C5 Twice The Failure 1/2

-It's been a few hours since we left Seth on his own inside. He's a sweet yet stubborn kid so I think he might fail this time.

It looks like I'll have to prepare some 'Better Luck Next Time' cake.

We have a weird history of celebrating failures, so this much was normal for us.

There are many cases where praying to God for a blessing fails, but they can always come back next time when their faith is stronger.

'Stronger faith means stronger power', this was what most retake-ers always say, this might even be a good thing. If he has stronger power, then I can be reassured that he can protect himself even when I'm at work.

"Looks like he'll fail this one."

"Let's not be hasty and wait for him to get out. God is good you know?"

The priest standing in front of the door as if he was a guard quickly rebutted my words.

I glanced at him and gave his genuinely smiling face a forced smile and looked down afterwards to hide my anxiety.

These priests sure are faithful. If they prayed for power they might even beat the strongest blessed magician.

"Oh, I'm sorry, you had a past in this church right?"

I did have a past in this church.

It was when I was 12 years old. This place was where I prayed for my blessing.

"Was it that time before your brother died?... It was not your fault. God just-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the whole church behind him glowed with white light. We both distanced ourselves from the glowing church to get a better view and stared at it in awe.

"What the f*ck is happening here?"

Did he just curse? He did… right?

Well I would too if the whole church I've been staying in for a long time would suddenly light up right before my eyes.

This just shows that this is not a common occurrence.

Under normal circumstances, only statues inside would glow, not the church itself.

And if you look closely, a black smoke was oozing just right above where Seth should be kneeling.

Minutes later, the lights slowly faded and the church returned to a normal state.

The door opened and a crying Seth came out.

"What the hell happened inside little boy?"

He took the words right from my mouth. Just what happened inside that made this Seth cry?

*sniffle

"She said *sniff I'm *sniff never going to be a blessed one."

She? The angels did?

"Who said whata-what?"

The priest was muttering unnatural lines.

"Can you please check if he received his blessing?"

"Okay, right away."

He pulled his hands out and placed it on top of Seth's head and made it glow to examine his mana gate.

Mana gate was the thing that blocks the pathway of mana to flow out of the body.

Yes, 'thing', that's what this priest always calls it when someone asks.

I do think this guy was just a slacker.

"Oh My GOD!"

"What?! what is it?!

"It's still closed."

"Closed?! but what was that light?"

And here I thought he might have be a prodigy.

This priest is really giving me a headache.

"Even I'm surprised by this outcome."

"WHAT?! Spit it out!"

"Wait young lady. I know you're worried but I can't just tell you something I don't know yet."

Then why the hell did you shout out those misleading words?

"Let me see… Hmm hmm… The gate… Yes…"

Please do it faster.

"Yup!"

"Yup?"

"Yup!"

"Yup?!"

"Yup, this boy is hopeless."

I almost slapped the damned priest.

Is he bored or something?

"What do you mean by 'Hopeless'?"

"His gate…"

His gate?

"His gate is locked."

"Okay! Thanks! We're out of here."

"Wait young lady! Don't you want to know the details?"

What does he mean by details? Doesn't this mean he failed already?

"Nope. We'll come back when he's ready. Or maybe go to another cathedral?"

"No miss, You can't."

"You're not the boss of me!"

"I think you got the wrong idea here."

"Like Hell I did. His gate is locked right? So we'll just give up today and try again when his faith is stronger!"

What's up with this priest? We're leaving but he's trying to stop us. What else does he want from us?

"His gate is locked. Normally, gates are only closed, but this boy's gate is locked with a literal lock that needs a key… We don't know where the key is because this is the first time we've encountered this. If you wait a little while, I will ask the other cathedrals if they have encountered something like this."

"Okay please do so, I'm sorry about earlier."

"It's fine, it's a common occurrence."

So he was doing it on purpose as his hobby?

We waited for a few minutes for the priest to give some calls while Seth was just quiet until the very end of our batting.

I'm really curious about what happened inside the glowing church but it looks like Seth doesn't want to talk about it.

I'll just wait until he opens it up to me.

The priest walked our way with a troubled look on his (stupid) face.

"I'm sorry to say, only God knows what that lock is."

"Okay, thank you for your time. Please contact us when you get any information regarding this case."

We bid our goodbyes and went home.

It was already night time when we arrived home and Seth still hasn't said a word about what happened. He went straight to his bed with his eyes sore from crying so much.

*ring *ring *ring

I received mail from mom telling me to bring over food for three.

Must be for her colleagues.

"I'll buy a cake from one of the twins on my way back."

I ate before I left and wrapped some for Seth to eat.

**

-I'm lying on my bed remembering what happened earlier.

**

A few hours ago-

I went inside the cathedral and walked up the altar, kneeled and prayed as the priest instructed.

I didn't really know what to pray for, so I gathered all my memories and prayed that I would continue to live my life as it was then.

After I ran out of things to pray for, the church illuminated with light.

"Is this it?"

I whispered in an excited voice. While looking around…

"What the f*ck is happening here?!"

…I heard the priest cursed loudly.

"They should discipline their successor priests more strictly before dying next time."

A familiar high pitched voice reverberated the hall.

Where have I heard this kid-like voice before?

I racked my brain trying to remember when it was, only to fail after a few seconds.

"Hey! Brat!"

I turned to my back and saw a winged little girl. She had an adorable face, blonde hair growing down to her feet, she's wearing a pure white one-piece-... Wait, have I seen something with this description somewhere before?

"Me?"

"Who else is the brat here?!"

Wouldn't that be you?

I stopped these words from falling off the tip of my tongue as this little angel seemed angry and was smoking black out her body.

My instincts were shouting to stop.

"You've got guts to forgetting the mission in just a day period!"

"I'm sorry but, who are you again?"