“Great Sister, you...”

Krete lowered his head and stared in disbelief at the hand that had punched through his abdomen.

That slender hand was still as pale and flawless as ever, but there was no trace of gentleness or holiness left in it now. It was cold as steel, piercing flesh clean through.

Krete could never have imagined that this Great Sister would suddenly attack him. Even if the priest had warned him just now...

Who would have believed the words of a limping old drunk priest?

“Who exactly are you...?” Krete gritted out through clenched teeth, doing everything he could to hold on to consciousness as the life rapidly drained from him.

“Who am I? Why, I’m a nun, of course. Great Sister Edeline of the Church.”

Edeline leaned her head close to Krete’s ear. Her voice was still the same as before, but the tone had changed completely, turning languid and strange.

“There’s nothing false about my identity. It’s just that under certain conditions, I happen to take on another job as well.”

“Another... job?”

“Oh, it’s nothing so important. It’s just that when little fish start trying to leap out of the pond, like now, I step in and deal with it a bit. Cleaning up, covering over, erasing traces. A poor woman like me can only do this much.”

“...Fish?”

“That’s right. You. All of you. You’re nothing more than fish in a pond, waiting to be hauled out. Your ending was decided long ago, and you don’t even know it. Pathetic and pitiful.”

“Go... fuck... yourself!”

His consciousness was growing hazier and hazier. The enormous wound in his abdomen was already more than enough to kill him. But Krete still summoned every last ounce of strength in his body, yanked out the short dagger at his waist, and spun around to stab at Great Sister Edeline.

He could not understand what she was talking about.

But his experience as a member of the Eye of the Saints told him clearly that he had to stop her.

A dim gleam flashed over the dagger, deep and dark as though it could pierce through space itself. As the head of a branch of the Eye of the Saints, Krete’s strength was naturally no trifling thing. The power and speed that exploded out of him in that instant were nothing like what one would expect from a man on the verge of death.

And yet the dagger halted before it had advanced even four inches.

Stopped by light.

Holy light.

“Holy Light... why?” Krete muttered in stunned disbelief. Even at a moment like this, he still believed the Edeline before him was an impostor and refused to accept—

“Why? Because I’m a Great Sister, of course. How many times do I have to tell you, Mr. Krete?”

Great Sister Edeline smiled faintly, shifting seamlessly between eerie and gentle.

She reached out and lightly snapped the dagger in his hand as easily as if she were breaking off a flower stem. Sacred light spread out and, in the same motion, invaded Krete’s aura barrier.

“Well then. Goodbye.”

Edeline swept her arm.

It was as if an invisible breeze had passed by. Krete’s expression froze. A small voice-transmission magic device was pinched between his fingers, and the motion of trying to warn his subordinates came to an abrupt stop.

Then he fell.

Like dead wood blown over by the wind.

Blood streamed from the opened neck and melted into the mud and soil, painting a watercolor tableau of death.

“It was quite pleasant working with you, actually. There aren’t many people in the Eye of the Saints as convenient as you. You caught so many heretics before this—I really do owe you thanks for that.

“If I could, I would have liked to work with you a little longer. But before everything comes to an end, I absolutely cannot let you—cannot let anyone—catch a glimpse of the city’s truth.”

With a regretful air, Great Sister Edeline flicked the broken short dagger in her hand and sent it stabbing into the soil above Krete’s head, where it looked like a tiny gravemarker.

“Rather ceremonial, isn’t it?”

Off to the side, the priest—who had watched the entire scene from beginning to end—offered a serious critique.

“A dagger as a gravestone in a dead-silent cemetery. Put that on the front page, and it’d probably make this year’s top ten compositions.”

“Oh?”

Great Sister Edeline tilted her head in puzzlement. “Father, are you really not afraid?”

“Afraid? Why would I be afraid?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Edeline stepped forward, moving lightly over the mud and pooled rainwater until she stood in front of him.

Staring at him, she said in complete seriousness, “Because next, I’m going to kill you to silence you.”

“I see... Then it looks like those corpses that appeared out of nowhere really are hiding something extraordinary.”

The last leaf on the old tree drifted down beneath the invisible killing intent, as though marking the withering of life itself. But the priest only smiled.

“Since an old wreck like me is going to die anyway, how about showing a little kindness, Sister, and telling me the secret first?”

“Why # Nоvеlight # would I tell you?”

“Dying with understanding is always better, isn’t it?”

“That’s your business.”

“It’s yours too.”

The priest lit another cigarette. Through the drifting smoke, he narrowed his eyes and studied the nun before him.

“You betrayed the Church. You betrayed the goddess. And now you won’t even grant an old man his last wish before death. Don’t you really fear the goddess’s judgment?”

“...I’m already like this, and you still think I care about the goddess?”

“You may look like a ruthless killer, but the aura of Holy Light on you isn’t fake.”

The priest blew out a ring of smoke and chuckled.

“If you still think of yourself as a compassionate nun, wouldn’t it be nice to grant my final wish?”

“I see. So that’s it?”

Great Sister Edeline smiled.

“You too, discarded priest? You still believe in the goddess?”

“...”

The priest lowered his eyes and said nothing, but that was answer enough.

“All right, then. Since we both once prayed beneath the goddess’s radiance, I’ll tell you. After all, you’re nothing more than a pitiful little fish that can’t even struggle.”

Great Sister Edeline looked around, then used Holy Light to completely seal off the area, making sure no one else could interfere. Only then did she slowly bend down.

“First of all, what’s troubling you is where those suddenly appearing corpses came from, correct?”

“That’s right.” The priest nodded.

“The answer is simple. They came from this city. From Saint Blancfazesiya, right behind you.”

Edeline brushed aside the hair over her shoulder, revealing the blurred outline of the city behind her.

“You mean... those corpses were all ordinary residents of this city?”

“Yes.”

Resting her chin on one hand, Great Sister Edeline spoke in an easy, matter-of-fact tone, as though she were telling some ordinary little story.

“Ordinary or not, they all came from here. The newspapers and official channels haven’t recorded it, but some people have probably already noticed that something is wrong. Some people have suddenly disappeared—disappeared in a way that should have been completely impossible, without leaving the slightest trace. Of course, among those people, a greater number are discovered dead on the spot instead... likewise by a kind of death that should have been completely impossible, leaving no trace behind at all.”

“Disappearances... deaths... You mean they were captured, killed, and then dumped here without anyone noticing?”

“You’re right about the middle. They were indeed killed. But you’re wrong about the beginning and the end. No one captured them, and no one dumped them here. The reason they ended up in this cemetery was simply a low-probability coincidence. And the reason that coincidence could happen at all is that this city still contains certain loopholes that are bound to appear under specific circumstances...”