Chapter 7
Snow falls.
According to the weather forecast, it seems like it will snow often this winter.
Sonia jumped for joy at the announcer's words, saying we could look forward to a white Christmas.
She loves the snow.
It was proof of her innocence.
Amon, who'd had to shovel snow in the army, at work, and at home ever since he got his ID, was too old in spirit to enjoy snow.
However, the word “Christmas” was a magical word that excited even an old soul.
Though he pretended otherwise, Amon was looking forward to Christmas just as much as Sonia.
‘It's already Christmas.’
Christmas in this world was no different from his previous life.
Christmas trees decorated the streets, adults gave presents to children, and various events were held.
The only difference was that the one born on Christmas wasn't the son of God, but the daughter of a Goddess.
Everything else was the same.
As if struck by a sudden thought, Amon headed to the drawer in his room.
It was to prepare envelopes for the upcoming Christmas.
‘This is for the offering, this is for Sonia's present, this is for the Orphanage Principal…’
Amon transferred the money into the envelopes.
His only sources of income were errands and government support money disguised as an allowance.
But since Amon was such an ascetic person, his expenses were practically non-existent.
Thanks to this, the amount he’d saved over the past year was quite substantial.
Amon nodded in satisfaction and wrote notes on the envelopes.
Hand cream for the Orphanage Principal, toner for Sonia, a lighter for old man Johnson, whom he was indebted to, and so on.
It was a moment where the money he’d saved for a year would dwindle, yet Amon was incredibly happy.
The fact that he had the means to give to others felt like a blessing to him.
After finally sorting out the donation of gratitude to the Goddess, Amon locked the drawer.
Then, he left his room to go to the Swordsmanship Dojo with Sonia in the afternoon.
Murmur, murmur.
The orphanage was noisy as he came out of his room.
“Huh?”
He turned his gaze to where people were gathered, wondering what was going on.
The nuns were controlling the children with serious expressions.
The younger nuns sent the children back to their rooms, while the more experienced nuns formed a circle as if surrounding something.
A translucent barrier unfolded along the circle formed by the nuns.
Just from seeing this, Amon grasped the situation.
‘Some kid must be possessed.’
An orphan getting possessed by a ghost was not as uncommon as one might think.
Located right next to the Red-light District, the orphanage was a perfect gathering place for the vengeful spirits of babies who had lost their parents.
As a result, incidents of orphans being possessed were so common that they occurred about once a year.
The only fortunate thing was that the vengeful spirits of newborn babies weren’t that strong, so the nuns could subdue them on their own.
Amon peered towards the scene, curious to see the face of the protagonist of this possession incident.
He could see what was happening inside the circle through the gaps between the nuns.
It didn't take long for him to recognize the protagonist.
“Oh dear… I knew those kids would cause trouble someday.”
It was Jimmy and his friends.
A nun who was standing nearby and overheard Amon’s rustic mutter gave a wry smile.
Even to them, their possession this time felt largely self-inflicted.
The objects they were holding preciously were fetishes sent by vengeful spirits to facilitate possessions in the orphanage.
These fetishes were sent mixed in with Black Friday gifts, and most of them were inspected by the nuns and sent to the storage room.
They could seal or block vengeful spirits, but exorcism required a specialist, so they planned to handle them all at once later.
However, Jimmy and his friends had taken the fetishes out of the storage room, even going so far as to break the seals.
From the perspective of the nuns who had painstakingly sorted those fetishes, the words “self-inflicted” came to mind naturally.
They wanted to tease them and say “serves you right,” but as nuns who had to care for the children with love, they expressed their feelings with wry smiles.
Amon also joined in with a wry smile.
The ones being cursed under their breath by the nuns and Amon were repeating nonsense, lost in their own world within the barrier.
“Heehee… My precious…”
Jimmy hugged a black vase and stroked it preciously.
His friends showed similar symptoms.
Seeing their state, the Orphanage Principal diagnosed the situation.
“They are still in the enchantment stage. It doesn’t seem like a complete possession, so let’s try to wake them up first. If that fails, we'll put them in the Quarantine Room.”
30 years of running an orphanage.
To the Orphanage Principal, who had experienced all sorts of possessions, this situation wasn't particularly unusual.
She calmly sprinkled salt and holy water on the enchanted children.
Fortunately, some of the children regained their senses.
But Jimmy didn't.
Unlike the other children who only brought one item out, Jimmy had exited the storage room with his arms full.
This meant that more than one vengeful spirit had enchanted him.
Because of this, he was so deeply enchanted that salt and holy water had no effect.
The Orphanage Principal looked at Jimmy with pity.
“Jimmy…”
He was currently in the enchantment stage, but enchantment was merely the groundwork for possession.
If the enchantment wasn't resolved in time, possession was inevitable, so the Orphanage Principal made a cold-hearted decision.
“There’s no other choice. Let's put him in the Quarantine Room.”
Once the possession began, things would become a little troublesome.
Although the spiritual power of a newborn baby’s soul wasn’t very threatening, Jimmy was a boy undergoing puberty.
In terms of pure physical ability, he was a bit too much for the nuns to handle.
So, it was much safer for them to put him in the Quarantine Room while he was still half-conscious.
Following the Orphanage Principal's orders, the nuns threw Jimmy into the room.
Jimmy was left alone in an empty room with a door that couldn't be opened from the inside.
Taking one last look at Jimmy through the closing door, the Orphanage Principal locked it.
“The Exorcist will be here the day after tomorrow, so please make sure the children don't touch this lock. And I'll inform you of the guidelines for special situations.”
The nuns memorized the Orphanage Principal's detailed instructions.
Immediately after,
Bang!
Jimmy pounded hard on the Quarantine Room door.
[Mommy-! Mommyyy-!!!]
Jimmy cried out in a voice mixed with a baby’s cries.
The nuns breathed a sigh of relief, thinking they were just in time.
Meanwhile, Jimmy’s voice changed again.
In a bizarrely low voice, he rasped,
[Sister-in-law!! You shouldn't do that to me! Why did you do that to me!!]
The nuns shuddered at the creepy voice and backed away from the Quarantine Room.
Unlike the other nuns, the Orphanage Principal didn’t move.
Instead, she made the sign of the cross towards the room where Jimmy was and prayed.
May that child find salvation.
***
That evening.
Amon rustled around before kicking off his blanket and jumping out of bed.
“Ugh… Did I drink too much cola?”
Rubbing his messy hair, Amon got out of bed.
Even though it was pitch black and he couldn't see an inch ahead, his body, accustomed to the layout of his lifelong room, easily found his slippers.
Shuffling in his slippers, he headed to the bathroom, relying on the faint hallway lighting.
The path to the bathroom unfortunately passed by the Quarantine Room.
Amon yawned and bowed his head to the nuns guarding the Quarantine Room.
There was no response.
The nun on guard duty was asleep, sitting down.
He didn’t feel any particular emotion upon seeing this.
To call her negligent would be too harsh, as he understood her fatigue too well.
Having to greet guests, wake up the enchanted children, and then stand guard duty on top of that was too much to ask.
Anyway, the Quarantine Room wasn’t so flimsy that it needed a nun to guard it.
According to the Orphanage Principal, even a bomb explosion inside wouldn’t make it budge.
Indeed, judging by the thickness of the iron door, it seemed like the kind of steel plate used on armored vehicles.
‘Where did they even get this?’
Amon became increasingly curious about the Orphanage Principal’s true identity.
In any case, it was practically a vault, so even if the nun dozed off, there was no chance of Jimmy escaping.
Amon bowed to the sleeping nun and continued his steps toward the bathroom.
Tinkle, tinkle.
After relieving himself, Amon headed back to his room.
On his way, he passed by the Quarantine Room again.
The nun was still asleep.
Amon gave another unreciprocated bow and continued on his way.
Then, he heard a voice from inside the room.
“Amon. Is that you?”
It was Jimmy.
It was purely Jimmy's voice, without the unnatural tone characteristic of a possessed person.
Amon stopped and turned back towards the door.
As if he knew somehow, Jimmy called out to Amon from the other side of the door.
“I’m not possessed anymore. I’m hungry, can you open the door?”
“…”
“I missed dinner, so I’m starving. I feel like I could eat a whole cow.”
Amon's eyes narrowed.
He silently gave the door the middle finger.
Jimmy suddenly went quiet.
From that reaction, Amon was certain.
“This is the first time I've seen a human conspiring with a possessing vengeful spirit.”
Amon spoke towards the door as if for Jimmy to hear.
In a typical possession, there's a struggle for dominance between the original owner of the body and the vengeful spirit.
Therefore, for a smoother possession, the vengeful spirit goes through the process of weakening the original owner both physically and mentally.
However, in rare cases, the original owner and the vengeful spirit coexist.
Like in a shonen manga, the vengeful spirit is acknowledged by the original owner and they suddenly reconcile.
Or they get attached after sharing a body for a while.
Or it might not be a vengeful spirit from the beginning, but just a kind soul living alongside.
Of course, not all relationships are this hopeful.
Sometimes, both the original owner and the vengeful spirit are assholes, and they get along well.
Amon believed Jimmy fell into this category.
The proof was that he knew Amon was passing by, even with a thick iron door between them.
It was evidence of Spirit Sight.
Fortunately, both the vengeful spirit and Jimmy weren’t very intelligent, so they revealed they had Spirit Sight.
No one would fall for such fools.
Amon, not bothering to pay attention to those fools, was about to return to his room.
Then, suddenly, he got curious and asked Jimmy and his soulmate,
“How did you guys get close? There must be a lot of vengeful spirits inside, so it seems like it would be hard to get close.”
There was no reply.
But Amon knew an easy way to make the vengeful spirits talk.
“I’ll hold a memorial service for one of you, first come, first served.”
It was unclear whether the word “memorial service” existed in the United States, but the vengeful ghosts seemed to understand the nuance.
Perhaps because they were entities preoccupied with appeasing their grudges, they responded immediately.
One of the vengeful ghosts, with the youngest voice, spoke.
[He said he'd help us possess you. It's too cramped with so many of us in one body, so we agreed.]
“Aha. So Jimmy proposed it first?”
[Yes.]
Amon nodded.
That’s right.
That's so like Jimmy.
‘Jimmy. I’ll revise my assessment of you.’
Jimmy wasn’t just an asshole.
He was a natural-born great ship-asshole.
‘Whoops. Good thoughts, good thoughts.’
Barely suppressing the curse that almost slipped out, Amon made the sign of the cross on his chest.
‘Inner peace. River-like tranquility…’
He sang hymns inwardly, suppressing his anger.
After regaining his inner peace, Amon promised the vengeful spirit who had told the truth a grudge-appeasing memorial service and was about to leave.
But someone stopped him in his tracks.
The old vengeful ghost spoke through Jimmy’s mouth behind Amon.
[Boy...]
A cavernous voice flowed out, mixed with Jimmy’s voice.
Amon ignored it and continued walking.
The old vengeful ghost, unfazed by Amon's attitude, continued.
[Your eyes are so clear. They belong to one who doesn’t care for vanity or glory, but seeks wisdom. Boy. Aren't you curious about the afterlife? Aren’t you curious about the truth of this world?]
He wasn't curious at all.
He'd already experienced the good ending, went through the afterlife, and even met the Goddess, so why would he be curious?
Besides, how could an entity wandering the world, unable to ascend, know about the afterlife?
Therefore, Amon had no reason to listen to the vengeful ghost.
But he was curious.
Curious about what that stupid vengeful ghost would babble about.
How that fool would act up.
So, he stopped and turned back towards the door again.
The old vengeful ghost, mistaking Amon's actions for curiosity, began to spout false truths.
It is said that people go to the afterlife when they die.
However, most humans can't go to the afterlife because they lack sufficient “Refinement”.
The vengeful ghost claimed that one must stay in this in-between place and accumulate enough “Refinement” to move on to the next world.
[I will enhance your Refinement.]
Normally, gaining this “Refinement” in this world requires long periods of training, but the old vengeful ghost was on the verge of ascension.
So, it promised to show Amon the moment of ascension if he just opened this door.
That wasn't all.
It whispered that it would bestow upon Amon the truths and all the wisdom it learned after death.
While the vengeful ghost tempted Amon, his shoulders shook.
The vengeful ghost misinterpreted this as a reaction often seen from seekers of wisdom witnessing fragments of truth.
The truth was that Amon was struggling to hold back his laughter.
‘A clown truly makes people laugh because they don’t know they are a clown.’
A phrase he’d heard somewhere came to mind.
As if trying to make Amon die of laughter, the vengeful ghost, excitedly, told Amon a part of the false truth as a taste.
[Boy. You don't have to live a good life in this world.]
“?”
Amon stopped holding back his laughter.
What nonsense was it going to spout now?
Amon listened intently to the vengeful ghost.
The vengeful ghost, thinking Amon was listening, continued.
[Things like karma or virtue are all false values created by rulers to control people. This world doesn’t work that way. The world is a sophisticated system of cause and effect. Good and evil have no impact on this system.]
“...How can I believe that?”
[Because I saw it. There is no God in this world, and the world just runs on a sophisticated system.]
Snap.
The moment he heard those words, something inside Amon snapped.
Amon's head bowed, and a shadow fell over his expression.
He said nothing and quietly unlocked the Quarantine Room.
By the time the sleeping nun next to him woke up at the rattling sound, the lock was already undone.
Before she could scold Amon, the thick iron door opened.
In the opening, Jimmy stood, a sly grin on his face.
The nun, startled, stood protectively in front of Amon.
Jimmy(?) pitied Amon, who was hanging his head behind the nun.
[Boy. Was it that much of a shock? It must be. Nothing is more heartbreaking than having the virtues you've believed in and upheld all your life denied. But don't worry. You are still young. I’ll whisper the truth to you-]
Jimmy stopped mid-sentence and his gaze shifted to Amon’s hands.
Amon was holding a scripture.
However, if it were simply held, his gaze wouldn’t have been drawn to it.
The reason his gaze was drawn there was simple.
It was trembling intensely, as if suppressing all kinds of emotions.
[?]
A question mark appeared above Jimmy's head.
It was because it was difficult to read the emotion in that trembling.
Because of this, his reaction was delayed until Amon was right in front of him.
Jimmy’s eyes followed Amon’s hand, which raised the scripture.
The corner of the scripture was pointed towards Jimmy.
Looking a little lower, he saw bulging, crimson forearms that looked as if the blood vessels were about to burst,
And looking down further, he saw Amon glaring at him, his face contorted with a murderous expression.
[B...Boy...?]
Towards the vengeful ghost uttering stupid noises,
Loud enough to wake everyone in the orphanage, Amon roared,
“You blasphemous being!!!!!!”
The scripture split the vengeful ghost’s world in two.