Side chapter: Christmas

Anno Domini, 4th century [1]

<Saint Nicholas' POV> [2]

Ho, ho, ho

I finally have time to spread warmth and joy to the poor and the sickly

For now, since I only have a horae (the ancient roman equivalent of 2 hour), so for now I'll send a guard to deliver some gifts and offer a prayer to our Lord.

It's sad how little care the other members of the Church [3] care for the poor as the majority only worry about not losing status, power and money and only the minority truly care.

I'll send a letter to the pope about this concern, I hope he won't ignore this letter as usual.

*Sigh* I hope I'll get more donations from the nobles this time, last year only small minority donates, most of which are from poorer countries or seek to curry favor with the pope, cardinals and other influential people.

How did we fall like this, at first, we were relatively pure, but now corruption has spread

Oh, almighty God, why did you decided to punish these innocent lambs who are suffering due to this corruption?

*Crashing of a window*

Suddenly I saw a giant [4] role into my private chambers and then stand up and speak to me in an unknown language that somewhat seems familiar, but for some reason I can't understand it.

Then he grabbed the necklace he is wearing and suddenly he spoke in my language

"Testing, testing, saint Nicholas, do you understand what I'm saying?"

...

"...Our Lord has responded, you must be the one God sent you to cleanse the sinners."

"Nah, he didn't I'm here to help you deliver the gifts to the poor as well as make the day of much more people."

"Make the day? What does that mean?"

"It means to make the day wonderful due to a certain event, but now were sidetracking, I've prepared your body double, we must leave, show us to where you are safe keeping and we'll all deliver the gifts together."

I started tearing up, this man who claims to not be a messenger of God decided to help me fulfill my wish.

I'm glad that God decided to be so merciful for this day

"T-thank you, messenger, thank y-you so much "

"No need to thank me, I have a mission to fulfill, and once again, I'm not a messenger of God, I'm from the future."

"It's okay if you hide it, I'm sure you don't want attention, though why did you call me a saint, I'm no saint, but a humble servant of God who decided to give his entire body, mind and soul to serving God."

"And that's precisely why you were granted the title of saint, unlike those fakes, who paid money to transfer a random member of the Church, who was granted the title of Saint due to money. [5]"

"So it's true that these events are real, how dare the other give out the title of Saint for money!"

"Yup, now let's proceed with our mission, please finish what you were doing and I'll take you to the rest."

"We can go, I have no urgent matters to take care of."

And so the giant took me and jumped out of the window, but instead of falling, he put a blindfold on me so fast that I couldn't see how his hands moved and then all I could feel was heat and the wind brushing past my body.

I could feel we were going faster than horses and I can feel no bumps, it's definitely a worthy achievement for this giant.

Though the next thing I could feel was my blindfold being removed and I saw 7 more giant standing before me

"Since I've brought Saint Nicholas, now it's time to begin operation Christmas"

"What is Christ's Mass?"

"Not Christ's Mass, Christmas, in the future it will become an extremely well-known holiday around the world, though it's sad how even further in the future it will mostly lose it's original meaning [6]"

And the rest of the giant moved out, only me and the giant who brought me here were left.

"Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Mark Lochem and now could you please tell me where are you keeping the gifts, we'd like to give the gifts to as many people as possible before the sun rises"

"Lochem, I haven't heard of a town like that, is it the name of a village [7]?"

"No, in the future people will get their own family names, which signify which family they came from."

"An interesting concept, but I'm sure you are in a hurry, so I'll tell you, go to the slums and find a man with a black cloak that is standing by the corner, he'll take you to the warehouse where the gifts are being stored."

Immediately, this giant named Mark Lochem left for a few moments and returned

"You have my gratitude now, time to give the gifts to the kids."

"I'm the one who should be saying that, though before it leaves my memory, how should I call you?"

"Mark will do just wonderfully, Saint Nicholas"

"The sir Mark it is"

I could hear him sighing, but then he stood up and we walked out.

Then the same thing happened: he magically put a blindfold over my eyes and I, once again, could feel the warm breeze flow past me.

And not even a tertia (0.4 seconds) pasted as I was standing before the biggest pile of boxes I have ever seen in my entire life.

"These are the gifts we have 4 horae to give out."

"How will you complete this, sir Mark, this is far too much for just 8 people to complete."

"No, we're plenty enough, now then, boys, let's begin the operation"

And with that we began working, the giant almost instantly grabbed a huge bag and started to stuff the bags with these boxes

We were no exception, though I was noticeably the slowest, even though sir Mark was helping me.

"Sir Mark, what is in these boxes?"

"The gifts, we packed them full of food, candies, toys, clothes and whatever else will bring the most joy to the poor and the suffering ones."

"And where are the gifts going to?"

"Prisons, villages, towns, everywhere where is a poor soul, we will bring a gift, do you think this is the only place where gifts are being given out?"

"...Yes?"

"No, we have thousands of people that are helping and even more that are making the toys and packaging them."

"Then what happened to my gifts?"

"They are, of course, packed and ready to be gifted."

"But shouldn't cost thousands of Aureus if not millions, how are you getting everything, God is far too ruthless to just give out gifts to potential sinners [8]?"

"Don't worry about this, not one thing is stolen."

And thus I stopped questioning him, as he is the messenger of God, he must also carry His will.

With that we stopped loading the gifts and started walking, then climbing the stairs and we eventually came out of a small shack in the slums.

I was surprised at first, but God is almighty, making this underground warehouse is nothing for Him.

But I noticed that everyone was ignoring us, but once again, I didn't question him, as God's messenger, I'm sure he has mystical powers granted by God.

"Saint Nicholas, let's started to go around the slums and please place the gifts near the entrance of the people's shacks."

Thus we started walking, every time we passed a door that sir Mark deemed a home of someone, he placed some gifts there and sometimes it would grow to quite a pile, I was doing the same, placing just the right amount of what sir Mark told me to.

But after a while I turned around and I saw no gifts or the people just completely ignoring the gifts we placed, it's strange, but God is almighty.

This continued for a good while and I was getting exhausted and sir Mark noticed this, so he handed a small vial

"Drink, you will immediately feel better."

And drink I did, but I was not prepared for the energy that came after that

I must appreciate this God's gift

I immediately wanted to go to the nearest church to pray, but I must first finish the task given by God through his messenger.

Sir Mark noticed this and with a small chuckle beckoned me to follow him.

And follow I did and we continued this till the sun went down and I was beginning to fell drowsy, but tried to hide it, I must continue this task.

"Saint Nicholas, let me take you to your chamber at once, you worked hard, this time rest yourself well for once."

"No, since you're working, I must work harder, if it means dodging the ire of God, I'll do anything."

"God is only pleased with you, you need not worry about his anger."

"I'm sure, you are a messenger of God."

"And I'm telling you I'm not."

With this he, again, covered my eyes and the familiar feeling of the wind came

And with this I though, how did we not run out of presents midway.

But I allocated it to being a miracle of God and though nothing much of it, as I said before, God is omnipotent and omniscient, so he can do anything and everything.

Once again, I appeared in my familiar private chambers and this time, I was alone, I couldn't even say a tank you for the help I received.

But sleep defeated me and I fell asleep

--------------------

I woke up the next morning and I immediately spotted a colorful green and red small box with a red know above it.

I opened it and I saw the most beautiful rosaries that I've ever seen alongside a cross of matching beauty and a card that has written "Merry Christmas, Saint Nicholas" on top of it.

Later that I received a noticed that the entire city, except the rich and a minority of this church's members found a gift near where they were sleeping, regardless of age or looks and found things which are a blessing for them.

Be it clean and smooth clothes, toys, games, the tastiest bread that they've ever tasted, even sweets never seen before were found in these presents.

Even most of the prisoners received a gift.

At the evening I received a similar letter, which wrote about how every city, town, village or even the smallest settlements received gifts.

-----------------------------

This is the explanation for the numbers

1.Anno Domini mean "In the year of our Lord" in Latin

2.Saint Nicholas is the original name for Santa Claus, who is actually skinny and the present Santa Claus was 'made' by cola's advertisements a relatively long time ago, can't remember when accurately.

3.Church with 'c' and Church with 'C' have different meanings, 'church' is a building, 'Church' is the entirety of the believers of God in Christianity.

4. In the middle ages people were noticeably shorter and so a being who is 1.9 meters will appear as a giant to them.

5.In the middle ages, Nobles could purchase a 'saint' to be delivered to a church in their area or the church itself could do that and the pope's people housed the corpses of 'saints' and saints for this very specific reason.

6.Originally, people celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ during Christmas, but in the 20th century it became a holiday celebrated by all.

7.I'm not sure weather people still remember or know this, but surnames became a thing only in Renaissance, before the it was {Name} of {City} or {City}'s {Name}.

8. In the middle ages, it was believed that God is actually ruthless, unlike now, when God is is believed to be all-forgiving and all-loving