17 1.16

After Michael regained control over his body, he descended back to Saintess' room, he wanted to protect Saintess' body before her burial. But he didn't find her at all. Saintess' body disappeared after his ascension as the new Saint. All that was left was her holy book.

Michael stood in silence, he clenched his holy staff.

He knew that Saintess' death was fated, everything had been fated by God.

But it created a big hole in his heart. He had sworn to his life that he would protect the Saintess at all cost, but in the end, he couldn't protect her from her own fate. Michael felt that it was unfair, because Saintess was only thirty until her death. She could've lived a long life. But she was God's dearest, he took her to heaven because she was too good for this world.

Everyone gathered near the Saintess' room to meet the new saint. Michael saw his holy knight, the missionarist, even the regular peasants gathered around the church to worship him. Michael always thought that Saintess didn't like to go outside because of her poor health.

But when all people gathered in front of him, they chanted his name, "Give us your blessing, Saint Michael! Please give us your blessing!"

Michael saw every person had a dark aura around them. Their face distorted in front of his eyes, and slowly, Michael could see the shadow of each person lingered on top of their heads, blatantly spouting their real sins.

'I've raped a woman when I was drunk!'

'I beat my wife until her legs went limp!'

'I spread gossip about my brother, because I'm jealous!'

'I like to torture animals because they look pitiful!'

Those twisted shadows confessed everything to him, he saw his holy knights, even the holy knights were full of sins. Michael finally understood what the Saintess' felt.

The shadows became louder and louder. The sins of all these people made him angry in heart. They looked clean from outside, but their sins were horrible. Michael's expression turned darker and darker, the holy staff in his hand trembled. The confessions disgusted him, truly.

It was only an hour since he became the new Saint, and Michael already wanted to kill everyone around him.

'They never repent, they never admit, they never regret,' Michael thought. The holy staff started gathering light, 'What is the point of letting them live if they will keep making more sin? I can… kill them all and stop those sins from talking, they are truly disgusting…'

The holy staff gathered enough light that shone through the whole church, the people who gathered inside the church were happy, because they thought that they would be blessed. Little did they know, the light from the holy staff would soon burn everyone inside this church.

Michael raised his holy staff, he was about to smite everyone inside this church. He closed his eyes, unable to bear seeing anymore twisted faces around him, until he heard a familiar voice calling his name desperately.

"Michael! Don't!"

Michael opened his eyes immediately. He looked at someone far from his position, he looked at him with worry in his eyes, he called his name again, "Michael! Don't release the light!"

"Duke…?" Michael couldn't believe his eyes. The Duke, who was obviously a vampire that couldn't withstand the holy aura of a saint, came to the church to stop him. He saw the Duke was in pain and his pale face turned reddish, even though the Duke was far away from his position.

Michael lowered his staff and the light from the staff gradually disappeared.

Everyone looked disappointed, they turned their heads towards Duke Damien who suddenly barged in, they glared in unison.

"THAT FAITHLESS DUKE DARED TO INTERRUPT THE SAINT'S BLESSING!" said one guy, he provoked everyone inside the church.

Everyone started cursing the Duke because of his faithless status, "You evil faithless! You sinful bastard!"

"Kill that Duke!"

Yunyu ignored everyone and stared at Michael once more, although he said nothing, he was pleading with his eyes. Michael bit his lips, he tried to suppress his rage. When these people who were truly sinful, dared to accuse someone, it boiled his anger.

He wanted to smite all of them at once, but the Duke's pleading eyes stopped him, like a cold water that constantly poured over his head, the Duke's pleading eyes suppressed his anger.

When Michael lowered his head, trying to suppress his rage again, Yunyu was finally assured that Michael would not massacre everyone with his smite here, at least not now. Yunyu smiled at Michael and ran from the church, because the people were really angry at him.

"Catch the Duke!"

[Pupa: I have to admit that you are truly a good actor there. You keep your acting on point even though your skin is burning.]

[…]

Yunyu said nothing, the masses chased him from the church. He ran and turned left to a dark alley. He immediately removed his presence and dashed out of the city. Yunyu ran towards the forest and went straight into a deep lake in the middle of the forest.

Yunyu dived to the lake and stayed there.

[Pupa: … Why are we in the lakebed?]

[Aaaaah! System! It's so painful and itchy! It's burning, I feel like I've been bitten by thousands of fire ants all over my body!]

Yunyu scratched his body all over inside the lake. He rolled in the lakebed, trying to scratch his back. He was a vampire, so he didn't need to breathe at all. The lakebed was really cold, so it was like a big pot of soothing oil.

Michael's holy aura didn't directly burn him, but it slowly bit his skin and made it so itchy and painful at the same time.

[I shouldn't have come to the church!]

[Pupa: If you didn't come, Michael would've killed everyone there.]

Meanwhile, Michael already teleported in front of the lake. He sat on a flat stone. He turned his holy staff back to be the white rosary, so his aura was not very overpowering.

He silently stared at the lake, he knew that the Duke was in the lakebed. Michael felt that his heart had been pinched, because he thought that the Duke jumped to the lakebed because he was saddened when the people wanted to kill him.

The Duke was a gentle soul, he had helped many people. But they all turned blind eyes over all his good deeds and only focused on one thing, his status as a faithless.

'He must've been crying inside the lake…' Michael thought.

When the Duke finally emerged, he was in pitiful state. His skin was bluish, and he was soaked. Yunyu was surprised when he saw Michael, he took a few steps back.

"W—Why are you here?"

Michael didn't say anything, he just stared at the Duke deeply. He was prepared to see all the sins that the Duke had done in his past life, but Michael saw no shadow over the Duke's head. No shadows, no confession, in fact, there was a faint glow on top of Yunyu's head.

"You… over three hundred years since the day you were awakened as a vampire… you never sinned?" Michael was dumbfounded. He knew that the Duke was kind hearted, but it was baffling that the Duke never had any sins in his life.

[Wait? Pupa, help me here. I'm lost, I don't know what he is talking about.]

[Pupa: A saint can see any sin that humans did throughout their life. He saw that you have no sin at all, like a baby.]

[But, Duke Damien had killed countless people for three hundred years. Are you sure that he is not wrong?]

[Pupa: He is not wrong. Since you've replaced Duke Damien's soul, Michael is seeing your soul as Yunyu, not as Duke Damien. Since you've never done anything sinful during the period of time you are here, he sees that you are a pure hearted soul.]

[Whoa… imagine if I followed your advice to drink human blood before, I would've failed this world. Pupa, you are as useless as always.]

[Pupa: I thought that you will fail the world anyway.]

[Please have more faith in me, goddamn it!]

Michael stared at the Duke who was fully guarded. Michael took one step forward, and the Duke took one step back, "Y—You shouldn't come closer," the Duke said.

"Duke… I've used magic to cover my aura for a short time, I will not burn you…"

The Duke finally stopped retreating, he stood still. Michael walked a few steps closer until they were only a few inches apart. Michael took a deep breath and asked:

"Why did you come to the church? You know it's dangerous there, you could've been killed."

"I don't want you to make the same mistake as I did three hundred years ago. I also did the same thing, seeing everyone as sinful and disgusting, so I killed all of them," The Duke replied.

"They deserve death," Michael said coldly, "Their hearts are ugly, just look at what they did to you. You are someone who has never sinned for three hundred years. You've helped them a lot, but they repaid it by trying to kill you."

"It's not about them," The Duke shook his head, "It's about myself. I helped them because I want to, not because I want them to repay me. Even if I died in their hands, I will not bear grudges against them. I want to die a good man."

[Pupa: Ding! Breakmeter increases to 95%, Fatemeter increases to 100%. Congratulations host! May you have a good love life with the master of this world!]

Right after the Duke said that, Michael got a sudden foresight about the Duke.

He saw the Duke lying on the ground, he closed his eyes solemnly with a silver stake piercing his heart.