CHAPTER 124
After the confession, Babiyen fled.
To be precise, she fled to the inn and locked herself in her room.
It was so bad that Lululio, who shared the room, was startled awake and came out asking what had happened.
“Ugh, so it finally happened-ssumka. Welcome to the war zone-ssumda.”
Hearing the situation, Lululio shook her head as if in fear.
“Lady Aigis, you must have noticed long ago.”
“Lady Babiyen looked like a girl in love to anyone who saw her.”
Aigis had been watching silently from behind us. She wasn’t the least bit surprised by Babiyen’s confession. She looked as if it would have been strange if she hadn’t confessed at some point.
“I guess I was just too dense.”
“Everyone has their own circumstances, don’t they?”
Circumstances.
Sure, I could use that as an excuse if I wanted to.
But I was aware that I had done something to be sorry for to Babiyen.
Still, Babiyen’s passionate love left me feeling dazed.
I was the one who treated this-worlders as uncivilized and fought with her at the drop of a hat.
What was there to like about me?
In fact, because I thought that way myself, I think I had completely excluded the possibility of Babiyen being a romantic interest.
But now that she had confessed, her love could no longer be denied.
To think the situation we had worried about in our team would actually happen.
I worried about how I would explain this to Aranseol or Horizon.
“For now, it’s late. Lady Babiyen will need time to calm down, so how about we rest for the night?”
“Yes, we should.”
“My bed was stolen, so what should I do-ssumka?”
Lululio protested, but there was nothing to be done.
You and I aren't even in the same room.
And so, the next day dawned.
Just as I was considering the possibility that Babiyen might lock herself in her room again…
“What are you doing? Aren’t you getting in the carriage?”
She walked out with a surprisingly brazen face.
Though dark circles were visible under her eyes, suggesting a sleepless night, she held her chin up as high as she could.
“Babiyen, you…”
“If it’s about yesterday, I don’t deny any of it. I admit it all.”
To think she’d come at me head-on.
Was she planning to boldly acknowledge her embarrassment and move on?
But I could see Babiyen’s eyes darting around as she held her head high. It was proof that she was trying her best to endure in her own way.
Watching her, I let out a dry laugh, wondering what the point of my own serious deliberation had been.
“Wh-why are you laughing?”
Babiyen flinched at my laughter and asked back. She looked worried that I might be taking her desperate confession lightly.
“Because it’s so you.”
“What do you mean, ‘so me’?”
“‘Babiyen-like’ means ‘Babiyen-like’.”
Don’t ignore dictionary definitions.
“Anyway.”
Babiyen sighed and gave my shoulder a light punch.
“My feelings won’t get in the way of your goals, Harua. Because… because they’re the goals of the person I l-like.”
She twirled a lock of hair by her cheek, trying hard to overcome her embarrassment.
Beside her, Lululio also squirmed as if it were too much to watch. That one looked like she was going to get hit by Babiyen soon.
And so, we set off once more for the Holy Land.
As the Holy Land was not far, our carriage journey ended around afternoon.
A city of pure white came into view. Gold trim seemed to adorn the entire city, with glints of gold shining from here and there.
The people living in the city were all dressed in white. As if symbolizing purity and benevolence, they would often put their hands together in prayer even as they walked.
But that was just from a human perspective.
To me, I could clearly feel why this place was called the Holy Land.
“Lady Aigis, the Holy Land is…”
“Yes, the Holy Land is the place where the Embrace of Holy Light exerts its power most directly.”
The Transcendent, the Embrace of Holy Light.
I could feel his divine power filling this Holy Land.
The divine power within my own body stirred.
The power within me was not granted directly from the Embrace of Holy Light. To be precise, it was the milk of a Transcendent I received from the designated merchant, Dark Hood.
‘The Holy Church has always treated me as if I received my divine power from the Embrace of Holy Light.’
In that case, was the Transcendent’s milk that Dark Hood fed me from the Embrace of Holy Light?
That guy never explained anything, so there’s no way to know.
More importantly, if that’s true, then it means I was breastfed and raised by the Embrace of Holy Light.
In a way, that’s as holy as it gets.
Thump—
In the meantime, our carriage came to a stop.
The main cathedral of the Holy Church, built in the center of the Holy Land.

Numerous believers were lined up there.
Making a holy sign, they all blessed us as we alighted from the carriage.
Thanks to them, I was reminded of how I’m treated by the Holy Church.
They serve me with the utmost reverence.
When a believer opened the carriage door, I stepped out.
Instantly, the people bowed as one.
Wow, this is seriously pressuring.
I couldn't exactly tell them to rise, so I quickly walked past.
"You've arrived!"
Soon, a person came running out from inside.
He was an elderly man dressed in modest attire.
“Archbishop Sethfran, it has been a while.”
I paused for a moment at Aigis’s reaction.
Despite his modest clothes, he was a high-ranking individual.
“Oh, Lord Aigis, you’ve worked hard. You’ve brought the Saint here safely.”
“Not at all. It was my duty.”
"The Saintess is waiting. I shall guide you. Come, Saint, let us head inside."
Archbishop Sethfran wore an incredibly bright expression.
Though he was an old man, he walked ahead, launching into a speech praising the Holy Church.
I listened quietly as I walked beside him.
This was the Holy Land.
The heart of the Holy Church.
There was no reason to do anything that would get me on their bad side here.
Before long, we arrived at a golden garden.
It was a strange place where all the flowers and shrubs were the color of gold.
As someone who possessed Divine Power, I knew.
I knew just how immense the Divine Power dwelling in this place was.
Mimeyeong burrowed into my arms.
It was hiding its body because of the immensely powerful divine energy surging around.
This power… it felt like if I got caught in it, my body would be torn to shreds.
“This is the Golden Garden, the center of the Holy Land. It is the place most deeply blessed by the Embrace of Holy Light.”
Just as I suspected, I understood the reason at once.
Just what kind of beings were these Transcendents?
To think that this was just a minuscule fraction of a Transcendent’s power… they were truly unfathomable beings.
And Black Dawn sought to create such a Transcendent.
It made me realize just how insane they were.
“...This is a place that not even nobles can enter freely,” Babiyen whispered from beside me.
Her words told me just how sacred this location was.
A place that even nobles were not permitted to enter.
Archbishop Sethfran had brought us here as if it were a matter of course.
“Ah, could the two of you please wait here for a moment?”
Babiyen and Lululio were not allowed to enter the Golden Garden.
Neither of them possessed Divine Power, nor had they been granted permission.
“Yes, Lord Aigis is here, so we’ll wait here-ssumda.”
“We’ll see you soon.”
With Lululio and Babiyen seeing me off, I stepped into the Golden Garden.
Inside, it was incredibly quiet.
Despite being such a beautiful garden, I couldn’t feel the slightest sign of life.
Just as fish cannot live in water that is too pure, I felt this place was much the same.
"Harua-nim.”
Archbishop Sethfran, who had been leading the way, also stopped.
As if to say this was as far as he could go, he turned back at an entrance formed by the garden itself.
"The Saintess is waiting. Please go on in."
“I, too, will wait here.”
This was the limit for both Aigis and Archbishop Sethfran.
I gave them a slight nod and slowly walked deeper into the garden.
After a moment, a table in the golden garden came into view.
The table, woven from pure white plants, was anything but ordinary.
It was shaped like a world of water and land, as if capturing the world as seen from the heavens.
If you were to flatten the world onto a plane, this is what it might look like.
That was the impression it gave.
Beyond the table, a woman was seated.
With hair like pure white snow and translucent eyes, the woman, wearing a veil, was beautiful enough to seem inhuman.
The Saintess, Harua.
We had promised to call each other by the separate names of Haru and Lua.
"Saintess-nim."
At my call, Lua smiled warmly.
“When it’s just the two of us, you can call me Lua anytime.”
“But it’s not just the two of us.”
When I pointed out the core of the matter, Lua covered her mouth, looking slightly surprised.
“So you can feel His presence too, Haru?”
So it was true.
"Presence? Is it even possible not to feel this immense power?”
“Pfft.”
Lua burst into a quiet laugh behind her hand.
“Yes, Haru, you are correct. Most people cannot feel His power. Not even the cardinals or archbishops.”
What, they really can’t feel it?

That meant Archbishop Sethfran and Aigis, who were waiting outside, couldn’t feel the power of the Embrace of Holy Light.
“Is that possible?”
"It is. Hmm, how should I put it? Would it be easier to understand if I said the minimum requirement to feel His power is a 1st Grade Light Attribute?”
Ah.
The moment I heard that, I understood completely.
A 1st Grade Light Attribute is extremely rare in this world.
So much so that before I appeared, the only ones in the world with it were Lua and the highest elder of the Eunhye Magic Tower.
Speaking of that elder, he passed away the day the Eunhye Magic Tower fell.
The cause of death was a heart attack.
I didn't know the exact details.
Ultimately, it meant that the only ones left in this world with a 1st Grade Light Attribute were me and Lua.

So, it wasn't so strange that others couldn't feel the Embrace of Holy Light.
"Now I finally understand why the Holy Church has treated me with such reverence just for having a 1st Grade Light Attribute."
"Hehehe, that's right. The Holy Church believes that simply being able to feel His power makes one a chosen being. In reality, it's just that our existences are the form closest to a Transcendent."
"Closest to a Transcendent?"
"Yes, because the 1st Grade attribute is the purest form. Furthermore, Haru-nim, you are an even purer form than I am. That is why..."
She rose from her seat and took my wrist.
Within it was the divine power that Noir had given me.

"You are able to receive the divine power of another Transcendent like this. A normal person’s body would have rejected it and been destroyed long ago."
"Huh? Is that true?"
“There is no one else in this world who holds the power of two Transcendents in one body.”

Dammit, that crazy woman, Noir Nox!
Whether she knew what she was doing or not, she had practically tried to make my body explode.
Of course, I would have revived, but it was still enough to drive me mad.
“Do you understand your own specialness a little better now, Haru-nim?”
“Uh, um, well, yes, let’s go with that.”
Honestly, it didn't really sink in.
The only reason I had a 1st Grade Light Attribute was thanks to my Resurrection magic.
“More importantly, what did you mean by being 'closest to a Transcendent'?”
“Yes, I was about to discuss that. It’s also the reason I summoned you to the Holy Land, even going as far as to acknowledge you as the Saint.”
Lua moved and sat back down in her chair.
Then, she invited me to sit opposite her.
“I will tell you, as I believe it will be an interesting story for you as well, Haru-nim.”
“What on earth is this story about?”
"Black Dawn is highly likely to target me next."
My body froze solid at her next words.
I looked back at Lua with a "are you serious?" expression, but she simply smiled warmly. She wasn't finished.
“And the Archbishop of the Radiance Faith, Bloody Crown, is also a target.”
Two outrageous statements came out at once.