re tired.”
Sherry smirked as I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand. She picked me up, and tucked me into bed. Then gently patted my tummy and wished me goodnight.
I squeezed one of Sherry’s long fingers back and smiled.
“Oh my! Why are you smiling all of a sudden, other than sleeping?”
“Because I like Sherry so much…”
“I like the Miss, too.”
Sherry said with a happy face.
‘I’m glad Sherry is happy, because I really, really like her.’
It breaks my heart to cheat on someone I love so much.
Sensing my calm breath, she left the room.
As soon as the door closed, I jumped off the bed. Then I pulled the pendant out of the drawer.
‘Will Uncle Rabbit answer today?’
I wasn’t sure.
But I had a lot of questions for him.
The identity of the voice that tried to kill me in the basement of the Great Temple, the truth about a disease called Divine Poisoning…
I’ve done my own research on the poisoning, but I haven’t found out much more than I already knew, and there must be more to it.
The disease of witches.
A stigma placed on those who are forsaken by the Gods.
‘But it’s a lie that someone made up.’
I opened the pendant and put some mana.
A large amount of mana poured out today, more than usual. And the mana was directed towards… the green gem.
“!”
As if on cue, a translucent green window appeared in front of me.
A text was quickly inscribed on it.
[ G○d ◎◇ scolds the lazy believer, saying, “How long have I been waiting for! You’re only waking me up now! But why are you the only one? Tell where all my numerous devotees are.” ]
Except for the colour of the translucent window, the other person was talking to me just as the Uncle Rabbit did.
Was it because I had gone through this before? I wasn’t surprised.
In fact, the other person seemed more confused.
[ G○d ◎◇ asks why isn’t the believer answering? ]
“I’m not your believer.”
The translucent window went blank at my words.
‘It must have been very surprised.’
I waited in silence.
After a while, the text began to be inscribed above the window again.
[ If you are not my devotee, then who are you? ]
“My name is Hanelope. Who are you, uncle?”
[ G○d ◎◇ says, “I am not an old uncle, but ◎◇, the Mother of Heaven, the Father of Earth, and Nature itself.”]
Again, I couldn’t read the name, like it happened with uncle rabbit.
‘I can’t help it.’
“Then I’ll call you Uncle Butterfly.”
The green window went blank again.
After a while-
[ G○d, ◎◇ says to call her miss not uncle. ]
Oh! She’s a sister! I almost made a big mistake.
I quickly nodded.
“Okay!”
[ The title of “G○d, ◎◇” has been changed to “Miss Butterfly”. ‘Miss Butterfly’ is asking what happened to the shattered seal after the explosion? ]
The seal was broken? I replied, feeling uncomfortable.
“There was an explosion in the basement of the Great Temple, and when I woke up, the green gem was inside my pendant.”
[ ‘Miss Butterfly’ recalls feeling strong divinity and being led somewhere. ]
“Divinity?”
Did she feel Divine power because it was in the Great Temple?
Suddenly, the green window fluttered like crazy.
[ ‘Miss Butterfly’ is furious, asking who this filthy and smelly guy next to me is.]
“Uh, um! That’s Uncle Rabbit. Uncle Rabbit is…”
[ ‘Miss Butterfly’ says, “I-I remember this punk!” and angrily asks why this tacky guy is in the same linker as her. ]
“Linker? Is this pendant a linker?”
I changed the subject to calm Butterfly sis down.
I knew the pendant was a linker thanks to Uncle Rabbit, but I pretended to be unaware.
It worked, and the green window stopped shaking.
[ ‘Miss Butterfly’ is surprised that you don’t know it. She finds it strange that you, a human, is using this linker that a priest should posses. “It’s a tool humans used to talk to us. But why is it… Where are my believers? I’ve been sending signals even after being sealed. Where are they instead of worshiping? ]
Staring at the green window, I asked cautiously.
“What signals have you been sending?”
[ ‘Miss Butterfly’ says that years ago, the power of the seal loosened, and I sent out my natural aura. The aura leaves a mark on those who come into contact with it, and I assure you there is nothing my priests can’t recognise. ]
‘As expected. My assumption was correct.’
I repeated.
“And that mark is… lips turning green?”
