Don't Be Holy! - Chapter 28
Five days had passed since Rubel first whispered a prayer in her ear. But as if that was just the beginning, whenever he saw Eir let her guard down, he would approach playfully and whisper prayer verses one by one before leaving.
Moreover, every single verse was incredibly meaningful.
[Those who feed on others’ blood and sweat shall receive the greatest punishment]
[Violation is the greatest betrayal, and one must be wary of even the smallest deception]
[If you cannot be confident in yourself, you cannot live confidently in anything]
And so on, most verses were about betrayal and deception.
She couldn’t tell if he was playing around or if he had truly figured out her identity.
If he knew she was a priest, why would he just whisper such prayers and disappear? Given Rubel’s personality, he would have already hung her upside down from the castle walls.
Eir locked her door and clasped her hands together while looking at the divine emblem she had hung upside down in her room.
Though it looked somewhat blasphemous, since she was doing something she wasn’t used to, she had to make these small adjustments somehow.
Because praying or giving blessings strengthened divine energy, she had given up everything until now and avoided doing anything that might affect her divine power. It was safer that way to begin with.
But the man had changed Eir.
She felt the need to control her divine energy by praying to the upside-down emblem.
How could these hellish days possibly end?
Perhaps it would be fine if Rubel exhausted all the divine energy in his body fighting monsters. After all, all these terrible things were happening because her divine power was being affected the moment she heard prayer verses, due to Rubel’s overflowing divine energy.
If Rubel had to kill monsters all night and ran out of divine energy, it seemed they wouldn’t need to continue this terrible struggle.
‘If only I could summon monsters like a witch.’
Her shoulders ached from how often she had to press her glowing palms together. The years of life she’d lost because of Rubel Shinote must be at least ten by now.
Even while sleeping, Eir would startle awake from nightmares, afraid he might barge in.
Living in constant tension naturally led to wicked thoughts. She was building up divine energy so she could knock the man unconscious and leave if necessary.
Yesterday, she caught herself unconsciously searching through Grandma’s forbidden books for monster-summoning spells, then snapped to her senses and knelt to pray to God.
‘Oh Lord, please save me. I don’t want to become trash.’
Living while betraying God was painful enough, if she learned witch’s spells too, would God leave her be? Wouldn’t He just kill her outright instead of punishing her?
Of course, they said God never kills priests even for murder. He just makes them suffer terrible pain until the end of their lives.
While thinking these gloomy thoughts, Eir continued praying. After finishing her prayers, she opened the window feeling stuffy, when suddenly a bird flew in and attacked her, nearly making her scream.
“Ugh!”
She covered her face with her arm and braced for the attack, but strangely felt nothing. Carefully lowering her hands and looking up, she saw an owl perched on the windowsill, preening its feathers.
Perhaps because it was dark, the owl’s eyes occasionally glowed yellow, giving an eerie feeling.
The standoff between Eir and the owl, staring at each other as if unable to understand one another, ended when Eir discovered an unfamiliar envelope placed before the owl.
The owl disappeared just as Eir opened the envelope.
[Cut off some hair from the person with gaps in their memory and send it in the envelope. The spell will take about a week to complete.]
It seemed to be a letter from the witch she had asked for help.
She didn’t mention why she wanted it or what she would do, she only told Eir exactly what she needed to do.
Eir knelt and clasped her hands together, overjoyed that she had finally received a response, that an answer had come.
‘Thank you for giving me an answer so I don’t stray down the wrong path.’
After offering this brief prayer to an unknown recipient, Eir got up and grabbed a small pair of scissors.
As the saying goes, strike while the iron is hot, she felt like getting everything done tonight.
