Ordinary Love: Clergy

Ordinary Love ⑥ · Clergy

[Part ① · The Beast of Hercules]

I believed it all had something to do with St. Stephen's Cathedral.

Built in 1147, the ancient building had suffered two fires over the years before being remodeled into a Gothic-style church.

Margaret and Yilan were both doctors, and they were also volunteers at the church.

Since we didn't have much money, Margaret and I had planned to hold our wedding at the church—

—if none of this had happened.

In the study, I found a document containing an invocation spell for ritual magic. It was what Miss Yilan had prepared to welcome me.

It was called The Hidden Corner of Hercules, an obscure book written in Old Icelandic.

Why could I read it? Because Old Icelandic belonged to the Indo-European language family, in the North Germanic branch. I knew Finnish, German, and English, and a little Danish, so I could make out the writing.

The storybook introduced a mysterious society whose social structure was maintained through force: the Church of Hercules. Its members used a kind of insect to gain incredible sorcerous powers. The insects chose suitable people and developed their potential, granting them immortality.

This power feared sunlight, but its bearers could live underground.

Near Reykjavik, Iceland, there were human settlements at the bottom of a deep pit in an extinct volcano.

The Church of Hercules lay even deeper, among distant underground mountains.

Besides the church's illustrated descriptions of its art, the book also detailed how to invoke and summon beings from the Spirit Realm. When I saw all this, I could only find it absurd and laughable.

But just moments ago, a deformed monster had nearly eaten me, and Margaret was barely alive. I had no choice but to take another serious look at these