Snow stopped walking in front of a girl lying alone on the innermost bed. The girl had no friends or family by her side. She seemed to be staring blankly at the ceiling, waiting for death to come and take her.

The girl did not look at Snow. She merely kept her brownish-gray eyes fixed on the ceiling. She was blind. Snow asked the girl:

“What’s your name?”

A voice like a gentle spring breeze slightly trembling in the sunlight flowed through the heavy air. It took the girl a while to realize that the voice was directed at her. With her hair loose and disheveled, the girl blinked her unfocused eyes and said weakly:

“Who are you?”

Snow carefully stroked the girl’s greasy hair and said:

“Someone who will save you.”

At those words, the girl smiled slightly. But she didn’t look happy at all, so Elios, watching from a distance, couldn’t be sure if she was really smiling.

“Ah, an angel. You’ve finally come to take me away.”

Snow silently continued to stroke the girl’s hair. The moonlight crystals still swirled around her in the dark room. Snow smiled compassionately as tears flowed from her eyes. From each drop of tear that fell, an ethereal fragrance rose, as if not of this world.

Elios knelt on the floor, holding his breath. Only then did the people in the ward begin to turn their attention to the small hooded figure and the dirty girl lying before her.

“Will you tell me? Who you are.”

A soft, singing voice flowed from Snow’s lips.

“I don’t have a name. No father, no mother. I lived with my younger sibling, but they died recently.”

“I see.”

“Since my sibling died, my body started feeling strange. I gradually lost the ability to move, then one day I collapsed, and someone brought me here. They say it’s a disease where the body slowly stiffens. They told me that when I start losing my sight, it’s a sign that I don’t have much time left. Recently, I completely lost my vision. Now I can’t even get up from bed.”

The girl was still looking at the ceiling. But a lukewarm tear streamed down her sunken cheek as she smiled. Now both Snow and the girl were crying.

“Oh my.”

Snow sighed with genuine sympathy. The white hand that had been stroking the girl’s hair now moved carefully over her face. Snow gently traced the girl’s lips, chin, and eyebrows with her finger, as if trying to imprint the girl’s appearance in her mind.

The dim room gradually brightened again. It was as if the sun that had been setting only within Oblivion was now rising again in reverse.

No one was murmuring. Everyone was looking at the source of light with closed mouths. At some point, the sounds of groaning and crying had stopped. The breathing of the child wrapped in the cotton blanket had also stabilized.

By the time the candle shadows flickering on the floor were completely engulfed by light, focus returned to the blind girl’s eyes.

“I can… I can…”

Strength returned to the girl’s voice.

“I can…”

The girl couldn’t finish her sentence. As if in disbelief, she slowly raised her arm and moved it. It felt light, as if she had received a new body. She gradually rose from her bed. With moist eyes, she looked to the left, straight ahead, and finally discovered a hooded person sitting on her right side. Though the hood obscured the eyes, the lips were smiling gently. A fragrant scent vibrated in the air.

As the girl opened her eyes, her surroundings grew brighter. The light seemed to bless her for being able to see the world again.

“…I want to see your face.”

The girl mumbled blankly, unable to find other words to say. The angel who had saved her nodded.

The girl raised her trembling hand and carefully pushed back the hood. Snow-white hair that had been suppressed flowed out like waves, pouring down like the moonlight illuminating her. Silver eyes still flowing with tears were revealed. As soon as the tears hit the floor, they became crystals of light and floated up to the sky.

People watched the scene with bated breath. Without even realizing that not only the girl but also their own bodies had completely healed, they began to get down from their beds one by one and prostrate themselves with their heads to the ground.

“The Saint,” someone murmured, entranced. The windows were closed, yet the white hair fluttered slightly in a gentle breeze.

The angel, the saint, Bernadette, no, Snow embraced the once-blind girl to her small chest. Her tears fell onto the girl’s hair. The white being hugged the girl even tighter.

Everyone was prostrated with their foreheads to the ground, so they couldn’t see the scene, but Elios, kneeling on one knee, clearly saw the saint’s smile. He had witnessed the miracle from beginning to end.

He loved the being before his eyes.

Elios loved Snow, the shy girl, and now he had also come to love Saint Bernadette, the savior of the world.

♣ ♣ ♣

White, fluffy masses of clouds wrapped around and swirled around the temple-like clinic. At this auspicious sight, people stopped in their tracks regardless of who they were. The light emanating from the bluish moon gradually poured into the sky, and the deep night brightened like early evening. Fine, soft snow crystals fluttered down in the wind like spring flower petals.

A stir spread like smoke among the people who had stopped. Something unusual was happening.

Even people who had no acquaintance with each other but had stopped by chance exchanged puzzled glances, wondering what was going on. Some people rubbed their eyes at the suddenly brightened surroundings and came out into the streets from their beds. However, no one yet dared to pierce through the sacred clouds soaked in moonlight to enter Oblivion.

It was around the time when people’s curiosity was beginning to exceed tolerable levels. Finally, a woman as large as a sturdy man began to stride toward the clouds. That’s when it happened.

“It’s the Saint! The Saint has appeared at Oblivion!”

Someone burst out of Oblivion through the clouds, shouting with near jubilation. It was a young man with heavy bandages on his legs, but despite that, he was running with all his might on his own two feet like a boy who had just discovered the joy of running. He held his crutch high toward the sky.

The young man ran around the streets like a madman, continuing to shout.

“The Saint had performed a miracle! From those with paper cuts to patients who were on the verge of death, all had received new bodies!”

The stir soon expanded like ripples created by a stone thrown into water, turning into whispers.

Dozens, perhaps hundreds of people gathered around Oblivion, creating a commotion. Starting with that large woman, one, two, three people entered the clinic.

After that, it was complete chaos. Everyone pushing and pulling, wanting to see the Saint. The screams of people who fell over in the crush weren’t even heard by those whose eyes were fixed on entering Oblivion.

Everyone inside Oblivion was lying prostrate in one direction. People who had rushed to Oblivion, pushing and hitting others in their frenzy to see the Saint, felt their hearts grow heavy at the sight. Only a few people, led by that first woman, walked toward the room in the direction where people were prostrated, while keeping an eye on others.

‘What is this!’

They were disappointed by the sight before them. The people in the room were bowing toward a small, filthy bed placed in the corner. There was nothing on the bed. Far from the Saint, there were only dirty stains of what might have been excrement or something else, dried on the sheets.

But they soon discovered something strange. It was the moonlight.

The bed was thoroughly soaked in a blue-silver light that seemed to have descended from somewhere unknown. Clearly, when viewed from outside, the clinic was completely enveloped in clouds. Could moonlight enter so clearly and vividly? After confirming that the window and the bed were on opposite sides, they acknowledged that something unusual had indeed happened here.

Those who had belatedly squeezed in looked around cautiously and carefully asked the people lying prostrate like dead mice about the whereabouts of the Saint.

An old man with a long white beard rose from his place and explained the situation.

Saint Bernadette, whose very name was so holy that not even a single fragment of sin could be found in it, had wished to see for herself what the lowly people looked like. So she had come to Oblivion disguised as a commoner with a few priests, and upon seeing the miserable state of the sick, she had shed tears and performed a miracle to heal them. Immediately after performing the miracle, priests who had been hiding among the patients rose and took the Saint away. No one dared even think of hindering the Saint’s path.

“How do you know why the Saint came to Oblivion?”

“Well, an elderly-looking priest explained it to us as he escorted the Saint away. To people like us. How kind of him.”

The old man answered with a dreamy expression, as if having a happy dream.

The old man had been paralyzed by a stroke and couldn’t even go to the bathroom without help. He was someone who always habitually said things he didn’t mean, like “Rather than being a burden to my children, I should just die.”

With his body renewed, his heart was also renewed, and he smiled, showing his teeth to the people asking him questions, as if he were a young man in his twenties.

♣ ♣ ♣

“I’m truly glad that you were able to escape safely, my Saint.”

The elderly priest said cheerfully. Snow held the dirty girl who came up to her chest and looked at the priest with an anxious expression. Elios expressed his gratitude to the priest who had helped them escape from the difficult situation. But he did so while hiding Snow and the girl behind his back. And in front of him, two more men stood in a formation to protect Elios and the two girls. Snow was still emanating an ethereal fragrance.