Chapter 04
“Alright! I won’t kill you again. No, I’m asking you. Please keep living!”
Arte, in addition to that, encouraged me to speak up if I had any other wishes.
‘Not only does he save my life, but he even offers to grant a wish.’
I could clearly see how desperately he wanted to shed his image as a heresy.
‘Another wish…’
I casually asked if he could send me back to my previous world. However, Arte shook his head.
He said it was impossible since my previous self had died after being hit by a truck long ago.
‘So it really isn’t possible.’
I nodded, pushing back the bitterness. I had only asked just in case.
‘Hmm, this should be possible, right?’
“Then, what about using a healing ability to cure my incurable disease?”
The incurable disease. That was what caused me to die at the young age of twenty.
We summoned the most renowned doctors across the continent for examinations, but no one could figure out exactly what my illness was.
But if it’s Arte, a Creator God, then perhaps his healing ability could cure me completely.
Hope filled my eyes, which had once lost it. His divine face filled my pupils.
“Umm. Unfortunately, with the authority I can grant, you cannot heal yourself.”
“Ah……”
“Instead! If you fulfill all my requests, I will cure your incurable disease.”
“Really?”
Then, does that mean I can finally live a life without pain and in comfort?
I looked at Arte with sparkling eyes. Seeing my face insistently demanding confirmation, Arte nodded awkwardly.
“I’ll probably remove, give… I should be able to. Yes, the pain too…”
“……?”
What? Why is his answer so unsatisfactory?
The fact that he’s completely avoiding eye contact makes it feel like he’s pulling a scam.
Suspicion began to creep up inside me again.
I opened my eyes wide and stared at him, and as if nothing had happened, he nodded vigorously this time.
“I said I’d grant it, of course it’s possible!”
“You swear?”
“I-I’m a god, would I really lie?”
‘I’m a bit doubtful.’
Well, even so, I didn’t have the option to say ‘no’. Because if I become the Saintess, I can live again.
“Ciela. Please become my Saintess.”
Arte, who instantly noticed my wavering heart, overcame his shyness and tightly grabbed my pinky finger.
From his body temperature, I could tell how desperate he was.
My uneasy feelings melted away all at once.
‘Saintess.’
A word I had never once thought of as mine. Simultaneously, a word that was somewhat hateful to ‘Ciela’.
But, if I can just live.
“Yes, I will. I will become Arte-nim’s Saintess.”
I will gladly become the Saintess of a heresy, or anything else!
***
…I desperately wanted to curse my past self who thought that.
“Gasp!”
“Kyaaah!”
“Waaaah!”
In the end, Arte did bring me back to life. Yes, he brought me back, but…
“How can this be! A person has come back to life!”
“The corpse, the corpse got up from the coffin!!”
Why did you have to revive me right before I was buried? You could have sent me back just one day earlier!
‘It was ruined from the very start!’
I was at a loss as to how to handle this situation. As I was crying inwardly, something suddenly flooded my vision.
One was.
Ding!
[Arte grumbles softly, saying things like ‘regression’ only happen in novels.]
“……This is more like a novel, though?”
It was a status window more fictional than regression, and the other one was.
“Meong.”
“A cat?”
A black cat was tapping my hand with its black paw.
***
“This must be the first funeral that ended in disarray because a corpse came back to life.”
A warm spring afternoon, just like any other.
My funeral ended vainly with my sudden resurrection.
With the Envy Church priests having fled in panic, I couldn’t just stay sitting in the coffin, so I moved to the Ducal residence.
The only saving grace was that my family, at least, hugged me tightly without any hesitation.
“Lucien still seemed suspicious though.”
If I were a transmigrator, I might have felt a bit stung, but I was indeed ‘Ciela Eisen’.
“It’s just that I remembered my past life.”
Moreover, strangely, my past life’s self was having a greater influence on me than Ciela’s.
For example, my personality changed drastically. Until just yesterday, I intensely disliked and hated the Saintess Ijel and my brother Lucien.
But now?
“What do you gain by hating the female lead? Same with Lucien.”
There wasn’t even hatred left, let alone any other emotions. Instead, I was just moved by the fact that the characters I had diligently written in my past life were alive and breathing.
“I wonder why?”
Even if I remembered my past life, Ciela’s side should feel more vivid and real.
As I tilted my head at the sudden question, Ding! A blue window appeared before my eyes.
[Arte-nim has donated 1 Florin!]
[That’s because the quality of your soul is distinctly different. It used to be like a weak glass bead, but not anymore. Even I was surprised at how dense and heavy it has become!]
“Ahh. I see…?”
Huh?
My momentary acceptance was short-lived. I blinked blankly at the strange status window.
I was startled when I first saw this window after waking up in the coffin, but what is this now?
“Um, Arte-nim? I was curious since the funeral, but what is this status window? And what is this 1 Florin donation…?”
Florin. It was one of the currency units in this world.
The average annual salary for commoners was 300 Florins, so 1 Florin was money you’d have to work for at least two days to earn.
‘So, is donation similar to sponsorship?’
But why is he suddenly displaying such an unrealistic status window?
Ding!
[Arte-nim has donated 1 Florin!]
[You’re my one and only Saintess, so I should help you from the side! Direct intervention is difficult, so I’m communicating by giving you money! Hwaah, doesn’t that sound great???(๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و ♡]
Yes, certainly.
‘It certainly sounds great for Arte-nim…’
What do you mean help me? It’s just that you want to try everything, isn’t it?
‘I should have paid more attention when I heard he was deeply immersed in subculture.’
I never thought he would actually create something like a status window or donations in reality…
As I shook my head in disbelief, Arte stubbornly continued.
He said that since you’re my one and only Saintess, it should be called ‘Donation’ instead of ‘Sponsorship’.
He said donations shouldn’t be in low currency units like Shillings or Halves, but must start from at least Florins…
‘Where is the money even coming from?’
I wondered if, as a Creator God, he just created it, but judging by his mention of it being amply stacked in a vault, that didn’t seem to be the case.
But even more absurd than that was.
Ding!
[Arte-nim has donated 1 Florin!]
[Gasp! Should I make a shop too?? If I give you all the authorities, it would be too much intervention for me, so it’s difficult, but I can give you items! Heehee, I should make that too! ╰(✧∇✧)]
“……A shop?”
See, you just want to imitate fantasy novels, not actually help me, right!
As if my prediction hit the mark, Arte’s status window kept ringing incessantly, Ding, Ding!
It was fine at first, but the constant ringing made my head throb.
‘Should I ask him to restrain himself a bit?’
Even if not that, I wished he would at least turn off that noisy sound. Just as I was about to open my mouth.
“Meong.”
Suddenly, the black cat I brought from my funeral jumped out and swatted its paw at the empty air.
Specifically, towards Arte’s status window, which was chattering away busily all by itself.
Swish!
A sharp sound, fierce for a soft paw, cut through the air. Astonishingly, the status window scattered and faded away.
“Huh?”
I was the one who was taken aback. But still, does it disappear so helplessly from a cat’s paw attack?
“Meow!”
To make matters worse, as the cat let out a sharp cry, the constant *Ding!* sounds also became very faint.
[Arte stops brainstorming items and sniffles, shrinking back.]
‘Why is a Creator God so fragile?’
“Don’t cry, there there.”
I soothed Arte as if stroking the status window.
But that also ended quickly because of the cat placing its front paw on my arm.
“Nyaong.”
As if to say that’s enough, the cat pulled my hand down. I glanced at the status window just in case, but Arte had already obediently disappeared.
I was a little concerned about the sniffling Arte, but.
‘Ugh, you’re too cute!’
Frankly, it was nothing compared to the cat in front of me.
I carefully pulled the cat into my embrace.
An overwhelming affection surged towards it, even though we had just met today.
It was an inevitable emotion. This cat had protected me.
“If you hadn’t been sitting on my coffin for two hours, I would have already been buried underground.”
Had that happened, I would have closed my eyes again inside the coffin.
The healing ability Arte gave me was useful for others, but for me, it was worse than a chicken rib – useless.
“Thank you, kitty.”
“Nyaong.”
The cat immediately responded to my thanks. Seeing this, it really does seem to understand human words.
I spent a long time rolling around on the bed with the cat.
Since my sudden revival had my family busy running around, I was quietly waiting for them.
“How many times do I have to say I’ll take it!”
“……Huh?”
A sharp voice suddenly came from outside the door.
