How a Former Pastor Lives in Another World

22

The Saint of Radiance

The hair that catches the moonlight and torchlight streaming in from the underground bars is a pure and clean silver.

Such hair color contrasts with the pitch-black monastic robe. Even the eye patch covering her pale skin is black.

The lace eye patch covering both eyes makes one wonder if she can see through it. But there’s something more important.

‘What’s that, that soul.’

But more awkward than that is the clear soul with the fading vitality of a hammer and chisel. The pitch-black monastic robe seems to be worn to hide any blood that might splatter.

No matter how much I think about it, the color of the soul and the brutal situation just don’t match.

“Excuse me… Is this room B112?”

“That’s right. And you are?”

“I’m Ray Anderson. An intern at the armed organization.”

“Oh… You’re Ray Anderson?”

Ray tilted his head at the knowing look.

“Do you know me?”

“Yes. Yes, yes. The devil, you killed him? And you got the stigmata.”

‘Both know him, so he must be quite a high-ranking clergyman…’

But unlike the brutal situation, the woman faced Ray with a bright demeanor.

It’s scary that she has such a demeanor but her face isn’t smiling.

“How did you kill him? I’m very curious.”

“I’m not sure… I was just lucky.”

She naturally wouldn’t talk about seeing souls or physically intervening with them, or being able to channel spirits.

Because in this era, it’s uncertain how the abilities of clairvoyance and spirit channeling would be judged.

“But… may I ask who you are?”

“Iris. Call me Iris.”

“Ah, yes… Lady Iris…”

The honorific was added because she seemed to be of no ordinary status.

Erdio and the Iris before me, those with such souls seem strangely unrestrained.

“But this is the room I was supposed to use, why is Iris here?”

“Interrogation. There’s something I need to find out before it’s processed.”

Interrogation… It seemed that Iris belonged to the heresy interrogation agency, Eclipse.

“Did you come to interrogate too? Sorry, I went first. It’s a bit… broken.”

Ray had been looking at the man who had been slumped over since earlier, drooling blood mixed with saliva.

A dark red sin. He was a heinous heretic, already sentenced to death, rumored to have been a wizard’s apprentice.

‘Ugh…’

Crouching down, Ray peered into the man’s pupils, which were open but lacked any light.

Such vile individuals usually have eyes sparkling with murderous intent and hatred. But… there was no sign of life’s luster in the man’s gaze.

“Save me, please save me… I don’t want to die… Don’t put it in… Don’t put it inaaa…”

‘He’s been cruelly carved up.’

In this medieval interrogation, it ultimately means torture. It’s an era where the rights of criminals are of no concern, but what Iris did to the condemned seemed to cross some ‘line.’

“I’ve got everything I need. Want to finish up, Ray? Got any experience? Shall I teach you? Starting from here is more effective…”

“No, I’m fine.”

“Really?”

The woman seemed disappointed.

Feeling a disconnect between the soul’s color and her regret over not being able to share her torture techniques.

“I didn’t come to interrogate.”

“Got it.”

Disappointed she couldn’t teach torture, she truly was a stone-cold character.

‘I shouldn’t get involved with her, separate from my good deeds.’

Ray had no intention of getting entangled with the zealot who had meticulously carved up a person from the instep to the knee, the spleen to the collarbone, the back of the hand to the wrist.

“…”

“Iris?”

“Why?”

When Ray, who was standing dumbfounded, spoke to Iris, she just tilted her head in confusion.

Ray cautiously spoke to Iris, who was significantly his superior.

“Are you going to stay here?”

“Yeah.”

She’s not backing down.

Iris seems to have no intention of leaving.

Eventually, Ray decided to ignore Iris’s presence and go about his business.

“Now, sir? Oh, your name… Gallahan? Mr. Gallahan, please come to your senses.”

Tap tap, Ray pats the cheeks of Gallahan, who has lost focus.

He’s completely out of it.

Ray decided to proceed without seeking the other party’s consent.

“Here we have holy water. It’s just ordinary holy water used for washing hands in a church. And this is holy water blessed in a cathedral.”

Ray laid out the beakers one by one. Iris watched with great curiosity.

“And this is sanctified blood diluted with vinegar, this is sanctified blood diluted with honey, and this is sanctified blood diluted with brine. Now, I’m going to try these on Mr. Gallahan.”

“Try… it?”

Without waiting for Gallahan’s response, Ray dropped the ordinary holy water on him.

“Argh…! Grrrrr!”

Gallahan writhes in pain as the holy water touches the wound Iris had opened.

Ray exclaimed, “Oops,” and apologized as if he felt sorry.

“It’s natural for it to hurt when saltwater gets into a wound. Sorry. Hmm, it seems that holy water doesn’t affect bare skin at all.”

“Grrrrr!”

Ordinary holy water is just water poured over salt. It’s only considered holy due to the special terrain of the church.

This time, Ray dropped the cathedral-blessed holy water on the man.

“Argh…!”

There’s a reaction.

It seems that holy water blessed in a cathedral does have an effect on humans tainted by evil.

‘It seems to end with just a bit of pain. It might need processing.’

Usually, its power is amplified when combined with something else.

Even the explosive ironclad bullets used by London’s demon hunters are made by combining holy water and silver.

‘What about the sanctified blood, then?’

It is said that stigmata only perform true miracles after awakening.

But even so, the wounds that stigmata produce are called sanctified blood.

I wonder, what effect will the sanctified blood, holy in itself, have when combined with holy water?

Ray, full of curiosity, dropped the sanctified blood on the man’s skin.

“Ugh…!”

There’s a reaction. Is it as much as the holy water received during the blessing ceremony? If so, there would be no need to worry about carrying holy water around all the time.

“Grunt, gurgle! Gah, gaaah!”

“Huh?”

Galerhan screams in agony, enough to startle even Rey.

“Professor? Professor? You’re not exaggerating, are you?”

Could a single drop of blood really cause such a reaction?

“Gaaah! It’s melting! It hurts! It hurts! It’s painful!”

“Ah… You need to endure a bit longer. I’ve diluted it with vinegar, and now, with honey and brine too…”

Rey hurriedly continues the experiment. The man’s screams tear through his throat, and Rey realizes that for those tainted by the curse, the sacred blood is no different from poison.

“Cough, sorry about that. Even though I only dropped a single drop, you’re overreacting. I don’t understand how someone who has immersed many can’t bear their own pain.”

Without conscience.

Rey decides that further experiments are pointless and prepares to stand up. But then…

“Oh no. It burst again.”

Blood springs from the stigmata on his hand, staining the bandage. As Rey tries to stop the bleeding by removing the bandage…

Pop! The droplets of blood splatter. They hit Galerhan’s face.

“Ah.”

“Eh?”

Screams pour out.

The man, who had been numbed and tormented by Iris, now screams in horrific pain as if his entire body is melting.

“Crush, crush it! Crush it for me! Crush it pleeease!”

Galerhan is in excruciating pain. Rey is frozen.

‘It’s like he’s reacting to alien acidic blood.’

It’s not just an act, is it?

Rather, it’s as if his flesh is physically melting away. Who knew raw sacred blood could have such an effect?

Should I just kill him? No, that’s beyond Rey’s authority.

He was granted permission to interrogate under the guise of ‘practice,’ not to kill.

In the end, Rey leaves the man writhing in pain and exits the room.

“Hmm. Not my problem.”

Anyway, it’s unknown. Have the heretics been having seizures without reason for just a day or two? It’s all that guy’s fault.

“Wow~”

Just then, a voice of admiration came from behind.

“That’s cool. I never thought of that.”

At first, it seemed like they were criticizing Ray for pretending not to know, but that wasn’t it.

It was excitement.

“Uh… Iris, ma’am?”

“Yes. Why?”

“That… Could you pretend not to know about the holy blood? It’s not really something to report, is it?”

“Yeah. No one’s going to blame you for interrogating a heretic a bit.”

It didn’t seem like an interrogation.

“I’ll take care of the aftermath… Should I write a report?”

“No, no. I’ll do it, I want to do it. I want to experiment with the holy blood too.”

“……”

I see. She wants my holy blood as a price for keeping her mouth shut.

Ray, unaware that Iris is a saint and thus has holy blood flowing through her, cautiously handed over three beakers containing the holy blood.

“I’ll, I’ll give it to you.”

“Huh? Thank you?”

Iris smiled brightly. As a smile appeared on her nearly expressionless face, indeed, she seemed like a great beauty.

“Thanks to you, I feel like I’ve blazed a new trail. I’ll take good care of your aftermath. I would have liked to have a deeper conversation if it weren’t for the business trip up north.”

“Ah, yes……”

For some reason, Ray seemed to have gained Iris’s favor.

***

The radiant saint, Iris, watched as Ray left.

“Ray. Ray Anderson……”

She mulled over Ray’s name, reminiscing about the recent past.

‘Using holy blood like poison. I never thought of that.’

Holy blood of a saint is endowed with various meanings.

The sacred blood that flows from the stigmata, symbolizing the miracle of God.

But to the saints themselves, it’s nothing more than an annoying occurrence that frequently spurts out and hardens into scabs.

To dilute it for use as a poison, what a thought.

Iris is a saint from the heresy interrogation agency Eclipse.

Her hands, once belonging to a heresy interrogator, were infamous for their cruelty within the order, making her colleagues wary of her.

And that saddened Iris.

To be shunned by her brothers and sisters in faith for torturing heretics who rightly deserved pain and death.

Many called her a zealot, and they were not wrong.

‘One of my kind…’

And today, Ray’s methods were not much different from her own.

To consider heretics mere experimental subjects, to know that sacred blood runs through them, and yet to smear them with undiluted raw blood.

Even to a master torturer like Iris, those methods seemed quite cruel.

And wasn’t it she who was left to finish them off, after being given the sacred blood and sent away?

“Ray Anderson. Ray Anderson…”

Perhaps Iris was not alone in this holy nation.

Grrrrr!

She looked at the heretic, still emitting pained groans.

What was their sin again?

Had they tried to summon a demon of the netherworld with the heart of a newborn?

Iris approached the heretic, who no longer had the strength to scream, grasped their head, and looked down.

Then, with one hand, she removed the eye patch.

Clear and pristine, the wall-eye revealed itself.

“……!”

In those clear and transparent eyes, Galeran saw it.

The stigmata of brilliance, ＜Stigma of Radiance＞, vividly engraved in both of Iris’s pupils.

“Surely raw blood was most effective?”

The next moment, tears began to flow from those bright eyes.

Not clear and transparent tears, but chilling bloody tears, trickling down her pale, clean skin, drop by drop, gathering at the corner of her eyes.

“Oh no, don’t do this. Please… please…!”

“It’s done.”

The next moment, Iris’s bloody tears fell, pulled down by gravity.

***

The main duties of the armed organization are to receive missions and prevent the heretics’ conspiracies unfolding across the continent or to subdue the devil’s contractors.

Among these, the core missions vary from special class to fifth class depending on their difficulty, and the missions that members can undertake are determined by their promotions.

The mission that the three had performed corresponded to a second-class mission.

They interrogate and escort those accused of witchcraft. A minimum of a second-class armed priest must accompany them in case they are indeed witches.

Anyway, by carrying out missions, they are granted promotions and rewards, so the three looked for missions they could perform.

“It’s harder than I thought. We’re fourth-class, so the missions lack substance.”

“It’s only because we’re not apprentices anymore. If we hadn’t been promoted after the last incident, we wouldn’t have stood a chance.”

“Yawn~ The activity support fund is low, and so is the reward money~ The leftover missions don’t even break even~”

The three had shed their apprentice labels after their last act of valor.

Precisely, they were now considered fourth-class armed clergy within the armed organization.

Being fourth-class, their authority had increased by a whisker, but still, it was just an apprenticeship, so to speak.

If they could become third-class official members, their scope would broaden significantly.

While the three were scrutinizing the list even in the communal dining hall, someone approached them.

“Ray, big bro, Jenny, big sis. What are all three of you looking at?”

“Oh, Henry.”

Ray casually raised his hand in greeting. He was a monk from the Granville Monastery, with whom they had formed a bond since before the entrance exam.

“I’ll join you guys, too.”

Henry set down his tray and took a seat.

He then glanced at the parchments the three had spread out with a look full of curiosity.

“Are you going on a mission?”

“We need to score some points if we want to get promoted to official members.”

“Wow~ Already aiming for official membership while still being probationary members? All three of you are impressive!”

Henry looked at them with eyes full of admiration.

Aaron spoke up.

“Weren’t your training scores good enough to go on a mission, too? I heard you had the top scores in combat training.”

“Haha~ I learned a lot at the Granville Monastery. But still, I’m nothing compared to the investigators of our monastery.”

Henry scratched his head, seemingly embarrassed.

“Actually, I also want to go on a mission to catch heretics and make a name for myself, but I don’t have anyone to go with. So, um!”

Henry looked at the three with eager eyes.

“Could I, maybe, join you on the next mission? I want to prove myself, too!”

In fact, Henry harbored admiration and envy upon hearing that three individuals had vanquished a witch in the north.

Henry, who had grown up learning doctrines and living among the monks,

had always awaited the day he could serve the theocracy, and he also harbored a prideful desire to shine as an armed cleric.

But to think that three of his peers had subdued a witch?

Henry was so heated with excitement he could hardly contain himself.

I want to subdue heretics and make a name for myself just like that!

However, Henry was still an apprentice. Apprentices didn’t have the authority to choose and carry out missions.

It was only possible for those three because they were accompanied by Father Moro, a second-class armed priest.

To be promoted step by step, apprentices had to complete a systematic training curriculum, and that was a distant goal.

“……”

“……”

The trio scrutinized Henry, who pleaded to join them on a mission.

Henry, hailing from the Granville Monastery famous for its combat monks, was said to have quite formidable fists.

Even seasoned mercenaries who were apprentices seemed to be no match for Henry in one-on-one combat.

‘A recommended party consists of five members.’

‘We are short on people, after all.’

Henry might be an apprentice, but he’s quite a promising stock. Considering his enthusiasm, wouldn’t it be alright to include him just this once?

“Well, if he doesn’t perform well, we can always kick him out.”

“Think of it as temporary.”

At Aaron’s words, Henry’s expression brightened considerably.

“Yes! I’ll do my best!”

“Keep your voice down. You’re lacking manners in the dining hall.”

“Oops!”

With that, Henry became the fourth member, and the party members began to reassess their list.

“Cemetery purification agent… It would be perfect for Ray, but it doesn’t seem very pleasant.”

“Ew~ I absolutely detest ghosts. Pass.”

Above all, the distance was also a concern. The three struck the mission from their list, following Jenny’s advice.

“How about missionary work in the heretic-dense area? It could be an opportunity to teach the grace of Lady Soltera to the heretics!”

“That’s absolutely not happening.”

Ray rejected the idea emphatically.

“Do you know how filthy the temperaments of these pagans are? Doing missionary work there is like jingling a pouch of gold coins in the slums.”

Ray presented another request form.

“How about overseeing the festival rituals in the neighboring city? Just offer some prayers and return.”

“No, the reality of that festival is a call for cheap labor.”

“How does Aaron know that?”

“Our Graham family is in charge of the festival.”

“Ah…”

If he assesses his own family’s event so poorly, it must be a total flop.

While reviewing the tasks, Ray’s eyes caught one particular mission.

「Volunteer work at Campbell Cathedral.」

The content was simple.

Dispatch workers to help with various chores at the grand cathedral.

“Campbell is the free city to the east, right, young master?”

“Don’t call me young master. And what free city? It’s a city of debauchery and decadence.”

Aaron clicked his tongue.

Jenny, uninterested in the reason, focused on the extra points of the mission.

“Why are the points so high? It’s quite a lot for just doing some volunteer work.”

“It must be because of the city’s uniqueness and distance. It’s quite a journey to Campbell.”

“It’s the highest-scoring mission we can take. Worth a try?”

“Yes, brothers and sisters! This looks good! I might even become a probationary member in one go!”

The reward for the mission was that attractive.

For just doing some volunteer work.

“Then, let’s go with this one. Better to handle one or two big things than many small ones. Ray Anderson, what do you think?”

“…”

“Ray Anderson?”

“…”

Aaron narrowed his eyes as Ray, called repeatedly, did not respond.

Ray was trembling.

After seeing the detailed contents of the request.

「P.S.」

Recently, heretics have been luring away the congregation of the cathedral.

At first, they approach without revealing their true intentions, inviting people to study the Bible, and then drawing them into their heretical sects.

Even some of the clergy have been ensnared, so we only wish for those with steadfast faith to come forward.

“This, this is!”

Ray was familiar with this tactic.

After all, it’s a situation any pastor of a sizable church would encounter.

“Are these not the b*stards of a cult, this!”

Initially disguised as ordinary churchgoers infiltrating the church, they subtly teach twisted doctrines under the guise of Bible study.

And then, they would spirit away the faithful to their sanctuaries, swelling their cult’s ranks.

The church referred to them as harvesters (cultist evangelists).

“Damn these wretched scoundrels!”

Bang! Ray slammed the table, drawing everyone’s attention.

“I will not forgive these heretics! We must deal with this immediately!”

Pastor Kim Kwang-oh.

A profession that couldn’t help but shudder at the mention of harvesters.