You've had enough!

I would stay by his side without ever leaving him, facing whatever storms might come together with him.

I had decided that a few days ago.

So, I would be his wife... Brother Otto's wife... Hahaha...

When she came to her senses and raised her head, she saw Otto place a hand over her forehead, wearing the expression of someone watching a child act foolish.

"What are you laughing about... Never mind."

Otto sighed and patted the woman's shoulder.

"As long as you're happy."

The man took Cecilia's hand and walked through the streets of Attra. The handsome man and beautiful woman made for a lovely sight amid the crowd.

"Where are we going, Brother?"

"Us?"

Otto looked into the distance and raised the cross in his hand. Under the colorful lights by the roadside, it reflected a dazzling gleam.

"Didn't they say Schicksal rings Heaven's bell to save the world?"

"Let's go deliver a bell."

The brown-haired, golden-eyed woman plucked a feather that had fallen over her mask's eyehole and stared at the scene before her in shock.

She swore she had never imagined that her mercenary colleague possessed such an astonishing talent for bewitching people's hearts.

He had gathered so many believers in a single morning, and after gathering them, they had somehow taught themselves to compose hymns.

It was just... this hymn...

"In the beginning, my Lord awakened from the glaciers and came into this mortal world,

Seeing that the people had no food to eat, suffering from hunger and cold.

The Shepherd could not bear to see the lambs starve to death, nor could my Lord bear to see mortals sink into ignorance and corruption.

Thus, He kindled heavenly fire, cooked the wheat shoots, and came before the people."

"The Lord said: I grant you the noodles of this world.

All who eat these noodles are My children; all who eat these noodles shall love one another as brothers."

"...I shall be your Father and never let you go hungry; since you are My children, you must respect the noodles that fill your bellies."

"Honor the Lord above..."

The masked woman opened her mouth, yet had no idea what to say...

"Miss Cleo," the blond, green-eyed boy beside her spoke up. "Is there a problem?"

"Ah, no, nothing."

Brown-haired, golden-eyed Cleo froze for a moment. Looking at the little boy who had written the hymn, her expression became indescribably complicated.

Was there something wrong with them, or with this group? Why did every one of them look like they had been hit by the Eighth Divine Key?

"Don't mind it so much, Miss Cleo." The boy stuck out his tongue. "I'm merely good at revising... good at this sort of thing. But you are the true priest, aren't you?"

"You are devout, and surely grace and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous. But the way of the wicked shall perish!"

He suddenly began reciting what sounded like a devout prayer. With one hand over his chest, his face was filled with the fervor of a fanatic.

"The Lord shall reward you according to your righteousness, and grant you according to the cleanness of your hands; for salvation belongs to the Lord!"

The blond boy seemed very satisfied with Cleo's expression. The corners of his lips curled upward as he bowed to her.

"Thank you for bringing us such a great doctrine. May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble, and may the God named Salvation raise you high; may He send you help from the sanctuary and strengthen you from the kingdom of God. May He remember all your offerings and accept your burnt sacrifice."

"I know it must be so," the boy declared with utter certainty. "For you have kept the way of my Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God; all His ordinances are before you. Neither have you cast away His statutes!"

Cleo: ...

I even suspect you're the snake, or maybe I'm the snake.

"People who believe in the Lord, you must understand this:"

"It is not that the Lord cannot send down heavenly fire, summon frost, burn the earth to ashes, and pass holy judgment upon all living things. He merely considers that there are still heroes in this world. So long as there remains one clear-minded hero, the Lord shall not display His great power and destroy this world."

"It is not that the Lord cannot scatter sweet rain across the land, regrow severed limbs, drive away evil spirits, and make all men gods. He merely hates that ignorance still remains in this world. So long as there is a leader's ignorance, the Lord cannot allow him to enjoy this divine favor."

"The Lord is omnipotent. We must believe this."

"All who believe in the Lord shall eat noodles until they are full; all who defy the Lord shall surely wail."

"Amen!"

The believers finally noisily finished shouting the second hymn for the second time. Cleo held her head, her thoughts a complete mess.

She felt as though she was about to give up thinking...

Her mind buzzed with nothing but "Amen," "Amen"...

"Miss Cleo," came the boy's voice. "What's wrong?"

"Uh..." Cleo closed her eyes and stammered, "I'm not exactly a specialist when it comes to promoting gods..."

"So you don't know how to speak to new apostles like us, right?" The boy's smile seemed to deepen.

"Yeah... I really didn't know preaching could bring in so many idiots..."

"Then leave it to me! You can leave everything to me!" Fire flickered in the boy's pupils. "I can help spread the praises of Salvation—you can rest assured, my literary skills are excellent!"

Cleo looked at the boy in confusion, unable to understand why he was being so enthusiastic.

"Um... right," the boy asked casually, as if the thought had just occurred to him, "in our church... can we really eat noodles until we're full, like I wrote? If so... I'd like to join and become a real clergyman like you. Is there a way?"

"Become a clergyman?"

Cleo murmured the words, then the corners of her lips rose as she instantly understood what the boy was doing.

No wonder he was so enthusiastic...

So he wanted to join and get himself a meal. Easy enough.

—As long as you could walk off my operating table.

"I'll introduce you to the Lord," Cleo replied, a sharp gleam flashing in her eyes. "Help me say a few more things—oh, right, remember to smear Schicksal's name."

She lightly patted the boy's shoulder, stepped back half a pace, and looked over the crowd, searching for the figure she wanted.

The boy lowered his head and rolled his eyes. Then he spread his arms and loudly proclaimed to the crowd:

"Everyone, we have gathered here today to sing the praises of the great god. His existence is worthy of two and a half years of our study..."

You've Had Enough!

"...If the world can be saved, then my Lord shall surely show us mercy, just as we look to Him. I shall bless my Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Join me in magnifying my Lord, and let us exalt His name together."

"All who look to Him shall be radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. O holy people of my Lord, fear Him, for those who fear Him shall lack nothing. You shall surely profit from this, for the Lord shall bless the righteous. O Lord, He shall surround you with favor as with a shield!"

The crowd erupted. A brown-haired woman cried out in an elegant yet excited voice, "This shall be mankind's greatest honor; believers shall dwell in my Lord's kingdom forever!"

The boy looked toward the speaker and exchanged a smile with her rose-red eyes.

"You shall reclaim your original self, living and dying alongside the spirit of the gods!"

"We must offer sacrifices of righteousness and trust in my Lord, because He—He is the shield around us, our glory, and the god who lifts up my head!"

The woman blinked and replied with a smiling expression.

The boy bowed, as though thanking her for her cooperation.

"This makes my heart glad, more than those whose grain and new wine abound; it was so in the past, and it shall surely be so in the future—Amen!"

"Amen!"

"Amen!"

"Amen!"

Cecilia and Otto stood in the distance, quietly watching everything unfold beside the River Thames.

Strangely enough, although it was Christmas vacation, there were gradually fewer and fewer pedestrians here.

"Courtesy demands reciprocity."

Amid the clamor, Otto suddenly chuckled softly, making Cecilia tilt her head toward him.

"The world is filled with restless unease, because everyone is eager to free themselves from their own shackles."

The man beside her carried himself with elegant poise, without the slightest emotional fluctuation, yet he somehow exuded an eerie detachment.

Unreal. Yes, unreal.

The Otto of this moment gave Cecilia an overwhelming sense of unreality.

Even while holding his arm, she felt that this man was distinctly separated from everything else—perhaps even from her.

It was as though the soul within him had just left this space, leaped beyond the city, and was now looking down from above, indifferently waiting for events to unfold—as a narrator.

The woman could not help feeling a little flustered. She leaned closer to Otto and tightened her fingers slightly.

As though sensing her unexplained nervousness, the man's lips curved upward. The soul that had transcended higher dimensions returned to its shell.

He tilted his head toward Cecilia, his emerald eyes blinking.

Don't be afraid. I'm here.

That was what he told her with his gaze.

Cecilia quickly calmed down. Her earlier anxiety swiftly faded away, and she nodded firmly, trust and composure shining in her eyes.

Cleo was shocked once again. There was actually someone in this world who could describe several "gods" so convincingly in just a few minutes and two or three sentences.

If she had not known what was going on, she might have suspected that this had been her own organization's doctrine in the past!

What a premium believer!

It was just... unfortunate that he had fallen into her hands...

Her... eyes held nothing but experiments...

"All right. Now that we've finished discussing the four great gods of Salvation, Heavenly Wisdom, Fleeting Life, and Anti-Entropy, let me introduce you in detail to the most terrifying god in the world..."

The boy cleared his throat and said:

"Schicksal, the most detestable god in history. Its other title is actually far more widely known: the Devil."

"What?"

"A god... how could it be a devil?"

The crowd erupted once more. The woman who had echoed him before covered her mouth and laughed.

Satisfied by their doubts, the boy lowered his head and chanted in a sorrowful, despairing tone:

"Devouring the hopes of the past and future, reaching toward an unrestrainable gray abyss;

From within this nauseating graveyard hidden in the river of the heart came despairing, hoarse wails, along with the monotonous, faint, blasphemous sound of footsteps striking the ground."

"Answering those loathsome wails and their arrival, those heavy and shadowy ultimate terrors—those blind, mute, idiotic sages—were stripping life away from the river of the heart, igniting ghostly blue flames in the graveyard, then slowly, clumsily, absurdly dancing a revolting dance."

"And their soul was that blond-haired, blue-eyed man: the terrifying being of endless forms, the Schicksal Devil who ruled humanity for five hundred years after the Lord departed for the mortal world and beyond the Imaginary."

"Yes, that's right. Devil—that is its true name. The title 'Martial God' was merely the Lord's mercy, casually granting its existence a touch of unknowable legitimacy."

"Any believer who defies its darkness or speaks disrespectfully of it shall be polluted by its twisted deformity and become a pitiful creature unable to enter Salvation's kingdom of God."

"..."

Everyone fell silent, as though fear had arisen from the depths of their hearts.

Cleo looked at the scene before her with satisfaction. Very pleased with the speech just now, she stepped forward, intending to pat the boy's head and add something more.

"Everyone..."

But her hand grasped at empty air. The boy had stepped forward as well, turning to glance at Cleo with a mischievous grin before shouting:

"Everyone, do you know why I understand Schicksal so well? Because its messenger has already descended among us and told me everything about that god!"

"Rejoice! Schicksal's messenger has descended! She is the ruler who embodies all great achievements, stands above all others, and understands the ancient darkness—Jackal! At this very moment, she has descended into this body to bring us the god's blessing!"

The believers looked at one another, suspicious gazes turning toward Cleo.

And now, the boy spread his arms, revealing a fanatical expression: