“Arrived.”
With Selene’s robotic and emotionless voice, I landed back on the ground. The dizziness quickly faded. My head only felt a little spinny, but other symptoms were absent.
“………”
But the Knight Commanders were different.
Iris, Claudia, Lize, and Erica—each of them lay sprawled on the floor, desperately trying not to regurgitate their insides.
When I first teleported, I stumbled and was dizzy enough to speak. By the second time, just standing seemed like a challenge, and by the third, they all sealed their lips shut.
The armor had long been discarded. It was said that wearing it made your head ring and the dizziness lasted much longer. The discarded armor was neatly set aside.
As the Knight Commanders struggled like that, the rest periods between teleports naturally lengthened. I could finally understand why Selene had come to fetch us under the pretense of protection.
There was no way to fight the enemy in that condition. They couldn’t even stand, using all their strength to avoid losing their lunch.
If they had simply gone by carriage to the Holy Kingdom as originally planned, there would have been no need for protection, but the journey to the Cathedral would likely take months.
Thanks to Selene teleporting us, we managed to arrive in a day, even with breaks in between.
“Are you okay, Lize?”
“………”
Lize looked up at me with her trembling body. Her blue eyes seemed to say, “Does this look okay to you?” Well, it was a pointless question since it was clear to anyone that she was not fine.
With her posture, her chest was pressed down between her upper body and the floor, spreading soft to the sides. The spread side-boob peeked out from under her armpit. Surprisingly, she still maintained some degree of spring.
It seemed she was too dizzy to even realize how she looked. If she did, she would undoubtedly have been teasing me.
“My job is done.”
Selene neatly ignored the agonized Knight Commanders clutching their heads and channeled energy into the Sacred Catalyst in her hand. The gray and silver light mass surrounding us began to gradually diminish.
“I look forward to the day we meet again.”
The Sacred Catalyst in her hand emitted light. Selene’s figure vanished, leaving behind the traces of the moon. Warm sunlight filled the void. Yellowish-white shone all around.
The Knight Commanders were still disoriented. It seemed it would take quite a while for them to recover, so I decided to patiently wait and scanned the surroundings.
‘Incredible.’
Everything was white. Every building and roof on the street, every place my eyes landed, even the tiles on the main road were shining white.
Even the tiles on the main road were pure white, without a speck of dust. Countless people walked by in pious demeanor, leaving no footprints or dirt.
According to NPC explanations, the entire papal palace was protected by divine power. I had skimmed over this in the game, but witnessing it firsthand felt like a miracle.
In a world that demonstrated the existence of a God, it made sense for people to be deeply religious.
However, what caught my attention was something different.
‘……Why are the women’s outfits so modest? Did the mod creator skip this detail out of laziness?’
It was the fashion of women from the Holy Kingdom, which was a stark contrast to the Empire.
Unlike the Empire’s women, who couldn’t even be considered exposed with their crop tops and miniskirts, the women from the Holy Kingdom mostly wore modern attire that was wrapped tightly around their bodies.
It was common to see fashion where only the face above the neck was revealed, and even if there was some exposure, it usually consisted of just a slight reveal of one thigh or wearing black sleeveless tops.
There were no women wearing just a single strap to cover their chests and practically hot pants, which could be mistaken for underwear, no matter how hard I looked.
Seeing such decent scenery after a long time put my mind at ease.
‘The Inquisitor might have been an unusual case.’
Stella wore an outrageously revealing nun outfit, objectively and subjectively, and the battle nuns under her command sported such revealing attire that a gust of wind would fully expose them.
Yet, the women on the streets of the Holy Kingdom were wrapped up tightly, naturally leading me to wonder if they were the abnormal ones.
“Ughh…”
While I was happily gazing at the neat and composed appearance of the women from the Holy Kingdom, the Knight Commanders began to regain their senses and started to stand clumsily.
“How’s your head? Better?”
“…I can stand. Not quite ready to walk properly.”
Iris, who stood up first, leaned against a nearby tree. She cradled her forehead while panting heavily.
I helped Erica and Claudia up in turn, and lastly reached out to Lize. She obediently entrusted her body to my hand.
After draping my left arm over her shoulder, I slipped my right hand under her armpit and lifted her up. My hand was awkwardly flailing in the air. If I went any further, I would inadvertently touch her underboob because of our positions.
No, even that was making my right forearm rub against her sideboob. Repeating in my mind that this was unavoidable due to human anatomy, I moved forward.
“…I don’t want to do this twice. Next time, let’s just take a carriage, even if it takes longer.”
Lize twisted slightly and buried her face into my chest, muttering that. The other Knight Commanders nodded in agreement, as if to say they felt the same.
It must have really been a struggle for them.
“Feeling somewhat better now?”
A cheerful voice rang from behind us. It was a familiar voice. When I turned my head, I saw Stella approaching with her battle nuns.
I felt a moment of tension, wondering if they were here again to accuse us of heresy, but relaxed when I saw no one was holding a weapon.
“Now that you seem to be in a drinking mood, have this.”
Stella gestured, and the battle nuns approached, uncorking potion-like bottles in their hands. They then proceeded to hold the neck of the bottles to the mouths of the Knight Commanders one by one.
The Knight Commanders obediently accepted the potions fed to them by the battle nuns. It seemed they lacked even the strength to resist such behavior.
‘That’s some expensive stuff.’
Each status ailment, excluding purification, had one consumable assigned that could nullify it. Purification could only be dispelled by significantly raising divine power and faith, so it was an exception.
There was, of course, a method to remove every status ailment, whether through magic, sacred spells, or consumables.
Among these, consumables could only be bought at fair prices in the Holy Kingdom. It wasn’t impossible to get them in the Empire, but some merchant would surely extort outrageous prices, making them nearly ten times more expensive than in the Holy Kingdom.
The last battle nun approached us. She was about to feed a potion to Lize, who was practically nestled in my arms, but paused, looked at our posture, and instead offered it to me.
“You want me to drink it?”
Nodding. The battle nun forcibly placed the potion bottle in my hand and returned to her spot. I held the potion bottle in my left hand and gently tapped Lize.
Lize peeked her head out from where she had buried her face in my chest, taking a deep breath in a gasp.
“…Why?”
“She wants me to feed you this.”
I shook the potion bottle in my left hand. Lize glanced at it and then changed her position.
She unclasped her arms from around my shoulder, gathered them demurely in front of her lower abdomen, leaned against my right arm, and completely shifted her weight onto me. Finally, she tilted her head back slightly to look up at the sky and opened her mouth.
Between her parted lips, I could distinctly see white teeth, her throat bobbing every time she swallowed, and her scarlet tongue, along with a bit of clear saliva pooling in between.
I felt like an odd thought might creep into my mind, so I quickly put the neck of the potion bottle to her mouth and tipped it.
Lize gulped down the potion with a glug-glug sound. I need to clarify: it wasn’t that I thought some odd thoughts were about to pop up; they were very much already there. Her expression confirmed that even more.
After pouring the last drop of potion into her, I swiftly pulled the bottle away before those thoughts could dominate my mind.
Phew, Lize stuck her tongue out halfway and met my gaze. A thin silver thread formed between the bottle’s neck and her tongue before it snapped in the air.
“Delta, you just made me take some long stick filled with liquid, didn’t you?”
“…Considering your nonsensical talk, I’d say you’re okay now. Stop with the nonsense and get up.”
Lize grabbed my hand and seemed to get up gently, only to slyly rub her chest against me. I felt relieved that I wouldn’t have to worry.
The other Knight Commanders also stood up as if they’d never been sprawled out on the floor.
“That’s quite an expensive potion. It certainly lives up to its price, huh?”
“Seems so. I appreciate the kindness.”
“No need for thanks. We were the ones who misjudged you, right? We labeled a perfectly fine person a heretic, and it’s going to take a while to atone for that sin.”
As Stella spoke, she briefly glanced at where Selene had lastly been.
“Arriving at the papal palace this quickly and the remaining light of the moon’s divine power—definitely feels like an Inquisitor dropped by. Am I right?”
“Correct. The Inquisitor helped us, allowing us to arrive in a day. It was a bit… quite taxing, though.”
“Always the kind-hearted one… Follow me. I’ll guide you to where the Holy Pope resides.”
‘What is it?’
For a moment, Stella’s expression darkened. The emotion that surfaced felt closer to melancholy or sadness rather than irritation. It was so brief that I couldn’t be sure.
Just a feeling, perhaps.
“This is the Cathedral. This is where the Holy Pope resides.”
The Cathedral was enormous. I had to tilt my head back for quite a while just to catch a glimpse of the top. It was already a massive structure in the game, but in reality, it was much larger.
The building was lavishly adorned with yellow and white bricks, along with golden decorations. At the center stood a towering spire that seemed to pierce the sky.
The exterior was incredibly complex. It was hard for my eyes to comprehend its structure.
Stella respectfully gestured towards the cathedral building before stepping aside. There were many people kneeling on the ground, praying.
After circling the Cathedral for a while, Stella pointed to a door that was decorated more splendidly than the main entrance. Light as warm as the sun seeped through the half-open doors.
“Passing through here leads directly to where the Holy Pope is. She personally permitted your audience, so all the trivial procedures were skipped.”
With a delicate finger, she pointed towards me.
“However, you go first. The rest will enter when I tell them to.”
“I’m technically a newbie Knight by title. Shouldn’t the Knight Commanders go in order of hierarchy first?”
“Why do you think you all came here in the first place?”
With that one sentence, I immediately understood. After all, the reason we ended up here was because of me.
Stella stepped to the side, and the battle nuns surrounded us like a protective detail. I had been in similar situations before, but unlike back then, the atmosphere was far from hostile, and no one was holding weapons.
I felt a prickling gaze digging into my back as I walked into the light. The light pressed against my eyelids, forcing me to shut my eyes for a moment, and once the brightness toned down slightly, I opened them cautiously.
“You have finally come to me.”
The first thing I saw upon opening my eyes was the sun.
No, it was like a shimmering sunlight—a stunningly ornate stained-glass window that made me feel as though I was gazing at the sun itself, coupled with a figure of dazzling blonde hair. A halo of light beamed around the woman behind it.
As I confirmed the woman’s figure, I found myself speechless, frozen in place. My mind felt blank, as if it had been completely bleached, and every thought that came to mind melted away.
It wasn’t because I was overwhelmed by that warm and cozy atmosphere, enchanted by the splendor of the stained glass, nor was I under the spell of the voice of this merciful and kind woman.
It was because of the attire that the woman wore before me.
‘Is that… clothing?’
Because of the indescribably revealing clothing the woman was dressed in.
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