Our Family Has Fallen

Chapter 401: Chapter 270: Junia’s Confession_2

Like Reynard in his youth, she too had endured various cruel punishments during her studies and eventually became a ”glorious” Nun.

She never learned to fight, and her days consisted of performing various religious rituals. Later, she was chosen to join the sisterhood in devoutly and humbly tending their order’s sacred fire.

In reality, she was merely tending the altar, adding wood to the fire basin, engaging in monotonous, tedious manual labor.

The austere life of the Monastery was very plain, but under the Sanctuary of the Church, they enjoyed a tranquility unimaginable to ordinary people beyond their high walls.

However, this too came at a price. Those selected were required to ensure purity, wear chastity belts, and were educated to honor their duties, taught to control themselves when desire surged.

She had always been a model of responsibility and virtue, even though the Chastity Belt caused her pain, even though she tirelessly repeated her meaningless tasks without complaint.

Until one day, a couple appeared in the garden outside the church... she felt love...

The more she suppressed that intense emotion, the more it overwhelmed her, and her attention gradually drifted away.

The Nun, lost in fantasy, was startled by the outraged scolding of the Abbot, only to realize that the sacred fire she was tending had been extinguished.

”He actually said I lost my faith! Me!!!”

The Nun suddenly became irate, her tone impulsive.

When the Abbot dragged her into the secret dungeon hidden beneath the Monastery, her screams of terror echoed through the corridors, and she could even see the unease on the faces of the other nuns.

It was completely shrouded in darkness, without a single ray of light. The executioners also wore hoods, as if they needed no eyes at all.

She was imprisoned in the Dark Dungeon of the Monastery, enduring the self-reproach in her heart for her blasphemous act, awaiting punishment from God.

Meanwhile, she also had to endure extreme torture from angry zealots. This punishment, serving as a deterrent to the other nuns, was far more severe than her blasphemous act warranted.

”That cage almost turned my devotion into hatred.”

The harsh punishment nearly took her life; every torture device within the Dark Dungeon was stained with her blood.

Just as she was about to give up, a golden light appeared out of nowhere, shining into that lifeless Dark Dungeon.

What she awaited was not divine chastisement. Instead, she felt power coursing through her tortured and depleted body, her wounds healing.

At that moment, she believed God affirmed her innocence and that she was recognized by Him.

No divine punishment awaited her. Instead, it was those who had seized her who had turned away from God!

”I am no longer afraid of the dark! My body and soul are sacred! The light has not forsaken me!”

Empowered by the Holy Light, she broke free from her shackles with a fervor exceeding that of the fanatics. She slew those who had tormented her and burst out of the dungeon, radiant, back into the Monastery’s corridors.

”Truth cannot be concealed forever! I am innocent! Love is innocent!”

Eager to share the news of her liberation with her sisters, she rushed to their dormitory, only to realize that where the door once stood, there was now a brand-new stone wall.

The smile on her face instantly froze, and her joyous shouts died in her throat.

At that moment, she thought she heard a faint scraping sound from behind the stout stone wall, filled with dried mortar, followed by her sisters’ last, dreadful gasps for breath.

She realized the cost of her indulgence was not measured merely by the flails that struck her own body.

”They... because of my pride...”

The Nun didn’t articulate it, but her demeanor made it clear that the other nuns had been implicated by her negligence, dying in desperation.

What followed was straightforward. She confronted the Abbot but, much like Reynard’s situation, the result was her expulsion from the Monastery.

The difference was that she had harnessed Divine Power. Even the Church dared not trouble her; instead, they used a very clever method to drive her away.

That method was to send her on an expedition—in essence, an exile from the center of power.

Having garnered the attention of Divine Power, her faith was unshakeably firm, yet her standing within the Church was quite distorted.

Throughout her journey, this question remained unanswered, so she continued—or perhaps could only continue—to act according to the old doctrines, as they had been ingrained in her from an early age.

It was only upon encountering this strange town and meeting Lance that she unexpectedly discovered a theory that could explain everything that had befallen her.

It turned out that she was not wrong; the Church was.

She had come to realize this. However, Lance was still caught in confusion.

This isn’t right... Could it be that the Holy Light, this deity, truly pays attention to humans?

The Nun wasn’t the type to lie. Such a miraculous phenomenon could only be explained this way.

But Lance quickly thought of something and couldn’t help but turn to the Nun to ask, ”Were you sent to the Monastery by your parents or taken away?”

The Nun didn’t understand why he suddenly asked this, but she still answered firmly, ”I was taken away.”

Upon hearing this, Lance suddenly seemed to understand. She couldn’t be one of those children with Extraordinary Talent whom the Church had taken...

Lance remembered Tamara saying that the Church would ”take” children who might become Transcendents.

If the Nun herself possessed Extraordinary Talent—and for the Church to have ’confined’ her in the Monastery implied her talent was significant—it had simply not yet been unearthed.

Then what did she think of while being tortured in the dungeon?It was, of course, the affirmation of the Holy Light. The suffering brought by the punishment directly caused her to break through her limits. Her Spiritual Essence guided her, and naturally, she manifested the Holy Light that appeared out of nowhere in the darkness.

If that was the case, everything else fell into place.

”How long does it take other Clergy to perform Divine Arts? And how long would it take them to heal injuries like those from earlier?”

”The average ones can’t do it repeatedly. They need to rest after performing one,” replied the Nun.

Lance used Tamara’s injuries as a reference. When the Nun highlighted the disparity, it effectively confirmed his suspicions.

At that moment, Lance was certain he was right. If so, it also explained why the remaining nuns had been sentenced to death.

Because these were people originally forbidden from contact with Supernatural Power. Now, suddenly, one had awakened. What if she inspired others to awaken as well?

Neither the Abbot of the Monastery nor the Church would allow such an uncontrollable situation to occur.

We are the ones who hold the right to interpretation. If you directly commune with the Holy Light, then what use are we?

After understanding this, Lance knew this was the truth that would shatter the Nun’s faith in the Church.

He quickly shared his insights with her. Upon learning everything, the Nun seemed somewhat perplexed. Her subsequent murmur, however, took Lance by surprise once again.

”Only this could explain why that man named Reynard, who betrayed the Church, still possesses the power of the Holy Light. It’s the Holy Light that affirmed him, not the Church. We’ve all been deceived...”

One can only imagine Lance’s shock upon hearing this. He was so familiar with Reynard; how could he not have known about this?

Was Reynard hiding something from him?

Lance fell silent, lost in thought. He decided to trust that Reynard wouldn’t hide such a thing without reason and that further investigation would reveal the truth.

He immediately began to probe, subtly asking the Nun about Reynard’s Holy Light powers.

”It’s very faint, but I did indeed feel a weak Divine Power when he was emotionally agitated,” said the Nun.

Lacking much guile, she didn’t realize this was a probing question and frankly described the situation as she remembered it.

After learning the general circumstances from the Nun, Lance finally felt relieved. It seemed Reynard wasn’t intentionally hiding anything and might not even be aware of it himself.

Frankly, Lance was also confused because he had previously confirmed that Reynard didn’t possess the Extraordinary Talent of a Transcendent.

Could it be that by truly believing in the sun, he had actually manifested something?

No way...