Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: Suspiciously Suspicious - 2
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"…."
"…."
I froze.
As I approached, mournful Latin music would swell, and Archbishop Kairos would pull a scythe from under his chair, the perfect setup for a line like, "Do you know why the Grim Reaper's symbol is a scythe?"
'Especially since that recent incident—a tombstone-like thing popped up in front of the goddess statue, making it feel even more like a boss fight...'
But contrary to my wild imagination,
Archbishop Kairos merely smiled faintly in the direction of my footsteps.
So I finally approached.
And then he spoke.
"Savior."
"Yes, what is it, Archbishop?"
"Huhu, no need for formalities. We're all equal servants of the goddess."
"Then I'll dispense with them."
"Do you have some questions for this old man, by any chance?"
"What in the world are the Earth Angels... saints like that?"
"…."
Kairos's mouth worked silently for a moment. But soon enough, a bitter smile settled on his lips.
"...Forgive me for answering a question with an opinion. But with the Pope and all the archbishops on the brink of death, even explaining the meaning of a saint feels pointless."
"Pointless?"
"Yes. So please, Savior, look upon the Earth Angel, Saint Angela, with clear eyes as she is. She's just a girl who drinks blood instead of grain. With wings like a dove's."
Not a bat's?
And it was an unexpectedly straightforward answer. The archbishop of the Heresy Inquisition—who seemed to prize doctrine above all—was reciting the plainest truth.
"The Earth Angels are entirely human in every way. They love, hate, get annoyed, fear, and grieve like anyone else."
"…."
He was utterly convinced.
"The White Flower Church's doctrines, the seven forest villages, everything we took for the world itself. All of it, save for the living, breathing people—. Meaningless."
"…."
"Perhaps even the King of Storms we've feared our whole lives. And maybe even the Goddess of the Earth."
"…."
"All meaningless. That's how I've come to see it lately."
"I see."
Was it because death loomed so near?
His gaze held a profound emptiness, laced with cynicism.
In that look, I caught a faint echo of my old master—'Sage Damian'—right before the black serpent struck, back before I was even born. He too had proclaimed, "The world is meaningless."
-What meaning is there in a world where death is already set in stone?
I felt the despair packed into those words.
"That's a rather sorrowful way to look at things."
"No helping it. With death's premonition crushing down on me at every turn, and the sanctuary's voice growing ever feebler and more helpless... my thoughts have shifted bit by bit."
"The sanctuary's changing?"
"Yes."
Kairos spoke plainly.
"The Pope and the five archbishops... they've lusted after the saint from the start. Maybe from the very first glimpse. Whether it was a craving for a beautiful flower or for her legendary ability, they wanted to bend her to their will."
"!"
'He's talking about the Thorns of Dominion.'
A shocking revelation, dropped out of nowhere.
"That's—."
"Yes, a grave sin that defies doctrine. So it festered quietly, like a mushroom in the heart's dark corner, corrupting the sanctuary's very air in secret. Even leveraging their dwindling factions. They wanted that girl, who came to the sanctuary as an Earth Angel, kept close by their side."
"…."
"But their power fell short of hers, so they cloaked their desire in faith and hid it away deep inside."
My stomach churned a little.
'So this is the crisis Inquisitor Abel sensed.'
Kairos confessed a second truth.
"And so, while pretending on the surface to stand against the King of Storms and rally the sanctuary... they've recently begun consorting with suspicious outsiders."
"Suspicious outsiders?"
"The Black Church."
"The Black Church...!"
I recalled the black-robed goblin that had flown in on a Banshee Hawk from Baran to ambush me. He'd called himself a member of the "Black Church."
'Just like the 51st floor, is the 52nd floor's true puppet master the Black Church too?'
No matter how I turned it over in my mind,
this couldn't be coincidence.
'Don't tell me the cause of Midgard's fall is...!'
The thought had just crossed my lips when
Archbishop Kairos broke into coughs.
"Cough, cough—!"
"!"
I rushed to his side.
"Archbishop, that's enough talk for today...!"
"Cough! No."
He raised a hand.
"Before mortality's fate tears us, cough! apart any longer... I must tell you everything today."
"Everything...?"
"Savior. I've had two bizarre experiences in my life."
"Bizarre experiences?"
"The first was long ago. While patrolling the watermill village, I came upon a pair of white-haired siblings in a cottage, furtively drinking the blood their pet rat had vomited."
"!"
That was...
undoubtedly Angela and Abel's story.
'The two of them are siblings?'
Not just some themed duo?
Before my questions could settle, Kairos pressed on urgently.
"The second was realizing I'd unknowingly prophesied that a 'Savior' would come to this land. By then, the white siblings had shed their worldly names and taken angelic ones: 'Abel' and 'Angela.'"
"Did you teach them that?"
"No."
"?"
He tapped his eyepatch as he spoke.
"Before illness took both my eyes, I was the Heresy Inquisitor—the most feared figure in the sanctuary. Children and even fellow faithful shrank from me, so I lived alone."
Far from teaching anyone,
the young Kairos had been clumsy even at simple caretaking.
"And yet 'somehow,' there they were by my side: gentle Abel and Angela, who cherished humans. 'Somehow,' we'd become like family."
"What do you...?"
"Something's missing, Savior."
Kairos strained to explain, like someone illiterate fumbling to describe a kanji character.
"Savior, patrols are supposed to be for 'two people.' And no one would entrust young siblings to a gruff Heresy Inquisitor for schooling."
"…."
Someone who patrolled alongside Kairos.
Someone who lovingly taught the siblings doctrine.
"Someone's been erased from our memories. Someone who taught the siblings love and faith... who found them alongside me...!"
It was a foolish question,
but I had to ask.
"Who?"
"I haven't the slightest."
"…."
"But once I felt that wrongness, everything changed."
Kairos gasped for breath, gazing out the window. Blind as he was, he seemed to paint the sanctuary he'd known for decades through air and scent alone.
"Why is this land so exquisitely balanced—harsh enough to scrape by, yet never quite collapsing...?"
"…."
"Greedy old fools blinded by avarice, the King of Storms herding us into a corner, the siblings desperately shielding people amid it all... "
"…."
"As if the whole thing was designed to greet 'Saviors' from beyond—."
Probably,
he'd pieced together that he was an NPC living inside the Tower.
'That all of it is just fate woven into us Climbers' journeys.'
His muttering trailed off, and at last he said,
"Savior."
"Speak."
"So I'm entrusting Angela and Abel to you. Ask Angela about the King of Storms; Abel holds the secrets of the Black Church. Those two will explain it all gladly."
I asked,
"What will you do now?"
"Who knows... "
Kairos smiled.
"Perhaps fate decrees I die today. For shirking my duty to explain the goddess's doctrine and the King of Storms."
"Don't talk like that."
"Hahaha... "
He was the one meant to hand down the King of Storms quest. Yet like a black curtain who'd successfully defied the world, he smiled with heavy meaning.
"If this is my revenge for 'her'—who etched a white flower inside my robe... forgotten by this world. Then gladly, as much as it takes."
"…."
A meaningful spoiler of intent.
I sighed inwardly.
'Even raising his own death flag.'
But against my fears, the archbishop—who mocked even the heavens—didn't die. Abel had arrived unnoticed to support him, and together they retreated to his chambers.
I watched their retreating figures, dredging up my memories. Kairos's sense of wrongness hadn't felt like a man's at all.
"…."
A risk my perfect recall couldn't even imagine.
Forgetting someone precious...
Father
Master
Knight Captain
High Priest
Milla
Luciana
Lucia
Fabio
Albert
…
…
…
I ran through them one by one.
But nothing jumped out with real wrongness—.
Wrongness...
"…."
■■■
"...?"
But wait.
Why only Father among my parents?
'No matter the gacha god, unless Father's some hermaphroditic snail, there has to be a ■■■ for me to even exist.'
"…."
And then,
I let out a wry chuckle.
"Ah—."
I was an NPC too.
'Of course.'
For some reason,
I too had 'forgotten' someone. Or not forgotten, exactly—the very concept of her seemed confiscated. Locked away so even perfect memory couldn't retrieve it.
Realizing that,
cold sweat slid down my palms.
And I muttered the name of the group I suspected as the true black curtain.
"Ugh, those Black Church creeps."
Their priests being eroge-villain goblins was bad enough. Everything about them rubbed me wrong. ◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The next morning,
Angela, standing to my left, smiled so radiantly it pierced even her eyepatch. Her gaze fixed on the Climber camp—a place now fully systematized. She marveled at it openly.
"Wow...! I've never seen so many people bustling about like this. Bigger and grander than Jar Village, the largest village around! Your fortification magic is incredible, Savior."
"…."
'Visible through the eyepatch?'
I was purely curious.
So I tossed out a leading question.
"Which building catches your eye the most?"
"Hmm, the grand hall is nice too. But that pillar-shaped one near the entrance feels so fresh and appealing."
"...You can see it."
"Of course. I can even see you sneaking peeks at my eyepatch this whole time."
"Ah."
Angela giggled, tapping her hood-shrouded ears.
"Earth Angels sense 'sound' in exquisite detail. That's how I see even with the eyepatch on."
"…."
Echolocation to boot.
'Black-curtain-exclusive ability through and through.'
But after Kairos's tale,
it was harder to view her with pure suspicion.
'Maybe every NPC in this Tower world is just powerless—.'
As I stared blankly at Angela, a soft sensation pressed in from the side, accompanied by a grumpy voice.
"Hey, how long you gonna stare?"
"!"
I whipped my head around. There was Niva, in yet another outfit (courtesy of those sunglasses), arm linked with mine, lips pursed in a pout.
"Staring at a girl's face like that is rude, you know."
"Ah, right."
"...Mine's fine, though."
"Hmm."
The sudden jab caught me off guard.
'She's being subtly frank today.'
So I took her advice and slowly admired her amber eyes. Niva faltered for an instant. But only for a moment—soon she beamed and started to nod—
...or tried to.
Angela chirped innocently,
"Huh? I'm fine with it, though?"
"…."
"…."
"Face, body—you can admire away, Savior. Earth Angels never refuse a person's request or kindness!"
"…."
"…."
Ssshhh...
Something slipped away,
and the air turned chill.
Niva yanked my arm closer.
'This is... something—.'
While I floundered,
Angela eyed her and nodded sagely to herself.
"Aha! Got it."
"?"
This time, Angela sidled up and seized my other arm, just like Niva, beaming all the while.
"That pose you've been holding, Lady Niva—it's for protecting the Savior! I'll protect him for life too, so feel free to hand off the shift!"
"…."
"…."
For life.
For life, she says.
Rustle, rustle.
The rabbit's eyes narrowed,
and the eyepatched dove giggled "hehe."
Caught between them, I sensed real danger.
"…."
This...
No way.
'One of those trashy drama setups?'