In Cyberpunk, There are Just Too Many Unbelievers

A lightweight paperback wrapped in synthetic leather, 180mm wide, 205mm tall, 50mm thick, weighing 2kg.

A blunt weapon for major anomalies.

A bible.

With just one strike, it could exorcise low-level spirits and such – an extremely efficient weapon.

The proof was that Amon’s single strike had exorcised all the spirits possessing Jimmy in one go.

Unfortunately, in the process, the infant spirit that had cooperated with Amon was also exorcised, making it impossible for Amon to keep his promised offering ceremony.

Feeling apologetic for not being able to hold the offering to appease it, Amon made the sign of the cross.

‘Amen.’

That was the extent of his mourning for the nameless infant spirit.

Amon looked down at Jimmy, collapsed at his feet with his eyes rolled back, frothing at the mouth.

To any observer, Jimmy’s condition was clearly not normal.

Amon turned his gaze toward the nun behind him, mumbling incoherently.

“Jimmy’s condition doesn’t look good, is this okay?”

With a voice dripping with concern.

Amon had no doubt the nun would realize he was genuinely worried about Jimmy.

Of course, that was just Amon’s misunderstanding.

‘Did you really just say that!?’

Although inwardly appalled, the nun did not show it outwardly.

She herself did not want to end up lying next to Jimmy either.

Consciously moving her stiff cheeks, she reassured Amon.

“Don’t worry. It’s probably just a side effect from the possession being lifted… Probably.”

That last word did not reach Amon’s ears.

Thanks to that, Amon was able to pat his chest in relief.

It was perfectly normal for victims of exorcised possessions to foam at the mouth from the shock of their soul being torn out.

Of course, Amon’s slightly excessive exorcism method seemed to have put a harsh strain on Jimmy’s brain, but there was no one present who could prove that.

Therefore, at least in this incident, Amon could be considered innocent.

Not long after, the orphanage director, woken by Amon’s shout, arrived at the scene.

What she witnessed there was Amon looking somewhat refreshed, Jimmy lying unconscious with a dent in his head, and a nun pressing her eye sockets.

With her decades of experience running the orphanage, she immediately grasped the full situation without any explanation.

She knew exactly what needed to be done first in this situation.

“First, Amon, go back to your room and rest. You don’t need to write a self-reflection, so don’t worry.”

Thanks to the director’s mediation, Amon was acquitted.

At the orphanage, the story was that Jimmy had tried to escape from the isolation room but was stopped by Amon.

In any case, the victim Jimmy had been completely possessed and had no memory of the incident, while the only witnesses, the director and nun, were on Amon’s side.

In the end, the truth was slightly altered when conveyed to others.

“Amazing, bro!”

The younger siblings who adored Amon were quick to praise him.

To the children for whom the orphanage was their entire world, the possessed Jimmy had seemed like an end-of-the-world demon lord.

For singlehandedly defeating such a demon lord, Amon’s status was on par with a hero.

The hero Amon could only give a dry laugh amid the children’s adulation.

‘I can’t even tell them the truth about this…’

Unable to regale the children with tales of his bible heroics, Amon packaged his fight with Jimmy in a slightly altered version.

The story was that Amon and Jimmy had engaged in an intense night battle, and the spirits possessing Jimmy eventually left his body after being struck by Amon.

In reality, physical punishment including whipping was one method of exorcising the possessed.

The only problem was that the person usually died before the spirit was driven out.

In this case, it was concluded that Jimmy had been lucky.

“So cool…”

For some reason, Sonia had joined the group of children, her eyes sparkling as she listened intently, leaving Amon utterly embarrassed.

As the children continued praising the heroic Amon, there was someone who could not take this incident lightly.

The director sat in her office, ruminating over what Amon had accomplished in this incident.

Exorcism.

This thing called exorcism was no easy feat.

Spirits, strictly speaking, were beings born from mystic power rather than magic power, so they could not be dealt with through magic or overwhelming physical force alone.

It was not for nothing that the profession of exorcist existed separately.

Yet Amon had accomplished it.

With just a bible.

As Amon had put it, the bible was classified as a physical weapon.

Regrettably, it did not provide any additional sacred power damage.

Therefore, the cause of this exorcism lay not with the bible, but with Amon himself.

Both Amon and the director were well aware of this fact.

And the exorcist priest who had belatedly arrived also knew this fact very well.

“Quite a remarkable child.”

Beyond the exorcist priest’s spectacle lenses, his narrow blue irises faintly visible through the slit captured Amon’s photo.

He was the priest the director had summoned as soon as Jimmy became possessed.

Due to possession incidents occurring nationwide after Thanksgiving, he had been delayed in coming to the orphanage.

By the time he arrived at the orphanage, the incident had already been resolved, making his visit pointless.

As such, the director apologized and served him tea.

The initial atmosphere was pleasant.

They exchanged casual conversation about how well-behaved the children were, how adorable they were, how the orphanage was running smoothly these days, and so on.

But then, the priest suddenly brought up Amon.

“That child named Amon. Was it him who exorcised those lingering souls this time as well?”

The director let out a deep sigh before answering.

“How long have you known?”

“In this line of work, you can kind of tell whose resentment a spirit’s lingering attachments have latched onto.”

“Could it be that child Amon is…”

“Ah, don’t worry. It’s just fragments of lingering thoughts, nothing more. To use an analogy, it’s like a ghost’s bloodstain. It will naturally fade if left alone.”

“Whew.”

The director breathed a sigh of relief.

But the priest’s pursuit did not end there.

“But you know, I also sensed divine power from another child besides him. Was her name… Sonia, perhaps?”

Gulp

The director froze.

She raised her gaze to meet the priest’s eyes.

Those narrow, serpentine eyes.

No matter how long she had known this priest, those eyes never became familiar.

The director averted her gaze from those snake-like eyes and remained silent.

But that series of actions only served to confirm the priest’s suspicions.

Nodding his head slowly, the priest revealed the facts he had uncovered here.

“That child, Sonia. Divine power is leaking out of her. Since she’s not storing and using her divine power, the excess must be constantly overflowing. It shouldn’t cause any health issues, but she has now surpassed the point where it can be concealed. Anyone with even a slightly keen sense would immediately notice.”

The tips of the director’s fingers trembled.

She set down the teacup she had been holding on the desk.

In contrast, the priest peacefully sipped his tea, savoring the aroma, before slowly broaching the main subject.

“Until when did you plan to keep their divine power hidden from them?”

“I won’t tell them until those children graduate.”

“You realize that could be considered overprotective, yes?”

“In this harsh world, there is no such thing as too much protection.”

“Those are fair words as well.”

The gazes of the director and priest clashed in mid-air.

The winner of this battle of wills was the director.

Love was the strongest obstinacy in the world, so it was only natural for the priest to concede.

The time for persuasion and coaxing was over.

Now was the time for threats.

The priest calmly stated the reality.

“There are no eternal secrets in this world. The more brilliant the secret is like a gemstone, the more true that is. No matter how dark and dirty the place, a gemstone is still a gemstone. You know this, don’t you?”

The director remained silent.

As the priest said, keeping the secret would only become more difficult from now on.

Sonia’s divine power was constantly leaking out little by little.

Amon emanated divine power intensely enough that the entire neighborhood would notice if he got even slightly excited.

Moreover, Sonia was recently famous enough to be called the Goddess of Gunfire.

The rumor that she could fire guns without any recoil was a rumor that anyone with even a slight grasp of divine power would become suspicious of.

Putting it all together, anyone who paid even a little attention to the orphanage would easily notice they were divine power holders.

The director was well aware of this fact.

Yet she still wanted to conceal it as much as possible.

To her, they were exceptionally painful fingers, so she was desperately clinging on.

Even knowing it was futile, she at least wanted to keep them safe until they graduated.

But to the priest, the director’s feelings didn’t really matter.

With his spectacles glinting, he calmly informed her:

“In two years, I will come to take those children.”

The director’s brow twitched violently.

She was well aware of the power the priest before her possessed.

And she also knew he had the ability to act on this notification.

But that twitch only lasted a moment, as her eyes hardened with determination.

“I will let those children decide their own lives for themselves.”

“Director. You must be able to distinguish between what is good and what you want. You know full well that the Vatican is the safest place for those children, don’t you?”

“The Vatican? The safest place, you say?”

With a hint of defiance, she lifted her nun’s habit.

Revealed were legs made of steel instead of bone and flesh.

At her action, for the first time, the priest’s mouth closed.

Silence fell between them.

That silence was broken by the priest, who somehow managed to squeeze out words.

“The Vatican… will not neglect those children.”

To the priest’s words, the director fired back as if spitting out venom.

“I’m sure they won’t. As long as the children just turn a blind eye to the depravity.”

“Director. You know as well as I do. That is a necessary evil. And you also know just as well as I that there are no other options under those conditions…”

“…”

The priest’s fading voice and the director’s silence.

As the priest said, for divine power holders, the Vatican was indeed the safest and most unproblematic choice they could make.

They might not earn as much money as companies, but they still earned a decent amount.

They might not wield as much power as governments, but they still had a degree of authority.

Moreover, of the three, the Vatican was the least corrupt when it came to depravity.

It was the pot calling the kettle black, but compared to companies and governments, the darkness was shallower.

Under the condition of turning a blind eye to depravity, the Vatican could at least guarantee their lives, while other places often endangered not just them but those around them as well.

However, the director could not bear to send those children to such a place.

Knowing full well how beautiful lotuses those children were, she did not want to expose them to such filth if she could help it.

But she also knew all too well that there was no other choice, leaving her heart heavy.

Biting her lip, she lamented the unjust reality for a moment.

In the end, she did not choose.

She knew in her mind what would be good for the children, but left the choice entirely up to them.

‘I’m still just a coward of a woman, after all.’

Mocking herself thus, she made her stance clear to the priest.

“Let the children choose their own futures.”

Once again, the director and priest’s gazes clashed in mid-air.

After regarding the director with a meaningful look, the priest let out a deep, earth-shaking sigh.

Then, raising both hands, he declared:

“I understand. You win.”

His resignation.

At the priest’s declaration of resignation, the director’s shoulders slumped as if deflated.

Watching her reaction, the priest gave a wry smile and made her a new proposal.

“You said you want to let those children make the choice themselves, right? Then I will help you with that.”

Stating that it would be difficult to completely deceive outside eyes at this rate, the priest proposed helping Amon and Sonia conceal their divine power.

“We can suppress the divine power leaking from their bodies with special bracelets, and I can use some connections I have to prevent the rumors about Sonia’s shooting skills from spreading further.”

“What underhanded tricks are these?”

“This is no underhanded trick. Information only gains value when it is monopolized, as is its nature. I am simply not sparing any hassle for the sake of the value of the information I possess.”

“…Very well. I accept. But on one condition.”

“Name it.”

“Even if you show such kindness, I will not intervene in the children’s choice two years from now.”

“Understood. Then until that time, I shall steadily accumulate their goodwill. You won’t obstruct that, will you?”

Nod

The director nodded.

The priest slowly nodded back and rose from his seat.

Stating that speed was of the essence in such matters, he immediately took action and placed bracelets for the two of them to wear on the desk.

Even as the priest stood up, the director did not.

It signified she would not see him off –

Simultaneously, it was a silent protest and expression of grievance toward the priest.

The priest looked down at the director, who was pouting at him, with damp eyes.

Yet he also had a contemplative air as he spoke:

“I understand your intentions well. But let me advise you. You will regret this.”

“I know.”
“You also know you cannot keep this up forever, don’t you?”
“I know full well.”

Hearing the director’s words, the priest put on the coat he had hung up and donned his hat.

Then, before leaving the reception room, he said to the director:

“Well then, I shall take my leave. May glory be with the Vatican.”

“May the Lord Mother’s love be abundant.”

They parted with those farewells.

Instead of immediately leaving the reception room, the director remained seated, caressing her prosthetic leg.

For quite a while, over and over again.

With the faces of those two children continuously surfacing in the back of her mind.