Volu 2, Chapter 25: Prayer
When she woke up, Leticia let out a low groan, stretched her dull limbs, and removed the tattered sack covering her body.
"So this is how I greet a new morning..."
It was too early, so early that the sun had not completely co alive. Looking through the narrow sky above this secluded alley, she could see white clouds dyed with specks of gold, and the sky mixed with gray and blue.
It was like being at a starting point, carrying an incredible new vitality, as if letting everyone know that what they were about to welco was a brand-new day.
This feeling gave Leticia's mood a slight boost.
But very soon, that rare bit of good mood was ruined.
"It stinks..."
Since just now, there had been a sll that one could not help noticing, circling around Leticia's nose like a fly and refusing to disperse.
Slowly crawling up, stretching her stiff limbs, Leticia coughed and covered her nose with so difficulty. "Ahh, I only just realized my nose is a bit blocked. Is it because I didn't take proper protective asures at night? Careless, careless."
In that case, it might lead to a cold or even a fever. If she did not pay attention, these minor illnesses and pains could develop into irreversible serious illness and injury.
Although she had previously been observing Apothecary Nicola's preparations and had used that to secretly learn a portion of pharmacology, Leticia herself understood that this was purely copying a cat and drawing a tiger, Dongshi imitating Xi Shi. It remained only at a superficial level.
Then, if she could still sll this odor even with her nose already about to be blocked...
That actually ant it was already unimaginably dense, right?
Getting up from the ground, loosening her neck, and turning her head to look around, Leticia soon saw the source of the stench.
"...I wish I hadn't looked..."
It was a corpse.
Half-buried and half-hidden among abandoned garbage, its skin as thin as dry firewood carried nauseating wounds and pus. It had probably died suddenly quite so ti ago. She did not know who had thrown it here, turning it into part of the refuse.
Quite a few insects could be seen. Because the temperature had not yet risen, they had not awakened either and were quietly resting. Among them were also many larvae, playing and swimming upon their favorite hotbed. If they could be given a cuter appearance, or if their seedbed were changed into a place filled with clouds and hot springs, with fragrance and warmth everywhere, then perhaps this scene that produced both physical and psychological disgust could be accepted much more easily.
But Leticia clearly did not have the ability to turn fantasy into reality, nor did she have the imagination to treat her own delusions as reality. So she rely looked at the thing in the garbage with disgust.
"Honestly, to think I could see a highly decomposed corpse in a place like this..."
She suddenly felt sowhat grateful that her nose was not very sensitive. If nothing helped block this sll, Leticia might have vomited on the spot.
Since reincarnating here, how many deaths had she already seen?
...She could not quite rember. The ones that had left a relatively strong impression were probably the Witch burned alive and the few criminals who had undergone execution in that city. But in the end, Leticia had directly fainted from exhaustion at the ti and had no mory at all of the criminals being punished, so those could be excluded...
Aside from that, there should not have been anything else.
This ti was the second ti she had directly faced an impactful scene.
She hoped there would be no similar visual shocks in the future.
"But in the end, things will go against my wishes, won't they... Wishes like that..."
She was not an ordinary person, and her identity after reincarnating here was not the kind that could comfortably live a peaceful life. In other words, in this world, there might still be many, many things she needed to witness.
Perhaps in the end, she would even have to see her own corpse.
Just thinking about it sent a chill through her.
"This... uh, little friend whose age and gender I don't know, and of whom only a pair of legs can be seen..."
After hesitating for a mont, Leticia still walked to the corpse buried among the garbage. She tried her best not to let her gaze linger on those "little white angels" and "little black demons," clasped her hands together, and prayed quietly. "Although we are not brothers or sisters born in the sa year, sa month, and sa day, nor sworn friends in life and death who died on the sa year, sa month, and sa day, well, how should I put it? At any rate, I accidentally ran into your remains. If I don't say a couple of words, I feel like my conscience won't let off."
She moved over a small broken box from the side and treated it as a spiritual offering. Leticia lowered her head and spoke in a voice only she could hear.
"Although I can't exactly be called a good person, I am definitely not a bad person either. The most guilty thing I ever did was secretly browsing sexy websites without letting my family know. Normally, I often take helping others as my duty too. Oh, although because I was afraid of being falsely accused, I rarely helped old grandpas and grandmas cross the road... Mm, anyway, I am not a bad person! So if the spirit in heaven of this mister or miss can hear , please absolutely do not mind that I stayed beside you for a night. At any rate, we are partners who once slept together, right? So, whether it is Amitabha or Hallelujah, either is fine. I will perform rites for you! I will send you on your way to rebirth! Please do not leave any resentnt for ! Even if you beco a ghost, you are still a magnanimous adult, so please absolutely do not co haunt ! I beg you!"
Incidentally, while saying these words, Leticia used the language from her previous life and completely did not consider whether there were cultural differences in communication with Mister Ghost.
After saying these words, Leticia slightly opened her tightly shut eyes and saw that the corpse was still lying there quietly, without the slightest reaction.
Well, that was how it should be. If the corpse moved, then it really would be a supernatural incident. And in the early morning, no less. That would be even more goddamn terrifying...
So it was best for it to just lie there obediently. Mm.
She muttered all kinds of blessing words under her breath. Ninety percent of them were made up by Leticia on the spot. Not only were there words from her previous life, every now and then there were also bits of the current language mixed in, and between these ssy blessing words, she interspersed things like "Namo Amitabha," "Blessings of Imasurable Heavenly Worthy," and even "Ha!~llelujah!"
It was all to put her own mind at ease.
However, in the end, Leticia hesitated for a mont, then silently recited a passage from the sacred scripture inscription that Priest Marshall had used as teaching material while she was still learning letters:
【After this, I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven. And the first voice I heard was like the sound of a trumpet speaking to , saying, Co up here, and I will show you the things that must co to pass hereafter.
Imdiately I was moved, and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat upon the throne.
The one seated there looked like jasper and ruby. And there was a rainbow around the throne, like an erald in appearance.
Around the throne were eleven seats, and upon them sat eleven elders, clothed in white garnts, with silver crowns upon their heads.
From the throne ca lightning, voices, and thunder. And before the throne burned seven lamps of fire, which are the seven spirits of the god.
The ground before the throne was clear and bright, like a sea of glass, and like crystal.
In the midst of the throne and around the throne were three living creatures, covered with eyes in front and behind.
The first living creature was like a lion, the second like a calf, and the third had a face like a man.
Each of the three living creatures had six wings, and they were covered with eyes all over, inside and out.
Day and night, they never ceased to say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and is and is to co.
Whenever the three living creatures gave glory, honor, and thanks to the one seated upon the throne, who lives forever and ever,
The eleven elders fell down before the one seated upon the throne and worshiped the one who lives forever and ever. They laid their crowns before the throne and said,
Our Lord, our God, you are worthy to receive glory, honor, and power. For you created all things, and by your will all things were created and have their being.】*
Although such words were sowhat obscure and extrely ornate, and were a praise of the one and only god worshiped by the Church, and although they were difficult to read and recite, they could make one calm down in an unbelievable way.
The only fly in the ointnt was that the one reciting such beautiful scripture for the dead was not a holy clergyman of the faith, but a Demon Maid with a completely different position from theirs. A Heretic.
No, this did not seem to be a flaw in sothing otherwise perfect anymore. This was completely ironic, right...
This process lasted for about several minutes before Leticia finally released her hands. She wrinkled her blocked nose and made an uncomfortable humming sound. "Sure enough, it's still a little uncomfortable... But Mister Ghost, considering that I prayed for you so sincerely for half a day, please do not harbor any crooked thoughts toward . I thank you here and now."
She did not know whether it was her illusion, but after doing all this, the sll that had been troubling Leticia seed to have lessened sowhat.
It was as if there truly had been a ghost that heard the girl's prayer and left this place where it had long been trapped, heading toward the first ray of blazing morning sun.
"Ah, sure enough, I just got used to the stench here."
However, Leticia, who had always firmly believed in science, gave the explanation of "living too long in a fish market and no longer slling the stench."
Adapted from Chapter 4 of 《Revelation》.
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