Chapter 11 – Ruined City

===================

Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

===================

When all the stars in the sky fell, the fate of the humans staying on the ground was also decided along with them.

Lives that had been maintained under attention and divine protection naturally collapsed as order disappeared.

And the moment the Black Sun suppressed all light sources, there were three newly established rules.

First, the sun no longer illuminates the world.

Second, a new life could no longer be conceived.

Third, the soul of the dead gets subordinated to the one who killed them.

Only a very small minority knew these rules.

They chose to keep silent about the truth. Because they guessed what would happen if the fact that the Sun God, the master of all creation, had forsaken them became known.

They were people who had already despaired and resigned themselves sufficiently. Even if they were informed of the tragic news, they would not be able to overcome it and would crumble instead.

This despair was not much different even for the ones who knew it.

“Lady Ceciel, you have to come out and see!”

At the man’s urgent voice calling from outside the door, the blanket wriggled.

However, the man outside was not one to give up easily.

Bang bang bang bang bang.

“Lady Ceciel!”

“Ah seriously! I just lay down on the bed!”

Spiky golden hair sticking out, it was an angel with dark circles under her eyes, steeped in fatigue.

She kicked off the blanket, fluttered her wings, and put on a crying face seeing her split-ended feathers.

“Even though everyone said my wings were pretty…”

She had just finished facing the monsters the Black Sun spat out and had only just swapped shifts.

She had asked for sleep, which she usually did not even glance at, to finally relieve her fatigue, but to think she would be interrupted like this.

It did not take long for Ceciel’s sadness to turn into anger.

“If it is nothing much, I will seriously kill you!”

Ceciel laid out a threat, but she still could not leave the bed due to lingering attachments.

That was until the man outside stated the business he came for.

“A star has ascended!”

It was the moment her eyes, which had been contorted with annoyance, completely relaxed.

“What? A star?”

Clatter.

It was the sound heard from the side as Ceciel popped out like an arrow and flung the door open.

Turning her gaze there, an angel was holding her forehead while letting out a groaning sound.

“Anniel, what are you doing there? You said a star rose?”

“…You will know just by looking outside.”

It was a blunt reply filled with complaints, but Ceciel instead merely worried with all sincerity.

“Where did you bump into? Anniel… What kind of angel walks around clumsily bumping into things.”

“Please just look.”

Ceciel was an angel renowned for speed, and Anniel for insight.

Anniel’s judgment, thinking that continuously conversing would only create more room to be nitpicked, was truly wise.

Ceciel’s attention quickly turned elsewhere.

They said a star rose.

Ceciel ran with all her might, stepped on the window’s handrail, and leaped up.

She flapped her boastful wings with all her strength. Thus, scattering light as halos with a bright yellow glowing ring, she ascended to the highest place.

And from atop the watchtower of the fortress built by a civilization that once boasted prosperity, she looked at the sight she had not seen for a long time.

A frail tail of light bisected the sky smeared haphazardly with black paint in two.

Like a white thread laid across a pitch-black drawing paper.

“It is real…”

She doubted it over and over again until she saw it for herself. Because she had assumed there would be no more stars to ascend to the sky.

From the standpoint of Ceciel, who had been fighting a lonely battle to protect the ones still alive, it was enough to evoke peculiar sentiments.

Although the soliloquy Ceciel muttered actually twisted the eyebrows of Anniel who followed behind.

“Did you not believe it?”

“Would you believe it? Saying a star ascended?”

” Even if it were me, I would not believe it.”

If she could follow her heart, she would want to snap her head around and glare at that shameless face.

However, both Ceciel and Anniel could not take their eyes off the sky.

The memories of once dwelling in heaven and flying around freely, the bygone old memories were contained in that faintly twinkling starlight.

The two angels only barely opened their mouths after looking at the star for a long while.

“That place where the star rose.”

“We cannot go. You know that.”

At least Anniel’s tone and voice were soft like soothing a child.

It was not only the people on the ground who cherished a yearning for the stars. As someone who was once a human, and as one who ascended and became an angel herself, Ceciel’s wish was natural.

However, Anniel’s cold-headed insight denied the wish the moment she perceived where the star had risen from.

“It is the direction where the Black Sun rises. It is probably one of the already ruined cities.”

Sunlight reached the place where morning dawned first. It was the same for the monsters’ attacks.

The closer it was to where the Black Sun rose, the thicker the Dark Light cast down. The number and strength of the demons popping out from within the shade of the Dark Light were also overwhelmingly stronger.

The surviving refugees were constantly squirming and moving, searching for directions where the Dark Light was even slightly fainter.

The places where celestial existences dwelled and protected them were but a few havens.

Anniel looked up at the only light guarding the sky where even the Black Sun disappeared, and floated a smile.

“I called you like this because Lady Ceciel always only looks down, so you should look up as well.”

At those words, Ceciel tightly clenched both her fists.

Unlike Anniel who still looked at the sky, Ceciel dropped her head and contained the scenery spread out beneath her feet in her eyes.

They were people who had come out to look at the ascended star just like themselves.

Overcoming the anxiety brought by the dim night sky, they must have come out to at least capture that faint starlight in their eyes.

People were gathering without distinction from rooftops, in front of collapsed houses, to atop the city walls.

Until now, she had always felt uncomfortable, feeling like a heavy responsibility was being forced upon her.

“Right. Angels need comfort, too.”

It was a simple grumbling.

Realizing she had only been driven to the edge because there was nothing to comfort her, the shadows laid under Ceciel’s eyes lightened a little.

With a small laugh, Ceciel raised her head toward the daily routine she had assumed she would never see again.

Guardian of Ranium, Ceciel.

Even she, who became famous thanks to her outstanding strength and the angels following her, was merely an existence that needed comfort.

***

Rallying the survivors of the ruined city was easy.

Thanks to them voluntarily gathering around the Bell Tower without me even needing to personally pay attention to it.

While keeping my spot in front of the chapel’s altar, people always came looking for me, and without a single exception, everyone marveled.

“Oh, ooooh… This divine aura. I never felt this kind of feeling even when visiting any temple in the past…”

“You are not, human. Stars are seen on your body…!”

I had never particularly acted authoritatively, but they knelt and shed tears on their own realistically.

Even when I wanted to tell them to stop, I could not treat the people who were wailing while pouring out tears coldly.

It was right to throw up emotions built up to the point of hiccuping as if their breath was about to stop. Of course, I did not just welcome them blindly.

They were people who had come as the news of a god appearing spread to every corner of the city.

In the process of shaking off the Corpse Demon hordes in whatever way possible, either their body or their mind was definitely broken.

Nevertheless, they could not appeal to me, only hesitating and reading my mood.

They were overwhelmed by the power I showed and feared what would happen if they displeased me even in the slightest chance.

Eventually, I had to open my mouth first.

“Who has come in pain.”

Ahem.

Speaking while trying to keep up some formalities a bit more befitting a god.

At that, a pair looking like a married couple popped out from among the people.

“Our, our daughter was bitten.”

The condition of the little girl wheezing and gasping for breath looked hopeless no matter who saw her. To make matters worse, she took a proper bite on her leg.

It would have been better if they had dealt with it the moment she was bitten, but since they failed to do so, too much corpse poison had spread.

At this level, death could not be prevented with the frailty of a child who had not even grown up yet.

Because the parents knew this as well, they probably brought the child in poor condition all the way to where I was.

And I had no intention of doing business with a drowning person.

“It seems painful to breathe.”

Phew…

Right after finishing the short words, I carefully exhaled a breath.

Presently, the blue breath containing the star’s dust touched the wheezing child.

Then, the agonizing phlegm sounds when she inhaled and exhaled slowly subsided with every moment. Changes also occurred at the wound wrapped tightly with grimy clothes.

The bite marks engraved on the bone closed up. New flesh sprouted to replace the torn off flesh. The severed blood vessels and nerves grew and knitted together once again.

As if intuitively feeling something, the parents unwrapped the tightly bound makeshift bandage and were astonished.

“It, it healed. It is clean. Nothing… is left behind! Dear, she is healed!”

“It… it is real. Thank you. Thank you! O merciful one!”

The child was no longer in pain.

Without a single groaning sound, she slept soundly and even tossed and turned. It was almost to the point of wondering if this was really the child who troubled her parents’ hearts with corpse poison.

Even so, not everyone recovered. I exhaled a breath containing the star’s dust one more time. This time, for everyone who sought me and all those bedridden.

Next, I moved personally and conversed.

“Put down the crutches. You will no longer need them.”

“Yes? Uh… Uh?! What is this!”

I gave the one-legged man a single fresh leg.

“You are right-handed. Be careful this time.”

“I only have my left hand, though. Huh?”

The man who scratched his head with his right hand, before long widened his eyes and let out a scream.

“You cannot see anything because you are wearing an eyepatch. Take it off and walk around a bit.”

“This servant’s eyes were blinded by white cataracts…”

“Take it off and speak first.”

“…I still cannot see even after taking it off.”

“You have to open your eyelids to see.”

Only then did he very carefully lift his eyelids. The old man profusely shed tears with his two clear eyes.

The woman I faced last was someone everyone had given up on long ago.

A young man who knew her circumstances approached and explained in a voice of pity.

“Her entire family was slaughtered right before her eyes. That was why she had become an idiot like that.”

“You wish to dream.”

I knelt in front of the woman, lowered my posture, and matched her gaze.

It was to look at the pupils that wandered without being able to contain anything. After looking at her like that for a long while, I saw a will dwelling in her pupils.

The moment the tears welling up in the woman’s eyes flowed down, I asked again.

“Was it a sad dream?”

“…It was a dream where You appeared a little earlier.”

I replied while raising my body, containing my resolve.

“I will never be late again.”

And then I patted the shoulder of the babbling young man.

There were no more patients left in the chapel. Dozens of patients were completely cured in an instant and raised their bodies from their sickbeds.

What waited for me as I turned around after finishing the treatments in the blink of an eye was a reverent prayer through silence.

Everyone uniformly knelt, lowered their heads, and clasped their two hands tightly together.

The only exception was Bartol, who came seeking me on business.

“I meet the Godfather of Stars, Star Creation.”

Although the part up to bowing his head was the same.

“Have the people all gathered?”

“They said they would send the sick ones first from the Mansion and the Hospital’s side. They said they would also gather the supplies and come.”

“Even so, we still will not be able to feed everyone sufficiently.”

The surviving survivors, 174 people.

It looked like an absurdly small number, but right now, even feeding all of them was overwhelming.

There were too many things to do to keep them alive safely.

A journey of a thousand miles began with a single step.

Chewing over the old proverb, I resolved to solve the most urgent problem first.

“There was a river flowing across the city, right. Tell Madam Hwen and the Hospital to just pack their bags. We need to move the shelter closer to the river.”