I Just Wanted to Avoid Death - Chapter 20
“…..?”
“The healings… were not done by me. It was Priest Yeshion who performed them.”
Gillett lowered his head to the floor.
He confessed that he had not yet been forgiven by God and didn’t want to commit any further sins by lying.
“Are you really saying that Priest Yeshion healed people?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“How can you be sure?”
“You know, Archpriest, who the priests in the southern prayer hall are.”
Gillett spoke with his head bowed.
The southern prayer hall was a place for those who were priests in name only—people who didn’t truly believe in God or those who had been punished and could no longer function as proper priests.
In other words, no one there had the power to heal anyone.
“…I understand. You may return for now. Your situation will be addressed later.”
Gillett bowed respectfully and left.
As time went on, Eldis was filled with more and more questions. Yeshion was indeed a priest, but he was clearly someone who should never have been one.
“Now. Choose, Eldis. Will you keep me by your side and become a priest, or will you abandon me and fall to the depths as well?”
Yeshion had said those words with a sneering grin, baring his teeth. His golden eyes gleamed with greed, sending chills down Eldis’s spine.
Yeshion was the only one who had witnessed the first evil act Eldis ever committed. He was also the one who saw firsthand how that act became a weapon to hold over him.
The moment Yeshion opened his mouth, Eldis’s life was effectively over.
As time passed, Eldis found more and more things he needed to protect. With that, the grip Yeshion had over him only tightened—his status, his honor, even his actions.
Eldis had resolved to kill Yeshion. He planned to turn him into a criminal and execute him in a way that wouldn’t tarnish the title of Archpriest.
‘So why…?’
Why did he suddenly seem like a different person?
With a deep sigh, Eldis rubbed his face.
“God, please guide me on the right path.”
His mind was clouded, and he could no longer tell what was true.
It was said that every priest faced an ordeal they could hardly endure at least once in their life. Could Yeshion be that trial for Eldis?
Time continued to pass.
Yeshion’s strange behavior hadn’t stopped, and the other priests were beginning to let their guard down around him.
And so, the Connection Ceremony approached.
The Connection Ceremony was more complex than most priests realized. The Archpriest, who received the priests’ prayers, could not only hear their voices but also sense their emotions.
He could discern sincerity, as well as falsehoods. It meant he could perceive everything.
For that reason, Eldis assumed that Yeshion wouldn’t attend the ceremony this time. No matter how much Yeshion had been pretending to be reformed lately, the ceremony would expose his true intentions to Eldis.
“Next, Priest Yeshion.”
But Yeshion came.
Eldis watched with a hardened expression as Yeshion knelt before him. His posture, with his hands clasped in prayer, was that of a proper priest.
Furrowing his brow, Eldis closed his eyes and listened to Yeshion’s prayer. He expected to hear something revolting.
‘Umm… Because of Yeshion, no, it seems you’ve had a hard time because of me.’
But something was off.
Yeshion referred to himself as “Yeshion” instead of “me.”
‘Well, sorry about that… Uh…It looks like you’re not sleeping well, I hope that if you’re sick from that, you get better…’
At that moment, when Yeshion wished for Eldis to recover from any illness, Eldis felt the divine power within him stir.
As Eldis’s fingers trembled slightly in shock, the divine force that had been tightly bound around his heart began to loosen.
‘What is…?’
His lips pressed together tightly.
It had been a long time since he had felt this.
The pressure that had been suffocating him since the day of his sin was slowly lifting.
It felt as if God was absolving him of his sin.
The next words he heard shook him even further.
‘And… I hope you won’t look for me when I disappear…’
Eldis opened his eyes and abruptly stopped Yeshion’s prayer.
The energy that had been flowing smoothly was cut off, and Yeshion opened his eyes wide in surprise.
Gillett’s claim that Yeshion became ill after healing someone had been no lie. The healthy color drained from Yeshion’s cheeks, and his lips turned blue.
This confirmed it.
Yeshion had indeed been healing people.
Eldis reached out and firmly supported Yeshion’s collapsing body.
The once sharp and venomous golden eyes had lost their focus. The Yeshion who used to recoil at Eldis’s touch now lay quietly in his arms.
“You…”
Who on earth was he?
The one who had undone the divine punishment.
The one who had erased Eldis’s only weakness.
It couldn’t be the Yeshion he knew. The Yeshion he knew would have tightened the chains on him, not set him free.
“You… Who are you… really?”
A faint smile tugged at the corner of Eldis’s lips.
