No one in this world could cover up what happened at school that day.
Even if it was me, I was no exception. After the situation ended and I logged onto the internet, I found that passersby had already posted photos and videos everywhere. Moreover, due to the uniqueness of the ‘Saints Walking Together in an Academy,’ the footage and pictures were quickly bought by media outlets and aired as news.
Fortunately, the church called me right away without questioning me about this and that. Still, the Central Church, which had observed my personality for quite a long time, stepped in to calm public sentiment.
Of course, it seemed they didn’t plan to brush it off entirely.
“…….”
“…….”
The very next morning, the church sent me an envoy.
Naturally, knowing my personality fairly well, the person they sent was someone I recognized.
“Greetings, Goddess, I hope you’ve been well.”
When I had last met Father Turner, he was carefree and in good spirits, but when he came to see me that morning, he was completely haggard.
“Did you know? I have no idea how this happened, but the Central Church scraped up all the videos and photos of your miracle that were uploaded to the internet yesterday and handed them to me. Since the commission came from His Holiness the Pope, I have no way to dodge this job.”
“Finally, you have work, congratulations! Isn’t it an opportunity for your faith to deepen?”
Of course, I couldn’t bring myself to apologize to someone who was so openly grumbling like that.
“Oh, indeed. I’m thrilled to have a job after so long. Haha.”
With a face that showed absolutely no joy, Father Turner began to introduce the people behind him one by one.
“First, you know Mr. Kihmuhir, right? Recently, thanks to the Goddess’s recommendation, he became the head priest of St. Clara Cathedral. He hasn’t reached the position of Cardinal yet since the congregation for the Elven District is still being divided.”
That was Remir, Ramihi’s sister. I had recommended her when the plan to establish a cathedral in the Elven District was initiated.
“Hello, how have you been?”
When I greeted her, Remir smiled brightly and replied.
“Yes, thanks to the Goddess’s blessing, I have always been well.”
…She must be talking about Ariel, right? Because honestly, I don’t remember granting blessings to anyone.
“And the others behind are… all professors from the Central Church’s seminary. Ah, of course, there are also associate professors and a few graduate students.”
“…….”
Uh… so you’re saying these people have been tearing apart papers day in and day out? Though their own opinions probably have nothing to do with it.
Now that I noticed, everyone’s eyes were all dark underneath. Regardless of their age, it seemed they were all suffering immensely and hadn’t been able to sleep.
It made sense, but…
…mainly because of me.
“Um… hello?”
When I cautiously greeted them, suddenly the oldest man in the front knelt down with a thud. Bowing his head to the floor, he said:
“I meet the Goddess.”
Then, the people behind him slowly followed suit, kneeling on the ground.
“I meet the Goddess!”
“……”
Hmm.
Hmm.
Hmm.
What should I say… I suddenly wanted to give up and run away.
“Um… yes, hello?”
Having stood frozen for a while, I finally thought it’d be best to answer like that, but no one even thought about getting up. Wait a second. Is that person in the back crying? Their shoulders are shaking!
“…First of all, Goddess, it seems you can attend the academy as usual. However, could you return before the extracurricular activities today? If you could show us the power you demonstrated yesterday, we would be very grateful.”
Father Turner made that request.
“Um… that’s not really difficult, but…”
After all, the power I have comes from the prayers of the believers, so as long as I return, I could probably use the same power.
“…Could you please come a bit closer?”
As I beckoned him over, Father Turner stepped a little closer. I whispered to him.
“Um, you don’t know yet what the power I used yesterday is, do you?”
“Yes, we only suspect it’s the Goddess’s power.”
“Um…”
I seriously pondered whether I should say this or not, looking once again at the people who had bowed to me. The one at the front had completely white hair and looked like an old man.
“The power I used yesterday allows me to communicate directly with the gods of the Temple of Gods…”
“…”
Father Turner seemed a bit speechless for a moment.
“Um… So, does that mean other people, aside from the Goddess, can talk as well? Like it’s a phone call?”
“No, it would be more like facing each other to talk… instead of a call.”
“…Like a video call?”
“No, it’s more like a hologram from a sci-fi movie… maybe even more lifelike than that.”
“…”
Father Turner briefly closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead.
“So, I was worried that if I directly show that to the old man over there, it might put too much strain on his heart.”
I was really relieved that the Central Church wasn’t present when witnessing that scene yesterday, but showing it here might cause the very situation I was concerned about.
The Pope had been hospitalized just from knowing my identity!
“…”
Fortunately, it seemed Father Turner took my words seriously. He lowered his hand from his forehead, resting it on his chin, and gave a serious look towards the old man bowing down.
“Understood. Is there perhaps another way for you to use your power?”
“…I’ll think it over while I’m at school.”
I said with a voice lacking confidence, and Father Turner seemed to barely manage to suppress a sigh.
“…Alright.”
But it seemed he couldn’t directly question the person he referred to as a Goddess.
…Wait a second. When exactly did my title change to Goddess!?
*
“…”
Normally, Selena would add a suffix when greeting me, but today she stood hesitantly at the door, contemplating seriously as she looked at me.
“…I don’t know how to greet a Goddess.”
“…I think you could just do what you normally do.”
“No, that’s not it. I’m wondering if you’re in a state that can simply be described as ‘sacred.’”
As Selena pointed out, since this morning, I had been radiating light from the back of my head. This couldn’t be helped. It appears the power of the gods comes from people’s faith and prayers, but I also couldn’t just randomly flaunt this.
Just thinking about what happened yesterday made the whole situation serious.
If I’m not careful, I might have the gods observing during class. I would probably faint if I were a teacher.
“…”
Eventually, Selena, after pondering here and there, silently went to her seat and sat down. She then rested her chin on her hand and started looking at me quietly.
“…”
“…”
“If you have something you want to say, feel free to.”
“No, I don’t really have anything I want to say. I’m just astonished.”
“Astonished?”
“I mean… think about it. You walked into the classroom for a lesson, and there’s a Goddess glowing with divine light sitting next to you. What would you think?”
“I’d probably hesitate to sit next to you. It would be incredibly burdensome.”
“For a Goddess, you seem to understand people very well.”
Well, I used to be a person too. I still want to claim I’m a person. Looking at my body, I seem human enough, but with me acting as a human lighthouse every day, I couldn’t think of a reason to deny it.
“But it’s strange.”
Selena said, looking intently at me.
“It’s strange that even after knowing you’re a Goddess, I still think ‘you’re still Clara.’ Even the glowing from your head might not have been as intense before, but it was a recollection of something I had seen before.”
“…Is that so?”
“Exactly.”
Selena nodded.
“Well, I’m also a person, so it’s not like I don’t have my own thoughts, and while it feels incredibly bewildering, when I think back on your actions, it makes me in some way immune to the next one. You started with a dropkick and ended up here.”
So, while the scale of what I’m doing grew, it didn’t happen all at once, having been a gradual step-by-step climb to this?
“Yesterday was certainly shocking, but after returning home and thinking about it, I realized you could certainly pull it off.”
Selena laughed, seemingly unable to believe her own thoughts.
“…Is that the image I have?”
I asked as I looked at Aurora and Linea, but having asked the question, I found myself agreeing with her. It was clear that I had stirred up a theological crisis more than once. Just looking at the people who had bowed down earlier this morning was confirmation enough. Thank goodness people weren’t bowing down to the vehicle I was in.
“Well, that may be true.”
Selena said.
“Being constantly startled seems to create immunity to being startled.”
And the two by my side, who had always stuck close to me, gave their evaluations.
“…”
Hearing that made me feel something strange.
It was a feeling that was hard to explain with words, an oddly ticklish sensation.
I preferred this honest evaluation over them lifting me up as a Goddess or a Saintess.
“Is that so.”
However, it seemed my vocabulary was a little lacking to express such thoughts properly, so I could only murmur a reply like that to sidestep the issue.
*
After asking for permission from the club members, Aurora, Linea, and I returned to the cathedral without joining the extracurricular activities.
The number of theologians was even larger than what I had seen in the morning. It wasn’t just a feeling; their numbers had indeed increased. The reason I could be so certain of that was because the theologians weren’t just waiting in the reception room; they were gathered in the prayer room.
And that prayer room was almost packed with theologians.
…Right, I noticed a sign in front of the cathedral saying there wouldn’t be a service tonight.
As I entered the prayer room, the whispering that had been soft immediately stopped.
“……”
A short moment of dead silence passed, and the people in the room stood up at once, all together.
“I meet the Goddess.”
In the prayer room, where long chairs were packed closely together, bowing down was impossible, so everyone lowered their heads deeply according to their own measure.
“……”
Even if it was less than kneeling, this was still incredibly burdensome. As I resumed my steps, the sound of my footsteps echoed in the silent prayer room, along with the tap tap of Aurora and Linea following behind me. The prayer room was originally supposed to be quiet, but experiencing such a scene with so many people was something I had never seen since coming to this world.
As all the seats were filled, I walked up to the very front and found a chair placed directly under the cross, where I could see everyone gathered.
“……”
I briefly stared at the chair, then turned my gaze toward Father Turner, who nodded and pointed at the seat.
Ah, so I’m supposed to sit here?
If I weren’t being treated like a Goddess, this would definitely look like sacrilege.
I briefly considered protesting about not wanting to sit there but decided against it. No matter how I felt, rolling on the ground and shouting in front of so many people was a bit much for me.
As I sat down silently, only then did those previously standing down once again take their seats. No, wait, they had been bowing this entire time—how did they know?
“Cough.”
Father Turner, seated diagonally from me, tapped on the microphone setup on the desk with his finger. A specific sound was produced, verifying the microphone was properly connected.
“Then, since the Goddess has arrived, let’s officially begin today’s meeting. Ah, I am the Miracle Investigator, Matthew Turner. Today, I am tasked with delivering your questions to the Goddess on your behalf. I look forward to your cooperation.”
…
It seemed he thought applause would be out of place in this overly solemn place.
“Well then, first… Goddess, may we begin?”
Father Turner looked up at me and asked. On the desk was a large stack of documents piled high, and he already had fatigue etched on his face. Well, after lollygagging this long, this was bound to happen.
“Yes, please start.”
I managed to utter, holding back a sigh.
Honestly, I didn’t really want to. But then again, if I tried to skip even this, I couldn’t imagine how far the misunderstandings piled up might go.
At the very least, for things that they were wrongly informed about me, I had to set the record straight.
“Then, the first question.”
Clearing his throat, Father Turner pulled a sheet of paper from the top of the stack. …Were all these questions!?
“According to reports from yesterday, Goddess Ariel and Demon God Baal expressed faith in Clara Anderson. Could it be that Clara Anderson holds a position among the gods, perhaps even that of the highest deity?”
And just like that, the first question rolled in like a bomb.
“……”
I struggled to suppress the urge to cradle my head as I barely managed to reply and turned my stiff neck to look at Father Turner.
“How did you learn about yesterday’s incident?”
“It was reported by Saint Rina Hicks, who is not present here. Upon arriving at the cathedral, she immediately went into prayer, leading the Mother Superior of the convent to inquire about her condition.”
“…Is Mother Superior alright?”
“She regained consciousness this morning. Thanks to that, we were able to hear this joyful news.”
“……”
Well, I mean, if she’s back to her senses, it’s a relief but…
…Sigh, whatever.
“No, that’s not it.”
I firmly denied it.
A stir ran through the room of theologians. It seemed they had already drawn conclusions on their own. But upon my statement, it seemed those notions were being contradicted, and bewilderment filled their eyes as they started whispering amongst themselves. To be honest, I didn’t particularly care what they thought.
“I—”
However, the moment I opened my mouth, the room immediately fell silent. They seemed to be perked up, not wanting to miss a single word. Some had even slightly tilted their heads, pointing an ear in my direction.
“—When I first came into this world, there were those who witnessed me using Ariel’s holy power. And I was also able to use Baal’s holy power. Miracles, needless to say, require ‘faith.’ Isn’t that correct?”
To my statement, the theologians all nodded.
“So, the gods can believe in each other’s existence and harness the power of one another. That’s the understanding you should take away. What Baal and Ariel said carries that meaning.”
…Alright, I said it.
It was something I had contemplated all day at school. Of course, I hadn’t anticipated that the events that happened would spread to the church through Rina, but I was prepared for questions that might emerge during our conversation.
As I took a sigh of relief in my heart, suddenly, a hand shot up amidst the mass of theologians.
“…Um, the person with their hand raised, please stand up.”
Upon my prompt, the theologian, whose face was tense, stood up. He looked quite young and was one of the few youthful faces amongst the elderly, professor-like crowd. He must be a junior or possibly a graduate student; it was rather pitiable.
With a nod from Father Turner, one of the nuns brought a microphone to him. Slightly bewildered, he held the mic and bowed deeply toward me.
“Thank you for giving me the opportunity to ask, Goddess. I am Alejandro Lopez, a researcher working at the 5th District Seminary.”
He carefully raised his body to look towards me and asked.
“I’ve heard that the Saint asked about the locations of the other gods while sitting comfortably. Could it be that you summoned the other gods?”
…Ah.
It seemed they were talking about when I had sat with my legs crossed, calling Ariel at that place.
……
Now that I think about it, the atmosphere definitely resembled calling someone beneath me.
What I had done casually during my meetings with the gods had turned into a huge deal.
“And, I’ve also heard that during your encounter with demons in the Elven District, you severely scolded the Demon God?”
In essence, wasn’t it finally implying that I was the highest being among them?
This presumed graduate student was looking at me with sparkling eyes, eagerly waiting for my response.
…What on earth should I say?
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