Chapter 188: Miracles That Shouldn’t Happen (3)
There was a mixture of cheering and crying.
It’s no wonder there’s so much excitement now, after such an outrageous miracle as the resurrection of a man from the dead at a funeral.
My gaze was fixed on Zetto and I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
I couldn’t believe that he was back and he was breathing.
Zetto fiddled with the bandages in his hands and was about to wrap them around.
“…”
He was struggling with the fact that he only had one arm left.
The reanimated Zetto was not fully recovered.
As if to prove it, his missing left arm was still missing, and he was trying to bandage his eyes.
I couldn’t figure out what had happened.
Did I really have the power to raise the dead?
For a moment, I wondered as I helped Zetto, who was struggling to keep his head above water, put the bandage over his eyes.
I wondered what else was left.
Had he lost his memory?
Everything was confusing.
The moment I walked up to him and tied a knot in the pure white bandage his hand was on my cheek and his lips parted.
“You really are the Saint.”
His sweet voice, his gentle smile, his warmth I thought I’d never hear again.
“…Mmm.”
A tear rolled down my cheek and touched Zetto’s finger.
I was so happy to see him again, happy to hear him, happy to feel him.
“The promise…kept…?”
“……”
I nodded my head repeatedly at his echoing question.
He wasn’t dead.
No, he died, but he came back to keep his promise.
“Well, it’s going to be hard to be a porter after this, haha…”
He joked nonchalantly.
I should be laughing.
I should be smiling.
Instead, my eyes filled with tears.
His missing left arm became a nail to my chest.
It was a mark, a mark my sins had left on him and a mark I can’t erase.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”
It pained me so much that I couldn’t smile.
“No, I’m sorry…for making you go through this…”
I was supposed to be comforting him, but instead he was comforting me.
Poof.
I hugged Zetto as tightly as I could because I didn’t want to let go of him again.
Zetto stroked my back as his voice drifted into my ear.
“Oh, by the way…I’m here after seeing Ms. Heneryes.”
“……”
“She asked me to give you her regards.”
It’s only then that I’m able to fully embrace this moment, this miracle.
There was no falsehood in Zetto’s voice that I had just heard.
***
“It’s a miracle…!”
“The Saint has performed a miracle…!”
“To see this with my own eyes…”
The small church where Zetto’s funeral was being held was filled with admiration and excitement.
The Saint was hugging Zetto as he rose from the coffin.
The dead had indeed risen and Aizel’s eyes were wide, holding Zetto in her gaze.
‘Zetto…He’s alive…?’
Emptying herself of everything to let him go, to make it less painful, Aizel couldn’t quite wrap her head around the fact that Zetto had been resurrected.
What she had lost, what she had given up, was now back in her hands, and she was confused.
The same was true for Yuri and Kaen.
They had missed Zetto, but while they had hoped for a “miracle,” they hadn’t really expected him to return.
Suddenly, a tearful Lucia runs toward Zetto, shouting with joy.
“Zetto is alive…!”
Amon, Crank, and the others did the same, but they kept their feet on the ground.
There was no need to rush since they could reach him once again.
They couldn’t be as purely happy as Lucia, who was running over there.
They didn’t yet understand why they couldn’t be happy but soon they would know what it was.
It was anxiety and fear.
It was something they didn’t want to lose again.
Having lost once, having experienced despair, it would only be a matter of time before those feelings were amplified.
Meanwhile, the same panic was emanating from the instructors.
“Edward, you’re not showing us an illusion, are you…?”
Reina asked, unable to believe her eyes.
Edward rubbed his chin then looked to his father, the Academy’s headmaster, Julius.
“…Was it the headmaster, by any chance?”
Julius, who hadn’t taken his eyes off Zetto, spoke up.
“Cut the crap…”
It wasn’t an illusion.
“…Stop the funeral right now.”
It was a miracle, even more than an illusion.
***
The funeral was hastily canceled due to Zetto’s sudden resurrection, which can only be described as a miracle.
This was only natural, since the one who was to be buried had come back to life.
It was a cause for celebration and rejoicing, but as with all things in this world, things don’t work that way.
An emergency meeting was called at the Academy in response to the unprecedented resurrection.
There was an eerie silence in the room as the officials gathered and they were waiting for someone to explain the situation.
Hmm.
Soon enough, the door to the conference room opens and the sound of her shoes followed by a slight bow as she enters the room.
“I’m Bernice, Saint of Innocence, and this is Ecline, the deputy leader of the Knights of the Silver Wings.”
“…”
Ecline, who had followed Bernice in, bowed quietly.
“I’m glad you’re here, Saint. I was expecting you.”
“I’m a little late, as I’ve been in separate contact with the Holy Bureau.”
“That’s fine. Please take a seat first.”
With that, St. Bernice took the empty seat and the meeting began.
The first thing that came up was the cause of the resurrection and it was up to Bernice to answer.
Everyone at the funeral had witnessed as Bernice poured divine power into Zetto’s body and he rose to his feet.
Headmaster Julius asked her about it, and after a long pause, Bernice finally spoke.
“…As far as I know, I don’t have the ability to raise the dead, and we’re still trying to figure out the reason.”
Bernice looked down at her hands.
“Then how on earth did Cadet Zetto…”
“Are you saying it was a miracle…?”
Bernice’s answer sent a chill down the room.
“It’s just…”
Then, Bernice spoke again and the room fell silent once more.
“…Cadet Zetto said…that he saw the Lord… the Lord.”
“Lord Heneryes…?”
“In case you are unaware of my powers, I have been granted by the Lord the ability to distinguish between truth and falsehood, and I have verified Cadet Zetto’s words with my powers… to be true.”
A dead man came back to life after meeting with God was a pretty big deal.
“Hmmm… The Lord is involved… I guess that explains why you contacted the Holy Land and came here.”
“Yes, since this isn’t just a matter for the Innocence Academy, the Holy Land will also be investigating this phenomenon.”
“Then let’s put the matter of the resurrection to rest for now…My next question is, what kind of relationship did you have with Cadet Zetto?”
“I know you asked Cadet Zetto to guide you during the open class, but…I wonder if there was something more after that.”
In any case, with Bernice’s identity out in the open, she had to prove the relationship between her and Zetto, who were officially supposed to have no connection.
Bernice’s demeanor at the funeral made it clear that she had a close relationship with Zetto.
“…I’ll tell you the truth.”
Even Bernice couldn’t and wouldn’t hide it now.
That Zetto had been slaying demons outside of the academy, and that she was intrigued to learn about it.
How she’d wanted to recruit him to be her guardian after the open class, and so on, and so forth.
Of course, she had to hide the existence of Rei, the “Hero” she later discovered.
“An honorary knight… Even if he wasn’t officially a recruit…”
As a cadet, he was not supposed to be affiliated with any other faction.
Innocence Academy was supposed to remain neutral at all times.
“But I can understand your intentions. After all, he was slaying demons even before he met the Saint.”
“In fact, it could be said that this is a fundamental problem with our academy. Isn’t it the cadet’s unauthorized outing that led to this situation?”
As the room exchanged opinions, Edward, who had been quietly listening, raised his hand and spoke up.
“Even if they didn’t have permission, I doubt it would have stopped them, and we weren’t tacitly discouraging cadets from going out anyway. It would be impossible to keep all the young, eager cadets at bay, and…”
Edward trailed off, looking off to one side of the room.
“To present a neutral position when something like this happens… We all realize that these are just rules on paper, right? Don’t you, Mr. Chairman?”
His gaze fell on Hubert Graham, the Academy’s Chairman.
“Hmm…”
Hubert cleared his throat at the sudden mention.
Hubert Graham was the patriarch of the Graham family, ostensibly the heir of the Sage who founded the Academy, but in reality, he held the position of Chairman of the Board, the highest position of power within the Academy.
Hubert the Sage, a former member of the Hero Party, had taken Hubert’s form.
His mouth opened.
“…I don’t think it’s about permission to go out as Instructor Edward said. After all, the true culprit in this situation is a demon who dared to touch an academy cadet on human soil, right?”
To be fair, there were issues with the Ludwig clan, but Hubert didn’t want to bring that up.
Still, he wasn’t entirely wrong.
After all, it was ostensibly a case of cadets being attacked by demons on human soil.
“It’s true that the Academy is not as safe as it used to be due to recent incidents with the Knights of the Golden Lion in the neighboring kingdom of Terracia. Our allies are filling in the holes, but…”
Bernice added to Hubert’s comment.
“Besides, the day of reckoning is not far off, and the Demon King will be resurrected within the next few decades. That’s why the demons have become so much more active… We must be prepared.”
“Speaking of preparation, I need to tell you something.”
Then Edward raised his hand again.
“Tell me.”
“You’ve all seen the bodies of the demons that fought Cadet Zetto this time.”
“They were both black horned but one had…”
“…Wings.”
That’s right, one of the demons sprouted wings.
They must have undergone some sort of ‘evolution’, and they possessed a power far beyond that of normal black-horned demons.
Zetto had defeated one such demon.
It was a tiny demon, but considering his age, it was a remarkable achievement.
“Cadet Zetto is already out of the norm, and speaking as an instructor in Class A… that’s not the only thing that’s out of the ordinary for a first-year cadet.”
“Go ahead Instructor Edward.”
“…The Academy is an institution for the growth of cadets, and the current state of the Academy is not conducive to their growth at all…they’re stuck in the ‘A’ class mold, and it’s not catering to them. If we’re going to make a change, we might as well make a solid one.”
“Hmmm…”
I agreed.
Class A was barely big enough to contain the nonconformists but they would need special training like never before.
However it would be too long a discussion to have right now, so they decided to focus on organizing the current situation.
“As for that long overdue trip to the East…What is Cadet Zetto’s status, Medical Officer Priscilla?”
At the mention of Zetto’s condition, Bernice perked up.
“…He is currently resting in sickbay. We’re expecting quite a bit of chaos, so we’ve closed off access to all but his sisters. It could be sudden, and we thought everyone needed time to come to terms with it.”
“So, when can we expect to see him?”
Bernice couldn’t help but blurt out the question but they didn’t tackle her on and Priscilla replied with a bitter smile.
“I’m sure you’ll be able to meet him as soon as things settle down. Apparently, there are quite a few people who want to meet him, so I’m just keeping them at bay for now.”
***
“Everything was okay…?”
I questioned, lying in the hospital bed, listening to Geppeti’s explanation of what had happened.
Geppeti’s eyes narrowed in response.
“Nothing happened, at least not what you expected, Lord Zetto. It was calm like the eye of the storm.”
“……”
Maybe they’re better at accepting death than I thought.
‘Aizel didn’t really deal with it until the end, but…’
Yuri and Kaen were surprising.
Soon, Rei slides off the bed.
“…Is it something you can handle, by the way? I mean, even a cursory inspection wasn’t good, it wasn’t a normal feeling, it was something much different than a friend dying…”
Rei, who was hugging Sheddie in her arms, trailed off.
“It’s okay, isn’t it? I feel guilty for not telling them, but…I’m alive and well, after all, so I’m sure it’ll just be a matter of time.”
“Not exactly unharmed…”
Rei frowns and glances away from my left arm.
I’ve discussed the prosthetic with Geppeti and she asked if I needed a weapon or an arm.
My answer was obviously a weapon, because bringing back my left arm was something that I thought it was not too late to do after everything was done.
Fortunately, she said, he could deal with the pain.
‘Pain…’
Earth’s highly developed medical technology was difficult to understand.
Therefore, the prosthetic hand will be prepared as soon as the design is decided.
As for the design, I asked for something that could exist in this world, at least outwardly.
It should be small enough to cross the ‘gap’ without too much trouble, so it could be prepared quickly.
For me, it was good news.
“That’s the problem.”
Turning away, Rei grumbled softly.
“I’m going to have to agree with you for once. That’s the problem with Lord Zetto.”
Geppeti, who had been walking toward the door, added.
So did Heneryes, and for some reason I seemed to be hearing a lot of that lately.
“Well, we’ll leave you to rest.”
Geppeti, who had been opening the door, bowed as she said so.
“You must come back quickly. I have to hold him to sleep.”
Rei set Sheddie at my feet and followed Geppeti out the door.
The door closed behind them, and the infirmary fell silent.
“Whoa…”
It felt like a storm had swept through.
Still, it was unavoidable, as death was a far different matter than a brief absence.
I’m sure everyone was confused and they must be suffering a lot.
I put my thoughts aside and tried to prepare for the ‘reunion’.
I immediately grabbed the sword that was lying next to the bed.
The Spectral Sword, my teacher.
“…Master.”
I called out to her.
“…”
There was no response so I glanced at the blade.
I could feel her, and she didn’t suffer any damage.
Nothing else was wrong and in the status window, the word “attributed” was still there.
In other words, we were still connected.
“…Sierra…?”
I finally said her name out loud.
Mmmm…
As if answering my call, she slipped out of my sword in a purple mist.
[ …… ]
Her violet eyes turn to me on the hospital bed.
“Am I a little late…?”
I shrugged and scratched my head.
To me, it was a split second, but in reality, days had passed.
Even if she had known of my death, she would have been lonely for days, unable to communicate with anyone.
[ … ]
“…”
After a moment of silence her moist lips, glistening in the moonlight, open.
[…I don’t mind not being able to talk to you for a while, but…]
She trailed off and judging by her trembling eyes, she had a lot to say.
[…I never want to see you fight so desperately again, and to have to stand by and watch you get hurt…It hurt. It hurt so much.]
Sierra’s voice echoed in my head, and I could hear the sadness in it.
I could understand her feelings since I must have been a pretty devastating sight back then.
I would have felt helpless to do anything about it but I couldn’t take down Murka without risking death and I thought it was the best outcome so I had no regrets about my choice.
“I’ll be stronger, so I won’t get hurt.”
I smiled and replied.
[ …… ]
Sierra squeezes her eyes shut.
[Why is it that people don’t seem to change after dying and coming back to life once, my apprentice…?]
Her eyelids lift, and she smiles faintly, then slowly walks towards me with her arms wide open.
-Po-ok.
She hugged me tightly and I could feel warmth radiating from her.
[It must have hurt you even more than it hurt me.]
Sierra’s soothing voice stroked my hair.
“…It’s okay.”
I blurted out reflexively.
[It must have been harder for you than it was for me.]
“…It’s okay…”
[…If it hurts, say it hurts, if it’s hard, say it’s hard. I am your teacher, and I can tolerate a certain amount of foolishness from my students…]
Sierra’s reverberating voice cut off my reply.
“……”
It hurt. It was painful but I couldn’t give up.
[The world may not understand your pain, but I will, and I will remember…so don’t worry about it.]
I couldn’t show it since I didn’t want to upset her.
[Thank you for holding it together.]
For some reason, tears came to my eyes.
They must have come from the pain of Sierra’s palm on my back.