The Girl Who Looted Tomorrow

“Mm.”

Freya nodded, then turned and walked out of the church.

After returning to the square, Pantheon raised his voice and called out, “Everyone. The Earth Church has invited all of you here today to hold this gathering as a memorial.”

“To mourn everyone who lost their lives in the disaster. They may have been your parents, your wives, your husbands, or your friends. But we cannot remain trapped in the grief of the past forever. I am certain those loved ones who died in the fire would not want us to sink into despair and never rise again.”

“No matter what, life must go on. We must lift our heads, look forward, and keep living. That is the greatest respect we can offer the dead.”

“So this gathering is also a celebration. A celebration that everyone here can still see tomorrow’s sun.”

“Finally, we thank the Heavenly Father, the Earth God, and the Mother Goddess. We also thank Her Holiness. I now declare this gathering officially open. All the food and wine prepared here may be enjoyed freely.”

As Pantheon spoke, he stepped aside, allowing Freya behind him to appear before everyone.

At this moment, Freya had already changed into the [Saintess outfit] she had personally customized.

Her upper body was wrapped in layers of white and pale green gauze, leaving her delicate collarbones and fair shoulders exposed.

The skirt fell to the middle of her thighs.

As the hem shifted gently in the night breeze, one could faintly see a white ribbon-style thigh band tied around her right leg.

Several small white ribbon bows were also wrapped around her bare forearms, calves, and ankles. Those little decorations made Freya look both holy and elegant.

Naturally, she wore no shoes.

On the second toe of her right foot, the ring she wore caught the moonlight and gleamed faintly, drawing the eye almost at once.

Finally, she had not done anything complicated with her hair.

It was simply long, straight, and white.

A white flower rested on her forehead, and over her eyes she wore a white, hollowed-out mesh blindfold.

After all, the original idea behind Freya’s outfit had been to cosplay Columbina from a game in her previous world.

The current result was not a perfect match, but it was at least halfway there.

Well, that could not be helped.

Many things in this era simply could not be made because the craftsmanship was not advanced enough.

For example, she should have had six white dove-feather ornaments at the back of her head. The elderly woman at the clothing store had racked her brain and still failed to make them.

To be honest, the outfit only managed to reach even half the resemblance because Columbina’s clothing was fairly minimal. The main body was just a dress with a large amount of white ribbon.

Since the white dove-feather ornaments could not be made, Freya used her own ability and created a small pure-white flower to wear on her head.

It was worth mentioning that this white flower was the [special companion plant] she had gained when she advanced to Rank Four.

Pantheon had said back then that every Life Branch practitioner’s [companion plant] was different.

However, even now, Freya still had not figured out what special effect this white flower had.

Back in the present, after Freya appeared, everyone who saw her froze for a moment.

There was no other reason.

The current Freya was simply too beautiful.

Just looking at her gave people a holy feeling, as if an angel had descended into the world.

“Thank you, Earth Church!”

“Thank you, Saintess!”

Following Pantheon’s final words, all the civilians present began shouting as well.

Without exaggeration, at that very moment, Freya’s Rank Four to Rank Five ritual had already been completed.

She could have left immediately, found a quiet place, and drunk the potion.

But she did not do that.

Instead, she slowly walked into the crowd and enjoyed this gathering of survivors together with everyone else.

She responded to every person who spoke to her.

She thanked every person who gave her a gift.

She chatted and laughed with everyone, eating the food that had been prepared.

The night grew deeper and deeper.

Only after everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, leaving satisfied, did the gathering come to an end.

Freya then returned to the Earth Church and took out the Rank Five potion.

She pulled out the stopper and drank the entire bottle in one breath.

This time, she did not fall asleep.

Instead, she remained fully conscious the whole time.

She even personally “saw” and “watched” the cells inside her body undergoing some kind of change.

However, Freya had very little knowledge related to biology or cells, so she could not understand what was happening inside her body at all.

Her most direct impression was that her red blood cells… seemed to have turned green?

At the same time, the faint pale green color that had originally existed only at the tips of her hair began spreading at a visible speed.

In the end, the lower third of her hair turned green.

About half an hour later, Freya gently exhaled and withdrew from that strange state of [Inner Sight].

At that moment, she had successfully advanced to Rank Five.

After advancing, her [Mind Sense] was significantly strengthened again.

Her overhead perception, which had originally covered only two or three streets, now expanded directly to half the city.

Beyond that, her ability to control plants and manipulate life energy both improved to a certain degree.

She also gained two brand-new abilities, [Life Field] and [Lifeform Modification].

The former was a passive ability that could be switched on and off.

If Freya chose to use it, an invisible field would appear around her. Its range formed a circle roughly six-tenths of a mile in diameter.

Within that range, the land would become increasingly fertile, plants would grow faster, and as time passed, ordinary soil and plants would slowly begin to develop spirituality.

Freya did not yet know what spiritual soil could be used for.

As for spiritual plants, they would become much easier for her to control with her plant-manipulation ability.

If she was lucky, special extraordinary herbs might even appear within the range of [Life Field].

At that moment, Freya suddenly realized something.

If spiritual plants strengthened her combat power when controlling plants, then was spiritual soil meant to strengthen combat power related to controlling earth?

But she only had one earth-related ability, the one she had gained at Rank Three.

And even now, she seemed to have never used that ability.

Still, if she had teammates from the [Earth Branch], this could raise their strength, so it was still somewhat useful.

In other words, [Life Field] was essentially an ability that created a home field.

If someone fought Freya on territory she had prepared, Freya would definitely be the one with the advantage.

As for the second ability, its effect was exactly as the name suggested.

Freya could perform [life modification] on herself or other people.

For example, she could make a second heart grow inside someone’s body, and she could decide where that heart appeared.

Even if she wanted it to grow inside their backside, that would be possible.

So if Freya had already been Rank Five during the previous battle, she could have used this ability to form a new heart inside Euphemia’s body.

Then, while using [Healing] and channeling life energy into her, she might really have been able to save her.

Creating a second heart was actually only the most basic use of this ability.

Freya could also make someone grow fish gills, cat ears, or a tail.

The prerequisite was that she had to understand those life structures.

As everyone knew, every person had a heart inside their body.

Freya could use this ability to directly perform [Inner Sight] on her own heart and observe its structure. Once she understood it, she could create a new one.

By the same logic, if she wanted to create fish gills, cat ears, a tail, or any other strange body part, she first had to understand the corresponding life structure.

This ability did not seem to improve her combat power much in the short term.

But it had enormous future potential.

Its strength depended entirely on Freya’s imagination and her amount of knowledge.

Freya used this ability to begin observing her own body.

In any case, she first recorded important organs such as the heart, liver, and lungs.

But as she kept looking, she suddenly sensed something strange.

A feeling of disharmony.

How to put it?

For example, Freya had originally thought she was a normal person.

But now, after repeatedly using [Lifeform Modification] to examine herself, the more she looked, the more she felt that she was not a normal person at all.

Instead, she felt like someone missing arms and legs.

Of course, the “normal person” and “disabled person” here referred to occult concepts.

She simply felt as if something was missing from her body.

But what exactly was missing, she had no idea.

While thinking, Freya even stood up and hopped twice.

She murmured, “Nothing seems wrong.”

Since she could not figure it out, she turned her “gaze” toward the Archbishop, who had been standing guard beside her the whole time.

She briefly explained her current confusion to him.

However, the Archbishop shook his head as well.

“I’m sorry, Your Holiness. I do not know what this situation means either.”

“Forget it.”

If she could not figure it out, she would set it aside for now.

In any case, it was a fact that her body was intact.

Freya packed up her things, especially the four bottles of War Path potion Nolan had delivered not long ago, then returned to her room in the church.

She murmured, “End simulation.”