Chapter 1: Salvation

Ed’s gaze lingered on the multicolored light streaming through the stained glass into the chapel.

“By the mercy of the Goddess, we are freed from sin and death, guided onto the path of salvation. Let us open our hearts to …”

The priest’s calm voice echoed through the space, but to Ed’s ears, it felt faint, like a distant echo.

The chasm between the salvation the priest spoke of and the salvation Ed envisioned had grown wide.

This divide hadn’t always existed; it had sharpened recently.

As a result, Ed stood detached from the flow of the Mass, utterly unable to focus.

It was behavior unbecoming of a monk.

Reluctantly, Ed closed his eyes. Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Fragments of the hymn that had earlier filled the chapel now swirled in his mind.

“This concludes today’s Mass. May Arian’s blessings be abundant.”

“May Arian’s blessings be abundant.”

Ed unclasped his hands and stepped forward. The presiding priest approached the seats near where Ed had been sitting before retreating from the altar.

The priest stood before Ed with a gentle smile.

“Brother, will you be visiting the orphanage again today?”

“Yes. It’s time to wake the children.”

“Good. When do you plan to visit the Grand Cathedral?”

Ed answered with an ambiguous smile, and the priest, seeming to understand, nodded without pressing further.

The priest made the sign of the cross with an unwavering smile and Ed quietly mirrored the gesture.

Apart from evading the question about the Grand Cathedral, Ed had told no lies. True to his word, he headed straight to the orphanage within the monastery as soon as Mass ended.

Vinen, ruled by Count Montrant, was a quiet and unremarkable city. It lacked notable specialties or geographic advantages, rarely attracting merchants. Just as the city struggled, the parish’s finances were meager and the orphanage’s conditions were even worse.

Beyond a small garden where tender sprouts peeked through the soil stood a two-story stone-walled building, nestled like an annex.

After passing a statue of a saint, Ed pushed open the wooden door and was greeted by nuns bustling about.

With just glances, Ed and the nuns exchanged silent acknowledgments of their tasks before hurrying to their assigned duties. Ed’s destination was the children’s dormitory on the second floor.

Two rooms visible at the top of the stairs served as the sleeping quarters.

When he opened the door, a long narrow room came into view. It was lined with twin-tiered wooden bunk beds.

Ed felt an indescribable swell of emotion just from looking at the eight children sleeping soundly. If salvation existed, it was in the sight of their peaceful, sleepy faces. And when they awoke and opened their eyes, he knew they would look at him with clear eyes that contained the freshness of the world.

Yet the longer he watched them, the more an old doubt began to resurface. A doubt that had haunted him for some time. Was he truly a believer in God? Or was he merely clinging to the purpose of caring for these children?

Ed was a reincarnated soul. Or more accurately, a transmigrator. He didn’t know whose body he had taken over, but since he had awoken in this novel world in the body of an unknown man, “transmigration” seemed the right term.

Three years had already passed since he, a man in his mid-twenties from the modern world, had transmigrated into this novel’s world.

His past identity wasn’t particularly important. In a word, the man in his mid-twenties could be defined simply:

Ed had been a failure.

There had been a time, before adulthood, when he brimmed with confidence, believing he could achieve anything.

But after barely scraping into a university on the outskirts of Seoul, studying subjects that held no interest for him, and then plummeting into society’s margins, he realized he was not the heroic figure he imagined. This realization hadn’t struck suddenly. It had seeped into him slowly over the course of his college years.

His grades were barely above average, and his relationships with people were strained. After graduating from college, he was rejected by every company he applied to, and all the ties to his shallow relationships fell away. Failure. Failure. Failure.

Apathy became a habit. As failures piled up, he grew afraid to even try. That was how he ended up holed up in his room, devouring novels.

He knew it was pathetic to call this a “reason”. But habits, even when recognized, are hard to break.

During this time, he stumbled upon a traditional medieval fantasy novel and became fascinated by its worldbuilding.

The only regret was that the author announced the series would be discontinued around its 200th chapter.

It wasn’t entirely abandoned. A remake was promised.

Ed left a few lines of disappointment in the comments section…and then fell straight into this world.

It was an unfamiliar place. Under the pale sky like dawn, a field of rough grass filled his vision.

When he tried to move, he found his arms strangely bound behind his back. Around him sat others in similar states, including a young girl.

From overheard whispers, he learned they had been captured by bandits.

The women would be sold as slaves; the men killed or enslaved themselves.

For Ed, who had gone to bed in warmth only to wake here abruptly, it was beyond absurd.

Before he could process the chaos, a bandit appeared; his eyes were glinting with lust as he dragged the young girl away.

He hauled her by the hair, but she didn’t cry. Was it resolve? Defiance? Ed strained against his bonds and lunged at the bandit.

Was it rage at seeing such depravity aimed at a child? He didn’t consider himself moral enough to risk his life for this…

Even as the bandit beat him mercilessly, that thought remained in his head. Then why?

As the bandit’s kicks blurred his consciousness, a sudden ambush erupted.

Clamorous shouts and the clang of armor rang out. Knights had arrived to raid the bandits’ hideout.

The bandit who was stomping on Ed scrambled to seize the girl as a hostage.

The knights charged forward; they didn’t seem to care. Ed threw himself between the bandit and the child. And the bandit’s dagger sank deep into his shoulder.

With that missed opportunity, the bandits were swiftly eradicated. Ed and the people who were captured somehow managed to survive. They were dazed but unharmed.

The pain was nothing.

Among the bewildered crowd, Ed suddenly felt a sense of liberation, as though the helplessness that had shackled him like chains had been washed away in an instant.

It was as if he had received a divine revelation, finally understanding the reason for his existence.

It wasn’t because the knights had coincidentally saved his life. It was the gaze of the child who had looked up at him from his arms.

That gaze became the first seed of hope planted in his life, which had known nothing but failure until then.

Salvation was not far away.

After that day, Ed devoted himself to a religion in a nearby city. He expressed his desire to care for children in the orphanage within the monastery.

That place was the St. Arian branch in Vinen. It was only when he heard the name that Ed realized the truth. This place he had fallen into was the world of the novel he had been so deeply immersed in.

Three years passed like that.

It was a time that went by without incident. In this harsh and unpredictable world, living without trouble was itself a great blessing.

“Kids, wake up.”

Shaking off his deep thoughts, Ed began to wake the children. Except for one boy who was naturally a heavy sleeper, the other seven children quickly got up and tidied their bedding.

Ed flipped over the blanket and woke the boy who hadn’t gotten up. After a bit of grumbling, the boy rubbed his eyes and finally rose.

“Ah, the handsome priest is here again today.”

“I’m not a priest.”

Though Ed was just a monk, the children called him a priest. In fact, not just the children, but even some of the nuns had already started treating him as one.

The priest who had just presided over the Mass had even asked him to visit the cathedral, implying that he should receive training to become a priest.

But Ed had no intention of doing so. Becoming a priest would make it much harder for him to leave this place.

Ed gently urged the children to head to the bathroom. Seven of them filed out the door, but one child remained in the room.

A girl with pitch-black hair and eyes. She was the girl Ed had protected in the bandits’ hideout.

The girl who had shown Ed the meaning of salvation. Lina.

She was unusually calm and composed for her age. She must have been around twelve by now?

Neither she nor Ed knew her exact age.

She didn’t mingle much with her peers, and often spent her time lost in deep thought, to the point where it was hard to tell what she was thinking.

“Do you have something on your mind?”

And she was frighteningly insightful.

Ed sometimes wondered if Lina might be a character from the novel.

With her undeniable beauty and extraordinary personality, even at such a young age, she seemed like a protagonist-level figure.

But no matter how much he racked his memory, the name “Lina” didn’t ring a bell. Ed had reread the early parts of the novel multiple times out of frustration with its serialization. If his memory didn’t include her, it was safe to assume she wasn’t an important character.

Ed simply smiled.

“I’m wondering why Lina hasn’t gone to wash up yet.”

“I stayed behind because Ed looked like he had something on his mind.”

Lina always called Ed strictly by “Ed”. She never addressed him as “Uncle”, “Teacher”, or even “Father” like the other children.

In truth, she could have called him “big brother” given his age. Ed had just turned twenty.

Of course, this age had been arbitrarily assigned by a bishop who once visited the parish. Considering the bishop’s mystical abilities, the assigned age was likely accurate enough, so Ed held no complaints.

“Tell me. I’ll solve it for you.”

Where did such confidence come from? When she spoke with unwavering certainty in her eyes, Ed couldn’t help but laugh.

No matter how strange Lina was, she remained a child he needed to protect.

With his modern memories, Ed understood that children’s personalities were infinitely diverse. He had even witnessed events that might have shaped her quirks, so he never regarded her as strange.

“Hmm… It’s not serious enough to share with anyone yet.”

“….…”

Her face stayed blank, but he detected a hint of sulking in her face. The faint droop of her eyebrows gave her away.

Still, Ed wasn’t deliberately lying.

He wanted to treat Lina as honestly as possible. His troubles simply weren’t significant enough to confide in anyone.

“How about a hug instead?”

“…Okay.”

Without hesitation, Lina melted into Ed’s embrace.

“Alright, let’s go wash up now.”

Lina nodded her head, and Ed led her out of the room by the hand.

***

In reality, Ed’s heart had already leaned toward leaving the church. His stubborn refusal to become a priest stemmed from this very resolve.

Of course, he had no intention of renouncing his faith or formally withdrawing. Severing ties with one of the empire’s dominant religious factions seemed unnecessary, especially since St. Arian’s influence had secured his ambiguous identity.

Ed simply wanted to leave this monastery and establish his own orphanage.

He wished to create a sanctuary where hope could reach more children. Where salvation might stretch its hand further.

But it was no easy task.

Founding an orphanage required noble approval and investment, which was precisely why such institutions existed solely within monasteries.

Religious organizations easily secured permits and funding. Even building branches through followers’ donations was trivial.

But for an ordinary individual and a commoner of no standing, establishing an orphanage meant navigating insurmountable hurdles.

Difficult, yes, but not impossible.

The first step was securing approval and investment pledges from Count Montrant. Only then could construction begin swiftly.

Ed finally felt the moment had arrived. The time to use his knowledge of the novel. Perhaps he had been waiting for this all along.

A plan formed instantly.

Ed stretched his bent arm and slowly rose. Sweat trailed down the scar on his left shoulder.

As he shrugged on a light coat, his well-built torso vanished beneath the fabric.

After leaving his room, Ed washed up, returned, and extinguished the candle. He lay in bed and darkness pooled before his eyes. Suddenly, a face that matched the thick darkness came to mind.

Should I have told Lina after all?