Laterano is called the paradise of the Sankta. Halos crowning their heads, the power of 'empathy' to read one another's hearts, and a faith that hasn't wavered in a thousand years — this city believes itself the world's one and only utopia.

But if that paradise really is the only one, where are those pushed outside it supposed to go? Federico, a newly named Saint, has never once entertained such a question. He is an Executor of the Laterano notary office, someone who moves purely by reason and regulation, with emotion set aside.

The Pope assigns him an unfamiliar mission. In a mobile monastery that lost its course sixty years ago and has drifted through the wasteland ever since, find two envoys who were dispatched there and lost contact. When they arrive, the monastery turns out to house Sankta refugees living alongside Sarkaz mercenaries — and the single condition Laterano has set for their return is: 'Paradise does not accept the Sarkaz.'

1. The Sainthood inauguration, and the balloon man ascending to the heavens

For the first time since his coronation, Pope Evangelista XI grants the title of 'Saint' to someone who isn't Pope. The candidate is none other than Executor Federico — who himself cares less about the weight of the title than about 'exactly what disaster is coming.'

The Pope holds a ledger he's told no one about. The name written at the top is today's honoree, and beneath it are several more familiar names — names even Federico doesn't recognize.

On the way to the ceremony, a Laterano citizen who tried to fly by strapping balloons to himself floats straight up into the sky. Federico, passing by, pops every balloon with a single shot to bring him back down.

I simply made the most rational judgment given the situation at hand.

— Federico

Instead of thanks, the man only asks where he got his uniform tailored. To this man, the Pope leaves a strange remark: once the ceremony ends, he says, they should go meet the 'friends' on the ledger.

2. Paradise stranded in the wasteland

Federico's team sets out to find the mobile monastery Ambrosius, missing for sixty years. Joining him are his chatty fellow Executor Rikelle, and Serfilia, a Sankta technician who volunteered for the mission.

Raymund, the young Sarkaz guarding the front gate, is openly hostile from the start. Bishop Stefano and hunter Gerald, whom they finally meet, say that Sankta and Sarkaz have lived together in this barren land for over ten years.

We simply took in people who had nowhere else to go.

— Stefano

The monastery is also home to Sankta girls Fortuna and Delfina, and Clement, the gentle gardener who tends the flowers with care. Each of them drifted in with their own circumstances, and somewhere along the way became like a family.

But the single condition Laterano has set for taking this monastery back is that paradise must have no Sarkaz.

3. The Executor's interrogation, and hunger in the darkness

Federico senses something off about Gerald's movements — too refined for a mere hunter — and the weapon hidden behind his back. But for now, finding the missing envoys Lemuen and Oren takes priority.

Meanwhile, somewhere beneath the monastery, something unidentified groans low in the dark. Aulus, an Iberian missionary who came calling it 'kin,' offers strange comfort to the Sarkaz collapsing under hunger and Oripathy.

Still can't hear my voice, can you?

— Aulus

The other envoy, Oren, has vanished entirely without a trace. Serfilia is secretly in contact with Oren, plotting something behind Federico's back.

And in a corner of the chapel is the missing envoy Lemuen — relying on a wheelchair after injuring her leg, having chosen on her own to stay behind.

4. A single shot, and black horns

Childhood friends Delfina and Fortuna bickered daily, yet cherished each other. But once they learn Laterano intends to abandon the Sarkaz, an unbridgeable rift opens between them.

Fortuna wanted to believe everyone could someday go to Laterano together, while Delfina saw that belief as naive betrayal. In the argument, Delfina tries to take Fortuna's guardian gun away, and Fortuna clings to it, refusing to let go.

Am I unworthy as a Sankta? But I'm more worried about you and Raymund. This house is all I have, and these people here are my only family.

— Delfina

The trigger is pulled unintentionally. Delfina dies on the spot, and Fortuna becomes a being who can no longer empathize with her own kind — a Fallen Angel.

Fina, Fina died because of me! Whether it was an accident or not, what does that change?!

— Fortuna

5. The burning cathedral, and a suspected child

That night, an unexplained fire breaks out in the cathedral. As the statues crumble and the flower beds turn to ash, everyone's eyes naturally turn to Raymund the Sarkaz — for no reason other than that he happened to be nearby at the time.

Federico suspects deliberate arson, saying the fire spread at an unnatural speed — yet no trace of the culprit can be found anywhere.

Race cannot serve as evidence to escape guilt. If it were necessary to destroy this cathedral, I wouldn't hesitate to do so myself.

— Federico

This single remark unexpectedly clears the suspicion hanging over Raymund. But the true arsonist has been quietly watching them all along, from somewhere no one has noticed.

6. The hunter hiding his name, and the tender monster

Federico finally uncovers Gerald's true identity: Horst Tippindahl, the notorious deserter mercenary from the Kazdel civil war. Gerald admits it without resistance, unshaken in the least.

Does it matter if it's not my real name, after ten years of being called it?

— Gerald

Meanwhile, the fate of the missing Sarkaz hunter Hyman also comes to light. The being howling beneath the ground was Hyman himself. Secretly raising two orphaned siblings, Estara and Erendel, he's been sharing food with them every night even as he loses his human shape.

That night too, Hyman, now a monster, visits the children's side without fail. Pulling the blanket over them with a tail that carries no warmth, he holds on to just their names with a voice nearly forgotten.

E...ren... tara...

— Hyman

When Federico levels his gun, Gerald steps in front of him.

Look behind Hyman. Two children are sleeping past that door. They trust you.

— Gerald

7. Brother, I can't run anymore

Gerald once had a comrade, Eileen, from whom he parted long ago. Since the day they both turned their backs on Kazdel's two queens, they'd held on to the belief that even a Sarkaz could live an ordinary life.

If you really put down your weapon and became a country hunter, have you ever imagined what you'd look like?

— Eileen

Eileen closed her eyes at this very monastery long ago. Ever since that day, Gerald has feared even the sound of bells, yet every year, when the flowers bloomed, he went to see her.

Word arrives that Laterano's special forces have surrounded the monastery. Gerald leaves a final word for his old friend Clement and picks up a dagger.

"If my throat can be traded for other people's lives, then it's worth something." He takes his own life, entrusting Raymund, Fortuna, and the remaining Sarkaz to Clement's care.

This... is the head that 'sinner' Horst Tippindahl offers up of his own will.

— Clement

Clement delivers Gerald's final request to Federico — to spare Fortuna, Raymund, and the remaining Sarkaz. And the next morning, he goes out to tend the flowers again as if nothing had happened.

8. What the gardener hid

Bishop Stefano finally reaches his last resolve. He decides to secretly mix the flesh left by the Deep Sea Church into the bread, and at the final Mass, turn everyone into something that can never be undone. But at the last moment, he pulls back, and locks the bread away in the underground storeroom.

The problem is that the storeroom was already empty. Someone had gotten there first.

Lemuen and Serfilia belatedly turn up a clue: the day Fortuna first entered the chapel, there was clearly one more person present.

The place Federico tracks it to is the burned cathedral. There stands the gentle gardener, Clement.

Clement, who had long wanted to believe in people's kindness, finally broke down watching Raymund be suspected and Gerald's death. It was he who set fire to the cathedral and stole the sacrament.

I simply want an answer. Whether there truly exists a being in this world who can save us.

— Clement

Clement swallows the bread in front of Federico. Nothing happens. Only the blood loss from an old gunshot wound slowly tightens around his breath.

People of Laterano... our paradise is a lie, and so is your faith.

— Clement

9. A war stopped by a single gunshot

Meanwhile, universal messenger Oren mobilizes fifty of Laterano's special forces to seize the monastery, under the pretext of rooting out the Sarkaz entirely.

Oren has a logic of his own. If word spreads that Laterano colluded with the Sarkaz, the goodwill it has painstakingly built with other nations could collapse entirely — or so his reasoning goes.

Stefano holds a final Mass with those who remain. This time, truly, with bread and wine free of anything wrong.

Outside, Lemuen levels her gun at Oren, and Oren refuses to back down. Just as the standoff between them is about to explode, a single gunshot cutting through the sky brings everyone to a stop.

I have no need to understand your positions, and even less need to mediate this conflict. But this monastery needs order right now. I will be the one to maintain it.

— Federico

Before spring comes

Raymund declines to inherit Gerald's dagger, saying he isn't ready yet. Instead, he leaves it with Federico for the time being, promising to come back for it someday.

Fortuna decides in the end to leave with the Sarkaz band, following Raymund. Serfilia lets her go, but extracts a promise in return — to keep in touch, wherever she ends up.

Estara and Erendel never find their mother. They never learn that the 'sleeping man' who tucked a blanket over them each night was in fact their mother, no longer in human shape.

Before leaving, Lemuen hands Stefano an old monk's notebook — a record filled with the worries of someone who once lived here long ago.

Stefano steps down from his post as bishop and sets off alone toward Laterano, saying he wants to see with his own eyes whether he can reclaim his lost faith.

Let's meet again in that paradise.

— Stefano

Seeing him off at the door, Lemuen has a sudden premonition — that this stooped back might be the last she ever sees of him.

Reporting the mission to the Pope, Federico asks himself a question for the first time in his life. He made no mistakes — so why didn't things reach the best possible outcome?

Can our law apply to every situation? And if it can't, on what basis am I supposed to act from now on?

— Federico

If paradise really is the only one, where are those pushed outside it supposed to go? Federico still hasn't found the answer. But now, at least, he's learned how to hold on to the question.