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Chapter 499 SIDE STORY 9: GRAND PRIESTESS

?499 SIDE STORY 9: GRAND PRIESTESS

[Roma; Italy]

For once in a long while, Anastasia was not sitting in her house but was walking out in the open air of the city.

As it was the holiday period for most people in the world, she could see an excessive number of tourists wherever she walked. Some of them were disrespectful, some were curious, some were here just to relax while others were here for bragging rights.

But the same came to the people of the city themselves, not long ago she had nearly been robbed by a group of young people. Clearly, her blindness did not go unnoticed and some were more than happy to take advantage of her.

At the same time, many were also happy to come to her help while even more were happy to stay away and act as a bystander and film her with indifference or glee in their faces as they were catching rare content for their channels.

Not like they would remember anything that happened after leaving this place.

Watching all this, as a priestess who dedicated her life to God and the well-being of humanity, her younger self would have been extremely disappointed and frustrated.

Humans were not pure.

While humans were not inherently evil, they were able of both the best and the worst at the same time. Sadly, they generally settled for the worst.

The younger her had fought against reality, her mind which had been sheltered by the monastery could not accept this truth.

Were humans truly worth protecting?

Were the sacrifice of all her friends, fellow sisters, and hunters truly something that should happen for people who could not even recognize all the suffering they were going through?

Was selflessness truly the only way to be rewarded in heaven?

Her faith had been shaken. Not her faith in God but her faith in humanity. But even so, it held on. Albeit barely.

She had slowly been distancing herself from them, retreating to the only place she considered to still be pure.

The church.

This had been her last bastion of hope.

How mistaken she had been.

How naive and utterly stupid she was.

The church was truly a beautiful place. So many nuns and priests working for the betterment of humanity and keeping faith. Even those who had no power and knew nothing of the supernatural were faithful. This made her respect them even more as the Faith of those who knew believed because they knew and those who believed without knowing were obviously different.

But…The church was not pure.

No place in this world could be pure.

As long as humans existed, as long a group of people was reunited, there would always be at least one bad apple. A cancerous cell, that would slowly spread and dirty the rest.

She had been overjoyed by the purity but she had also been destroyed by the filth.

So she left the church. But she never discarded her identity as a nun.

"How the time changes. Don\'t you think so, Antonio?"

Anastasia "looked" at the direction of the man who was coming toward her. Even as blind as she was, his energy was so overwhelming that she could not help but look at him.

Truly a very good sapling. One of the few seeds she planted before leaving the Church.

Sadly he was old now. Too old, even though he was younger than her, anyone who looked at them on the street would believe he was twenty years or thirty years older and was at door death.

"Saintess."

"I have long since discarded that title."

"You will always be the saintess for me."

The old man with a frail appearance walked even as it seemed like his body would be blown by away by the wind at any moment.

"How have you been saintess? It\'s rare for you to walk the street."

"You are not even trying to hide I am under surveillance?"

Antonio exploded in laughter, "Only the young ambitious fools in the church actually believe they can put you under control. As for the old fools…Well, you should understand their concerns."

Anastasia shrugged. As stupid as it was, she actually understood. For devils, there was no soul more delicious than that of someone previously faithful but who gave up on their face.

In fact one of the enemies of the church, a group of cultists who swore they were the true apostles of gods was composed of previous priests and nuns who were previously very highly ranked their leader was even a Saint, one of the same generation as Anastasia and who, like her, had reached the level of a Zodiac.

"I did not lose my faith. I simply stopped believing in the institution."

Humans could be forgiven as they did not know. But how could you forgive those who sinned while fully knowing everything?

One was recyclable trash and the other was useless trash that should simply be destroyed and purged.

"The saintess should know this make you even more dangerous. After all, you already led a purge once. They fear for their necks."

"I did and it\'s sad that even after so much blood was spilled, nothing changed."

"..."

"Either way, I am going to America tonight. I have no need to hide this and you cannot stop me from moving."

"We would never stop you."

The two bathed quietly in silence, looking at all the people walking around,

"Saintess…"

"I am not a saintess."

"Saintess, why do you ever start to hate humanity?"

She tilted her head, she could hear the tremor of his voice, she could feel the acceleration of his heartbeat. She knew that this was not just a question for her.

"After leaving the church, I started exploring the world, going to the most dangerous places and most secluded ones as well as the most opulent. I have seen children dying from lack of food while others threw away a plate full of one. I have seen women treated as nothing but objects, I have seen brave and courageous men, working in abandoned mines all to feed their families even at the risk of their life, only to be met with betrayal or disappointment."

She looked up,

"This world is a sad place. One filled with contradiction and inequality. I have never felt so useless and powerless than when I realized that for all my power, I was nothing more than one out of billions of humans who could change nothing to our reality."

"So…"

"But…"

Anastasia stopped him, "For all the worst I have seen, I have also witnessed good. Good and evil exist both within us."

A smile spread on her face, "I may be disappointed in humanity, I may have doubt and I may even cry in frustration and wonder why I have to fight. Why did I have to even sacrifice my eyesight for such people? Then I \'see\' the children running on the street, I \'see\' the honorable men and women working every day. People who give without counting and I realize one thing… I can never hate humanity."

She patted Antonio on his head as if she were dealing with a child, this was such a weird sight but for the two, this was something absolutely normal.

"Do not grieve my child. Your doubts are not worthless. You should doubt. Doubt and doubt again. For we are not sheep who believe foolishly. We are humans who should believe after doubting. Our faith may seem ridiculous to others, but it is of no matter to us. Be proud Antonio for you have shed sweat, blood, and tears for humans. Not because you HAD to but because you WANTED to."

This was very important. The difference between being forced to fight for a goal you did not understand and fighting for what you firmly believed in after doubting and observing your faith from a third point of view made a world difference.

Done with what she had to say she stood up and started walking away but not before saying a few last words, "As ironic as it is. Blindness allowed me to see even more clearly and I realized, I wanted to protect this world. There may be filth but there is also beauty and I will fight for all that is beautiful in this world."

[Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. All things depicted in this story even if similar to the real world are utterly different. At least I don\'t know any Christian church with seven saint women who have angels in them and go battling devils and demons while trying to befriend the Son of Cain in the real world.]

More seriously though, this story has no political aspiration nor goal to disparage any religions. This is nothing but the work of my imagination for all of us to enjoy. This is perhaps the fourth time I have repeated this kind of disclaimer but heh. Better be sure.

(AN: Funny thing. Hierophant and High priestesses are similar cards. Technically they are respectively the Pope and Popeess cards.)