Chapter 13: Purification?

“Director Emma.”
Lilith’s voice turned to the old woman.
Although it still carried a hint of authority, her tone had softened considerably.

“How long has this child, Vera, been at the orphanage? Does she have… anything special about her?”

Director Emma looked at the trembling Vera in the corner and sighed deeply.
“Vera…, she’s a child with a hard life.”

“She appeared in town a month ago. Besides her name, she knows nothing. I saw her all alone and brought her into the orphanage.”

“She’s usually very quiet, always by herself, and works very diligently. As for the children calling her a ‘jinx’…”
Director Emma shook her head helplessly.

“I don’t know the specifics either. It just feels like, ever since Vera came, there have indeed been more minor accidents in the orphanage.”

“For example, someone would fall, or someone would get a little sick, and the children would blame it on her. We’ve tried to counsel them, but the minds of children… sigh.”

Bai Jin listened from the side, completely bewildered.
‘What is this? Just because this child is withdrawn and has a somewhat unlucky constitution, she gets collectively ostracized for no reason?’

Lilith’s lips were tightly pressed together.
The stubborn death energy was like maggots clinging to bone, destroying the life force within the children’s bodies.

Lilith continuously converted the power of the Holy Blood into life force to keep the children alive.

But if the death energy couldn’t be truly cleared or neutralized, this was just like adding fuel to a fire.

‘Is making them believers of the Holy Blood the only way…’

Bai Jin watched as Lilith’s face grew uglier and uglier, feeling the cold energy with a destructive aura entangled within the children’s bodies.
An idea popped into her head.

‘Could my authority, 『Reversal』, absorb or transform this power? Lilith calls it death energy, so in essence, it should also be a form of death power, right?’

“Lilith,”
Bai Jin took a step closer.
“This death energy, perhaps I can give it a try? My power…”

“No! Absolutely not!”
Before Bai Jin could finish her sentence, Lilith whipped her head around, her azure eyes erupting with an unprecedented severity.

A trace of fear was hidden deep within those eyes.
Her voice had even become somewhat shrill from urgency, instantly attracting the attention of everyone in the room.

Bai Jin was startled by her intense reaction.
“Why? I just want to help.”

She didn’t understand.
She clearly possessed the authority to control the essence of death, so why was she not even allowed to try?

Was Lilith willing to watch the children suffer rather than let her intervene?

Lilith stared at Bai Jin, her flat chest heaving violently, as if she were forcefully suppressing something.

She took a deep breath, her voice dropping even lower.
“Bai Jin, listen, this is not something you can touch! This is not the death you understand at all!”

“This is the product of the God-Burying Society twisting an unspeakable destructive power from outside the world, after death. It is an absolute source of pollution!”

Her gaze swept over the unconscious children on the beds, a trace of pity flashing in her eyes.
“Why do you think I’m holding back? It’s because these powers can only be resisted by contracts.”

“And the power of the Holy Blood…”
She paused, looking at Bai Jin with a complex expression.

Bai Jin understood.
The power of the Holy Blood also came with a price.
Moreover, with the creepy appearance of the God of Holy Blood, it was definitely not a good thing.

She had observed for so long, and it seemed that the people in the orphanage, and even in the town, were just ordinary people, without a single trace of a contract on them.

‘How did Bai Jin know? Well, 『Reversal』 could detect contracts. As for whether it could reverse them, Bai Jin currently had no death energy at all…’

“As for why I stopped you…”
Lilith’s tone became downcast.
“My sister’s death is inextricably linked to this power…”

This sentence exploded like a thunderclap in Bai Jin’s mind.
Lilith’s sister?
The real Bai Jin Lancaster?

‘Could it be that the original owner… died because she came into contact with something similar?’

Countless questions flooded her mind, like countless little cats scratching at her heart, but the critical situation at hand didn’t allow her to think about it in detail.

Just then, Vera, at some unknown time, had quietly moved to the bedside of the nearest unconscious child.

She seemed to have completely forgotten the accusations and fear from just now.
Her large eyes, which were always timid, were once again filled with tears.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”
She muttered in a low voice, extending her small, trembling hand and placing it on the child’s forehead.

There was no brilliant light, no earth-shattering energy fluctuations.

But in the astonished gazes of Lilith and Bai Jin, a strange phenomenon occurred.

The black death energy that was entangled around the child, which even Lilith’s life force could only barely suppress, began to dissipate the moment Vera’s fingertips touched it.

It wasn’t being driven away, nor was it being neutralized and devoured.
It just disappeared, like a thin mist meeting the sun.

Wisps of black energy, so fine they were almost invisible, slowly separated from the child’s body and were silently annihilated.

The heart-stopping ashen color on the child’s face was receding at a visible rate, gradually regaining color under the life force supplemented by Lilith.

Director Emma and the other nuns also saw this miraculous scene.
They covered their mouths, their eyes filled with shock.

Lilith’s expression did not improve with the dissipation of the death energy, but instead became even more solemn.

Faced with such a tricky situation, on the verge of being helpless, it was easily resolved by a powerless little girl.

Lilith’s eyes narrowed.
It seemed this Vera needed to be thoroughly investigated.

Bai Jin was also very surprised.
She could clearly feel that Vera was not emitting any energy fluctuations, nor were there any traces of a contract on her.

‘Is Vera’s existence like a natural “purifier”? Or does she have some kind of constitution that restrains this death energy?’

The room was deathly silent, with only Vera’s constant muttering and the faint “sizzling” sound of the death energy being purified.

The death energy in the children was all purified.
The remaining matters were left to the nuns.

Lilith took Bai Jin and Vera to a private room.

The door closed softly behind them, isolating the noise from outside.
The quiet atmosphere in the room became heavy.

Lilith stood in front of Vera, her small figure now exuding a suffocating sense of pressure.

“Vera.”
Lilith’s voice was very soft.
“Tell me, how did you do that just now?”

Vera trembled all over from being stared at by Lilith.
Her small head was almost buried in her chest, her voice as weak as a fly’s buzz.

“I… I don’t know. I just… wanted them to get better… I’m sorry… I didn’t do it on purpose…”

Tears welled up in her eyes again.
She was like a child who had done something wrong, waiting to be scolded by an adult.

“You don’t know?”
Lilith’s tone became subtle, with obvious doubt.
“You put your hand on them, and the death energy disappeared.”

“Tell me, who taught you? Or, were you born able to do it?”
Lilith carefully observed Vera’s reaction, trying to see through this fragile exterior to what lay beneath.

Vera shook her head blankly, her tears finally falling.
“No one taught me… They were right… It’s all my fault… I just wanted to help them…”

Lilith stared at her for a long time, her brows furrowed tightly.
Bai Jin saw that the atmosphere was not right and decided to step in and change the subject.

“Lilith, after all, this child just saved someone, which was a great help. I still want to ask you about everything that happened tonight.”

Lilith’s gaze was still very complex.
Bai Jin had not understood what she was thinking from beginning to end.

“Vera, I didn’t mean it. You can go back now and get some rest.”

Lilith sent Vera out of the room, moved two chairs over, and sat down face to face with Bai Jin.

“What do you want to know?”