Chapter 53 – The Dawn

2 hours before Janet met Jin-seong.

A girl slowly walked into the chapel as if she had been dragged to the slaughterhouse. The first Saint, who was sitting in the chapel and praying, called Janet.

“Janet.”

“….Yes, abbess.”

Janet sat beside her.

“Do you enjoy your life here?”

“No.”

Janet was happy with her life here but she pretended not to be on the outside and made a cold face. Anges, who already knew her true thoughts, stroked Janet’s hair as she spoke.

“But don’t bother Sophia too much… I heard that you drew things on her face while she was sleeping.”

“……”

Janet dropped her head and remained silent.

“….I’m sorry.”

She responded right away because she had nothing to say and it was true that she did something wrong.

If it was someone else, Janet would have talked back. But for some reason, if she was in front of the abbess, she instantly dropped her head. As Janet apologized, Agnes held her hand tightly.

Rather than scolding Janet, she chose to caress her with love.

“Janet, I’m not saying you can’t play pranks with others. But if you cross that line and make the other person hurt, then you have to stop.”

Then, Agnes hugged the child, an orphan who had lost her parents. She started stroking her from shoulder to arm. Janet buried herself into the arms of Agnes, who loved her like her grandmother.

“I’m really sorry…..”

“It’s okay. Please don’t do that from now on, okay?”

Janet suddenly asked, looking at Agnes who was gently stroking her.

“…..Are you not going to leave me?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you going to stay here with me and not leave me like my parents?”

Agnes smiled at her question.

“Yes…. I will always be with you.”

For Janet, Agnes was a loving mother and a solemn father.

“……”

Jin-seong quietly checked the codex about Joan Laurent.

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Name: Joan Laurent

Age: 13

Open eyes: X (The flowering of divine power is imminent.)

Potential: Very high

Favorability: Has a good first impression of you

Biography: A child who was an orphan since birth. She was raised in the convent by Saint Agnes, the first Saint, who saw the potential and ability in Joan Laurent. She received abundant love and developed her piety, but she eventually loses her piety with the destruction of the Vatican.

However, she recovers her piety after meeting with Yushin and his companions, and she awakens as a saint who is indispensable to them.

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This girl was the third saint, Joan Laurent.

However, despite having the title of the third saint, she couldn’t interact with the angels for several years.

Technically, she ‘did not’ interact with them.

It was because of the death of Agnes, the first saint. Janet came to Korea, but neither smiled nor stepped out of her room.

Janet was only a 16-year-old girl before being the third saint.

She hated the angel who set everything she had on fire under the name of divine punishment.

‘But this is what happened in my previous life.’

Jin-seong made up his mind as he looked at the mission route that appeared in front of him.

‘The second route, I choose the second route to stop the fall of the Holy Kingdom.’

A night with a moon in the sky.

Near the Vatican Art Gallery.

Yeo-jin was surprised as she arrived at the place.

“Holy… How can a byway like this exist?”

“….”

Janet stood in front of the door of iron bars. Yeo-jin also stood next to her and touched the bars.

“It’s locked here.”

“Wait a minute.”

Janet suddenly pushed herself in between the iron bars.

“….Wow. You’re really thin.”

“…..”

But Janet didn’t say anything and unlocked the security device on the wall beyond the iron bars.

Clang…!

As soon as she pressed the buttons, the iron door opened with a loud sound.

Seeing that, Lee Yeo-jin smiled awkwardly.

“….Why do I feel like a thief stealing something?”

“We are.”

“What?”

Janet, with an expressionless face, responded coldly.

Then, she looked at Jin-seong in worry.

“Are you….sure?”

Jin-seong shrugged his shoulders.

“Did we come all the way here just to return with empty hands?”

“….But still…..”

Jin-seong, who knew how much Yeo-jin was interested in relics, spoke with a calm voice.

“It’s all okay. It’s natural for an archaeologist to become a tomb robber.”

“What do you mean by tomb robber..?!”

Yeo-jin answered in a panic. However, she couldn’t leave easily after being told that she could see the holy relics in real life. She asked again.

“We’re just going to ‘see’ them, right?”

Jin-seong, who was walking ahead of Yeo-jin, answered firmly.

“We’ll steal.”

“…..What?!”

Jin-seong then walked inside, leaving Yeo-jin who didn’t know what to do.

“…..This is crazy!”

With a small scream, she followed them into the darkness.

Jin-seong was scanning the interior with his clairvoyance.

‘It’s impressive. She knows how to pick and move only in blind spots where there are no surveillance cameras.’

Janet, who was walking in front of him, was guiding them to places where they can avoid cameras and securities.

Just then, Janet broke the silence.

“Here under the Art Gallery, there’s a vault for relics.”

“Ohh….!”

Lee Yeo-jin nodded several times with an excited face.

Then, they started walking through the empty hallway of the Art Gallery.

Inside the baroque-style lavishly decorated interior, the ceiling was connected by high arches. The clean, shiny marble floor was also impeccably splendid with colorful patterns and large paintings.

Lee Yeo-jin was admiring the stone statues as she walked down the hallway. She carefully looked at them one by one.

“These are incredible! Besides, coming in here like a thief at night… I think it’s romantic.”

But neither Jin-seong nor Janet reacted to Yeo-jin’s words.

“Khm.”

While Yeo-jin coughed awkwardly, Janet stood in front of the bust. Then, she pulled the ears of the bust once and then pressed its eyes twice.

Just then,

The wall behind the bust opened.

Then a secret staircase appeared. The passage, illuminated by the taillights, was curved like a spiral staircase.

“We’re almost there.”

As she said that, she silently stared at Jin-seong who was following behind her.

“Why.”

“How old are you?”

“Seventeen.”

Hearing that, Janet frowned.

“What… You’re much younger than I thought.”

Then, she turned around and walked down the staircase.

“…..I think she’s interested in you.”

“……”

But Jin-seong left Yeo-jin without saying anything and followed Janet to the staircase.

But again, Jin-seong left Yeo-jin without saying anything and followed Janet down to the staircase.

Yeo-jin was upset.

“…..I feel like I’m being left out…..”

After a long way down the spiral staircase, a much larger space appeared than he had expected.

“This is where the authentic relics are preserved, not the replicas.”

Janet spoke coldly.

“The jawbone over there belongs to Pierre the Hermit, and inside that glass coffin is St. Veronica’s cloth, and next to it is Gregory VI’s three-story coffin…”

“Oh my god, how did you learn about this place?”

Janet shrugged her shoulders at Yeo-jin.

“The saint showed me this place. She told me that if this place happens to get destroyed in the future, I’ll have to take a few of these relics with me.”

“But can we just come in here like this?”

At Yeo-jin’s question, Janet made a mischievous face and said,

“Who cares?”

“……”

Yeo-jin looked up at Jin-seong with a confused face.

Her face looked as if saying, ‘How can the security be so poor here?’

Jin-seong shook his head and spoke quietly.

“She’s acting that way because she knows that.”

“….What?”

Although the first saint was nothing more than the abbess now, the devotion and reverence towards the saint were no less than that of the Pope. No special attention was paid to Janet unless she crossed the line at the request of the saint.

‘Of course, what she did today crossed the line.’

Jin-seong asked Janet.

“Where’s the spear of Longinus?”

“Longinus….?”

“The spear of the Saint Longinus Martyr.”

After thinking for a moment, she answered as if she understood.

“Ahh….! That must be in the Pope’s vault.”

Jin-seong nodded.

The Holy Spear Gae Assail does not affect the angel.

And the magic sword Tyrfing puts too much pressure on the body to deal with it as the main force.

‘I should use the spear of Longinus to fight with the angel and use Tyrfing for a finishing move.’

Jin-seong walked up to the front of a large glass case that contained one relic.

It was a conical golden case engraved with jewels and ornate decorations. There was also a large lid on the bottom.

Jin-seong accessed the information about the relic.

+

Name: Helena’s Nail

Rating: Myth

Effect: No power of the Holy Spirit can stop this nail

Description: The nail that pierced the hand of the saint

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“I’ll have this for now.”

At dawn.

The Pope’s residence, the Apostolic Palace.

The Pope didn’t sleep as usual.

With his saggy skin and sunken eyes, he was peering into the crystal ball that was placed on the splendid table. He looked like he was possessed by the crystal ball that flashed with colorful iridescent lights. Besides, his white hair was messy. No one would imagine that this old man is the neat, dignified Pope they see in the daytime.

“Gwooo….”

A terrible moan came out of his mouth.

The Pope was not like this from the beginning. It all began from the moment he looked into the crystal ball named ‘Aimur’ given to him by an unknown visitor.

The Pope was obsessed with the desire to gaze endlessly into the crystal ball. As time passed, he couldn’t concentrate on government affairs, neglected to eat, and eventually ended up in his current state.

-…..A gentile….beckons to you……

Just like any other day, a hoarse voice was coming out from the ball.

It was nothing more than a terrible noise, but to the Pope, it was more stimulating than a woman’s touch, and it was an infinite ecstasy.

Hahahahaha…..!

He was stroking the swirling crystal ball with his wrinkly hands, making that frivolous laughter sound.

As always, he was absorbed in his pleasure.

Suddenly, a strong wind blew on his face.

“Gwoooo….?”

Looking at where the wind had blown, he could see a moon in the sky and a curtain fluttering in a strong wind where the window was wide open.

“……”

Sssk…. The Pope instinctively took Aimur to his chest and stood up.

“No one….can take this from me….!”

Like a kid trying to keep his toy from being taken away, the Pope stood in a corner of the wall with the crystal ball in his arms.

“…You look more terrible than I thought… I don’t think I can even ask you the whereabouts of the key.”

Ssssk….

A man wearing a hood appeared in the dark.

“…..Who, who are you!”

But the man didn’t respond and walked up to the old man.

Puck-!

The man hit him in the back of his head. The Pope fainted.

The man took the key to the relic vault that the Pope was wearing on his neck.

Before he was about to leave for the Apostolic Palace, he turned around.

Chssss…..

There was a crystal ball shining on the floor, pouring out a fierce light.

-Lee…..Jin…..Seong…..

From that crystal ball, a voice was clearly heard. The ball was calling Jin-seong.

-We…..will….meet….soon…..

Srrr….

After letting out a terrible voice, the light from the crystal ball eventually faded.

Seeing that, Jin-seong spoke calmly as he turned to leave.

“Baal… I will take your life soon.”

The one who is waiting for the construction of the Babel Tower.

It was the voice from the demon king.