Wasn’t This a Night Game

What in the Hell is Going On

Didn’t pass out for too long, it seemed.

When I came to, a huddle of young girls was right in front of me.

“It’s the Saint.”

“It really is the Saint.”

About five young girls, faces horribly disfigured, were gazing up at me with bright, innocent eyes.

I blinked, looking from them to the thug’s corpse sprawled in the corner, and reality crashed back in.

Didn’t throw up.

But cold sweat poured off me like a waterfall.

My body locked up, unable to move. The young girls cautiously approached and took my hands.

That warmth brought me back a sliver of clarity.

“That man… what was he doing?”

“Fetch us matches and give them here.”

“We’ll sell them then, make some coin.”

“The mister takes the money, gives us a place to sleep and something to eat.”

“A place to sleep and food, you say?”

“Yes, Saint.”

I look down at the children.

Seven or eight, at most.

Another little girl, maybe four.

Each one, a face melted by burns, clothes that looked like rags scavenged from a Korean trash bin would be an improvement.

Bare feet, and the hands of the girl holding mine, rough enough to shame even a construction foreman’s.

My brow furrows.

This is how kids look with food and a place to sleep?

“Could I maybe see where you sleep?”

“Yes.”

The children lead me.

Shit.

Gotta bolt.

Before the Lilia Order folks show up…

But the kids, their state was too wretched. Couldn’t just leave.

A few more turns through winding alleys.

I managed to arrive at where the children slept.

“You lean and sleep here.”

I was robbed of words.

A long,

Grubby and foul-smelling, decaying rope was strung horizontally along the wall.

Clustered there, leaning on that rope, slept young girls who didn’t even look ten years old.

Right at the entrance of a godforsaken drain, reeking of mold and rot, a place with no name and no visitors.

“The food… what do you eat?”

The young girls pointed to rotten vegetables and moldy bread rolling around near the drain.

“If the tribute is a lot, sometimes they give us bread that isn’t moldy.”

The scene was too shocking; I was rendered speechless.

Each of the fifteen young girls had distorted burn scars on their faces, their bodies, their hands, and they dangled, leaning on the rope, with expressions that held no hope, no future.

The guilt of killing a man subsided.

This…

What kind of fucking garbage b*stard does this?

“Your faces. What about your faces? Why are your faces like that?”

At my question, the girls teared up.

“Mom and Dad died early.”

“The factory man took us and made us work at the match factory.”

“We had to be careful, but we weren’t careful and a fire started.”

“Our faces hurt, so they just threw us away. Hungry, with no place to sleep… Mister took us in, gave us work, a place to sleep and food.”

Some of the little girls, barefoot all, had toes fallen off from frostbite.

One had no fingers, another’s face so twisted you could see the inside of her throat.

Frankly, it was more of a miracle these kids were still alive.

My fist clenches tight.

I have to run.

The Lily Order folks are coming.

Said they’d arrive early.

So, they might be looking for me already.

I shouldn’t be doing this.

I have to run.

My head’s screaming I gotta run, right now.

But…

But.

How can I just run away after seeing this, damn it?

I stopped time, vanished all of a sudden, so are there witnesses, footprints?

It’d take the other side ages to find me, right?

So, maybe I’ve got time to heal these kids.

That thought hit me.

“Mister… are you really a Saint?”

To the little girl’s question, I quietly knelt, meeting her gaze.

“No.”

I ain’t no saint.

I’m just a goddamn fuck-up born with some ero-game skill set.

A scaredy-cat. Freeze up at the slightest big thing, a soft boy who cries at a harsh word.

My hobby was watching anime. Back then, just some small-town college kid, nothing special, then bam, reborn.

Even so, I’m someone who can heal the kids in front of me.

“I’m just someone who heals people when they’re hurt, that’s all.”

I held out my hand to the kid in front of me.

“Come here. I’ll fix you up.”

So what if it’s ero-game skills? So what if I’m a goddamn mess?

Be grateful for this chance.

I placed my hand on the kid’s head.

[Skill: Body Modification activated!]

I began to work on the kid’s body.

Healed the face melted by burns, cured the various diseases clinging to their body.

Mended severed fingers, fixed toes lost to frostbite.

Forcing my mind, still drained from using Time Stop, to concentrate and modify these kids, a nosebleed started, but I didn’t stop.

No.

I couldn’t stop.

“Aah……..”

The child, seeing her own body healed in an instant, sheds tears.

I spoke to the healed child.

“Go, bring your friends. This uncle will fix them all.”

The child brings other children to me.

A child limping.

A child with a white eye, perhaps blind in one.

A child whose nose has melted away so completely that he sniffs and makes strange noises whenever he speaks.

I placed my hand on the children’s heads, continuing the renovations, one by one, calmly and cautiously.

And finally.

The last child, too, returned to a cute and pretty appearance.

“S-Saint!”

“The Saint healed us!!”

“It doesn’t hurt!! I can see!!”

As the sound of children giggling reached my ears, I inexplicably felt tears welling up.

I hugged each of the children tightly.

“You won’t hurt anymore.”

“Thank you!”

“Thank you! Saint!”

“Now, I’ll be able to sell matches even harder!!”

That remark made me furrow my brow.

“You’re going to sell matches?”

“Yes.”

“And where…where will you sleep?”

“Here.”

“……”

“Why?”

I just went and healed him, but if he does this, it won’t be long before he gets sick again, aches, and shuffles off to the afterlife.

I just wanted to say, I healed you, so bye-bye, I’m outta here…

But my feet are stuck.

“Do you know where the Solar Order is?”

“Yes! I know!”

“Go there and tell them the Saint sent you. Then they’ll take care of you.”

The Solar Order isn’t exactly rolling in it either.

So, I figured I could just send them money every month, anonymously, as a donation, money for these kids, if you get my drift.

“No way! We won’t leave the Saint!”

“Me neither!”

This is the best I can do.

Any more than this, and it’s too much for me.

The Lilia Order might still be looking for me, you know?!

“They burn you at the stake if they catch you, kids!!”

“Uncle Lee, won’t you let go a bit…”

The moment I cautiously shoved the kids away, plotting to make another run for it.

“He’s here!!!”

“It’s the Saint!!!!”

The clatter of plate armor echoed.

And before I could even *think* to do something, paladins of the Sun Order flooded the alleyway I was standing in.

“Saint! It’s the Saint!!”

My face went white seeing the paladins.

I’m screwed.

I gotta escape, now!……

This is dogshit.

My head’s too damn tired.

Even with stopped time, I doubt I could escape this alley in this state.

In the end, I couldn’t even run, just stood there awkwardly surrounded by the kids.

“Saint, surely… did you heal these children?”

Cold sweat trickled down my face, and I forced a smile.

Still, thank god it isn’t the Lilia Order.

There was still a chance to escape.

“I only did what was needed. Please, take care of these children. I have somewhere to be…”

The line just spat, I was about to bolt.

Then, a knot of people filtered into the alley behind the Sun Order paladins.

The robber b*stard, half-gone in the head, drool slicking his chin, was being dragged in by cops, cuffs tight on his wrists, snickering.

That robber b*stard.

Wasn’t he a goner?

Alive, huh??

Karmic payback, you piece of shit.

Rot in prison, you hear me.

Up ’til then, it was alright.

The trouble was the gaggle of white-robed priests trailing behind.

A teardrop shape inside a perfect circle.

An inscription mirroring a weeping eye.

Ah………

Why the hell are *you* lot here?

“Not long after the Saint disappeared, members of the Lilia Order heard the whispers and came directly to our Order. So, employing a Miracle of Tracking, I’ve been personally leading the way.”

A Miracle of Tracking.

Since when was that a thing?

Why *is* that a thing?

Why the *hell* is that a thing!!!

“I see.”

I was still wearing a smile.

Or, rather, my face had just frozen that way.

This is it.

Burning at the stake ending.

I’m a goddamn idiot, a real piece of shit.

Should have just run, kids or no kids.

Fixed it quick, slapped on time stop, and booked it.

Why the hell did I have to stick my nose in it, get myself into this mess!

No!

Why is this my fault!

The Sun Cult, with their miracle of tracking, hiding it from me – you’re the worse ones!!!

I’m about to be burned alive, but I healed a lot of people, didn’t I! Shouldn’t they show some mercy to a heretic!! Maybe if I shout that and tug at their heartstrings I’ll have a chance to live?

While those thoughts were swirling inside me…

The Lilia Cult’s priests cautiously approached me.

I was completely frozen, watching them come closer.

The bald old man leading the Lilia priests looked at me with an expression that was hard to describe, complex.

“Goddess. Truly……truly a Saint? Are you the one the Goddess has sent?”

I don’t know what to say.

Whatever I say, they’ll catch me on it.

I was completely frozen, just trembling.

When I didn’t react, the baldy grandpa reached out a liver-spotted hand toward me.

“Stigmata. If you truly are an apostle descended from the Goddess…if you are Her Saint, then show us the stigmata.”

I squeezed my eyes shut tight.

Yeah.

Knew it would come to this.

They’d try to verify me with all sorts of unfamiliar verification methods that only Lilia’s followers would understand.

Stigmata?

Like I’d have one of those?

I’m screwed.

I’d probably live the rest of my life being called a heretic pretending to be a Saint of God.

Because I was frozen, unable to do anything, the baldy grandpa couldn’t wait any longer and moved first.

“Forgive the discourtesy. I will ascertain it.”

The baldy grandpa gestured urgently.

The Holy Knights of the Lilia Order advanced towards me.

Carefully, calmly, they began to strip off my clothes.

Clothes stained with every kind of filthy filth from rolling around with the poor and patching up witches, falling off one by one.

I just stared up at the sky, wearing a vacant expression.

…Life, what the hell.

Is this how it all ends, so futilely?

So futilely…

The paladins, uncaring if I was lost to the world. Began to meticulously examine every inch of my bare skin.

I just stood there, arms spread wide, letting them feast their eyes on my nakedness.

Just gave up.

Too terrified, my brain froze, unable to think anything.

Maybe I should just wail as pathetically as possible right before they burn me at the stake, really crank up the emotional appeal. That was the only thought rattling around in my skull.

“A stigmata… there is no stigmata.”

“Not a single mark!”

Lilia’s paladins shouted.

Yeah.

I don’t have one.

Wouldn’t it be even more suspicious if I had stigmata without any Divine Power? I deliberately didn’t make any.

Should I start crying now?

Kneel and bawl my eyes out, begging them to at least spare me the burning for heresy.

“She comes… in the purest of form! aaah!! The scriptures have come to pass!!”

“Indeed!!! High Priest! She is the Saint sent by the Goddess!!”

…Huh?

“Lilia!! aaah!! Praise be to the Goddess of Grace!!!”

The paladins all dropped to their knees, facing me.

The priests of the Lilia Order, including the bald old geezer, knelt as well.

The people of the Sun Order, eyes glistening with tears, made the sign of the holy symbol, and the police looked at me, their faces filled with respect and awe.

“Saint of the Goddess!! Lead us, your humble servants!!!!”

I just blinked, staring at the bald old man who was yelling with such fervor.

What in the world was going on?