122 Prophecy

The Saintess POV

"Hmm? Where did that old man disappear to? It has been three days since last I saw him."

Though the Saintess nonchalantly asked the question she had been wondering with a curious look on her face, the Priest seating in front of her flinched before stuttering to answer her.

"H-Hmm, he sent a report that he was going to investigate something before going missing. W-We tried searching for him and his subordinates but, nothing was found, not even the trace of him as if he disappeared from the face of Earth."

"Is that so? What a strange matter indeed. Maybe he just ran away or something since the church can get pretty 'hectic' for the people on the low ranking, after all."

"You jest, but as expected of the Saintess, you do know everything."

And that was the started of another overpraising towards her from the Priest, she even though that the priest would have a better job if he put the passion onto it instead of focusing on bootlicking people like her. To be honest, she had gotten used to it by now. The first time she had experienced it, she almost lost her life due to machination by a member of the church that wasn't happy with her being crowned as Saintess but, thanks to the huge cross's protection, she was fine. That was also the time that the church was split into two, one faction on the Pope side while another was on the side that was not happy with the Pope, though they still appeared normally in life while plotting behind to overtaken the Pope position anytime now.

But thanks to her sudden awakening to a special ability that not even the Pope had expected, her position as Saintess becomes even more resolute at that point in time. No matter how the other faction tried to plot against her, she always prevailed in the end with the help of her special ability and the holy artifact by her side. And since then, they had been keeping quiet and not making any sort of noise which was pretty strange in her opinion but she let the matter go as she had more important business than worrying about the 'old farts'. 

As for why she was curious about the missing priest, that was because that priest seemed to be from the other faction. She had thought the priest would make trouble for her but, as expected he did cause some 'trouble' but the man himself suddenly disappeared was indeed very strange. Not leaving any trace behind, that was the main point that got her interested. She was told by the Pope herself about the existence of 'Outsider' after she was elected as Saintess with another advice of don't get to close to the other faction, but as a naive person I was, I didn't put her word seriously. That was how I got into their machination.

Anyways, one fine sunny day, my special ability suddenly initiated as randomly as always and what I saw within the vision was something that frightened me to this day. It was a scene like straight out of hell, a huge deep crater was there at the center of the city as if it had just been hit by a falling meteorite, or perhaps a nuclear weapon. There were no buildings or any living being in the surrounding area, it was like a ruin of civilization that was wiped out entirely, and the caused of it must have been that one huge deep crater. It was a silent and eery sight to behold that took away her breath for that one single moment.

When I regained my vision, I didn't realize that I was sweating, it was only later that I took noticed about it after a few minutes passed. I have spoken regarding this to the Pope when it was just the two of us and the Pope permit me to take a leave to investigate it further. And that was the reason why I was here in A District, from my memories of the vision, this was the place that supposedly has turned into that of ruin. As you might have known about it by now, I had a special ability that let me see a future of sort, a Prophetic kind of ability you might say. I can't use it whenever I want even after awakening to it as it only initiated randomly as mentioned. 

When I was watching the vision in a third-person view, it also followed by some part of knowledge to my head while I was in that state. That was how I know where the incident took place. And this is where things took a strange turn as when I arrived later than I had expected with the expectation of seeing the same sight that I had seen in my vision, fortunately, nothing seemed to be happening as people were living normally without any sort of major incident which surprised me quite a bit. As far as to the time when my ability awakened, I had never get the prediction wrong to the point that it almost scared me. Of course, I reported it back to the Pope using the secret communication application made for the Pope Faction while I was overwhelming with confusion.

And now, here I am, Sonia the Saintess, still investigating while staying in quite a high-end hotel. I was surprised to hear that a friend of mine was living in the same hotel but I didn't greet her and instead avoid her because I had lied to her that I was abroad. Thankfully, Angelica didn't found out that I was here and on the same hotel to boot. With such thought playing in her mind, Sonia looked outside the window with a stoic expression on her face but it changed due to what she experienced next. It was very sudden and unexpected as Sonia feels like her entire body was restrained by an invisible force for one single moment before disappeared as if nothing happened. She would have thought that was her imagination if nor for the fact that even the priest living next to her also experienced the same as her when she went toward his room to ask. 

Though she sent a couple of people to investigate, it bore no fruit. It was at times like this that she wishes she could use her ability but that was just an impossible wish as it was not within her power to do that. But even so, she wants to know and figure what actually happened to this city that the vision she had foreseen back then didn't happen and now this happened. Maybe I should greet Angelica and inquire her if she knows anything about it? After all, she also had a quite important role within Ernest Family.