Chapter: 408
At first, I thought the identifying of the Evil God’s followers was still in progress.
Exposing heretics doesn’t happen overnight, so I figured it would take some time.
However, despite the three stores where the followers of the Void had been hiding being wiped out, a full day had passed, and the quest showed no signs of clearing.
Sure, the Pathetic God loves to mess around, but he’s never actually pulled a stunt like this, so I figured there had to be something I wasn’t aware of. I started scuttling about, looking for inconsistencies.
But I couldn’t find any signs of the Evil God on the street.
My aesthetic sense flagged things that didn’t sit right, but I couldn’t detect any ominous signs from the Evil God.
Even though my divine intuition picked up on Pheby’s warmth, it failed to sense any malice.
Grandpa also said there was nothing wrong on the street.
With all my resources confirming that the place was squeaky clean, it felt impossible for me to find anything.
Others weren’t coming up with convincing conclusions either.
Jackal and Chester shrugged it off, saying there seemed to be nothing odd on the street, and Pheby also told me she couldn’t find anything either.
With the situation being like this, the only thing piling up was my frustration.
No! If there’s a problem, just tell me exactly what it is!
I want to know what’s blocking this quest from being cleared!
Since you gave me this quest, it means it’s also a headache for you, the Pathetic God, so why are you being so unhelpful, huh?!
Are you so out of touch that you don’t know how modern games work?
RPGs don’t roll like this anymore!
If you treat players poorly these days, they’ll all bail out!
Why shove that nostalgia from 20 years ago down our throats now? You old fart!
Don’t tell me you’re cockblocking me because you want to see me pray with my makeup on?
If that’s the case, I’ll gladly do it next time, so please just give me some clues already!
Quest rewards, penalties for failure, I’m getting this unsettling feeling and it’s driving me up the wall!
I barked at the Pathetic God, but he didn’t respond at all.
His silence reminded me of that superior who used to ask if I was going to figure things out before asking questions, which only made me angrier. I decided to stop offering prayers to the Pathetic Old Pervert until the quest was cleared.
Stat loss? Not my concern! Right now, my pride is way more important!
Having initiated this little stand-off with the Pathetic God, three days later, as a bunch of students were returning to the Soul Academy…
I woke up and immediately confronted the quest window, spewing out curses at the God before getting ready to head out.
Still, I couldn’t figure out why any quest was being left in limbo.
No matter how much I scanned the Academy Street, no issues seemed evident.
I even hired a decent mage to look down from the sky, but couldn’t spot anything and was feeling seriously peeved.
If the Clumsy Fox was around, I would have tormented him to deal with my irritation, but since that fluffy furball was nowhere to be found, I had no good outlet for my frustration.
“Hey… Hey, Young Lady?”
“What is it, Pathetic Saintess?”
“Uh, how long do we have to keep this up?”
In place of my normal way to vent, I picked the Pathetic Saintess.
Known in the community as the “Seductive Saintess,” she had a soft, warm body, making her perfect for use as a living chair.
As I sat on Pheby, munching on sweets to ease my irritation, her question made me lift my chin.
Pheby, her cheeks flushed red, immediately diverted her gaze as soon as we made eye contact.
“Why? Is it heavy? Wow, I can’t believe you can’t handle my weight after all that lounging around.”
Is that why your clothes are tight? This was met with her face burning up.
“That’s not it! I just… Um… it’s just that…”
“Aha! It’s because the incredibly cute me is too burdensome for you?”
“Yes! Yes!”
“So you’re saying you want me to leave? You used to say you wanted to stick by me all the time, but now you’re pushing me away?”
“It’s not like I said that!”
“Right. Got it. I’m the bad girl here. I didn’t even know the Pathetic Saintess hated me. Boo hoo.”
“Ah! Fine! You can stay! Just please don’t cry! Please!”
“…So I can stay, huh?”
“Yes!”
“Then shut up and stay still, Pathetic Saintess. If you fidget around, you’ll mess up the position I’ve set up!”
As soon as Pheby nodded, I altered my expression and cheerfully dropped my spoon into the parfait.
“Hey, Young Lady Alrn, could you please stop treating the Church’s Saintess like a toy?”
While I was enjoying the sweet treat and wearing a blissful smile, I heard a voice chastising me from the side.
Joy, the daughter of the Partan family, wore a delicate expression as she looked between me and Pheby before letting out a deep sigh and sitting opposite me.
“Pheby is the Saintess of the Church. By status, she’s way above us.”
“What does that matter? Even a fool is still my toy.”
“I am NOT your toy!”
“You are a toy, Joy. At least, that’s how I see it.”
“Why are you dragging the Prince into this too!”
Just then, Arthur appeared in the background looking even more fatigued than when he first met Jackal.
The surge of magic swirling around him indicated that he’d been grinding away on the last dungeon that he was practically rolling without sleep.
I noticed my friends were all like geniuses.
If I hadn’t been a veteran gamer, I wouldn’t have kept up with them at all.
“Where’s Frey? I expected him to be glued to your side as usual.”
“Training with that Pathetic Dog.”
Normally, I would have entertained Frey’s obsession, but not today.
As sparring with weapons gets real heated, I might do something reckless.
So I tossed the Pathetic Dog in his direction.
He complained about how busy he was since school was starting soon, but I just ignored him.
Since he chose me as his master, he had to put up with this!
“I’ll have to meet him later. Now I feel like I could smash him to bits.”
“Are you saying you’re going to take the Pathetic Prince down?”
“Why not?”
“Ahh, Poor Pathetic Prince wants to flex but ends up crushed, huh? If that’s the case, how about you mess with me instead? I can stomp you properly.”
I almost considered rolling him over to relieve some stress, but Arthur just chewed his lips, not biting the bait I dangled.
“You’re in a pretty feisty mood today, Lucy Alrn. Is something up?”
“Yeah, you could say that. Oh wait. Could it be? Young Lady, isn’t today the day?”
Hearing Joy blurt that nonsense made me jump to my feet and grab her cheeks, pinching them with both hands.
“AHHH! Seriously AHHHHHH!”
“Hey, you foolish brat! You’re the one who made me hurt you, so just scream if it hurts!”
“SHRIEK!”
Joy tried her best to resist, but as a magician, she couldn’t go against the strength of a knight like me.
After tormenting Joy for a while, I released her, ignoring her red cheeks as I explained the current situation on Academy Street.
The infiltration and purging of the followers of the Void. I was convinced we had wrapped everything up, but that uneasy feeling remained.
Not mentioning the quest handed down by the Pathetic Old Pervert, I told Arthur everything.
He grew serious when I mentioned the Evil God’s followers.
“I’ve heard stories about the followers of the Evil God. The Saintess had a revelation from God and is doing good works, causing a stir even in the royal capital.”
“…But I didn’t really do anything.”
“Who cares? Pheby. Just let them talk indiscriminately. Regardless of what you say, the nobles will interpret it how they want.”
Pressing her flushed cheeks, Joy unleashed a vent of criticism directed at the nobility in the royal capital as she slouched back in the chair.
“There must be something that’s still not resolved, but we can’t find it on Academy Street.”
“Right. I can’t see where those filthy cockroaches have hidden.”
“If Young Lady Alrn can’t find it, and Pheby can’t either, then maybe it just doesn’t exist? Are you worrying for nothing?”
Joy’s opinion was reasonable. If it weren’t for the Pathetic Elderly Pervert’s quest floating right in front of me, I would’ve thought the same way.
But reality was different.
There is most definitely something still out there.
Something we failed to uncover remained lurking on Academy Street.
Reminiscing about that made me annoyed, and while I shoved a bite of parfait into my mouth, Arthur, who’d been frowning, cautiously raised his voice.
“Have you searched inside the Academy?”
“…Are you talking about this Pathetic Academy?”
“Yeah. You might not know this, but the Academy’s inside is in complete chaos right now. The First and Second Queens are fighting to plant their people in. If it were any other time, I wouldn’t worry, but considering the current turmoil, you might need to be suspicious.”
I already heard from Karia that the First Queen is pushing her people into the Academy.
Given that the Second Queen decided to cooperate with me after the last incident, it’s only natural her people would show up too.
With the Soul Academy being caught in the power struggle of the First and Second Queens, it’s only logical that things are quite chaotic.
With all the back and forth going on, it could easily be a place to be suspect.
Having connected the dots, I leapt up from my seat, heading towards the Pathetic Dog’s location.
If I wanted a current roster of who was inside Soul Academy, the fastest way was to contact that professor!
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