WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Dark Fantasy Doctor Was Mistaken for a Saint ◈
Chapter 98: God's Dilemma (1)
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* * *
“I was a little surprised when you said you were coming so suddenly.”
At the Nihirit estate in the capital, I sat across from Father and sipped tea.
“Did you miss home after less than a week?”
“I missed a warm home-cooked meal.”
“You're usually the one who cooks in this house, aren't you?”
“Ah.”
I forgot.
Wherever I was, that was where the home cooking was.
“I was joking.”
“I see.”
Sip.
Father lowered his cup.
A faint wisp of steam lingered near his lips before dispersing.
“How is the Academy?”
“The students are sharper than I expected, and they follow my lessons well.”
Aside from the fact that they were somewhat afraid of me, no one seemed to look down on or dismiss me.
They seemed to acknowledge my abilities after the incident with House Russell.
“Hoo.”
Father let out a long sigh.
“When an old colleague from the judiciary told me that you shook up a count's house with two letters, my heart sank.”
“I'm sorry for worrying you.”
“Don't apologize. Is a phoenix some creature meant to be kept in a pocket? I've watched your talents closely, so there's no need to apologize for such things. If anything, I'm proud of you as your father.”
“Thank you.”
“Still, at least give your mother a little warning next time. The moment she heard you'd become a suspect, she caused quite a commotion.”
“...I'm sorry.”
“I told you not to apologize for that.”
Sip.
When Father lowered his cup, his expression had relaxed somewhat.
“So. Seeing that you left Pericia at the Academy and came all this way, I assume you have business as Director Schun. Is there an urgent patient?”
“Not exactly...”
Scratching my cheek, I explained everything.
How I would receive a commendation for this incident.
How, as part of the reward, my biological parents' graves would be relocated.
And how I had come to pay my respects before the relocation.
I also mentioned that our house was expected to receive a higher noble rank.
“...What did you say at the end? I think I heard wrong. Could you repeat it?”
“I said House Nihirit will be raised from a barony to a viscountcy.”
Father slowly stroked his chin and muttered.
“Hm... It is surely the head of a house who brings honor to it. Perhaps it is time for me to retire...”
“I haven't mastered arcane magic. You can't retire until Freya has mastered it completely.”
“There is a way to solve that problem as well...”
Father kept glancing at me.
Then, just as he seemed about to say something, he shook his head.
“It isn't important right now, so let us leave it for another time. You said you came to see your parents.”
“Yes.”
My gaze fell upon the raven mask resting in the corner of the desk.
My finger ran down its beak.
“I thought they would prefer me to visit them like this.”
I had never forgotten to bring this mask when visiting my parents' graves.
Julian was an expert in black magic.
Doctor Schun was the Black Saint.
My parents had been healers and priests, so I thought they would naturally be prouder of the latter.
After deciding to separate the identities of Director Schun and Julian, I visited their graves as Director Schun whenever possible.
My adoptive father respected that choice.
“They will be happy. Even before you were born, they were so excited over conception dreams and prenatal education. I wonder what expressions they would make if they learned their child had become a saint.”
Father smiled wistfully.
“Rest for a while, then go pay your respects. So Pericia is standing in for Julian at the Academy now?”
“Yes. They never leave the laboratory unless they have a lecture anyway, so there is no danger of being discovered.”
“That is a relief, but...”
Father narrowed his eyes.
“Still, there is something I do not understand.”
“What is it?”
“You separated your identities to protect our family from those targeting Director Schun, did you not?”
“...Yes. That is correct.”
“Then is there any point in doing so now?”
“...”
Father's point was simple.
Whether I was Julian or Director Schun, black mages hated me with equal fervor now.
Wouldn't it be better to reveal everything openly?
Part of me wanted to do exactly that.
But.
“The circumstances have changed. I believe the Imperial Family wants to grant me a noble title.”
They kept emphasizing that they would give me a title if I performed well as a professor.
It seemed they wanted to grant me a title the moment I had enough achievements, then put a leash around my neck.
“As a saint?”
“Yes.”
“If that is the reason, then there is nothing to be done.”
I still did not understand the Imperial Family's intentions.
Ordinarily, they should have told me to refuse sainthood.
What could they possibly be planning by letting me become a saint first, then granting me a noble title?
“Goodness. You really have it rough. You now need to separate your identities not because you fear black mages, but to hold two titles. Was this also according to your plans?”
I considered my answer for a moment.
For the sake of my genius persona, I could give a meaningful smile and say that everything was going according to plan.
But that went against my convictions.
That day, I had vowed not to treat my family with lies and misunderstandings.
So I told the truth.
“Absolutely not.”
Who could possibly plan something like that?
I had no ability to see the future.
I simply acted whenever something came to mind, doing whatever I could at the time.
It only looked as if everything fell perfectly into place because of the bonus that came with being in a misunderstanding story, I suppose.
“I was simply very lucky. May I ask why you thought that?”
“The time you dealt with that black mage, and the incident with the count's house. I wondered whether everything might be dancing in the palm of your hand.”
“That cannot be the case. I am always too busy dealing with what is right in front of me to have the leisure to look far ahead.”
“Then that is even more reassuring.”
Father's smile deepened.
“That is much more human.”
“I believe I am human enough.”
“That is true.”
Father chuckled.
“No matter what anyone says, you are my son.”
* * *
After my brief reunion with Father, I headed toward the family graves in Otto's car.
“We have arrived at the Necropolis.”
“Please wait here.”
“Understood.”
The Necropolis.
A city of dead nobles and their servants beneath Sanctum Hill.
Of course, it was not a place where undead wandered about.
It was simply a cemetery, one as large, sprawling, and complicated as a city.
“Good day, sir.”
“Oh, isn't that the saint?”
At the entrance to the Necropolis, an old man with a thick beard and a shovel greeted me.
“Would you like a map or a guide?”
“A map again today, please.”
The Necropolis was complicated.
Several people went missing there every year.
That was why it had a profession known as a human navigation guide.
Naturally, guides were a little more expensive than maps, but far more convenient.
Even so, there was only one reason I chose a map.
‘I have come here so many times.’
Confucian values ran through Julian Schnabel's blood, and I had visited my parents' graves dozens of times.
I was confident that I would not get lost even without a map by now.
The map was merely a precaution against unexpected circumstances.
“One silver coin.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Taking the map, I entered the Necropolis alone.
I had brought only Gregor, the holy knight.
“...”
Since I said I had come to pay respects to people I knew, Gregor kept quiet as though they were not there, fitting the mood.
‘My parents are on the second basement level.’
That was the floor where servants who had been especially close to their families, such as head butlers and nannies, were buried.
I simply needed to find my parents' graves there, as if looking up an address in a columbarium.
‘The Nihirit family plot is... here.’
I held expensive wine in one hand and fruit that was difficult to find in this smog-filled city in the other.
Just as I was about to enter the Necropolis, I met the eyes of a narrow-eyed man wandering along the public road on the second level.
He was a giant nearly two meters tall, comparable to Gregor.
“...”
“...”
“Excuse me, but may I ask for directions?”
The narrow-eyed man spoke cautiously.
He held out a scrap of cloth.
“I am looking for these people. I heard they were buried in House Nihirit's family plot, but I cannot find them anywhere.”
The moment I saw it, I could not help drawing a sharp breath.
It was a grimy scrap of cloth bearing a raven insignia.
The emblem of the clinic once operated by the Schnabel healer couple.
‘Who is this...?’
During the Southern War, my parents had reportedly handed these scraps of cloth to refugees.
They told them to pass on the kindness they had received to others along with the handkerchiefs.
It was like a reverse chain letter of good luck.
So there was a good chance this man had received my parents' kindness, directly or indirectly.
‘Did he come to visit their graves?’
Over the many times I had visited, I occasionally encountered people like this.
Most had searched the Necropolis in the Holy City before learning that my parents were buried in the capital.
‘There was no way to know which noble was buried where.’
They would wander around nearby for a long time, never imagining that my parents could be buried in House Nihirit's plot, until they met me.
This man seemed to be one of them.
“Ah, times are dangerous these days, so you may find it difficult to answer if I ask so suddenly. I am a pilgrim. Here is my pilgrim's credential as well.”
The narrow-eyed man took a priest's identification card from his worn robes.
[Lower Healer Priest Simeon]
‘Simeon? I have heard that name somewhere... Ah.’
After thinking for a moment, I remembered.
It was the name Father had muttered on the day he found my parents' bodies.
“Could not find Simeon either.”
My parents had been intermediate priests.
And they had a lower priest disciple named Simeon.
More precisely, he had been someone like a resident physician.
“Could he still be alive?”
“I hope so. But he cared for your parents deeply. I worry that he might have stayed by their side until the end.”
At the time, my adoptive father had not searched for Simeon's body.
His close relationship had been with the Schnabel couple.
He had neither the obligation nor the closeness to search for their resident physician as well.
Fortunately, Father's decision had turned out to be the right one.
‘To think he survived.’
I immediately responded.
“Pardon my rudeness, Priest Simeon. I will guide you.”
I wanted to show how pleased I was to see him.
But it was difficult to do so while wearing a mask.
Instead, I simply led him there calmly.
On the way to House Nihirit's plot, Simeon followed Gregor and me, then cautiously asked a question.
“...Are you not the Black Saint?”
“People call me that, though I am undeserving of the name.”
“How do you know these people?”
As if I had been waiting for the question, I took a handkerchief from my chest.
The last gift my parents had left me.
“I too received much kindness from these people. More kindness than I could repay in a lifetime.”
I did not remember their faces.
Still, it was difficult to repay the kindness of bringing me into the world.
Simeon stared silently at the handkerchief before speaking.
“...Were you in the south, Saint?”
“Do you know what the first medicine I developed was? And why I chose to sign with the Merkuer Trading Company, which has House Nihirit's backing? I believe that should answer your question.”
“...I see.”
The narrow-eyed priest nodded.
This was the story prepared by the Inspectorate.
Doctor Schnabel had received great kindness from the Schnabel couple.
Moved by that kindness, he developed quinine.
Then he learned that the head of House Nihirit had discovered the couple's bodies and laid them to rest in the family plot.
So, to repay House Nihirit, he sold the patent for quinine to the Merkuer Trading Company, which the house supported.
That was the history fabricated by the Inspectorate.
Of course, since memory alteration was such a precarious thing, it was a history known only to those in the know.
“Could the surname Schnabel also be a way of carrying on their will...?”
“No. That is simply a coincidence.”
The Inspectorate had not bothered changing that.
The surname Schnabel was surprisingly common among commoners.
In South Korea, it would not be as common as Lee.
More like Song, perhaps.
It was not as common as Johnson, but it was a surname that appeared from time to time if you looked for it.
So they had decided to leave it alone rather than force a change in my surname.
Simeon seemed to accept that without further suspicion.
“Please follow me. I came to see them as well.”
“Thank you.”
Simeon clutched his scripture to his chest and followed me.
Before long, we arrived at the Schnabel couple's grave.
[Elia Schnabel / Arian Schnabel]
‘I am here, Father, Mother.’
Since others were watching, I offered my prayers inwardly.
I placed the fruit and wine I had brought before the grave.
This was not a custom in this world, but I had always visited graves this way out of habit from my previous life.
“...These fruits.”
“I heard from the head of House Nihirit that they were fruits the two of them enjoyed.”
“They certainly liked grapes.”
“You knew them?”
“...They are people I deeply admire.”
Simeon answered sadly.
It seemed my parents had been beloved teachers to their resident physician.
Simeon placed the Moon Scripture before the grave and spoke.
“I was originally a wizard, but I awakened to divinity late in life. Enraptured by that feeling, I threw myself into faith late in life... and because of that, I was able to meet such wonderful people.”
He appeared to want to hide the fact that he had been their disciple.
So I pretended not to know.
“It seems you were on the same battlefield as them.”
“Yes. It was the hardest time of my life... but also the most meaningful.”
After that answer, the man said nothing for a long while.
Simeon knelt before the grave and prayed.
When he finished, he straightened his shabby priest's robes and rose.
Then he spoke to me.
“Saint, there is something I have long wondered about. I would like to hear your considered opinion.”
“If my limited knowledge can help, I would be glad to offer it.”
“Then let me ask.”
He paused to draw breath.
“Is punishing evil people who defy God's will itself God's will?”
“That depends on the standard used to define evil, but in most cases, it could be called good.”
“Then is upholding doctrine also God's will?”
“That is more difficult. It could be, provided humans do not misinterpret it.”
“Exactly. It is difficult to be certain that humans will properly uphold doctrine.”
Interpretation could be distorted.
God's word might be perfect, but those who interpreted it were imperfect humans.
It was an issue frequently discussed within the Church.
Simeon seemed to agree.
“Then conversely, can we be certain what acts clearly violate doctrine?”
Ironically, that much could be known.
Once something crossed far beyond the line, there was no need to know exactly where the line was.
“I believe we can be certain about that.”
“Then...”
Simeon's voice trembled slightly.
As if he were pouring out emotions he had kept hidden.
“Then... if those evil people who clearly defied God's will were punished in a way that clearly defied God's will, how would the gods see it? Would they first praise the punishment of evil, or would they first hate the act of blasphemy?”
“...”
“Please answer me. Are the gods beings who cherish good, or beings who protect their own authority?”
His narrow eyes widened slightly.
Only then could I see it.
The anger he had hidden behind those eyes, directed at the world.
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