Chapter 11
When the witch grabbed my hand.
It felt like the world stopped.
Why are you grabbing my hand?
And why are you asking for my name?
I have no intention of getting close to you.
Not at all.
Not even a little bit.
I don't have a hobby of living with a bomb nearby.
So I tried to slip away and escape, but...
Suddenly they started talking about divine possession and dragged me to a nearby Sun Order temple.
"Divine possession!"
"Of course it's natural, considering he used such impossible miracles in succession! Oh, Rophus! Watch over him!"
There, I received the utmost care.
All sorts of priests rushed in and poured holy power into my body, and freshly cooked delicious food and a soft bed were provided.
I had to eat the food and lie down on the bed to rest.
You might ask, shouldn't I be running away right now?
That's absolutely correct.
Right.
I should have been running away now.
I've already healed the witch.
There's really no reason for me to keep pretending to be a saint here, so why am I eating food and lying comfortably on the bed?
"Are you feeling alright?"
It was because of the witch sitting next to me, holding my hand and looking at me with sparkling eyes.
Damn dark magician!!
There's a dark magician here! Someone, please take her away!
Please get her away from me!!
I'm scared!!
"Don't be afraid. I'm here. I won't let you collapse, Saint."
Her voice as she carefully held my hand sounded like someone welcoming a cult leader.
It seemed this bomb was determined to stick by my side.
That can't happen!
Who knows when she might explode again!!
"Witch."
"Erpha. It's Erpha, Saint."
"Miss Erpha. Please go back now. I'm fine."
I'm really fine.
I don't have any divine possession or anything.
I'm just sweating and trembling because I'm terrified with you next to me.
"No. Please let me stay by your side until you get better, Saint."
"I really am fine."
"But because of me…"
It seemed she wouldn't listen if I asked nicely.
I needed to speak more strongly.
"Miss Erpha. You've become beautiful now. No one will discriminate against you for your appearance anymore. But what's more important than that is the inside."
"The... inside."
"What use is a normal appearance if you don't have peace of mind? I was just someone who healed the lowly. I can heal the outside, but that's all. I can't heal your heart. Only you yourself can raise up your own heart."
"What should I do? Please show me the way."
Can you please stop making me talk and just disappear?
I'm running out of things to say!!
Self-help books I've read and lines I've heard in Sunday school!
Help me!!
"Talk to yourself. Try to find out what you truly want. There are no shackles binding you now. Think about how you want to live your life from the freest position."
"...."
"I was just a cane. A sick person needs a cane, but after they're healed, it's normal for that cane to be discarded. Leave me and soar freely. Realize what you truly want to do, what you desire, and move in that direction. That's what I wish for you."
In other words, please just get lost.
As I said that with a benevolent smile, Erpha started to cry again.
"How should I repay you? This grace... How should I repay it?"
You don't need to repay it.
I'm going to bolt.
"I didn't do it expecting repayment. If you want to repay, repay with your life. Live a great and wonderful life. I hope you become someone who loves yourself, abandoning hatred and resentment."
And never explode again.
Understand?
I'm not going to see you again.
I won't see you again and I'm going to quietly slip away and live, so let's just go our separate ways.
As I watched Erpha with an anxious heart, she slowly stood up.
"I swear. With my entire life."
She smiled brightly.
She was disgustingly pretty, but no matter how pretty she was, a bomb was still a bomb.
"I'll live a wonderful life for you."
"I believe you will, Miss Erpha. You're more than qualified for that."
"Thank you. I'll never forget this."
You can forget.
No.
Please forget.
Erpha carefully bowed to me and then left the room.
Only after she left and the door closed could I collapse on the bed.
I really thought I was going to die.
Why was every day like a roller coaster, seriously?
Now it was done.
The witch who was closely monitoring me by my side was gone, so now I could quietly disappear.
Most of the saint legends in the Arcal Empire ended like that originally.
Now that I have bestowed grace upon you, never sin again and live following ethics and morality, blah blah blah, poof.
Disappearing.
What do you think will happen the Lilia Order people come and find out this guy isn't a believer of our goddess?
They’ll probably say something like, “You heretic,” and then they’d go whoosh and burn me.
I don't want that kind of ending, damn it.
I got up from the bed, opened the door, and went outside.
"Saint! You shouldn't get up yet…!"
"The time has come."
I smiled at everyone.
"Now I must leave. If grace leads us again, we may meet."
"What? But Saint! The Lilia Order people arrived earlier than expected and are coming now…!"
They arrived early?
Damn it!!
I need to bolt!!
Right now!
I quickly used Time Stop.
The whole world stopped.
In that state, I started to move forward, groaning as I repeatedly released and applied time stop in localized spaces.
The mental energy consumption was really enormous every time I did it.
Body Modification, where one just opened a character customization window and operated it.
Absolute Hypnosis, which clearly consumed mental energy when casting the skill because one needed to focus on designating the target, but once it was cast, one just needed to give orders.
3000x Sensitivity was… Well, I hadn't tried it yet so I didn't know.
Anyway!
Unlike other skills, this Time Stop was a skill that consumed an insane amount of mental energy.
Damn it.
Why did they design the skill like this?
Couldn't they have just made it where the world stops and only I can move around?
Shouldn't it be a skill like that, really?
Or did it become complicated when transferred to reality, whereas in the game it was possible with just one click?
Anyway.
I started to move forward slowly.
Enduring the mental energy consumption.
In the stopped time.
I saw an express train moving away from Mars City in the distance.
I just need to get on that!!
Now I just need to get on that and bolt from here!
I'll go into somewhere like a bathroom, release the time stop, and then use Body Modification on myself.
This face was already too well-known to use anymore.
I'd knead my face a bit to change it into a different form, then buy a train ticket and leisurely leave the capital...
Leave...
Wait a minute.
The mental energy drain is too much!
I think I need to release this for a moment, rest, and then cast it again?
What kind of skill is this, really?
But I just can't not use it either.
I need to find a suitable place to release the skill.
As I was looking around for a suitable place.
A gloomy and dirty back alley in the corner of the train station caught my eye.
Got it!!
There shouldn't be anyone there.
No matter what, surely there wouldn't be people in such a dirty and squalid place?
I'd just rest there for a moment, then quickly change my face and get out of here.
It was dirty meeting you, let's never see each other again.
Oh, capital Mars.
Thinking that, I released the skill.
And as soon as I released the skill.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Aaaah!!"
The fierce sound of flesh hitting flesh, which couldn't be heard when time was stopped, started to reach my ears.
There were people even in this gloomy and dirty back alley.
Frozen in shock for a moment, I started to hear more sounds.
"Didn't I tell you to sell everything? You rotten girls!!"
"Aaaah!! I'm sorry! Please! I'll sell everything! Please!!"
"Go and sell everything!! If you don't, I'll burn the other side of your face too!!"
"I'll do it! I'll do it!! Please just don't burn me!"
The voices of what was clearly a burly man and a thin, quiet young girl echoed for a while.
The young girl was crying so pitifully that I couldn't help but look.
As I glanced towards the corner of the alley, I saw a group of young girls huddled together against one wall and one large man.
What was unusual was that the girls' faces were distorted to the point of being hideous.
Some girls had their upper lips and cheeks completely burned off, and many had missing teeth.
Girls who looked no older than 7 or 8, an age where they should be showing aegyo to their dads at home, were crying with hideously melted faces, begging the man in front of them.
What kind of scene is this?
While I was watching the scene in shock.
The man spat and lit a cigarette.
"Fucking useless things. Rejects from the match factory should at least be useful. If you don't sell your quota, you get punished by me. Got it?"
"Yes! Yes! We'll do it! Please don't abandon us!"
"You monster bitches. Fine. Now get lost. If you don't bring the right amount of tribute, I won't give you matches to sell tomorrow, so remember that..."
The man was spitting yellow saliva and turning to leave the alley when he spotted me and stopped in his tracks.
"You... you fucking you..."
The emotions in the man's eyes changed from confusion to surprise, and then...
To greed.
"Aren't you the guy who was healing people in the slums?"
The man giggled and pulled out a dagger from his waist.
As soon as I saw the dagger, my body froze.
This is real.
Look at those eyes.
He didn't just take it out to threaten.
This bastard was 100%—no 200%—someone who had stabbed someone before!!
Should I use Time Stop and run?
No.
The mental energy consumption is too much, it's hard to cast again!
I need to rest a bit, why are you here of all places, you bastard?
"Saint. Oh gracious and merciful Saint. I've been struggling lately, you see. Couldn't you share some of your grace with me? Hmm? I think it would be good if you could give me some money. You must have received some treatment fees, right?"
The bastard giggled as he approached me.
What should I do?
Time Stop was too hard to use now because of the mental energy consumption.
Body Modification?
Where was the leisure to do Body Modification in this situation!?
Absolute Hypnosis?
This was hard as well.
Once it was cast and orders were given, there was no mental energy consumption, but designating the target consumed mental energy.
I didn't think I could aim properly.
Then all that's left is...
"Stay still, Saint. I'll just quietly take what's in your pockets, so just stay still."
The robber, seeing that I was completely frozen, confidently tried to search my pockets.
At that moment when his gaze turned to my pockets.
I reflexively put my hand on his body and activated the skill.
[Skill <3000x Sensitivity> is activated!]
"Be quiet!"
I swung my fist suddenly, aiming for the robber's head, and stepped back.
It wasn't even a hard hit.
Just a pathetic flailing punch thrown haphazardly.
The robber, hit by this laughable surprise punch, started to smile as if dumbfounded, but suddenly began to tremble.
"Ugrk... Kuuugh... Kueeeurk!! Eurk!!"
3000x Sensitivity.
How's that!? This should be painful enough that you can't move...
Can't move...
Wait a minute.
"Kugugurk...... Ugurk......... Kueurk."
Blood vessels burst in the robber's eyes.
He had clenched his teeth so hard that they shattered and burst out.
It was said that when pain exceeded a certain limit, a person couldn't even scream.
It must be like that.
The robber dropped the dagger, trembled for a moment, and then collapsed on the ground.
Blood was flowing from his nose, and bloody tears flowed from his eyes, which had turned completely red from burst blood vessels.
"...Hey?"
There was no answer.
Even an idiot could see this.
He was dead.
Probably died from shock.
It was my first murder.
A feeling of nausea rose from inside.
I… killed a person.
I just wanted to hurt him badly enough to chase him away, but I killed him.
My brain seemed unable to handle the shock of committing murder on top of the already enormous mental energy consumption from using Time Stop to get here.
My vision span and I collapse similarly to the robber.
Just before collapsing.
The last thought that flashed through my mind was this.
If he died from shock just from being hit by a flailing punch.
Those superhuman people who remained fine despite experiencing various things daily with 3000x Sensitivity really were beyond human.