The Hero Who Returned From Death Quits

EP7. At the End of Darkness

Beatrice woke up that day again to a sharp voice.

“Get up! It’s getting up!”

Beatrice sat up from her sleep and looked at the middle-aged woman with a strict appearance in front of her.

The nun in white named Deluna Lubache was the director of the orphanage where she lived.

Beatrice tidied up her bedding, trying hard to ignore the disapproving gaze of the middle-aged woman.

This happened when Beatrice was eight years old.

Beatrice’s morning always began with morning prayer. Beatrice would force her closing eyelids open and listen to what the old, eccentric nun said.

It wasn’t like she was born religious or anything. It was just that if she showed any sign of not paying attention, the eccentric middle-aged nun would obviously punish her.

Beatrice’s survival strategy was to listen to her and outwardly show that she was very impressed.

After the boring service, Beatrice went to eat breakfast.

There was no way the orphanage had any good facilities, and all she was given was a thin porridge.

But after praying to God, she put the porridge in her mouth. It didn’t taste good, but she had to eat it to survive. A child who had not learned parental affection had only the survival instinct of the body.

After the meal, the time for studying the scriptures continued. Beatrice spent her time reading the boring scriptures and glancing at the nuns who were beating the children with sticks for not doing well.

“Why aren’t you concentrating?”

Sister Deluna scrunched up her face and grabbed Beatrice’s arm. Beatrice lowered her eyes and spoke in the most nonchalant way possible.

“I was focused.”

Normally, if there was no clear evidence, it would be overlooked if a natural attitude was shown. But unfortunately, it seemed that Sister Deluna was in a bad mood that day.

“Really? Close the scriptures and read the passages you learned. If you really concentrate, you should be able to do that much. If you can’t, you’ll be in your fifties.”

Beatrice stood up and opened her mouth. Fortunately, she was naturally intelligent and memorized quickly.

“So when Keridus came to him, the star of Sevit fell, and the Arigas mobilized the men of Sevit against him…”

“Enough, enough. Enough.”

Beatrice clenched her fists inwardly. Okay.

“Yeah, I don’t think I did anything wrong, but if I see you turning your head like that one more time, you won’t be able to avoid punishment.”

As the middle-aged nun spoke, Beatrice nodded and sat down.

“Do not rebel. Do not distrust. This is the basic attitude toward God.”

Beatrice looked at the nun as she spoke.

“You don’t have to think that your fate is unfortunate now. Your fate was decided by God, and it is because of your sins. It may be the sin you were born with, or the sins of your parents.”

Is that true? Is it really Beatrice herself who is living like this?

Beatrice felt her worries deepening.

If that is the case, then why were humans like him born? If being born was a sin, wouldn’t it have been better not to have been born in the first place?

As Beatrice’s worries deepened, time continued to pass without stopping.

When Beatrice was twelve, it was common for older orphans to belong to a religious order and go out to the slums to do relief work.

Beatrice was naturally good-natured and enjoyed helping people, and because she was the most skilled at handling divine powers, she was able to heal quite a few people. However, the more she did this, the more her worries deepened.

It’s not that I don’t believe in God. But why did God leave humans in such suffering? Why did God give them divine powers to heal them?

Beatrice continued to help people even amid such doubts.

With the body of a young girl who was only 12 years old, she helped every last person as much as she could. Perhaps it was an act of sharing the love she wanted to receive, which she had not been able to receive and grow up with, with others.

And then, she saw a man running towards her, panting.

“Priests, priests!”

Strictly speaking, he was not a full-fledged priest but a trainee priest, but that didn’t seem to matter to the man.

“Please save my daughter! Please!”

Beatrice saw that the man was holding a baby in his arms who looked to be about a year old.

‘…Is it an addiction?’

It wasn’t uncommon for people in the slums to get food poisoning from eating old food. The only problem was that it was a child who got it.

If a newborn baby becomes addicted, it can be life-threatening.

The problem was that the work in the slums was almost over, so neither the other children nor she had much divine power left.

But she laid her hands on the child. She could not bear to let the child die, even if it meant failing due to her lack of divine power.

I, who was born without parents, also survived. I couldn’t leave a child who should have grown up with love to die like this.

So Beatrice poured out her divine power. Her arms began to tremble slightly, but a little more. A little more. Beatrice healed the child until her divine power was completely emptied.

Finally, the child let out a steady, slurping sound.

“Thank you, thank you!”

The child’s father expressed his joy with tears in his eyes.

Looking at that sight, Beatrice finally felt that something she had been struggling with for a long time was being resolved.

The face of a saved person.

Because that face, which seemed to have the happiest expression in the world, was so beautiful.

She now realized why she was born into this world and why God did not take away her suffering.

I have only now realized that man was born to save man and to be saved by man.

Beatrice was fifteen years old. After finding her answer, she became even more devoted to her faith and helping people.

And then, suddenly, I heard from people who came that after the saint died, she was chosen as a saint by a holy object that was said to elect a saint or a saintess.

At first she was bewildered, but she accepted her mission and willingly became a saint to help more people.

Her daily life was nothing but emptiness. The first image of a person who had been saved. After being captivated by that light and devoting herself to faith, all she had left after helping people was this pure white space.

There is no such thing as daily life, just a life devoted to faith and helping people.

Beatrice was feeling a little tired of that kind of life without even realizing it.

Beatrice, who had found fulfillment in saving others, was growing increasingly exhausted.

Meanwhile, the demons were running rampant.

The demons gathered around the Demon King and attacked humans, and Beatrice performed a ceremony to select a warrior.

And finally, after the ceremony was over and the warrior was chosen, Beatrice met the warrior.

A handsome man with a somewhat worn-out look.

Ainzel.

It happened when she was twenty years old.

…

Beatrice woke up and got out of bed. It seemed like it was still night.

Beatrice tried to recall the content of the dream. It was a dream that contained her life since childhood.

She shook off the memories of the past and went into the living room to take out a glass of water and drink it.

I had a really bad dream, perhaps because I was upset by the current state of affairs with the Allied Forces.

To be specific, it was the Demon King’s fault.

The Demon King suddenly became active after the Ashen Soldiers appeared. The problem was their power.

The Demon King’s overwhelming power was so great that, according to rumors, it could even make Grandis ‘insignificant’.

In every battlefield where the Demon King was present, no, now in almost every battlefield because of the Ashen Soldiers, the Allied Forces suffered defeat after defeat.

A situation where there is literally no solution in sight.

Beatrice bit her lip. The faith still remaining in her heart was screaming at her to go and help people right away.

But even in this situation, she couldn’t be sure if it was really what she wanted.

Beatrice entered Ainzel’s room without thinking.

I saw him sleeping.

When my head was complicated, I felt strangely at ease when I was by his side.

And as Beatrice watched him sleeping, she felt an unknown impulse.

Beatrice brought her face close to Ainzel’s.