Chapter 19
Kanna continued to receive explanations from Gabriel about how matters were proceeding, due to the Young Lady's orders.
While focusing on the conversation, Hena also looked around the Great Temple with great interest. She wondered when she would ever come to such a place again.
The building's exterior was already magnificent, but the interior was twice as lavish. Brilliant stained glass in five-colored light depicted verses from the scriptures, and statues of the Sun God Rahel were placed throughout.
The visitors who came to pray were mostly nobles, and the priests guiding them were dressed extravagantly. The priests who occasionally served in the slums all wore plain, simple clothes without decoration—were the priests here dressed so lavishly because they dealt with nobles?
Or did they deliberately wear modest clothes when visiting the slums to avoid being resented? No, this seemed like she was imagining the worst.
"Madam, thank you for always gracing us with your presence. May the sunlight always shine upon you."
At least the greeting was the same. May the sunlight shine upon you. Hena repeated their greeting to herself.
Following the carpet inside, there was a small but extremely ornate fountain in the main hall.
'Aren't fountains usually placed outdoors?'
The indoor fountain looked awkward, and as she kept glancing at it, she saw a noble lady with a priest approaching the fountain. Then the lady cupped the fountain water in her hands and moistened her lips.
It was the first time she had seen a noble do such a thing. Weren't nobles the ones who claimed even washing water was too dirty to drink?
More importantly, leaving hygiene aside, was it even acceptable to drink water from a temple fountain? Hena had no way of knowing, so she asked Gabriel for help.
"Is the water from that fountain drinkable?"
"Yes. It's holy water."
"Excuse me?"
"It's holy water. That."
Holy water? Hena was newly reminded that this was the Great Temple. Right, holy water was made at temples, so it was natural for holy water to be here. But why in the form of a fountain?
Watching the endlessly springing holy water, Hena felt somehow shaded and unknowingly gripped Kanna's hand tightly. Seeing someone moistening their throat before her eyes made her feel thirsty. Kanna's hand was being squeezed, but she quietly allowed it, perhaps guessing Hena's feelings.
"It's not open to all visitors. As you can see, there are knights guarding it. It's a benefit given to customers who give generous donations."
Gabriel said that, adding that most people who entered the Great Temple were nobles to begin with.
"It's a performance to show the temple's prosperity."
Gabriel sounded very cold as he explained. Hena chewed on his words. Was he saying that while treating nobles as customers, the temple wanted to maintain superiority and made them do things nobles would never normally do?
But wasn't that a bit distrustful coming from a temple knight? Calling believers customers... Hena realized she had never heard Gabriel give any religious greetings. Of course, Sir Gabriel might simply not give such greetings out of consideration for others.
Unable to find an answer, Hena remained silent and followed behind Gabriel.
After passing the central fountain, she saw a crowd gathered somewhere. That must be where the painting was hanging.
"First, I should tell you that people's reactions to that painting are completely divided. One side finds it very beautiful, while the other finds it repulsive."
Without needing further explanation, it was clear Gabriel belonged to the latter.
And finally, Hena arrived in front of the painting.
***
'Has it been burned?'
It was a canvas filled with dull colors, as if covered in ash, enough to be mistaken for burned at first glance. A painting that didn't suit the pure white and brilliantly colored Great Temple. It was like a drop of ink falling into clear water.
And the moment she examined the painting closely, revulsion rose in Hena's throat. God's blessing? Sacred? This? This painting? She doubted the aesthetic sense of those who praised such filth. She wondered if their eyes weren't functioning properly.
Even a painting of the most wretched person's end would be more beautiful than this. No, rather, even the scene of Donau's suicide would be better.
Against a background of a wooden floor in a collapsed building that looked like the fire had just been extinguished, a split charcoal lump with only a torso, missing all four limbs, was screaming in agony. Above its head, a blood-covered single eye blinked, and from behind, countless tiny hands emerging from hellfire were trying to devour the dead. The reason it looked like wings was because the small fingers were tangled together, appearing somewhat like feathers.
Did the believers know that Donau's end was suicide? According to the Sun God's doctrine they so blindly believed, those who committed suicide could never be embraced in Rahel's arms. Therefore, this was a scene from hell that came to welcome Donau.
"Oh, Rahel."
"Please grant us salvation as well."
Hena wanted to cover her ears. Were these people really Sun God believers? Even Hena, who held a grudge against Donau, felt sorry for Donau in that painting—so how could they look at this and offer praise?
"Indeed. It is beautiful."
"Kanna?"
And unfortunately, Kanna also seemed to find the painting beautiful.
"It must appear differently to Miss Kanna. I find that painting extremely repulsive. I expect the same goes for you, Miss Hena."
Hena nodded. It was so repulsive it made her want to vomit.
So Kanna saw this painting as beautiful. Looking around, the people viewing the painting were staring at the canvas entranced, as if on drugs.
What kind of magic did the painter use to create such an ambivalent painting?
Hena realized why this painting still hung in the temple. The polarized reactions would only make the painting seem more mysterious. To those who found the painting beautiful, no matter how much truth one told them, it would only seem like an attempt to disparage the painting.
"What's the difference?"
"Well. They say it's a difference in faithfulness."
That couldn't be true. Kanna, who found the temple uncomfortable, had praised the painting as beautiful.
"Captain!"
"Rapahela?"
"Where have you been! I've been looking everywhere for you!"
"Just a moment. Would you two wait here for a bit? It seems urgent, so I need to step away briefly to speak with my subordinate."
"Yes. We'll wait here."
From afar, a knight in a white uniform anxiously called for Gabriel. At Gabriel's request for a brief leave, Hena nodded. She wanted to hurry away from this place, but with Kanna entranced by the painting, she couldn't leave alone anyway.
Even after Gabriel disappeared, Kanna, who had been appreciating the painting with a smile for a while, suddenly broke the silence.
"Does that painting look different to you, sister? That pattern looks just like an eye to me."
Kanna turned her back to the painting and looked at Hena. The angle was perfectly aligned, making it seem as if wings were spread behind Kanna's back.
Hena stopped breathing. Goosebumps rose on her arms along her spine. Her stomach tensed and her knees went weak. Ringing sounded in her ears and the world spun.
No, no way.
An eye? What Kanna said was no different from what Hena saw. Then Kanna...
'Kanna praised as beautiful the same thing I saw?'
"Kanna, you..."
Hena wanted to press Kanna. But what could she say to her younger sister? That she wasn't normal? She couldn't possibly say something that would wound a child who had been sick her whole life and could finally smile now.
While she was choosing her words, seeing Gabriel returning after finishing his business, Hena held her breath and whispered urgently.
"Don't tell Sir Gabriel you saw an eye. Just say you feel that painting is sacred. Understand?"
The temple's people also considered the painting sacred, so that wouldn't be a problem. But Kanna's case was different. Unlike others, Kanna perceived the sacred painting as an 'eye' and still called it beautiful.
Ordinary people didn't call an eyeball separated from a human body beautiful.
When Hena pressed her with the warning, Kanna quietly nodded. Hena decided to finally accept the truth she had suspected for a long time but couldn't believe.
Kanna was broken somewhere.
She didn't know if it was after being kidnapped by Donau, or after meeting the Young Lady. Perhaps she had been that way since childhood, hidden by her frailty.
"Thank you for waiting."
"Not at all. I didn't even notice the time passing while looking at the painting."
"I'm glad to hear that."
The fortunate thing was that looking at her this way, she couldn't detect anything particularly wrong with Kanna. Moreover, Kanna was favored by the Young Lady. To stay by the Young Lady's side, it might be better to just leave her as she was.
Even as Hena reached that conclusion, she worried that perhaps she was rationalizing all of this because she couldn't face her sister.
Of course, the worry was brief. Just as she had eventually joined hands with the monster who acted like a cat in the past, Hena's choice was always for her sister.
"By the way, why were you called just now? Is it related to that painting?"
While Hena was collecting herself, the two were still talking. At Kanna's question, Gabriel nodded.
"My subordinate just reported that they've protected a witness."
"A witness?"
"Yes. Someone who was at the monastery..."
"If it's about the painting, shouldn't I be allowed to hear it too?"
When Gabriel held back his words, Kanna asked. Gabriel seemed to think for a moment, then apparently decided to include the two people involved in Donau's incident.
"I've already had them escorted to the reception room, so let's hear the details together."
Having seen the painting, there was no reason to stay in the temple any longer. Hena also wanted to get away from the ominous painting as soon as possible, so she quickened her pace.