This Wasn’t an Erotic Game?

Chapter 12
What In the World Is Going On?
『 Translator – Divinity 』

It seemed I hadn’t been unconscious for long.

When I regained consciousness, there were young girls gathered around me.

“It’s the Saint.”

“It’s really the Saint.”

About five young girls with horribly disfigured faces were looking up at me with wide eyes.

I blinked and looked at the girls, then at the robber’s corpse lying in the corner, and my sense of reality returned.

I didn’t vomit.

But I was drenched in a cold sweat.

As my body was stiff and I couldn’t move, the young girls carefully approached and held my hands.

Their warmth helped me regain my senses somewhat.

“That man… what does he do?”

“He gets us matches.”

“We sell them and earn money.”

“He takes the money we earn and gives us a place to sleep and food.”

“He gives you a place to sleep and food?”

“Yes, Saint.”

I looked down at the children.

They were at most seven or eight years old.

There was even a girl who looked like she might be four.

All of them had faces melted by burns, and their clothes were tattered rags that looked more fit for a garbage bin than a human body.

They had no shoes on their feet, and the hands of the girls holding mine were incredibly rough, enough to make even a seasoned construction worker flinch.

I frowned.

These children, who supposedly had food and shelter, were in this condition?

“Can you take me to where you sleep?”

“Yes.”

The children led the way.

Damn it.

I need to get out of here quickly.

I need to escape before the people from the Lilia Church arrive…

But the children’s condition was so terrible that I couldn’t just leave.

After passing through a few more winding alleyways…

We arrived at the place where the children slept.

“We lean against this and sleep.”

I was speechless.

A long, grimy, foul-smelling, rotten rope was stretched horizontally along the wall.

Leaning against that line, young girls who looked no older than ten were huddled together, sleeping.

At the entrance of a foul-smelling sewer, reeking of mold and decay, a place seemingly without a name or visitors.

“Food… what do you eat?”

The young girls pointed at rotten vegetables and moldy bread scattered near the sewer.

“If we pay a lot of dues, sometimes he gives us bread without mold.”

I was speechless at the shocking sight.

The 15 young girls all had disfiguring burn marks on their faces, bodies, or hands, and they were leaning against ropes, swaying listlessly with expressions devoid of hope or any future.

The guilt of killing a man faded.

This…

What kind of fucking trash was this?

“Your faces… why are your faces like that? Why are they like that?”

At my question, the girls started to cry.

“Mom and Dad died early.”

“The factory mister brought us and made us work at the match factory.”

“We had to be careful, but we weren’t, and there was a fire.”

“Our faces hurt, so they just abandoned us. We were hungry and had nowhere to sleep… Then, mister brought us in, gave us work, and a place to sleep and food.”

Some of the young girls, who had no shoes, were missing toes due to frostbite.

There was a child missing fingers, and another whose throat was visible due to her disfigured face.

Honestly, it was more surprising that the children were even alive.

I clenched my fists.

I had to run away.

The people from the Lilia Church were coming.

They said they had arrived early.

So they might be looking for me right now.

I shouldn’t be doing this.

I had to run away.

My mind was screaming at me to escape right now.

But…

But…

How could I just run away after seeing this, for fuck’s sake?

I disappeared suddenly after using Time Stop, so there were no witnesses or footprints.

It would probably take them ages to find me.

So wouldn’t I have enough time to heal these children?

That’s what I thought.

“Mister… are you really a saint?”

At the young girl’s question, I quietly knelt down and met her eyes.

“No.”

I’m not a saint.

I’m just a loser born with erotic game skills.

I’m a coward who freezes at the slightest incident and cries easily when scared.

My hobbies were watching gore movies and anime, and in my past life, I was just an average college student at a local university before suddenly reincarnating.

But even so, I was someone who could heal the children in front of me.

“I’m just someone who serves the lowly.”

I extended my hand to the child in front of me.

“Come here. I’ll heal you.”

What did it matter if it was an erotic game skill or if I was a loser?

Let’s be grateful for this opportunity.

I placed my hand on the child’s head.

[Using skill Body Modification!]

I started to work on the child’s body.

I healed the face melted by burns and cured the various diseases she carried.

I restored the severed fingers and the toes lost to frostbite.

As I focused on modifying the children, forcing my mind, still exhausted from using Time Stop, to concentrate, I started to get a nosebleed, but I didn’t stop.

No.

I couldn’t stop.

“Ah…”

The child, seeing her instantly healed body, burst into tears.

I said to the healed child,

“Go and bring your friends. I’ll heal them all.”

The child brought the other children to me.

A child who was limping.

A child with a white eye, who seemed to be blind in one eye.

A child whose nose had melted away, making strange snorting sounds every time she spoke.

I placed my hand on each child’s head, calmly and carefully continuing the modifications one by one.

And finally.

Even the last child had returned to a cute and pretty appearance.

“S-Saint!”

“The Saint healed us!!”

“It doesn’t hurt!! I can see!!”

Hearing the young girls giggling, I felt tears welling up for some reason.

I hugged each of the children tightly.

“You won’t be sick anymore.”

“Thank you!”

“Thank you, Saint!”

“Now we can sell matches even harder!!”

At those words, I had to frown.

“You’re going to sell matches?”

“Yes.”

“Where will you… sleep?”

“Here.”

“…”

“Why?”

Even after I went through all the trouble of healing them, if they continued like this, they would soon get sick, suffer, and die.

I was about to say goodbye and leave, since I had healed them…

But my feet wouldn’t move.

“Do you know where the Sun Church is?”

“Yes! We know!”

“Go there and tell them the Saint sent you. They will take care of you.”

The Sun Church probably wouldn’t be overflowing with money.

So I thought I could send them money for these children to use every month in the form of anonymous donations.

“No! We don’t want to leave the Saint!”

“Me neither!”

This was the best I could do.

I couldn’t do more than this.

The Lilia Church might still be looking for me!!

If they catch me, it’s the stake for me, kids!!

“Can you let go of me now…”

Just as I was carefully pushing the children away and planning to escape again…

“He’s here!!”

“It’s the Saint!!”

The clinking sound of plate armor reached my ears.

And before I could do anything, the paladins of the Sun Church stormed into the alley where I was standing.

“Saint! It’s the Saint!!”

The moment I saw the paladins, my face turned pale.

I’m ruined.

I have to escape now!….

This is awful.

I’m so mentally exhausted.

I’m in such a state that I doubt I could even escape this alleyway even if I used Time Stop.

In the end, I couldn’t run away and was awkwardly left standing there, surrounded by the children.

“Saint, could it be… that you healed the children?”

I broke out in a cold sweat and forced a smile.

Thankfully, it wasn’t the Lilia Church.

“I simply did what needed to be done.”

“Ah… you truly are…”

Could you please take the children?

I have to leave now, so please take the children and look after them…

Just as I was about to say that…

A group of people entered the alley, following the paladins of the Sun Church.

The robber, half out of his mind, drooling and chuckling, was being dragged in by the police with his hands cuffed.

That robber…

Wasn’t he dead?

He was alive??

He’s worse than a cockroach.

You should rot in prison for the rest of your life.

It was fine up to this point.

The problem was the group of priests in white robes who followed behind.

The symbol of a water droplet inside a circle.

Oh…

Why are you here?

“Shortly after the Saint disappeared, the people from the Lilia Church heard the rumors and came directly to our church. So, using the Miracle of Tracking, I personally guided them here.”

The Miracle of Tracking.

What? That’s a thing?

Why does that even exist?

Why the hell does that exist!!

“Is that so.”

I was still smiling.

My face was just frozen like that.

It’s over.

It’s the burning at the stake ending.

I’m such a fucking idiot.

I should have just run away, kids or no kids.

I should have quickly healed them, used Time Stop, and escaped.

Why did I have to stick my nose where it didn’t belong and end up like this?!

No, wait!

Why is this my fault?!

It’s the Sun Church’s fault for having a Miracle of Tracking and not telling me about it!!

If I scream, “I healed a lot of people, even if I’m a heretic, please spare me!!” right before they burn me at the stake, wouldn’t there be a chance they’d let me live out of sympathy?

As I was thinking this to myself…

The priests of the Lilia Church cautiously walked towards me.

I was completely frozen, watching them approach.

The bald elder at the forefront of the Lilia priests was looking at me with an indescribable, complex expression.

“Goddess. Is he… truly the Saint? Is he the one sent by the Goddess?”

I didn’t know how to respond.

Anything I said would be used against me.

I was completely frozen, trembling.

Seeing my lack of response, the bald elder reached out his liver-spotted hand towards me.

“Stigmata. If you are truly the apostle sent by the Goddess… If you are her Saint, show us your stigmata.”

I squeezed my eyes shut.

Right.

This was bound to happen.

They were going to try to verify me with all sorts of unfamiliar verification methods that only followers of Lilia would understand.

Stigmata?

Would I have that?

I’m ruined.

I’d probably spend the rest of my life being called a heretic who impersonated a saint of God.

Seeing me frozen and unable to do anything, the bald elder, unable to wait any longer, took action.

“Forgive my rudeness. I must confirm.”

The bald elder gestured urgently.

The paladins of the Lilia Church approached me.

They carefully and calmly removed my clothes.

My clothes, stained with all sorts of filthy grime from rolling around with the poor and healing the witch, fell away one by one.

I just stared at the sky with a vacant expression.

…Life, for fuck’s sake.

Is this really the end, so anticlimactic?

So anticlimactic…

Whether I was out of it or not, the paladins began to meticulously examine my naked body.

I just kept my arms spread, letting them admire my naked form.

I had fallen into despair.

I was so scared that my brain froze, and I couldn’t think of anything.

Let’s just cry as sadly as possible before they burn me at the stake and try to appeal to their emotions. That was the only thought in my head.

“There’s no… There’s no stigmata.”

“There’s no stigmata at all!”

The paladins of Lilia shouted.

Yes.

There isn’t.

It would be strange if there was.

Should I start crying now?

Should I kneel and cry pathetically, begging them to spare me from being burned at the stake for heresy?

“…He will come in the purest form! Ahhh!! The words of the Scripture have come true!!”

“That’s right!! High Priest! He is the Saint sent by the Goddess!!”

…What?

“Lilia!! Ahhh!! Praise the Goddess of Grace!!”

The paladins all knelt before me.

The priests of the Lilia Church, including the bald elder, also knelt.

The people from the Sun Church were shedding tears and making the sign of the cross, and the police officers were looking at me with respect and awe.

“Saint of the Goddess!! Lead your humble servants!!”

Seeing the bald elder shouting in excitement, I just blinked my eyes repeatedly.

What in the world was going on?