The first Holy Maiden of Piggero, Maien, waited for Yulicia to finish her work at the crafting shop. Even if one wondered if she had vanished, every time she looked back at the bench in front of the shop, there was Maien, sitting with a smile.
Tap-
Maien maintained her kind expression, even as Yulicia emerged, leaning on crutches.
Yulicia gazed at the sky.
“….”
The sky was painted black.
“What on earth are you?”
Ignoring the flapping fabric that covered her facial scar in the fierce wind, Yulicia stared straight at Maien and continued speaking.
“What are you waiting for this whole time?”
With a hint of hostility in her tone, Maien merely smiled softly.
“I thought I might help alleviate your pain, Yulicia.”
Yulicia furrowed her brow tightly.
“Alleviate my pain…? Are you suggesting you’ll just kill me?”
At Yulicia’s sharp reaction, Maien smiled gently.
“Why would I do that? I genuinely want to relieve your pain.”
Maien leaned forward, her blonde hair fluttering as she brought her face closer to Yulicia’s.
“Through divine healing, of course.”
Yulicia’s frown deepened even further.
“Divine healing?”
“Yes, divine healing.”
Yulicia internally sighed deeply.
‘So she’s just a crazy woman after all.’
Was she a fanatic? It felt like she had tangled herself with the most troublesome type.
Sigh.
It might be best to brush her off and just head home to sleep. Yulicia waved her right hand firmly in the air.
“Enough. Let’s just part ways. While I’m still being nice.”
“You’re quite suspicious, Yulicia.”
Maien still retained her smile.
“But I don’t take that negatively, Yulicia.”
Suddenly—
Maien’s right hand unexpectedly grabbed Yulicia’s left shoulder and pulled her into an embrace.
Caught off guard by the sudden move, Yulicia couldn’t react.
“How unfortunate.”
Maien’s right hand moved toward Yulicia’s facial scar.
Yulicia tried to shake it off immediately, but couldn’t.
Bam!
The radiance in Maien’s hand shone too brightly. Maien’s face was illuminated brilliantly by that light.
As Maien’s slender right hand covered the deep scar on Yulicia’s face, it began to peel away like an insect shedding its skin.
New flesh sprouted. Yulicia felt it. But simply feeling it wasn’t enough to believe that the scar had vanished and new skin had formed.
Maien beamed brightly as she spoke.
“Where’s a mirror?”
“What on earth did you do?”
“I healed your scar. So your pretty face is back.”
Maien leaned closer to Yulicia’s ear.
“I can restore that left foot back to its original state too.”
Yulicia’s eyes widened.
“Wow, that’s beautiful.”
Maien gently stroked the head of the dazed Yulicia.
“It wouldn’t be right to recover your foot here, so I’d like you to accompany me to the temple where I serve as a Holy Maiden. Would you come with me?”
“I want to go to the church where the Holy Maiden works. Would you come with me?”
Maien still had a compassionate look on her face.
“How could that be….”
In response to Yulicia’s question, Maien answered briefly.
“It’s not human power. It’s the grace of the Almighty. Would you come with me to the church?”
Yulicia could only nod in agreement.
The scar on her face was gone, and new flesh had grown back.
To Maien, it was just a small miracle, but to Yulicia, it felt like a gigantic miracle.
*
Limp-limp-
The sound of crutches hitting the ground mixed with the footsteps of the two women.
It was a temple made of white structures. The huge white main door opened, and on either side stood people in white robes lined up.
“Welcome back, Holy Maiden.”
“It’s late. What happened, Holy Maiden?”
“Is your body alright?”
Their voices were filled with concern.
The blonde Holy Maiden, Maien, smiled gently and slowly scanned both sides.
“I was a little late guiding a new sister. Please don’t let anyone into my quarters for a while.”
“Understood.”
At Maien’s words, all the members of the church nodded in unison.
Holy Maiden Maien’s room was vast.
Following Maien’s guidance, Yulicia lay down on the white bed in the white room.
Maien did not ask how she got injured; she simply held Yulicia’s left leg.
The bright light Yulicia had seen moments ago in the dark came alive again on Maien’s right palm.
“Please bestow your grace upon this girl, Malphas.”
Yulicia’s left leg was enveloped in a pure white light. A very powerful light.
When the light completely vanished, Yulicia couldn’t help but tremble all over.
“My, my foot….”
Her left foot, which had to be amputated due to being caught in the chaos, had fully regenerated. There was no sense of disconnection at all. It was a perfect restoration.
From the perspective of Malphas, the “Evil God of Grim Blessing,” this was a trivial power.
But for Yulicia, it wasn’t something that could feel trivial.
A miracle.
It was truly a miracle.
Sluuurk—
Maien took out a handkerchief and wiped the beads of sweat that had formed on her forehead.
Yulicia stared blankly at her left foot for quite some time.
“I…,” she finally said slowly. “Is there something I can do for this place?”
Her tone naturally became polite.
Maien shook her head slowly.
“You just have to believe. In Malphas.”
Yulicia immediately responded.
“Yes, I will believe. In Malphas.”
He was the one who bestowed such grace upon her.
Although she did not yet know his face, his voice, or anything about him, she felt she could have faith, since he had completely erased her facial scars and fully regenerated her severed foot.
Maien smiled brightly.
“Separately from believing in Malphas, whether you become a follower of this place, Piggero, is a choice that Yulicia herself must make.”
Yulicia nodded slowly.
“I understand.”
At that moment, she didn’t feel an intense faith towards the invisible God Malphas. All she felt was a strong gratitude towards Maien, who had come to her and bestowed this blessing.
A strong faith wasn’t really on the menu. Instead, all she felt was a deep gratitude towards Maien, who approached her and gifted her with such blessings.
Yulicia began to slowly learn about the church, Piggero. She wasn’t the only one to have been saved by Maien.
Like her, others had also received salvation. There were many cases where one family member was saved, leading the entire family to throw themselves into the Piggero Church.
“Hello, Sister Yulicia.”
“What lovely weather, Sister Yulicia.”
“Y-yes….”
Yulicia awkwardly lowered her head as she approached, beaming at the warm welcome from those who greeted her.
“Is there genuinely such a warm world like this—”
It felt like she had stepped into a realm where greetings were exchanged with no purpose, desire, or suspicion; all just goodwill.
When Yulicia became a follower, the number of church members was about 300. Yulicia couldn’t help but be flabbergasted. It was a surprisingly large number compared to other cults.
“There are even more members spread across the continent.”
Yulicia believed those words. If miracles were bestowed upon her, it wouldn’t be strange if they had also touched the hearts of others.
Yulicia worked as Maien’s assistant. Though assistant sounds grand, her role wasn’t significant. Just as Maien had given her salvation, her job was to find those whom Maien could help.
“….”
Yulicia looked down at a woman sprawled on the floor like she was dead.
“Is this person it?”
Maien carefully examined the woman with brown hair who had collapsed.
“Yes.”
Maien offered a wry smile.
“It seems she may be under the influence of drugs.”
The woman’s, Del’s, eyes appeared excessively hollow. It was as if she was wandering in search of something that didn’t exist in this world.
As expected, Del was indeed high on drugs. That was the source of Yulicia’s guilt.
“Yes, she was a regular client of mine.”
A woman who used to pester her for drugs almost every day when she worked as a courier.
With a face mixed with pity, Maien bowed her head towards Del.
“Does she have a story?”
“Yes.”
No one knew Del’s story better than Yulicia.
“A wealthy family’s son had gotten her pregnant. Since Del was quite skilled at flirting, marriage was almost guaranteed… but the child was lost. So, she was abandoned. For that man, there was no need to marry Del now that the child was dead.”
The reason Yulicia showed Del to Maien was to rid Del of the sadness that filled her being.
It was painful for Yulicia to see Del lying there like a dead body, using her own empty shell to make money when clients came around.
Of course, Yulicia also knew that this was just her own self-satisfaction. It made her feel kind of gross about herself.
“Del.”
Maien grasped Del’s hands.
“…What are you doing?”
“Do you wish for the darkness in your heart to fade away?”
“Darkness, my foot… what are you doing, you crazy girl?”
Maien tightened her grip on Del’s hands.
Radiance.
The light bestowed by Malphas penetrated deep within Del’s heart.
“Did you give a name to the child you lost?”
The light made Del’s eyes look more normal.
“A name? I was just trying to get that worthless brat to consider me, that’s all.”
“Was it really just that?”
“Was it really just that?”
Del’s eyes became clearer than before.
“…Hamyuel. That’s the name I wanted to give him when he came into this world.”
Tears welled up in her brightened gaze.
“It’s the name of the father who abandoned me. I just wanted to name him that.”
Maien’s radiance brings out the inner self.
If the inner self desires its own salvation.
This was not a power given by Malphas but an innate characteristic that Maien possessed upon gaining divine power.
Del was able to release a bit of her gloom.
Yulicia returned to the Piggero Church with Maien.
“Tomorrow.”
Maien continued with a somewhat stiff expression.
“There’s a ceremony at the church tomorrow. Think about whether you want to join after witnessing it.”
“…I just want to keep helping you, Maien. To do that, I guess I have to become a believer, right?”
Maien simply smiled awkwardly.
“Or could I become a Holy Maiden like you and help you from the side?”
Maien was still smiling.
“In Piggero, like anywhere else, only one person can awaken as a Holy Maiden. And… I think I have to end my duty here.”
Yulicia was perceptive. Having crawled from the bottom, it was an unintended strength developed over time.
Maien’s words didn’t carry the tone of someone worried about losing their own position.
Duty.
It felt like a strong will to fulfill her committed tasks.
And so, the night passed.
As Maien said, the scene Yulicia faced the next day was quite shocking.
“They’re prisoners.”
The serious offenders Yulicia obtained through monetary transactions with the peacekeeping forces.
“All of them are offerings for Malphas.”
Maien’s expression was devout.
But it wasn’t fanatical. Yulicia struggled to find the reason why.
“Ughhhhhh!”
“What the hell, you bastards! I was happy to get you out of prison, and this is what it’s turned into, a pigpen?”
“Are we livestock?”
From a distance, twelve prisoners, indistinguishable between male and female, screamed in a cage resembling a massive birdhouse. Beneath the prisoners’ feet, crimson runes were drawn.
The red light resembled the mouth of a colossal malevolent spirit, swallowing the prisoners whole.
The white-robed believers were bowing their heads in a posture of reverence.
Among them, Maien, the Holy Maiden of Piggero, was praying at the forefront.
Yulicia glanced at Maien.
The impact was significant.
Offering sacrifices to a god.
But another shock lodged itself in Yulicia’s mind.
Surprisingly, she didn’t feel as uncomfortable as she had expected.
The prisoners offered as sacrifices – while she could somewhat foresee their fate, it was merely a little discomfort.
They were not family.
They were not friends.
They didn’t belong inside the frame of Piggero.
And they were criminals who committed serious offenses.
These points kept her faith in Piggero intact.
Yulicia continued to live as Maien’s aide.
She gathered those who were mentally and physically ill and made them her family.
Malphas, who could be seen as the embodiment of Piggero, was merely a being revered in faith.
Yulicia was only thinking and moving in accordance with the light that was Maien.
Until one day, suddenly.
The Holy Maiden Maien vanished from this land without a trace.
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