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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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The next place I visited was, of course, the lodgings where the knight commanders were staying.
I needed to explain the situation to them.
I also had to inform them that I needed to move alone this time.
The knight commanders couldn’t come along even if they wanted to.
They didn’t have the Rest in the Abyss rune.
The knight commanders, who had thought I had just been discussing the rune with Selene all this time, wore expressions of utter bewilderment upon hearing my words.
It was understandable.
How could they not be dumbfounded when someone who had just single-handedly dealt with the rune dungeon a few hours ago was now saying he would subjugate the monster beneath the Holy Kingdom?
Lize’s expression, in particular, was indescribable.
Since I also owed her a debt of gratitude, I couldn’t even meet her gaze properly and slightly avoided it.
“Delta.”
Lize called out to me.
I flinched and cautiously raised my head.
Her blue eyes were shining much more piercingly than usual.
Although she didn’t look angry, it made me even more nervous.
“We will believe in you until the end. I’m sure you’ll return safely. I don’t know how great this secret is that you’re keeping so tightly, but you’ve always done so until now.”
But, she added more words after that.
“Don’t try to shoulder everything alone. That’s absolutely not what we want. Not me, not Erica, not Iris, not Claudia. We can help you with whatever you’re trying to do, and we can assist you anytime. Sometimes, we want you to rely on us too. Got it?”
Given what I had done up until now, I quietly nodded.
Considering my past actions towards the knight commanders, I had no right to say anything even if I had a hundred mouths, let alone ten.
I had been engaging in all sorts of eccentric behaviors and brushing them off with a single word, “secret”.
Of course, how I knew about the monster beneath the Holy Kingdom was also a secret.
So my conscience couldn’t help but sting.
Moreover, the knight commanders weren’t simply trying to reprimand or criticize me, but were saying these things out of genuine concern.
What could I say in response to their worry?
“It seems you’re hiding quite a lot.”
“…”
Selene uttered words that were hard to tell whether they were praise or criticism, with her characteristically expressionless face.
While it sounded sarcastic at first glance, given her personality, it might have been genuine praise.
After bidding farewell to the knight commanders in their own way, we headed to the Cathedral of the Sun.
The front was still crowded with people offering prayers to the Pope of the Sun.
Among them, there were occasionally people who recognized Selene and greeted her.
Of course, Selene ignored all these greetings as she passed by.
The people who were ignored didn’t seem to mind at all.
“It’s here, esteemed guest.”
As we went around to the back of the cathedral, Stella, who had been waiting for us beside a door radiating brilliant sunlight, walked towards us.
“I’ve only informed Her Holiness the Pope that you have something to say. Persuading Her Holiness is up to you.”
“That’s enough. Thank you, Inquisitor.”
“No need for thanks. I’m in just as desperate a situation. Finally, a glimmer of hope has appeared, and I must cling to it with all my might.”
Stella’s face wore her usual beaming smile as she said this, but there was also a strong sense of bitterness.
Overall, it was a very rueful smile.
Stella must have been suffering greatly in her heart as well.
The Pope of the Sun was struggling to find a way to save her sister, while the time for the Pope of the Moon’s sacrifice was drawing ever closer, with no solution in sight.
“Good luck, esteemed guest. We’ll be waiting.”
“I wish you a favorable outcome.”
With Stella and Selene’s words of farewell, I entered through the shining door.
After closing my eyes for a moment and opening them again, I saw, just like before, sunlight shining through golden stained glass windows and a woman looking down from atop high stairs.
As the sunlight was coming in from behind the woman, her incredibly abundant golden hair overlapped with it, creating what looked literally like a halo.
“Welcome, esteemed guest.”
Floretta, who gave me a benevolent smile, began to descend the stairs one step at a time.
She was still wearing clothes with an outrageous level of exposure.
Although her intimate parts, covered by just a single string, were never revealed, the level of exposure was so high that it made little practical difference.
Her breasts, large enough to seem like they would make a “boing boing” sound when they moved, were still the same.
I desperately tried to maintain eye contact with Floretta to avoid looking elsewhere.
Even so, I couldn’t help but notice her breasts swaying in the corner of my vision.
With only an extremely thin see-through fabric and a single opaque string holding her breasts in place, they bounced much more than Lize’s.
The Pope of the Sun, having descended the stairs, came right up to me.
As she was shorter than me, naturally, Floretta looked up at me and I looked down at her.
“I understand you have something to say to me.”
“Yes. I’ve come with a request for Your Holiness the Pope.”
“A request… What kind of request might it be?”
“Could you teach me the ‘Solar Eclipse’?”
“…”
A small crack appeared on that face that had always worn a loving and merciful smile.
Floretta quickly composed herself and put on a benevolent smile again.
“I wonder where you heard about the Solar Eclipse. You truly are an extraordinary person.”
Floretta chuckled softly.
Despite the laugh being very brief, her breasts bounced up and down again, fully asserting their presence.
“If it’s what you desire, there’s nothing I can’t teach you. However, may I add one condition?”
“What condition?”
“For what purpose do you intend to use it?”
Click.
The sound of high heels was heard.
It was the sound of the already close distance between us narrowing even further.
“The Solar Eclipse is a holy spell whose very existence is rarely permitted to be known. So, what do you intend to use such a spell for, that you’re requesting to learn it?”
Here it comes.
I took a deep breath, steeled my resolve, and then, looking straight into Floretta’s eyes, opened my mouth.
“I intend to save the Pope of the Moon… no, Your Holiness’s sister.”
“…”
An enormous crack appeared in Floretta’s expression.
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I came back out through the door I had entered.
Stella and Selene sent questioning looks, wondering how it went.
I silently tapped my weapon.
Stella’s face brightened considerably, and Selene’s mood visibly improved as well.
The next person I needed to visit was the Pope of the Moon.
This time, Selene led the way, with Stella and I following behind.
As I followed Selene, I recalled what had just happened.
Floretta had cried.
She had put aside all her dignity, position, and honor as the Pope.
She became simply a younger sister who cared for her older sister, and cried loudly like a child.
Immediately after hearing my words, she had stammered, asking what I meant, but as soon as I uttered the dialogue option that appeared when persuading the Pope in the game, she embraced me and burst into tears.
The interpretation of the revelation.
That was the key to persuading Floretta.
As the Pope of the Sun who was closest to God, she would instinctively be able to discern the truth of that interpretation, so there was no fear of being accused of lying.
Even if the Pope of the Sun alone couldn’t interpret it perfectly, the player could.
Originally, the player interpreting the content of the revelation was part of the DLC story.
Usually, there would be more complex quests to go through, but I just skipped them all.
I had long since memorized all the variations of the revelation anyway.
Floretta, who instinctively realized that my words were true, buried her face in my chest and sobbed for a long time, asking if we could really save her sister, if she really didn’t have to kill her sister with her own hands.
Later, she taught me the Solar Eclipse in a voice that was half-hoarse from crying so hard, and then she burst into tears again when I said I would be going, as an added bonus.
“This is the place.”
Selene stopped in front of a large cathedral.
It was an enormously large building like the Cathedral of the Sun, but its color scheme was the opposite.
While the Cathedral of the Sun was decorated with gold and jewels, the Cathedral of the Moon was adorned with silver and platinum.
Due to the materials used, it gave off a much more subdued atmosphere overall.
Everything else was the same.
The massive size, the spire that seemed to pierce the sky…
Perhaps because it wasn’t time for the moon to rise yet, unlike the Cathedral of the Sun, there wasn’t a single person praying around or even passing by.
Selene led us to the back of the cathedral.
A door shining in a silver light, as if emitting moonlight, came into view.
Stella and Selene stopped on either side of the door.
“Please enter, esteemed guest.”
“Don’t we need to notify the Pope of the Moon…”
“She will have already sensed your presence. It would be a pointless action.”
Understanding, I stood in front of the silver door.
Indeed, someone of the Pope of the Moon’s stature wouldn’t fail to notice someone trying to enter her cathedral.
And the fact that she hadn’t interfered at all was tantamount to giving permission to enter.
If she truly intended to refuse me, she would have stopped me long ago.
“Esteemed guest, may you be safe.”
With Selene’s words of concern, I stepped into the door emitting grayish-silver moonlight.
A bright light stung my eyelids.
I kept walking with my eyes closed.
Then, at some point, the light before my eyes faded, and I slowly opened them.
It was a space filled with silver.
Opposite to where the Pope of the Sun had been, it was a dim and cool room decorated with marble, silver, and platinum.
Though it was surely still daytime outside, moonlight was shining through the stained glass windows.
“What brings you here?”
At the very center, atop high stairs, a woman who had been looking at the stained glass with her back to me spoke first.
Though not as much as Floretta, her hair was also quite abundant.
There was something about her that overwhelmed people.
It seemed she had no intention of hiding her hostility towards me, which made it even more so.
As I hesitated, the Pope of the Moon spoke again.
“I asked what brings you here.”
With the sound of clicking high heels, her body slowly rotated.
The silver hair cascading down her back shimmered like a waterfall, reflecting the moonlight and shining an even clearer silver.
Purple eyes that could be likened to jewels focused entirely on me.
“Do you truly refuse to answer?”
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My man soon can just say the word and the popes will jump into his pants
Thx for chapter